Melodic ambience

Ok, why shouldn’t I go on a short city trip again since the weather is still beautiful? I mean, come on, this is pretty late in the year already and summer is definetely over at some point soon. The stores are already selling their gingerbreads and other winter bakery items anyways.

Besides this: I was in Dresden, so visiting Leipzig is just a logical followup that had to happen sometime. So, what can I say? Beautiful! I don’t know if or how often I read that Dresden is awesome and Leipzig, well - ok. Now, if there was a competition between those cities I’ll let Leipzig win. Besides that it has at least as many fascinating sights and buildings as Dresden it has one big advantage: There were much more people walking aroung, going out, eating, enjoying themselves than in Dresden. I walked around in Dresden a lot - and I went to see the Altstadt as well as the Neustadt at the other side of the river and I would say that it can be compared with Leipzig - both cities are of the same size and population, it was around the same time of year and the weather was equally good - there were many places in Dresden that were simply deserted. So, there you go: Leipzig is my favorite.

The more I travel through the eastern part of Germany, the more I realize that this area is one of the most important ones when it comes to german history and important german personalities. Leipzig delivers some very good examples here: It is the city where the rallies against the GDR regime began and it is the city which inhabitated famous people like Goethe and the composers Mendelssohn-Bartholdy or, of course, Bach.

There are many photos of Leipzig in my album. Others are from Halle, the next station of my last trip. Halle has a lot of areas that were not restored after the fall of the wall. But its old city center shows, that the structure of places and buildings did not change since the founding of this city.

Dear visitors of Berlin,

Almost the whole year through up to now we we freezing our lower backs off. The weather was constantly yucky and even late may or beginning of june there were some regions in Germany where it almost started to snow again. This was unacceptable for the World Cup so we ordered some good and warmer weather. And what can we say? It is being delivered punctually. You guys can leave your thick clothes at home. So, enjoy your stay here.

Ok, so here are some things you need to know about the german christmas.

weather: every year germans hope and pray for a white christmas but almost every year there is none in big parts of Germany. Why the hope for that is so high when this happens so seldom I don’t know. If there is something almost regular then the very mild and rainy christmas eve

family: Many germans do not have a big family bond and members are visited very seldom. And even if they are visited at christmas or maybe easter the visit is bothering them and they are glad when they can drive home.

christmas sports: Usually the big part of the german population that does not do any sports goes out on christmas for a short , very slow paced walk with the other family members. This might be a rare event where you can watch people actually walking outside that you normally don’t see.

church: While a few people are persistent by not going to mass throughout the whole year many others who do not go throughout the whole year either go at least christmas or maybe even easter.

length: the 2nd day of christmas (yes, you might never heard of that in your country) is often the most boring day for a lot of germans. And the time afterwards between christmas and new years day - and sometimes even later - there is hardly any events, many offices are closed, organisations don’t meet and even some shops are closed. Surprising that this is affordable in a country whose economy is not really in the best condition at the moment.

the alternatives: While you could just decide to not celebrate christmas and put a palm tree in your apartment and drink a tropical cocktail many others obviously want to make a point - and can afford it too - by driving away from it going on holidays to southern countries.

And then there are those people who were shaking their heads over backward USA everytime when the hurricanes came and many people were without power. How could this happen in a country that probably considers itself as the technical most advanced country in the world? Unbelievable!

Now, it might be correct that Germany’s powersystem is more advanced having the power lines underground in towns and cities and such power outages happen very seldom. But that they do happen shows a recent power outage caused by the onset of winter in the western parts of Germany. Hundred thousands of people were right away without power and not because of a hurricane but “just” because 50 centimers (about 19 inches) of snow that came down in a short amount of time. The weight of the snow caused big iron overland poles to crack.

And even worse - in this industrialized country it was not possible to repair things completely so far since the snow came down before the weekend. While many people have power again, others are waiting in this cold weather.

November again. It is as if somebody pushed the lever and the scenery in Berlin changed totally. The weather shifted from sunny to cloudy, from dry to rain and due to the end of daylight saving time, people sit in the cafes and eat their cake while it is already dusk outside. Temperatures at night are much cooler, the remaining leaves on the trees that didn’t want to drop to the ground so far are heavily considering to do so.

And the streets and places in Berlin are - at least later in the evenings - basically deserted again. This is the time of the year, when the bowling clubs and other tourist groups that visited the city in september or october are gone and the people who are craving for the hot and spiced wines at the christmas markets have to wait until they are being served and the markets start.
Through the last years the number of tourists in Berlin increased a lot which was not only an effect of a special advertising campaign for the winter but simply because word of mouth spread around that not only London or Paris are worth visiting while staying in Europe.

But this time of year seems to be hard to sell, so everybody in the tourist offices of this city awaits already the start of the advent time. Some shops couldn’t wait at all anymore though and put up their christmas decorations.

I guess the big majority of Berliners would say that the last summer was somewhat mediocre and there were not many opportunities to enjoy the good weather. This opinion must be known up in the skies cause now we get a big encore with a long period of warm and sunny weather. And the winners of these conditions are the overwhelming majority of cafes and restaurants who didn’t put their outside tables and chairs away for hibernation. What I noticed about this city is that the gastronomy here anyways waits very long until they do that - some owners might even wait till the first snow falls - and the use of these outside gas heat lamps helped here anyways.

So, the streets and plazas are full with people eating and drinking outside and even when its getting dark and quickly cooler, they have the endurance to stay outside.

Generally, living at a big street is not really an advantage besides the effect that the public transportation provides these streets and you won’t have it far to the next streetcar or bus stop. There is often heavy traffic and noise bothering the one having an apartment at such a street - unless you have some good windows that absorb the noise. But in these wintry times one unbeatable advantage pops up, something special that little side streets cant compete with: They are free of snow and ice. The big streets and their sidewalks are the ones that always are cleared off first and very often only those are cleared while on little side streets slippery ice reigns. I don’t want to know how many people fall down in these neigborhoods but you just need to look at such streets and imagine how hard it is for people to walk along there.

As someone who even does some outdoor sport in autumn and winter, I pretty much depend on the weather forecasts of the local institutes here. Because I might be flexible going on my bike even in November but if its too cold or if its raining I am staying home. So, I am am begging those scientists: Please don’t tell us almost every day that there is big chances that the sun might come out after fog dissolves cause in 80 - 90% of the times you say that it won’t. The result is - as yesterday - that the temperature stays around 1 - 2 degrees instead of your predicted 8 or 9 degrees and believe me guys, that difference is big.

In opposite to where I lived before, weather in Berlin is much less cloudy and rain is a rare occasion here. This led already to situations in summer where they gave out forest fire warnings very often due to the dryness. So, all in all I’m satisfied with the meteorological situation here. But, don’t expect anything good if there is some astronomical spectacle to watch like the total eclipse of the moon last night - I don’t need to be a meteorologist to tell you that it surely will be cloudy.
So far, since I moved, I have not seen any eclipses or meteor showers, it was always cloudy.

First of all:
Why english? Because english is the language of the internet - and because I got certain relations to the englishspeaking world.
Why english with a lot of mistakes? Because I am german

Input: Sunday, Germany, good weather (probably the last nice warm day this year)
Output: National walking and biking day here in Berlin. Probably half of the 3.4 billion ppl in Berlin are out enjoying the weather. For many of them, these sundays are the only days where they do something good for their body. Is that enough? Dunno, I tend rather to a “no” here.
And me?
Well, I went out too, big bike tour, buuuut: I bike almost every day. Big because there is less traffic in Berlin on sundays. Starting from the northeast of Berlin to the far west then back home over the two downtowns that Berlin has (yeah, we got west-downtown, east-downtown due to the history of this city). All in all about 48 km or about 29 miles.

Congratulations to all the restaurant and cafe ppl who were so eager to put away their outdoor chairs and tables already, they can watch other’s making some good profit. Patience rulz

Tsk, the trees at “Unter den Linden”-Boulevard are already decorated with the christmas-light chains. Not switched on though of course but it appears to me, that the Senat obviously found a company that offered a good price by putting them on so early already