A little bike ride after school...

OK - when you look at what this little girl is wearing, it is painfully obvious that she is my child...  at least if you knew me as a child.  She said she was cold before we went out for our adventure, and so I told her she could put on jeans.  That was flatly turned down.  Instead, she opted for the hat...  A nice choice I thought.

40 Euros well spent!!

40 Euros well spent!

Love www.alles.de !

And a couple of Luna dancing in her pretty skirt.  Her hair is finally long enough to do braids!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Guess what we had for dinner???

Leipzig and the Stasi Museum!

I liked Leipzig as much as Dresden.  Our book and most people we talked to recommended Dresden over Leipzig, which I can understand.  But while Dresden was a architectural gem - Leipzig had a real vitality to it, and the downtown area was alive with people.  It was mostly destroyed during the war as well, but has been lovingly re-built - only with a bit more of an embrace on the modern glass and steel structures of today.  Leipzig has always been famous for its university (think Goethe, and Nietzsche...) And the influence of the university is still very clear in the cosmopolitan feel to the streets and restaurants.

Market square and Rathaus...

Fasching fest was underway...

Sign for Auerbachs Keller, a real wine cellar dating to 1438, made famous in Goethe's Faust.  It is located in the Maedlerpassage - an old Victorian "shopping mall."

Statue of Mephisto and Faust...

Statue of Mephisto and students he has bewitched.

Statue of Goethe himself...

View from the Maedlerpassage down to the Commerce Bank building.

Good example of Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil as it was called in Germany.

This guy was really struggling against the wind to carry these balloons!

Crowds gathered to watch the parade...

Thomas Kirche - Bach was choir director here the last 27 years of his life, and some of him most important work was done while he lived here.  He is buried inside the church.  The Thomas Kirche also has a very famous boys choir.

Instead of watching the Fasching parade, we decided to visit the Stasi Museum, Luna was thrilled...

The building was "taken over" by protesters in 1989, but most of the furnishing appeared as if they were leftover from the 60's...  this is what the waiting room looked like.

Stasi - was short for "State Security" - but essentially they were secret police, used to spy on their own citizens and foreigners.

Photo of the crowd assembled outside the doors in December 1989.

"Imperialism - Enemy of Socialism"  (That's the Pentagon under the bony hands there...)

Mobile letter opening machines...

Machine used to re-seal private mail, opened by the Stasi.

Drawers and drawers of undelivered mail...

Microfilm...  this was super high-tech in the analog days!

Confiscated cassette tapes...  Phil Collins and the like...

Listening device installed in order to listen to activity at the Ratskeller...

Prisoner photo station...

"Tiny" spy cameras, and microphones placed in buttons...

Chest of disguise kits...  this was great!

OK - these would be pretty obvious these days, but remember these hairstyles were still very much in style in East Germany in 1989!!

A mobile disguise kit!!!  Just like the movies!

This was a map of Leipzig - each black dot represents a potential "conspirator."

Giant shredder used to dispose of evidence.  After 1989 it was used to dispose of years of intelligence on local citizens.

This is SERIOUS bureaucracy!  This is what they used as  a "hole punch" to make their binders...  yes, a drill press.

Lovely accessory awarded to stool pigeons...  red armband which reads "Helper of the People's Police."

Corridors into West Berlin from West Germany... drove one of these when I was about 12.

I included this one just because I thought it was a good example of how they have re-built, staying true to the original architecture, but clearly in all new materials and a slightly more modern interpretation...

Luna having a cow...  didn't even manage to get her pants pulled up.

And in a happier moment - after making some sequined paper jewelry with Mommy...

Lovely, no?