After a surreal start to the journey, involving an almost four-hour trip from home to the central station (which normally takes about 30 to 45 minutes by public transport), being shunted from S-Bahn to regional train, standing like sardines in a tin for over an hour in one of them, being fed completely wrong information by the train driver (probably not his fault – he was fed the wrong information by someone else). Due to the “Zelensky meeting” (and good for Berlin to host it – don’t get me wrong), the story was that the police kept stopping all traffic to and from, and into and out of, the central station, and that people should not even attempt to walk there. Taxis also were not allowed through. One train driver told me that it was unlikely that my night train would even be allowed to arrive at the station, let alone depart again on time or even that night.
When I finally left the station, debating with myself what to do, a taxi stopped miraculously almost in front of me and the driver said that of course he could take me to the central station. I of course imagined a massive police presence around the central station, but as it turned out, getting there was no problem at all, and there was virtually no police there – as in: even less than on normal days, neither around nor inside the station. Inside the station, all signs were like frozen in time with departures being announced like between one and two hours earlier, but when I got to the platform previously announced for my nighttrain, imagine my surprise when it arrived just then, and departed punctually.
The whole thing was very strange, but the bottom line was that I could have taken a taxi or even walked from Friedrichstraße station and had plenty of time to get something to eat at the central station before starting the overnight train ride. I guess we’ll never know who fucked up the most badly.
I still have no idea who misinformed whom and why. But anyway, I was finally on my way. For some reason, perhaps, perhaps not related to the chaos in Berlin, there was a lengthy delay in Leipzig where I took the first photos, and then a couple more on the way.
Day one, arrival, walkabout, a word about hotel prices during the art fairs (just like in Kassel during Dokumenta, they crank them up to absurd levels), and Volta Basel. Also a couple of photos of the view from my hotel room – probably not the last.
Day two Art Basel
I had forgotten how big that art fair is, or perhaps it IS bigger than last time I was here, or perhaps I just don’t have the stamina I used to have :-).
Note to self: if you ever visit again, get a multi-entry ticket and set aside one more day in order to be able to take more of it in.
There are food trucks between the two main halls of the fair, and plenty of food and drink to be had inside one of the halls.
Day three Basel Zoo
Took a break from contemporary art.
And finally, an amusing encounter with what seemed to be a horse that likes to strike a pose for the camera. I swear – when I appeared and raised my camera, he/she came trotting forward, placed him/herself in that position, and after I took the photo and lowered my camera – walked away. This is not the first time I have had similar experiences with animals who have seemingly been conditioned to pose for the camera, so I no longer think I am just imagining things :-).
Day four – Photo Basel and Liste Basel
Unfortunately, at Photo Basel, they used those lamps that create thick black stripes when taking photos of the photos, so that is fairly redundant.
But first, some more photos of the view from my hotel room. It changes all the time.
And elsewhere in Basel: Art is everywhere all the time:
Day five – Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, walkabout, and the Nightjet back to Berlin
On the contrary, Deutsche Bahn and DSB (Danish state railways) seem determined to pushing us into the arms of Norwegian (airlines) and even Flixbus.
On a recent trip to Denmark, my loyalty to train travel was put to the test once again.
First of all, there is no direct train between Berlin and Copenhagen. True story – believe it or not. We have to change in Hamburg, a central station which is too small and cramped for the number of people and trains it serves.
Secondly, it had not been possible to make a seat reservation for the Hamburg-Copenhagen journey. There was no explanation why not. I was happy to find a seat in a compartment which must have been about 50 years old.
The train from Hamburg to Copenhagen (which was the starting point of that leg of the journey) arrived at the platform half an hour late. Hundreds of people just stood there, waiting, like sardines in a tin, with no communication whatsoever.
The toilets were filthy from the start, and during the journey, they were locked one after the other due to dysfunction. In the end, there was not one single functioning toilet on that train.
There was no communication whatsoever on the part of the driver or staff during the journey: no welcoming message with explanation as to the delay, no announcements of next stop, no estimated time of arrival and of course no explanation of, let alone apologies for, the further delay which ended up totalling almost an hour and a quarter. Not one pip-squeak from the driver at any time.
The display in the corridor of the ancient train kept stating the original arrival time and did so right till the end of the journey.
On the return journey from Copenhagen to Hamburg, the train was “only” fifteen minutes late leaving Copenhagen.
The carriage in which I had booked a seat did not exist. I thought it was only DB and ÖBB that sold reservations for seats in non-existent carriages. Now I know that DSB does it too. The one in which I was squeezed in had no ventilation and soon many of us spent most of the journey in the corridor in order not to get sick from the heat and lack of air. No sight of any staff till about three quarters of an hour before we reached Hamburg.
If DB and DSB would acknowledge each others’ existence, and bother to look at a map, they would see that Denmark and Germany are neighbouring countries; that Berlin is just down the road from Copenhagen, and vice-versa: Copenhagen is just up the road from Berlin.
Also, in case they had not noticed, there is a climate crisis, and short flights pollute disproportionately, and with transport time to and from airport, check-in time, security queues etc., also take a disproportionate amount of time.
There are enough people travelling between the two cities, and we are all supposed to choose rail over air travel, but – with the governments’ blessings – they keep making train travel more and more uncomfortable, bothersome, stressful and more and more expensive, while air travel is allowed to become easier and easier and cheaper and cheaper.
Ideally, there would be a direct ICE train between Berlin and Copenhagen, but that seems like so much wishful thinking. Much too easy and comfortable. After all, it seems that DB and DSB would rather stick needles under their fingernails than acknowledge each others’s existence let alone communicate across borders, but if they did, their common motto would probably be something like: “If only there was a way for us to conduct our businesses without those bloody passengers”.
Next time, for me: Flixbus. It can’t be worse, but it is definitely a heck of a lot cheaper.
Arrival in the morning on a EuroNight train. Due to a major screw-up on the part of Deutsche Bahn (I thought I had booked, as was written on the ticket, a bed in a single sleeping cabin but it turned out that the ticket they gave me was for a (non-reclining) seat in a six-person compartment) and that there were no sleeping compartments on that train at all, I had not had any sleep. It was Deutsche Bahn who sold me that non-ticket, but as far as I know, Österreichische Bundesbahnen is the “lead” railway company in that crappy project which I now know is to be avoided. The bizarre thing is that I got the impression from the ticket controller that it happens all the time, as in on a daily basis. And there were several others on the train with the same issue.
I was happy that the hotel had a room ready for me so early in the day so that I was able to unpack and freshen up before hitting the street of Ljubljana. By the way, the reception staff at Hotel Exe Lev is super friendly and welcoming.
The photos of the day are from walking around, from a short river cruise (is that a giant rat or a tiny nutria?), of a lot of statues (difficult to photograph in the harsh sunlight), and from Republic Square and the area around it, and a bird I am not sure I have ever seen, much less photographed and definitely not identified before.
As usual, there is no need to comment on for example the repetitiveness. Sometimes I experiment with cropping vs no cropping. Some say I crop too much, some too little. Guess whether or not I particularly care what other people think?
Total distance actually walked: 12,2 km. Not too shabby after a virtually sleepless night and on a day where temperatures must have been close to 30C :-).
And in the evening, spotted these shadows quite a distance from my hotel room window:
Friday, 30 June
First up: 1 km in the rowing machine in the hotel fitness room :-). More and more convinced that I need to somehow fit in a rowing machine at home, but first I will wait and see if the rumours of a fitness centre in the monster building next door to me in Berlin are true. If I had one right next door, I would go. Further away – I’m afraid not. And I am definitely not going back to Holmes Place after the number they pulled during the Covid lock downs where they not only charged the usual monthly fee but then charged extra for the online activities they started to offer! They had nothing else to do – and they wanted to make an extra profit from the pandemic. I found that in extemely bad taste.
The programme for the art tour which started on this day:
16:30: Meeting and welcome drinks at Ravnikar Gallery Space, Vošnjakova 4. Gallery presentation and guided tours of, a. o., the exhibition Mental Health Walk by Ivana Bajec (below right together with one of our superguides) and the AIR4. The other photo is of the painting which immediately caught my eye :-):
17:45-19:00: Plečnik House, Karunova ulica 4. Guided tour of the house and visit of the two temporary exhibitions Vlasto Kopač and Dorit Margreiter.
Just some photos from the garden of Plečnik House, which I somehow find look better in black and white:
I skipped the rest of the programme (A short tour around Plečnik’s Ljubljana (Trg Francoske revolucije, Križanke, National Library, Vegova Street, Tromostovje, Market place, etc.), 19:30-20:15: Dobra Vaga Gallery: Presentation of the gallery and guided tour of the exhibition MARKETPLACE, Adamič-Lundrovo nabrežje 5, and 20:30: Dinner & drinks: Open Kitchen on Central Market) and walked back to the hotel.
Total number of km walked on this day: 14.20.
Saturday, 1 July
9:30: Meeting outside NAMA Department Store, Tomšičeva 1.
Walk to MGLC Švicarija permanent exhibition and artist studios. A former hotel, in a lovely location in Tivoli Park now artist studios allotted for a five-year period with the possibility of renewal. A wonderful opportunity. And I have never seen such clean and orderly artist studios in my life.
I got the names confused and will have to clarify with the tour organisers, but according to the programme, we visited the studios of, a.o. Janja Kosi, Damjan Kracina, Silvan Omerzu, Ana Sluga, Miran Mohar (IRWIN), Tanja Lažetić, Miha Štrukelj, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, Tanja Pak, and Anja Jerčič Jakob.
Then a visit to the studio of Dušan Mandić, another member of the Irwin group (that is unfortunately not a very good photo of him), Rimska cesta 8, followed by a nice lunch at Café Bazilika, Trg francoske revolucije 5, 1000 Ljubljana.
Then Škuc Gallery – presentation of the gallery with the director Tia Čiček and a guided tour of the group exhibition Sick (in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art SCCA).
Then an unfortunate coincidence: Due to a glitch and misunderstanding on the part of Galerija Fotografija, it turned out that the visit there was not possible, and just at that moment where we found ourselves “homeless”, there was a heavy rainstorm, and by the time our superguides had found us an alternative shelter to visit, the rain stopped. Typical.
After a nice coffee break, a visit and drinks at Gallery Kos, Nebotičnikov prehod 7.
9:00 Meeting at the City Hotel, Dalmatinova ulica 15, then a short walk to Metelkova and studio visits of Miha Perne and Meta Kastelic, Metelkova ulica 10. On the way, we passed what I think used to be a military facility, now a compound for cultural uses.
Stolpersteine on the doorstep of what is now City Hotel.
Then a taxi ride to the studio of Tadej Vaukman, Ob Ljubljanici 16 which again was very different from the ones we had visited earlier.
And a walk by the river toCukrarna, a former sugar factory now a delightful, large and bright exhibition space for contemporary art. What an asset. Guided tour of the current exhibitions.
As a last programme item, we took the funicular to Ljubljana Castle for lunch and a visit to the exhibition of photos by Jadran Lazić before saying our goodbyes. Most of the others had trains to catch (mostly to Vienna) on that same afternoon. I was glad I still had two full days in Ljubljana.
This was a wonderful and enlightening tour. I am very impressed by the vibrant contemporary art scene in Ljubljana, and the – very diverse – opportunities for studio spaces that are offered to artists there.
And last but certainly not least a big thank you to our two guides. They are a great team, and had obviously put in a lot of effort to put the programme together and also to find great places to eat. They were organised, efficient, extremely knowledgeable about the art scene and generally about Ljubljana and Slovenia, and very, very nice. Anyone who wants to organise a high-quality art tour there could not be in better hands.
Monday, 3 July
Dithering – the weather forecast changed all the time from one extreme (sun, hardly any clouds) to the other (heavy rain and thunder storms) and it seems difficult to predict the weather for even the next hour.
I would have liked to hike to Kozece Pond but did not want to venture so deep into Tivoli Park wearing only summer clothes and sandals, so I started out going clothes shopping. I used to hate that. Bizarrely, I now love it. Go figure.
In the afternoon, I went to the zoo. Here are some statues spotted on the way there:
And some of the animals in the zoo:
And on the way back:
Tuesday, 4 July
Metelkova Museum of Contemporary Art, Nebotičnik Cafe, located on the top of the Nebotičnik building, Stefanovy ulica. (Don’t bother – ……), Ferant’s Garden, Slovenska cesta 9, Vegova Street, Galerija Fotografica, and Ljubljana Mosque.
Brunch in a lucky find: TINK Superfood – delicious AND healthy :-), where to my surprise, someone stopped by my outdoor table and said my name and it turned out to be an ex-colleague from EEA. So nice to have a chat, after the initial chock :-).
Dinner in Good Morning Vietnam – in the same passage as Gallery Kos – recommended by one of the art tour guides – and it was indeed very good.
Wednesday, 5 July
Return to Berlin by (day) train via Augsburg – or so I thought. Even after the journey here, I was thinking – what can go wrong with a day train and just one change. Well, it seems that Deutsche Bahn’s Spitzenkompetenz is selling services that don’t exist, and I was soon to find out why so many people had grinned and wished me good luck when they heard that I was returning to Berlin by train on a ticket bought from Deutsche Bahn.
First up, the train from Ljubljana was about 75 minutes late, and the “plenty of time” I thought I had to change trains in Augsburg went down the toilet before the actual journey had even started. Apparently that is a common occurrence and not even a big delay, comparatively.
Secondly, when the train finally arrived, the waggon according to my ticket did not exist, and the other, similar waggon was completely packed with people and all seats reserved twice or even three times over. However, I did manage to find a seat next to two guys, who did not know each other till then, and who had similar tickets so that was immediately a subject of conversation and common grievance :-).
Thirdly, the train only went to some godforsaken place in Austria the name of which I have forgotten, and it turned out that that train was never meant to go any further and certainly not all the way to Augsburg. So Deutsche Bahn had again sold me something that basically did not exist.
One of my newfound travel companions, of my age but turned interrailer late in life 🙂 was really good at finding alternative solutions. We ended up changing four times instead of one, and at the time of writing this it seems that we will make it back to Berlin in the middle of the night after actually having had a lot of fun.
Some photos I took from the train somewhere in Austria:
Last words about train travel in Europe:
“The Single European Railway Directive 2012 2012/34/EU is an EU Directive that regulates railway networks in European Union law”.
Not that I intend to read it, but it is not working. If the EU – quite rightly – wants us to increasingly choose train travel over air travel within the European Union, there is a lot of harmonising to be done, starting with making the ticketing systems inter-compatible, if that is a word.
If we are going to spend the best part of 24 hours being transported by train from one EU Member State through another one to a third one, rather than half a day in order to make the same journey by air, it has to be fairly “stressless”, comfortable and a good deal cheaper than flying, and that is definitely not the case now.
And investments need to be made: How can it be that some EU Member States (I am sure Slovenia is not the only one) still have rail tracks that are in such a poor condition that trains have to drive quite slowly on them, and that those trains seem to be about 50 years old?
Once I decided to stop caring how long it would take, I quite enjoyed my trip – no thanks to Deutsche Bahn’s tickets to non-existent seats and compartments or to the four changes rather than one I had to make on the way back (except I guess the two strangers who quickly became travel companions and I would probably not have started talking to each other if the journey had gone the way we each thought it would instead of going from bad to worse from the start :-)), but transport ministries and railway companies really need to step up their game if this form of travel is going to catch on big time.
Oh, and there needs to be adequate internet access. Even on the otherwise brand new and very comfortable ICE train we were on on the last stretch to Berlin and which seemed like the wildest luxury compared to the other trains we had been on today, and which unlike the other trains did have internet, at least officially, it was not really working.
A slightly unsettling experience on the way back: The train that normally runs between Sankt Peter-Ording via Tönning to Husum is on weekdays replaced by Deutsche Bahn buses due to rail maintenance.
As I boarded the bus back from Tönning to Sankt Peter-Ording, the driver asked me where he should go from there. It turned out that he had not driven that route before – in fact had never been to the region – and therefore also did not know where he was supposed to stop to let people off and, more importantly, pick people up (at stops with no shelter, nowhere to sit, and an hour between buses …..). In addition, it was of course pitch dark by this time. And the bus was not equipped with a GPS (!!). Well done. Deutsche Bahn, for sending a driver out into, for him, completely uncharted territory.
