Home

We had a last breakfast with Barry and caprice. It was delicious and once again great company. 

While walking back to our hotel we heard xylophone music and discovered this gentleman. 

He played some Bach for us. It was a nice way to end our stay in leipzig. 

We stayed in frankfurt Thursday night. And caught our Friday flight. We flew over Greenland on the way home. It was beautiful to see the fjords and glaciers. 

If you look closely you can see ice bergs. 

Our only problem on the way home was finding that our car had a dead battery. It was 1 am saturday. I called the parking lot people. They sent a very nice gentleman over to give us a jump. He had us going in no time. 

Of course before we left denver w had to visit this:  

And this:  

We got back home safe and sound Saturday evening. 

Quedlinburg

Caprice found a fun little town for us to visit. Quedlinburg's old town is a unesco site. The houses are mostly half timber homes. Lots of fun to see them. 

There was a farmers market in the town square and lots of quaint little shops.  

We walked up to the castle and took a tour through that. The signs  were almost all german but it was interesting architecture and they had several rooms furnished. 

This is  the main square

View from the schloss. 

When we got back to leipzig we went to the egyptian museum. They have a wonderful collection of ostracon. We got there 20 minutes before closing. Withy extremely limited german I was able to convince the cashier to let us in. They had a nice collection of artifacts. With a great collection of ostracon. We saw everything we wanted before the museum closed. 

Afterward we went to this denkmal. It's a monument to german victory over napoleon in1813. Also a huge battle from ww2 finished up here with nazi soldiers fighting from inside this tower.  Though they had lots of weapons and food they apparently gave up the fight fairly quickly. 

Archangel Michael. 

View from the base toward leipzig center

View to the top

On our last morning we had breakfast with the lagas. On the way back to our hotel we stopped to listen to this gentleman. He was playing Bach. Very nice. 

It was very nice of the lagas to spend so much  time showing us around their city. We were glad to spend time with them also.   We were so impressed with their ability to communicate in german

Today were in frankfurt. We'll catch a plane home. 

Meissen and Dresden

KWe discovered more works today by the master sculptor of naumberg. It is thought he carved the laughing angels of Reims cathedral and then continued working as he moved east. He did the carvings we saw yesterday in naumberg  we also found some of his work in Meissen and Dresden. He particularly has a knack for carving interesting women. Here Adelaide from Meissen cathedral. 

The cathedral was a rather plain gothic cathedral. But the long tall lines of the columns and ribbing were beautiful. 

Here's a picture of us in Meissen with the Elbe river behind us 

We walked thru the quiet town and had a snack lunch at a Weinstube.  

We found a couple of friends for jackus. Here are carvings for Markus and Lukas. 

We returned to our car using a funicular. 

We then drove on to Dresden. Dresden was somewhat as expected. A lot of beautiful faux-old  buildings. Lots of damage to statues from pollution. It seemed kind of sad. The scenery was beautiful and there was lots of things happening like concerts and opera. This is a mural on a building from DDR days. 

It has been interesting for will and I to visit this part of Germany. When we lived here we couldn't visit these cities they were all east Germany. The cities have a very different feel to them compare to the west. We noticed some old things com the cold war days as we serve around. Driving through the countryside here were lots of what looks like slag mountains- great piles of dirt with nothing growing on them. Some seemed to have old mining equipment around them. Also, there are quite a few monuments and buildings left over from that era. Leipzig especially seems to remember the revolution of 1989. We met an artist who painted on the wall in1989 and still paints about the revolution.  We also visited some small villages that were untouched by bombs during the war.  They're more,Locke the Germany we remember. 

Lagas!

We got to leipzig at about 8 last night, checked in, then walked over to the lagas. It was so nice to see them. We talked for quote a while catching up on things. Caprice, always a great hostess, served us tea with Milka wafer cookies. It was great. 

Today we met them in the morning for a walking tour of leipzig. 

It was windy but not too cold. After sandwiches and hot cocoa we drive to naumberg, a village about 45 minites away. The cathedral there was quote interesting. Lots of medieval carvings that were really fun. There are many carvings of happy patrons and scenes from the bible. They speculate that the same sculptor who carved the laughing angels at Reims cathedral also did these carvings. 

Naumberg also happens to be where nietsche lived. We walked to his house. 

Then found a statute of him sharing a passage in a book with will. 

We drove back to leipzig and had dinner at a wonderful restaurant with a delightful waitress. I had spaghetti with goat cheese and figs. Caprice had the best -gnocchi with a cherry sauce. Very good. Our waitress took our picture

And we took hers

All on all a wonderful day. 

Leipzig

We met up with our friends, the lagas, here in Leipzig. It's so good to see them again and see that they seem to be doing very well. We're looking forward to a few days of site seeing and lots of catching up. 

Will finished his meeting this afternoon. We decided at the last minute to rent a car rather than take a train. It was a really nice drive through a part of Germany's e haven't seen before. This area was DDR and we couldn't come here when we lived here in the 1980's. 

We'll post more pics tomorrow. 

Mainz

Will got up early to attend his meeting. I got to sleep in 

I had breakfast at the Saturday market, tried to get tickets to the ballet tonight (Cinderella-it was sold out), then went to the landesmuseum. This is an art museum here. I thought I had do w all the museums. It was pretty good. The middle ages and renaissance section were wonderful. Lots of works by local artists- artists from mainz who painted 600 years ago. There were several paintings that the audio recording said we're "looted from france". That's all it says. An interesting disclosure I thought. The museum info said they used to have a large modern collection but most of those a works were destroyed as degenerate by hitler. There were only me and another couple in the museum. So very quiet. 

As I was leaving the old masters section a docent asked me if I would like to see their new exhibit. It's not open yet. She took me down some stairs to this:

These are all roman ruins that have been unearthed in mainz. It was pretty interesting. 

I met will for a quick break then I put my feet up, watched a movie and knitted in the hotel room. Very nice

Tonight we ate at a Greek restaurant and picked up a few of our favorite things at a grocery store. 

Tomorrow meeting in the am Leipzig in the pm. Tchuss!

Mainz

We're back in germany. The weather is beautiful today. But typical rain tomorrow. We had a delicious dinner of jaeger schnitzel and steak,

Walked around a bit and saw interesting cats I an apartment window. 

Top right window. 

Now we're going to bed and looking forward to NOT hearing the call to prayer at 5:30 am. 

Mainz for the Frankfurt Retina Meeting

Flew from Morocco to Frankfurt, then a short taxi trip to Mainz on the Rhine river. The 2-day meeting begins 8 AM tomorrow with live surgery via high definition from the operating rooms in Frankfurt to this conference center. This year promises to include stereoscopic viewing. We'll see how many in the audience flinch when eyeball juice squirts out!  Do the first 3 rows have to wear raincoats?

Marrakech 2

Majorelle garden

Outside black goat gate. 

Business office of teapot salesman. 

Berber tent at Bert flint museum

Pouf salesman. He has a foreign exchange student from Seattle staying with his family. Cafe francaise overlooking jemaa el fna as the sun set. Great entertainment. Thanks for the suggestion, Jackie. 

Prickly pear. Very delicious but my fingers will be red for days. 

Good bye morocco. Tomorrow germany. 

Marrakech last full day

Susan's henna-adorned hand. Garden of Majorelle, with inspiring ideas for our home garden: cobalt blue; contrasting sunflower yellow; bamboo and wisteria; plants from all continents.  Also informative Berber museum at Marjorelle location. Today's time on the inner city (the Medina) began at the Berber plus Jewish quarters. Informal ( (Yes, they are open. Just knock on the door very loud) Tiskiwine museum, stuffed with artifacts of one Dutch collector from Morocco to Timbuktu. Back into the Souks for some shopping. Supper on a terrace with view of the Jemaa el-Fna public square as the sun set behind the big mosque. Tonight we pack for morning flight to Germany.

Set a new daily record today for the number of times a shopkeeper called me "moustasche" -- 22. And one added "Charles de Gaulle"!

Marrakech

Shopped in the Souks. Kitchenware entirely made of wood. Yarn and fabric dyers with freshly- tinted wool drying in the sun. Sunglassed Susan in front of circa 1100 domed mosque tower. Marveled at the centuries old traditions of snake charmers, musicians, acrobats, food vendors, etc. A henna skin decorator/hustler took Susan's hand and began decorating (without Susan asking). We both immediately extra guarded our possessions, but there was no robbery. Just an exotic old henna hustle. Her black-garbed young assistant/accomplice tossed a decorative pinch of multicolor glitter over the wet pattern to add some extra Moroccan bling to this North African body art tradition. Enjoyed seeing multiple fondouks -- camel caravan hostelries from the Spice Road routes. Now, they're  artisan workshops and residences.