Before I wrap up recounting my trip through three cities on the edge of eastern and western Europe, I want to draw your attention to three pieces of public art – one from Vienna, one from Salzburg, and one from Prague that have a curious structural similarity. Keeping in mind my conviction that cemeteries contain works of public art, the first is at the grave of Hedy Lamarr.
Look at it closely and you can see her face emerge from the placement of the rods and ball bearings. Interestingly, the memorial’s designer Christian Thomas, isn’t a conventional artist but rather is an industrial engineer based in Vienna. He used 88 stainless steel rods to represent the 88 frequencies in Lamarr’s “frequency hopping” patent.
Then, in Salzburg, we came across this installation
which was part of the Ninth Salzburg Art Project. Titled “Awilda” and created by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa. He sculpted it from 20 pieces of white Spanish marble of equal height but differing circumferences. Circumambulate the figure and the silhouette changes.
Finally, there was, of course the Franz Kafka rotating head in Prague
which, in a way, works in opposition to Awilda since it rotates for you, (There’s a video of it rotating in this Google photos folder.) As I noted in my earlier post, “Czech artist David Černý, created the mirrored kinetic bust of Kafka composed of 42 different reprogrammable layers that rotate individually, using gears inspired by traditional Czech clockwork.”
I can’t say with any certainty what to make of the connection between the hidden and emerging faces and it’s probably mere coincidence that I saw all three in a span of a few days but I found the connection curious nevertheless.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Monday morning dawned and I was in the hotel lobby at 06:00. Shlomit had arranged for a group departure with five or six of us in one vehicle to make the 25 minute ride to Václav Havel Airport. Though I had no doubt that I’d arrive in ample time for my scheduled 08:50 departure to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam where I’d have a comfortable two and a half hours after my scheduled arrival there to connect to my flight to Dulles, I made certain I had my camera with me at all times.
Covid-19 still had its fingers kneading the dough of travel in the spring of 2022 and before the U.S. government would allow travelers to arrive on any inbound international flights we were warned that we’d have to produce a document showing a negative test result from a test taken within a day of our departure. As she had done efficiently throughout the trip, Shlomit had arranged for everyone in the group scheduled for a Monday departure to have the test administered Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon we’d all received the hoped for negative result. I note this because it was only at Havel Airport that I was asked to produce this document.
I had enough time to avail myself of the lounge before my flight which I found
serviceable though not airline specific, more akin to the lounge at Humberto Delgado in Lisbon, and again more basic than the Air France lounge at Dulles. Anticipating that I’d get some sort of food on the short flight to Amsterdam, I had a light snack and a cup of tea. Curiously, although KLM operated the flight from Prague to Amsterdam, all the flight announcements were only in English.
Since Schiphol would be my exit point from the Schengen Area I had to cross through Passport Control for my exit visa. This meant that both my entry (Roissy CDG) and exit visa (Schiphol Amsterdam) passport stamps would be from countries where I spent 100 percent of my time in them in the airport. In fact, the immigration officer at Schiphol asked me how I’d enjoyed my stay in France and I told him I hadn’t because CDG was a nightmare but fortunately that was all the time I’d spent in that country. We had a good chuckle about it.
Once through passport control, I headed off for the KLM lounge. If I thought the lounges at Havel and Humberto Delgado were basic when compared with the Air France Lounge at Dulles, KLM’s lounge at the airport in Amsterdam was like the Ritz-Carlton. Take a look:
And I don’t think this video shows the private sleeping rooms available! (I guess for looooong layovers.)
I will note that I had to sign an affidavit attesting to having had a negative Covid-19 test but didn’t have to show the result. However, even more fun at departure time was being chosen for an extra security check before boarding the plane. I had my hands, belt and shoes swabbed with some sort of chemical solution and the swab from my hands set off the alarm. The guard seemed unperturbed and asked if I’d recently used hand sanitizer. I had. Since I made it home to write this, it’s obvious that I passed the second test.
The KLM flight was wonderful. The meals were excellent and the solicitous flight attendants always addressed me by name. I arrived a few minutes early, happily using my Global Entry status to sail through Customs and Immigration and met my buddy Clyde for the ride home.
I’m writing this on 30 July and, per my schedule it will post on my website on 10 October. Since this is the last entry about my spring trip, I’ve scheduled the music guide to post later that day. Check back after noon if you’re interested.
Finally, I’ll add that as of now, to answer a question I’m frequently asked, beyond an expectation that I will return to Lisbon for a 10-14 day stay in early 2023, I have no idea where my travels will next take me. Wherever they do, I’ll be sure to bring you along via these reports.
Until then, as my Tweets have urged, #C2BK (Choose to be kind.)