Dresden and music geek stuff around Leipzig

Yesterday, Judith and I spent the day in Dresden. To get there and back, Judith went online to look for carpools/shared transportation options available. She called several people who were offering rides between Leipzig and Dresden, and we ended up walking three blocks to meet a couple with a red Chevrolet Aveo at 9 am yesterday morning. She had also arranged with someone else to meet at the Dresden train station at 6:15 pm for a group train ticket deal. This woman had paid €28 for 5 people to travel, so she posted the information on the net in order to find other people who could help pay for the ticket. Interesting...I haven't seen people doing that in Canada hardly at all but in Germany it is absolutely commonplace. Instead of spending the money on a full-price train ticket or a tank of gas for only one commuter, they arrange €5 rides with total strangers to visit grandma in Berlin or to make a day trip somewhere.
So we arrived in Dresden shortly after 10 am and made our way to the tourist information office. We got some maps there, and discovered we could rent audio guides for walking tours of the city as well. Since it was getting close to noon, we headed for the Frauenkirche for an organ concert, a historic church that has been beautifully rebuilt several times, most recently reopened in 2005. The church was packed for the concert and a woman spoke about the history of the church and its structure. Judith translated parts of it for me. Apparently, the church was most recently flattened in the aftermath of the air raids on Dresden (two 30-minute attacks in February 1945). The church actually survived the actual bombings, saving 300 people who were sheltered in the basement, but the next day when fires were raging all over the city the heat of the fires proved too great and the structure collapsed. The church was left in its ruins for quite a while after the war because people wanted to leave it as a memorial, a reminder of what had happened. They finally decided to rebuild, but chose to reuse the bricks that survived intact. So the chuch structure vividly shows its history with the coal-blackened (from Dresden's long mining history) stones laid in amongst the new ones. The impressive cupola at the top of the church weighs 13 000 tonnes.

Judith and I in front of the Frauenkirche
Porcelain bells frame the clock at the Zwinger Palace; during warm weather, the bells ring every hour.

So the Frauenkirche was the highlight for both Judith and I. We also checked out the Zwinger Palace with its many Baroque sculpures and curly-cues. We went into a store selling all Christmas things German, so I picked up a few decorations--some wood-carved angels bearing different musical instruments, and one of these carousels with a horizontal wind turbine at the top that moves the carousel when you light a candle on the side. If this makes no sense to you whatsoever, I'll post a picture later.... : ) After a cold, windy afternoon outside, we were glad to finally get inside again and made our train connection without difficulty.

All Dresden's noteworthies on a long mural.

Mendelssohn's study.


Today I travelled around Leipzig on my own again, checking out the Grassi Museum musical instruments exhibition as well as the Mendelssohn Haus. I saw some interesting instruments--a serpent, as well as a viola da gamba, instruments I had really only heard about before, as well as some experimental instrument inventions that didn't survive, such as the plexi-glass flute and the violin-with-a-phonograph-horn-attached to amplify the sound. I enjoyed also seeing Mendelssohn's study and the house generally. It showed signs of wealth such as the red and gold trim around the ceilings, though not ostentatiously so.

Tomorow, we're going to a New Year's concert at the Thomaskirche, the 4th, 5th, and 6th cantatas from Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Then I'll be getting home on Friday afternoon.