Bergedorf and PICS

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Today we took a great trip to the nearby town of Bergedorf. While there, we toured a castle, walked through the woods, stopped to play a bit, smapled the fare at a local street market, and thew kids shopped to their hearts content.

We left in a sort of Seattle rain, more of a mist really. By the time we stepped off of the train in Bergedorf, it had stopped. We first stopped at a very old church for a look around at the old architecture and painting inside. After that, when we popped up to the castle, it was already full of visitors, so we changed things up a little. We walked through the gardens and trails through the woods. It was a great walk with many trees, streams and ponds. As we rounded the last corner, our kids suddenly bolted. It seems that at the sight of a playground, even to be freshmen turn back the clock and become 6 yearolds again! They all played on the playground for quite some time.

We exited the park and strolled through a street market where we sampled some currant berries for free, Jeff Bajema had "the best apple ever", and raspberries. From here it was on to shopping. The kids had two hours to stroll the streets of Bergedorf. Drew got a good on a twirly wheel and felt like he was going to puke for the rest of the day. I have been assured that the video will be on youtube shortly, and with any luck, the video will make it to this blog soon as well.

We met at the 800 year old castle at 1pm. We spent the next hour touring the many rooms and exploring the castle and learning about the history of this old town. Manyof our students are firm believers in ghosts now after their experiences in a particular room of the castle!

On the way back to the train station, we stopped the group to show them the gold "stumble stones" in the sidewalk. These were placed around the town next to the buildings where Jews once lived who were deported to concentration camps. It lists their names and birth dates as well as when they were deported. It was meaningful to everyone to attach a real person and that very real place where we stood, to a time and event in history.

We let the students lead us back to school in order to help prepare them for the Amazing Race on Friday. They did well with that.

Enjoy the pics!

-Ben

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Comments

[Rhonda Brown]

Thank you
Ben and Heidi - thank you for the daily updates and pictures of the kids. it is good to know that you are all having such a great time!