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(I don't mind plugging them, since they have a major new factory here in Dresden, and they support the arts here bigtime.)

Spreewald

The Spreewald is the forested area around the Spree River about halfway between Dresden and Berlin. Much of it is a nature preserve. The river, which flows through Berlin, has an especially flat incline in this area, so it is very slow moving, and there is an enormous network of canals. The area is not exactly a forest, though it is called one. Farmland, mostly.

Ladies on a flatboat in the town of Lübben munching on pickles.

Pickles. That's what it's known for throughout the land. They grow cucumbers, transport them on small, barge-like boats, and pickle them in various ways in gigantic wooden barrels. And everywhere you go in the area, it's pickles.

My German friends, the Weidners, invited me for a weekend up there in the Spreewald in mid-July. One day, we rented kayaks and paddled the river and canals (never sure which was which), and the other day, we did a bike ride, mostly on dykes between waterways and farmland. Stayed the one night at what was essentially a B&B run by a middle-aged woman on her grandparents' old farm. (She gave me a jar of you-know-what as a parting gift.)

One of many bike trails in the region. The Pickled Pedaler?

No, they don't have 43 words for pickle in Germany. Their word for pickle is Gurke, which is also their word for cucumber. If you need to be specific about it in German, you would precede "Gurke" with the word for the flavor of pickle (spice, garlic, etc.). The German word "Pickel" means pimple.

The waterways are interspersed by small locks, some of which you can operate yourself. Interesting to get to see how it all works.

To cap it all off, the highlight of the trip, the final sight before heading home was, yes, the.....

Pickle Museum!

Phoenix

It's been a long time since I've written, and of course the big thing that has happened in the meantime is my trip to play two concerti in Phoenix.  Or more accurately, at Arizona State in Tempe.  The concert went well and was well received and all that, but the main thing is that I got to Carolina's again after 18 years.  Worth the trip, and the wait.

It's hard to think of what else to say.  Most everyone was there.  It's always fun to play a concerto with orchestra, something I do on average about every 4-5 years.  I do feel a little funny when all those players are working just for me, it seems.  And I wonder (if not assume) if they're hating it and waiting for the service to be over so they can go home.  I do some of that when I'm accompanying a soloist, but usually I listen critically to the soloist and imagine how I would do up there.  So here was one of my rare opportunities to see. 

I remember from the first public performances I gave at the UNICEF Youth Concerts that I practically had to be pushed out the door onto the stage to play, I was so scared.  Now, it's more intellectual:  I tell myself I can do this, and I believe it.  Then I tell myself to just do it, and I walk out decisively and play.  Then, all the dumb things happen, but I won't go into that.  I know how much the audience likes it.  At least I think I do.

Carolina's hasn't changed in any way but prices.  Can't wait to go back.  Just west of the airport, if you're ever in Phoenix.  You could do it by taxi during a layover of a couple hours.

Freischütz formula

Das rechte Auge eines Wiedehopfs...

...das linke eines Luchses.

Probatum est!

another castle

Fifteen miles down the Elbe from Dresden is Meissen, with the Schloss Albrechtsburg (NOT ...berg), Germany's oldest castle (they claim).  Quite impressive.  Biked there today the long way, for a total of about 40 miles.  Toured the castle and cathedral, but didn't go to the porcelain factory.

Saw a wonderful sign within the castle area, just across from the side of the castle cathedral:  "Historical Prison, with building permits, for lease or sale."  I want to put in an offer, and when they ask what I plan to do with it, say "Keep prisoners there, of course."

I'm calling time on my last quiz.  No entries, no winners.  Constance probably thought it was too easy.  It was.  Google could solve it for you in .00017 seconds.  The answer is (a), Eisenberg.  The extra credit part was harder, and I was hoping someone could find the real answer and tell me, so I could confirm my theory:  note the year, 1934, when the name of the town was changed from Eisenberg to Moritzburg (to match the name of the major landmark there, I said).  Seems obvious to me that the Nazis decided to do this because Eisenberg sounded too Jewish to them.  But I didn't find any evidence to confirm the idea.  I still think it's right.

Moritzburg, Kollwitz, (quiz???)

Schloss Moritzburg

Roughly 12 miles from Dresden is a little town out in the farmland called Moritzburg, named for the eponymous castle which was a hunting "lodge" for the 17th-18th century Dresden monarchs.  Took a little trip out there recently.  Absolutely idyllic, gorgeous castle in the middle of a lake, accessible over causeways.

Rüdenhof, where Käthe Kollwitz died, with Moritzburg Lake in the background.  She had a good view.

Across the street from the lake is a house named the Rüdenhof which is now a memorial and museum to the artist Käthe Kollwitz, who spent her last year there as a war refugee from Berlin, and died in her room there on 22 April 1945.  What I learned: I knew that she had a Dresden connection, as "Käthe Kollwitz Street" runs along the left bank of the Elbe for several miles, just a couple blocks away from my apartment.  But I didn't know the details--that she came to Moritzburg as a refugee after her apartment in Berlin was destroyed in bombings in 1943, and died there at age 77.

self portrait

She had lived a fairly good life as a well-respected artist, married to a doctor.  This in spite of official disapproval of her work by the Nazis.  But most of her best known work came earlier.  I don't know lots about her, but it seems my older image of her as a poor, starving woman comes more from her work, and less from her own life.  She did lose a son to WWI, however, and wartime loss and privation is certainly consistent with what I knew of her influences and aesthetic.

In 1934, the town containing the Moritzburg Castle was re-named "Moritzburg" to match the town's dominating landmark.  Here's the quiz:  What was its former name, the name it had carried for centuries?

     (a) Eisenberg
     (b) Freiburg
     (c) Herzberg
     (d) Pitzburg

For extra credit, WHY was it renamed?

Answer someday.

more funny German stuff (in my opinion)

This is a little poster on a lamp post down the street from me, left over from the February, 2011 demonstrations I wrote about at the time.  And the more I look at this, the funnier it gets.

It wants people to listen to Schönberg instead of Wagner, I take it because Wagner was beloved by Nazis and Schönberg wasn't, and was Jewish.  It shows an image of an Egon Schiele portrait of Schönberg and a well-known standard one of Wagner (whose painter I don't know).  The blue circle at the left edge calls people out to counter-demonstrations against the neo-nazis.  It even uses typography to help make its point.

My god.  People should listen to Schönberg over Wagner?  Sure, they're both great composers, but 99% + of the demonstrators would certainly prefer Wagner's music if they heard both back to back.  If they've even heard of them.  Totally silly.

Then I noticed the little line at the bottom of the sign saying who put it out.  Using lots of abbreviations, it seems to come from the anti-fascist committee of the student council of the Dresden Conservatory of Music.  Great.  Good left-wing students, as is expected in German universities.  And just as thoughtful as you'd expect, too.