A little German seems to attract greater expectations that you can speak more English. Even a little "bitte" (please) can start a whole stream of German, despite one's protestations in English.
We're here in Halle (Salle), site of a great victory for the Allies that you probably haven't heard of. The reason is that the capitulation was negotiated between Gen. Terry Allen and Count von Luckenberg (sp?), a respected citizen of Halle and a World War I hero. While the Count was not in the German military command he convinced the German commander to let him negotiate with the Allies to try and avoid the destruction of the city with the attendant civilian deaths. Needless to say the attempts were a great success.
Today Halle boasts many turn of the century (19th to 20th) buildings, making it in its way more charming than some West Germany cities that chose to deliberately bulldoze their inventory and replace them with contempory buildings, which are now ugly, old 50s era buildings. I certainly am enjoying the colorful, lively, typically European city center of Halle.
Our hotel room has a sheet boasting of Halle's attributes: home of Georg Handel, city center of five towers, 1,200 years old, etc, etc. Last but not least, home of Europe's largest Beatles museum! While I bumped into it during my wanderings I didn't have time to stop inside. Sorry, Rick.
1 comment:
Hey bro! Just want to let you know that someone IS reading your blog. I tried to point Mom to it, but I'm not sure if we were successful. Halle also has some cool cathedrals. If you have an opportunity to attend a concert in one of them, you should take advantage of it.
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