Happy Birthday to me!!

We had arrived in Amsterdam the day before my birthday after travelling many many kilometres via the Zuiderzee from Hamburg. We were dropped off on the top of the dyke for a look around and once outside the bus our lives were in extreme danger...no not from marauders, murderers or traffic...but rather the gale force winds whipping up and over the dyke and making it very difficult to walk vertically.  

Brrr! on top of the dyke!

We had to go up and over the bridge to the other side (as you do when on the top of a dyke) and this was very difficult indeed, you had to hang on tight to the hand rail and pull yourself over the bridge. This wind would drive you mad very very quickly. It was truly good to be back on the bus! Yikes on the dykes - you can keep them!!

In Amsterdam we all had a "little" look around the red light district, which I believe you have to do when in Amsterdam. It was quite disturbing and unsettling and a bit sad, although David thought the girls looked "friendly". I can now cross this off the list of things to do. But what did amaze me was the huge church slap bang in the middle of the red light district. I don't know if it was operating but I trust that it provides solace and help where needed in that place.



Clogs at the clog museum - one has to see clogs in
Holland! Pretty clogs....



Don't you love these buildings??? They make me think of "Cat
in the Hat"!


 

Hundreds of boats along the canals. Great mode of transport!!

 
But...what a lovely day I had for my birthday (22nd October). If started with a canal cruise around the habour then into the little canals that surround the inner city of Amsterdam. It was a delight to see the many different boats that people use along the canals and the beautiful buildings (although slightly skewed - because of unstable foundations?? - buildings leaning percariously with windows out of whack! Very cute!)
 
This cruise lasted about an hour and dropped us off near the Rijk's Museum. What a wonderful array of artworks...HEAVEN for us! Rembrandt and Vermeer were my favourites with the Night Watch being the piece de resistance. Stunning, although it was a little disturbing that at some time in the 18 century this painting was reduced in size by cutting off bits so that it would fit in a particular place.  Aghhhh!!! Vermeer's beautiful work with light astounded me...as you moved further away from the painting the brighter it became! HOW DO THEY DO THAT!! Rembrandt with his little touches of white paint on collars and sleeves make them come alive. Gorgeous!

Birthday lunch alongside the canal...in the freezing cold. Although as one friend keeps reminding us..."the only problem with the
weather is what you wear"! This is me and my $50 Aldi Down Jacket which is as warm as toast, not even the gale force (below zero) Zuiderzee wind could get through this baby.




One of the many bridges over the canals...very pretty!



Anyway, after the museum (it was hard to leave even after three hours!) and find a place for lunch. We wandered the lovely little lanes along side the canals and finally found a little (Italian) cafe down some very narrow steps. We chose our meals, (non) gluten spaghetti for me (I'm okay!!) and gourmet sandwich for David. The waitress asked if we would like to sit downstairs or upstairs (gorgeous little spiral staircase!)  but we wanted to sit outside alongside the canal. She laughed and said okay. We didn't understand why she laughed..until after we had been sitting there for a while and people were looking at us funnily, we twigged that people who live in Amsterdam do not sit outside in the freezing cold to eat lunch. It was cold but we persevered and had a lovely lunch. We then wandered through the streets of Amsterdam and back to the pick up point to go back to the hotel.



It was delightful...and a memorable birthday.



Poland "the surprise package"

We've been everywhere (in Poland!) man! We have managed to criss cross much of Poland in search of our family's villages, and seen some amazing countryside and lovely towns and villages. I (Chris) have loved Poland and have been surprised at it's beauty. We even got up to the Baltic Sea at one point visiting (our) most northern village of Kamein (I'll have to check the spelling as I have put my Polish maps away)!

One of the loveliest cities we spent time in was Poznan (Posen in German - many of our forebears came from around this area). With its little town square (the steps of the town hall being the scene of the 1988 (?) worker's revolution) with its gorgeous buildings of one window wide. These were the houses of the poor who could not afford to build homes of more than one window - two windows was for the wealthy??!!??

It doesn't take long to wander around the square but around every corner there is something wonderful to see.



Some of the beautifully restored buildings in the town square of Poznan.
These buildings are one (or two if they were wealthier) window wide
and multicoloured.



The worker's revolution on the steps of the town hall in Poznan!

The town hall where all the action happened!

More of the town square..we were there early in the morning
and found the cleaners cleaning up from the big night before!

A Long Way from HOME!

We have now started the "business" of this trip over the past few days. We have started visiting the HOME villages of our companions of which most are in Poland. We arrived in Poland on Wednesday and have been hard at it visiting every town that people have had relatives come from.

I (Chris) have had more history lessons than you can poke a stick at lately! And now it is the Polish history that I am trying to get my head around.

Polish to German to Russian back to Polish. (Briefly!)

Whist German there were many Lutheran churches around, but once back in Polish hands, all traces of German people and their "stuff" have been obliterated, and most of the churches (once Lutheran) are now Catholic.

We visited a number of villages. This is Mazurowice (Polish) or Maserwitz (German) which is where the Winter family orginated from (on the Rohde side). Nothing to look at except a (modern) sign, but looking around the town you can "sort of" imagine what it might have been like a couple of hundred years ago. Many of the buildings have not been repaired for many decades and there are newer buildings of course, but many a time there are old buildings in the back yards of these newer buildings and they are used for stables, barns, chook sheds etc.

My great, great grandmother's (on Dad's side of the family) home town!

 We also visited Lisowice (Polish) or Leschiwitz (German) which is where the Pfitners (also on the Rohde side of the family) originated from.

It is quite sobering to be made aware of the journey that our forebears made to come to Australia. They left behind family and homes and made the arduous journey across Poland (get out a map!) from a little port just out of Zielona Gora (Grunberg/German) and got onto barges which travelled along the Oder River under a bridge where people threw rotten tomatoes at them (why??) travelled through the spreewald (Spree River) and across the country of Germany on the Elbe River and caught ships out of a port in Hamburg. Then travelled many, many months to Australia on these ships. The trip was perilous and many people died on board and were buided at sea.

Leschwitz - where the Pfitzners originated from
which is not far from Maserwitz (Winters came from).
People married from the same village or ones very
close by. (No public transport!!)

Original "Fachwerk style" of architecture used on German buidlings
back in our forebears days.

So many of these buildings dotted everywhere and in every town we visited! This was found in Leschwitz. Could it have been
the home of one of our forebears???? Romantic to think that it could be!!

Chris and Margaret (Brooks) who share
Pfitzner forebears and the original
Lutheran Church.

The original Lutheran Church that serviced our relatives
 back in the old days! Still operating today as a Catholic Church).



Inside the Lutheran Church (now Catholic) that many a marriage was performed
in "those" days. (1800s)



Kahn Fahrt(ing) around!

I (Chris) am recovering from a cold (which has very "kindly" circulated around the bus) and have not had the energy to BLOG -  so will have to miss a few days. Things that we will need to remember to tell you about when we get home include:

- Wartburg Castle (where Luther was "squirrelled" away under another name, because he was wanted by the authorities, and where he translated the new testament from Greek into German in 10 WEEKS.)
- The Bach Museum in Eisenach (many of Bach's instruments were exhibited there and we had a "little" concert featuring some of the pianos, harpsicords, etc.)
- Luther House in Eisenach - where Luther used to live (David bought a pair of Luther socks - with "Here I Stand" written on them. (Not Luther's personal socks of course!!)
- Buchenwald Concentration Camp on the way to Leipzig - which David will need to fill you in on anyway as it was far too distressing for me. I stood in the doorway of the cremetorium but could go no further as I was overwhelmed by the terrible evil pertetrated here!
- Colditz Castle - which was a castle used for British prisoners who kept escaping. They had a museum dedicated to the inventive ways the men managed to escape - although most of them were recaptured.
- St Thomas Kirchke - were Bach was a cantor and home to St Thomas Boys Choir (although didn't hear them when we were there! (Bach composed something for each Sunday service for many years. Not sure how he had time with his 20 children!!????!!!!)

But I will tell you about the little Kahn Fahrt (boat ride) in the canals of the Spreewald. What a delightful way to spend an afternoon floating around the many kilometres of canals in the Spreewald. We were in boats with picnic tables (of all things) and around each corner was another interesting thing to see (people live along these canals and get to and from their house in boats). Our little boats were propelled around these canals by a lady and a pole. She certainly earned her "bikkies" that day as we were "poled" around for about 11/2 hours. It was sooooo relaxing and wonderful (although I did check our captain "pole" lady for fatigue every so often to make sure she wasn't going to "cark" it on us! But she seemed to hardly work up a sweat!) We made a couple of stops along the way to canalside markets - who were selling, pickles (of course!), beer and "Gluhwein" which is a type of mulled warm/hot wine. So, of course you do as the Speewald"ers" do and have Gluhwein as you float along the canal. Delightful!

At our canalside stop for a cup of Gluhwein!

Looks like I've already partaking in too much Gluhwein!!

One of the many homes along the canals in the Spreewald! These homes are usually
only occupied in the Summer and Spring as the canals freeze over in Winter. Although
once the canals are frozen, people can skate around on them. Very convenient!

Duckies everywhere! (I couldn't help but think of Wind in the Willows and "Floating along"...Ratty and Toad!! Very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Just ANOTHER Church?????

We have been moving very quickly over the past few days. We are criss-crossing the countryside, which I must add is very beautiful. Everything is very green and the trees are in the processing of changing into their autumn colour, with little villages dotted everywhere – each with its church spire! Gorgeous! We popped into Czech Republic (Prague) then popped back again into Germany (Dresden).

Dresden is another beautiful city with stunning architecture everywhere in the city. But the most intriguing building in this city is the Frauen Kirche (Church of Our Blessed Lady). Now don’t be confused – this is a Evangelical (Lutheran) Church with a great big statue of Luther out the front.

This is a group of "Lutherans" in front of Frauenkirchke and Luther's statue.

Here is the history of Fauenkirschke in a nutshell:

Original church that stood on this site was consecrated to Mary – thus the name “Frauenkirche”.

By the early 18 century this “Gothic” church was in a poor state of repair.

In 1722 the Dresden City Council commissioned a master carpenter – George Bahr – to draw up plans for a new place of worship.

The dome (bell of stone) was an architectural masterpiece weighing 12,000 tons.

Construction was completed 17 years later when the pinnacle cross was set up on top of the dome in 1743 (how did they do this in those days????)

On 13^th February 1945, Dresden was bombed and the Frauenkirche was gutted by fire. Two days later the dome collapse in on the church.

The ruins and rubble of Frauenkirche stayed like that for 45 years ‘like an open wound’.

13 February 1990 (exactly 45 years later) a group of citizens set up the “Appeal from Dresden” to raise funds to reconstruct the Frauenkirche. The world wide response was overwhelming and the Dresden foundation was set up in 1994.

Reconstruction began in 1994. Based on three principles: 1. George Bahr’s Frauenkirche was to be rebuilt according to the original plans and use as much of the original structure and material as possible; 2. State of the art technology be employed in the process; and 3. Everything required to ensure lively usage of the church building should be taken into consideration.

After a painstaking process of archaeological work and reconstruction, the Frauenkirche was completed and consecrated in 2005 with a Christian (Lutheran!) service of great joy & thanksgiving to God. The British people, including the Cathedral in Coventry (Britain), which was destroyed by German bombers in 1940, donated the magnificent new pinnacle cross which sits on top of the 70 metre high stone dome! We were really moved by this (& other) symbols of reconciliation and the story of Frauenkirche.

We were also blessed to be able to come back that evening for a 10:30pm Organ recital, including works by Bach and a rendition of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”! Special moments!

In the square in front of Frauenkirchke we saw the most dedicated Busker in the world. Check out the photos!



Our new friend the "Busker" who brings his grand piano on a trailer pulled by his three wheeled motor bike which he parks outside the square somewhere, he then pushes the trailer "mit piano" into the square right up to Luther's statue for the afternoon's busking! Now that's dedication.





David offered to help him push the trailer the last few metres! (And then we didn't even get to here him play!!)

Pretty in Prague

I am sooooooo in love with Prague! What a magnificent city Prague is - I am totally in love with it! From the moment we arrived I knew I was going to love it - then we were set free to wander around by ourselves for a few hours! This is the only problem with being on a tour that you are locked into a schedule and are time bound, but we are managing to pack in lots and lots of stuff anyway.So off we wandered and were captivated by the beautiful street scapes. Building after beautiful building presented themselves to us! Delightful narrow streets led us to the city square, where towering churches with special clocks and towers towered over us!

After a few hours we decided to find a cafe in the square to have a quiet drink, and found a cafe with seats overlooking the square and the astronomical clock. As we sat there a crowd started to gather around the clock, so we asked does something special happen and were told that when the clock strikes the hour it does all sorts of wonderful things - so we have front row seats for the exciting event - which I might add was a bit of a let down...but it doesn't matter "we were there" when it happened.

After a good night's rest we were up early the next morning to go on a guided tour of the town, which was fascinating - pity I can't remember a thing the guide said but it was interesting anyway! We walked from the top of the town from the largest palace (in the world - I think!!!) which is actually a town in itself, down the narrow streets and over the most beautiful bridge to our destination.

PRAGUE is my most favourite place in the world so far (except for Israel - but in a different way!) and will return one day to spend a lot more time - but I might have to wait a few years (to save up!!)

Night life in Prague!



From the Charles Bridge!

From the Charles Bridge! Stunning!

I guess you get the picture about my Prague feelings - so here are some pictures of beautiful Prague!!

I am hoping and praying that all is well with you. I think of you all at different times, and at "odd" times, but I do think of you! Family, friends, colleagues - May the Lord bless and keep you in his loving care. Chris (David is asleep - he's very tired!!)

A couple of the vehicles around town!



 

The Astronomical Clock



Around Australia (oops Austria!!)

We have resisted the temptation to buy a T-shirt here in Austria (my fingers keep wanting to type Australia) “There are no kangaroos in Austria!”

Austria is a country of contrasts, although it is hard to form an impression in one or two days!!



Our Hotel at Innsbruck on the left!



Innsbruck – first impressions of Innsbruck were that we had somehow arrived in a Eastern BlocK country from the 70s. the buildings were drab, square and uniform – all the same, row after row. The graffiti was everywhere – some of it artistic but mostly untidy and ugly. The hotel room was a drab and uninteresting – with a hospital feel about it! Anyway we were told that there was nothing much to look at in Innsbruck so we moved on to Salzburg. I assume that somewhere in Innsbruck there is an old city which might have afforded some interesting buildings – but I guess we’ll never know!



View from the fort! Spectacular!



Going up to the fort in the funicular!



Salzburg – again the outer suburbs were drab and uniform, and we must have driven through the red light district - very interesting (???!!) but once past this we moved closer to the Old City of Salzburg. Our hotel (Room 317) was  the best hotel that we have stayed for the whole trip so far – 4 or 5 star rating. The breakfast and dinners were fantastic (I rate a hotel by the food – David by the size of the bathroom!! Or whether we get two pillows!!!) The hotel was an easy walk to the Old City and we had a guided tour in the morning then were on our own for the afternoon. We managed a tour in the old fort, with its beginnings in 1077, and after nearly one thousand years it is a huge fortress of many acres on the top of hill accessible by funicular (cable car thingy!!) We did what every self respecting tourist must do when in Salzburg - we went to a concert in the Mirabell Concert Hall to hear Motzart, Haydn and Dvorak. Gorgeous room sublime music. We were totally enthralled by the "Twins quartet"! Overall we enjoyed our brief stay here!



Hundredwasser architecture! Fascinating!



Vienna - Another delightful city but I personally preferred Salzburg. We visited delightful buildings and discovered the architect Hundredwasser (sp??) who designed very interesting buildings including a school somewhere in Germany which is supposedly more "out there" than this building. Because we have moved on from Vienna the memories are fading so I will need to rely on my pics.

Catch up soon!  Love Chris (and David!!)