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.