I had the morning in Dessau, to look at the remaining Bauhaus sites. I’d planned to hire a bike for this, but the weather was pretty wet first thing. Instead I walked to the Meisterhause (Masters’ houses). These had been extensively rebuilt/refurbished. The first, which served as an exhibtion space had had most of its interior walls removed. Most of the others had very little furniture in them; just a series of empty rooms (though one of the videos was keen to point out they’d been very careful to get the colours right). Externally they’re very striking, but the lack of furniture made it difficult to imagine how people lived in them.
There was once (silent) film from the 1920s showing all the modern labour saving inventions in the houses. All the work was done by a maid. The whole film had that slightly manic over acting feel that films of the period tend to have.
I then walked over to the Kornhaus, which is a riverside restaurant. This was a nice setting on the Elbe
Then it was a bus down to the estate they’d designed in the 20s. This was a bit underwhelming tbh; a lot of the houses had been extensively changed, and the balcony flats looked quite “normal”. I think a lot of the interest was in how they were constructed so quickly though it sounds like there were a lot of issues subsequent owners have had to resolve. I also wonder how practical all those flat roofs on the Masters’ houses were.
I might have got more out of this bit of the visit if I’d taken a tour (which goes in some of the buildings); they didn’t match up with my plans (and there were a limited number in English – though I’d probably have risked a German one)
I had a lunch of Currywurst and chips in the nearby supermarket cafe. They’d gone to town with the Bauhaus style; the building itself was modern.
Then it was time to get the train to Paderborn. Unfortunately the train from Dessau was late, so I missed my connection to the ICE to Bielefeld. The DB app automatically suggests alternative connections, so I’ve ended up on a set of 4 regional trains. All being well I should get to Paderborn just after 2100 (It should’ve been about 1930). Annoyingly I’d bought a seat reservation for the ICE as it was forecast to be busy, and can’t figure out a way of getting a refund for it.
I’m writing this from the first of the four trains
Update 1945 CEST: Amazingly all the connections have worked out, and I’m on the final leg of the journey. It’s been very cross country; all the trains have been diesel, and there were semaphore signals at one point. The scenery was becoming a little more interesting before it got dark.
I just had what I thought was a ticket check, but it turned out to be a travel survey. She seemed very confused what to put an Interrail ticket down as, and had to check withe wanted to know where I’d got it from, and where I’d come from and was going to on it, and what it cost. Bristol caused issues with the computer. In the end she wanted to know where I’d entered Germany and where I was leaving it. Very impressed with her patience; it was testing the limits of my German.