Gothic Leipzig

Fernando and I traveled to Leipzig last weekend to see Bridget perform in Giselle and a Jerome Robbins piece "The Cage". Our arrival and stay overlapped with a "Gothic Conference" taking place that weekend. Bridget had warned us to that effect, but nothing prepares you for the site of goth attire on about 20 percent of the population in the city. Everyone was very friendly and mild-mannered. They just wore lots of eye makeup and dark clothes. And spikes made of metal, sometimes. Shopkeepers change their window displays to fit the style and attitude of the gothic shopper. Even the wedding store had a black wedding dress in the window.



Leipzig is a beautiful city with a small inner ring ruled by pedestrians. Perhaps its greatest claim to fame is that it was the home of JS Bach. He was named Cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig in 1723 and remained there until his death in 1750. He was also the Director of Music for churches in the area. I suppose the aspect of his story that I enjoy the most is that he did not set out to achieve great things or make a name for himself. While well respected in Europe during his lifetime, he became most famous during the 19th century (mostly due to Mendelssohn I believe). Fernando is standing in front of the Thomaskirche, where Bach is now buried. We went into the church on Sunday afternoon and heard a small chorus practicing. The acoustics of the place are fabulous, and I had a window into why people are fascinated by chamber music. Then again, I'm not sure that's actually chamber music. So maybe I just like to hear people singing.

We returned home to a huge rainstorm and tons of snails. This is the first or second one we found. They were rare and cute. On an evening stroll about two hours later, we spotted over 200. Not rare, but still cute. As long as you don't have to touch them.

Just the same, all the world over

Just an observation today, in honor of my father as I know he'll appreciate this more than anyone else. The apartment staff posted signs a few weeks ago stating that the city would be doing construction outside our front gate from May 16th-May 21st. "Be advised there will be no access to the back parking lot."

Thus far, no signs of construction. Yesterday afternoon I returned home to a sign on my door. The construction will now take place from May 25th to May 31st. I won't hold my breath.

Three days in London

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend Giuseppe for three days this past week. He's recently taken a permanent position at King's College in London, and he invited me to give a talk this past week. I've been to London once before, so I was not feeling the necessity of seeing all of the sites, but it was nice to walk around Westminster again and look at all of the beautiful architecture.

We paid 8 pounds each to take a 2 hour walking tour through Westminster. The place was in a bit of chaos, as elections took place last week, and there was not a party in the clear majority. In fact, the Liberal Democrats - the small third party - would give the majority to whichever major party with which they chose to align. The day of our tour, the question remained if Brown would remain prime minister or if Cameron would replace him. (Nothing like being in a country at a time of transition to figure out how the government works). Labour had held the majority, and thus the PM position, for the past 13 years. But at the end of my trip, the Lib-Dems announced they were siding with the Conservative party, and thus a new PM moved into 10 Downing Street. Don't I sound informed?

Anyway, during our tour there was a bit of chaos about which included a few war protesters who had found their way onto the roof of a portion of Westminster Abbey. Our tour guide was quite offended by the whole thing, but I found it interesting so I snapped some pictures when she wasn't looking.



This is another portion of the abbey, which was added onto the building much later than the initial construction. Notice the distinct change in styles. I expect my mom to look up some history on the building, find the names of the styles, and post it as a comment at the bottom of this blog. Mom knows how to get this information, and I expect she'll be interested in it. So, go to it, Mom!

One interesting tidbit I learned: The Victoria Tower houses all of the records that remain from past parliamentary proceedings. It's like a giant file cabinet. The longest parchment in the tower is 1/4 mile long. The content? Tax law. That should surprise no one.

My evenings were with Giuseppe and his wife and son, Luchen. He's two years old and already speaks a bit of Italian, Chinese, and English. (Giuseppe's wife is Chinese.) My favorite trick is the following conversation that took place between Giuseppe and his son:
G - Luchen, say "La"
L - "La"
G - Say "Tey"
L - "tey"
G - Say "Latte"
L - "Milk"
He's an automatic translator!

Here's a photo of me with Luchen in between playing with playdough and reading bedtime stories. Don't worry Allison, Ian is still first in my heart...

Economy class airlines - UK style

I flew from Berlin to London this morning on the budget airline "RyanAir". Think Southwest, only take away the humor and add in a steady stream of infomercials. The boarding lacks a bit of the organization of a Southwest flight. Basically, they wait until everyone is off the plane from the flight before, and then they open a gate and everyone runs out onto the tarmac to climb the stairs and board the plane. They're very, very strict about one carry on bag. Literally, just one. Not one and a purse, or one and a man bag. Just one. They mean it. They make you pay 35 Euro if you haven't said you want to check a bag ahead of time, but then are forced to do so. Harsh!

Once seated, I discovered that the seats had no tilt feature. Not kidding. You can't lean back in your chair. I'm surprised they even had cushions. Seriously people. Thank God it was only an 80 minute flight. Even so, my neck hurts right now.

As for the infomercials, I was offered food and drink, smokeless cigarettes, scratch off lottery cards, and much, much more. Announcements about the available items are made by a live person in English. They then proceed to push a button and the Deutsche version is made by a prerecorded audio file. Upon landing, they played some cheesy horse racing tune and announced that "90% of all RyanAir flights land on time". That's good. I'm happy about that. But must we suffer needlessly in the process?

May Day

As I write, fireworks are going off in Berlin in celebration of International Workers Day. In Kreuzberg, since 1987, there have been riots in "celebration" of this day. As you can see, the riots don't happen until much later in the day.

The little one looks dangerous, eh?

Kreuzberg has a very high population of Turkish immigrants, and for every stand promoting the worker, there were three selling kabob or kofteh. On every main street there was a hastily constructed stage, surrounded by 17 year olds who appeared to represent the "security". The musicians - a term which I am using very loosely here - ranged from an apparent snake charmer to a death metal band. The death metal band was strangely popular, as was another group I heard sing "Oh Happy Day". The popularity of the second I understand. That's a great song.


To the right is my friend Kristen, a grad student at the Institute who is also trying to figure out what these signs mean. Integration of what? I don't know, but they're clearly against it. Other signs featured more easy to read slogans, one of which was "No Nazis Here." Of course, it was in German, but even I can translate that!

The Germans tell me that the riots are nothing to worry about, kept under control by massive police forces that are brought in from all over the country. Apparently, officers request a chance to come to the riots, er, festival. I'm not sure what they get out of the experience, but they're presence is obvious wherever you turn.



We ended our day at the festival as anyone should. We went to a bar. On the river Spree, just past a section of the Berlin Wall, sits a seemingly Caribbean bar. Everything is outdoors, with copious amounts of sand. People play volleyball, kids dig in the sand. Yes, kids. They were all over the place at this bar. I think their parents were working there, or drinking there, or both.



The graffiti in the background of this shot is a common theme in all of Berlin, but particularly in the eastern portion. Actually, I'm not really sure that this is a true statement as I can't always tell when I'm in the east and when I'm in the west. In fact, even when I was standing next to a remaining segment of the wall, I wasn't sure which side I was on. (I am told it was the east.)

This segment of the wall runs 1.3 km (thank you Wikipedia) and is referred to as the East Side Gallery. While these murals were painted after reunification, there was a great deal of graffiti on the wall on the western side before 1989. These murals were painted in 1990 and vary greatly in scope and style. The Einstein painting was not nearly my favorite, but it's Einstein after all. A photo opportunity.