Mit freundlichen Grüssen aus Leipzig

Hello avid readers...

I´m writing today from Leipzig, the Stadt der Helden or City of Heroes in the former German Democratic Republic GDR (East Germany). We came here on Sunday evening with a Mitfahrgelegenheit which is where people advertise on the internet that they´re going somewhere and have seats free. You can call them up a pay a small fee to go with them. It was around $25 for 300kms (and much faster than the train or cars in Australia - thanks to the world famous German Autobahn). I´m staying here, as I did in Bamberg, with friends of Astrid (my travel partner) from Denmark. It´s been very nice to have been shown such good hospitality.

Leipzig is the City of Heroes because, in the home city of the former Stasi (East Germany´s equivalent of the KGB), in 1989 the people held demonstrations under the slogan "Wir sind das Volk" (We are the people). 600 socialist party members were sent to one of these demonstrations to break it up but ended up listening then joining in! The demonstration slogan later changed to "Wir sind ein Volk" (We are one people) around the time of the fall of the Berlin wall and Germany´s (re)unification.

I have seen the old Stasi headquarters as well as a GDR Museum covering from the end of WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Very interesting stuff. I´ve also been to the 1913 monument celebrating the defeat of Napoleon in Leipzig by the Prussian, Austrian, Russian and Swedish armies.

Europe is amazing for it´s rich history, and Germany especially because of it´s such rich recent history. Many of the things I´ve seen in the GDR Museum took place in my lifetime!! It´s amazing to think that some people lived such extraordinarily different lives than what I´ve ever experienced.

I´m heading to Prague tomorrow, looking forward to it.

I wish you all a very Happy Easter, in whatever you may be doing.