East Germany

◊ I am now back from my trip to the historic towns of East Germany. It was a short one, as we did not spend very much time in any one place. In fact I can summarize the towns in one word each.

Dresden: Charred
Meissen: Breakable
Leipzig: Bach
Wittenberg: Luther

◊ Ok, so there was more to these places than that, but not too much more. First of all, there was rain. It was a very wet weekend with the rain turning on and off without more than a few moments of warning. Most of the time it was at least sprinkling and cold. This bad luck made for some grey pictures and some very nice ones too whenever some blue sky showed though. Another thing of note was all of the broken glass. The smokers of Europe feel a special entitlement to littering that lesser folk do not have, which is why the average sidewalk in Prague is ankle deep in cigarette butts. For these towns the litter of choice was apparently broken glass. It was everywhere. To all appearances, the German campaign to get people to stop throwing away glass bottles has had unintended consequences. Instead of placing them in trash cans, beer bottles are now dropped on the ground with the butts.
◊ Dresden was heavily bombed in WWII. So heavily, in fact, that 98% of the city was completely destroyed. Perhaps you have heard of the Firebombing of Dresden? The only things left were the burnt-out ruins of some of the city's churches and palace. Well, after pretty much wiping their city off the face of the earth, we left them to the communists for the next 45 years. As you can imagine, they did not do much in the way of restoration. The communist idea of historical restoration is to leave up the ruins which were too expensive to tear down. Thus, most of the city is filled with blocky, uninspiring structures combined with the occasional mural glorifying the USSR, GDR, and The Worker. It is easy to spot communist architecture; the buildings all have windows with copper colored tinting. The real reconstruction did not begin until reunification and is only now entering it's final stages.

This church is decorated largely with contemporary art and sculptures.




This place in the old palace is a series of museums, featuring the world's largest collection of porcelain.


I had to sneak these two pictures. One is of the largest sword I have ever seen and the other is of child-sized armor.


Yes, this painting was there too. I have become fairly good at taking illicit photos without being caught.









Yes, this is a cannon.
Yes, it has ground effects.
Yes, Nelson is striking a 'Pimp My Ride' pose.
No, I don't know why.



Our Hostel was in an attic. No, really.

◊ Next morning, we headed for Meissen. This is one of the only two porcelain factories in Europe, and the only one left in the world where everything is made by hand. It was there that they rediscovered the secrets of making it, and for a long time the factory was located in a castle. This place and it's secrets were one of the most heavily guarded facilities in history. Their security measures make those in our mints seem like K-mart's. Needless to say, handcrafted and painted porcelain is outrageously expensive. For example, we were the only people there under 60 years old. The cheapest thing available in the store was a porcelain thimble for 40 Euros. I was beginning to become nauseated and light-headed so we left before someone looked at something the wrong way and were responsible for paying for a 12,000 Euro tea kettle.

On the way out of Dresden

The important part of the Meissen porcelain collection


The tour took us through several rooms where workers demonstrated the different steps taken to produce porcelain.





Look, I know that you can see my reflection in the glass. There was no way around this.


This church was HUGE inside.


That was a Luther bible. I saw more of those later.


While we were there, a concert was starting.

◊ Leipzig was the next stop on our trip. It was the home of Bach. That was about it. The town is gigantic; our hostel was about an hour walk from the train station and we were too poor to afford the trams. We arrived there late in the afternoon and left early in the morning. This means we spent about four hours of this walking to and from our hostel and the rest sleeping. The university there has the most incredible underground student club and restaurant that we only had the chance to visit. Most notably I had one of the best Doner Kebabs I have yet had. On the way back to the train station for the last time a car hit a glass bottle in the road sending a shard of glass flying past my eye. It was a frightening experience. At least cigarette butts cannot blind you.

I have always wondered what would happen if a person responsible for designing a gothic cathedral was on LSD. The colors... the colors... woah!


Bach's organs


Bach's grave


Bach writings and violin


Bach's window


Bach's statue in front of Bach's Cathedral
Bach Bach Bach Bach Bach Bach Bach!


Town hall and one of the world's oldest known restaurants
*Correction: coffee shop, not restaurant. Thanks Greg*

◊ Next stop: Wittenberg. This place has one and only one claim to fame. It is a big one however. It is the place where Martin Luther did most of his work. This was where he dramatically nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral in 1517 and launched the schism that divided the catholic church and resulted in Protestantism. He did many other things throughout his life, protected by powerful people. Things such as translating the Bible into German for the first time, promoting literacy and peaceful change across Europe, and repeatedly accusing the Pope of being the anti-christ. His household had been converted into a museum about his life, work, and the concequences of both. What I found most fascinating though was it gave a very in depth look at his personal life and views, not just what is commonly known. His wife was a fascinating person too, and in a sort of gender equality Luther believed that a woman was in charge of all decisions within the family and the man was to take care of all external matters. She was an economic genius and turned his modest salary into a small fortune.

The 95 Theses and Luther's pulpit

I was not sure why they called this place 'The Castle Church' until I saw it. This place was massive. The cathedral by itself was about average size, but it was part of a much much larger structure with very large towers.



Martin Luther's grave and the door where he nailed up his complaints to the church. The original doors were replaced long ago by bronze ones bearing the inscription of the 95 Theses.

◊ After this it was a long trip back to Prague. The train from Dresden took only three and a half hours, but it was getting back to Dresden that took much more time. We also found something out about German trains: despite what Germans may tell you, their train are late sometimes too. Ours back to Prague was almost twenty minutes late. We were wondering if it was ever going to show up but then Nathan pointed out that it was probably jut late because they had to go around Belgium this time.