Bread and Mayonnaise

Today was another day of taking it easy and adjusting to being in Germany.  In the morning I hung out at the hostel and caught up on some emails about my placement in Morocco.

Around noon I decided to venture out and visit the Germanisches National Museum, since it is literally around the corner from my hostel.  It was a bit of a mix between fine art and every day artifacts spanning from before the middle ages to modern day.

 This ship was made entirely out of silver and even converted into a wine goblet!  It had something like 74 mini figureines acting out various scenes on the deck, including, according to the audio tour a "pair of lovers."  Couldn't find them though (yes, of course I had to look!)  

 If you've seen my room at home, you'll know it's covered in maps so it's no surprise that one of my favorite items was this globe.  It's the earliest spherical depiction of the Earth and was created around the time Columbus was sailing to the Americas.  The surface is illustrated with little pictures of landmarks, people and creatures--real and imaginary.  

Amongst the standard portraits and still life paintings, the museum had an exhibit on bookplates.  I tend to glaze over paintings, but anything featuring bookmaking/ paper art is totally up my alley.  The illustrations were so tiny, I couldn't get any good photos but they featured the most exquisite, detailed scenes.  My favorites were the ones featuring libraries.  Apparently rich people liked all of their books to show off how many other books they had, so they would commission bookplates to be made featuring idealized images of their huge libraries.  Kind of the Renaissance equivalent of blogging about your new kitchen remodel.  I believe this book belonged to Albrecht Dürer, but I can't exactly remember.  

One of the exhibits was solely dedicated to musical instruments.  There were lots of pianos, LOTS of pianos.  Or at least relatives of the piano.  There apparently was a section of the exhibit where you could hear songs recorded on some of these instruments, but I never found it.  The layout of the museum was a bit confusing.   I did love this one instrument where the keyboard emerged from a ladies' skirt.  Why wouldn't you have have a keyboard hidden in a life-sized statue of a lady? 

Also no surprise, I loved this writing desk.  Can you imagine the letters that were penned there?

In the middle of a room with all these serious statues were a pair of "character heads." Apparently the expression sculpted on this particular bust is impossible for a human to replicate.  Of course I had to try.  

This cabinet was painted in the early 1900's by an art student.  The botanical and insect paintings reminded me of something my mom would love.  Plus even found a snail! (Molly or Anne if you're reading this you'll have to show Tim!)

Lastly, there was an exhibit on toys that featured some AMAZING dollhouses.  My inner child was seriously freaking out.  The rooms were kept fairly dim, so I couldn't get any good photos, but there is this one that shows one of the dollhouses.  You can't see all the little details though, which is the best part. Why do I find such joy out of tiny pots and pans?  

After the museum I walked to a restaurant that my friend Ramona recommended to me.  I hadn't eaten a full meal since arriving, and I'd been surviving mostly on snacks, so I was pretty starving my the time I arrived.  

I'm going to say it was the lack of sleep because somehow when she told me it was a Spanish restaurant I thought I was going to be eating chips and salsa.  It wasn't until the waiter brought out a basket of bread with mayonnaise (???) that I realized she means Spanish as in Spain.  Because you know, I'm in Europe and all.  

I really shouldn't have posted about hoping plan D stuck yesterday, because I've already moved onto plan E, or is it F by now?  But I promise it's even better than what I was thinking.  It involves meeting a wonderful penpal of mine and seeing the beautiful city where she lives.  Nuremberg is a great city, but I've been a bit isolated here and I'm really looking forward to moving onto the next thing.  The next few days will involve lots of travel as I hop from Nuremberg to Bamberg to Berlin, but I can hardly wait!