Köln (Day 4) - Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Burger King and journey back to Karlsruhe

We were booked on the direct train to Karlsruhe at 1 PM, which meant we could squeeze another museum visit in the morning. After breakfast I took the luggage to the main train station and stored it at one of the automatic storage kiosks. Then we checked out from the hotel and walked to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, about half way between our hotel and the train station. The MuseumsCard that we purchased yesterday was still valid for this visit today.

Jocelyn really enjoys pre-Impressionist art much more than those from the more recent movements, and the WRM offers plenty of art to her liking. She just kept asking Glenda to snap photos of those works that she liked (in vielen Museen ist das Fotografieren ohne Blitz erlaubt).

Gabriel was more interested in the microscope, telescope and nautical compass from the 17th/18th centuries shown here. There is large Lochbildkamera (pin-hole camera), pointed at the Dom, in front of this showcase. He took a peep and asked why the image of the Dom was upside down. I told him that I would show him why with a camera lens when we get home. There is now a movement to take analog photos with plastic toy cameras (which do have lenses) and homemade primitive pinhole cameras. I have been playing with a light-leaking Holga for a few years (a couple of my own favorites are here and here), and perhaps I should start a pinhole project with Gabriel upon our return to the Bay Area.

We stayed at the WRM for about an hour before leaving for the train station. Given the time constraint we did not want to explore other fatty opportunities before deciding on takeouts at Burger King. I ordered the food (which came to 16€) and paid with a 50€ bill. The "team member" gave me the change: two fives, a ten, and about 4€ in coins; closed the till and turned around immediately to fetch the food. That's 10€ short! Two minutes later she came back with no food, and I showed her the change. She didn't seem too bothered, and started looking for something. Another two minutes later, she found a mag-strip card by another cash register, swiped her machine repeatedly for another minute, and locked up the machine (too many failed attempts to open a cash register would do it). Then she left to find the shift manager, who swiped the machine, closed out the register, took the change I left laying by the register (to show that it was short) and walked away! OK, so they had to count the cash in the till to make sure that they were running a surplus, but why did they have to take my change? If they took their time to count the till, I would be short-changed for 50€ (and without any food) because we had to catch the train. Fortunately, we did leave ourselves with about 15 minutes of wiggle room, and we had a few minutes to spare by the time the manager finally returned with the correct change and the team member with the food. They seemed to handle this so professionally that I am sure there were countless of unfortunate victims before me. I know shortchanging is rampant in Italy, but wasn't expecting it in Germany. I was wrong.

Our journey back to Karlsruhe was uneventful until we were a few tram stops from home. All the sudden, I realized that I left my scarf on the overhead luggage rack on the train. My bad...Glenda knitted that scarf and is my favorite. As soon as we got home, I filed a "lost and found" ticket on the Deutsche Bahn site. Hopefully I will recover it.