Castle on a hill

After thoroughly examining the railroad station in Prague, we still had no idea what track would be used for our train to Chemnitz, so we got ourselves there early enough to watch the trainboard. In rather anti-climactic fashion, our train turned out to be 10 minutes late even though it originated in Prague, and everybody got aboard in relatively good order.

This was a beautiful train ride, much prettier than the southern route which we had taken to come East. We went through forests and fields and small towns and up hills and along the Elbe river. We saw a Well-used church bell couple of castles. We think the one of which we took a picture might be near Melnik, CZ.

Chemnitz is a very quiet town, especially compared with Prague. The streets are virtually empty, although there are shops and factories and no obvious signs of business problems. A big section of the main street is being expanded for additional tram lines. The parks and the grass at the edges of sidewalks are often left unmown and look beautiful with wildflowers in bloom. We have a very nice hotel, the Chemnitzer Hof, with a large room containing three chairs and a desk -- more than we might have expected because this city is still recovering from its former identity under Soviet occupation. Museum of Industry

Our hotel is at the edge of a large plaza bordered by the opera house and the museum of modern art, with a church just out our window. We know about the church because we hear its bells just about every quarter hour -- did they ring during the Soviet times?

When we inquired at the hotel about buying tram tickets we learned that hotel guests can show their room key for free trips; it's a thoughtful civic gesture for tourists.

The State Museum of Industry for Saxony is in a former textile factory. A guide demonstrated bobbin winding, Large Karl Marx and later another guide demonstrated braiding threads, machine embroidery and label making. Much of the industry dates from the 1990s when Chemnitz was known for its textile arts.

The Karl Marx head statue, in which the head sits on top of a plinth, both of which are about 20 feet in height, is the major tourist attraction. We put tiny Bob in our photo for comparison. On the building behind the statue are the words meaning 'Workers of the World, Unite!' in several languages.

A dazzling surprise is SMAC, the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, opened in 2014 in the former Schocken department store. It is one of the most visually exciting museums we've seen. The permanent Ancient Vietnamese drum exhibits are housed on three floors which discuss archaeological discoveries of all kinds, from pottery to bones to pieces of writing to jewely to weapons. The museum is nicely arranged for students just beginning the study of this field; several galleries display objects on sets of shelves for observation, then some can be selected to read more information.

The building's center is a large atrium, in which a map of Saxony is displayed. Once each hour the map "floats" up and down, while videos of the landscape and history of different parts of Saxony are projected on it. German eis beckers

The outer curved display space, saved from the department store, shows three permanent exhibits: the life and career of Salman Schocken, the store's owner who was also a bibliophile and major publisher of Jewish books who left Germany for the United States just before the start of World War II; The career and models made by the building's architect, Erich Mendelsohn; and the store's history. A traveling exhibit while we were there was an excellent, comprehensive introduction to Vietnam both contemporary and historic, with emphasis on music and the arts, all backed up by archaeological research.

We set a Pendleton record for most time spent in one museum and exited so hungry that we had lunch which was totally made of ice cream as only the Germans can do it.