Notes from Naumburg Part II and Halle

On day 3 of our visit to Naumburg, we went to a former concentration camp near Weimar called Buchenwald. It was a unique experience that we are all still processing. We did not feel it would be appropriate to describe in detail the experience here on the rotary blog, but if you would like to read about my personal experience from the visit, you can do so at my personal blog here: http://mccubbinstravel.blogspot.com

Following our trip to Buchenwald, we had a nice dinner with all the host families at our home. The next morning we spent a little time in the city and then it was off to Halle.

When we arrived in Halle, our first stop was to the Halloren chocolate factory. This chocolate factory was pretty impressive. It had gone through a few name changes due to potential discrimination during WWII. At that time, it was also illegal to make sweets like chocolate and so there was a large black market for it. Also for a brief time during WWII, the factory itself stopped producing chocolate and was used to produce things for the war. In the end, it continued as a chocolate factory and still is one of the more famous chocolate makers in this area. And maybe the coolest part of the museum (for me) was the fact that there was a entire room made of chocolate!

After the visit to the chocolate factory, we had dinner with our host families and then headed home for the evening.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Dresden. This city is amazing. It has a population of around 500,000 with 45,000 of those being students from the universities. The city was mostly destroyed during WWII but was reconstructed in 2001 in the same way as it was before the war, giving it a very historical look.

We started the day with a visit to the art museum, where there is a very famous Rafael painting, Sistine with Madonna. Unfortunately we could not take pictures in the museum, but it was quite impressive.

 

After a quick lunch, we then headed on a walking tour of the city. We saw many interesting things along the way, including a church that was reconstructed. The black stones from the church were what remained after the war. Each remaining stone was measured and then computer program was used to determine where those stones would have been located on the original church. The church was then reconstructed, with the black stones being from the original church and the white stones being used to replace the ones that were destroyed.

Inside the church are some amazing architecture and color. I think this is the first church where I have seen the use of pastel colors. It was truly beautiful.

Next we continued our tour and saw the famous opera house. We also saw many other historical buildings...too many to name.

Then we returned home and had dinner.

Today, we went on a city tour of Halle, which has a population of around 230,000. We saw some cool things, including an old cemetery and a castle that sits in the middle of the town.

My favorite part was learning about the history of G.F. Handel. He grew up in Halle, and they are very proud of him. The story is that he was playing the organ in the church (pictured below) at the age of 9. The duke heard the music , thought it was the usual organ player (who happened to Handel's father), and liked it so much that he wanted to give him a bonus. When he found out that it was his son playing the organ, he decided to pay to send Handel to a school for music. At first his father did not agree (he wanted Handel to study medicine) but eventually he agreed after some prodding from his wife.

After the city tour, we went home to pack, and then it was off to dinner and our final rotary meeting and presentation. This is our last blog update as in the morning we fly back home. We hope I have enjoyed our journey through Germany as much as we have!

 

Sara