After leaving Potsdamburg today, I took the train little ways west to the very, very old city of Magdeburg! The capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. It was founded in 805 by Charlemagne! It has Germany’s oldest cathedral, and probably some other things too. We’ll see…

When I got here the first thing I did was go to the Natural History-Magdeburg History-Art History Museum all rolled into one. Lots of old artifacts and relics from Magdeburg’s past on the first floor, and then a large and neat exhibit on wild animal life, and modern art gallery, along with some ancient artifacts and some old Renaissance Christian paintings on the second floor.

Then went on a tram a long distance north to the big zoo. My hotel gives me a pass for free tram and bus rides! Nifty! It was more expensive to get in than Filmpark Babelsberg… by quite a bit, but it was pretty big, and loaded with lots of rare and exotic animals any self respecting zoo would have. The layout and map of the park is actually completely impossible to navigate, and you basically just have to guess and hope you’re going to where you want to go. Though at some point during my walking around in the zoo, I saw something so horrendous, the sight of it will forever haunt my dreams. I shall go into no further detail here… There was a special event going on today, and while the zoo normally closes at 7, it was open till midnight, and there was booths and tents all over the main entrance park, along with a stage with several bands playing.

It was pretty fun.

And indeed, every street is named after Willy Brandt – “Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe.” He also resigned the Chancellor position after his main secretary and friend turned out to be a Stasi spy, though numerous other issues had been bubbling up before this as well. Virtually every street in Germany is named after him though. I recently jokingly asked a German friend online “Who is WIlly Brandt, and why is literally every street in Germany named after him?” And his response was “don’t forget every library and school too!” I just find it funny how many times I’ve seen a Willy-Brandt-Straße.

Have a picture or 2.

 

Check out this video! There was a group of musicians in Chinese, or Eastern style outfits. Only 2 of them actually appeared to be Asian however. As the song went on, they started playing it faster and faster and faster.