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.