Hamburg, Germany

We arrived in this city this afternoon, and met up with Russ, Brandon's friend. He has been nice enough to let us stay with him at his hotel, the Holiday Inn, and we have been relaxing this evening. We were able to visit the U-boat, a huge submarine built in the 1970's, but got there a little too late to get to go inside! From the looks of the outside, however, that is quite alright with us! Brandon and I will see the town tomorrow in the day, and then head to the football game in the evening. There is a "friends and family" bus that will take us from the hotel to the stadium, so we seem to be set to go! The sun was out today and was a nice day, as we hope this will be true of tomorrow as well!! It's hard to imagine that we arrive in the States one week from tonight!! In two weeks' time we will also be college graduates! Quite exciting!!

Dresden, Germany

We are now in Dresden, and we arrived yesteday around 15.00. The train ride from Szczecin was fine, except that for 2 hours we had to sit in the smoking car, as the others were completely filled. The town is quite nice, with lots to see. We also are liking the hostel, as we booked a 4 bed room but last night did not have to share with anyone. It is always nice to have your own space! The city is preparing for a large festival this weekend, and we are a bit sad that we cannot stick around to see how it goes! The weather today started off cloudy and muggy, but the sun popped out about 2pm and never hid again! We leave tomorrow, Friday, for Hamburg, to meet up with B´s friend, Russ. On Saturday we are going to his American-football game, so that will be cool!! We watched our 1st full game of soccer the other night with Marta and Luke, and they were nice enough to explain the rules to us! It is such a huge sport over here! Otherwise, nothing much new. Hope all is well for everyone back home, and cannot wait to see you!!!! Tchuss (Bye in German, the cute way, pronounced chuuuse)

Sans Soucci

Brandenburg Gate

Berliner Dom

Caught in the Act!

Just Kidding

Schloss Charlottenburg (Berlin)

Ruins of Kaiser Wilhelm Church

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Szczecin, Poland

We have been in Poland since Sunday, staying with my (H) friend Marta. We are having an excellent time as her and her boyfriend have been very helpful in showing us around the town many times. Yesterday we visited ruins from a factory that was used by the Nazi's in WWII as a work camp. It was quite amazing to see, and of course sad to think of the things that took place there. We have not been able to post on our site from here, so that is why we are delayed! Tomorrow, Wed, we leave for Dresden, Germany. Our free time is going quite quickly and we will soon be home!

testet

testing

testing

Poland

We spent Saturday walking around Berlin seeing what was yet to be seen (i.e. a flea market, Brandenburg Gate, Egyptian Museum, Tiergarten Park, and the Pergamon Museum [again]). Sunday morning we left, bright and early, for Szczecin, Poland to stay with Heather's high school friend, Marta and her boyfriend Luke. They showed us the town and we saw Match Point in English. Today we are bumming while Marta is in class adn when she gets back we'll probably go back into town after lunch. Tomorrow we may either stay here another night or move on to Dresden, Germany for a few days before meeting Brandon's friend Russ in Hamburg on Friday. We'll get pictures on today.

Potsdam

Today was our last day of class. We then went as a class to Potsdam, about 30 minutes by train outside of Berlin. There we visited San Soussi, a palace built for Frederich in the 18th century. The name means "without worries" and we got a tour guide who showed and told us many interesting things! After this we walked to a local German restaurant, to eat as a group one last time. On the way, we saw a very large protest, and found out that they are protesting a racially-motivated beating that occurred in the town on Easter night. The people in the community are quite distraught about this (rightfully so) and want something to be done. It was a peaceful demonstration, but cops were everywhere nonetheless. We also saw many videocameras from news stations. So, we did get to dinner and ate a nice schnitzel with potatoes and veggies. We were able to finish off with a lovely apple strudel!! It was so tasty, and it was a nice dinner all in all. I (H) am really excited to drink milk again when I return to the States. The milk that I have run into over here is kind of warm and quite thick, so I tend to stay away.
Anyway, we also purchased our train tickets to Szczecin, Poland, for Sunday. We are going to visit H's friend, Marta, and are quite excited!! Tomorrow we will see the Brandenburg Gate, the Egyptian Museum, and a few other sites before leaving in the AM on Sunday. It's hard to believe that we have only 2 weeks left...

Thursday

Wednesday we saw a restored Roman altar and a gate to Babylon (6000 years old). Thursday we went to Checkpoint Charlie after class and spent nearly three hours at the museum... and then we spent the rest of the night memorizing the countries of the world, the 12 most populated cities in the world, and 27ish paintings, artists and styles for our three tests today. This morning we had class, took our tests and then got the H out of there. We went to Schloss Charlottenburg, the local palace, and then to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church that has been left as it was after WWII. Tomorrow we have our last class and then we go as a group to Potsdam to see the palaces there and have a group dinner. Well get pictures online as soon as we can.

Berlin

We have arrived safely in Berlin, Germany. Our train ride was interesting yesterday, as we did not have reservations and the cars were PACKED!! I (H) spent 3 of the 5 hours sitting on the pull-out seats by the doors as there were NO open seats. B had to get his paper done, and luckily found a chair with a table. But, there were no big problems, and we found our hostel with no trouble. Today after class we headed to town, and made it to museum island. We visited the Pergamonmuseum. This museum houses very old and reconstructed artifacts from many hundreds of years ago. There are large exhibits and it was quite interesting there. We are staying very busy, as we have 2 large tests on Thursday, and will be studying all day tomorrow when we get out of class. We are enjoying this hostel as our 3 meals are provided every day!

Photos

The majority of these were taken in Nurnberg, Germany, but the ones of us at the Opera were taken in Praha, a few nights before we left!!! Hope you like them!! PS, dinner was very tasty at our usual spot this evening!!!

B took a photo of this tower, and this kid ran right in front of him at the the last second!! It was quite hilarious!! haha
Nice view in Nurnberg.

Photo of a photo taken in a church in Nurnberg, what it looked like when the Nazis ruled. Quite eery.
H by the river and the German houses.
A photo of a photo, when we were visiting the Nurnberg Trials courtroom, 15 April. Those were the 21 defendents present. (3 were absent).
B and H in front of the castle, Nurnberg, 15 April.

One of the tower walls, in Nurnberg, Germany. (15 April)
Heather, Brandon, and Kelli waiting to see our 1st real opera, Carmen.
B, H, Kelli, and Mindy outside the Opera House.
Does that say One Fart?? ha-ha

Oustide the Opera House, waiting to see Carmen!

Well the weather was fairly gloomy today so it turned out to be a laundry and homework day. Tonight we will go back to the same restaraunt we've eaten at for the last two nights because it is, as H would say, "quite tasty". Zur Wilden Sau it's called but neither of us have been brave enough to try the wild boar, yet. Tonight we'll walk along the city walls while they're lit up and then get some sleep for our train ride to Berlin. Hope everyone had a good Easter and while we'll be envious of any ham dinners we're dreading the day when we won't be able to find a real brat stand in an old city market. Have a Merry Easter and we'll see you soon!B + H

Well if you ask us if we like Nuremberg we'll gladly show you the 250 pictures we took today, but not now. We don't have internet on our computer so no pictures till, hopefully, Berlin. We may squeeze in a trip to Wurzburg tomorrow but, as everyone know by now, we have a lot to get done. Happy Easter to everyone, we'll be having sandwiches for our dinner because absolutely nothing will be open.

flooded on the tracks

We have arrived safely in Nurnberg, Germany. We left Praha at 9,15AM today, and had been on the train for 2 hours when the ticket guy told us that we had to get off and hop on an 'autobus' as he called it. we were confused, but complied. It turns out that the tracks were flooded, so we took a bus around the effected area and got back on a new train 30 minutes later! It was a bit unorganized but we finally got on the correct part of the train (it split at a certain town) and we arrived here without further incident! We are staying at the same hostel for 3 nights, as we have lots of homework to finish. Our last week of classes start on Tuesday, and on Friday we are done with classes! It is hard to believe that the semester, our final, is coming to a close! We are greatly anticipating our free travel, and are making arrangements to visit friends who live in Europe!! (H has been in contact with Marta, an exchange student from Poland from back in the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
It's great to back in Germany, as although the language is still forgein, it is recognizable for us and very comforting!! Time for dinner, Guten Nacht!!

View from old fortification
Church of Our Lady
This guy didn't want to talk to Heather either

Church of Our Lady
Gun Powder Tower
Old Town Hall with Easter Tree

I tried putting on some pictures but there seems to be a bug in the server. We went to Carmen last night and were quite impressed. It was interesting to find that we recognized some of the songs in an opera we knew nothing about. We bought a guide that gave us the gist of what was happening so we weren't completely lost. Today is kind of dreary and thus fitting for our trip to the Communist museum. We saw a video of the Communist occupation of Czechylslovakia that showed a lot of the protests here in Prague in some of the same places we've been. Heather was taken aback by the violence of the police and military on the crowds but minus a few tanks and add a college university and it didn't look any worse than the Vietnam era in the US to me. Maybe I'm a tad cynical though. We were able to catch up on a lot of homework over the weekend but still plenty left. We leave for Nuremburg of Friday where we'll for sure stay for two nights and play Sunday by ear.

We got lucky for the first few days here, and had a nice internet connection...but that wasn't meant to be! We lost that connection and have since been scrounging around, so thus the reason for the sporatic posts. It's hard to believe that we will be leaving Praha in 5 days, and heading onward to Berlin for our last city! The time is flying more than ever now!
Today is a day of more homework for us, but we do get a treat tonight in that we are going to the opera, "Carmen", with two of our girlfriends. It should be an excellent time and I even bought a cute outfit at a 2nd hand store for a few bucks!! On Monday we will visit the Communism Museum as a class, and then Tues. we will be in class all day. Wed. we will be visiting a palace with a large selection of paintings, and then Thursday we have our 2nd test for class. Friday we leave Praha already!!

So it has been a few days but like we said in our other postings we are staying a little more grounded here at the hotel and aren't doing as much sightseeing as we are trying to do homework, with a few sidetrips to the market. Saturday the group went on a walking tour of Prague and that was really only the second time we'd been away from the hotel so we brought the camera but pictures were a little rushed so we could stay with the group. We spent the rest of the weekend studying for our test on Tuesday and writing a small paper... and going to the market. Tuesday we took our test and after 6 hours of class we had a group dinner at a downtown brew pub (the beer was excellent and we rather liked the food too). Today, Wednesday, the group took a guided excursion to a concentration camp/Jewish ghetto in the town of Terezin, 40 minutes from Prague. Terezin wasn't a death camp itself but thousands did die there and most of the rest transported to Auschwitz for "the Final Solution". After the Soviets "liberated" the area, the town was repopulated by the original townsfolk even though it was the sight of disease and death. We had a very informative tour guide but like most tours we were rushed around and that takes away from the atmosphere and being able to soak in what you hear and see. It was a good experience and much different than Dachau. We have opera tickets for Sunday night (Carmen) and might also go to a matinee on Saturday (The Magic Flute). Class all day tomorrow, some museums to visit Friday and plenty of homework to fill the gaps. I've also confirmed that we are going to go to Hamburg for a few days during break to see my friend Russ Rabe who is playing football for the Hamburg Sea Devils in NFL Europe. We are going to see the Hamburg v Amsterdam game.

So it has been a few days but like we said in our other postings we are staying a little more grounded here at the hotel and aren't doing as much sightseeing as we are trying to do homework, with a few sidetrips to the market. Saturday the group went on a walking tour of Prague and that was really only the second time we'd been away from the hotel so we brought the camera but pictures were a little rushed so we could stay with the group. We spent the rest of the weekend studying for our test on Tuesday and writing a small paper... and going to the market. Tuesday we took our test and after 6 hours of class we had a group dinner at a downtown brew pub (the beer was excellent and we rather liked the food too). Today, Wednesday, the group took a guided excursion to a concentration camp/Jewish ghetto in the town of Terezin, 40 minutes from Prague. Terezin wasn't a death camp itself but thousands did die there and most of the rest transported to Auschwitz for "the Final Solution". After the Soviets "liberated" the area, the town was repopulated by the original townsfolk even though it was the sight of disease and death. We had a very informative tour guide but like most tours we were rushed around and that takes away from the atmosphere and being able to soak in what you hear and see. It was a good experience and much different than Dachau. We have opera tickets for Sunday night (Carmen) and might also go to a matinee on Saturday (The Magic Flute). Class all day tomorrow, some museums to visit Friday and plenty of homework to fill the gaps. I've also confirmed that we are going to go to Hamburg for a few days during break to see my friend Russ Rabe who is playing football for the Hamburg Sea Devils in NFL Europe. We are going to see the Hamburg v Amsterdam game.

Cheap Praha

We are enjoying Praha (Prague) but have not had a chance to see many things as we had 7 hours of class today! It's an interesting class, so that's a plus! We already have our 1st exam on Tuesday! We were able to find an outdoor marketplace, where they have clothes, shoes, souvenirs, food. It's cool cuz you haggle with them for the best price, and we have gotten some cheap items! B got a new pair of shoes, as his were leaky. Actually, the city of Prague is preparing for a large flood to hit the city. It is not certain yet that the waters will rise so as to create the flood, but it seems that everyone is preparing. We will keep you posted! Tomorrow the class will do a walking tour with a native of Praha, so that should be fun! The rest of the weekend will be spent doing homework and then more homework.