Eurotrip 2007-2008, Day Six: Our last morning in Berlin and then off to France
For our last morning in Berlin Ez and I had one main goal–to see the Bauhaus Archive. The building in which it’s housed is rather small, and they were seeking donations so that they can expand. There was an installation replicating parts of a 1930 Paris exhibit with designs for high-rise living. We watched a good bit of the films they were looping in their little viewing area. I was struck by the sort of theory behind the Bauhaus–the ways of looking at things and approaching art. I hadn’t thought about it in a while, but I think that sort of art and design influenced me when I started drawing and messing around with art in high school. One of the first artists who caught my eye the first time I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York was Paul Klee. I remember some of the exercises we did in my first painting class seemed to be inspired by the Bauhaus. There was one where the instructor shined different colored lights on a variety of white geometric shapes and we had to paint them. It seemed so simple, but for me at least it was a challenge at the time, and I’m sure it pushed me to look in a more basic way.
Paul Klee, The bright side, Postcard for the Bauhaus exhibition in summer 1923, Color lithograph
A few pieces in the museum that particularly stood out to me were a couple of brightly colored geometric weavings and a series of exhibition postcards done by artists and students at the Bauhaus. We wandered through the shop and I giggled when I saw these:
Remember them? They were such a big deal in the 80s for a while. I had a white one that I used to keep old notes Nora and I had written in Jr. High. I’ve no idea what happened to it. It is a clever design. There were quite a few things in the Bauhaus exhibit that have just become a part of our everyday lives–certain chair designs, for example, were just so ubiquitous in the 70s and 80s in offices and public spaces. We found a couple of posters and a number of postcards in the shop and then went on our way.
We gathered our things at the hotel and waited for our cab to the Tempelhof airport. Our cab driver turned out to be pretty entertaining. He was working on his English (which was really pretty good) and talked to us about music (he likes country music) and his sister–who lives in Pennsylvania!
The Tempelhof airport is one of three airports in Berlin. We had arrived at the Tegel airport, which is definitely one of the bigger ones. Tempelhof is a regional airport and it must be one of Berlin’s smallest. It was very nice and clean, but it almost didn’t look like an airport. It was right in town, in a nice old building that, from the outside, didn’t look anything like what I expect when I go to an airport. It was fairly empty and quiet inside. It seemed more like a quiet train station than an airport. I found an interesting British article about the airport’s past here.
Tempelhof airport, outside (photo found on the web)
Tempelhof airport, inside (photo found on the web)
We checked our bags and sat in the little cafe where we sipped on a few drinks and gazed at the German TV. When I went to use the restroom I got this strong feeling that I was in a very old-style East German place. Everything was rather cold (in several senses of the word) and hard. The waiting area for our flight was small and busy. There must be a few main flights out of the airport everyday, and ours was one of them.
We flew to Brussels, where we had a short layover. I’d never been to Belgium before. I was struck by how quiet the airport was. Unlike Templehof, there were lots of people there. They just weren’t making tons of noise. It was wonderful! Unless I’m drunk or in a particularly crazy mood, I’m not an especially loud sort of person, and I always hate airports and big shopping malls and places like that in the U.S. that are full of crass, noisy people. Anyway, it made the whole experience very pleasant and easy.
We arrived in Nice in the evening and were greeted by Ezra’s sister April’s then-fiance, Manu (short for Emmanuel) and Ezra’s brother Simon. We’d never met Manu before, so there were lots of hugs and smiles. They carted us off to our little hotel, The Nice Garden Hotel, which was practically right next to the church where the wedding was held several days later. Our room was a lot smaller than our suite in Berlin, but it was charming and comfortable.
We were wiped out after all that travel, so we did a bit of unpacking and decided to just do a little wandering around before turning in. I can’t remember now what we were looking for–just some water to drink, I think. We passed a strange looking person on a street corner who gave us a funny look. It took me a few seconds to process the whole thing: broad-shouldered person wearing a lot of lipstick, sort of eyed us up and down and made unwanted eye contact, I felt involuntarily repulsed… yes, I’m pretty sure we’d encountered a transvestite prostitute who’d told us in those few seconds that yes, he/she would do us together, no problem. (!) Now, Berlin DEFINITELY has a seedy side, and I’m sure you can find yourself in a similar encounter there if you’re in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time. I mean… mostly it was just funny and we chuckled about it. But Nice is a vacation town for sure, and there’s a bit of a “what happens in Nice stays in Nice” feel to it sometimes. Anyway, that little encounter was sort of our “Hello, welcome to Nice!” moment.
