Day 12 - Monday I got up early to see the last sights of Lepizig and Susan joined me. This is one historic town and I will recommend to Dr. Meyer that we come back in the near future. The program at the BMW Plant was very interesting. It's plant number 22 of 22. Maybe 5 years old. They assemble about 425-725 series 1 and 3 per cars per day. I do not know anything about BMWs, but the plant tour was fascinating. Read the Ex Summary by Joe and David in the DrakeSmart website, . Sorry, no pictures allowed. By [View Full Entry]

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Day 11 - Sunday in Germany I see it’s Spring now and the weather so far has been awesome. I hear it’s very warm in Des Moines. But 45-50 degrees so far is what we expected here. The weather is now turning just as Carole is leaving. Thanks Carole! I got up at 3:30 am to see Carole, Marti and Cate off to the airport and went back to bed. That was a mistake. I fell asleep for 3 hours and felt awful. Good thing I was already packed. Ate the last of our fabulous breakfast and let me tell you [View Full Entry]

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Day 10 - Saturday Our last day in Berlin was devoted to programs. First, we went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe located on the back side of the Brandenburg Gate. This was one of those programs that you go to pay tribute to those who died during the holocaust and reflect on what you would do if you were a Jewish citizen or German citizen. Would you go voluntary to a concentration camp, would you protest, would you aid those who were persecuted or would you do nothing? It was a tough place to visit but as [View Full Entry]

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Day 9 - Friday Today I am a Berliner! Let’s see if I can make a longstory short out of this one. We began our day with a guided tour of Berlin. First by Debbie Noe then by our hired guide, Carolyn. She has been our guide now twice. She took us to old Berlin, checkpoint charlie, Russian Memorial and then to the Brandenburg Gate. Here's a story to think about. I am a history lover, love politics and US presidents. And one of our favorite presidents is John F. Kennedy. So what if he is a democrat. He was probably [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 - Thursday in Berlin Goodbye to Amsterdam and Hello Berlin. We left on time at 8 am. Yes, after a last fun night, we were all up and ready for our 10 plus hours on the bus. The ride, long and broken up by three stops. Dr. Meyer and Luggi had sausages and potatoes as usual. And no "peeing on the bus". Drinking on the bus, not like the road trips in the past, but enjoyable. I slept most of the time. Do we have stories to share, yes but not in writing. The group rolled in at 6 [View Full Entry]

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Day 6 - Tuesday "Happy St Patrick's Day" Sorry all for the delay in writing. Travel, programs and the cost of the internet is a big drag. Tuesday- great but short night in Brussels. Yes, we saw the peeing boy and all we could do in 8 hours. We got to the 9:30 am program with no trouble. The program lasted 2 hours and I got to meet Clarissa Unger, the Kansas intern working here at the US Mission. I met her through her travelblog. Reading her blog, she is a good writer and loves her assignment at the US Mission. [View Full Entry]

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Day 5 - Monday Today was program day at The Transport For London. This is my program that I found accidentally when I was reading a trade journal. The topic, Congestion Charging- motorist paying an 8 pound charge to enter the city. Interesting concept and it's working. Traffic was not as bad as it use to be. We traveled the city by bus, tube, foot and cab. See for details. Goodbye London and hello Brussels! New cast of characters: Susan is a graduate of the MPA program and Donna is a retired co-worker of Susan [View Full Entry]

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Day 3- Saturday Greetings everyone, two full days in London is over. We saw a lot, but missed a lot. Here is a link to the major attractions that we either saw or should have seen . Here are Saturday activities: We took the motorcoach to Parliament Square and opted to get off. Marti, Carole and I went off by foot. We had a couple of places to see: Churchill Museum, Cabinet War Rooms, Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, Leichster Square, Theater District, Big Ben and everywhere in between. After walking around Parliament Squ [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 - Friday Hi everyone, we had a great first full day in London. After a long plane ride, we had a 3 hour program at the London Wetlands. You heard it right, after many many hours of being on the plane, three hours waiting at the airport, we now go to a 3 hour program at The London Wetlands. Read more about this on the . Short note on the cast of characters that I will be hanging with in the next couple of days: Dr. Meyer is the lead professor on this trip and he has Lance Noe [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 - Friday In London The plane ride from Des Moines to Chicago was uneventful. During the layover, we had our first group meal. Joe, Andrea, Amy, Scott, David, Eric, Jessica and I ate at the Macaroni Grill. Great food and we all swapped stories and shared what we we were looking forward to. The plane ride from Chicago to London was not as long as I anticipated. I watched one movie (Doubt) and was able to sleep with the help of Mr. Benadryl. I call benadryl the miracle drug, it helps with sleep, allergic reactions, allergies and I'm sure [View Full Entry]

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