Hauptstrasse is a pedestrian walk in the Neustadt. It was usually quiet.
As its name suggests, the Art Gallery (called
Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister) in the Zwinger Museum is well known for its
collection of paintings and sculptures by old masters. During the second world war the collection
was stored in various bunkers and tunnels, and after the war the Russians took
a lot of it as reparation, and because they could. During the time of East Germany many pieces
were returned and constitute today’s collection. Many have been stolen and are in private
hands. I wonder if they kept a record of
what have been lost? That should help in
the recovery of some of these lost objects.
Panaromic view taken from the inside of Zwinger.
This altar piece "Garden of Eden" was painted by Cranach the Elder and was initially intended for the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
The Painter Bottolo was a student in the Canaletto school.
Sistine Madonna painted by Rafael.
Altmarkt in Old Town.
The Culture Palace was built during the Communist era, on one side is the "Communist Wall."
Wall of Kings (of Saxony).
To the winners go the spoils has been the norm for quite
a while. When we were in Berlin, we saw
many artifacts taken from other countries.
Even if the provenance is legitimate (e.g., “negotiated” with the host
countries), there must be a lot of pressure to return them to the countries of
origin.
Our admission allows us to visit the Porcelain and the
Math-Physics exhibits, we decided to skip.
We walked around the Old City a bit, passing by the
Culture Palace and its Communist Wall, the King’s Palace (not open), and
Frauenkirche with a statue of Martin Luther in front of it. We would return to this church for a concert
this evening.
Frauenkirche with Luther's statue in front.
Set up for a concert.
Wednesday 5/22. This morning we decided to get a hot
breakfast at the Café-am-Ring restaurant located near the Tram stop. The way omelets are prepared is very
different from how a typical US restaurant would do them, but at least I got a
hot breakfast. At 3.95 euros it wasn’t
expensive.
A random sign outside a restaurant. It's interesting many establishments claim to be the best in the world. I imagine if you narrow down the area enough it can be true.
We went into the Catholic Church Hofkirche for a
visit, and to get out from the steady drizzle.
This church was built by the Catholic elector Augustus III in the
predominantly protestant city, complete with an elevated walkway from the Royal
Palace. Someone was playing the organ
while we were there.
Inside Hofkirche. This was built by the Saxony Elector Augustus III who was Catholic. At that time the Protestant Dresden was building Frauenkirche. There is an elevated enclosed walkway from the Dresden Castle to the Hofkirche.
The ornately decorated pulpit. What is the ladder doing there?
We decided to take this 1:45 hour boat ride on the
Elbe. The weather wasn’t cooperating, so
there weren’t that many passengers, and I wasn’t dressed warm enough, but it
was an okay ride. The river was quite
swift, the boat took about 45 minutes one way, and about 30 minutes the
other. This Dampfschifffahrt Company (must say this name carefully!) operates about 10 vintage steamboats, we were on “Stadt Wehlen”, the oldest at
140 years.
The Stadt Wehlen is 140 years old.
How do they keep the engine in such pristine condition?
Thanks to Google tracking, this is the route the cruise took on the Elbe.
After a late lunch at the Ontario Restaurant, we came back
to the hotel area, where I searched for this vantage point where Belotto
painted his famous Dresden scene. As far
as I could tell, he didn’t draw exactly what he saw.
Around the Frauenkirche there are many restaurants, but few German ones. We had lunch at the Ontario Restaurant, the food was quite generic.
On attempt to duplicate the iconic painting by Bottolo.
The opera we were going to see started at 7 pm, so we
didn’t have time for a proper meal (and lunch was very late, anyway). It was still raining after we got out, so we
didn’t bother looking for a place to eat. Instead I had an apple, an energy
bar, and some cashews.
More Semperoper photos, this was a music tour, afterall. In contrast with New York venues, I have found in Europe most of the concert and opera houses have a lot of room for attendees to use during intermission.
Richard Strauss premiere many of his works here in Dresden.
Thursday 5/23. The “cheap” Apple Watch charger I brought
along stopped working, so after breakfast I walked over to the Apple Store in
Altmarkt-Galerie to buy one, at 35 euros.
If I had gone for a 1 meter long cable that would have cost 45
euros. Quite ridiculous.
We decided to take the tram to the train station. Before I could buy the tickets at the station
kiosk, a tram came by. No big deal, one
could do that on the tram. I discovered
to my dismay most of the instructions were in German, so it took me a while to buy
one ticket. As I tried to buy the second
one, we missed our stop, and the next stop was quite a distance away. Easy enough, we could hop on going in the other direction. We did. Lo and behold, the
first time we ran into a ticket inspector.
Given what I read about how “merciless” they were to people without
valid tickets, all he made me do was to buy a second ticket, and I managed to
do so before the tram stopped.
The train to Leipzig had a light load, and the gentleman
sitting next to us is from Denver, traveling in the area for about 3
weeks. We had an interesting talk about
history and music (he retired from teaching history, and is quite knowledgeable
about music) during the one hour journey.
The Leipzig train station is close to our hotel, and it is
good to be in one with both a hot water pot (it has a small kitchen) and a
washer/dryer.
St. Thomas Church, of Bach fame, is about 10 minutes
away. Small compared to some of these
huge cathedrals we have seen, it is bigger than what the descriptions I have
read would lead me to think. Many Bach
and Mendelssohn devotees were taking pictures in and around the church. In Reformation history there was this
“Leipzig Disputation” where Martin Luther debated Johann Eck. The location of the debate is the New
Townhall. We walked around it a bit but
didn’t see any commemorative markers.
Thomaskirche. Two outside views.
This Organ was built in the 1880s, but is considered "unsuitable" for Bach's music. (Just quoting Wikipedia here, don't understand why)
This "Bach Organ" was built in 2000 and made to look like the organ in Paulinerkirche which Bach played on. We heard some rehearsal music, and it sounded great. I vaguely while I was in college being told by my music teacher that the sound would linger for a few seconds after it's played. Quite an intriguing science and art.
This stained glass window shows Martin Luther accompanied by Elector Frederick the Wise and Phillip Melancthon.
Collection of string instruments in Thomaskirche.
Bach was first buried in a hospital cemetery. His remains found his way here in 1950. Some question how accurate the identification of the bones was.
What isn't in doubt is that Bach worked as the Cantor of Thomaskirche from 1723 till his death in 1750.
Naturally tourists like to take pictures in front of the Bach statue. Here we ran into this group of well-dressed Korean tourists.
Mendelssohn had a lot to do with Bach's being recognized for his contribution to music. A famous composer in his own right, his statue was removed by the Nazis because Mendelssohn was Jewish. This was dedicated in 2008.
Leipzig Disputation is an important event in Reformation history. This is where the "New Town Hall" is located. We couldn't find any indicator of what happened here.
There are many passageways in the city that offer shortcuts. A lot of them have interesting histories behind them.
Auerbachs Keller, of Goethe's Faust theme, is a popular tourist restaurants. Menus available in many languages.
At the top of the staircase leading down to the cellar there are a pair of sculptures. This one is Memphistofeles trying to bewitch a student.
We were too tired to go through the menu carefully to decide what we wanted to eat. We both had the daily special, vegetables were extra. The "bread rolls" were potato dumplings.
Accommodations: Hotel Adina, Leipzig. (3 nights)
Friday 5/24. We didn’t leave the apartment until 11 am. Breakfast was at a café close-by, where we
experienced both a waiter who was very helpful and one who couldn’t care
less. When we asked if there were
omelets, he just said no; turned out there were scrambled eggs. Service was a bit slow to boot, so it was
about noon when we were done.
Standard of service and attitude of staff can vary considerable depending on where you go and whom you get.
We explored a bit around the town center (Zentrum)
area. Surely, in one of the passageways there is this bell described in
Rick Steves guidebook: we couldn’t make it sing. St. Nicholas church was first built in 1165,
it is now Lutheran. Some of its claims
to fame are that several of Bach’s works were premiered here, and it was the
center of the peaceful revolution that eventually led to the reunification of
Germany. There is an exhibition inside
the church – mostly photos, descriptions in German only – about the events of that period.
This passageway has some interesting artwork on the walls.
Per Rick Steves, if done properly one can make the bell sing (resonate). We couldn't get that to happen. There is also a green laser that points to the time. Not sure what the significance is: so the "sundial" can tell time?
St. Nicholas Church. Bach was also the cantor here. The column represents the columns inside and commemorates the peaceful revolution of 1989. To take photos inside one has to pay a fee of two euros, and photos can't be posted on the internet. (Naturally there are a lot of them on the web.)
Bach Museum.
The organ console from St. John's Church, Leipzig. Its claim to fame is it was examined by Bach in 1743.
A collection of instruments used by orchestras in Bach's time.
Notenspur (Musical Trail) is a self-guided tour of the important sites in Leipzig. We didn't have the energy to follow it every step of the way.
On Fridays there is a Farmers’ Market in town. Many of the produce the vendors sell are
actually imported from other countries.
It was surprisingly busy, there was this bread wagon that had a line of
customers both times we passed by it. We
had a Leipziger Lerche, and I had a Thuringen Bockwurst. Anne bought some strawberries that probably
came from a large-scale farm, if their uniform and waxy look are any indication.
Photo of Leipziger Lerche downloaded from the web. Also from the web: the original version had meat from the lark in it (hence the name). A "vegetarian" version was invented after the ban on hunting larks.
This slip explains the "modern Leipzeger Lerche."
Leipzig’s most famous residents were probably Goethe and
Bach (well, there were Mendelssohn and Wagner also). Next to Thomas Church is the Bach
Museum. We went in to visit, but not
sure if we learned a lot more about Bach after spending about an hour
there. I didn’t know he was good at
“organ inspection” and played the violin also.
Leipzig Oper is located in Augustusplatz. A short walk from our hotel.
Across the plaza is Gewandhaus. Mendelssohn is probably the most famous conductor. Kurt Masur was its music director until he was hired away by New York Philharmonic. (Well, he had both positions for several years.)
On the west side of the plaza is Leipzig University. The first church was first built in 1231 as an Augustinian Monastery. Paulinekirche survived WWII but was demolished during the East German regime. This new building held its first service in 2009.
As we were returning to our hotel room, we ran into this
long line of demonstrators (peaceful) carrying signs from “saving the earth” to
“one Europe." This was the EU election weekend.
After grabbing a quick dinner from the food court across
the street, we went off to our first opera.
The opera house and the Gewandhaus face each other in Augustusplatz,
flanked by the University of Leipzig.
Bust of Mozart in Leipzig Oper.
I snapped a photo of this poster of Gotterdammerung inside the opera house. Interesting ...
Most operas we saw in Germany had a harder-than-necessary edge to them.
We got back to the hotel at around 10:30 pm.
It was a crisp evening (low 50s), but we enjoyed our walk back. We ate the food we bought earlier in anticipation of not eating (much) before the show; the plan worked quite well.
Accommodations: Park Grand Paddington Court, London (3
nights).
Saturday 5/25. We were up a little earlier, but service at
this other restaurant (Leo’s Brasserie) was also a bit slow. Perhaps to be expected on a weekend, although
they had a lot of people working, and not that many customers at the
moment. We decided to pay another visit
to this Paulinum Church at the University of Leipzig. This was followed by a visit to the Panorama
Tower which required an elevator ride to the 29th floor followed by
a 29-step climb. One could get perhaps a
270 degree view of the surrounding areas (the viewing area doesn’t go all the
way around), and it was interesting to match the landmarks with the information
panels located on the fence.
One can find out about these five sculptures from the web. I am still not sure about the significance.
This fountain reminded me of the sculpture we saw in Berlin.
Inside of Paulinum.
This part was cordoned off (by a solid piece of plexiglass). One of the columns doesn't reach the floor.
View of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof as seen from roof top of Panoramic Tower. This is the larges train station in Europe by area, it has 24 platforms.
Panoramic view from the tower.
Anne wanted to see if she could find anything interesting
to buy at the Gewandhaus gift shop (she couldn’t), but we stumbled on this
plaque commemorating Kurt Masur, who had a long association with the orchestra. (I posted the photo in the previous day's entry.)
Our next stop was St. Thomas Church to listen to their
Saturday afternoon motet program. Turns
out the event was more like a service, conducted, naturally, in German. It lasted a bit longer than we expected, so
we decided to skip a 5 pm Organ concert at St. Nicolas Church.
The opera tonight was Verdi’s Rigoletto. We have seen five operas so far this trip,
and we get this distinctive feeling that there is this element of shock in the
productions. For tonight it was the
deaths of several characters not called for in the original. The music was great, though.
The musicians leaving at the end of the Motet concert in St. Thomas's Church.
The Leipzig City History Museum is housed in this ornately decorated building.
Smaller room in Leipzig Oper.
Leipzig Oper backs into a pond. In real life it is not as idyllic as this photo would suggest.
Curtain Call Rigoletto, Leipzig Oper.
It was a crisp evening (low 50s), but we enjoyed our walk back. We ate the food we bought earlier in anticipation of not eating (much) before the show; the plan worked quite well.
Sunday 5/26. So it is goodbye, Germany, at least for
now. German trains are not nearly as
well run as Swiss trains, if our experience this trip is any indication. Our train left Leipzig maybe a few minutes
late, but we got to Berlin Hbf about 45 minutes late, for a journey that should
be a little over two hours. It’s a good
thing our flight to London isn’t for a few hours. Our train was quite empty,
our car was about 10% full (if that). If one books early the fare is quite
cheap, our first class tickets booked about 2 months ahead of time cost about
35 euros each. A last minute ticket in
second class will cost a whopping E100!
Leipzig Hbf is by area Europe's largest train station, although it didn't feel particularly busy while we were there. This DB train would take us to Berlin.
It was the height of lunch time at Berlin Hbf with long
lines at all the eateries we had some interest in, so we took a taxi to Tegel
airport. The taxi driver was a bit
grumpy (not towards us, but about people cutting him off), but he got us here
safely, the cost was about E20. Our
second encounter with TXL departure proved to be as hectic as our first. We had checked in online already, but thought
we needed a boarding pass to get into the (landside) Priority Pass lounge. I was joking with the check-in agent and he
said TXL was designed to accommodate 6 million passengers but is handling 26
million (not sure I remember the numbers correctly). If that is the case, then kudos to Germany
efficiency; I am quite sure they have made some improvements, although the size
of the airport and its proximity to town probably limit what can be done.
One reason we try to stick with United is we don't have to wait at the end of the line to board. The gate agents would not even let us try to take the carryons into the cabin; we had to check them. And I was sure we could find room.
It took us a while to locate this Berlin Airport Club
lounge. Small, but quiet, at least when
we first got there. It got a bit busy
when we were about to leave.
The experience on this BA flight has been about the same
as our incoming flight. I never
appreciated the benefits of being an Elite flyer until I flew from London to
Berlin (I am Executive Club Blue). We
were in Boarding Group 4 – and I had not been in one for a while. I must also say my experience with Tigerair,
Jetstar and Qantas has been more positive.
This reminds me of my professor (who is British), he had on his bulletin
board a BA luggage tag on which he wrote “never again.” My experience is at least not at that level
of bad.
Overall the plane was delayed about 30 minutes when we
got to the gate. Just as the customs
agent told us when we checked in about 10 days ago, the new system is up and
working. No immigration card to be
filled out, and we were through in no time.
(Perhaps this is due to travel from Germany, an EU country.) Anne and I were sure we saw huge Heathrow
Express signs the last time we were here, it took us a while to figure it out
this time. And tickets at GBP 37
roundtrip were more expensive than I expected.
The trains were modern looking, our car had few people in it, and we got
into Paddington Station quickly. The
walk to the hotel took slightly longer than we expected, but it is still
close. Our room (a Club Room at that) is
small, although we have seen smaller.
These Heathrow Express trains look new.
The sunset colors were gorgeous; we can understand why someone like J.M.M. Turner was taken to them. Sun sets around 9 pm this time of the year.
We went out to have dinner at a neighborhood restaurant
(Raffles), after which I took a short walk to Mandarin Kitchen, which used to
be owned by Uncle Richard and Auntie Fanny.
Uncle Richard and Auntie Fanny were part owners of this restaurant many years ago; they are no longer with us. It was as busy as I remembered it from many years ago.
Monday 5/27. Perhaps it’s been a rather long trip, or
perhaps we have visited London quite a few times before and think we remember
what the sights look like, we didn’t start the day with great expectations.
After breakfast, we found ourselves in St. Martins in the Fields church at
Trafalgar Square. They put out lunch
time (1 pm) concerts several times a week, today’s was a marimba concert that
lasted about 40 minutes. Its an
interesting looking instrument with a surprisingly resonant sound. The young Korean British Li played with great
technique (not that I can tell) and enthusiasm.
But 40 minutes of all-marimba music is about how much I can take in one
sitting.
This Swiss Glockenspiel evidently has been next to Leicester Square for a long time. This was the first time we took note of it.
St. Martin in the Fields Church. My blog entry from 1/2008 indicated that it was under renovation then.
Inside the church.
A grand-looking organ.
Hyungi Lee explaining the finer points of the marimba after the concert.
We then spent a couple of hours visiting the National
Gallery, looking at the usual suspects, as well as discovering some new
stuff. One can spend a lot of time (or a
lot of lifetimes) studying and appreciating what this place has; and there are
other equally impressive British institutions.
We weren’t looking for it, but we did come across Delaroche’s “Execution
of Jane Grey” of which I was reminded when we saw Nabucco a few days ago.
There are art galleries, and there is the National Gallery. This is a painting of Venice by Canaletto. We saw a painting of Dresden by Bottolo from the Canaletto school.
While it takes a master like Joseph MM Turner to catch the vivids colors in paint, it is easy to see the inspiration he felt with sunsets like what we saw yesterday.
Monet ...
Renoir ...
Cezanne ...
Cezanne on loan ...
Gauguin ...
Van Gogh ...
Degas ...
More Degas ...
Seurat before he went full pointillisum ...
and Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Delaroche, probably the saddest of them all.
Dinner was a Rossopomodoro with the de Lysters. Sharon and Nathan are studying at University
of London’s SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), they should be done
at the end of summer.
Tuesday 5/28.
When I first looked at London during the planning of the trip, I thought
we would take a train ride out to Cardiff so we could get a taste of Wales
(even though I wasn’t sure how representative of Wales the city is.) I also found out Zhang Xian is the principal
guest conductor at BBC National Orchestra of Wales, although there would be no
performances during the few days we were in London. At that time (around March) train tickets
were also quite inexpensive.
Now that we were near the end of a two week trip, we
didn’t feel we had the energy to take long train rides and walk substantial
distances (to be fair, it’s only a ten minute walk from the train station to
the Cardiff Castle). And the close-in
train ticket prices were quite expensive.
Instead we visited the British Museum. Anne wanted to see their Assyrian display as
she is doing Sunday lessons on the Assyrians.
Even with some galleries closed, we still found the display to be quite
impressive.
The first YMCA located a couple of blocks from the British Museum.
The courtyard is now covered.
Anne was teaching her class about Assyrians. The British Museum collection gives the Pergamon Museum a run for their money.
We are talking about huge objects.
I couldn't look up the dimensions of this "Colossal Syrian Rider," but marvel at how the British managed to transport these huge statues across the continents.
Before we went to see Andrea Chenier at the Royal Opera
House, we walked around Covent Garden Piazza of Pygmalion fame.
New looking double decker buses.
A lot of the story of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw happened around Covent Garden Square.
"Get Me to the Church on Time."
The Royal Opera House faces a narrow street, half of its width was blocked off for construction.
The room is described in Hotels.com as "City View."
Wednesday 5/29.
Time to go home. Our flight was
at 4 pm, so we didn’t check out until noon.
At Heathrow we also encountered Automated Passport Machines that worked
quite well, with screening the process took about 5 minutes.
About 20 people on our flight were selected for this "Selected for Secondary Security Screening." Despite all the warnings to that effect, the process didn't take very long.
We parked ourselves for a couple of hours at the Premium
Plaza and United Lounges. United Club
offers better food, a pleasant surprise.
Flight departed on time, but we spent an hour over New Hampshire
because an unexpected thunderstorm was coming through the New York area. Despite that, it was a good flight, in large
part due to the exit economy plus seats.
We Uber’d home, and it was after 9 pm when we got home.
