Awaiting Pictures

The Dresden post will be up soon. I am just awaiting pictures. Since I foolishly forgot to charge my camera (which claimed to be fully charged) before I left, and it died within 20 min of arriving in Dresden, I had to use my iPhone. Horrible quality.

The good news is that I purchased a CD of "virtual postcards" with pictures.
The bad news is that my computer doesn't have a CD-drive.

Fear not. I will figure this situation out soon. Promise!

If you have any questions while you wait...email me at weissenlf@gmail.com

A Note of Thanks

Before discussing my trip to Dresden, which I believe will take quite a few posts, I want to thank my cousins Jan and Katja for their hospitality during our visit.

I think we all had our concerns, but I certainly found myself pleasantly surprised by the visit and am hopeful that they will come to California so I can return the favor.

Dresden- Part I

Prior to my arrival in Berlin, ten years had passed since the last time I stepped foot on the continent of Europe. My memories are as follows:

• Amazing pizza in Austria- My first "Margherita Pizza": Tomato, Cheese, Basil
• Sipping a coke from a glass bottle while staring over the river at the back of the house from Sound of Music, also in Austria
  
• Erik walking into a red telephone booth, somewhere in Germany or Austria
  
• Taking a tour of a Salt mine in Salzberg, Austria--very cool wooden slides
• Meeting my family in Germany
• Going to eat with my family in Germany. Erik ate obscene amounts of spaetzle.
• Genuine confusion from said German family at realization that my brothers and I could not climb trees. (Equal confusion from me as to why you would want to)
  
• My cousin Jan stealing beer and trying to convince my brother, Ralf (who was probably 8 or 9 at the time) to drink it. I was not amused.
  
• Being deathly afraid that there were snakes in a field. Once again, not amused.
  
• Having my first soft-boiled egg. Very amused.

In my memory, the streets of Germany smell like salty deli meat.
The last time I was in Germany, I was not in Berlin.
The streets of Berlin do not smell like Deli meat. Usually, they smell like urine.

To be honest, I don't particularly like Berlin. Throughout my world travels (Oh, to sound pretentious), I don't think there has been a city that I have liked less. More on this to come.

Don't get me wrong- I have enjoyed my time here and the experience has been fascinating. The museums have been interesting. But the city itself- not so much my style.

So when the decision was made to go south, to the city of Dresden, and to visit some of my family--I was ecstatic. Dresden, I felt, was a place that I would like.

We rented a car* from Enterprise and Elise skillfully navigated the autobahn south to the German state of Saxony. Our destination? The McDonald's in Elbe Park.

*Here, I use the word car in a very broad sense.
Our chariot to Saxony was actually a Chevrolet Matiz--which, as you can see from the picture to the right, is practically a toy car. I half expected to see a giant wind-up pin in the back.

The car had no pick-up, a nail-biting situation when driving on the autobahn.

This piece-of-shit almost had me wishing I had a Trabi.


I wouldn't use the word dread to describe my feelings during the drive. It was more of a nervous anxiety. There was geniune excitement somewhere deep, deep beneath the feeling of nausea (completely unrelated to Elise's driving).

It had been a decade since I saw Katja and Jan. I didn't remember very much about them, other than they were nice. I had exchanged emails with Katja and her concerns about her English had me concerned as well. What if's filled my uneasy mind. What if I didn't recognize them? What if they didn't recognize me? What if we couldn't communicate? What if they didn't like me? What if we had nothing in common?

I wouldn't say I'm a worried person. Some might, but I wouldn't. I consider myself cautious, thoughful (as in, full of thoughts), and sometimes this puts more pressure on me than comfortable. For example, I never see myself as simply a representative of myself-particularly when abroad or in situations with people unknown to me. I think of myself as an ambassador. I represent myself, my family, my school/employer, my religion, my political affiliations, my city, my state and my country. So if I make an ass out of myself, I don't think it only affects me. I could potentially be making an ass out of all the institutions that I belong to. Yes, it is a lot of pressure to put on yourself. But, it keeps you on your toes and (typically) on the straight and very-very-narrow. It's not uptight, it's determination and a different worldview. Anyways...

After roughly two hours on the road, we pulled into the McDonald's. I didn't see them. Or worse, I didn't know what they looked like now and could be looking right at them and not even realize! I was too nervous to eat. I was much more inclined to use the water closet. (I have now taken the term water closet and made it my own. Expect me to come back and say: "Would you pause the movie so I can use the water closet?" or "I'll be ready in 5 minutes, just a quick trip to the water closet." I love euphemisms!)

On my way out of the water closet, I noticed a girl and guy standing together. She had thin black hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail. She looked angry. I hoped that wasn't them. Then the guy next to her grabbed her hand, and I let out a sigh of relief. I turned the corner and then I smiled.

Once I saw them, I knew at once who they were. I wouldn't say there is a family resemblance. It's more likely that somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what they looked like. But there was a very powerful feeling of comfort that instantly put me at ease. All those silly doubts, washed away. That's not to say it wasn't awkward for a little while. But family is family. Despite the years, and the distance, and the infrequent communication--Jan and Katja felt like family. After a couple weeks away from home, that was certainly a welcome feeling.

Katja had a busy day planned. We'd leave our car, and Jan would be our chauffeur for the day. First, a palace on the "outskirts" of town. That's one we had to look up in the German/English dictionary she brought with her. Then, a tour of the city on a double-decker bus. Finally, some traditional German food from the Middle Ages.

I was as happy as a kid at Christmas.

Another Note from a Nomad

To my avid, rabid readers:

You have been spoiled. You were used to getting multiple posts a day, and now its been a couple days. I will continue to do my best to post at regular intervals. I intend to do some catch-up today. There are a lot of pictures and cataloging and indexing takes time. Genius also takes time.

Don't give up on me so easily.

And I apologize that my posts are a little more bland than usual. I seemed to have "lost my voice" along with my health.

Topography of Terror

The terrain known today as the "Topography of Terror" housed the most important institutions of the Nazi terror: the national central headquarters of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), the Reich SS Leadership, the Security Service (SD) of the SS, and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).

Douglas and I spent some time discussing the name Topography of Terror. Certainly an odd choice. While I noted my confusion at what a map of elevation had to do with government office buildings, Douglas surprised me with his insight.

"Well, it's where they mapped out their plans."

Simple, probable. I have yet to find any other meanings that make more sense.




The buildings were destroyed in air raids during the Second World War, what remains has become a museum dedicated to outlining the evolution of the evil empire. Outside of the building housing the exhibit, a network of pathways through a stony courtyard lead the viewer to podiums relaying information about the buildings that once stood in their place.
















Shown here is the wooded area behind the Topography of Terror. I found myself wondering how many drunken Nazis had wandered into these woods to relieve themselves during festivities held in one of the banquet halls housed in the building that once stood nearby. Had the Fuhrer himself ever found himself wandering through the woods with an urge he could not wait to satisfy? Its a question I will never know the answer to...and yet, having asked the question, I felt undeniably German. (A connection to my people, with a preoccupation with bowel movements and such)


Inside the museum, this picture depicted a vacation during Nazi-ruled Germany. At least fascism is better than communism in one respect--it keeps people in their bathing suits.







And here I am with a nearby Berlin bear!

Berlin Wall Memorial

The Berlin Wall- international symbol of the division of Germany after WWII and of the Cold War between the East and West.

The construction of the Berlin Wall began on August 13, 1961. The government of the German Democratic Republic built this more than 150-km-long barrier to hermetically seal off East Berlin and the rest of the territory of the GDR (or DDR in German). More than 2.7 million people had fled the GDR between October 1949 and August 1961, the majority of them across the border separating Berlin's Eastern and Western sectors. The Wall was designed to halt this stream of refugees and make it impossible to cross the border unchecked.

The installation consisted of several sections: a "front wall" and a "hinterland wall", an inner track with a patrol path, watchtowers, and barrier fortifications. By 1989, at least 136 people had lost their lives at the Wall, 98 of them while trying to flee. Most of them were shot down by border guards.

Reforms in the Soviet Union and the rapidly growing protest movement in the population, but also the flight of thousands of citizens via Eastern European countries, led to the peaceful "fall" of the Wall on November 9, 1989. Soon afterwards, the first sections of the barrier were torn down. Even before the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the Wall had largely disappeared from the Berlin cityscape.





At the request of the Topography of Terror (more to come), the remaining 200 meters of the Wall at Niederkirchnerstrasse, which marked the border between the districts of Mitte (East berlin) and Kreuzberg (West Berlin), have been preserved with all the traces of destruction that occurred during the transitional period. This fragment of the Wall, designated a historic monument in 1990, now forms part of the Topography of Terror Documentation Center. As one of the few surviving sections of the Wall in the city, it is also one of the central sites in the "Overall Concept for the Berlin Wall" developed by the Berlin Senate.

"Quality. Chocolate. Squared."

The history of Ritter Sport begins where most romance films end: marriage. When confectioner Alfred Ritter married sweet shop owner Clara Gottle in 1912- chocolate became a family affair.

Since then, the Ritter family chocolate recipe has continued to propel the company into one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world.

The Ritter Sport store in Berlin houses a cafe, a "Make-your-own-chocolate-bar" Bar, an apparel store, an exhibit on how chocolate is made and, of course, plenty of chocolate.









The name Ritter Sport was introduce along with the invention of the chocolate square in 1932. Clara Ritter's argument: "We'll make a chocolate that fits into the pocket of every sports jacket, doesn’t break, and still weighs the same as a normal long bar of chocolate.”
So the Sport in Ritter Sport refers to the ability to fit perfectly into the pocket of men's sport jackets.

Chocolate production has continued since 1912, except for a brief halt between 1940 and 1950 due to World War II. The company reopened and made non-chocolate sweets from 1946 to 1950.

Ritter Sport is an industry leader in innovation of marketing, environmentalism and diversification for consumer needs. Ritter Sport has led the way for introduction of eco-conscious packaging and production. Furthermore, in 2008, they introduced an "Organic Line" of chocolate.

For those of you watching your waistline, in 1999, Ritter Sport introduced a "Diet" line of chocolate.


If you want to watch it expand, try one of these MEGA sized bars.














Doug attempts to determine whether or not the Ritter Sport bear was white chocolate.

The test, shown here, produced negative results.












Doug enjoys part of the playzone located within the chocolate production exhibit.



Click here to find a Ritter Sport retailer near you.