Last Day in Germany! Berlin

Jewish Museum - Garden of Exile

Jewish Museum

Berlin Zoo

John as a street performer

A bit of Berlin

Overnight Train to Berlin

Dachau

More Munich

Marienplatz



Olympiaturm - Olympic Tower



View of BMW from Olympiaturm



View of 1972 Olympic Stadium from Olympiaturm









BMW World



Gartenzwerge - garden gnomes



Gnomes are busy multitasking these days



Chocolate bunnies for Easter

First Day in Munich

Nymphenburg Palace






The famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich - don't worry, we didn't drink any beer!

Photos from Day 3

Lots of time on the bus!



Snowball fight






Hiking to Neuschwanstein



Neuschwanstein castle in the snowstorm



Hohenschwangau Castle -- one of "Mad" King Ludwig's other castles, visible from Neuschwanstein



The insanely rococo Wieskirche



Oberammergau Spielhaus, home of the Passion Play that has taken place every 10 years since the 1600s



Wood carvings in Oberammergau



Lederhosen!

Explorica Tour Diary

Please check out our guide Kris's great tour diary with photos! I'll update the blog here ASAP. -Ms. Nak

Day 3

It snowed all day today! For lunch we visited a typical German restaurant. As expected, after that 2 hour bus drive we were famished. It had a typical German menu consisting of sandwiches, spaghetti, hotdogs, and schnitzel. After a yummy meal, we had to hike thirty minutes while it was snowing to the Neuschwanstein Castle. The Neuschwanstein was the castle Walt Disney based both Disney Land and Disney World off of. Sadly, only one third of the rooms had been completed. However, we saw the king’s quarters and were in awe of the intricate detail in the wood. We were told that the entire room took a group of wood carvers 4 years to complete. To our amusement, it was our tour guides first English tour, and he misspoke many English words. After the tour, we took another hour bus ride to arrive in a town where we got an hour free time to explore the town. After another one hour bus ride, we finally got to the hotel! It is very comfortable and for dinner we had chicken and macaroni and cheese pasta. We all got to use showers that were actually functional, and a good time was had by all.

Herr Warren's Photos and Movies

Check it out here!

Fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn

Today we left Ludwigshafen and we chased the sunny holes in the clouds down to Freiburg, a picturesque town in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). We saw the spacious cathedral in Freiburg and shopped at the farmer's market. Most people ate some delicious Wurst from street vendors, and the chaperones tried donkey salami (no joke). Then we saw a cuckoo clock demonstration, ate a good meal and enjoyed a traditional Black Forest cake (Schwartzwälder Kirschtorte) for Emily's birthday (Herzlichen Glückwünsch zum Geburtstag, Emily!). We read the original text of Hänsel und Gretel by the Brother's Grimm in a small chapel with a creepy pile of human bones in the basement (a graveyard had been dug up years ago and the bones moved to the chapel). We hit a bonus country -- Switzerland! We ventured just over the border to view the Rhein Falls and play on a rather unique playground (other blog post to follow). Then we traveled to the city of Konstanz on Lake Constance (Bodensee) for a bit more shopping and exploration. The streets and architecture were beautiful; there was so much to look at. Finally, we checked into our hotel in Singen, and it is modern and comfortable. We are pretty much past our jetlag and the students are adapting very well. The German people have been very nice and everyone is having a great time. I'm still working on uploading photos -- our tour guide Kris has posted some at the Explorica site, but we'll get some up here eventually! All the best, Ms. Nak

Freiburger Münster (cathedral)

Outside the cathedral



Inside the cathedral in Freiburg

Wurst (including donkey!) at the market in Freiburg

Cuckoo clock shop

Emily eating Black Forest Cake in the Black Forest for her birthday

Small chapel near cuckoo clock shop