h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

IN WHICH our heroes encounter nice people and a Real Grump.

We slept in today - yesterday, they started putting in new windows at 7.30 in the morning, but today, they didn't - or they were quiet about it, at least.

By the time breakfast was done, it was about noon, and I looked up how to get to the museum. Next train left at one - we packed our bags with raincoats, cameras, water, cake, and grapes, and still made it in plenty of time, despite Tav's dire predictions.

Unfortunately, the connecting train was late and so we *just* missed the bus we were meant to take. The very complex timetable - two busses going opposite directions listed in the same one, with no telling which was which! - didn't tell us much except that we'd have to wait an hour for the next one. We were just debating whether to just walk it when our bus showed up after all - it was late, too!

I checked the timetable quickly to make sure and we dived in just as the doors were closing. Walked forward to ask the driver whether it was indeed a bus going where we needed to go - and he just sneered and said "What does it say on the front of the bus? *I'm* not going to tell you. And anyway, when I close the doors, I close the doors, and you stay out!"

A lot of people on the bus were indignant, and one helpful gentleman not only told us this was the right bus, but also warned us when our stop was coming up, as the display was only showing adverts.

We found the museum, paid our 5€, and went in.

Now, the Museum Insel Hombroich is a very interesting concept - a vast landscaped garden (though it doesn't look landscaped, for the most part - it mostly consists of the plants you'd find there anyway, growing wild and unmowed) dotted with small ponds and watercourses, outdoor sculptures, and various small buildings.

The buildings house art exhibitions, and were all designed by a sculptor along common lines. They're very simple, made of red brick on the outside, whitewashed inside, and have high wooden doors and plain glass walls or roofs - opaque or clear - to let in light. The gardens around the buildings usually take on a more 'deliberate' look, with high, straight hedges, stands of trees, or narrow paths to hide them from view. Inside, there are art exhibits on display - from very different times, cultures, and artists, roughly sorted by theme, but all mixed, and all uncredited!

Roughly in the centre, there's an even more important building - the cafeteria, which has toilets and a free café! There are also a few smaller pavillions, usually with a single sculpture and a bench as a kind of chapel - the Buddhas, especially, were bedecked with fresh flowers.

We had a good long wander around - mostly alone, it being a weekday outside the school holidays, but sometimes interrupted by one of the two rather large groups being led around. It was fairly cloudy, but we didn't get rained on once! I wanted to just follow paths at random, but Tav was all boring and made us use the map.

Finally, we were heading back past a long, low wooden building with green shutters, surrounded by huge iron sculptures, mostly of armoured knights. There were raised voices, and out of curiosity, I went to look. The artist who lives and works there (a man known as Anatol) was talking to a friend - they were trying to find out what was wrong with his mobile, and asked me for help. I figured out his problem - he'd set it so that it rerouted all his calls to voice mail. Also reset his ring tone to what he wanted - a normal, old-fashioned phone. Just as we were done, someone called him, and it worked!

He said he wanted to give me something for a reward, he'd be right back. He'd asked me what I'm studying (assumed I was a student, I don't know why) and I'd told him it was architecture. So he presented me with one of his paintings a watercolour sketch done for a mural that was entitled "die Baumeister" - the master builders. He also explained his artistic philosophy, and then told us, rather at length, how he'd been asked to teach at my Uni but had later been turned down for being too left-wing, though he had reintroduced the painting of nudes because "nobody knows what an arse looks like anymore".

We made it back to the entrance just *after* our bus left and spent half an hour waiting for the next one. Perhaps to compensate, the driver of this one was very nice indeed, and even flagged down our connecting bus so it would wait for us.

Headed back to downtown Neuss, looked at the site where I'm designing my current project, then returned to Wupp. Discovered that no Chinese takeaway places are open after eight on a Tuesday night, so got pizza instead. And now, here we are...

I'm sleepy now.

The wonders of modern technology! If that old boy knew how to work his mobile, you might never have got talking to him.
Sounds like a good day, despite the bus driver...

and to a fab day ... And then, if you don't mind, a bye-bye as I have nothing else to offer to the conversation ...

Wow, sounds like a great day. all in all.

Photos will go up at some point, so we can persuade everyone to do the next Meet there

Congrats for a good day and a good Journal!

And I'm game for a Meet anywhere, work and gigs permitting

Oh! And I guess a bit of as well!



MMF

Sounds like more fun than the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia, anyway, although you would probably meet more grumpy people in that neighbourhood.

Seems to be a place worth visiting (not today though and not in the next days, with rain ahead)

I'll be careful when talking to bus drivers though

I'm sure there are grumpy people everywhere, even among bus drivers. But it was just such a contrast!

ooh, who's a lucky person then? Is there a piccy of the piccy coming as well?

Sounds like a cool place. When you say artist who lives there - he actually lives in the museum?

Oh, that sounds like a fun day!

Especially that you got to talk to the artist and he gave you that painting.

Can't wait to see the photos!!

Yes, we took a piccy of the piccy, albeit a small one - I'm not allowed to sell it or put it on my website.

And yeah, he lives at the museum, apparently There's an entire colony of artists across the road in the old NATO rocket launch site.

Shame you can't promote the piccy though.

when you said "mobile" I was thinking of something that hangs from the ceiling!

I'm such a German!

That Museuminsel sounds great - I've been meaning to go for ages.

the thing with life is that you get all sorts of people. Although this is great in that things are never boring you do wish that people wouldn't stress you out too.

No, I can put it online in a web album, I suppose, at low resolution...

The story of his house is interesting, too, but that's going in the entry.


Today was *interesting*, too, but much less nice.

The doorbell rang at tenish, when Tav and I were both awake, but not much beyond that... I wasn't even dressed yet, so asked Tav to get it. The construction workers who've been busy putting in new windows wanted to do my flat next, with no prior warning! (Officially, I'd never been told it would happen at all. Inofficially, it was supposed to be next week...)

The trouble is that to let them *get* at the windows, we had to dismantle my entire bed while it was still in its niche - it was that or take out the one wall! After breakfast, we fled, and came back to find that not only had they gotten *everything* filthy, broken the wall open (and spoiled the red paint) but that the one window now has a *smaller* opening than before, meaning much less light! Also, they used my bedsheet for a dropsheet when they were plastering got mortar all over my towels and carpets, and to top it all, the (grumpy, annoying, rude) man apparently can't hit a toilet-sized target properly. (At least I hope it wasn't his female colleague.) They returned my key, so I suppose *they* think they're done, though there are still gaping holes.

And worst of all, I just had to take Tav back to the airport where I found her!

Ugh, it's so awful when workers make a mess of the place. How utterly rude and unprofessional. I hope your landlord reimburses you for every penny required to repaint and replace your linens.

Jerks.

I still have a hole in my hallway wall (albeit a very small and relatively unnoticeable one) from when my furnace was replaced. That sort of thing really ticks me off. So I can imagine how angry I would be if I experienced what you have.

I'm sorry that this happened to you.

Once, I had a worker leave evidence behind in my toilet, so I know how gross it is when they trash your bathroom, too.

At least I had an opportunity to sweep under the bed

Ah, Mala, you're ever the optimist!