More Research Trips: Altenburg, Thuringen

Just thought I'd introduce you all to some more of the places I visit as I interview my German refugees.

This is Altenburg, just south of Leipzig. I was really surprised by how cool/pretty it was and hence it's included here. It is a very 'romantic' German town I'd say...big castle on the hill, little market places all over, cool churches.

Wikipedia says: The town (civitas Altenburg) was first mentioned in a deed to the bishop of Zeitz in 976. Remains of a Slavic castle on the Schloßberg demonstrate that the town was probably a Slavic foundation, the capital of the shire of Plisni, taken over during the conquest of Meißen by Henry I....

The town's location on the imperial road between Halle and Cheb in Bohemia gave Altenburg economic importance in the salt trade....

Altenburg is noted for produced playing cards. The Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik was founded in the year 1831. Today it is a subsidiary company of Cartamundi and market leader in Germany.

(That is really true. I told a couple in my church that I had been in Altenburg and they're like 'OH, where playing cards come from!' ;)




Here is the town's theater. There are a lot of buildings from the 'turn of the century', funny how that we still say that, but we mean 1900...anyway....definitely a place that had/has money and business going on....





Street....









This is the market, with the City Hall on the left...cool I thought...









This is the 'Brothers Church'. A church has been here forever, but I thought it was cool because the bells play a hymn that I know....













VERY pretty church inside and out, I thought...















The altar was the Last Supper...there's Judas with the 'bag' in the right top...









REALLY nice glass-stained windows....













And this is the office where I did the interviews at. I interviewed people from 'Sudetenland' (area of today's Czech Republic), Schlesien (today's Poland) and Bessarabia (today's Ukraine).











In their office they had made little outfits from their former homelands to show people what their ancestors used to dress like.

These are from 'East Prussia' (today's northern part of Poland).










And from Bessarabia - today's Ukraine...













Although I am tired as can be at times, I am enjoying seeing the country and getting to know so many people.

In 'Snow White' she offers to make the Dwarves 'gooseberry' pie. I never knew what gooseberries were until I came to Europe. This is a bottle of gooseberry juice - it's good...kind of like a not so sweet, white grape juice....

Madame Tussaud and Obama!

I was never too keen on going to Madame Tussaud's (I would see some of the statues and I was like 'ehh, not too good if you ask me...), but for reasons I'll explain later, I decided to venture...








So here she is, the lady that started it all. I always wondered who she was. I actually thought 'Madame' as in the female British knighthood order title of 'Sir', etc. Anyways...here you go...

Marie Tussaud (1761–1850) was born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. In 1765, Curtius made a waxwork of Marie-Jeanne du Barry, Louis XV's mistress. A cast of that mould is the oldest work currently on display. The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770, and attracted a large audience. The exhibition moved to the Palais Royal in Paris in 1776. He opened a second location on Boulevard du Temple in 1782, the "Caverne des Grands Voleurs", a precursor to the later Chamber of Horrors.
Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous people she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. Following the doctor’s death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax-models and spent the next thirty-three years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to Francois Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show – Madame Tussauds.In 1802, she went to London. As a result of the Franco-English war, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. For a time, it was displayed at the Lyceum Theatre. From 1831 she took a series of short leases on the "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street between Dorset Street and King Street). This becames Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.[1]
One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors.By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum. The gallery that we see today was built in 1884, thirty years after her death. This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Marie appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.[2] Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Marie Tussaud herself still exist. The gallery that we see today was built in 1884, thirty years after her death. It originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925, coupled with German bombs in 1941, has rendered most of these older models defunct. Fortunately, the casts themselves have survived – and you can see these in the museum’s history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry. Her nickname was the “Sleeping Beauty”, and certainly lives up to the billing. Other ancient faces from the time of Tussaud include Robespierre, George III and Benjamin Franklin.In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep on 15 April 1850.

Long, but I thought worth knowing...I some (more than likely a 'recast') of her some of her French revolution victims, agh!

As you can read, this is the 'blade' that did the 'let them eat cake' lady in...how 'humane' eh?

And while there, Obama decided to stop by and...

Ok, this is why I went. Because it was Inauguration Day, as an American, I got in for free! Hooray for free! (normally I think it is about 40 pounds!!) Plus, they had just unveiled their Obama statue...I thought it was decent...

Morgan Freeman, one of my favorite actors - and this is an example of a 'good' statue...

Yet again, 'good' statute of Samuel L.

BAD statue of Jesse Owens! He looked 'doofusssee', not good for the Olympic hero of Berlin!

GOOD Paul Newman, the Robert Redford was BAD (sorry Mom :*(

Ahh, truly one of the beauties of the cinema and a good statue of 'Mrs.' Olivier....

I'll let you vote (just in case you vote something other than 'BAD!!', you're wrong! :)

Even though she looks angry, I thought the one of 'Lizzie' was good....

Based on his own self-portrait...I think that is pretty good!

Amy Winehouse! Awesome job! Kudos to Madame!

Umm...he just looks 'crazy' and not quite human, this goes under the BAD category!

Benny Hill - good!

And speaking of which, thanks Benny! That's a good way of saying goodbye for these posts!

Thanks Obama for having your inauguration day while I was in London so I could get in for free! Now with your future job, good luck!

Catholic FHE anyone?

So as a good little Mormon-boy should, I set off to have my FHE (Family Home Evening), umm...in a Catholic Cathedral ;)

On the way I saw this statue of Henry Purcell, who apparently helped the Baroque 'bloom' in England - I thought it was a girl with a fantastically, flowery hair-do, but...

And there we be. I still think it's odd...Westminster Abbey is Anglican/Protestant and just down the road, Westminster Cathedral (I just would have assumed that the Abbey would've been called 'cathedral', but for the Anglicans I guess that is where St. Pauls CATHEDRAL comes in ;) is Catholic....

But the singing was nice and I actually enjoy experiencing other people's religions...it's 'eye-opening'....

Westminster Abbey

I've shown you pix of Westminster Abbey before, but I hadn't ever taken a tour of it, and since you can't take photos inside...umm...here you go:

According to tradition the abbey was first founded in 616 on the present site, then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island); based on a late 'tradition' that a fisherman called ' Aldrich ' on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the presents of salmon from the Thames fishermen that the Abbey received in later years. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, planted a community of Benedictine monks here. A stone Abbey was built around 1045–1050 by King Edward the Confessor as part of his palace there: it was consecrated on December 28, 1065,[1] only a week before the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral and burial. It was the site of the last coronation prior to the Norman Invasion, that of his successor King Harold. It was later rebuilt by Henry III from 1245, who had selected the site for his burial."

And many a person is buried here! 'Bloody' Mary; Elizabeth I; Mary Queen of Scots; Laurence Olivier; Charles Dickens; Issac Newton; Chaucer; etc.!

King Edward's Chair
Since the coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the Conqueror, all English and British monarchs (except Edward V and Edward VIII, who did not have coronations) have been crowned in the Abbey.[1] Henry III was unable to be crowned in London when he first came to the throne because Prince Louis of France had taken control of the city, and so was crowned in Gloucester Cathedral, but this coronation was deemed by the Pope to be improper, and a further coronation was held in the Abbey on 17 May 1220.[5] Lady Jane Grey, whose reign lasted just nine days, and was of doubtful legality was also never crowned. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional cleric in the coronation ceremony. King Edward's Chair (or St Edward's Chair), the throne on which British sovereigns are seated at the moment of coronation, is housed within the Abbey and has been used at every coronation since 1308; from 1301 to 1996 the chair also housed the Stone of Scone upon which the kings of Scotland are crowned, but pending another coronation the Stone is now kept in Scotland.

Some views of the 'cloisters' outside...

The cloisters 'house' a lot of memorial plaques, I thought this was interesting...

This was the 'Collegiate Garden', I think...there's Parliament in the background...

These are administrative buildings of Westminster Abbey. I thought it was interesting how this guy is trying to 'get out'...

Westminster Palace, aka Parliament....

'Our daughters' daughters will adore us and they'll sing in grateful chorus! FEAR NOT! Sister Suffragette!"

I hadn't seen these before (it amazes me at either how blind I am or how much London has to offer!) on the lawn near Parliament.

Way to go Sistuh! (Can you believe that they were literally handcuffed, jailed and I even heard of instances in the States of Suffragettes being 'tortured' UGH!)

I like this pic, and I'll let you read the explanation - "The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais) is one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin, completed in 1888. It serves as a monument to an occurrence in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, an important French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for over a year.
The story goes that England's Edward III, after a victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais and Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender. Edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked and wearing nooses around their necks and be carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first and five other burghers soon followed suit and they stripped down to their breeches. Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates and it is this moment and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice and the facing of imminent death that Rodin captures in these figures, which are scaled somewhat larger than life.
In history, though the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of England's Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband by saying it would be a bad omen for her unborn child."

'Meow...' Just some deco from the walls of Westminster Palace aka Parliament....

And to end, I just thought this was a cute picture, all the school kids eating their lunch below a statue of George V (Elizabeth II's grandfather)...

London School Trip in January - The Thea-tuh and the Mob'

I was in London-town for a University workshop and a historical conference (I had to present! AHH! :)

So, when the 'work day' was done, i.e. around 6pm, I would head off to the Thea-tuh. As I've explained in past posts, since I have a student status right now I am trying to see all the shows I can while I can still get the student discount.

Here I am with my 'Buddy Holly' glasses. Yes, there is a Buddy Holly musical (I didn't know that) and it was 'fun' and overall 'ok'.

(I am already planning on giving my 'musicals review' in a future blog, so plan on it)

Then I went to 'Sunset Boulevard'. I didn't appreciate the language and the play at times...nah yah...anyway, a positive point was that it makes me want to watch Billy Wilder movie it's based on.

(Of course my only 'connection' to this show/movie is Carol Burnett, 'I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille...' Heelarious!)

Then I decided to go see something that I was sure wouldn't be 'bad' ;) Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap'. It has been running for 57 years! Craziness!!

During the intermission I decided to go outside and finish my Subway sandwich I had bought earlier, only to be met by...

'FREE PALESTINE!' people, chanting, wearing facemasks and yeah...not looking too peaceful (I am such a moth 'drawn to the flame' - ooh...this looks interesting! Ouch! ;)

Speaking of Subway sandwiches, this is what some of the demonstrators did to a Subway store window...

Then came the coppers - they all marched like Storm Troops out of 'Star Wars', it was 'strange'....

I went back to the show and was sworn to secrecy by the cast as to who done it, so I guess you'll just have to go see it.

Here is a little tally....seriously!

23 THOUSAND performances?!!

And then outside the theater is one of those historical plaques you find all over Europe...