Leipzig

Back from a great weekend in Leipzig. The weather was supposed to be bad but turned out to be cool and just a bit overcast-- perfect for all the walking we did. We had a tour on Saturday by a pastor of a Lutheran church outside of Leipzig that had taken part in the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. His stories were fascinating and I think I'll do a special post later on that-- both becuase I am short on time and also because I am having camera problems again &&&***()(*(^&*%&$^!
My pictures from Leipzig appear to have been erased. i don't know if this is true or if they are locked away on the obscure memory card I can't seem to get to.
Anyway, I'm trying to think positive thoughts about this and have e-mailed Olympus for advice from on high (Mt. Olympus, perhaps...)
So-- in the meantime, a brief overview. We had a walking tour of the city-- the two important churches in the Friedliche Revolution that I'll talk about later, I hope-- and a look at the architecture of the city. I then went with Fran, another teacher to a concert at the Thomaskirche where Bach had worked. Fabulous (and only 2,50 Euros!) Organ concert and then choir-- a Bach motette and then music by a few modern composers that i found very beautiful-- this Morten Lauridson I thought was fabulous-- Mary, you must know who he is but I've never heard of him (By the way, if you're reading, why does everybody here call Mendolsohn "Felix Mendolssohn Bardoldy"? Why don't we do that at home?)
Then the two of us went to the Stassi Museum-- very amateurish museum but with great artifacts. It was a look at the workings of the German secret police, so there were document files, jars with people's scents colelcted for the dogs, secret disguises and bugs of all kinds, document shredders, funny communist propaganda leaflets (my favorite being instructions for young people how they could craft a tank at home out of two bicycles for the defense of the Homeland)
We had lunch in Auerbach's Kellar-- written about in Faust and, I guess where many of the greats of Leipzig-- Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn-Barthody once ate. Very good and atmospheric (Just as an aside-- I'm happy to see that my frugality is also pretty much shared by the others on the trip. This 20 Euro meal was seen as a splurge by all and there is always discussions about the cheaper ways to do things.)
The hotel was very modern with an immense and amazing breakfast buffet that would have put the Roycroft Inn breakfast to shame-- at least in terms of freshness and food quality. Just the chees variety was incredible-- and free to us.
The next day I spent largely by myself. I went to this incredible Zeit Geschichtliches Forum. This had a huge exhibit about humor and satire in Germany and them a huge exhibit floor with post war and DDR and after reunification history themes of all sorts. There were monitors with personal interviews, laminated documents and letters to read and lots and lots of great things to see-- all sorts of every day objects from the DDR and every part of life imaginable examined and described. Since all was, of course, in German, I had to take some breaks just to clear my head. I walked around and took pictures (now unavailable to me, as described). I sat for about an hour or so and listened to a Cossack choir on the street-- a group of older Russian men singing Cossack folksongs. They sounded so soulful and beautiful one moment and then lively the next. I also took photos of them (of course also not available to me) The group reunited in the evening at the train station and then returned to Wittenberg. I stayed up late with Frau Meissner talking and so am a bit tired today. I'm going to post this and then am off to have dinner-- we're being treated by the head of the program at a local restuarant. Pray for good tech support for me and my camera.