Wednesday, August 5th - Leipzig, Germany

Today was another day of field hockey.  The weather was much cooler and it was cloudy so no chance of sunburn but maybe a few rain drops and a cool evening, which made it hard to dress for our day at the sports fields.  As it turned out, it was just a lovely cool day but by noon the sun was shining.

The morning of course was lovely sitting around the breakfast area and relaxing for a few hours while downloading and then uploading pictures.  I'm almost caught up because the internet here is great.  Maybe someday I'll actually be able to put a picture in these blogs or on facebook.  I keep thinking that time is getting closer but even today after just having downloaded Budapest to my ipad, I tried to download pictures from the river cruise and was told I didn't have enough memory.  So I had to stop downloading and start uploading, which is not a speedy process.  Oh well, I seem to be making progress so that's what counts.

Heather had games at 12 and 5 today and Liz was playing at 10 and 3.  We didn't get the time for Liz's games until almost 10 so we missed it.  We did catch the other 3 though plus one that Heather was ref'ing and part of another.  Most of the games are on grass but I watched a bit of one game being played on the artificial turf and what a difference it makes.  I might actually fully understand and enjoy the game more when played that way.  They were actually running with the ball and passing it and it looked very much like ice hockey.  On the grass at times the grass is rather long and the ground is rather rough so no one seems to have any control of the ball and it seems like a very strange game.  But then everyone is facing the same situation so I guess it's fair no matter which field they are on.  This sports field has the one artificial turf and four grass fields - and luckily for us spectators, lots of shade on the one side.

After the last game we took the tram back to the old city and met Heather who had taken the group bus back to her hotel and then walked over.  We wandered through a bit of the old city and then ate dinner at one of the outdoor cafes.  After that we walked Heather back to her hotel and then took the tram back to our hotel and another day was over.

Before I leave this blog I have to add something about St. Nicholas' Church.  Our walking tour had taken us outside of it but I never got inside even though I kept trying.  Eventually one night I made it but I don't remember which night it was and I don't think I put it in a blog so I'll but it here.  St. Nicholas' Church has the peace column outside it in the square and a stone with footprints of various sizes and a hundred little square in the square that light up at night - first one and then another and another until there are lots of them.  This is all because this was the sight of the Monday night prayer meetings and protest marches.  And in 1989, this was where the announcement was made that East Berliners could indeed travel outside of the country.   

Every Monday night the church held these prayer meetings and always secret police were there watching.  And every Monday night after the prayers they held peaceful marches.  However, there was almost always someone being arrested or beaten for having participated.  On Saturday, October 7th, a demonstration had resulted in a lot of arrests and battered people.  On Monday, October 9th over 1,000 police were at the Church and 600 of them were inside.  The prayer meeting was held as usual with 2000 people in the church and the lesson from the Beatitudes.  At the end the priest and the bishop and several others appealed for a peaceful march and the crowd dispersed.  Outside they were met by about 10,000 people who had been listening on speakers.  Each one had a candle in their hands.  To march they need two hands - one to hold the candle and one to protect the flame from the breeze - and thus they were no threat to anyone and could do nothing but march peacefully.  The head of the police at the time had given orders originally to shoot if needed to break up the crowds but when he saw the marchers he changed his orders and told the troops and police not to take any action.  Horst Sindermann, a member of the Stasi party, said before he died, "We had planned everything.  We were prepared for everything.  But not for candles and prayers."  He resigned in November 1989.

The prayer meetings and prayers continued and by November 9th, the wall was coming down.  That was immediately after one of the officials in Leipzig said travel in and out of the country would be allowed.  When a Swiss paper asked when, the official checked his press release and saw that there was no date on it so he simply said "immediately" and the news was out around the world

I'm not sure about the prayer meetings but the protests still continue.   The one we witnessed while having dinner in an outside restaurant on Monday night was just the continuation of a tradition.  There were police everywhere and streets were barricaded but the march was peaceful - noisy but peaceful.  And the counter protesters were noisy too and just shouted back at the protesters while the protesters went by.  Only the organized protesters had signs and chants though.  The others seemed more spur of the moment.  I think this protest involved immigration issues and refugees (EU issue) and unemployment but it was hard to figure it out exactly.