Girls' Day Trip to Kassel

A few months ago, my friend Ruth heard about a temporary art exhibition called Documenta 14 which is held in both Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany each year.  She posted about it on our book club page, and a few of us made the drive out to Kassel to see the temporary exhibit while it lasts. I can't think of a better way to sum it up than Ruth did, so here are her words, "The main showpiece in Kassel this year is "The Parthenon of Books", which is a full size replica of the temple at the Acropolis in Athens....only this one is made out of 100,000 banned books (over 170 titles banned in countries around the world for one reason or another). The work is the brain child of Argentine artist Marta Minujin, and symbolizes the resistance to all forms of censorship. Not coincidentally, it is at Friedrichsplatz, the same site where Nazis burned 2,000 books in 1933 as part of a campaign of censorship." I just love having nerdy, book-loving friends!

 

Full size Parthenon of books!

 

Fantastic company to share the day with.

 

I tried to resist the urge to take a bunch of pictures of individual books.  But it was hard. We saw many books that we have read, some we have loved, and I may have added to my ever-growing "to read" list while browsing. Each book is in a plastic bag, and then each column is wrapped in plastic.  When the exhibit comes down in a few weeks, the books will be unharmed by the weather and donated to public libraries.

 

“I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.” -Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

 

“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It's all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”-John Howe

“Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.” -Judy Blume

Okay, I'll step off my librarian soap box and move on. There were other parts of the Documenta 14 exhibit as well.  (Although the Parthenon of books was far and away my favorite.)  I was looking at this building, trying to make the letters form a German word out of habit... nope, "Being Safe is Scary." I like it.

 

This one is a little hard to see, but in this church's bell tower is a figure of a man standing on top of a ball?? 

 

 

And when we first walked past this, I thought they were building materials.

 

On closer inspection, these cylinders were fitted out like the rooms of a house or apartment.  (What can I say, I like the library room the best.)

Then there was this huge thing.  We could see people walking out onto a platform so we lined up to check it out.

 

Mindy, Val, and I waiting our turn to see what is up.

 

 

Yup, that's what's up.

By this point, we were ready for some lunch.  Val looked up nearby restaurants and we headed to this Italian place.  I really didn't expect my pizza to be THIS big, but it was delicious. (I made a valiant effort, but no, I didn't eat the whole thing.)

 

Then it was time to head across town to Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. The park is 590 acres of manicured nature, water features, ponds, etc.  It was started in 1696 and took 150 years to complete.  It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This photo is of the castle at the base of the park, which is now an art museum. I love the lions and lanterns.

 

And here is a view of our destination from the castle.

 

We strolled and talked and enjoyed the Baroque beauty of the park as we gradually worked our way up the hill.

 

Part of the aqueduct can be seen here through the trees.

 

"Teufelsbrüke" or Devil's Bridge.  Yeah, I don't think so.  It was at this point that I checked in with Rob and told him I had found Hobbiton and that we need to come back here. Sooooo pretty.

 

Eventually we made it to the base of the cascading water feature below the Hercules Monument.  As you can see, they are currently making major repairs to this area.  Apparently for 10 minutes on Wednesdays and Sundays they run a HUGE amount of water down this feature and I imagine that is beautiful, but we were there on a Tuesday, so we will just have to imagine that.  We were pretty well worn out at this point, but I was like, "It's not that far! We can totally climb to the top."

 

Kristie agreed to climb the (543) stairs with me, and it's a good thing she did, because I tried to quit like 4 times and she encouraged me to keep going.  As you can see, I was pretty sweaty and red in the face by the time we made it to the top, where you can just see the castle we began our walk at, but I did make it.  Thanks, Kristie! 

 

We followed a different route on the way back down so that we could see the Steinhofer Wasserfall. This was also built in the Baroque style and is supposed to blend with the natural environment and suggest feelings of harmony and peace.  Mission accomplished.

 

The last photo I snapped on our way back to the car was near the Orangerie.  These beautiful little flowers... I don't know that I've ever seen three different colored blooms on one plant before. It was a beautiful day, with friends, books, art, food, waterfalls, flowers.  Pretty much the perfect, kid-free, spiritually recharging day away from home.