Friday 4 September - (Barbara W)
After having two wonderful nights in Prague, we were up early next morning to catch the first train. We had a number of train changes to make and the first occurred at Dresden where we had 8 minutes to get from one platform to another to catch the train to Leipzig. Trying to organise 18 ambassadors and their luggage from one place to another was a massive task.
Marcia and myself were in rear of the group and as I saw Gina disappearing up in the lift I followed Marcia at her beckoning. Imagine our surprise when we got to the top to find our train was now departing and there was nothing we could do.
I was grateful that if I was going to be left anywhere at least I was with someone who spoke some German. We found the porter on the station who took a lot of convincing as to who we were, and the fact that we didn't have any tickets.
Eventually Marcia made herself understood and the Station Service Manager was wonderful, escorting us to the correct platform and arranging for us to travel without tickets on another train leaving an hour later.
Whilst we were waiting for the next train, I left Marcia with the luggage to go to the toilet and got stuck in the toilet entrance as the machine would not accept my coin. The collector rang her supervisor and they both tried to release me from the gates going into the toilet (I was in a hurry) however, eventually, I was freed, but had to pay again at the next set of gates to get into the toilet.
By the time I got back to Marcia, she somehow had loaded some of our suitcases on the train and I arrived just in time to push the larger ones on.
Our Station Service Manager came back to see if we were comfortable, and we sat back and relaxed, pooling our food resources, as by that time we were feeling a little peckish. She assured us that our group would be notified that we were arriving on another train. We were both very happy little Vegemites when our ED Eric, greeted us with a smiling face at Leipzig.
Some of the others during their 1 hour wait on the station at Leipzig...
(time for shopping!)
The rest of the day went smoothly with us arriving on the next train to Halle (an hour late) and being greeted by our gracious hosts for that week.
Saturday 5 September - a free day (Rona)
My host, Birgit is a teacher of Russian; she spoke very little English, so we had our wee challenges language wise! Her husband Rene was a night shift call centre worker and their 22yr old son goes to university. I learnt that when Birgit and Rene married, they chose to use her surname as their married name, as Rene's name was a fairly common name. The choosing of their married name is quite normal for German people. They live in an apartment that had been revamped around mid 1990's from Army barracks. The barracks had once been a satellite camp during Hitler's time, and after his era, the Russians were billeted there. So these ‘new’ apartments (which are very pleasant) have an amazing history and are very well constructed with some walls about 25cm thick! There are still some of these buildings left waiting to be made into blocks of 8 apartments. Once bought, each apartment can be ‘designed’ into how you want it, with a 2-bedroomed unit costing just 129,000 Euro.
Now that is a bargain!! If anyone is interested I have their contact numbers!
My free day ended up being very busy as we travelled quite a distance up into the Harz mountains in the Saxony-Anhalt district, which looked very like my own area in NZ except for seeing all the lovely windmills! I noticed that there were many ‘mounds’ of earth in the farmland, and was told that it was from the 400 year history of iron ore mining.
Salt mines / brine wells / brown coal mining are also part of the history of Halle.
Our first port of call was Gernrode - a spa town recorded as far back as 961. We stopped to see the Cuckoo Clock Museum. Outside, at the top of the main Museum was an incredibly large cuckoo clock - ‘Harzmichel’ - with many people waiting to hear it ‘chime’ the hour, and which also included music. Quite innovative. The “Kuckucksuhren” itself was fantastic with hundreds of varieties, sizes and styles of clocks and as they were all set at different times, the ‘cuckoo’ noise was constant - with my eyes moving from one side of the room to the other and then behind me trying to find which clock was ‘cuckoo-ing’!! The designs of the clocks were truly amazing - the workmanship exquisite - a wonderful experience. Gernrode houses one of the largest cuckoo clocks in the world, and incidentally is where the “World's Largest Chocolate Cuckoo Clock” was made in 2006!
Cuckoo Clock Museum
From there we continued through Harz to where another surprise was waiting for me - The township of Stolberg; - established as a settlement for miners in 1000 but is actually dated from 794 - was the residence and family seat of the medieval Counts of Stolberg. It is beautifully situated within three narrow and deeply indented valleys in Southern Harz. It has romantic winding lanes, colourful half-timbered “medieval” houses richly decorated with carvings, and it is what I would call stupendous sightseeing. Mainly built along a single street, Strassendorf, the houses and buildings were beautifully kept and maintained - a fantastic tourism venture.
 
Enchanting Stolberg
I was taken to “Mujeum Altes Burgerhaus - um 1450” a lovely museum - with all the household paraphernalia from that era inside. The guide gave me a small English brochure on this museum which was very helpful.
We enjoyed walking through the village, with a bit of rain falling, but that did not dampen our spirits, nor of a wedding party nearby. A male member of this wedding group was carrying a witch's style straw broom, obviously a symbol of good luck for the bridal couple.
Birgit and I had a fantastic afternoon tea here before heading back to Halle - with my choice of delectable cakes to have with my ‘cuppa’ and in such an historic village - well, it was just “Wunderbar!”
It was in Stolberg that I came across some familiar faces - including Joy, Eric, Marcie and Gina - they were also wandering around the village with their Hosts.
Birgit and I continued on our way back ‘home’ and ended up going on a car ferry over the River Saale to arrive at Wettin - a small town which ruled in Saxony and takes its name from the castle on the River Saale near Halle. The Castle is the origin of the Wettin family which became one of the most influential principal dynasties in Europe, with fortifications dated back to the 8th or 9th century. The Wettin Castle now houses a school. The views from Wettin, overlooking the Saale River and the surrounding countryside were very appealing.
Wettin Castle (winter scene)
We ended the day with a meal of ‘fried eggs on toast’
This was a really special day, the scenery beautiful, I learnt heaps, and Birgit and I were able to talk and understand each other really well. I felt ashamed though that I hadn't made an effort to learn some German!
Sunday 6 September - Halle to Dresden and Moritzburg (Brian McK)
What excitement today ! We are going to visit Dresden, the beautiful city that received so much damage from Allied air raids during the Second World War, and was reborn.
After being taken to meet our bus, we started out on a lovely sunny day and it wasn't long before we were on a six lane autobahn, speeding away from Halle into the East German countryside with huge wind farms in every direction.
As we approached Leipzig, we were amazed to have a huge plane above us on the road as the highway passes under the runway.
The unusual sight of an airplane flying directly over the motorway
The country was flat. We passed a large BMW factory amongst many other industrial areas and were very surprised to see along the way, long lines of trucks parked in obviously designated areas as they are not allowed to be driven on Sundays (shame we don't have similar here).
After passing the turn off to Colditz, then a pit stop (where there were very unusual toilet seats), and some wooded hills we arrived through a magnificent avenue of plane trees to our destination in the Theaterplatz, city square, where we were being taken on a walking tour by Gudrun.
Group in Dresden
We stood in front of the restored Opera House (1985) where there were statues of famous poets and authors, including Shakespeare. We looked at many wonderful statues, buildings, churches (including the Frauenkirche, the first Protestant church in Germany) which was destroyed in 1945 and reconstructed by 2005 using many of the original stones, and the Catholic Cathedral, Hofkirche which has also been rebuilt and has seventy eight 3m figures of historical and biblical figures on its balustrades.
Dresden Cathedral
The outstanding building though was the Zwinger Palace with its magnificent courtyard, galleries and golden Crown gate. It was built by August the Strong and is the biggest baroque building in the world. A very interesting feature was the set of porcelain bells which rang out the time.
Zwinger Palace
Colourful characters - Zwinger Palace
Different groups of our party visited the art masterpieces and others the porcelain treasures in the galleries. Further on was the wonderful wall of the Dukes which depicted the succession of Saxony rulers and then the jousting area from the Middle Ages. We also saw the new Cross made by the grandson of a British bomber pilot on the church steeple, as a kind of reparation.
Wall of the Dukes
Lunch by the River Elbe
View across the Elbe
After lunch by the River Elbe, we journeyed to the village of Moritzburg, where we witnessed the exciting Parade of the Stallions, and looked over the Hunting and Water Castle of August the Strong, entering over a bridge across a large lake. Very spectacular and opulent.
Parade of Stallions
Moritzburg Castle
They knew how to live but I suppose it's not much different to the really wealthy of today. All in all a great day in the company of lovely people, both ours and our hosts.
Monday 7 September (Lorraine R)
The day dawned pleasantly warm and sunny. My usual sumptuous breakfast was beautifully laid on the starched white cloth. Sigrid, my generous and gracious host, had the mascarpone cheese ready for me. She had read in a travel brochure of Perth that we only have mascarpone cheese on bread or toast, so mascarpone it was. An array of assorted German delicacies was laid on the table to spread on the mascarpone. I was a little apprehensive as we were to spend a good part of the day together; apprehensive because of the language difficulties. I spoke no German and Sigrid had only the occasional English word, this situation sometimes resulted in her saying frustratedly “No German, No German, Bah!”
However out came her little blue car to be parked in her magnificent garden. The garden was set in about 2 acres of land and closely resembled a beautiful park. I was extremely glad Australia was so far away and there was no chance that Sigrid would drop in unexpectedly for a coffee and chat. I would need very adequate notice of such a visit, notice which would give me time for a complete garden makeover. Sigrid's new electric gate at the garden fence was not functioning properly so I certainly got the impression that someone was going to hear about that very soon.
Off we went, out of the village of Farnstadt and onto a highway. The village itself was extremely picturesque and very quaint. Some people from Halle had allotments there and they were busily tending their gardens. On the periphery of the village were many windmills generating power. What a sight for sore eyes; what lessons we could learn from these windfarms in Australia. There were hundreds of windmills in this part of East Germany. Farnstadt also had a thriving industry involving the production of solar power panels. Well done Farnstadt.
Greetings from Fern City
Thank you Lorraine for sending the postcards
As we travelled down the highway Sigrid pointed out many areas of interest to me in German. One industry involved processing methane gas and green plants. A large industrial complex nearby appeared to be where the process took place. However because of the lack of a common language I did not understand the process involved and despite my interest and asking other people about this later no-one appeared to know about it.
Sigrid had her own unique method of driving, sometimes she would be so intent on explaining something to me in German that her focus on driving would wander as would her position on the road. This resulted in our being in a place that was not always acceptable to other drivers and on this particular day the policemen sitting in their car on the roadside looked somewhat stunned as we veered towards them. Sometimes we ran red lights, fortunately not on this day. I began to think what a really boring driver I am.
We reached our destination in the Quirnbach Valley about 12 kilometers from Farnstadt. Here we visited the old Querfurt Castle - it was thought to be built between 866 and 899 and is one of the oldest in Germany. The most conspicuous features of the castle are the three towers built between the 12th and 14th centuries. The castle has a ringed wall which overlooked moats cut 18inches deep into the rock. At the center of the Castle area is a Romaneseque church which was built in the 12th century. In the castle complex is a yellow-painted residence which was originally a dwelling place and is currently used as a hotel.
Querfurt Castle
We visited the museum to view the artifacts from many centuries; these were mainly tools of war and daily life. We ascended the staircase to the summit of one of the towers. This involved climbing 150 steps. However the view once we had reached the top was worth the pain of the climb. We could see the entire village of Querfurt and the surrounding fields. A visit to the castle shop ended our time at the castle and we drove into the village where we had a very healthy lunch of ice cream topped with fruit.
Time was marching on and we needed to return to Farnstadt for the mid afternoon outing. Sigrid's neighbour, Armin was driving Patricia, and I to Landsberg. We were a little concerned about this as Armin's wife Regina, had just been discharged from hospital that day following admission for a stroke. Leaving Regina at home alone did not seem like a good idea to us. However Armin proceeded with the plan and off we went to Landsberg. We reached there very quickly as Armin likes to drive at 180 kms per hour on the autobahn. We were greeted on our arrival by the Dobber's whose home was open to us for the afternoon tea and later barbeque. A delicious assortment of cakes was set out under a large marquee. What a feast. They too had a beautiful garden with hidden corners, ponds and various quiet areas. After sampling the very tempting assortment of cakes we attached ourselves to Barbara W. Her host, Jutta was about to take her to a shop in the village where beautiful items could be purchased. Patricia and I managed to ingratiate ourselves into this shopping group by self invitation and after Jutta had excused us from the group, off we went to the next village. The shop Keramikscheune das Paradies in Spickendorf, was set out with a treasury of extremely beautiful items including crockery, silverware, fine china, garden ornaments, household ornaments, linens and glassware. It was a very large shop and each new area displayed more and more beautiful items.
Some of the unique items to be seen at Keramikscheune das Paradies
 
 
 
Upstairs in the shop-----well there was an entire floor of exquisite Christmas decorations, the like I had never seen before. How I wished I could fill a bag and take them home to Australia. How inconsiderate of Emirates Airlines to have a weight restriction of 30 kilograms on the luggage a passenger could take on board. We all wandered in this lovely, magical area for some time. I bought several small items but lamented I could not buy more. They are currently displayed in my lounge room and are admired by all who see them; however they remind me of the lovely afternoon we all spent at the Keramikscheune das Paradies in Spickendorf.
We returned to the home of the Dobber family and joined the hosts and ambassadors in a barbeque meal. How well we were treated. Patricia and I were concerned about Regina back at Farnstadt. It seemed so unfair that we had so much enjoyed our afternoon out while she remained at home having just been discharged from hospital. We persuaded Amin to take us home. He was enjoying the outing and did not want to go home. But the principles of the sisterhood were strong and we persuaded him to leave.
 
Cake ‘n’ Coffee followed by BBQ at Family Dobber's home in Landsberg
It didn't take long to get back to Farnstadt, travelling at 180kms per hour it doesn't take long to get anywhere really!
Sigrid was waiting to hear all about our afternoon out, I had bought her a small item from the Christmas shop much to her delight. We all went over to Amin and Regina's so that both ladies could hear about the outing and have our tales translated by Armin.
So ended another lovely day of our exchange.
Tuesday 8 September (Elizabeth)
No diary received.
Wednesday 9 September (Joy)
Today we set off for a guided tour of Merseberg Castle. Arriving early, we had time for a short walk in the adjoining park which led us down to the Saale River where a small weir created a white water course for slalom rafting.
The Museum Schloss Merseberg & Dom St. Johannes und Laurentius was founded by the bishopric of Otto 1 in 968 the foundation stone was laid in 1050. The tour started in the Romanesque crypt which was built in 1042. This ancient building contains many treasures collected over 1000 years, including the organ which is the 3rd largest in Germany with 5841 pipes, it was restored in 2001 resulting in many concerts being held throughout the summer. Among the stories of this area is that of Tito's Ring. Many centuries ago Tito lost the ring and blamed his manservant, however later the ring was found in a raven's nest. The remorseful Tito then had a raven with the ring included in the heraldic coat of arms for Merseberg and to this day ravens are kept at the castle.
After exploring the castle and dom we set off for Dürrnberg stopping along the way at the Linde-Infra Leuna plant where 30,000 people had worked on the 7km site - after reunification only 5000 jobs were left, creating unemployment and hardship to a large percentage of the Halle workforce with little prospect of finding other positions. The company was divided and sold to various companies including parts to France and West Germany, both promised to upgrade and modernise but instead took their operations elsewhere. Many of the buildings and company housing lay empty and fell into ruin.
At Bad Dürrnberg we visited the salt dyke. This unique structure is 885 metres long and 12 metres high and the only one of its type in Europe. Although salt is no longer manufactured here, operations having stopped in 1963 after 200 years, the brine is still separated.
Graduation Tower and Salt Works
The area has become famous for the “Salt Air” cure for bronchial problems. After an interesting tour we walked through the park and had to stop at the sound shell for an impromptu sing-song before the longer forest walk to the the Neptune Klauss, a lovely old cafe set in gardens, where we partook of coffee and cake in traditional German style. The cakes were freshly made in-house by the owner and were delicious.
“Let There Be Peace on Earth”
After lunch everyone went their own way. We visited friends of Sigi and Axel who have a lovely home and garden where we had cool drinks in the garden. Eric was surprised to find our host even had a chilled beer waiting for him. We had a very enjoyable and relaxing time before returning to Halle.
Thursday 10 September (Beth)
During breakfast of “Spiegel”, (fried egg with tomato) and bread rolls, we discussed Brian's shoulder problem, and Monika made several phone calls to physios and doctors, and declared we should go to their doctor's rooms and wait until convenient.
It was a short drive with the surgery located amid new homes and after a short wait Wolfgang went into Dr Tino Kersten to interpret. A couple of injections later, it was home to get Monika and Foxi the dog and we headed for Petersburg to visit a Catholic Church built in 900 which was the Romanesque era. Stiftkirke St Peter and Cloister is on the highest point of the Meridian to Moscow.
After wandering among the beautifully tended graves we went inside the church, where there were the tombs of many dukes, bishops and their wives etc; although the huge interior was empty, except for a small prayer group sitting on chairs. We then went for a walk in the forest where Monika hoped to show us some mushrooms, but she declared it to be too dry, so they would have to wait a couple of months for the autumn crop.
We returned home to drop Foxi and then went and parked near the Franke Buildings. (Finding a car park in Halle is a big concern). August Herman Franke started a Foundation in the 17th Century for the Orphans of the 30 Year War. After a snack at the bakery we went to the Music Section of the vast Franke Buildings and listened to the Quartet Candide. Monika and Wolfgang's 19 year old grand-daughter has been studying violin in Berlin for the past few years. As this is the end of term, the teacher of the young music students in Halle had requested that this group play for the students, prior to their departure the next day for concerts in Poland.
The group consisted of a teacher playing the Cello and 3 students - 2 on violins and 1 playing viola. Johanna Bastian played the violin, and the group played Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schostakowitsch.
It was a fantastic performance for family; which we were very privileged to hear.
We returned home for raspberries and ice cream, before changing for the Farewell Dinner, in Pepo's Cantina in the southern area of Halle, on the 3rd floor of a Doctor's Building.
A welcome glass of champagne was followed by a delicious buffet of fish, pork fillets, lamb, chicken, potato dumplings with sauce, salad, cheeses, fruit, plum cake and individual desserts.
(NOTE: Following are photos from the Farewell Dinner. There were no photos available of Marcia and Barbara with their hosts.)
Axel, Joy, Eric, Sigi
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Brian, Helga, Teresa, Horst
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Sigrun, Patricia
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Shirley, Bridgitte
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Karl, Ann, Ingeborg
Dennis, Barb, Uta, Detlef
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Brian, Monika, Beth, Wolfgang
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Sigrid, Lorraine
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Margaret, Gina
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Harald, Elizabeth, Iris
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Gudrun, Lorraine
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Gold Coast contingent ‘On Parade’
Eric and Sigi exchange gifts
Ingeborg played the organ and after much singing and laughter Eric and Sigi exchanged thoughts and gifts.
Then home after a very interesting day.
Friday 11 September - Day in Leipzig (Barb O'N)
Detlef was in charge of breakfast this morning as Uta had left for work. Took the tram with him to Halle Station where we were to meet most of the group at 9.00am. As it happened we met up with Dietrich (Ernie) on the tram so Detlef continued on to work and left us in good hands.
Cool day and a good thing as there was to be lots of walking - again! We met up with everyone and with Günter Heine in charge we began to explore Leipzig.
We're ready to go.......!
First we were treated to a stunning example of Fischer-Art on the wall of a building - vibrant colours - the painting still to be finished. Walked thru' arkades (arcades) with interesting shops and passed a massive reconstruction site which would soon be a block of modern buildings.
Colourful Fischer Art
Our persuasive guide managed to get us into the the City Tunnel information building where we viewed a model of the boring machine (mole) and some took a turn at "driving" the new train. Leipzig is the last and central component of the railway system restructuring process in Greater Leipzig. Not only the suburban train system can be restructured after the tunnel has been put into operation but also the traffic connections between the region and the City will be improved and give major impetus to the development of the City's traffic system. Project to cost possibly 800 million Euro - very interesting.
Tunnel boring ‘mole’
Passed the fine palace of a previous Mayor of Leipzig who sadly ended his life in gaol!
The city is resplendent in gilded ornate buildings including the impressive Commerzbank; plaques, fountains and statues - Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and others too numerous to mention.
We were directed to the very modern Karstadt Store for lunch and had been told by Detlef to make sure we were on the fifth floor at a certain time to see a 30 metre high fountain rise up from the atrium below. Choices for lunch were excellent, the fountain was impressive (even though I nearly toppled off the escalator while looking down) and to top it all off I purchased a lovely pair of earrings (yes more earrings).
Watching and waiting......
 
There she goes.......
Moving on, there was something around every corner - a Meissen Carillon, the Auerbach Keller where Goethe sat and wrote, Russian Cossacks in traditional costume performing in 8-part harmony - then we came across an architectural gem - the Messepalast Specks Hof - a courtyard decorated in tile displays, murals, paintings and ceramic medallions. Specks Hof is the oldest surviving Passage arcade in Leipzig and is one of the most architecturally outstanding business premises in the city.
Cossacks entertain the crowd
A stop for photos, then it's on we go...
Next stop was the Nikolai Church which was unique with its overall theme of muted pink and green palm fronds - plus the usual stunning murals and intricate decorations including a dome which depicted angels in heaven.
Nikolai Church
Then for something completely different we ascended 29 stories in a lift to the MDR Panorama Tower in the World Trade Business Centre - the 360 degree view was magnificent. Leaving the tower we walked back to the Hauptbahnhof (Railway Station) via the Opera House which was interesting in that it is a new, modern building in a city of extraordinary, old buildings.
View from Panorama Tower
Back on the train to Halle where we took Detlef and Uta out to dine at “Objekt 5”, a theatre cum restaurant set in a building with an ‘interesting past’. We listened to the music below, they had a dance and we made our way home to our star-studded bedroom.
Detlef, Barb, Uta and Dennis at “Objekt 5” Restaurant
A wonderful day for our last with the people of Halle.
Saturday 12 September - Halle to Dusseldorf to Heathrow (Teresa)
Having arrived at the train station it was a very emotional but happy farewell to a wonderful FF group.
About to leave Halle
There was plenty of singing as we left to join the others at the Leipzig airport. Thought today we would have no hiccups but Barbara W had booked for the 13th not the 12th and to change would have been too expensive so she had to go home for another day.
NOTE: Continued on Devon page - see below for link.
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