Berlin for 60 Minutes

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This is the first time after a long break, I saw Berlin again. But it’s not yet the real stay at the capital of Germany. It’s just a short stop over, basically waiting for my next train to get me from Dresden to Rostock. But this is the first time I arrived by train at Berlin. The new main station is quite overwhelming and since there was not really time to have a look at the city except for a few panorama views, I prepared Read More +

Flat Mountains

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As I learned the two days before on a guided tour at Leipzig, every change in elevation over 10 meters is considered a mountain here. So the “mountain” forming the outer wall of the Elbe around Loschwitz, which elevates 84 meters is a true giant in the local terms. Of course I could have easily walked up that elevation, but there is a nice handing railway, the first of its kind, bringing one up a bit more comfortably. Arriving on top, one has an excellent Read More +

Not Blind But Without a Visual Memory

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It looks like the German Museums perform a strict “no picture” policy, which has its good and bad sides. On the positive side, of course is that you don’t have other people disturbing you in looking at the exponates, but of course your on visual memory in forms of personal pictures gets a blank page. The “Rüstkammer” for which I found at least some nice images on the official museum homepage and wikimedia and the “Grünes Gewölbe” are there no exception. At the first place, Read More +

A new city

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My first impression of Dresden, after walking around the old city center was a bit different from what I now think of the city at the end of a sightseeing tour day. The well restored “Frauenkirche” and other monsterenous buildings built in sandstone and often decorated let you think you are in a different time. But after a bit of reflection, one recognizes that most of these buildings where badly destroyed in the second World War and have not been maintained during the DDR. So Read More +

An Old Home – AHA Hotel

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The AHA Hotel surprised me with a really large and nice room. Not only is there plenty of space in the bedroom, but apart from a bath there is also a small kitchen and the entire room could really serve as a small flat. The view from my little balcony into the backyard is also very nice and quite a bit of a contrast, when you take into account the front side of the hotel, which is rather a – lets say – regular street Read More +

Observations

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What one can see at the museum “Runde Ecke” is really a bit devastating. Of course one has heard or seen reports about the DDR Stasi (Staatssicherheit). But seeing the mini cameras taking up to 470 pictures and how they have been hidden in clothes or accessories is a different story. There were even specially constructed machines to open letters and seal them again. On the microphone and listing front, they of course also had quite small devices. Not really a big thing today in Read More +

Stop Over at Leipzig

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Well actually Leipzig would also deserve a real visit. But it just did not fit into my schedule. As I did not had to travel too far today from Bamberg to Dresden, though a stopover at Leipzig of roughly six hours was easily possible though. At first I tried to discover the center of the city on my own – accompanied by a bunch of Wikipedia articles, which my smartphone nicely ordered by the current location. But to get some background information, I took the Read More +

A Nice Summer Residence

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Just for about 3 months each year, the “Schloss Seehof” was actually used as the summer residence of the regents of Bamberg. Quite obviously hunting was more important at this place, than managing the city. At least the subjects on the paintings in the various rooms available for a guided tour now, mostly show hunting scenes or hunting related motives. That guided tour was actually held just for me alone as it’s a bit end of season and there where no other guests around. For Read More +

After Many Years

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What started today in my through is really not necessary. But it feels like the start of a flu, which probably go a chance to outbreak due to my limited sleep consumption during the last night, as the poetry slam kept me awake quite a bit longer than normal. Anyway, today I visited a shop, I have not visited for years – a drug store, the “Brücken Apotheke“. The nice staff tried to get me some, hopefully helpful medications, to help me avoiding that potential Read More +

Like in France

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When I saw the “Michael” in the “St. Michael” monastery, the figure as it was posed reminded my on the same figure at “Mont St. Michel”, on the north coast of France. Of course it is no surprise that the figure features the same symbolics, but just out of my memory, the two figures in these two places really looked identical. But maybe it is as simple as the statue was created by the same artist. As I learned some hours ago in the Dome, Read More +