Sunday, September 18, 2011
Leipsig, Germany
Slow moving for Jan and I this morning, Angie is going to come by around 1:00pm so we have time to relax before hitting the pavement again.
Angie arrived as planned and off we went for a short walk by the opera house to a spot where we met her frient Thi, a fellow student in rehap medicine, of Vietnamese descent but born in Germany. Together the four of us wandered along the very pleasant and scenic streets of the Altstadt, a charming mix of old and newer buildings that mixed pre-war with Communist era, and now a lot of new modern construction interspersed. But charmingly done. The new buildings of Germany are seldom seen in downtown London, where comparitively little bomb damage resulted and now anything deemed 'old' is protected as a heritage site unless it will be the site of a modern tower like the Gherkin or 'the shard', in which case it is expendable. Comparitively little remains now of heritage Germany.
We went for lunch in a charming Bavarian restaurant that Angie picked out, and the meal was excellent. Angie snuck up on us and paid for the lunch as she went by to the washroom, a charming gesture that shows the grace and style that this young lady has. All we could say was 'thank you', sincerely.
Then outside again in the light drizzle, walking along to the St. Thomas church that we passed briefly by on the way to the restaurant. Thi knew all about this church, and that it was where Johann Sebastian Bach composed and performed and taught and served as kantor of the church so long ago. A statue of him stands outside the front of the church, in tribute to the man and to the fact that Leipsig was in its day a literary and musical center of Germany, being home to the likes of Goethe, Luther, Mendelsohn, and the fabled Bach among others.
After wandering about the inside and outside of the church for a while, we moved on down the damp roadway a bit until we came upon some statues depicting the battles between Mephisto (the devil) and Faust in Goethe's drama of the same name. Drawn inside the mall by the statuery we came upon a small cafe with boulevard seating and serving coffee and pastries. Thi and Angie both said they had been intriqued by the place for some time but never stopped there, so today was the day. And, it was called 'Mephisto', so how could we say know. All of us would sell our collective souls for a piece of the pastries and cakes, and a coffee. And we did. Every 20 minutes, theatrical smoke would issue from a ceiling sculpture, lights would flash, and thunder would roll from withing the restaurant. Then a minute later, insane laughter would issue from the ceiling area, and the 'Mephisto' signage would begin to shake and swing about. Then it would quiet down after a few minutes, until the next act in another 20 minutes. Cute, and entertaining. Eventually we finished our treats and then left.
Thi left us soon after to head home and study, after promising to send us some of his poetry and written work. And we will hold him to that. Jan and Angie and I moved on by Strassebahn (street car or tram) to her home for a coffee. We had a coffee and a wonderful chat for a couple of hours, then her roommate Steffi came home. Soon after Steffi's boyfriend Marian arrived and the five of us headed downtown to a Cuban restaurant for dinner. The meal was excellent, the San Miguel beer was predictably good, and the conversation was wonderful. Leanne called during dinner and we spoke for a while. It was so good to hear her voice, and we'll talk again later this week though she will be very busy with board meetings throughout the coming week.
At around 10:30 we left the restaurant and were driven home by Marian. Very fond goodbyes with Angie for both Jan and I, we do think very highly of this lovely young woman who has fought adversity and won, along the way helping out her family a lot. We will not lose touch with each other. Then they were off home, and Jan and I were up to the hotel, and bed. Early day tomorrow, off to Frankfurt to meet Dick and Sheila.
