Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, Oper

 Another perfectly sunny, slightly cool Berlin day. We first headed to Prenzlauer Berg, walked along Kastanienallee, stopped at the Prater Biergarten, the oldest Biergarten in Berlin, and got a sausage. Michael got a Schwarzbier as well, a "black beer". Then we stopped at the Bernauer Str. Berlin Wall memorial, walked around the park there a bit. It's turned into a really great site - definitely worth visiting. Then Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial. Home to put our feet up for 45 mins and change, and then back into town for the opera. Sandra suggested we get tickets to "Die Liebe zu drei Orangen," a satirical comic opera by Sergei Prokofiev, influenced by surrealism (1921). It was so much fun. This particular staging was so fun and whimsical. They had huge props that made the actors look little (including a giant rolling pin that rolled across the stage), and bright colored costumes. A great experience.

source

 

Day 6 - Frankfurt am Main

 Another busy day! We got up and took the train from Mainz to Frankfurt (about 30 mins). My mom got up earlier and got us a bag of pastries to share for breakfast. :) We dropped our luggage off and walked along the Main River. Frankfurt's full name is "Frankfurt am Main" (lots of German towns add the river they're on to their name). It's a little bit of big-city shock after being on the quiet Rhine valley for a few days. Mainz was a bigger city, but Frankfurt is huge. So it's louder and dirtier, and not as scenic. We walked along the river, through Alt Sachsenhausen, and then took a bus to this bookstore my mom wanted to visit. Then we went to the main square of town, with the Römer, the city hall, and the half-timbered houses. We sat on a bench on the main square for a while, and watched a wedding celebration outside of city hall.

Frankfurt was badly destroyed during the war, so whatever looks old was rebuilt to look old, and a lot of it is modern, or post-WWII modern (ie not that beautiful). We met a friend of mine for lunch, who took us to a place with some Frankfurt specialities. Mom and mormor had Schupfnudeln and Michael and I had Grie Soß with eggs and fried potatoes (picture below). We kept chatting for a while and mom and mormor went through an art exhibit of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. In the evening we went to the Opera to see the Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

 On this one bridge across the Main River there were all these padlocks, a tradition of "love locks", couples have their names inscribed on padlocks and put them on bridges. I don't really know anything about the tradition, but I've seen it in Berlin, too, but not like in Frankfurt!

Frankfurt am Main is sometimes called "Main-hattan" because of its skyscrapers

Alt Sachsenhausen

taking the tram

children's bookstore we went to

Grie Soß, or "grüne Soße", a Frankfurt specialty, fresh herb sauce with eggs, potatoes

The Occupy movement in Frankfurt, still camped out in front of the banking district

For our last night, we went to the Frankfurt Opera to see Mozart's Zauberflöte, in the original German... I think we all really enjoyed the performance, and it was a nice relaxing thing to do at the end of a busy week!

Oper Frankfurt

Zarah, Marlene and Hildegard: German chanson

For Valentine's...some classic German chanson for you. Sorry, some of the images are strange, but it's for the music.

Hildegard Knef, "Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen," famous for her deep, smoky voice. If you want more, Eins und eins, das macht zwei, or In dieser Stadt and Heimweh nach dem Kurfürstendamm (she was a Berlinerin).


Zarah Leander, "Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen" (Swedish actress/singer, who worked/lived in Germany many years. Controversially kept making films during the Nazi period, but that's another topic)


And the amazing Marlene Dietrich, from the film Der blaue Engel "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß..." (Also became famous in the English version, "Falling in Love Again.")

Espresso Konzert II - Klavier

 

After going to last month's Espresso-Konzert at the Konzerthaus with Jessica (harp music), I really wanted to go back again. How can you beat this? 5 EUR for a 45-min concert (which, with encore, is about 1 hr), and a free coffee! This month it was a pianist performing, a young woman from Armenia. She started out with classical Mozart, and ended with a few more contemporary Armenian pieces. We sat on stage, right behind the pianist in this gorgeous room, and it was so much fun to watch and listen to her play.  Next month is viola!

Yes, the sun was actually peeking out on Gendarmenmarkt (Konzerthaus on left)

classical traditions

Every January 1st (since 1939) there is a famous concert by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, broadcast worldwide and very popular in Germany. All songs are by the various Strauss composers. The most well-known songs are usually played as encores...An der schönen blauen Donau, and the Radetzky March (with hilarious audience participation).  Here is the broadcast from last year:

Konzerthaus: Espresso-Konzert

The Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt has an "Espresso-Konzert" once a month: tickets are 5 EUR, a coffee or espresso is included, and you get a 45 minute concert with one of the musicians from the orchestra. We enjoyed a beautiful harp concert with their harp solist, and got to enjoy the space of the Konzerthaus. It was a really wonderful experience. I would love to watch out for this and go again sometime!

Mauerpark Video: Karaoke

Video from Karaoke today...

Added Oct 12: My dad asked why this guy is singing in English. Good question. This guy is German, but basically all pop music is in English (and hence Karaoke). Also on the radio, I would say 90-95% of all music is English, same charts as in the US with the exception of a few German bands.

deutsche Musik

Just some recent stuff I heard about recently...

Indie Pop from Cologne, Locas in Love, "Una questa" and "An den falschen Orten":

 

if you feel like dancing around a bit, Frida Gold, "Wovon sollen wir träumen":

 Andreas Bourani, "Nur in meinem Kopf"

and some hip-hop (Casper, XOXO), in case that's your thing...: