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Rob's Germany Trip, 2001
Description: On May 24th, 2001, I left on a one-week whirlwind tour of Saxony and Bavaria, sampling the artistic opportunities available to the more discerning musical afficionados. Naturally, I snapped a bunch of photos and have posted them here for your viewing pleasure.
I've taken a selection of the more interesting photos from each city and collected them here. To see the complete collection of images from each city, click the linked city name in the upper right corner.
Slides: 38 pictures
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Related Slide Shows:
Day 1 - Leipzig
Day 2 - Meissen
Day 3 - Dresden
Day 4a - Marktneukirchen
Day 4b - Bayreuth
Day 5 - Munich
Day 6 - Passau
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bayreuth_festopernhaus
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You see here the front of the festival opera house in Bayreuth. Built by Wagner, this opera house was specifically designed to showcase the monumental operas composed by Wagner in his later years.
Wagner's compositions were written for a pit orchestra that was 5 times larger than was typical up to that time. Naturally, other opera houses weren't able to fit that many musicians into the space available. Wagner therefore built this house to provide a space for the grand sets and orchestras necessary for his works.
bayreuth_grotto
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This grotto is one of many on the grounds of the Eremitage of the local Margravial Court. This large area of parks and gardens was used as a retreat to 'get away from it all'
Naturally, this meant living with only the barest of necessities, like fountains and statuary following a more pastoral theme.
bayreuth_margravialopera
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This opera house in downtown Bayreuth, is a much smaller, older, more ornate venue along the traditional lines of opera house design.
bayreuth_pit
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The pit of Wagners Festival Opera House up on the hill is underneath the stage, in order to accomodate the larger numbers of instrumentalists. The pit orchestra is completely invisible to the audience (at right), hidden by a scooplike shell that directs the orchestra's sound back to the singers above.
The sound then bounces off the back wall of the stage and joins the singer's voice as it is projected to the audience.
bayreuth_wagnerinterior
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This is the interior of the foyer to Wagners home, Wahnfried. This house, built by "Mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria is now the Wagner Museum, containing a rich history of the life and works of Richard Wagner.
On either side of the doorway are busts of Wagner himself and his wife Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt. Through the doorway, you can see a performance space for chamber music and a window overlooking the final resting place of Wagner and his wife.
bayreuth_wagnermuseum
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The front entrance to the Wagner museum was especially stunning at this time of year (spring) with the lilacs in full bloom.
dresden_domplatz
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One of my favorite pictures of the entire trip, this was taken at the end of the promenade that tops the city walls, with the river Elbe behind me as I entered the Domplatz, or Cathedral Square, at the center of town.
This section of Dresden was almost completely destroyed by firebombing at the end of World War II. If you look at the stones of the cathedral, you will notice that some are sand colored and some are black. The black stones are fully oxidized sandstone, a process that takes more than 50 years, so you can see that those stones that aren't black are replacements for those destroyed in the firebombing raid.
I can't seem to ever shake the feeling that woman in the foreground statue is flashing everybody in the square.
dresden_oldcity
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As I was feverishly taking photos of anything even remotely monumental, I accidentally kicked my camera into Black and White mode for the last few Dresden photos. Luckily for me, I think these photos came out better than if they had been in color.
This view is from the far side of the cathedral, looking back towards the Domplatz. Along the right side of the photo is one side of the Zwinger palace, a monument to Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, and a showcase of his wealth.
dresden_semperoper
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I had the pleasure of hearing Wagner's first opera, Rienzi, performed here at the Semper Opera House. This building was designed and built after the war to replace the original opera house that had been destroyed during the war.
The Semper Opera House opened to the public 40 years to the day after the firebombing of the city. The hotel I stayed in across the river (the Westin Belleview) opened the same day with the intention of providing accomadations for the increased tourist traffic brought by the Opera House.
dresden_threekings
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This church was all but destroyed in the firebombing leaving nothing but the steeple and the altar underneath. As you can see in this photo, the original altar was left intact during reconstruction, as was the steeple above, with the new construction occurring around the remains of the old building. The Three Kings Church (Dreikoenigskirche) is now a popular location for concerts by visiting performing groups.
dresden_warmemorial
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As a constant reminder to the public of the devastation of modern war, Dresden has left a section near the city center in the same condition as it was at the end of the war.
dresden_zwingerfigures
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The Zwinger Palace is an impressive sight, but if one were to go up on the upper level, and take a closer look at the sculptures that surround the park in the center, an idea of the massive scope of the construction of a site like this becomes even more apparent.
The sculptures here are in the process of being replaced with copies as the originals are to be preserved in museums.
leipzig_facade
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Leipzig was my first stop on my trip, and since I was severely jet-lagged and unsure of the proper operation of my camera, I don't have as many (meaningful) photos as I might like. I did get a few photos of some impressive facades.
For some reason, I spent a lot of time looking up. The hotel here in Leipzig (Hotel Fuerstenhof) had the most comfortable bed of all the hotels in which I stayed.
meissen_albrechtnight
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Another of my favorite photos, this was my first attempt at a night photo taken on a time-lapse setting using a tripod. I had the good fortune of having an end room in the hotel with a window looking across the river at the Meissen skyline. I also had the good fortune to be above the tree that blocked this view from anyone else in an end room.
My tripod is only 4 inches tall, so I needed some furniture on which to stand the camera, but all the furniture was massive and immovable. I took the desk chair, set my suitcase on top of the chair and the wastebasket upside down on top of the suitcase. That gave me enough height to clear the railing that kept me from sleepwalking out my window.
This is the view I had as I lay in bed falling asleep that night. Perhaps the best view from a hotel I've ever had in my life. And I've had a few.
meissen_castle
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This is the same view as the night shot, but using a zoom lens to get a closer look at some of the details.
The three most prominent architectural features are packed on hill at the center of the city. In the center is the cathedral with the Albrechtsburg on the right and the Bishops residence on the left. It is rare to have the church and noble residences in such close proximity. The exigencies of geography forced an uneasy cohabitation. Luckily for the Bishops of Meissen, the Albrechtsburg was never occupied by its noble owners. The builder of the castle died just after it was built, and his lands were split between his sons who built residences of their own at the center of their lands.
Because of the security of the location, the Albrechtsburg became the site of the first Porcelain manufacturing works in Europe. As soon as Augustus the Strong's researchers "discovered" the formula, knowing the wealth he could gain by maintaining a European monopoly on the sales of porcelain, he decided to start production in the most secure vacant location in his domain. Meissen has the added advantage of being only a few miles from a large deposit of a clay that is the primary ingredient in porcelain. The manufacturing works no longer inhabit the castle but are located a few kilometers from the center of town.
meissen_flowers
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Meissen has plenty of shopping to appeal to your average tourist, this flower shop is typical of the many establishments that line the pleasant walk to the top of the hill.
My viewpoint on the society-sanctioned murder of the flora is no secret, I hesitate to show appreciation for a purveyor of that dirty business, but darn it, this place is quaint. And besides, all the plants in front of the shop are potted, and still living.
meissen_hotel
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This photo, taken while hanging out the other window of my hotel room in Meissen, shows the main building of the Hotel. Not apparent from this photo, the facade is covered with painted porcelain tiles.
The hotel had a great courtyard with pond and fountain at the foot of the staircase heading up to the terrace at the back of the restaurant.
meissen_panorama
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This is my first experiment in stitching together adjacent photos to make one panoramic photo of the Meissen skyline. This series of photos was taken from the edge of the hotel courtyard looking over the Elbe river. If you look at the railing, you can see the junctions between the photos.
THIS PICTURE IS QUITE LARGE. DON'T DOWNLOAD UNLESS YOU HAVE A FAST CONNECTION OR PLENTY OF TIME TO WAIT.
meissen_ramparts
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This is another of my favorite photos from this trip. One gets an idea of the age and dignity of this town. One finds impressive gardens built on top of massive fortifications, combined with cozy small town comfort.
If I get the opportunity, I'm probably going to come back here to spend some more time appreciating all that Meissen has to offer.
meissen_shopping
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This is the street where you'll find the flower shop in the picture above. Most of the buildings along the main thoroughfares have been restored to combat the disintegration of infrastructure that accompanied the socialist government.
meissen_vincenzrichter
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Dinner in Meissen was provided for us by the oldest restaurant in town, Vincenz Richter. This restaurant doubles as a museum of weapons and instruments of torture from medieval times onward. The tables and chairs date from the gothic era and has had extensions added to the legs to correct for the height of today's customers.
The food was tremendous (it was asparagus season, and this is asparagus country) and the wine from the Vincenz Richter Vineyards was outstanding. The host came to the table every 10 minutes or so to regale us with humorous stories and descriptions of local "customs".
mnk_doublebass
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I have few regrets concerning this trip. My greatest is that I didn't get more photos of Marktneukirchen. The day was a little soggy, and we only had a half day in town, but it was one of the places that impressed me the most.
Marktneukirchen is a town built around the manufacture of musical instruments. At the end of the 1800s, 90% of all musical instruments for orchestra musicians were made in this tiny town at the corner of Saxony, Bavaria and the Czeck Republic.
My group got to see the workshops of two master craftsman who make instruments by hand. In the first workshop, where violins and cellos are made, I got to play a $10,000 violin. Despite my worst efforts, it sounded like butter. In the second workshop, I got to see a craftsman at work who makes all nature of brass instruments. It's amazing to see something that I would assume was machined actually made by hand. Even the valve mechanisms are hand made. I'm agog.
This photo is in the local Musical Instrument Museum, showing the double basses. The one in the middle was removed from the Frauenkirche in Dresden before it was obliterated by allied bombing.
Munich_Cloister
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This is the outside of a church in Munich that has one of the most beautiful neo-classical interiors I've ever seen. Naturally, I don't have any pictures of the interior, since workers were in the midst of cleaning 'gunk' (a technical term) off of the outside of the various parts of the interior, thus said interior was covered in scaffolding. Gunk removal is reported to occur every 5 years.
How do I know then that it is one of the most beautiful neo-classical interiors? I had seen it on my last trip to Munich with my brother, Paul, and his lovely wife, Kathy. I'm sure they will gladly back me up. If you need their e-mail address, drop me a line so I can discuss with them ahead of time what their answer should be.
From Frommers Budget travel: Theatinerkirche (Church of St. Kajetan) - Completed in 1690, its triple-domed, Italian baroque facade was added about a century later by the Cuvillies father and son. Its crypt contains the tombs of many of the Wittelsbachs.
In lieu of the photo of the stunning interior, or the impressive facade on Odeonsplatz out front, I have included this rather pedestrian shot of the adjacent cloister, now functioning as a shopping venue. The facade of the building is the same color as this cloister, although this will be of no assistance in finding this church as fully one third of all buildings in Munich are painted this color.
Munich_Marienplatz
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This central square in Munich is world famous for its old and new Rathauses (an aweful lot of rats, in my opinion) as well as the daily carillon cycle. It would be remiss of me not to include an image of the neo-Gothic facade of the New Rathaus.
Munich_Opera
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In my tour of the various musical venues of Saxony and Bavaria, I also got to visit the home of the Bavarian State Opera and Bavarian State Ballet, the National Theater.
The show in question was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto #1 in e minor, played by Sarah Chang. This tremendous performance was followed by Mahler's 1st Symphony in D Major, conducted by Zubin Mehta.
Munich_StPeter
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Located just east and south of Marienplatz is Saint Peters, one of many beautiful churches in Munich. This particular church has a particularly bright interior and a tremendous view of the city from its towers.
passau_arch
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A small city perched on the end of a peninsula, all the available land has been covered by closely stacked residences and shops. Wandering through the city, one can encounter a complete change in feeling by walking only 20 meters or so.
This is one of my many attempts at artistic photo composition by using arches as framing elements.
passau_bridge
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Oh look! An arch used to frame a photo! What a clever idea! I think I'll beat it to death! See endless arch-framed photos in the Passau and Meissen shows linked from the top of the page.
One thing that really aggravates me about this picture is the teal Bayern Ungarn banner on the wall of the castle at the top of the hill. Hello, PhotoShop. Be not surprised if you return to this site, and find that the banner has mysteriously disappeared.
passau_castles
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These two fortifications on the opposite side of the Danube from the main city of Passau guard the point where the Isar joins the Danube.
I took many pictures during a forty-five minute boat ride on the Danube and the Inn, since it was the last day of the trip, the weather was beautiful and I still had capacity for more than 200 photos on my memory card.
passau_cathedral
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You see here the facade of the Cathedral in the center of Passau. Passau is the seat of one of the largest and most important dioceses north of the Alps. Ruled by a Bishop prince until the 1800s, Passau controlled lands far into Hungary and past Vienna Austria.
passau_cathedral1
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Every day during the summer, from 12:00 to 12:30, one can hear a small concert on the cathedral organ, one of the largest church organs in the world. The organ consists of 17,772 pipes arranged in five discrete organs, controlled from one central console.
You can tell by the look of rapt attention on the faces of these concert-goers that this concert was one of the more enthralling.
Every day, tour boats travelling up and down the Danube pull up to the quay and discharge countless passengers upon the town. This kind of constantly revolving tourist constituency ensure full houses for the daily concert. When we got there, the only seats available were the stone steps of one of the side chapels.
passau_cathedral2
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As you can see, Passau placed a lot of importance in decorating the cathedral. Words cannot describe...
The interior of the Passauer Dom has a lot of similarities to the interior of the Theatinerkirche in Munich that I was unable to photograph.
passau_cathedralriver
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The yellow building in front of the cathedral was the residence of the Bishop-Prince who ruled Passau and its surroundings.
Passau was a very important ecumenical center, independent of local noble control, and had control over vast areas from Hungary to beyond the Viennese woods. The rise in the prominence of Vienna as an imperial center led to the gradual erosion of Passau's holdings.
passau_confluence
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The city of Passau is situated on the Austrian border, at the confluence of three rivers, the Danube, the Isar, and the Inn. You can clearly see the two different colored waters; the lighter is from the Inn and the darker is from the Danube. The Isar enters just to the right of the fortifications in the middle of this picture. The volume of water is much smaller than either the Danube or Isar. The water doesn't mix into a uniform color until some thirty kilometers downstream.
passau_keep
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Yet another of the many pictures taken on the boat ride, only that darn teal poster interrupts an otherwise impressive line.
passau_passage
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This corridor is the connection between the cathedral square and the main shopping thoroughfare. Naturally this is a cushy spot for an artisan hoping to garner some tourist currency for a skillfully played tune or an artfully turned phrase.
Unfortunately, we were blessed with this gentleman. He played literally two notes on his recorder, D and G, both eigth notes, then started into a tirade about how tourists thought they could snap pictures willy-nilly (I'm paraphrasing here) without dropping a little cash on the blanket. He then proceeded to call us dolts and blackguards (more paraphrasing for the sake of the little ones) and cursed our existence at the top of his lungs.
Personally, I thought the D a little breathy and the G was rather flat. Maybe if he had chosen a different song I might have left him something.
When I came back through this alleyway later in the afternoon, the Rudest Panhandler In All Europe had gone elsewhere to work his magical charms on the passing populace.
passau_rathaus
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The yellow building to the left of center is the City Hall (Rathaus), designed and built according to the Italian style. The mural along the side of the Rathaus shows a landscape with important knightly figures between the windows. Unfortunately, the best light for this side of the building occurs in the morning so the beauty of the building is lost in my picture.
passau_tower
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The alley separating the cathedral from the Bishop-Prince's Residence was one of the many interesting verticalities to be found in this very compact city of Passau. I found my bad habit of walking into things while looking at "locations other than where I'm going" to be reinforced by the delightful scenery.
Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm a facade-a-holic.
Picture listing provided by Plog/Phlog v. 0.11
Copyright ©2001, Robert Rohr.
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