Day 3 Oberhausen

Back again. Another busy day. Will try not to ramble as much tonight. Had a lazy morning here; wandered the streets looking for shoes; no success. Will keep trying however. But we are learning our way around more and more.

Thomas picked us up at 2 and we went to the Folkwang Museum in Essen. Saw a Rock n' Roll Photography show entitled "A Star is Born: Photography and Rock since Elvis" so began with Elvis, Little Richard, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Queen, to Kiss, you get the picture (ha); lots of memories in those pictures. We missed the 1930s exhibition that showed many of the paintings and sculpture that were in the collection before the war and were forced to be sold; amazing they were able to bring them back. Some are now back in the permanent collection, so we were able to see them. They are reinstalling their permanent collection in a fabulous new building by English architect David Chipperfield. It is such an amazing transformation from when I saw the museum in its reduced state in 2007. Some exceptional details. And while much of the collection was not up, we saw some of the best.

From Essen we drove to Herten, a small village north of Oberhausen. There we met Mr. Buchtal and his wife Elizabeth; he is a math teacher and is involved in the Transatlantic Bridge project from the same school as Antje. They organized this visit to show us what the Ruhr was like before industry came, late 18th early 19th century. It is the site of a former castle that is now a golf resort that is surrounded by a charming village. Dates on some of the houses were from 1804; the church 1806. We ate in a Biergarten under a great tree. Good german food tonight; will need to go to the gym when I get home for sure.

I'll try to post some pictures soon. Off to Duisburg and/or Dusseldorf tomorrow. More to report then.
Good night.
BJ