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Published: June 17th 2006
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Act of God
This happened just before the Dutch won. God must be a Germany fan. Hi from World Cup land. We have made it to the soccer-mad city of Leipzig, and are awaiting the big France-Korea game to be played here tomorrow. The French and Korean fans are flooding the city, thank goodness neither are known for their hooliganism. It´s not often you hear "Watch out for those rowdy South Koreans!".
Since we last wrote it has become summer here and the World Cup has started. We finished a lovely visit with our friends Cydney and Peter (and Peter´s parents) by watching the exciting first game between Germany and Costa Rica. The next day Cyd and Peter headed back to Boston and we headed on our way to the east.
From Bad Godesberg we had planned to head east, since neither of us had been to that part of Germany before. Berlin is the obvious draw in this part, but also the historic cultural cities of Dresden and Leipzig. We had tried to get accommodation via emailing some of the hostels in our guidebook, but since the World Cup started prices have skyrocketed and availability declined. Having no concrete plans we read through the guidebook and decided email the tourist bureau in the small
town of Ilmenau - they replied immediately with a good price for a pension, and so we went. Ilmenau is tiny...population: us and a few other German people. The guidebook says it is in the Thuringian forest and known for the "Goethewanderweg", a hiking trail following Goethe´s favourite haunts in the area (and also a triple word score in Scrabble). This is in the middle of "Goethe Land" (our term) and everything has to do with his life. Goethe wrote Faust, but also many other things...he had his fingers in many pies and is considered Germany´s Renaissance man.
Ilmenau´s tourist pamphlet is quick to point out the rhyme that always follows the town name:
(Nick´s translation)
In Ilmenau
You´ll chance on skies of blue
And the goat dances with his wife.
WHAT? Of course it rhymes in German, though we don´t see that it makes much sense in that language either. Nevertheless, there is indeed a copper fountain with the rhyme and two dancing goats in the middle of the main street.
After a day of looking around, we took the plunge and hiked the Goethewanderweg, which is an 18 km hike from Ilmenau to the
nearby, even smaller town of Stützerbach. Since it is a one-way hike, we first took a 15-minute bus ride (# 300 bus) to the starting point in Stützerbach and hiked back from there. This way we were able to take our time and not worry about catching the bus in the afternoon. It was a bit difficult to find the start to the path in Stützerbach, but as with many things, once we found the path it was well marked with a"g" in Goethe´s handwriting and easy to follow for the rest of the way. A beautiful hike with lots of ups and downs, but the best part was the restaurant at the top of the highest point (and midway through the hike). We got a great view whilst drinking Weisse bier and eating sausage and potato salad. The Germans sure know how to do it! None of this Vancouver "thanks for hiking 10 km, here are three nuts and a raisin".
We had been watching most of the football games in our Ilmenau hotel room because it was a sleepy town with (we thought) few places to watch on the big screen. When we did find a screen
in a pub, some German guys watching nearby complimented Nick on his "Bangkok Special" black Germany jersey. We got to talking, and found out we had just missed the Germany - Poland game that was shown on the university campus in front of 2000 people! An exciting finish to that game must have made that place rock. They also mentioned a trip to Leipzig, our next stop, and then to Berlin for the Germany - Ecuador game. And so we agreed to meet here in Leipzig for the France game and then to meet again in Berlin to watch Germany. Excellent!
We´ve now been in Leipzig for a couple of days, and yesterday summer decided to go away again. Here in Leipzig they have a huge screen and free public viewing area in one of the squares, where you can see every single game. Cool atmosphere, and relaxed. We were in the middle of watching the Netherlands beat Ivory Coast when a lady in front of us got hit with an ice cube. We first thought some idiot was throwing stuff in the crowd, but after the second cube came down we realized it was beginning to hail. And
Leipzig square for the Dutch game
The Dutch will win this game, but don´t tell that to the guy in front with the Ivory Coast flag. PS-this is just pre-hailstorm. hail it did. Everyone crowded under the skinny glass awning while the sky fell on our heads. It was bizarre - in June no less! They WERE the stereotypical "golf ball size" and today the only evidence for that hailstorm are all the dents covering everyone´s cars.
Today we walked around Leipzig, touring some of the old sites, including the GORGEOUS Nikolaikirche (cathedral) which has a breathtaking interior, even after all of the cathedrals we´ve seen so far. It was also the site of peaceful protests in 1989 which preceeded the fall of the Wall.
Yes, Kieran, Germany was once divided into two countries by a large wall. We´ll fill you in on it all later.
Oh yes, and Goethe´s reach extends even here - he studied law here and so has a statue and also some Faust monuments (he apparently set one of the scenes for Faust in a local town pub). Johann Sebastian Bach is buried in the Thomaskirche here, where he spent so much time with the St. Thomas boys choir. We ascended to the top of the Thomaskirche to get a great view of the city and a little tour of the construction
Zamboni driver wanted
Non-Canadians can google this term. of the church itself. This tour only goes on the weekends, so we were lucky.
We still haven´t seen the Stasi (East German secret police) museum, but will do that in the coming days. We just have to schedule it around the important football games! Ha!
One last cool bit about Leipzig and former East Germany: the pedestrian crossing lights. Apparently after reunification, they were going to change all the pedestrian lights in eastern Germany to the western style, but the people in East Germany had developed an affinity for the little green running man sporting a hat, and the little red-hatted man with his arms outstretched....they succeeded in convincing the government that this was a little piece of cultural heritage, and so now they are everywhere in former East Germany. See the website at www.ampelmann.de (or in our photo here).
Funny how the little things often define the feeling of a place!
Nick: Go Germany!!!
Sarah: Go Ecuador!!!
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Wiebke
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Ampelmänchen
Thank you so much for the Ampelmännchen.....am missing them down here in the SA....as well as the snow....which Germany seems to get even in the summer! Go Ghana!!!!! Love, Wiebke