Christmas in Weimar

We've been experiencing a northern hemisphere Christmas period. The temperature has been below zero most of the time, there is a hint of snow in the air, and the sky is perpetually gloomy!

Brandenburg Tor in Potsdam

Wintery streets in Potsdam

To compensate for the chilly temperatures and to anticipate the arrival of Christmas, Germans hold Weihnacht fairs in most of the towns. Here's a fair we went to in Potsdam.

Crowds on the street at the Weihnacht fair

Taxidermy places a big part in Christmas!

This moose actually talks to you as you walk past.

Traditional Christmas sweets

Russian unemployment solution.

Christmas decorations

To balance all this levity, we thought a visit to the Jewish museum would be appropriate. I would have thought that the Jewish museum in Berlin would convey with suitable gravitas the horror and shock of the holocaust. Having seen some impressive museum exhibits (e.g. London war museum, Sydney Jewish museum), we were underwhelmed by the museum in Berlin. It was housed in a fantastic building displaying some breathtaking and innovative architecture, but the displays themselves were lack-lustre. It felt like too much emphasis was given to the display 'space' and not enough to the content of the displays.

A mood creation space in the Jewish Museum

Imposing  building of the Jewish museum in Berlin

We then travelled with Petra and Marco to Weimar, about 350 kilometres to the east.

Weimar houses

Imposing Weimar architecture

Rococco flourishes on the building

We visited the home of Goethe, and the attached museum, which was fascinating. Its possible to really feel the cultural pulse of Germany, echoing down from these shrines of remembrance. I imagine that every young artist in a country like Germany that so reveres its past, must feel this weight of history. Goethe typified the reverence felt towards antiquity by the Classical era. His home is filled with examples of art and sculpture from ancient Greece and Rome. He made extensive comparative studies of these art-works, as if he could visually extract the marrow from the bones of the ancients.

Goethe's house

Part of his extensive classical art collection

Art works adorn the walls

He took many plaster casts of Greek sculpture

Goethe's library

Goethe's work room

His personal carriage.

We also wandered through the Weihnacht fair in Weimar.

Travelling in style

A glockenspiel busker

Megan loves these Christmas ornaments.

I think they're meant to be angels.

We've been taking day trips in from Deetz (the village outside Potsdam where we are staying) in Berlin to shop and check out the museums. Here's a few photo's from the Technology Museum, one of my favourites.

Old penny farthing

Beam engine from the age of steam

Lots of loco's from the late 1800's onwards. 

Interesting shapes from the 1930's, the age of stream-lining.

A carriage that transported detainee's to the Holocaust camps

Impressive model of Berlin's Hauptbahnhof.

Ships in bottles

Photo of the air museum.

And so it goes. In a few days, we're heading back to Greece. The temperature in Lefkas has been hovering just below 20 degrees, so we're anticipating a return to balmier conditions and a reprieve from the cold. Wimpy Australians, hey!