Trip 2 - Berlin

On this day, we decided to go to Berlin. The Autobahn was a lot of fun, and we were able to crank our rental up to 170 km/ hour.

I am sure that you are aware of the history of the Wall, and we were there for the 20th anniversary of when the Berlin wall fell.
If you don't mind, I'll take this chance to let you know a little of my memories of when the wall fell. In November 1989, I was working in Matsuyama, Japan. Since it was the first trip, we were staying in apartments, and had little contact with the western world. In late November, a consultant came over from the US to work with us. One evening at dinner, I asked him what was new in the world (literally). He answered that the Berlin wall fell. We thought he was kidding, until he showed us a newspaper. Pretty amazing that I missed that significant point in history.

Back to the current story...
We parked next to the Bundestadt, which is the seat of the German government, and very near to where the Berlin wall had been. The line to visit inside the Bundestadt and the glass sphere behind it was very long, stretching outside and half way across the area in front. Time is short, so we passed on the line.

The next stop was the Brandenberg gate, which was located just east of the Wall and served as a symbol of the suppression. Interestingly, the U.S. Embassy is now located next to the Brandenberg gate. I have to believe that this was intended to show that East and West Germany were united again. Walking inside the gate, there were many interesting people. Several street artists pretending to be statues, soldiers, etc. were there, acting it up for the tourists' cameras. There was also a peace meditation taking place, inviting any passer-by to join.

After passing through the tourists, we walked down to Checkpoint Charlie. This was the main gate that was used to pass from East to West Germany. When we got there, we found a construction wall with pictures, several tourist shops, and a private museum. It was less than spectacular. No - it was downright disappointing. We did notice that the path of the wall was marked by brass plates put into the street and sidewalks.

Wanting to see some of the wall, we checked the guide book to see if there were any sections still remaining. This took us to the East Side gallery. This gallery is a section of the wall that was kept intact and is used by artists from around the world as a painting canvas. It was very interesting to see the different paintings which generally depicted the artist's feelings about freedom and the fall of the wall.

It was a long walk from the gallery, but we saw several interesting things that showed the age and modernity of Berlin today. There was a auto service station that had regular fuel along with a hydrogen filling station and a car recharging station.

The Berlin mayor's residence was a huge building, that I think was left from earlier times.

After passing the art museum, we ran across a barricaded section of the road. Hmm... no one we asked seemed to know what was going on. Must be some VIPs who were going to do something. There was a local fair, so we grabbed a brat and a beer, and decided to wait and find out. So we waited for quite a while, then saw some people bringing wreaths to the memorial for fallen soldiers. Interesting, but pretty much a waste of time.

On we walked, back to the Brandenberg gate, noticing the brass plates in the street. Went to a souvenir store and bought a piece of the wall. The people who gathered up the bits of concrete were definitely entrepreneurs. The street performers were still there, but the peace meditators had left.

All in all, a pretty good day of being a tourist.

Trip 2 - Prague

We had been talking about going to Prague in the Czech Republic. So on this Sunday, we got in our car, set the GPS and off we went.

The highway was great until we got a little ways into the CR. The highway between Dresden and Prague is under construction - a fact that neither the map nor the GPS made us aware of. The signage was OK, though, and we made it to Prague with little trouble.

When we arrived at the city, our first stop turned out to be the city square to get some tourist information and figure out where to park. The square was grand, surrounded by old churches and other buildings. After we got some local funds (CR uses the Korony). Many shops do not accept the Euro), we went up into one of the church towers where we could see the whole city, including the square below and the castle on the hill.

After getting oriented from the steeple, we started walking toward the castle. This took us across the Charles River bridge, which was lined with vendors selling paintings, photos, and other souvenirs. The castle is quite a climb from the bridge. Once there, we rented the headsets and went on the tour.

The Prague Castle is the largest in Europe, and includes the St. Vitus cathedral. St. Winceslas is buried in the church, and there are several interesting chapels inside. One of the stories was when the Czechs were being attacked by the Romans (check this), they made loaves of bread in the shape of babies. When the attackers saw them eating the bread, they thought that they were actually eating their babies. Thinking this, the attack was called off, since it was so barbaric that the soldiers couldn't fight.

After touring the castle, we moved down the hill where we found a crowd waiting for the astronomical clock to strike. The church where we initially went up in the tower has a clock that was built in the 16th century (?) that shows the time, phase of the moon, position of the sun, and the sign of the zodiac. Figures come out when the clock chimes the hour. Rather than fighting the crowd, we found a seat at the restaurant across from it. Then we could watch the clock and eat at the same time.

Going home through the construction detour was interesting, as the GPS kept trying to take us back to the non-existent road. A long, tiring day, but it was quite an adventure.

Trip 2 - Leipzig

On this trip, I came to work with the client in Leipzig again. This time we had a rental car and the notion that we would sample as much of the area as we can. "We" includes my co-workers, Scott and Mike.
One of the adventures was to sample the local cuisine. Most of this has been quite good, but one of the firlst days we went to the Gasthaus near the hotel. Since this was a traditional German gasthaus, seating was family style, sharing tables with the other guests. The menus were in German, allowing the selection itself to be an adventure. I ordered the butcher's plate, which, according to the menu, included sausages and pork. Sounded good. When the platter came, it was on a butcher's block platter, and direct from the butcher - as in raw. Well this was a surprise. The actual dish included raw ground pork (called mett), head cheese, uncooked sausages, and other indistinguishable raw meats. I did taste most of the items, and was able to share with the others, but much of it went uneaten. As I said - an adventure.

On Saturday, Scott and I went into Leipzig to see what we could see. We parked underground, and when we came up, it was between the opera house and the performance hall in a large open plaza. We walked through the city center, noting that we could get a pizza every 10 feet or so.
We toured the St. Nicholas' church, which was one of the newer churches in town. This church has an interesting history. In case I haven't mentioned it before, Leipzig is located in the area that was East Germany for many years. Many of the city leaders met in the church every Monday to pray for peace. In 1989, the state police had been used to disperse a demonstration nearby. On the following Monday, the prayer group decided to meet as usual, not knowing whether the police would arrive to arrest them all. Tensions were high when the meeting ended, but when they walked outside, they were greeted by several thousand people holding candles. According to the tour, this is how the revolution began. Very moving story to me. (for more, read this.)

Resuming walking around, we found a mysterious pair of blue pipes. These pipes come out of the ground, go through the west end of downtown and end. By end, I mean that they don't go anywhere - just cut off. This wouldn't be too unusual, except that they are pretty big - probably 18" in diameter, and they were well engineered with proper supports, etc. A mystery yet to be solved.

Next we went to St. Thomas church (Thomaskirche), which is where Bach worked as cantor from 1723 to his death in 1750. Scott had heard that they were going to have a choir concert. Instead they were having a Motette. This was a performance of singing by a quartet of choir members along with a brief church service. The last piece that was performed was a piece that Back had written while at the church played on the organ that Bach used to compose it. Very very cool hearing a piece the way that the original composer probably heard it.

We then went to see the largest monument in Europe, located in Leipzig. The monument was created to celebrate the victory against Napoleon. By the time we got to the monument, the visitor center was closed, so we could only explore the outside up to a point. The monument has several statues of men that are really large - probably like Egyptian statues. Even though we could only climb up to the first level outside, it was pretty high, and the view was fantastic.

We joined up with Mike, and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street from St. Thomas Kirche. Very good food. Interestingly, when I talked to my mom afterwards, she recommended the same restaurant. Small world.