On Saturday we went to the town of Halle, which is the town where our friend went to University. It is about the size of Aberdeen. It was an East German city and the effects of that can still be seen. People are updating and rebuilding many of the buildings there. However, you will have a newly remodeled building connected with a run down vacant building with windows broken out and graffiti. The picture below is one example.
We went to Michael's former church on Sunday morning. The service was entirely in German, so we understood very little. However, the people were very friendly and some of Michael's friends made a very nice lunch for us. On Sunday afternoon, we visited Leipzig. Michael's former pastor gave us a tour. It was a very cold and rainy day! The picture below is of Thomaskirche. This was the church where the composer Bach attended. His tomb is at the front of the church.
On Monday we spent the day touring Berlin. There was so much to see. This is a picture of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). It was built by the Russians to look over West Berlin. The ironic things is that when the sun shines on the tower, a cross forms (2nd picture).
The first picture below is of the Berliner Dom (Cathedral). It was a beautiful building with incredible detail. The next picture is the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). This is the gate that separated East and West Berlin. The wall would have been just on the other side. This picture is taken on the east side, looking towards the west.
When we were in Leipzig I commented to Heather about the funny crosswalk signals they had. It was a man in a funny hat, not the plain looking man they usually have. When we got to Berlin there was a whole store selling "traffic man" merchandise. From what we understand, this traffic man can only be found in East Germany.
This is a piece of the Berlin wall. At some point people had painted murals all over the west side of the wall. The next picture is of a church that was damaged during WWII. They decided not to rebuild it as a memorial for peace.
On Tuesday morning we were headed back to Ingolstadt. We stopped in Potsdam to see a castle. The castle is in a huge park, that actually had two castles and many other old building. The first castle was called Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace). It was built in the 1700's. There was also an old windmill near the castle that we thought was really cool.
The next castle was called Neues Palais (New Palace). It was huge! I couldn't get the whole building in one picture and I was standing very far away! The second picture is of the guest quarters behind the castle. Wouldn't you like to be a guest there?
On Wednesday we visited Nurnberg. It is a city about an hour north of Ingolstadt. It is known for its gingerbread at Christmas time and its bratwursts. We enjoyed a lunch of bratwursts, sauerkraut, and brezen (big, soft pretzels). It was so delicious that Michael and Jason were tempted to let the girls see the town while they stayed to eat some more! We also tried the gingerbread and brought some home with us. The first picture is of a fountain that was meant to be the top of a church. It was very ornate. The second picture is a view of the street that leads up a steep hill to the castle.
This is an interesting statue Jason discovered in one of the churches. It is a representation of Satan. The front looks like a normal man. The back shows rot and decay.
The style of some of the buildings in Nurnberg was really neat. Here are two examples.
On Thursday we took a boat trip on the Danube River. The fall colours of the trees were really pretty, however it was a hazy day so they don't show in the picture. It was a 6 km boat trip in which the driver told us some geological information about the river. It ended at an old monastery.
We had a wonderful time!
1 comment:
I'm very jealous! I would love to have seen more of Germany than I got to in my 4-day trip. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time. Beautiful pictures. Hope you're all 3 doing well.
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