Halle The largest city in Sachsen-Anhalt, with not quite 250,000 people, Halle is lovely and was not as heavily damaged during WW II as many other German cities.  Getting there from Magdeburg was a little tense  because my colleague and host Christiane Laehnemann and I followed news about a flash strike protesting wages on Die Bahn.  We had to leave extra early, but enjoyed chatting in English and German and a typically comfortable train ride.  The early departure gave us time, once we got there, for lunch in one cafe and coffee in another before I spoke to 60 students of American and English Studies at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg.  The questions were spirited and fascinating and I was thrilled to be back in the classroom again, albeit as a visitor who didn't have papers to grade.  After my talk and reading, I got to be a tourist and climb one of the eastern towers of the Market Church  where I had fantastic views especially from the bridge between the two towers, before heading down on time-worn stairs made for much smaller folk with much smaller feet.  The last stretch was tricky and I slipped and almost became außer Gefecht gesetzt (hors de combat).  It wasn't quite as vertiginous as climbing or descending the stairs at Notre Dame, but close enough.  Halle has the oldest chocolate factory  in Germany, and my Halle chocolates and other gifts people gave me along the way are en route home via DHL.   Back to German Tour 2010 main page Back to Lev Raphael's main page All text copyright © 2001-10 by Lev Raphael.