5,4,3,2,1 (Berlin to Dresden)

5 Cities, 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 3 People, 2nd Month, 1 Room. 

Trust me, you'll see the significance of all this once I explain it all.

Today was our first full day without Emily, and it's just the three of us now, as she and James have now landed safely in Stockholm. We began the day by departing our apartment in Berlin, and heading off to the first of 4 UNESCO World Heritage sites for the Day, the "Berlin Modernism Housing Estates". Built from 1910-1933, during the Weimar Republic (the predecessor to Nazi Germany), the housing estates are outstanding example of the building reform movement that contributed to improving housing and living conditions for people with low incomes through novel approaches to town planning, architecture and garden design. We visited the site known as Grosseidlung Britz, the horseshoe shaped estate in the south of Berlin. Mum was able to cross another site off her list. 

After all the palpable excitement of visiting a housing estate in suburban Berlin (thrilling - you can probably feel the excitement through the writing...), we headed off for Wittenburg (the first of 5 cities we visited today), and the beautiful weather enabled us to be able to enjoy Germany in the best weather it has been so far. 

Lutherstadt Wittemberg is the place where the Reformation started, and we were lucky enough to visit the study where he formed most of his ideas, which also housed a great museum about his life and the Reformation. Mum was able to cross of the 2nd WHS for the day, the "Luther Memorials in Wittemberg," and our 2nd city. We enjoyed an Italian lunch in Wittemberg (the Germans are very keen on all things Italian), then set off for Worlitz. 

The Church that was the start of the Reformation. 

The new church door - not the original - that now is inscribed with the 95 theses. 

Luther's house in Wittemberg. 

Worlitz is home to a series of beautiful English gardens constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries that are - you guess it - world heritage listed. Hence, we had now arrived at our 3rd city and WHS for the day. Unfortunately, you have to walk through the gardens, and as it was literally freezing, and we didn't really have time, and there were no gondolas to take a short cut through the gardens, the only photo we took was of Mum next to the sign (which she counts as good enough - but not good enough in my opinion).

The gardens do look beautiful in pictures, so if you ever get a chance to visit in Summer, please do. We continued over the river to Dessau - our 4th city, and home of our 4th WHS for the day, the Bauhaus. Unfortunately, the Bauhaus is actually still a working architecture school, and as we were too mean to pay to go to the exhibition, which just wandered around what was essentially an empty university campus, probably looking like right idiots to everyone around us, especially the lady at the ticket office, who due to Bauhaus design principles, could see us wandering around the floors on the other levels in the building opposite, and was giving me "greasies" every now and then. 

We were doing pretty well by now, and the day was still lovely, with just enough sunshine to get us to Leipzig. Leipzig was one of the largest cities in East Germany before reunification, and is one of the big publishing centres in Europe. Leipzig's other claims to fame include being the home of Bach, as well as housing Europe's largest (physically) train station, and a well regarded zoo. But Leipzig's current claim to fame is that of Nikolaikirche - for it was here that the road to German reunification began. There were a series of demonstrations around the church and it was from here that others were inspired. You can read a bit more about it here. 

Also in Leipzig is the enormous Monument to the Battle of Nations. The Battle of Leipzig was the largest battle in Europe to prior to World War I, involving around 600,000 men. It pitched the combined armies of Prussia, Austria and Russia against Napoleon. The Prussians won the battle, and continued their momentum, eventually managing to banish Napoleon to Elba less than a year later. The Monument is amazing, and is visible from afar. We didn't even realise we were actually so far away from it, until we parked, then had to walk around 500 metres to even get near it. 

The monument must be around 100 metres tall, and is topped with soldiers from each section of the army, and a large pool of reflection. It was completed in 1913, for the 100th anniversary of the Battle. 


Leipzig was our 4th city for the 3 of us. I've just got the 2 and the 1 to go. 


When writing this little post, the 2 was initially going to refer to 2 Michelin Stars, which was how many the restaurant in the hotel had, but it has been closed while we've been here - on Sundays and Mondays...so I'll use the 2 to refer to February, the month in which Dresden was furiously bombed by the Allies, considered the worst atrocity they committed during the war. Unlike Hamburg, Dresden is of no real significance, and the Allied bombers did not drop bombs upon the factories or port, instead they bombed the beautiful historic centre and the suburbs of Dresden. Known to the Germans as Elbeflorenz, "Florence on the Elbe", Dresden held many of the greatest art collections of the world, and its Baroque city centre considered the most beautiful in Germany. The Nazis believe that 200,000 were killed, while some estimates are around 500,000. The city still hasn't recovered, and floods in 2002 only devastated the city even more. Reconstruction of the city centre continues to this day, and the people of Dresden have shown enormous resilience in repairing their damaged city. 


We are staying in the Neustadt (New Town, the area over the river), in 1 hotel room, a change from the enormous apartment we had in Berlin. We're off to Meissen tomorrow, and the the Altstadt of Dresden tomorrow. Hope you're all nice and cool in Brisbane!!