Dusseldorf to Xanten

10 June 2019 - Day 5

Distance 65 km                                                                               

Total distance on the trip 289.61

Moving time 3:35:05 

82m  elevation

Total elevation 519m

We spent the morning walking around Dusseldorf looking at the architecture and making our way to the K20 art gallery to see an exhibit by Ai Wei Wei. We discovered there are two branches of this museum through error - one is K20, and we first found K21 about 3kms from each other, but both having exhibitions by Ai Wei Wei. We were at both so early (late opening on a public holiday) there was plenty of time. We even had time to walk around the K21 neighbourhood and see the historic buildings and statues around there. This area is normally a night life area, so it was very empty at 10am. (photos below).

The gallery opened at 11am and there was already a line to buy tickets. This is quite a small art gallery due to renovations happening and 2 of Ai Wei Wei's exhibits take up the entire ground floor over two very large rooms. The scale of his work is mind blowing. Having lived in HK for such a long time, I had never seen his work as he was discouraged from exhibiting there for political reasons, and I am impressed by his ability to create something so dramatic, with so much meaning from such turmoil in China. No wonder the Chinese government does not like him, his work moves you to the core.

The first room we entered was the size of 1/2 a soccer pitch, It has a number of exhibits.

1. Sunflower seeds -  in the center of the room is a level pile of 60,000,000 ceramic sunflower seeds that had been individually made and hand painted. Each being a small individual sculpture. The pile was over 650 square metres of the floor area. So much symbolism within this was explained in the museum booklet, I cannot do it justice here.

In the same room was another exhibit around the walls.
 

2. I.O.U. wallpaper. The very tall and wide walls were covered with a wallpaper made from 13,719 old style chinese IOU slips that Ai Wei Wei created to issue to his donors who helped him pay a tax demand from the Chinese Government who were keeping him detained due to this tax debt. His donors helped him raise 1.7 euros. All donations were re-payed.  

3. The third exhibit in the room was Zodiac

These were 12 very large Chinese zodiac signs depicted in front of famous buildings across the world, made from Lego bricks. Again, he has represented and portrayed so many symbols in these works I cannot do it justice.

We moved to another, smaller room where his exhibit Straight was.
This exhibit was created in response to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake where 70,000 people lost their lives - including over 5,000 school children when they were in government school buildings.

Straight consists of wooden pallets in the form of open coffins holding 164 tonnes of reinforced steel which was recovered from the collapsed buildings at the earthquake site. The steel has been straightened (it took over 3 years). it is to serve as a reminder of the cover up and  corruption that went into the building of these schools, but also in the aftermath of the earthquake.

This exhibit was confronting as on the walls were the names of the children who lost their lives which corresponded to each of the iron bars that were laid in the 'coffins'. The names were not officially released by the Chinese government, Ai Wei Wei had travelled to the site with 100 volunteers to find out the names of the missing children by talking to the people in the city. This exhibit is an attempt to ensure the children re remembered in an official way, and to highlight the cover up the government was involved in regarding this disaster.

The exhibit was very sobering but very worthwhile, I will be seeking out more of Ai Wei Wwi's exhibitions when I have the opportunity. 

We then moved into the upstairs part of the gallery where we were treated to some excellent works of modern art, including a Roy Lichtenstein  "Grabbeplatz" .

1.
2. Grabbeplatz
3.Voices from the Off 1 (Julien Goethe)
4. Choral 1962 A sliced cello mounted in black. (Arman)

We then had to farewell these guys after a fun weekend in Dusseldorf together. But first, a modern art selfie to send us off back to the hotel and our bikes ...

After a quick change a final packing we were ready to ride again. We had done 22,000 steps in Dusseldorf already and we were headed for Xanten, north along the Rhine.

We were out an on our bikes at 12:54pm and headed toward the river to ride north the 14kms we did not ride along the river in 2014.  We rode past the castle ruins we visited yesterday, and as it was a public holiday, the cycle path along the river was quite busy with people young and old out and about.  It was a gorgeously sunny day at 24 degrees celsius.  The advantages of leaving later (it had been about 14 degrees earlier)

We passed a whole bunch of people in the middle of nowhere just sitting out enjoying the sunshine and as we rode further around we realised it was a pub on the cycle path quite a way from any town which obviously draws quite a crowd on the sunny days. After this pub, the congestion cleared and we were good to travel at speed.  This ride was more about getting to our next stop, so not much stopping other than to check maps, food or bathroom breaks. It was also quite an industrial area we needed to ride through. 

We had a bit of a break at Uerdingen after about 25kms - it would be the last time we saw the Rhine today as we wanted to take the more direct route overland, rather than the convoluted route along the Rhine.  Uerdingen is a heavy industrial town. The packet in the photo above is a small packet of chocolate sprinkles ... a power packed punch of energy. We would snaffle these at breakfasts where possible for our ride. The photo in the top right is how the drains are placed in Germany - so cyclists do not lost their tyres down the slots - it is the little things that make a difference and know we are loved here.  ;-)

As we approached Moers we saw some more windmills  - new and old. There are many wind farms in this part of Germany.

Late lunch was at a little railway town called Moers (after about 40kms) - and again our fallback was a Kebab shop - tasty, nutritious, fast, cheap, and open. This one was particularly fabulous. Moers is on the other side of the Rhein to Duisburg - which we knew from previous rides that we wanted to avoid that town. 

We finally rolled into Xanten at about 6pm, which is town I have wanted to revisit if we had the chance since riding through here in 2014. On the outskirts of the town we checked Booking . com to find a place that we could park our bikes securely and was in our prince range. We found a lovely family run hotel called The Neumaier, which also a fabulous restaurant attached. 

After we checked in, we had dinner then went for a short walk around the town then fell into a blissful well deserved slumber. 22,000 steps plus 65kms at a swift pace.