Könneritzstraße Bridge

The really great thing about Leipzig, as I've probably mentioned in previous posts, is beauty in abundance within a short walk from anywhere. The photos in the embedded slideshow are from the Koenneritzstrasse bridge, just 2 or 3 hundred meters from our apartment complex.



The pretty Mandarin ducks have just recently joined the swan, the mallards, and the ginourmous muskrats that we see and occassionally feed with stale bread from the bridge.

Working

November has been very difficult at work. A corner has been turned however and it should be easier from here. The last few weekends one or another kid is either at a friend's house for a sleepover or someone comes here. This weekend Julian spent Friday and Saturday night at his friend Max's house and the girls had the two friends in the picture over Friday night for a sleepover.

Diana and I escaped Friday night for a nice dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant. We continue to love our new flat; it's a lot more comfortable than the old one. Got in a little nap today and now time for the next work-week to begin. We're all looking forward for our two week holiday over Christmas.

Das Wochenende (The Weekend)

The girls dispersed here and there for the weekend. Actually Anissa and her friend Natalie spent Friday night and Saturday here at the new apartment and Sierra went to a friend's house by tram and train. We didn't have time for a full photo shoot but here are a few of Anissa and Natalie - they want me to do a real shoot sometime in the future.

Der Verfall (The Decay)

Here's another excellent video by You Tube user Plembem that shows some of the deteriorated side of Leipzig.

Leipzig has been known at times as "The Little Paris" and the part of town we reside in sometimes called "A little piece of Venice" - complete with Gondola canal boats. Clearly the city has extraordinary beauty and is in overall resurgence. But this video shows some of the work that remains.

Be sure to "Leipzig bei Nacht" below this post to see the resurgent side of Leipzig.

Leipzig bei Nacht (Leipzig at Night)

Here's a sweet little video I found on YouTube that gives you the opportunity to do a virtual night tour of Leipzig. Credit is to the You Tube user "Plembem" for this video.

Our Friends in Wolfen

From the first time I ate at Wolfen's finest Asian restaraunt by myself on a Saturday afternoon sometime last spring, I felt at home and welcomed. I can tell many stories about many wonderful meal - and drinks - at the Asian restaurant on Leipziger Strasse in downtown Wolfen. Last Monday, since the kids were off school, they took the train and met me to accept a dinner invitation from our friends Zum, She and Ming.



Here is the note I sent to Zum afterwards:

Thanks so much for the wonderful meal we had last week. We will have you over for a Mexican feast after we move into our new flat in November. For now, please have a look at our blog and the photo of our two families here: http://bohlandfamilyinleipzig.blogspot.com/

Your hospitality means so much to us Zum and we are so glad to know you and have you as friends. I have so many fine memories eating at your fine Asian restaurant in Wolfen.

Best,

John

Guitars

We took three guitars to Leipzig and it was worth it. Sierra and I have composed some new things and she and Julian have been working on several duets. We took a couple guitars to the Clara Zetkin park last weekend. It the kids get polished enough maybe they will do a little street music like the guys in the second picture. They were really good.

The Leipzig Art Museum

The Leipzig Art Museum is seen in the background. Preparations are underway for an exhibition titled Kopf oder Zahl (Head or Number) which I don't really understand except that it is work in portraiture. Diana has been to the museum with her women's group but the rest of us haven't. Something else to do in the future.

I took a few artistic liberties with the image for this post.

Boring Food Made Exciting

We acquiesced yesterday afternoon to let the kids "have it their way" and get a burger and fries at Burger King. You can see from the picture what is typical of American fast food places in Germany - they all have a disco feel to them. Orange and blue lighting, music videos playing on a wide screen TV, etc. How else would you get people to pass up the excellent continental European food available here everywhere for this junk?

Diana and I had Sushi Friday night at a place called Mr. Moto. We sat at the circular sushi bar ringed with a small "river" on which miniature boats are continuously loaded with sushi treats and conveyed around for customers to choose them. The trays that the sushi are placed on are colored coded, so at the end of your repast, the waitress tallies the bill by adding up the amounts based the cost associated with of each tray color.

Friday for lunch my colleagues were excited because burgers were being served at the cafeteria; I passed and had a wonderful fish filet covered in a light horseradish/hollandaise sauce but I did ask for french fries instead of the mashed potatoes it came with. Even I need some familiar comfort food now and then!

Weekend Driving

As in - no weekend driving. For three weekends in a row, the rental car has remained parked from Friday after work to Monday morning. It is possible for me to take the regional train to work and many people do, but my hours are often unpredictable so using the car to get to work, while not necessary or in the best interests of of the environment, is a concession to convenience. The picture of the car is not mine, but it is the same kind of car I drive; an Open Vectra "Combi" (station wagon) with a 1.9 liter diesel engine. I haven't checked the mileage, but I can drive the 40 or so miles from Leipzig to Solar Valley back and forth all week on a tank of gas.

It's pretty cool being able to accomplish grocery shopping, going to the post office, even taking a day-trip like last week to Torgau, all without the danger, expense and environmental damage of driving a car.

Torgau and Hartenfels Schloss (Castle)

Another great weekend. We traveled to Torgau on Saturday to visit the Hartenfels castle and take in the local sites. They keep big, fat brown bears in the moat! I won't even try to summarize the history of this castle, a very worthy testament to monarchy and nobility, but I did find this excellent guide to the castles in the Saxony region of Germany and a description of this castle can be found in this guide along with information and photos on many, many others. Beware the PDF file is about 8 MB and will take a while to load.



Our traveling companions were Rachel and Bran and their two kids (a permanent link to their blog is at the top of this blog). We went by regional train from the Hauptbahnhof in Leipzig and walked from the train station to the castle through the large square in Torgau with its impressive fountain. After touring the castle, we had lunch at a hotel/restaurant on the square which we chose only for the reason that it was in the sunny and not shady side of the square because it's October after all and even sunny afternoons are starting to get chilly.

Leipzig Life

Saturday. Woke up, Listened to BBC, made coffee. Checked the latest worldwide insanities on the Web. Then walked to the post office with our absentee ballots. For Barack Obama of course - though no Washington politician will pull us out of the current nose-dive.

The image is from the way back from the post office. Taken from the bridge at the end of Könneritzstraße.

Then to the bakery, the cheese shop. Home for a nap. Off to grocery store with Diana for stores for the five of us. Then air-up the bicycles and off to the park. Back home. Ate a great home-made dinner of rigatoni, bruschetta, zucchini and stewed apples. Now a post to the blog.

No need to drive. Accomplished all this on foot and on bike. Great scenery along the way. This Leipzig life.

Leipzig Zoo

We visited the Leipzig Zoo on Friday and I had a chance to sift through my photos from the day. This one was my favorite. I am less and less a fan of zoos. The Leipzig Zoo has been extensively upgraded and efforts have been made to provide large and "natural" habitats. Still, the large animals and the primates showed the typical zoo behaviors of repetitive pacing, swaying and so forth. Animals belong in nature, not zoos. The zoos tell us where the animals are from, what they eat, maybe something about their habitiat - but they don't tell us why the animals are in the zoos. I think it's rather better to meet animals on equal terms, not our terms. Here is a great article on the ethcis of zoos: Thought to Exist in the Wild

Bellanixe

This weekend we met our friends Rachel and Brian and their two kids Bellanixe and Isha in Leipzig Zentrum for a coffee and conversation and another tour of the folk festival which ended today. We went to the Moritzbastei which, like most things in Leipzig, has a long and storied history. The complete history is at the link (there is an English option too!) but here is the introduction:

In the heart of Leipzig, nestled behind the Gewandhaus Concert Hall and City Skyscraper, you find the Moritzbastei, the only remaining part of the ancient city fortifications. The Moritzbastei was commissioned by Elector Moritz of Saxony in the 16th century and later named after him. It has survived 400 tumultuous years and it was used in many different ways, only to end as part of the rubble of the Second World War.

In 1974 students began to work on the Moritzbastei, freeing it of the debris it was filled with and turning it into a students’ club, which opened in 1982.
For almost 10 years the club had been a students’ club, but in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Moritzbastei opened its doors to all visitors interested in culture.

Since 1993 the “MB”, as locals lovingly call the building, has been run by the “Moritzbastei Foundation” as a non-profit organisation without external financial support.

Annually around 300,000 guests visit the impressive vaults to attend one of the 600 events which take place here. The MB has something for everyone, from rock and jazz concerts through readings and play performances to exhibitions and discussions. And those people who are simply looking for a cosy place to enjoy a glass of wine or a snack will be charmed by the atmosphere in the Café Barbakane or one of the comfortable bars.

But the title of this post is Bellanixe. This is the name of Rachel and Brian's wonderful and free-spirited daughter shown in the photo.

I've added a link to a blog (right side of the page) that Rachel maintains to diary the goings on of Bella and her brother Isha. We really enjoyed our afternoon together and appreciate the insights on Leipzig life from Rachel and Brian.

September Update

To all following this blog: We've been a little busy lately but have no worries, the blog will be caught up in due time. See the short post on the Trabant car below. Soon I will post some pictures and stories about our trip to Dresden last weekend and the folk festival in Leipzig this weekend.

The Trabi

Anissa took a picture of Julian and I in front of a restored Trabant Saturday in Leipzig. Because steel was expensive and rare in communist Germany, the Trabant was made out of a plastic resin composite with wool or cotton for reinforcement. Some people call them cardboard cars. There are a bunch of them still around Leipzig. People typically ordered them when they had a baby because the waiting list to get one was around 18 years. Used ones sold for more than new ones because they were immediately available. They had a smokey 2 cycle engine with 25 HP and did 0 to 60 in about 20 seconds.

More here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Another Sunday at the Park

So far our Sundays are relaxing and renewing. Mornings with coffee and Internet and afternoons at the park. Julian was showing off his wheels today. I ddn't notice until I edited the pictures but in the photo where he is in front of the fountain he's not using any hands!

Cospudener Lake - Part 2

Germany is a very dog-friendly country. Our dog Hector meets new friends on nearly every walk around the block. Today he got to come with us to the Cospudener Lake just south of Leipzig. Have you ever seen a happier dog?

Cospudener Lake - Part 1

Saturday we took a short drive just south of Leipzig to explore one of the several man-made lakes created after local coal mining was abandoned. Julian and I had a great time scrounging for flat rocks and skipping them into the lake while we watched windsurfers and even a family that came for a swim on this cool day. One of the young ladies changed from her bathing suit to her birthday suit then into dry clothes in plain view - the locals are not prudish about natural human nakedness.

Heino's Garden

I had a chance to do a little biking with some colleagues after work Thursday night. After taking a "shortcut" that led us through a working sand quarry, we climbed a hill and found the real road to Heino's garden. Heino and I have done a fair bit of biking around the Goitsche See in Bitterfeld but tonight we were just south of work in a little town call Ramsin. I don't know if it's common all over Germany, but at least in the former GDR people were encouraged to grow at least a portion of their food themselves. Garden plots with small garden houses are still popular here and work schedules in the summer are still set so that people can be out of work with plenty of daylight to work in their gardens. My friend Heino is much more of an astronomer than a gardener and bought his garden spot because there is very little light there that interferes with his telescope work. After visiting the garden we had a beer in the local community center decorated with wild boar mounts and skins and German hunting paraphernalia. The off to a Greek restaurant for dinner. At 11:30 in the evening, I biked several kilometers down a very dark road back to the factory where my car was parked. Thankfully another colleague lent me his very bright bicycle light and I made it without incident.

Anissa in the Park

Today we went on a nice bike ride in the Clara Zetkin park; the first time since our bikes arrived earlier this week. The park has many nice features and will be a theme for our stay without a doubt.

Anissa, the kid that didn't want to come the most, is doing pretty good. Here she is in the park.

Just Around the Corner

These photos are from my morning walk with our hund Hector. Yes, Leipzig has some not-so-attracitve areas, but it is continuing to be renovated because the mass-exodus of the 90's is over and money and people are flowing back into town. A new grocery store is under construction just down the street and this make living even easier for us. Anyway, it's possible to walk for long distances and feel like you've turned a page in fairy-tale book when you turn a corner - like the images show here.

Leipziger More Market

The Leipzig Expo Center, or "More Market"as it is locally known, was host to the Games Convention mentioned in the last post. It is absolutely ginormous with four huge halls connected by a center hall which is a multilevel glass arch. We were dog-tired after walking this all day. Note the cool walkway through the water.

Leipzig Games Convention

Today was "Julian Day." We all made the effort to accompany Julian to the Games Convention at the Messe expo center in the north part of Leipzig. It was huge, loud, crowded and overdone. So much hype for the newest video games. But this is the attraction for technologically placated amongst us. Julian had a good time watching some demos and also getting to play some. The more popular games like Gutiar Hero had hours long waits for poeple to get their chance to have a contest on stage in front of the bulging throng of spectators and maybe win a prize. Julinan didn't do this, but he and Sierra said they easily could have beat the contestants we watched. For the rest of the family, the most interesting thing was watching the German youth; particularly those dressed in costume to emulate their favorite game characters.

The Opera Singer

The picture in this post was taken at dusk with my camera phone and was quite blurry. I post-processed it some more to make it painterly. It has nothing to do with today's post.

A Russian opera singer has taken the flat above ours. His wife, a choir director, and daughter and son are coming to Leipzig as soon as their paperwork clears. He practices at home, so things could get musical around here pretty quickly.

He has a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old son and his wife. So maybe all the kids will hit it off.

Taking Julian to the massive games convention tomorrow at the "Messe" which is an expo center. So I'm sure there will be adventure in that.

Kulture Park Clara Zetkin

Here are a couple of images taken from one of the walkways in the large park adjacent to our neighborhood. One shows the International School from the back of the building and the other is a nice apartment building with a beer garten adjoining it and the park entrance. Maybe we'll post more about the park later today. I saw a huge beach volleyball tournament going on and large soccer and tennis facilities amongst the bike trails and such.

Settling In

The girls, Anissa and Sierra, have their own apartment next to ours (John, Diana and Julian.) So they are somewhat independent and get to keep their own house, make their own meals and generally live like young adults - but with the possibility of unannounced vists from mom, dad and brother at any time. The photos show them settling in in their very own Leipzig flat.

The Demonstration

In my last post I referenced the demonstration in Augustusplatz that played a key role in the fall of the Berlin Wall. I Googled the event and found this picture and this link

I confess it brought tears to my eyes seeing this image of thousands of peaceful demonstrators acting for the freedoms of many against the will of a few.

I don't know who to credit for the image; it was posted at this site

Dog Walking

Well it's a beautiful day in Leipzig. Started out with a crystalline blue sky but now we have a few clouds. The photo is taken from a bridge along the walk I took Hector on today; just a short distance from our flats. In the opposite direction is the largest park in Leipzig which we look forward to exploring this afternoon. The Headmaster's assistant told us it's possible to bike for hours in the park with its many bike trails. This will be fun when our bikes arrive in the air shipment scheduled for delivery in about 10 days.

Later today we are going to a free concert in the Augustus Platz which, according to brochures, is the largest square in Germany. It was the sight of a massive but peaceful demonstration in the 1980's which helped catalyzed the fall of the Berlin wall and set the stage for German reunification.

The Hauptbanhof (The Main Train Station)

This afternoon was spent shopping for necessities at Leipzig's shopping and transportation Mecca, the Hauptbanhof. It is truly spectacular and rivals the Miracle Mile in Chicago or even the best shopping venues in NYC. The photo above shows the second of three floors of shops and services. I should have taken a photo of the trains; they're lined up about 20 deep under the atrium in the top of the photo.

The kids got hungry for their favorite comfort junk food.

Finally the girls bought a few things at the "Totally Sexy" shop. Just jeans and such; nothing risque of course.

Burnin' Down the House

Actually, just a spark. I did not get to Julian before he grabbed a plug adapter (adapter, not converter) and plugged in his Wii. The lights immediately went off at Konneritzerstrasse 78. I'm pretty sure the fuse just blew in his power supply and the Wii is just fine. I'll have my colleagues at work open it up an replace the fuse (proprietary fasteners must be drilled out or slotted with a Dremel for removal with a flat blade screwdriver.) Worst case, we saw a dual-voltage supply online for $15.

We got the lights back on with the flip of the circuit breaker.

Now Julian has received a North American Vs European power distribution lecture as well as a lesson from the best teacher - experience.

Das Ei

We walked to neighborhood grocery store to get a few items for the next day's breakfast and walked around and around the store looking for eggs. I overheard an English couple talking that looked like locals and asked them where in the world (or the store) the eggs might be. Turns out eggs are not refrigerated in Germany. We thought about this for a bit and it makes sense - hens don't have refrigerators in their butts do they?

Arrival

We have arrived in Germany. Flights were good except we were delayed in Leipzig about 40 minutes while a new plane was readied to replace a broken one. The photo from my mobile phone camera and shows our dog Hector getting offloaded in Leipzig. He's on the conveyor in the front of the plane - click on the picture for a closer view.

The airport veterinarian could not read Hector's ISO compliant microchip but this was waved off as a technicality and Hector was admitted to Germany. At least he doesn't have to apply for long-term resident visas like the rest of the family will. I already have one from my long time working in Germany.

Oh - and we will receive a bill for 30 euro for the vet's inspection fee.

We were met by a van driver from my work (Calyxo) and the relocation coordinator. After some organizing, we drove our three-vehicle entourage from the Leipzig airport to our new home in the southwest part of town, unloaded our luggage, and collapsed for a few hours.

We finished our day at another amazing Viet Namese run Asian restaurant just down the street. Very good Thai food. I'm friends with the Viet Namese restaurant owners in Wolfen; the town that I work in.