Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Leipzig, Berlin, and Wittenberg

Have you ever been to an instrument museum where you could play instruments. Well, we did in Leipzig.

We went to the Grassi Museum and we toured the instruments. We saw a porcelain violin and a glass trumpet. They were beautiful. When we were halfway done we headed upstairs to a room with instruments that you could play. You were allowed to play any of them. There was a steel drum, gong, Hurdy Gurdy, violin, and much much more. At the train station we samini train kits.



In Berlin we went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, the mall in front of our house, a couple of churches, and a couple of markets. We lived right next to the Holocaust Memorial (The Memorial to the Murdered Jews) and we lived next to the Brandenberger Tor (The old gate between East and West Germany.) On the first day we saw the Brandenberger Tor. Then we went to the Mall right across the street to get our train tickets. After that we stopped at Hitler's old Bunker. It was said that he hid in the Bunker for 2 months and then he committed suicide with his wife. His Bunker was destroyed and is now underneath a parking lot and apartment buildings. We went to the Holocaust Memorial which is like a maze. It is rows and rows of big blocks. Even though the blocks were all evenly spread out, they got higher and lower, and the ground was bent down so it was very easy to get lost. We went to Reichstag which is the building that the parliament works in. In the top there is a glass dome for ventilation and to keep out the stale air (ha ha ha.) We saw the Chancellery where the woman Chancellor works. The building is also called the washing machine because of how it looks. We saw a monument to the book burning of the Nazis. It was an underground room with no doors and empty bookshelves. It had a glass ceiling so we could see it. We went to a church that was called St. Hedwig's church that reminds us of Harry Potter. The church was also called the Upside Down Tea Cup because of the dome on top. We saw the Berliner Dome which was a Protestant church. It was beautiful and it was a main place for Nazis to build power. On this one day we walked about 9.1 miles. We saw the American Embassy.

The rest of the time we saw the Berlin wall, saw a lot of street art, went to the Anne frank Museum, we saw an Organ Grinder, we went on a very pretty bridge, we saw a palace that might be where the Chancellor lives, and we went up a tower with an angel on top. It almost killed our knees.

At the Anne Frank Museum we learned that her name was Annalise and Anne was pronounced Ana. In German e's are pronounced like a's.















Have you heard of Martin Luther? He was from Wittenberg. Martin Luther was a professor of theology and he was a monk. When the Catholic church was selling indulgences so that people could go to heaven faster he posted his famous 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic church. He wrote it in Latin because only Popes, Priests, and Scholars could read it. The Pope kicked Luther out of the church. The Ruler at the time called a meeting with Luther. He asked Luther to confess that he was wrong. He thought about it and said no. The ruler accused him of being a rebel. He was given a month of free passage to his home but after that anybody could kill him without fear of punishment. He was also given a paper telling him to burn his works. Any friends who helped him would get into big trouble but friends did anyway. Instead of burning his works he burned the papers that told him to burn his works. He lived on to get married and have many children. He died many years later because of an illness. During his lifetime he and a friend translated the Bible from Greek and Latin into German so people could say what they believed. The Pope forbade anybody without high authority to read the Bible. He was the start of the Protestant Reformation. After he died a new form of Christianity was formed called LUTHERan which was based off of Luther's 95 Theses.




Cafe Mozart!

In Romania we went to Brasov, Rasnov and Cluj Napoca. In Brasov we went to Dracula's castle. Inside the castle we saw bedrooms, dining areas, and couch areas. There was a nice balcony surrounding a courtyard and it was where the soldiers patrolled. Rasnov was where we stayed.












In Cluj we went to Nuka which was a restaurant. We got hot chocolate which was hot pudding. It was the best hot chocolate ever! I got the Marilyn Monroe burger. Mom got the J.F. Kennedy burger. Dad got the Count Dracula burger. We went to the Orthodox church at night. The big chandelier in the front of the room was under construction  so the chandelier was held up by black wooden beams. We all agree that it would look better if the wood stayed below the chandelier.

In Cluj we just walked around town. On the first night there we went to a market. There we got chimney cake. It is a pastry that is thin dough wrapped in a hollow column and is cooked right in front of you. We got it covered in cinnamon sugar! Delicious. Near the last day we went to Cafe Mozart. When my Mom went  to Romania last time she went to Cafe Mozart so this was a memory for her. There we ordered Hot Chocolate and my Dad ordered Coffee. We also got lunch. Mom and I had cake while Emeline and Dad had waffles. It was delicious. Cafe Mozart was so pretty. It was red and there were 3 rooms to eat in and they all had a different feel. The room we ate in felt like an empty cafe. So peaceful.
So good! I devoured it before I could take a picture.