Monday, May 26
Happy Memorial Day, Everyone! Remember, Kids, to think of your Grandpa A, since Memorial Day is really celebrated to remember our veterans (plus all of our ancestors who have gone before). I'm glad you - Mom, Jeanie, and Elise - were able to go to Ephraim this weekend. Wish I could have been with!
I haven't been able to post these last few entries since I couldn't get any of the USB drives on the computers in Poland to work. So here they all are at once.
I'm on the train to Magdeburg now. They did check our passports on the way back into Germany. It was the Polizei (police), though, not customs agents. They sell train tickets the old way there in Szcezcin - in person, instead of by machine in Germany. A kind of sad thing is that they are closing down all the little train stations all over Germany (not in the big cities) and just letting them sit boarded up and covered with graffiti, and replacing them with a machine. I guess it saves them money, but sure creates an eyesore and they are all such cute little train stations. (You kids know how much I like cute little places like post offices and stuff). Oh well.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I spent a day in Magdeburg yesterday. I had bread and water for lunch on the train because I had no money and no time to get any at the train station. I had bought some groceries in Poland on Saturday (including a Polish version of canned spam) and that is all I had left over from Sunday. But the experience is alllll worth it! (Either my clothes are stretching or I am losing weight. And my shoes are wearing out!)
Anyway, Magdeburg was not at all what I had thought it was going to be. From the descriptions I had read, it looked like it was going to be a cute little medieval town, but it was basically a showpiece of big fancy buildings – now dilapidated – and wide boulevards that were build by the communists back in the 1960s.
It did have a beautiful old cathedral, though, and the Rathaus (town council building) played a very nice set of bells on the hour one hour. And it is on the banks of the Elbe River. I saw some old train cars and engines that were from WW1, WW2 and from the days when Kathy and I would travel on the trains (which has gotten to be along time now)!
I am in Leipzig now. It is a much bigger city than I had thought. My guidebook says it has the biggest train station in all of Europe, which I am sure is true. It must be four times the size of the huge one I sued to go through in Hamburg.
I went through here once on a bus trip from Berlin to southern Germany to go skiing. It seemed small and quiet back then, but big and bustling now. I guess the big difference is all the cars on the road now. Back then almost no one could afford to have a car. Now they are everywhere!
This is the home of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer. I visited the church where he was the musician and where he is now buried. They have a big Bach celebration here every year.
Anyway, alles es gut bei mir! I´m doing fine. I love you all!
Happy Memorial Day, Everyone! Remember, Kids, to think of your Grandpa A, since Memorial Day is really celebrated to remember our veterans (plus all of our ancestors who have gone before). I'm glad you - Mom, Jeanie, and Elise - were able to go to Ephraim this weekend. Wish I could have been with!
I haven't been able to post these last few entries since I couldn't get any of the USB drives on the computers in Poland to work. So here they all are at once.
I'm on the train to Magdeburg now. They did check our passports on the way back into Germany. It was the Polizei (police), though, not customs agents. They sell train tickets the old way there in Szcezcin - in person, instead of by machine in Germany. A kind of sad thing is that they are closing down all the little train stations all over Germany (not in the big cities) and just letting them sit boarded up and covered with graffiti, and replacing them with a machine. I guess it saves them money, but sure creates an eyesore and they are all such cute little train stations. (You kids know how much I like cute little places like post offices and stuff). Oh well.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I spent a day in Magdeburg yesterday. I had bread and water for lunch on the train because I had no money and no time to get any at the train station. I had bought some groceries in Poland on Saturday (including a Polish version of canned spam) and that is all I had left over from Sunday. But the experience is alllll worth it! (Either my clothes are stretching or I am losing weight. And my shoes are wearing out!)
Anyway, Magdeburg was not at all what I had thought it was going to be. From the descriptions I had read, it looked like it was going to be a cute little medieval town, but it was basically a showpiece of big fancy buildings – now dilapidated – and wide boulevards that were build by the communists back in the 1960s.
It did have a beautiful old cathedral, though, and the Rathaus (town council building) played a very nice set of bells on the hour one hour. And it is on the banks of the Elbe River. I saw some old train cars and engines that were from WW1, WW2 and from the days when Kathy and I would travel on the trains (which has gotten to be along time now)!
I am in Leipzig now. It is a much bigger city than I had thought. My guidebook says it has the biggest train station in all of Europe, which I am sure is true. It must be four times the size of the huge one I sued to go through in Hamburg.
I went through here once on a bus trip from Berlin to southern Germany to go skiing. It seemed small and quiet back then, but big and bustling now. I guess the big difference is all the cars on the road now. Back then almost no one could afford to have a car. Now they are everywhere!
This is the home of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous composer. I visited the church where he was the musician and where he is now buried. They have a big Bach celebration here every year.
Anyway, alles es gut bei mir! I´m doing fine. I love you all!
(About the pictures: the first two are the place I stayed at in Magdeburg. They called my room the end room, but it was really the GREEN room, furnished with antiques. The second is a place by a guy whose name is Hundertwasser kind of like Gaudi what would do in Spain called the Green House, even though there is no green in it. Fressnapf is èverything for your animal`and the last one is some amazing work at the top of a Baroque church here in Leipzig).
1 comment:
Sounds like you are having a good time. Wish I was there. Have fun and stay safe.
Love, Jeanie
Post a Comment