This is why we travel

I have favorite places, I have favorite foods, I have favorite countries, I have favorite artists. I could happily live with them and never need any more…

…But this is why we travel. We travel to learn, to be exposed to new forms, new cultures, new foods, new ideas, new ways of seeing and of experiencing this amazing world. Not just to take photographs but to take notice, to ingest and to digest life. Travel is in a sense a spiritual journey as much as it is a physical one.

So… I could definitely go for a room full with nothing but Monet, or Cezanne, or Rembrandt – but then I run into someone new and what I want is a collection that pays homage to all, including what is new.

This is what we enjoyed in Dresden Tuesday. This may be only a moderately large city, but the art collections here are literally world class.

I rushed in to see the Monets and the works by Degas. But then I got pulled in, arrested by just about everything else.

Most fun was to see Rebekah getting so excited at what she was seeing. She was a serious student of art history in college and we expand that education every time we travel. I’m even getting fairly well-versed myself.

So we entered a room featuring two large paintings. Huge. One at first glance appeared yellow, the other violet – almost black. The artist titled them “Sunny Yellow – Sooty Violet.” The more Rebekah looked the deeper into each painting she peered. she – then we – moved from merely looking to actually seeing. As the paintings began to wash over and then saturate her, the more animated she became. It was as if the art captured her imagination and there was a level of communication there that the artist likely intended – or hoped for – when the work was first composed.

Like I said, this is why we travel. We travel to learn, to be exposed to new forms, new cultures, new ideas, new ways of seeing and of experiencing this amazing world….

Just another day in Dresden, on the Elbe, in the heart of Saxony, in the former GDR, on the edge of what the world has to teach us, wide open hearts, wide open minds – and more.

Peace. Peace for this world and especially those who live in uncertainty and fear – DEREK