Day 2 Oberhausen

Here I am again. Finally got through, though not exactly sure how. I'm most definitely not a expert at this. Had a great day today. To Dortmund to visit the LWL-Industriemuseum. All closed on Monday but the Director took us on a personal tour. It is a former coal mine that employed 1000 workers at one point. 1000 feet deep; and operated for about 100 years. I am still amazed about the permanence of these industrial sites and that they turn them in to landmarks, and save them. The buildings are architectural significant; the owners of the mine wanted to impress the workers so the architect used art nouveau decoration, so it's really beautiful, yet heavy industry. This museum is located in Westphalia, the eastern part of the Ruhr, about 60 km from Oberhausen. Definitely worth the visit. They are under construction now and will have the building and a new exhibition prepared in 2 years. A reason to come back to the Ruhr.

Back in Oberhausen we had 1 hour before we met with the Mayor of Oberhausen. Had coffee and a delicious tart, fresh fruits of the season with fresh whipped cream. Yum! Photo opportunities in the council chamber with the Mayor. An abstract mural from 1958 is painted on 3 walls near the ceiling, depicting the major sites of the city. The details of the building, from the 1920s, are all green glazed ceramic; you can imagine why I liked it. The elevator/lift was an original one; in continuous operation with no doors so you had to hop on and off while it was still moving; very strange; gave you an uneasy feeling getting on and off; fun experience though, like a carnival ride.

Back tracking a bit to yesterday; didn't mention the dignitaries who spoke, all of whom warmly welcomed The Westmoreland, one of which was the Mayor. Another was the United States Consulate representative, Bernd Herbert, who made a point to greet me in English (appreciated) and spoke about the importance of the partnership and benefits of this collaboration for both of our institutions. There was a moment of silence for those who were killed at the Love Parade in Duisburg on Saturday. A real tragedy; over 1 1/2 million kids went to this techno music concert; they expected only 300,000. And things got way out of hand, and a panic stampede occurred. We were on the train with many of the young people who were headed to the concert, but shortly after our train arrived in Oberhausen, they stopped the trains entirely to keep more people from trying to go. Really sad.

Last night had dinner at a Polish restaurant here, where we ate classic German food. Funny. With our Spanish visitors from the Basque region, French visitors from Le Creusot museum, and Thomas, Dr. Hauser, and Milena Karabaic. Interesting as only one of the Spanish group spoke English, one spoke German, so there was a lot of translating going on. I definitely need to learn another language. You feel very deficient in a group like that. But we had a good evening, and communicated the best we could. Tonight David and I ate in a Thai restaurant that was very good. So we're having a real variety of food.

Thomas is taking us to Essen tomorrow to see the competed Zollverein which I am anxious to see completed. We hope to see the Folkwang museum as well; time permitting. Never seems to be enough time. So my adventure continues. Will report back.
Goodnight for now.
BJ