The trip over the pond was great. My first on BA in more than twenty years, and I can understand now what Merry is talking about. Of course, Club Class helped. But even on our coach flights within Europe the service was professional and attentive, quietly there without being intrusive. The seats were about the same as the American airlines I have flown overseas, and the meals about the same. The service was superior.

My destination was Leipzig, a city I have visited often over the last 25 years. Almost 11 years ago now, it was drab and gray. The huge cavernous train station, Europe's largest, was empty. Its blackened walls echoed the footsteps of sodiers with rifles. What joy there was then in Leipzig was hidden- behind family doors, in small and private gatherings. The Inner City was crumbling, the ugly Stalin-style buildings already old and frail. We went to church there at the Thomaskirche, Bach's church, one cold winter evening, and then marched with 200,000 others around this drab inner city: the beginning of the end of the former regime. The Bach organ postlude, the roar of 200,000 persons, and the gentleness of a revolution that stops along the way for a beer... all those are indelible memories.

But how wonderful to see Leipzig today, sparkling in the sunshine of a hot August evening. Table after table are full of laughing couples, singles, families. Medieval buildings shine in their restored splendor. Music is everywhere, on the square, in the small intimate courtyards, near the university, around the churches. It is a city for living now; for good food, good beer, and decent Saxon wine.

The train station ? It is still Germany's largest. Its interior is completely restored, and underneath it are two levels of upscale shopping, restaurants and cafes. ICE trains approach it at speeds up to 250 k per hour and it is as lively and welcoming a doorway as any other in Europe.

More later on a new era in Germany's eastern "new states". The miracle of rebuilding and renewal has been spectacular, but the two Germanys still struggle to become one.

Do not forget to visit Dresden!
Beautiful city by the river.


[This message has been edited by rozy (edited 09-01-2000).]

John le Carr� and Len Deighton would be proud!

I went to Berlin last year for the 10 year of the fall of the wall.

Same sort of feeling, much was the same, but much was different. Some places have chaged greatly, while others seem to have remained just as they were.

November 10, 1989 I was at Checkpoint Charly in Berlin. East Berliner's where greated by West Berliner's. I'll will never forget this moment.

Last year I visited Weimar, Erfurt and Eisenach (Wartburg) for the first time - I was very impressed. People told me next time I should see Dresden too. Actually I wanted to go to Dresden and than to nearby Prague. Unfortunately my rented Golf Turbo Diesel was not one of the cars which are allowed into Czech Rep.

Still intend to do some traveling in east Germany, and want to see Praha. Sad to see that for those areas, 45 years and many lives were wasted.