Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 948

I am currently sitting in front of the old Imperial Place of Berlin, bombed and rebuild as the Palast der Republik or of the People or something or the other. Quite an eyesore but unfortunately still there. I am currently actively cheering on the Finnish female beach volleyball team. They are leading the game by 21 points to 16 against the German female team (the finnish girls are prettier). It all seems slightly sureal: there is a relatively large crowd hapily munching away on their bratwursts and drinking their daily allowance of 10 pints of beer (at least it is good beer, unlike in another country which shall remain nameless). There is a disproportionately large amount of pretty girls, leaving little to the imagination, glorious sunshine (I have changed into holiday-stupid tourist gear: shorts, sandals and ... read more

Hi everyone! We are now in Cochem, the second c is silent. This place is small and very quiet, which is much appreciated after Pragueand it´s crowds. We got here on the 19th and we stayed at a youth hostel that was completely deserted. A couple schools were coming in the next day so we had to find a new place cause they were all booked up. We ended up getting a great deal on an apartmentguesthouse that has it´s own living room, bedroom, full kitchen, porch and even... washing machine! And for only 20 euro. Amy and I fought over who got to use the washing machine first, I won of course... It´s a good thing because I had started to take dirty clothes out of the bag and decide which one smelled the least, ... read more

I met Karin Engelhardt by accident in Hofbrauhaus a couple of weeks ago, and found out that she was the first Fachhochschule Coburg student to come to K-State. That was three years ago now, but she’s still around, finishing up her last semester in school. She goes home almost every weekend to her town of Himmelkron and she invited me to with her anytime I liked, so I called her up for this past weekend of the 17th-19th of June. (June? Already?) Karin picked me up Friday afternoon, and we hit the road. The first stop was supposed to be a visit to Karin’s godmother, who was in the hospital with minor pains, but a few wrong turns later happenstance put us at the foot of a hill with a well-known Pilgramige Church atop. I’d known ... read more

We'll be here in Germany for three more days. On Wednesday we're flying to London where we'll stay until the 27th. Then we're going to Rome for four days. Then we'll fly back to Germany and meet up with Pam. There's a picturesque lake in town, so today we went out and had a picnic. Katherine enjoyed feeding the ducks. She was especially fond of the mother duck and her babies.... read more

After my day in the sun, taking useless pictures of animals and generally enjoying myself, I was overcome by a strong sense of guilt. It had to be guilt. Either guilt or heatstroke. Surely there was some imbalance in the Jason, as I'd indulged my whimsy but not my intellect. Cavorting about Berlin on a rickety bicycle, drinking cheap beer and laying in the sun was all well and good, but when was I going to grow up, put on long pants, and play adult? Hoping to avert disappointment and expand my mind, I visited the two most immediately appealing of Berlin's MANY (MANYMANYMANY) museums. Berlin is serious about its history and culture and seriously good at marketing it. There is even an island in the city devoted solely to museums. First, the Jüdisches Museum ...heavily ... read more