berlin I (i would stop making segemented posts if i stopped going to cool places)

this past week the international club took us to berlin for four days. it was really six days but the first and last days were spent in a bus. fun. i really liked berlin a lot but i wished we had more time because there were a millon things i didn't get to see like the berlin cathedral and the only ramones museum in the world. ok, so i was really the only one that wanted to see the ramones museum (mostly because none of my friends knew who they were! aaaarrrggghhh!!!!) anyway, i did manage to get some cool pictures so enjoy.

this is a memorial to the six million jews killed in the holocaust. it has rows and rows of cement (concrete?) blocks and the ground beneath them is lower in spots, like this one, so you feel like you're in a maze.

this is what the memorial looks like from the front... or back... or.... side.

this is the brandenburg gate. behind the gate is a giant stage they have set up for the world cup. apparently the night before the opening game, there was a big music concert. i was kind of sick in berlin so i mostly slept a lot at night and stuff instead of going out. that and the pollen in berlin was UNBELIEVABLE! thanks allergies, thanks.

this is a giant soccer ball with a soccer exhibit inside. see that twisty silver thing to the left? we all thought it was a slide so we went inside to try to find it but it turns out to be an emergency exit only and the security guys wouldn't let us go down anyway. poo.

this is the famous checkpoint charlie....

... and the even more famous snack point charlie! it took me more than a few minutes to stop laughing so i could take this picture. next to snack point charlie is the mysterious czech point charlie. we're not sure if it's a czech-style restaurant or what but it, too, was funny.

these are parts of the berlin wall mixed with some educational panels. these particular segments are in potsdamer platz which was a desolate place when the wall was in place as it was between wall parts and soldiers mainly hung out there to kill people from escaping.

this is a really cool building. i think it's a bank. or a something else. i liked it. at night it lit up. i'll post a picture of my attempt to capture that later.

this is a picture of one of the giant screens behind the brandenburg gate where people could watch the games. this area was called "fan fest" and had five screens over a giant area, the whole of the tiergarten. it was crazy when the games were happening.

this is the reichstag building, germany's governmental seat. it's really, really neat and impressive on the outside.

and this is the temporary stadium in front of the reichstag. this one cost three euros to get in, compared to the fan fest which was free. but this place actually had food stalls and seats i think. i still think it's funny that they have a temporary stadium in front of their government building.

this is the glass dome of the reichstag from inside. we got to hear a little presentation about the history of the building and the room. it was neat.

this is a picture of the room where Really Important Meetings are held. the eagle is a national symbol of germany.

this is sheree and i in front of the glass dome on top of the reichstag. it has this double ramp thing inside it so traffic isn't going up and down one track. i thought that was a great idea. they also had an ice cream stand there. i also thought that was a great idea.

this is it for this time. i'm on my way to brussels this weekend and when i get back, i'll post the rest of the berlin saga and then the brussels story.

munich part two: in which i drink a very large beer

this is a picture inside neuschwanstein. i was totally allowed to take this picture. yup. totally.

look at the mountains!!!!!! look at them! this was the view from the castle.

this is sheree and i with the castle. there's a little bridge where you can go out and get really awesome pictures of the castles and a cute little waterfall. the bridge was kind of scary but not as bad as i thought. it still made me want to throw things off the bridge though. things like my camera. luckily, i resisted the urges.

this is the big glockenspiel in munich. what isn't visible from this picture (or any of the following ones really) is that IT WAS RAINING SO BLOODY HARD!!!!!! my shoes were soaked! it was really annoying.

this is one of the many lions adorning munich. i like him. he's a festive bavarian lion!

this is me in front of the FISH FOUNTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you can see that i'm holding an umbrella but that's the only real evidence that it may be raining. trust me. it was raining.

this is sheree and i with our giant one liter beers at the hofbräuhaus. we came there to dry ourselves. i want to point out something: my hair is a bit shorter now than in this picture because i went to get a trim and she ended up taking about four inches off. that made me sad.

and this is just me with a giant thing of beer that was really, really heavy. it's probably good that they don't sell beer by the liter in america. that would get out of hand maybe.

this is the empty beer glass.

this is the oompah band at the hofbräuhaus. pretty bavarian. there was also some impressive facial hair there but i couldn't really take a picture of them without the people noticing.

after the beer hall, we went to the english gardens and we saw a lot of ducks, geese, a swan, and some weird birds that i don't know. i took a lot lot lot of pictures of them. i also took short videos of them. don't laugh.

more water fowl.

that's it for the munich trip. soon i will post about my berlin trip and i don't think there are any animal pictures from that group. interesting.

MUNICH!!!!!!! (but not the movie)

ok, this is apparently going to be a two part post because the internet doesn't want to work with me but i thought i should upload something before i left for berlin in a couple days. so.... i'll update more munich photos later and then even later, berlin photos.




a couple of weekends ago i went to munich with some friends from here and some friends that were visiting. it was really fun except for all the rain. and i wished i had more time there. but, you can't have everything.

we went to castle neuschwanstein, just outside of munich. this is a picture of the castle from the bus stop. there is another castle in this same area but it cost extra money so we didn't go. i have been to neuschwanstein before, back in high school. but it's nice to go back.

this is me in front of the very beautiful alpsee. the water was so crystal clear, like in one of those books where they talk about how clear the water is but you've never seen a lake that clear in your life so you think it's just a clever writing thing. but no, it really existed. i would have loved to go for a boat ride or swimming in it but we didn't have enough time for either.

this is the front entrance to the courtyard of neuschwanstein. i'm sure that i'll have lots of repeats of neuschwanstein from my last trip but oh well.

parents in germany, part three: the conclusion

this is the cathedral in freiburg where mom, dad, and i went two weekends ago.

there was a tower that you could climb up but i got nervous because the stairs were really, really skinny and there was two-way traffic so this picture was taken from inside the gift shop area which is still pretty high up.

this is a picture from inside the church. they had really pretty stained glass windows, too.

we walked into this little garden area that had beautiful flowers. there was some kind of kid festival going on and there were tons of kids and activites to do. we had some delicious fresh crepes too. yum...

freiburg is in the black forest and we took a cable car up into the forest to walk around.

we walked all the way up to where this observation tower. it is HUGE! the stairs were wider so i was able to climb all the way up without being nervous.

this is me on top of the tower. there was actually another part you could walk up that was maybe twenty steps higher but it was super super windy but i think dad went up there.

all of the streets in freiburg had really pretty mosaic tiles. you can kind of see it here.

there were also all of these tiny rivers through the city. i can't remember what they were called but they have been there since the middle ages when they used to use these as drainage rivers. but today they're clean.

and this is a bacon man. actually it's different kinds of meats arranged into a man. it was for sale. i didn't buy it but it was funny. this was in the marketplace. i wish the market here in bonn had bacon people. oh well.

frieburg was a really pretty city and it's a university town so i could always go back to study there. the black forest is really, really nice. anyway, that's the end of the parent adventures. they are back safe now. i think this weekend i'll be going to munich, assuming everything gets arranged in time. hopefully everything will go well.

parents in germany, part two: augustburg schloss (bruehl) and parent pictures

this is the palace augustburg in brühl. unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside. but this is what the outside looks like. there's something with german buildings painted yellow. there are tons of them.

this is the garden of the palace. it's super pretty. and apparently it's a place where people go jogging in the morning. go figure.

these are the palace ducks. there are also fish in the palace pond things but i couldn't really get a picture of them. but a heron ate one and so did a crow. so i know they're there. somewhere...

these are the statues outside of the max ernst museum in brühl. i could have taken pictures inside with no flash and i might just go back and so that since they didn't have any print books or anything. i have decided that he is one of my favorite artists. apparently i like surrealism. which may explain lots of my dreams.


and, because someone requested parent pictures....

these are the parents on the observation deck thing in königswinter.

this is dad eating a fig newton (of course). he'll be really excited to know that i put this on here. really excited.

this is mom and dad on a park bench in königswinter.

and this is mom looking really excited to be up this high. about as excited as dad will be to see his newton picture. very excited.

in the next post: more animals?!? (also, freiburg, not frei*berg*)

parents in germany, part one: drachenburg schloss (mostly)

so my parents are in europe. they really like it here. this is a story told in three parts. i will update more often, too. well, whenever i think of it i guess. the weather's been super nice here so i haven't had computery things on my mind.

remember a few posts back when i said that i would upload more königswinter pictures when i went back on a nicer day? this is that day. well, last tuesday was that day. this is a picture from way up high in the königswinter hill things.

see that tower thing hiding in the mist? that's the deutsche post tower in bonn. that's right, i could see bonn from way up there. it was windy, too.

this is a picture of the castle-type ruin that we eventually climbed up to. it's pretty neat looking even though there isn't much to look at. i think dad thought it was cooler than i did. that architectness i suppose.

donkeys+pferdchens= tons of pictures taken by lauren's camera.

this is a part of the drachenburg schloss. as you can see, it is under construction. as is half of everything to see in all of europe practically. they would only let you go through the parts that had already been renovated so that meant only the tower. but, if you're sneaky like i am, you find unlatched fence doors and take pictures inside for a bit.

this is the tower from the ground. trust me, it's a lot higher than it looks. there's some part of it that you can't see from this picture or any of them, really, because it's hiding above one of the parts here. it's tall. and the staircase is tiny.

this is the inside, or what i could see of it through these glass panes. you couldn't actually go inside for some unknown reason. even though it looked like you could and there were at least three doors just taunting us. stupid renovations.

this is one tower of the palace from the other, newly renovated one.

this is proof that my parents are here. well, dad at least. this is us (dad and i) on top of the tower outside. it started raining while we were up here. and it was windy. and i thought i heard owls. everywhere. clearly, i had been up there too long.

this is a picture of an outdoor swimming pool way in the hills. i have made it a mission of mine to swim there soon.

stay tuned for parts two and three: where will (did) we go next? what did we do? did i find more animals to take too many picutres of? find out next time on "parents in germany" a BBC special.