Essen – 27 January 2015

Today I went to Essen, a town about 20 miles from Düsseldorf. On the way to the station, I took some pictures of these sculptures, which I had passed by several times but not really noticed.

sheet metal people sheet metal jungle sheet metal animals

Only a couple of pictures from the train:

graffitti from train painting on wall

This statue is outside the train station.

reading man sculpture

I took the tram to the Red Dot Design Museum; the underground tunnel has a lighted hallway that changes color. (There is a short video of it here.)

color changing hallway color changing hallway

Essen was a big coal and steel works town (and the museum is located in the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex), so the station has a nod to that.

interior ubahn ubahn

Here are some shots of the front of the Zollverein. I imagine the “No Smoking” sign is there because, with all that coal dust, it would be a tremendous hazard.

front zollverein tower supports entrance to zollverein museum no smoking red dot design museum entrance

Although photography is permitted in the museum, it’s for private use only, so I am not sure I can post pictures to this web site. (It also made my workload of editing pictures manageable.) The best design in the museum is how everything is laid out; everything just works beautifully.

After leaving the museum, I decided to walk back along the tram route and get pictures of some of the things I had seen. The area is pretty much residential/small business until you get back to the center of town.

tram stop painting restaurant entrance residential area geometric pattern house sign residential area painted garage door painted house and garden trailer

These doors with the two circular windows are very popular in the business area.

door with circular windows

I passed a couple of churches, one of which had a cemetery next to it. Most of the graves were recent (as in 1980 and after). The pictures here are of the older headstones I was able to see. I wonder if, in 100 years, people will look at the fancy headstones of today and say, “Those sure are ancient.”

church brick church church windows closeup cemetery long view gravestone gravestone b Text says “Now I bring you; you and I”
gravestone gravestone closeup
gravestone gravestone closeup

OK, back to the residential area and the very colorful Petul hotel (site in German) that even has artistic garbage bins.

goat chickens hotel petul hotel petul pig frog dumpsters

I caught the tram again for two stops to the Essen Rathaus, which also has a shopping mall (no, no shopping mall pictures; just a generic mall). The station has flowers painted on the pillars.

rathaus galerie station pillar with flower pillar with flower

I wandered off from the mall, had some very greasy deep-fried calamari for lunch. I saw a Mayersche book store (site in German) and spent some time there, then walked around further. The city has set up a winter festival park:

ice rink snow slide

Walking further, I saw an old coal mine car, a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, then a Catholic church with statues of two important figures, Saint Altfrid and Franz Cardinal Hengsbach. The angel on top of one of the buildings must have been done by someone inspired by Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

mine coal car statue wilhelm 1 saint altfrid franz cardinal hengsbach ce3k angel

The first two pictures are of the old synagogue; the third one is a building next to it.

old synagogue old synagogue statue laborer

Then, on to the Museum Folkwang, which had extended its exhibition “Monet, Gaugin, Van Gogh...Japanese Inspirations” until February 1. I couldn’t take any photos there, but did get to see the original Hokusai wave, and art by the people mentioned before, as well as some Toulouse-Lautrec.

Pictures from the walk to the museum:

philharmonic hall beach scene painted on house church closeup bismarck pedestrian bridge

...and pictures from the permanent collection of the museum. The first couple of photos are from an exhibit called “Helmet” which has all sorts of objets d’art in compartments in a large wooden frame. The gold masks are by Robert Belling.

helmet helmet gold mask gold abstract abstract sculpture abstract wtf abstract creepy painting abstract leaflets morning bells outdoor sculpture

Oh, look! That’s where someone got the inspiration for the Quetzalcoatl sculpture in downtown San José!

quetzalcoatl jr

A room full of Rodins, and a Van Gogh

rodin room rodin standing woman van gogh wheat field

Signage

signage der handwerk (handwerk means “trade” or “craft.”)

ubahn pizza Very clever logo for a pizza parlor.


Sign in tram with symbols for no smoking, no food/drink, hold on to pole These icons should not need a translation.


signage weird caterpillar ad Extremely strange advert for “I’m a star! Get me out of here!”


signage physiotherapy A wonderful ad for a physiotherapist.


Nutella jar with “bella” on it instead, and word “Ciao” above it This ad from Nutella changes the logo so that the text reads “Hello, beautiful!”


signage vet office animal temps An informative sign at a veternarian’s office.


This truck has a great logo. When I took the picture of the front of the truck, the driver gave me a thumbs up. I guess that happens to him a lot.

fifty fifty truck signage fifty fifty truck

signage rathaus galerie An ingenious use of half-letters.


mayersche logo The Mayersche bookstores have a very colorful logo, which is why I couldn’t resist getting a picture.


signage anti smoking These signs were just everywhere in the city.


signage wilhelm muller A tip of the hat to old German style writing.


Miscellanea

Here is the Schlemmertafel that I had for breakfast.

food schlemmer

When I returned to Düsseldorf in the evening, as I passed through the station, I heard some guy yelling at the employees of one of the stores. He had a bottle in his fist, and seemed drunk. He had just exited the store, still yelling at the employees, when a policeman came up and literally collared the guy. The policeman grabbed the guy’s collar with his left hand, took away the liquor bottle with his right hand, and marched the guy off. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than ten seconds after the drunk had left the store.