Artsy Fartsy

The good thing about living in Luxembourg is its proximity to many other countries.

Most people who live here travel across the borders every weekend because they can, and because nothing is open here on Saturdays and Sundays.

For my first Saturday here, I got lucky and was offered to join in on a trip organized by a Countess to visit neighbouring Cologne, Germany for a tour of an auction house and later the Ludwig Museum, which now houses the world's third largest Picasso collection.

So I set off at 8am with a bus load full of French + German speaking people, together with my new-found friend Z, who is also a newcomer in Luxembourg. She's a Slovakian who spent the past 13 years in the US, and is tons of fun.

 Miss Z.

Now, everyone who knows me should know I (somewhat) like art, but definitely NOT classical art or whatever they call this. As luck would have it, the auction house's upcoming sale was a collection of not-my-kinda-art. But it was still a good experience to walk around and see the very rich people (who were in my bus) looking at the pieces and booking them and doing all the things that rich people do. We two girls ended up outside soaking in the sun, and giggling away at stupid things.

A sample of the artwork on display. The man here is the owner of the Van Ham auction house.

 You all would also know too that I love my reflection, and so was pretending to be very interested in this piece of furniture while actually trying to take a picture of myself in the mirror. Also for your information, this desk is estimated at 60,000 to 80,000 euros.

Then we headed off to lunch where I was again too shy to take pictures, but I must mention that it was a superb buffet with wild rice and curry and dal! I like! Oh, price: 27 euro.

Afterwards, we were off to the Museum. While I'm not a fan of Picasso, I must say I was excited to see pieces of his REAL work. Also exciting was the fact that there was a huge collection of Russian Avant-Garde, Surrealism and Expressionism on show, and THAT, I like!

We weren't allowed bags or cameras in the museum, so I can't show you what it was like. But I did manage to sneak two shots from my camera phone of what i could when the guards were not looking my way. (See what I do for you people I love?)

stolen shots

All in all, it was an education. I still don't understand Picasso, and think that people make too much of his lines and circles. And there was also this thing that bugged me. It was from some artist, and was all a single shade of BLUE, and justified to be a piece that represented experiential infinity. Seriously.

But there were some pieces that I could just stand there and look at for the longest time. And I wish we had more than two hours there, so I could slowly trawl the place and read the explanations, whether to snigger in disbelief, or nod my head in agreement.

At 6pm, I said goodbye to Cologne, and trundled on the bus very tired, but slightly more cultured.

Total journey time: 3 hours per way.
Museum tickets: 6.50 euro per person.