What's next?

Tomorrow we both graduate from college and from there we can look forward to holding jobs all summer. In the fall, after we receive our diplomas in the mail, we are going to travel to South Korea to teach English conversation for a year. We will keep updates on our blog (unlike our friend Tara) but they will be fewer and farther between over the summer. As things settle down and we catch up we'll try and put some more pictures on too.

We've made it back to the U.S. this Friday evening with no hitches in our flight plan. We transferred at Chicago O'Hare and arrived at Minneapolis on time. Our friends Kurt and Brooke picked us up at the airport and we ate a great Cinco de Mayo meal in River Falls at our favorite Mexican restaraunt. There may or may not have been a few drinks involved too. Lots to get done before graduation and late June (if you know what I mean). We look forward to talking with everyone so feel free to call, email or post. Thanks for reading our blog and we'll put some more pictures on soon.

Trier and Koln

Yesterday, 2 May, we visited Trier. This is the oldest city in Germany and was quite impressive! There are many artifacts from Roman times, including the largest city gate left standing! We also visited a cathedral that was georgous and connected to it was the oldest Gothic church in Germany. We have never seen 2 massive churches connected before! Karl Marx was born here, and we toured his house that has been turned into a very interesting museum. The sun was out and it was about 70 degrees, the hottest it's been that we remember!
Today we checked out the town that we have been in for the past 3 nights: Cologne. The dom, or cathedral, is so huge and so great to walk around in. There were also city walls for us to see, although many seemed to be under construction so we couldn't get very close. We were also able to tour a chocolate factory/museum (Lindt Chocolate) and tasted the freshest chocolate available! The sun was out again today and was quite hot. We soaked it up while we could and ended the afternoon grabbing a few last-minute souvenirs to remember the town with. Tomorrow morning we leave in the AM for Frankfurt, which is less than 2 hours by train away. We fly out on Friday, and will be in the US about 18.30!

We went to Russ's game on Friday night and it was an excellent game even though Hamburg lost to a field goal with less than a minute left. Saturday we came to Cologne but the weather has been cold and rainy so sightseeing has been somewhat limited. Today we went to Aachen to see Charlemagne's capitol. All that remains of his palace is the church and its treasures which were very impressive. While we're here we want to also day-trip to Trier (Germany's oldest city) and maybe Bonn or Mainz, but there is a lot to do here in Cologne. Thursday we are for sure going to Frankfurt because we have to fly out Friday morning.

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!

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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.