Chemnitz, Germany ... Dec 6, 2008

We drove from Freiberg about 45 minutes to the town of Chemnitz. In 1953 Chemnitz was renamed "Karl Marx Platz" until 1990 reunification, taking on the distinction of many other communist cities in Europe that got a "renaming" like Leningrad (St. Petersburg) or Stalinograd (Katowice, Poland) or Stalinstadt (Eisenhuettenstadt, Germany). This East German town was also heavily destroyed during World War II as part of "Operation Thunderclap" (same as Dresden) and the post war communist government also demolished much of what was left, versus reconstructing original structures. So you had a very socialistic element to the city until more modern buildings were constructed post reunification. But they had a Christmas Market we wanted to visit, which was beautiful. And the best part was eating these mushrooms with Tzsiki sauce. Absolutely fabulous. We explored through lunch time and then were on our way.