Farewell Germany, Heading to Belgium!

One of the main reasons we stayed in Düsseldorf was because I thought it was on the way to Brussels from Koblenz. I was wrong, but the drive was very entertaining. We had seen a postcard for a Chuck Close exhibit at the Ludwig Forum in Aachen and decided to make a stop. Winner, all around.

Chuck Close is an incredible portrait artist who has been painting for over 30 years. Most of his early paintings were brush paintings of people he knew. They were almost always extremely large. He began experimenting with making entire portraits out of fingerprints or dots, and these were amazingly lifelike. In 1988 Close suffered a spinal artery collapse, which left him a quadriplegic, but he has continued painting with his brush between his teeth. As perhaps the greatest proof that art comes from the brain rather than the hand, Close's portraits since then have continued to improve on earlier techniques and trump earlier paintings repeatedly. If you hear of a Chuck Close exhibit coming your way, please go. His Web site.

The rest of the Ludwig Forum in Aachen was almost as impressive. We pulled in at 11:50AM and were told to wait there at the counter until noon before we could pay and enter. That was a bit weak, considering we were the only people there and the counter was in the middle of the exhibition space. Still, the variety of art on display was fantastic. For a stop of a few hours, you could not beat the Ludwig Forum.

Back in the car, we drove through the Netherlands on the way to Belgium. The truck stop we chose for a snack provided appropriate views of windmills, and they served excellent beer, but the food was unbuyable. Actually, why offer good beer at a truck stop? Especially 8% Belgian beer... seems like asking for road rage.

http://dwarbi.com/BigTrip/Germany-Aachen/Germany-Aachen.html