Wer braucht gute Titeln?
This past weekend I got to visit some museums and go to Frankfurt with a friend. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to do either of these activities. It would be a shame if I studied here in Germany for two months without being able to visit any more of the country. Luckily I got my chance.
Wednesday was exciting. The school organized a trip to the Schlossfestspiele, summer performances held at the castle. That night the musical Das Wirtshaus im Spessart was playing. I was smart enough to look up a Wikipedia synopsis of the plot in English. I am proud to be able to say I could understand bits here and there, but without that prior knowledge, I would have been lost. Building a vocabulary takes time.
The setting within the castle walls was amazing. Just ask the people sitting next to me, I was very excited. The stage was old, worn, and beautiful. The actors performed out among the crowd as well as on stage. As the sun went down, the colorful lighting effects were put to good use. This week is another performance that I will be attending–this time of Kiss Me, Kate. It’s not German, but why would I not take advantage of seeing musicals in castles?
I also went to the Deutsches Verpackungs Museum here in Heidelberg on Hauptstraße. Being a Graphic Design major, I noticed it on my first time walking down that street and knew I had to go. On display were antiques with the packaging designs of several different brands and some old machines used to create the boxes and wrappers. The Stollwerck company’s elaborate, hand-painted chocolate boxes were particularly impressive.
On top of all that, I traveled to Frankfurt on Saturday with my friend. Sites seen include the view from the Main Tower, the Goethe House, the Römer, Paulskirche, and the Museum of Applied Arts (where I basked in a moment of nerd glory, seeing original prints of L’Ornament Polychrome that I’d only seen pictures of in class).
Pictures of me in Frankfurt:
We did our fair share of walking. We spent a total of about 10 hours of exploring the city center–which sounds crazy, but museums and food take up quite a bit of time. We spent 3 hours in the art museum alone. During a short break from walking I got a little bit of sketching in. It wasn’t as much as I’d hoped, but anything is better than nothing.
Here’s to hoping this week is as exciting as the last!
Sketching: July 12-17
Photography wasn’t allowed during the performance of Das Wirtshaus im Spessart, so I tried to get a quick sketch of some of the great costumes. Unfortunately I only got one sloppy drawing of one of the three performers who controlled the sound and music in a tucked-away corner of the stage.
The rest of the page is from my trip to Frankfurt with Karen. Here’s a right-side-up picture of the second page, featuring the entrance sticker from the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (Museum for Applied Arts). The buildings were part of the skyline view from the other side of the river where a garage-sale-like street fair was going on.
After the museum, we went back across the bridge and ate a dinner of pizza together. For dessert we shared Pizza Eis–which was just ice cream with a nice pile of fruit on top.
I clearly still struggle drawing people. But I made sure to include the all-important bee that wanted our Pizza Eis.
This far into my time here, I’ve gotten a bit lazier about coloring everything. I have better things to do with my time–like actually studying or procrastinating such studying with Netflix.
So funny story about this sketch–I walked all the way to the Schloss after church yesterday. I had done a little internet sleuthing and discovered a group that a sketchers meet every other week or so in Heidelberg to sketch the city together. I felt a bit like I was stalking celebrities, because I found them. I was too nervous to approach any of them. I sat around for a long lime, wandering around the Schlossgarten trying to work up the courage to strike up a conversation. Unfortunately, all I got was this quick snapshot of an older man on his little stool.
And finally, some doodles of frustration from yesterday accompanied by a quick little sketch of the Strawberries growing in the back courtyard at school. They’re so cute and tiny and out of place, I had to put them somewhere in my sketchbook.