"The trip to Trier will follow the Rhine where cute German towns sprouted along the riverbank."
That's my boss, a former Marxist idealogue and current closet anarchist, giving me a preview of what to expect should I go to a pilgrimage to Trier.
And Trier is the house where Karl Marx was born in 1818.
The train indeed followed much of the course of the Rhine until Koblenz.
But the cute German towns from there are actually along the banks of the Moselle whose vineyards are famous for a variety of white wine named after the river.
From Trier's main train station, the Karl-Marx-Haus is just a short walk away, its upper middle class character way off the Proletariat that its former inhabitant represented.
Being there was surreal as Das Kapital, political economy, Marxist-Lenninist-Maoist thought, independent socialism, and other egalitarian words took concrete form and chased me from one gallery to another.
It hit me too that one of the most familiar portraits of anti-capitalism (that bearded man in a sitting pose) has become a capitalist venture from refrigerator magnets to wines and chocolates.
But Trier is not only about Karl Marx.
It is also a delicious lunch of grilled pheasant breast in mushroom sauce and noodles.
And the awesome Cathedral of St. Peter --- the oldest in Germany and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site --- where the Holy Tunic that Jesus allegedly wore when he died is in safekeeping.
That's my boss, a former Marxist idealogue and current closet anarchist, giving me a preview of what to expect should I go to a pilgrimage to Trier.
And Trier is the house where Karl Marx was born in 1818.
The train indeed followed much of the course of the Rhine until Koblenz.
But the cute German towns from there are actually along the banks of the Moselle whose vineyards are famous for a variety of white wine named after the river.
From Trier's main train station, the Karl-Marx-Haus is just a short walk away, its upper middle class character way off the Proletariat that its former inhabitant represented.
Being there was surreal as Das Kapital, political economy, Marxist-Lenninist-Maoist thought, independent socialism, and other egalitarian words took concrete form and chased me from one gallery to another.
It hit me too that one of the most familiar portraits of anti-capitalism (that bearded man in a sitting pose) has become a capitalist venture from refrigerator magnets to wines and chocolates.
But Trier is not only about Karl Marx.
It is also a delicious lunch of grilled pheasant breast in mushroom sauce and noodles.
And the awesome Cathedral of St. Peter --- the oldest in Germany and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site --- where the Holy Tunic that Jesus allegedly wore when he died is in safekeeping.
And the 15-century St. Gangolf market church too which I got to shoot in a fleeting moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment