One last little note about Germany:
This morning, before heading to the airport, we visited a place called Mathildenhöhe, not far from our hotel in Darmstadt.
It was, at one time, an artists’ colony dedicated to what’s called, in German, Jugendstil — better known in English as art nouveau. Darmstadt was a leading center for Jugendstil, which remains a favorite of mine.
(Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.)
There are a number of houses and other buildings in the area of Mathildenhöhe that are still strikingly attractive in the art nouveau manner.
But one of the most interesting structures there has nothing directly to do with the Jugendstil:
(Click to enlarge; click again to enlarge further.)
The last tsar of Russia, the ill-fated Nicholas II, married Princess Alix of Hesse. She became the equally ill-fated Empress Consort Alexandra. They were both murdered by the Communists in 1918, along with all of their children.
In happier days, Tsar Nicholas had a relatively small but fully functional private chapel built in Darmstadt between 1897 and 1899, for his use during visits to his in-laws. It was constructed of stone brought from Russia, and sits on soil that was also carried from Russia to Darmstadt by train.
It stands beside the exhibition hall shown above.
Well, I meant to say more about Mathildenhöhe and the Tsar and his church. And perhaps I will, fairly soon. But not now. Passport control and customs took so absurdly long here — crowded and sometimes bewildering chaos, as if the arrival of these international flights had caught the airport and the federales completely by surprise — that we already have to run for our next flight. American entry procedures are the worst of any “first world” country that we visit.
Posted from New York City
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