is to say that you were in Luxembourg. Honestly, not that interesting. Perhaps parts of the countryside are beautiful, but Luxembourg City is not that...happening. I arrived and tried to get a ticket out for the next morning to go to Paris, but each train only has a certain number of tickets available to Eurail passengers, which turns out to be very few on some trains. She could only get me on a 5PM train. I haven't had a problem before this, so I suppose I am very lucky, and fortunate to be getting out the same day anyway...but it was about 7 hours too long.
Got to the hostel which is a very new building located in the valley (ok walking down with your bags, but try walking up!), and dealt with some of the most stuck up people I had met on my trip so far. And this was the case with the ticket lady and the tourist information lady as well. Perhaps the Luxians want to be the Parisians, so they adopt the same pretentious air and pretend only to speak and understand French, or Luxembourgish (no joke); however, Parisians have a reason to be that way because their city is great. Luxembourg, not so much...get over yourselves. This is probably a gross generalization, so I apologize to Luxembourg for that small rant. But along the same lines...Luxembourg is 2007's European Center of Culture. Wow, the EU must be really running out of countries...
OK, enough of the rant and more about what Luxembourg City is actually like. The "thing" about Luxembourg is that it was a fortified stronghold for anyone who conquered it, the French, the Spanish, etc. Each ruling power kept building up the casements, so much so that the city expanded all the way to the valley into the cliffsides with underground tunnels and rooms to house thousands of soldiers for weeks with kitchens and storerooms, etc. It would be a great defensive location. During WWI, when Luxembourg declared neutrality, they tore most of the casements down so whatever power took it over wouldn't be able to use the city as a stronghold. A few casements still exist, and I was able to visit the Bock Casements near my hostel. It is neat to walk through the tunnels in the cliff, and perhaps in a larger group I would have had more fun because it isn't so impressive, necessarily, to see. Then I walked all over town, which I am going to call sterile architecture. Everything is beige, stucco, and plain, especially the government buildings (which are all in one tiny, TINY square). The big cathedral is nice, but sterile as well. The most decorated building is the Ducal Palace...and the people LOVE their Grand Duke. Pictures of the Ducal family are everywhere! Decided to just walk around the edge of town where the fortifications used to be and just overlook the valley, which is lovely. On the other edge of town is a series of parks that lead up to some very ugly (very ugly) UN buildings, which I didn't make it up to. Headed back for an early night (and some laundry) and met some great people at the hostel! (Characters: Emilie from Guernsey Island, ten points to anyone who knows where that is!, who is studying at Cambridge and has an internship in Lux for the summer and Jeremy from the US who is also travelling around Europe) We talked all through dinner and into the night about everything from education to international politics to the Tour de France (which I hope I don't hit when I am in Paris) to linguistics (they are both into linguistics!) Jeremy suggested the Luxembourg City Museum...perhaps a good thing for tomorrow to figure out what this town was all about and how it got to be what it is.
Headed to that museum in the morning, and to tell you the truth, it was very insightful. Interesting story about why the city was built there about a king and his mermaid wife. He married this woman he met in the forest, but she asked him that one night a week or month, she would be left completely alone. He got jealous and spied on her one of these days and she was sitting in the bath with a mermaid tail. He was so shocked, he made a noise (as all these tales go) and she disappeared into thin air. He never found her, but he built a city right there in case she came back. Then the museum explained the different expansions and fortifications of the city and the current state of politics, culture, and city works. Perhaps a trip into the Lux countryside would have been nice, but one must move on. And I to Paris!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Ben and Bonn, Cologne and Kirches
Headed to Western Germany to meet up with Mr. Ben Morris. (Character: Ben, a fellow G&S Board member, a dual citizen of CA and Germany, and an all around amazing and hilarious guy.) Well, at first, Ben was on a class trip-he is studying in Bonn for the summer-and then they went wine tasting, so I spent the day in Cologne which is the home of a fabulous cathedral. Saw a bride and her father pull up in one of those bike taxis, and when she tried to just walk down the side to get to the smaller chapel, the crowd forced her into the center aisle taking pictures and she walked down that aisle, heralded by a trumpeter. I guess if you are going to get married in Cologne cathedral, that is how you would want to do it. Headed through town to the Lindt Chocolate Museum where there are actually little old ladies sitting at the machines making enough chocolate to sell in the gift shop every day. Stopped at the river where there was a huge crowd, on both sides of the river, seeming like they were waiting for something. When Ben called and said that they were all coming into Cologne and to stay there, I wondered...what are they celebrating? Ben still thinks it is an annual fireworks display on a summer Saturday that happened to coincide, but I think they were celebrating good old Bastille Day! Met up with Ben and broke through a barrier with a crowd to a great spot to watch the amazing fireworks display. Made up for not being in Boston for the 4th. And all the fireworks were red, white, and blue (or rather blue, white, and red to the French!) choreographed to a great soundtrack. Everyone was singing and celebrating. Got back very late to Bonn and just crashed, but it is so good to see Ben!
Next day, Ben took me all around Bonn, treating me to the nicest, and longest lunch where I convinced him that he must do Cox and Box for Arts First next year. He convinced me that Apfelschorle, a sparkling apple juice much like Martinelli's, but better, is the best beverage on earth. After about 3 hours, we decided that we should get to the three churches in town we wanted to see before they closed. Went to one way up north of town which had nice frescoes, then down to the Munster in the center of town, and then up the hill for a beautiful Rococo church. We treated ourselves to huge ice creams and apfelschorles because it was so hot and we just did three churches on opposite sides of town in about an hour and a half. Met up with Ben's friends from the program at one of their apartments and spend the rest of the night just chatting away.
While Ben was in class, I took a day trip to the very interesting and ancient town of Trier. It houses plenty of Roman ruins like the Porta Negra, an amphitheater (which is just eh), and the awesome Roman baths. Worth the trip just to run around the underground labyrinth at the baths! Also great was a museum that houses the pieces of a frescoes ceiling from Helena's (Constantine's mother's) house that existed underneath one of the big churches. It looks like a mosaic, but that is just because it was put back together from thousands of tiny fragments! Beautiful frescoes and portraits, and it is amazing that they could put it back together like that! And they didn't even restore the color, but the pigments are all perfectly preserved! Back in Bonn, Ben and I hung out with the summer group talking about everything from baseball teams to travelling to Harvard to art to science jargon to movies...you name it. Ben is a very knowledgable person on all said subjects.
Thank you to all the awesome people who met me and showed me around Germany! I had a great time!
Next day, Ben took me all around Bonn, treating me to the nicest, and longest lunch where I convinced him that he must do Cox and Box for Arts First next year. He convinced me that Apfelschorle, a sparkling apple juice much like Martinelli's, but better, is the best beverage on earth. After about 3 hours, we decided that we should get to the three churches in town we wanted to see before they closed. Went to one way up north of town which had nice frescoes, then down to the Munster in the center of town, and then up the hill for a beautiful Rococo church. We treated ourselves to huge ice creams and apfelschorles because it was so hot and we just did three churches on opposite sides of town in about an hour and a half. Met up with Ben's friends from the program at one of their apartments and spend the rest of the night just chatting away.
While Ben was in class, I took a day trip to the very interesting and ancient town of Trier. It houses plenty of Roman ruins like the Porta Negra, an amphitheater (which is just eh), and the awesome Roman baths. Worth the trip just to run around the underground labyrinth at the baths! Also great was a museum that houses the pieces of a frescoes ceiling from Helena's (Constantine's mother's) house that existed underneath one of the big churches. It looks like a mosaic, but that is just because it was put back together from thousands of tiny fragments! Beautiful frescoes and portraits, and it is amazing that they could put it back together like that! And they didn't even restore the color, but the pigments are all perfectly preserved! Back in Bonn, Ben and I hung out with the summer group talking about everything from baseball teams to travelling to Harvard to art to science jargon to movies...you name it. Ben is a very knowledgable person on all said subjects.
Thank you to all the awesome people who met me and showed me around Germany! I had a great time!
"That it's all just a little bit of history repeating..."
There is something poignant about sitting in a Dunkies across from the infamous Brandenburg Gate and listening to Shirley Bassey's lyrics of this song. Oh Berlin.
Oh Berlin is right. What a juxtaposition of a city. I found myself staying and spending 97% of my time (aka, not when I was jumping over the cobblestone line denoting where the wall used to be and going back and forth) in East Berlin because it is just that much more interesting than the West. And so many stories, both tragic and comedic. I always felt torn in the city, but probably not as torn as the population who lived on either side of the wall. And that all happened in my lifetime.
(Brandenburg Gate for those who have no clue what I am talking about...a huge gate in Pariserplatz that every major political power must march through when conquering the city...Napoleon, Hitler...you know. Has a statue of Victory on top in a chariot drawn by four horses. Napoleon wanted it for the Louvre, so he had some poor guys go up, take it down, and move it to Paris. After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany took it back, reinstated it on the top of the gate, and had it angled so that Victory now looks down upon and points at the very ugly French Embassy, warning them never to try it again!)
Anyway, I met up with Katie and Bryce (from the Prague Quadrennial) and Amy and Malte! (Characters: Amy, friend from Harvard who did lots of theater and wants to continue directing. She won a Fullbright to study theater and intern at theaters in Berlin for a year. Amazing. Malte is her awesome and amazing German boyfriend who is a very successful dramaturg and seems to know everyone in the Berlin theater and music scene. I love them both.) Well, first I went on a free tour of Berlin, just to get a sense of all the layers of history. If you go to Berlin, you MUST take one of the free tours. Go to the Brandenburg gate and look for the really energetic people in the red shirts. If there is an Aussie named Annabelle, take her tour. She is amazing! She is such a Berlin geek that she moved here and reads her whole day long to gather more stories for her tours. She went for 5 hours (one hour over) and none of us knew because we were so engaged and having such a great time! I think my favorite story is how the wall came down...one of the biggest blunders of international press conference history. I won't retell the story for all those who already know it, but if you don't know it...look it up. Also, the Pope's Revenge is quite amusing. I will tell that one. So one of the East Berlin leaders during the communist days wanted to show the world that East Berlin was as technologically advanced as the western world. He had a TV Tower built that could be seen from all over Berlin; however, East Berlin didn't actually have the technology to figure out how to build it, so he flew in some international engineers to finish the project. I should inject that this leader also had all the crosses taken off of churches because communism didn't need the church or religion. A huge metal ball, kind of like the one in Times Square for New Year's only bigger, tops off the tower, and was made in such a way that it reflects light on a sunny day in the biggest cross you have ever seen. It's hilarious. And they call it the Pope's Revenge. Anyway, Annabelle showed us all over the city, so we hit all the sights of mostly East Berlin. I think the most moving is the Holocaust Memorial, but I will get back to the that. Ended on Museum Isle and jumped into the Berliner Dom before it closed. Huge place. Didn't know that I would end up walking up to the top, but found myself with a great view of Berlin. Looked at the time and went on a hunch that Katie and Bryce would be at an opera house (there are 3 in town) at a certain time. Chose the one, the Komische Oper, that was actually having a performance, Die Fledermaus, and happened upon Bryce buying a preztel the size of his head from an outside vendor. Talk about a shot in the dark. I've never seen Die Fledermaus before, but I should probably see it again, as there were no subtitles. It was, however, a cool design (lots of stairs...on a rake...that rotated...and you guys think I'm crazy!), and costumes were all eye candy for Katie. Oh yeah, and it was all centered around a working glass elevator. Ha...ha. Finally got the phone thing settled so I didn't have to use Amy as an operator to reach Katie, and set off on my merry way back to my hostel. (If you are staying in Berlin and need a hostel, St. Christopher's is a great place. Wombats is also opening right next to it, thus making it a great intersection of cheap beds!)
Started off the next grey day at the Jewish Museum. I must say that I hated it, both architecturally and as a Jewish Museum. I thought that the parts that were most moving were the empty "spaces" dedicated to the Holocaust, but they were more of a "look what Libeskind, the architect, can do!" rather than experiencing the space, the events. Not much to say about it because it was terrible. But I follwed that up with an AMAZING space, the Reichstag! Worth the wait in line, the glass dome on top of the Reichstag is such a great structure! And it's not about the view, which is good, or even the view below of the parliament chambers so the politicians never forget that they are being watched by the people. It's just a great space to move about in. It's a double helix of ramps going up to a top platform open to the sky, but it has a heated floor (important on this cold, rainy day). In the middle is a huge mirrored pillar that can only be described as the center structure of the breeding ground in the movie, "The Matrix." Pictures coming soon...hopefully. Ran back with K&B for a quick dinner and then met up with Amy and Malte for a very odd show at the Volksbruhne, which turned out to be the big scaffolded building that flashed across from my hostel. (Some guy swore it was a club.) As soon as I met Malte, I knew the two of us were on the same page. (If you meet him, don't mention the boat. OK?) OK. Well, we were seeing a show with these huge German actors in it directed by a guy Amy is going to work with in the next year. It was hilarious, and I didn't understand one word of what was going on. I am sure it would have been even more hilarious if I understood the text. And it was very German. I now understand when Mike Donahue came back from Berlin and said in his production meeting, "I am a new man." I get it now, Mike. I get it. Went with Amy to say good-bye to Nick O'Donovan, a Harvard grad who was doing his PhD in Berlin for the last year. Never met Nick before, even though we travelled in the same theater and Signet circles, but he is great.
Planned to go to museums, but it turned out to be, finally, a nice day, so I headed into West Berlin to the Tiergarten, a huge park, instead. Quite nice. Saw the golden Victoria on a stick and many other statues. Ended up at the zoo, and for whatever reason, was possessed to pay to get in and see the "cute" polar bear, Knut. That had to be a low point of the day. Waiting in a HUGE crowd for a bear to come out of a hole. What to people do on ground hog day?! He bounded out for 5 seconds, enough time for most people to catch a photo, I wouldn't dare aim my camera at a hole, and then ran right back in. Problem is...he isn't a cute cub anymore. He isn't a cub at all. In fact he looks like all the rest of the polar bears who are seperated onto the other side of the habitat and don't have any fans. Sigh. Meandered through the birds, giraffes, and elephants for a bit until running up to Potsdamer Platz to meet Amy at the Sony Center. Potsdamer Platz is one of those places completely torn by the Wall. It used to be the busiest intersection in Europe before the war, so much so that it got the first European traffic light. Then the Wall went up right in the middle of it. The boundry wall on the Eastern side, making the no go zone or shoot to kill zone, cleared out most of the rest of it making it no man's land for years. Only now it is becoming the commercial center again, or rather a fantasty land of glass and steel for huge companies like Sony and Deutsche Bahn. Amy showed me around more of town until we got a Bat signal from Malte saying that he had just spent 3 hours of his life trying to copy one article that may or may not be helpful in the production he is working on. He stationed himself at a chocolate and ice cream store, brooding over the lost hours of his life, so we showered him in hugs. Amy took him home for a nap while I met up with K&B to go the Ampelman store. Ampelman is the pedestrian traffic guy in East Berlin, designed by a cartoonist to get pedestrians to notice the signal more often. After integration, he went away, replaced by the western traffic little guys, but people demanded Ampelman. He's made a comeback on smaller streets and on plenty of merchandise. Keep a look out for him!
Started my day at the German History Museum, which I award with a gold star. It is one of the most fabulous history museums I have been to. Took me hours to go through and covered every decade from the earliest times of the Germanic tribes to after integration. It is amazing. It is a must go see when you are in Berlin. Then I got a call from Amy saying to go to the Komische Oper because Malte, who used to work there, was going to get us into a dress rehearsal of a farewell gala concert for this up and coming amazing conductor. Apparently he is leaving the opera orchestra to go free lance. They were playing a Sibelius, a flute concerto, and Rochmoninov's "The Bells." It was a fabulous concert and the conductor reminds me of Seiji...love it. And it was great to hear what he worked on. Missed Cello a lot...must bring him to NYC. Had a late dinner with friends from the hostels at a sushi restaurant. Very random, but a great day!
Lucky Friday the 13th was spend stressing over getting a room in Paris. Finally got the guts to call places and deal with the French. Made reservations for a place next to the Louvre for 7 nights...why would a hostel NEXT TO THE LOUVRE have rooms only a few days in advance. I am skeptical, but hopeful. Headed to the Pergamon, which has a fabulous collection of massive ancient art and architecture, like the gates of Istor (Babylon) and the Egyptian Museum which has the famous bust of Nefertiti. Both museums are fabulous, but they are free if you go on Thursday nights. However, then you have to pay for the audio guides, but the guides are worth it. Walked into the Radisson hotel to find a bathroom, but rather found a massive fish/shark tank in the middle of the lobby which had an elevator going through the middle of it! (Turns out to be part of an aquarium experience, but definitely worth the free peek!) Met up with K&B to say good bye (they were saving a lot of money, something like 5 billion dollars, by going on a night bus...yes bus...to London from Berlin) and then went to sushi with A&M to say good bye to them, as they were leaving for the weekend. You all must come visit me in NYC next year! Got a peek at the Gehry structure inside the DZ Bank building in Pariserplatz which is very interesting. Wandered through the Holocaust Memorial. Again, best Holocaust Memorial I have ever experience, and I think a big part of that is because it is all the experience. You start out on street level overlooking a field of concrete pillars that are all the same width and length. However, they vary in height as you descend an uneven, hilly network of paths into the grid of pillars that become much taller than you. The architect never wanted to say exactly what it all meant, he wanted it to be a unique experience for everyone, and I think it works in an incredible way. It is actually a very scary place to walk through, as you never know when someone is going to pop around the corner, or when a voice will come in and then disappear as people are running or walking through this landscape. If you are talking to someone, and they suddenly turn a corner, you lose them. Other times, you bump into someone walking perpendicular to you. I thought it was a very good memorial to the times and the escalating fear and confusion felt as people were moved out of their homes to the camps. It also reminded me of a deserted neighborhood (actually very much like the streets of Pompeii), like the moment everyone had been evacuated. Very creepy, but very moving. Go, experience it.
Decided to spend my last night at the movies. The Sony Center was advertising Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3-D! 3-D! How awesome was that going to be! (Is it in 3-D in the States?) I got up to the ticket counter and the lady wouldn't sell me the ticket. "It's in German." Are there 3-D subtitles. "No...dubbed, poorly...in German. You don't want to go. Go see the normal one in English. Nicer voices. Nicer movie. And you don't have to pay the extra 12 euro for the 3-D part." But it's 3-D. Well, she was right. The English version is the best, and what a fabulous movie! My favorite of the 5 so far, by far. This director knows what he is doing, and the kids are getting to be better actors. Totally made my night. Can't wait for Book 7 to come out...I will be in Paris. Courtney promises a launch party. I hope so.
Well, in conclusion to that long post, I loved Berlin and would definitely go back. There was so much to see. So much to experience. So much to learn. So much to remember. A living memorial might be a good word, but also a city picking up the pieces and moving forward. Definitely an interesting place to visit.
Oh Berlin is right. What a juxtaposition of a city. I found myself staying and spending 97% of my time (aka, not when I was jumping over the cobblestone line denoting where the wall used to be and going back and forth) in East Berlin because it is just that much more interesting than the West. And so many stories, both tragic and comedic. I always felt torn in the city, but probably not as torn as the population who lived on either side of the wall. And that all happened in my lifetime.
(Brandenburg Gate for those who have no clue what I am talking about...a huge gate in Pariserplatz that every major political power must march through when conquering the city...Napoleon, Hitler...you know. Has a statue of Victory on top in a chariot drawn by four horses. Napoleon wanted it for the Louvre, so he had some poor guys go up, take it down, and move it to Paris. After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany took it back, reinstated it on the top of the gate, and had it angled so that Victory now looks down upon and points at the very ugly French Embassy, warning them never to try it again!)
Anyway, I met up with Katie and Bryce (from the Prague Quadrennial) and Amy and Malte! (Characters: Amy, friend from Harvard who did lots of theater and wants to continue directing. She won a Fullbright to study theater and intern at theaters in Berlin for a year. Amazing. Malte is her awesome and amazing German boyfriend who is a very successful dramaturg and seems to know everyone in the Berlin theater and music scene. I love them both.) Well, first I went on a free tour of Berlin, just to get a sense of all the layers of history. If you go to Berlin, you MUST take one of the free tours. Go to the Brandenburg gate and look for the really energetic people in the red shirts. If there is an Aussie named Annabelle, take her tour. She is amazing! She is such a Berlin geek that she moved here and reads her whole day long to gather more stories for her tours. She went for 5 hours (one hour over) and none of us knew because we were so engaged and having such a great time! I think my favorite story is how the wall came down...one of the biggest blunders of international press conference history. I won't retell the story for all those who already know it, but if you don't know it...look it up. Also, the Pope's Revenge is quite amusing. I will tell that one. So one of the East Berlin leaders during the communist days wanted to show the world that East Berlin was as technologically advanced as the western world. He had a TV Tower built that could be seen from all over Berlin; however, East Berlin didn't actually have the technology to figure out how to build it, so he flew in some international engineers to finish the project. I should inject that this leader also had all the crosses taken off of churches because communism didn't need the church or religion. A huge metal ball, kind of like the one in Times Square for New Year's only bigger, tops off the tower, and was made in such a way that it reflects light on a sunny day in the biggest cross you have ever seen. It's hilarious. And they call it the Pope's Revenge. Anyway, Annabelle showed us all over the city, so we hit all the sights of mostly East Berlin. I think the most moving is the Holocaust Memorial, but I will get back to the that. Ended on Museum Isle and jumped into the Berliner Dom before it closed. Huge place. Didn't know that I would end up walking up to the top, but found myself with a great view of Berlin. Looked at the time and went on a hunch that Katie and Bryce would be at an opera house (there are 3 in town) at a certain time. Chose the one, the Komische Oper, that was actually having a performance, Die Fledermaus, and happened upon Bryce buying a preztel the size of his head from an outside vendor. Talk about a shot in the dark. I've never seen Die Fledermaus before, but I should probably see it again, as there were no subtitles. It was, however, a cool design (lots of stairs...on a rake...that rotated...and you guys think I'm crazy!), and costumes were all eye candy for Katie. Oh yeah, and it was all centered around a working glass elevator. Ha...ha. Finally got the phone thing settled so I didn't have to use Amy as an operator to reach Katie, and set off on my merry way back to my hostel. (If you are staying in Berlin and need a hostel, St. Christopher's is a great place. Wombats is also opening right next to it, thus making it a great intersection of cheap beds!)
Started off the next grey day at the Jewish Museum. I must say that I hated it, both architecturally and as a Jewish Museum. I thought that the parts that were most moving were the empty "spaces" dedicated to the Holocaust, but they were more of a "look what Libeskind, the architect, can do!" rather than experiencing the space, the events. Not much to say about it because it was terrible. But I follwed that up with an AMAZING space, the Reichstag! Worth the wait in line, the glass dome on top of the Reichstag is such a great structure! And it's not about the view, which is good, or even the view below of the parliament chambers so the politicians never forget that they are being watched by the people. It's just a great space to move about in. It's a double helix of ramps going up to a top platform open to the sky, but it has a heated floor (important on this cold, rainy day). In the middle is a huge mirrored pillar that can only be described as the center structure of the breeding ground in the movie, "The Matrix." Pictures coming soon...hopefully. Ran back with K&B for a quick dinner and then met up with Amy and Malte for a very odd show at the Volksbruhne, which turned out to be the big scaffolded building that flashed across from my hostel. (Some guy swore it was a club.) As soon as I met Malte, I knew the two of us were on the same page. (If you meet him, don't mention the boat. OK?) OK. Well, we were seeing a show with these huge German actors in it directed by a guy Amy is going to work with in the next year. It was hilarious, and I didn't understand one word of what was going on. I am sure it would have been even more hilarious if I understood the text. And it was very German. I now understand when Mike Donahue came back from Berlin and said in his production meeting, "I am a new man." I get it now, Mike. I get it. Went with Amy to say good-bye to Nick O'Donovan, a Harvard grad who was doing his PhD in Berlin for the last year. Never met Nick before, even though we travelled in the same theater and Signet circles, but he is great.
Planned to go to museums, but it turned out to be, finally, a nice day, so I headed into West Berlin to the Tiergarten, a huge park, instead. Quite nice. Saw the golden Victoria on a stick and many other statues. Ended up at the zoo, and for whatever reason, was possessed to pay to get in and see the "cute" polar bear, Knut. That had to be a low point of the day. Waiting in a HUGE crowd for a bear to come out of a hole. What to people do on ground hog day?! He bounded out for 5 seconds, enough time for most people to catch a photo, I wouldn't dare aim my camera at a hole, and then ran right back in. Problem is...he isn't a cute cub anymore. He isn't a cub at all. In fact he looks like all the rest of the polar bears who are seperated onto the other side of the habitat and don't have any fans. Sigh. Meandered through the birds, giraffes, and elephants for a bit until running up to Potsdamer Platz to meet Amy at the Sony Center. Potsdamer Platz is one of those places completely torn by the Wall. It used to be the busiest intersection in Europe before the war, so much so that it got the first European traffic light. Then the Wall went up right in the middle of it. The boundry wall on the Eastern side, making the no go zone or shoot to kill zone, cleared out most of the rest of it making it no man's land for years. Only now it is becoming the commercial center again, or rather a fantasty land of glass and steel for huge companies like Sony and Deutsche Bahn. Amy showed me around more of town until we got a Bat signal from Malte saying that he had just spent 3 hours of his life trying to copy one article that may or may not be helpful in the production he is working on. He stationed himself at a chocolate and ice cream store, brooding over the lost hours of his life, so we showered him in hugs. Amy took him home for a nap while I met up with K&B to go the Ampelman store. Ampelman is the pedestrian traffic guy in East Berlin, designed by a cartoonist to get pedestrians to notice the signal more often. After integration, he went away, replaced by the western traffic little guys, but people demanded Ampelman. He's made a comeback on smaller streets and on plenty of merchandise. Keep a look out for him!
Started my day at the German History Museum, which I award with a gold star. It is one of the most fabulous history museums I have been to. Took me hours to go through and covered every decade from the earliest times of the Germanic tribes to after integration. It is amazing. It is a must go see when you are in Berlin. Then I got a call from Amy saying to go to the Komische Oper because Malte, who used to work there, was going to get us into a dress rehearsal of a farewell gala concert for this up and coming amazing conductor. Apparently he is leaving the opera orchestra to go free lance. They were playing a Sibelius, a flute concerto, and Rochmoninov's "The Bells." It was a fabulous concert and the conductor reminds me of Seiji...love it. And it was great to hear what he worked on. Missed Cello a lot...must bring him to NYC. Had a late dinner with friends from the hostels at a sushi restaurant. Very random, but a great day!
Lucky Friday the 13th was spend stressing over getting a room in Paris. Finally got the guts to call places and deal with the French. Made reservations for a place next to the Louvre for 7 nights...why would a hostel NEXT TO THE LOUVRE have rooms only a few days in advance. I am skeptical, but hopeful. Headed to the Pergamon, which has a fabulous collection of massive ancient art and architecture, like the gates of Istor (Babylon) and the Egyptian Museum which has the famous bust of Nefertiti. Both museums are fabulous, but they are free if you go on Thursday nights. However, then you have to pay for the audio guides, but the guides are worth it. Walked into the Radisson hotel to find a bathroom, but rather found a massive fish/shark tank in the middle of the lobby which had an elevator going through the middle of it! (Turns out to be part of an aquarium experience, but definitely worth the free peek!) Met up with K&B to say good bye (they were saving a lot of money, something like 5 billion dollars, by going on a night bus...yes bus...to London from Berlin) and then went to sushi with A&M to say good bye to them, as they were leaving for the weekend. You all must come visit me in NYC next year! Got a peek at the Gehry structure inside the DZ Bank building in Pariserplatz which is very interesting. Wandered through the Holocaust Memorial. Again, best Holocaust Memorial I have ever experience, and I think a big part of that is because it is all the experience. You start out on street level overlooking a field of concrete pillars that are all the same width and length. However, they vary in height as you descend an uneven, hilly network of paths into the grid of pillars that become much taller than you. The architect never wanted to say exactly what it all meant, he wanted it to be a unique experience for everyone, and I think it works in an incredible way. It is actually a very scary place to walk through, as you never know when someone is going to pop around the corner, or when a voice will come in and then disappear as people are running or walking through this landscape. If you are talking to someone, and they suddenly turn a corner, you lose them. Other times, you bump into someone walking perpendicular to you. I thought it was a very good memorial to the times and the escalating fear and confusion felt as people were moved out of their homes to the camps. It also reminded me of a deserted neighborhood (actually very much like the streets of Pompeii), like the moment everyone had been evacuated. Very creepy, but very moving. Go, experience it.
Decided to spend my last night at the movies. The Sony Center was advertising Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3-D! 3-D! How awesome was that going to be! (Is it in 3-D in the States?) I got up to the ticket counter and the lady wouldn't sell me the ticket. "It's in German." Are there 3-D subtitles. "No...dubbed, poorly...in German. You don't want to go. Go see the normal one in English. Nicer voices. Nicer movie. And you don't have to pay the extra 12 euro for the 3-D part." But it's 3-D. Well, she was right. The English version is the best, and what a fabulous movie! My favorite of the 5 so far, by far. This director knows what he is doing, and the kids are getting to be better actors. Totally made my night. Can't wait for Book 7 to come out...I will be in Paris. Courtney promises a launch party. I hope so.
Well, in conclusion to that long post, I loved Berlin and would definitely go back. There was so much to see. So much to experience. So much to learn. So much to remember. A living memorial might be a good word, but also a city picking up the pieces and moving forward. Definitely an interesting place to visit.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Oh, so much to post! More Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Bonn, Trier, Luxembourg, and now Paris! However, I must run off to a tour of the Opera Garnier, the phantom of the opera opera house. However, I just wanted to say two things.
One: Like Napoleon, I came, saw, and conquered the Louvre. Those who doubt that it can be done in a day...and done well...are just wrong. On Friday nights they are open until 10, so if one gets there at, say, 9:30, one can do the Louvre, every open room, in 12 hours. Melissa one, Louvre...well...it just trumps everything anyway, so it wins. So, Melissa one, Mona Lisa, 0. What an overrated piece of art. It is bigger than I thought... And do not forget...Napoleon was also short.
Two: I know that I posted the first page of Book 6 as soon as I got it in London, 6 hours before most of you. I apologize for not rubbing it in again and posting it this morning...internet at my hostel is bad. Hmmm...sorry...but I still got it before most of you. Not that many of you care, but for those who do, you know who you are. I got it at 1:50AM...line was long at WH Smith. We could get it at 1:01 here because Britain had to release it first. (One hour time difference, and a one minute start.) Coutrney (character: Courtney is an amazing set designer and artist at Harvard, and she is studying here for the summer. More on her in the Paris posts.) and I are going to sit in a park, eat lots of bread, cheese, and chocolate, and read the book today. My feet need a tiny break after yesterday anyway.
Also, French keyboards have to be the worst! Fingers very tired from the single finger pecking.
One: Like Napoleon, I came, saw, and conquered the Louvre. Those who doubt that it can be done in a day...and done well...are just wrong. On Friday nights they are open until 10, so if one gets there at, say, 9:30, one can do the Louvre, every open room, in 12 hours. Melissa one, Louvre...well...it just trumps everything anyway, so it wins. So, Melissa one, Mona Lisa, 0. What an overrated piece of art. It is bigger than I thought... And do not forget...Napoleon was also short.
Two: I know that I posted the first page of Book 6 as soon as I got it in London, 6 hours before most of you. I apologize for not rubbing it in again and posting it this morning...internet at my hostel is bad. Hmmm...sorry...but I still got it before most of you. Not that many of you care, but for those who do, you know who you are. I got it at 1:50AM...line was long at WH Smith. We could get it at 1:01 here because Britain had to release it first. (One hour time difference, and a one minute start.) Coutrney (character: Courtney is an amazing set designer and artist at Harvard, and she is studying here for the summer. More on her in the Paris posts.) and I are going to sit in a park, eat lots of bread, cheese, and chocolate, and read the book today. My feet need a tiny break after yesterday anyway.
Also, French keyboards have to be the worst! Fingers very tired from the single finger pecking.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Opera, Opulence, and Ozzie (More Munich)
While Rowan was in class (he is currently studying German so to be able to translate the few medieval documents he will need for his PhD), I was instructed to go to the Alte Pinacothek, or the old museum of art. A hearty thumbs up for this museum. I liked that they didn't have descriptions or tags next to the art; every frame had just a title and the artist's name. But, with your ticket, you get a free audio guide, and almost every painting had a very thorough description. It was a very user-friendly, easy way to move through the museum. I came to the conclusion, after wandering their huge Rubens collection, that I don't like Rubens. Pity. But I did like the rest of the collections. Met up with Rowan and went to the amazingly opulent Scholss Nymphanburg. Gawked at every room in the palace, and then strolled arm in arm through the gardens to all the "small" palaces that either of us would easily take as a home. Went into the chapel where you had to put on these silly slippers so not to ruin the floor. A rechoreographed version of the Ice Capades was necessary. Had wonderful conversations about Rowan's amazing life (Rowan is truly amazing, if you haven't been able to tell yet) and how he has met QE II, the person, not the ship, twice. Wow. I fully declare to the world that Rowan is wonderful and that we all must watch him, because he will be very famous one day. Even if it is in the tiny community of medieval trade history. As long as I can build your house...yes?
Got back into town and Rowan had this deep desire to try to get scalped tickets to the one night performance of "Roberto Deveraux" at the opera house starring the amazing Edita Gruberova. I am not up to snuff on opera as I should be, so Rowan told me that this role, Elizabeth I, could only be played by such a diva soprano as she and that people were making pilgrimages to see this. After seeing the people in tuxes and formal gowns pulling day luggage behind them, clearly having just arrived from the train station, I said, well, let's try to get tickets...and we did! Wonderful tickets in the front row of the top balcony. Perfect for seeing and hearing the performance. I will admit...I am now a believer in this Edita Gruberova. From the minute she walked onstage, she had the presence of a diva, and the voice...well, it was amazing! The die hard fans, aka us and a few others, stayed to give her numerous curtain calls. What a fabulous night!
Rowan went away for the rest of my time in Munich, which was a very sad parting. Rowan's notes guided me through Italy day by day (hour by hour), but having the real Rowan was quite a treat! However, while being led around, gawking at facades, one does not really get a sense of the city's layout. So I decided to take a free tour given by another amazing guy names Ozzie. He is worth going to Wombats in Munich and taking this tour. You will know him when you see him. He exudes fabulousness. To give you an idea, he started the tour outside the train station and screamed, "Hey! I'm a big, tall, black guy screaming the words Hitler and Nazi all the time. I've never had a problem! Munich must be safe." Wow. He gave us a great history of Munich from the very beginnings up to the Nazi regime, which started in Munich, by the way. You would never know because the city has tried to wash over everything to do with WWII...only a few hints on the ground. You wouldn't necessarily know that it was even bombed to smitherins, because they rebuilt everything in the older style of architecture. We had a good debate on whether that was a healthy or unhealthy way for the city to progress. Pros and cons to both sides. After giving Ozzie a huge hug (and a good tip), I headed to the Residenz, the city palace of the monarchs that was rebuilt in most of its glory after WWII. Headed over to the English Gardens, apparently the biggest park in Europe (ever city seems to claim this!), and wandered for a few hours there.
The next day was Disney princess day! I think I have now covered all of them, making me extremely happy. Of course, I am talking about a day trip to Fussen to see King Ludwig's fantasty castle, Neuschwanstein, used by Disney for the Sleeping Beauty castle in a few parks. First of all, Neuschwanstein, and it's older sibling, Hohenswangau, are located in the most beautiful setting in all of Germany. Second of all, Ludwig and Max, his father, were crazy, but the kind of crazy I would like as an architect. For example, the ceiling of their bedroom in Hohenswangau couldn't just be painted with a night sky and stars. Their stars had to be translucent with lights on the floor above so they would twinkle as the king fell asleep. They also had a hole cut above the bed, and a disc would slide around to mimick the correct phases of the moon. In Neuschwanstein, Ludwig had a bed made that looks somewhat like a carved wooden wedding cake that took four carvers four years to complete. The entire castle is decorated with allustions to all of Wagner's operas, Ludwig was a huge fan, so he hired a scenic designer to design the castle and the interiors for him. I tell you, scenic design is where the true creativity is at.
The next morning was spent at the outdated Deutches Museum, or science and technology museum. I have an issue with science museums because they are never updated fast enough to be interesting or useful. The computer section still was displaying a huge box from 1989 calling it the most recent of computer design. Hmmm. Some items don't change, like the history of musical instruments or a timeline of breakthroughs in chemistry before 1950, but I felt like I was reading an introductory history of science book (in German) from 1980. Don't waste your time.
But go to Munich for opera, opulence, and of course, Ozzie. And be sure to look at the ground, because that is where you will find the only marks of WWII.
Got back into town and Rowan had this deep desire to try to get scalped tickets to the one night performance of "Roberto Deveraux" at the opera house starring the amazing Edita Gruberova. I am not up to snuff on opera as I should be, so Rowan told me that this role, Elizabeth I, could only be played by such a diva soprano as she and that people were making pilgrimages to see this. After seeing the people in tuxes and formal gowns pulling day luggage behind them, clearly having just arrived from the train station, I said, well, let's try to get tickets...and we did! Wonderful tickets in the front row of the top balcony. Perfect for seeing and hearing the performance. I will admit...I am now a believer in this Edita Gruberova. From the minute she walked onstage, she had the presence of a diva, and the voice...well, it was amazing! The die hard fans, aka us and a few others, stayed to give her numerous curtain calls. What a fabulous night!
Rowan went away for the rest of my time in Munich, which was a very sad parting. Rowan's notes guided me through Italy day by day (hour by hour), but having the real Rowan was quite a treat! However, while being led around, gawking at facades, one does not really get a sense of the city's layout. So I decided to take a free tour given by another amazing guy names Ozzie. He is worth going to Wombats in Munich and taking this tour. You will know him when you see him. He exudes fabulousness. To give you an idea, he started the tour outside the train station and screamed, "Hey! I'm a big, tall, black guy screaming the words Hitler and Nazi all the time. I've never had a problem! Munich must be safe." Wow. He gave us a great history of Munich from the very beginnings up to the Nazi regime, which started in Munich, by the way. You would never know because the city has tried to wash over everything to do with WWII...only a few hints on the ground. You wouldn't necessarily know that it was even bombed to smitherins, because they rebuilt everything in the older style of architecture. We had a good debate on whether that was a healthy or unhealthy way for the city to progress. Pros and cons to both sides. After giving Ozzie a huge hug (and a good tip), I headed to the Residenz, the city palace of the monarchs that was rebuilt in most of its glory after WWII. Headed over to the English Gardens, apparently the biggest park in Europe (ever city seems to claim this!), and wandered for a few hours there.
The next day was Disney princess day! I think I have now covered all of them, making me extremely happy. Of course, I am talking about a day trip to Fussen to see King Ludwig's fantasty castle, Neuschwanstein, used by Disney for the Sleeping Beauty castle in a few parks. First of all, Neuschwanstein, and it's older sibling, Hohenswangau, are located in the most beautiful setting in all of Germany. Second of all, Ludwig and Max, his father, were crazy, but the kind of crazy I would like as an architect. For example, the ceiling of their bedroom in Hohenswangau couldn't just be painted with a night sky and stars. Their stars had to be translucent with lights on the floor above so they would twinkle as the king fell asleep. They also had a hole cut above the bed, and a disc would slide around to mimick the correct phases of the moon. In Neuschwanstein, Ludwig had a bed made that looks somewhat like a carved wooden wedding cake that took four carvers four years to complete. The entire castle is decorated with allustions to all of Wagner's operas, Ludwig was a huge fan, so he hired a scenic designer to design the castle and the interiors for him. I tell you, scenic design is where the true creativity is at.
The next morning was spent at the outdated Deutches Museum, or science and technology museum. I have an issue with science museums because they are never updated fast enough to be interesting or useful. The computer section still was displaying a huge box from 1989 calling it the most recent of computer design. Hmmm. Some items don't change, like the history of musical instruments or a timeline of breakthroughs in chemistry before 1950, but I felt like I was reading an introductory history of science book (in German) from 1980. Don't waste your time.
But go to Munich for opera, opulence, and of course, Ozzie. And be sure to look at the ground, because that is where you will find the only marks of WWII.
"If you want so sit alone, the church is across the street!"
Got off the train in Munich, and for the first time in a long time, someone was there to meet me! And someone wonderful in fact...Rowan! (character: Rowan, I believe he may have been introduced before, but he is a good friend from Harvard, a genius in the academic area of medieval trading in the Adriatic, and was an amazing Chesire Cat in my version of Alice in Wonderland. He is studying German in Munich for some weeks in order to translate medieval German texts for his PhD program.) Anyway, Rowan met me with a huge huge, a big smile, a great chocolate croissant, and a Munich map...all very much needed. He then wisks me away through town to many a beautiful church, including one which I never really caught the name of, but can be described, at best, as Rococo on steroids. Found out that the famous glockenspiel is being rennovated for its hundredth anniversary next year, thus it doesn't play. After a whirlwind tour and lunch at the market, we decided to run back to our respective homes, change for a night at the opera, and get in line for standing room tickets to a Korean opera of "Alice in Wonderland" with puppets. (That would probably be JD's worst nightmare.) Anyway, we get to the opera house two hours early in the freezing cold, stake out our place, despite some nudgy old women, and get inside to find out that the student rush line is our only hope. We stand there until the last call bell, and then the ticket manager says, "Bad news, students. No tickets." It's an opera, by a Korean composer, about Alice in Wonderland, with PUPPETS...it got terrible reviews...and people are still flocking to see it?! Well, we are dressed up with nowhere to go in particular, but we decide that we are famished, and craving Bavarian cuisine. We find the Weisshaus, a popular touristy restaurant, and get sat at a big table with two other couples. At first, we are all hestitantly smiling at each other, talking amongst ourselves and looking at a menu which sports cow's lung, pork knuckles, and boiled calf's heart. Yum. Well, I choose cheese spatzle, which I have been craving, and Rowan goes for the weinerschnitzel. The waitress comes by and the woman to my right orders a combination platter of the aforementioned "delicacies" of lung, knuckles, heart, liver I think, and something else. Our waitress, whom we fondly refer to as Hildegard because it would just fit her perfectly, gives her the strangest look and gasps, "You LIKE that?!?!" When the woman says that she is being adventurous, Hildegard responds, "No, no. You don't want that. No. Lung? Heart? They're cooked! I don't like them cooked!" (Oh, so you like raw heart and lung, Hildegard...I wouldn't want to mess with this woman.) "No, it is not good. You want this." Scared and taken aback that the waitress would talk her out of her choice, the woman orders what Hildegard suggests. Once H leaves, we all just burst out laughing! And that was the beginning of a great meal! Both couples were school teachers, Rowan is probably going to be a professor, and I have a great respect for school teachers, so we all talked about school and education, travel and languages, studying Latin and meat farming in the US. One couple was older, and the husband had just retired as a PE teacher in Wisconsin, so he know raises cattle on a farm. His wife, a middle school science teacher, grew up on a cattle farm and has cooked aforementioned delicacies, but she really liked what Hildegard suggested. The younger couple were new teachers taking a group of language students on a field trip to Munich. We talked for hours! At the end of the meal, Hildegard comes up and bellows, "See! See! You come in alone and now you are all chatting away as friends! This is what happens in Bavaria! I say, if you want to sit alone, the church is across the street!" That may be the best quote I have ever heard in my entire life, especially coming from a huge Bavarian woman. Oh Hildegard!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Drum roll please...
And your New Seven Wonders of the World are:
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Colosseum, Rome
Taj Mahal, India
Machu Picchu, Peru
and my friend Nikki's personal favorite
The Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Thanks to all those who voted...I know I did.
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Colosseum, Rome
Taj Mahal, India
Machu Picchu, Peru
and my friend Nikki's personal favorite
The Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Thanks to all those who voted...I know I did.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Switzerland...good cheese, good chocolate (milk), good views, and American country music?
OK, I actually don't like Swiss cheese (meaning the ones with the holes), but they have some nice other cheeses. And Heidi chocolate milk is the best chocolate milk on the planet. But I digress...
The train was a bit longer than I had expected, thus leaving me in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, exhausted and probably vitamin deficient. Tip: Eat plenty of fruits and vegggies, and protein when travelling. OK, so the first night was a bit of bust because my body went into shock from unhealthy eating, but there was an American band playing country rock outside our window, and the huge crowd was going nuts! It's amazing to see what makes it out of the US and becomes popular in other countries. Country rock, for example. Beverly Hills 90210...another example. Anyway, I was explaining how I felt to one of my roommates, Lucky (yes, that is her name), and I said, "I feel like I've been hit by a truck." She responded, "I was hit by a truck, and that ended my professional dancing career in New York." O...K... You never know when an innocent cliche is going to offend someone. But, since her accident, she learned so much about anatomy that she has become an anatomy and physiology professor at Arizona State, but she really wants to move to Boston to choreograph. After she gave me an Vitamin C pill so that I could at least get up and put my stuff away, we talked all night about theater. Good times.
The next day, I fulfilled one of my life dreams...to travel on a glass train! I had only heard of these train cars with huge windows all over in Canada, but it turns out that they have the Golden Pass Panoramic train through the Alps, and it is gorgeous! I went on a train to Speitz to Zwimmerman? to get on the panoramic train and travelled down to Montreax, which is a town up the lake from Geneva. It was a beautiful day and the lake with the Alps all around it is just breathtaking. Took a ferry up the lake to the Chateau de Chillon, which Lord Byron made famous and is a very neat little castle on the lake. From the Chateau, I caught a boat that took me up the lake an hour and a half to Lausanne. Caught a train home, and I call that a really nice day trip! Bravo to the book Europe by Eurail which suggested this itinerary. Probably the most gorgeous scenery day I have been on. If you go to Switaerland, go to the Golden Pass. Beautiful
On the suggestion of my aunt Sandy, I took the next day trip to Lake Lucerne, intending to continue a tradition of taking a picture at the top of Mt. Pilatus. Sandy, I tried! Honestly! But it was raining. The weather report said that it was going to clear in the afternoon and be bad in the morning, which was true, but the mountain gets cloudy in the afternoon regardless, so they wouldn't even sell me a ticket. Sounded like a really neat trip by boat, then by the steepest cogwheel funicular on a 40 minute ride up the mountain, then down by a sky lift. I was so excited...I guess another time. But, Luzern, the town, is lovely, even in rain. I started out on their famous covered bridges with beautiful paintings under the eaves. Walked up on the ramparts to some of the old watch towers on the edge of the city, and then down through the old town. All the platzes (can that be made plural?) are surrounded by buildings with huge facade frescoes making colorful panoramas all over the city. Walked up in the rain to the Dying Lion, the "most moving piece of rock in the world." Maybe true. It was very moving. To all those people who worked in the Ag, this was the random poster that was on the wall for so long that we couldn't figure out what it was! Saw an old 19th century panorama painting of the French troops coming into Switzerland for their internment from the Franco-Prussian War, and then headed back to the info center in hopes that the mountain had cleared a little bit. Nope, no luck. So I hopped on a train back to Bern and convinced some girls in the common room that they needed to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, a terrible, but somewhat hilarious movie. Good way to relax for the night.
Next morning, got up, went to my favorite grocery store in town and then walked the streets, up to the bear pits (which are very sad...two brown bears are just sitting at the bottom of this pit while tweens through food and other things at them and annoying tourists take pictures of them...they looked so sad and lost) and around to the glockenspiel (another let down) and to the Einstein house. The house where E=mc² was born had a great movie about Einstein's life and a very small, but thorough exhibit. Very enjoyable. Off to the train station to go to Zurich!
That night in Zurich...it rained...it poured. But I still made the trek to the two main churches, which are quite stark compared to others I have been to, but one had Marc Chagall's famous stained glass windows. I will admit, they were different and worth seeing. However, there was nothing else in the city worth seeing that day at least. I went over to the Design Museum to see an interesting exhibit called "On Time" about the history of time keeping and Swiss watches. I think the curator was showing some friends around, so he was watching me for my reactions.
I think overall, I liked Austria more than Switzerland, but I would come back with a car to drive through the Alps.
The train was a bit longer than I had expected, thus leaving me in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, exhausted and probably vitamin deficient. Tip: Eat plenty of fruits and vegggies, and protein when travelling. OK, so the first night was a bit of bust because my body went into shock from unhealthy eating, but there was an American band playing country rock outside our window, and the huge crowd was going nuts! It's amazing to see what makes it out of the US and becomes popular in other countries. Country rock, for example. Beverly Hills 90210...another example. Anyway, I was explaining how I felt to one of my roommates, Lucky (yes, that is her name), and I said, "I feel like I've been hit by a truck." She responded, "I was hit by a truck, and that ended my professional dancing career in New York." O...K... You never know when an innocent cliche is going to offend someone. But, since her accident, she learned so much about anatomy that she has become an anatomy and physiology professor at Arizona State, but she really wants to move to Boston to choreograph. After she gave me an Vitamin C pill so that I could at least get up and put my stuff away, we talked all night about theater. Good times.
The next day, I fulfilled one of my life dreams...to travel on a glass train! I had only heard of these train cars with huge windows all over in Canada, but it turns out that they have the Golden Pass Panoramic train through the Alps, and it is gorgeous! I went on a train to Speitz to Zwimmerman? to get on the panoramic train and travelled down to Montreax, which is a town up the lake from Geneva. It was a beautiful day and the lake with the Alps all around it is just breathtaking. Took a ferry up the lake to the Chateau de Chillon, which Lord Byron made famous and is a very neat little castle on the lake. From the Chateau, I caught a boat that took me up the lake an hour and a half to Lausanne. Caught a train home, and I call that a really nice day trip! Bravo to the book Europe by Eurail which suggested this itinerary. Probably the most gorgeous scenery day I have been on. If you go to Switaerland, go to the Golden Pass. Beautiful
On the suggestion of my aunt Sandy, I took the next day trip to Lake Lucerne, intending to continue a tradition of taking a picture at the top of Mt. Pilatus. Sandy, I tried! Honestly! But it was raining. The weather report said that it was going to clear in the afternoon and be bad in the morning, which was true, but the mountain gets cloudy in the afternoon regardless, so they wouldn't even sell me a ticket. Sounded like a really neat trip by boat, then by the steepest cogwheel funicular on a 40 minute ride up the mountain, then down by a sky lift. I was so excited...I guess another time. But, Luzern, the town, is lovely, even in rain. I started out on their famous covered bridges with beautiful paintings under the eaves. Walked up on the ramparts to some of the old watch towers on the edge of the city, and then down through the old town. All the platzes (can that be made plural?) are surrounded by buildings with huge facade frescoes making colorful panoramas all over the city. Walked up in the rain to the Dying Lion, the "most moving piece of rock in the world." Maybe true. It was very moving. To all those people who worked in the Ag, this was the random poster that was on the wall for so long that we couldn't figure out what it was! Saw an old 19th century panorama painting of the French troops coming into Switzerland for their internment from the Franco-Prussian War, and then headed back to the info center in hopes that the mountain had cleared a little bit. Nope, no luck. So I hopped on a train back to Bern and convinced some girls in the common room that they needed to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, a terrible, but somewhat hilarious movie. Good way to relax for the night.
Next morning, got up, went to my favorite grocery store in town and then walked the streets, up to the bear pits (which are very sad...two brown bears are just sitting at the bottom of this pit while tweens through food and other things at them and annoying tourists take pictures of them...they looked so sad and lost) and around to the glockenspiel (another let down) and to the Einstein house. The house where E=mc² was born had a great movie about Einstein's life and a very small, but thorough exhibit. Very enjoyable. Off to the train station to go to Zurich!
That night in Zurich...it rained...it poured. But I still made the trek to the two main churches, which are quite stark compared to others I have been to, but one had Marc Chagall's famous stained glass windows. I will admit, they were different and worth seeing. However, there was nothing else in the city worth seeing that day at least. I went over to the Design Museum to see an interesting exhibit called "On Time" about the history of time keeping and Swiss watches. I think the curator was showing some friends around, so he was watching me for my reactions.
I think overall, I liked Austria more than Switzerland, but I would come back with a car to drive through the Alps.
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