Random things that interest me

July 28, 2010 at 1:46 am (History)
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Today we covered a lot of history.  We looked at WWI and the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, basically a lot of background information.  A lot I knew, a lot was a refresher, and a lot I had never heard before or thought about in the way it was presented. 

So a few things that interested me today:

  • Francis Galton is the father of modern eugenics.  He was Charles Darwin’s cousin.  The idea of social Darwinism came from this guy. 
  • The handicapped were seen as inferior; women were second class citizens and thought to belong in the home; child labor was legal, nationalism was virulent; religon was cause for violence.  All those things describe the United States in the 1930′s. 
  • Virginia was big into eugenics and forced sterilization in the 1930′s. 
  • The T4 program was kind of the dress rehearsal for the Nazis and helped them become efficient at killing large numbers of people in a short amount of time.

One big discussion started when America in the 1930′s was described, especially since the eugenics and sterilization so closely paralled what was going on in Germany.  Our lecturer asked: America got as far as concentration (internment) camps and sterilization of the handicapped-what kept them from moving past that like the Nazis did?  So there was a pretty lengthy discussion.  I can only remember a couple of the theories offered, but they were  the US didn’t have a Hitler, and the US had already committed their genocide with the Native Americans.  (So the US wasn’t allowed to commit anymore genocides?  One and done?)

Tomorrow is our longest day of class.  We start at 8:30am, and finish up at 8pm.  Around 5:15 we have a dinner with several Holocaust survivors, followed by a question and answer panel beginning at 6.  There should be five survivors.  A couple of them survived by pretending to be Christian; a few others survived concentration camps.  I’ve got a list of questions (thank you Facebook friends) and will hopefully get some of them answered.  It’s a pretty big class-at least 30-and I know everyone will have many questions, so I figure if I can get one or two answered I’m lucky.  I have no recording equipment, but I’ll take the best notes I can for future reference.  I have heard one survivor speak before, although that was just last November at the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Atlanta.  I know I was lucky to hear her speak, so to have the opportunity to hear five survivors is very fortunate.

I actually thought about putting this class off until next year.  I had applied for a few summer trips, and didn’t know if I would get accepted to any of them, so I thought I might hold off until next summer, when I may actually stay home.  (Although if something really good comes up, I know I won’t be able to resist.)  What made me go ahead and register was knowing that there was a survivor panel, and knowing that the survivors may not be around much longer and I should take advantage of the opportunity to hear them speak.  Besides that, I’m glad I enrolled this summer because a lot of what we have discussed I just learned about (and in some cases saw) a couple of weeks ago while we were in Germany.  I’ve actually gone through my photos from the trip to find something the speaker is talking about because I was just there and that is a pretty cool thing.  (No, I don’t tell the speaker that, nor have I told very many people that I was just in Germany and learned about these things, or that I’ve even visited concentration camps.  But just for me personally it’s cool to hear the speaker talk about the depiction of Synagogue in medieval art and pull up my photos from the church in Bamberg and compare what I saw to what he’s showing us.)

My only complaint is the awful bed and the poor excuse for a pillow.  I don’t know how anyone sleeps on this thing for an entire school year.  Maybe when you’re young and in college it doesn’t matter and you can sleep anywhere.  I on the other hand, can’t wait to sleep in my own bed again, with my two fluffy pillows.

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I think I missed something

July 27, 2010 at 12:59 am (History)
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I know I haven’t finished blogging about Germany.  I know I haven’t blogged about Croatia.  There are still several topics I need to write about, such as our tour of Berlin and the Berlin Wall, and ice cream in Croatia. 

That will have to wait a little longer.  (I know I’m lazy and could have done it last week while I enjoyed my one week of summer vacation.  I did upload my pictures to our group Shutterfly account, but that was as far as I got.)

I do need to blog about what I’m doing now though.  I’m in Richmond (sitting in an apartment on the University of Richmond campus) because I’m taking a week long grad class on the Holocaust and Genocide through the University of Richmond and the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  (Yes, VA has a Holocaust Museum.  I learned about this sometime last year I think?  It isn’t far from D.C., they realize that, but their approach is more hands on and story specific.  And it’s actually the 4th or 5th larges Holocaust museum in the country.)

The museum is really based on the story of Jay Ipson’s family.  The Ipson family lived through the Holocaust.  Thirteen, including Jay, survived.  He’s 75 now and still going strong.  He put a lot of work into the museum (as did many others) and wanted something really hands on, something to showcase what life was like,  without too much script around for people to read and they’ve accomplished that here.  Many of the exhibits are personal things.  The Kristallnacht portion for example shows the broken windows in the Woolworth’s in Berlin.  Jay’s father saw this destruction.  (And that Woolworth’s was attacked erroneously-it had a Jewish manager, but not a Jewish owner.) 

Our class began yesterday with a discussion of what genocide is, and examples of past genocide.  We discussed Armenia.  The Rape of Nanjing.  (Although many scholars have concluded that Nanjing was not genocide, but atrocoties of war-it was missing several components that make up genocide.) 

We also discussed the Herero genocide.  Who?  The Herero?  Never heard of them.  Did I skip class that day?  (That was something like my thought process.)  The Herero genocide occurred in the early 1900′s in what is now Namibia.  People expanded there for farming space, ran the Herero off their land, and decided to annihilate them.  They posioned their wells, pushed them into the desert where they died, or were turned into slaves and lived in a concentration camp.  There was even a death camp (the first one) on Shark Island.  Who committed this genocide against the Herero?  The Germans.  I had no idea.  And the Herero genocide influenced several key Nazi party members.  Hermann Göring’s father was a key offical during this time, and Göring idolized his father.  (He must have made daddy proud?)  Eugen Fisher, who would become the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, conducted “research” on Herero people in the concentration camps, concluding that they were inferior to the Germans.  The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute trained doctors for the Third Reich, including Mengele.  Why have I never heard of this?  I’m not sure.  It seems pretty important to me. 

We learned about that yesterday, during our first session.  This morning we talked about a few technical things needed when writing lesson plans and how they should be done (rationale statements and guiding questions.)  Then we went on a tour of the museum with a docent named Alex Keisch.  Alex is a Holocaust survivor, although he has no personal stories to share.  He (and his twin brother ) were born at Auschwitz on April 21, 1945, nine days before the war ended, and after the Germans had already vacated the camp. Alex’s parents were partisans and lived in the woods.  His father saved around 50 Jews during the war.  The story of Alex’s father is similar to that of the Bielski brothers, who are well known.  The movie Defiance was based on their actions during the war.  One day Alex’s father and a few others were caught.  They were marched in a line, hands tied behind their back, on a path through the woods.  A funeral procession passed going in the other direction.  The mourners and prisoners looked similar-heads down, hands behind their back.  Alex’s father waited, turned around, and became the last mourner in the funeral line and escaped capture. 

His father did not trust the Soviets though, so the family went to West Berlin and were in a Red Cross camp.  Alex’s mother unfortunately got sick and died due to lack of medical care in 1948.  She was about 22.  He did not find out where her grave was until 2004, and he was finally able to visit it and place a stone on his mother’s grave.  (I’m sure you know, but Jews place a rock on a headstone to show that someone who cared about the person buried there came to visit.) 

After the war, a Jewish businessman in Hartford, Connecticut, signed a piece of paper stating that he was hiring Alex’s father to work for him.  They never even met this person, but they did need a signature saying that Alex’s father would have employment, which is how they wound up in the United States. 

Alex doesn’t have an accent, and if you saw him on the street you would never know he was a Holocaust survivor.  He’s very funny and knows a lot of information, and was an excellent tour guide.  He speaks very matter of factly about his family’s experience and is willing to share those experiences. We all would have liked more time with him. 

This afternoon we talked about Judaism, who is a Jew, and the centuries of persecution they have faced, as well as how they were (are?) viewed/portrayed by people and the Church.  Tomorrow we’re discussing WWI and the Rise of Hitler and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust among other things.  Wednesday evening we have a dinner with Holocaust survivors, followed by a question and answer period.

My problem is now coming up with 5 lesson plans (due next Friday!) that make up the final requirement for this class and will give me my 3 graduate credit hours.  Another thing floating around in the back of my mind (since I’ve got to work on my Master’s in History) is perhaps finding an avenue to pursue should I choose to write a thesis.  I’m thinking the Herero genocide (and how it influenced the Holocaust maybe?) might be something to look into.

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The Munich Diet

July 9, 2010 at 5:58 am (Germany, Travel)
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Today we left Nuremburg and spent most of the day in Bamberg.  We took a brief tour of the cathedral, then had lunch in a biergarten.  So the only parts of town we got to see were on our walk from said cathedral to said restaurant.  It’s a very picturesque place and everyone wanted to stop and shop and take pictures.  Time did not allow for this.  I didn’t even get to buy a postcard. 

Lunch in the restaurant was ok, I had currywurst which is still not as good as what we bought off the street vendor way back in Oranienburg.  We left after lunch to tour a palace that was used by the prince bishopric I think.  (Priest bishopric?  I can’t remember.)  It was a 30 minute tour, we really only looked at some of the rooms on the first floor and then were off to Munich, which was about 2.5 hours away.

We passed the BMW headquarters on the way in, which is a massive cylindrical structure.  We also saw the top of the Olympic Stadium, which we’ll visit during our tour of Munich. 

We were free for the evening, which caused a rush of planning.  Hofbrahaus was at the top of many people’s list.  We know it’s as touristy as you can get.  But now we can say we’ve been to the original Hofbrahaus and had a beer.  Now I can say I’ve been to all three of them.  Since we all wanted to make other stops, we didn’t stay too long.  (Even the waiter, when asked for the bill, said “so soon?”)  I’m not sure anyone even finished their beer. 

I stopped by the Hard Rock to get a shirt for myself, and then met up with everyone else at the Glockenspiel which is awesome, although I may have spelled it incorrectly.  We were a little disappointed because the clock never started up, so we didn’t get to see what it does. 

Another biergarten (where locals actually go) was the final stop of our self made whirlwind tour of Munich last night.  This is the spot our group leader suggested.  We walked in and this place is huge.  There were easily 2000 people there, a live band, full tables in every direction you looked, and a playground for the kids.  The band was actually pretty good, they do some songs in English but the highlight for me was hearing them perform “99 Luftballons.” 

Back to the hotel after that, and luckily it’s a late morning.  I will need a lot of food though.  Dinner tonight consisted of a pretzel eaten while walking to the Hofbrahaus, a beer at the Hofbrahaus (which I did not finish, but it was a liter!) and then an ice cream cone while walking to the other biergarten.  I certainly felt full but ate nothing of substance.  It was a great dinner.  I wish I had gotten 3 scoops of ice cream instead of two. 

And now we’re looking at our last day in Germany as a group which is sad.  We had a really good group and a great itinerary.  Many people are extending their trips and taking off to many different places in Europe.  I’ll be spending a few days in Croatia before heading home.  Everyone is splitting up today, we get to choose what we want to see.  A few people are heading out to Dachau which I would like to see, but we have been to Sachsenhausen and if I went with that group that would take up all morning and early afternoon.  Plus, I also really want to see the Olympic Stadium and other sites around Munich.  We meet this afternoon for a tour of a monastery where the monks brew beer, and then have our final dinner together.

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It was fun while it lasted

July 7, 2010 at 10:01 pm (Germany, Travel)
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We returned to our hotel a little while ago from the public viewing area in Nuremburg where we saw Germany lose to Spain.  The crowd is very into the game, but what happened when the game was over surprised everyone I think.  There was no booing, no clapping for a good game, no sighing, no angry talk, no yelling, no patting each other on the back or hugging.  They called the game, and everyone just got up and started to head out.  Very bizarre.  I can’t imagine that happening at home.  Already you wouldn’t be able to have a public viewing like they do in Germany, since people can walk around with alcohol, but I think at home for sporting events that people are really invested in, there is some emotional expression when your team loses.  Not so much here.

And this means that we shouldn’t expect to see many flags around anymore.  We’ve had a couple of talks where it has been explained to use that Germans are uncomfortable showing any national pride, waving their flag, etc., and these things really came out for the first time in 2006 for the World Cup.  They are certainly out in full force for this World Cup but now from what we’ve come to understand, they’ll go away.  The last speaker who discussed this topic with us has never (in his 40 or so years I would guess?) sung the national anthem or waved a German flag.  All due to the uncomfortable feeling of showing any national pride. 

I am still impressed with how smooth and calm the public viewings are.  Yes there is excitement and cheering, but no one is out of hand and there were no problems that I could see.  Even the lone person waving a Spanish flag in the public viewing area was not harassed or ridiculed in any way.

I am sad Deutschland didn’t make it to the final game, that would have been awesome.  And so far the octopus has been absolutely correct.

We did have a couple of tours today-one at Staedtler, which was a factory tour.  Staedtler makes writing instruments.  It takes 10 steps to make a pencil.  It’s insane.  The factory was very clean, very efficient, and well organized.  It’s pretty green-all waste is recycled (for example, leads that get broken during the process go back to the beginning and are mixed again.)  They also seem to have a strong interest in worker safety. 

After Staedtler, we went to the Adidas group.  We toured the complex and saw their walk of fame as well as the Adi Dassler stadium that is on the grounds.  After that we went to the factory outlet store that’s nearby.

Then it was time to wander the Nuremburg city square for a little while before dinner.  Most everyone rushed though dinner to get to the public viewing area for the game.  We missed about 30 minutes of the first half, but we saw the rest. 

Tomorrow we head to Bamberg for a day trip and will arrive in Munich tomorrow evening.  Two nights there and Saturday morning our trip is over.

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I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

July 6, 2010 at 9:47 pm (Exercise, Germany)
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We are now in Nuremburg, in southern Germany.  We’re staying at a Best Western.  This is my favorite hotel so far.  I’m using the free wifi in the lobby, I have a balcony, and there’s a clock in my room.  Best. Hotel. Yet. 

Of course we’ve done a ton of things since the last time I blogged and I’ll catch up on what I can as quickly as I can.

I’ll start with Sunday.  For the 4th of July, we spent the day on a cycling tour of Potsdam.  We took the train all the way out to Potsdam and the bike rental place was only a few minutes walk from there.  I was on a ridiculously large bike and even with the seat all the way down I could barely touch with the tips of my toes.  When we were about to leave, I almost fell over so the guys mentioned to the guides that I needed a bike that I would be more comfortable on.  I got it switched out and was fine after that. 

Potsdam is very pretty, although I had some difficulty watching where I was going and looking at all the fancy villas.  (Some with Porsches and security cameras.)  We saw the villa where Truman stayed during the Potsdam Conference, and we actually cycled out to the house where the meetings took place.  It’s very pretty and belonged to some princess.  You only get to tour the bottom floor, but you do get to go into the room where the conferences took place.  We grabbed lunch here and the guys went off in search of the bench where the picture of the big three were taken, but they couldn’t find it. 

Before the visit to the Potsdam House though, we stopped by a lake to swim if we wanted or just rest for about a half an hour.  There were many people here, and many of them elected not to wear a bathing suit.  Jinny had been keeping a count of all the naked people we’ve seen on the trip, but there were too many here.  Women, men, children, young, old, it doesn’t matter.  Even our guides stripped down and went swimming.  Most of us did not-one woman got in wearing her clothes, another guy stripped down but went elsewhere around the lake, and one guy got down to his underwear.  I stood by the bank.  I did have my running shorts on under my skirt, I kind of wish I had thought to take my skirt off and go in with my shorts and tank top, but at the time I didn’t want to bother with the sand and I certainly don’t want to lug that around  in my suitcase. 

So after our somewhat shocking visit to the lake and the Potsdam House, we rode around to a few more palaces and looked around in the various gardens.  It was a long cycling tour, about 6 hours total, although we stopped often to look at various landmarks.  I unfortunately don’t have any notes from this trip, since I can barely ride a bike, let alone take pictures or notes while riding a bike, although some in our group were very adept at snapping photos while riding.  Much of the way was on shady streets or in a park, and it was luckily a little cooler than it has been, so all in all it was a nice day.  We ended by taking the train back to Berlin and having dinner in a Biergarten.  We had pizza though, not traditional German food, but our guides told us this particular Biergarten had excellent pizza, and they did. 

A great part of the cycling trip was stopping to buy fresh cherries along the side of the road.  They were delicious.  Scott (our group leader) challenged me to a spitting contest with the cherry pits.  I’d say it was a draw, I told him I got a lot of practice while running.  One of our guides, Monika, wore cherries in her ears for the rest of the day.  I’m not sure if this is something that she just likes to do, or something that Germans in general like to do.  I can say that I have seen no other Germans with fruit hanging from their ears in my 10 or so days here, so I’m thinking it’s a Monika thing.

It was nice to be outside all day and to get some exercise, and I think most of the group thorougly enjoyed the cycling tour.

After dinner Kevin and I ran to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Kevin is a huge fan of ice cream, and since I love their hot fudge brownie sundaes, this field trip worked perfectly.  There is an awesome Trabant in the restaurant, and since it was the 4th of July they had streamers and balloons and flags up to celebrate.  After dessert we hopped on the train and headed back to the hotel.

So the 4th was one of my favorite days so far.  I was very European cycling in my skirt and flip flops.  (Although I’m sure my camera gave me away.)  I wish we were more bike friendly back home.  Everyone here rides a bike.  I wouldn’t mind another cycling tour, but we don’t have time.

We’re in Nuremburg for two nights, then off to Munich for one night and then I head to Croatia for a few days before coming home.  Hard to belive the trip is almost done!

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Deutschland Deutschland Detuschland

July 3, 2010 at 4:49 pm (Germany)
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We have just returned from watching Germany play Argentina in the World Cup.  Germany won, just like the octopus predicted, and from what I understand 4 goals is quite a lot. 

I did not go to the huge public viewing area this time because I was very tired after a late night and it is incredibly hot today.  It’s a long story which I’ll go into later, but I didn’t get to bed until after 2am. 

We did have a tour this morning, at the Reichstag, the German Parliament building.  (Sorry, pictures and notes are again upstairs in my room while I try to hurriedly type up what we did today before the concert this evening.  I’m not betting on having any internet time left once that’s over.)  It was a great tour, we got to skip the huge lines out front and enter through the side.  The Reichstag building wound up in West Germany while it was divided.  There is still damage and graffiti in the building, which they decided to leave. It was pretty interesting to visit the huge room where Parliament meets because it’s being rearranged because a new President was elected on Wednesday.  They do this each time a President is elected (every 5 years usually) but since he resigned rather suddenly they had an election and are not rearranging the room to move the seats of the various political parties around.

After this tour we visited the Brandenburg Gate (where the “tear down this wall” speech took place) and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.  (Which  I will also discuss later in a more somber post.)  The Memorial for the Murdered Homosexuals was the last stop, and then we were free.  I was a bit undecided about what to do-some people were shopping, the guys went to the Olympic Stadium, people split up everywhere.  Kerri and I ultimately decided to go grab some lunch and went with a group.  It was later than we thought, and the game started at 3, so we headed to a restaurant to watch and get some lunch.  We got there at a great time, tables were still available in the shade and we were able to order the lunch specials. 

The game started at 3.  Well, all the pregame stuff started at 3, I’m not sure when the game actually started.  It was a different experience than the game in Frankfurt because we weren’t with a huge crowd on the street, we were at a restaurant so it was a little more subdued I think.  But everyone cheered when Germany scored within the first 3 minutes.  It was awesome.  And everyone claps and cheers when the goalie stops a shot, and gasps when Argentina makes an attempt at a goal. 

The rest of the first half (to me anyway) was pretty uneventful.  I even struggled to stay awake for the last few minutes due to the lack of sleep.  But halftime rolled around and I visited a souvenir shop by the restaurant.  I missed the first few minutes of the second half, but I don’t think much happened so it was ok.  Then Germany scored 3 more goals and everyone went crazy.  It was after the second goal I think that the cameras began to show the coach for Argentina.  When this happened everyone in the crowd said “awwwww.”  This only got worse as Germany continued to score and the cameras showed him more often, and then started throwing in shots of very sad Argentina fans. 

Of course there was cheering and singing when the game was over.  A large group repeatedly sang something, the German national anthem maybe?  But overall, while everyone was happy and cheering, it was not as flamboyant as the public viewing area in Frankfurt.  I can only imagine what the public viewing area in Berlin was like.  I heard the count for the last game was 300,000 people.  I’m sure there were just as many today.

The next game I think will be this week-that’s what I’ve heard.  We should be in Nuremburg, and Scott (our group leader) said they have an excellent public veiwing area in the old town square.  I will definitely watch the next game from there.  I don’t know who Germany will play yet, but it would be kind of awesome if they won again.

And on a side note, I did wear my Deutschland Adidas shirt today, along with my lei during the game.  And Scott had a beer in mind he thought I might like, so I tried it.  I even finished the entire thing myself! 

We’re off to an organ concert now, then I plan on going right to bed afterwards.  But it was nice to have some free time today, and I enjoyed the game.  There’s just so much I want to do and we don’t have enough free time to get it all in.  I hope I don’t regret later not going to the Berlin Olympi Stadium, but really, I would rather see the Munich Stadium.  (Nothing against Jesse Owens though, I just like Pre.) 

And I’m really glad the octopus was right.  I can’t wait to hear his prediction for the next game.

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Sachsenhausen

July 2, 2010 at 9:35 pm (Germany)
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I’ll do my best with the next couple of posts, although I can’t promise anything.  We’re in Berlin now, after an extremely busy day.  I’m loving Berlin, except for the internet in the hotel.  I’m sitting in the lobby so I can pick up the wireless, and I can’t get the ethernet cable to work in my room.  My book with all my notes?  In my room.  I’ll try to remember what I can, but it was really information overload.  I know the last few posts haven’t been great since I was in the internet cafe, so I apologize for that.

Anyway, the first thing we did today was check out of our hotel in Schwerin and hop on a bus to head to Sachsenhausen.  Sachsenhausen is located in Oranienburg, and was the first concentration camp built.  This was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz, but rather a work and training camp.  The camp is atually in the town, and businesses moved into the area to take advantage of the labor provided by the prisoners in the camp.  This was the model concentration camp, that all other camps were modeled after.  All of the SS guards for all the other camps were trained here.  (Later the Soviets trained people here.  Oranienburg uses it today to train their police.)

Sachsenhausen was a triangle, which was considered the best shape for a camp because it offered the best views of the entire camp from the three guard towers at the corners.  Many of the barracks are gone.  After the camp was abandoned, the townspeople tore them down to use the materials to rebuild their homes, which has been destroyed in the war.  There is a large screen now that shows where the barracks stood.

The Jewish barracks are still there.  If you’ve seen the movie “The Lives of Others” this is where the Jewish counterfeiting team was kept.  Unfortunately someone set it on fire in 1992, so some of it was rebuilt and what’s left is still charred from the fire.  There is also an exhibit that has some of their counterfeit British pounds on display. 

Sachsenhausen did have a small gas chamber and creamatorium.  It’s the ruins now, but you can still see the outline of the entire floor plan and they have a good explanation laid out so you can see what rooms were used for. 

The camp was pretty big and open, and you’re able to walk around at your own pace.  We had about an hour and a half, so we couldn’t see everything but we did the best we could.  It’s very quiet and I don’t know if we were just there at a good time, but we managed to avoid most of the tour groups so for many of these buildings I was in there with only one or two other people from my group and that is kind of creepy.  I think the prison block with all the empty cells was the creepiest.  It was just a long hallway with many doors on each side that opened up into a small cell. 

The Soviets built a memorial at Sachsenhausen, although since it is located in what was East Germany, the only victims they commemorated were the Communist political prisoners.  Other things were added later to commemorate the other victims. 

Really the whole place was kind of quiet and eerie.  We easily avoided groups so you actually had time to reflect on what happened here, unlike at Auschwitz I where it was too crowded to do more than skim the information.  It was similar to Birkenau in the way you got to tour on your own, although I was very aware of the difference in the two types of camps.

We did a lot more than Sachsenhausen today, but it’s very late and I do have to be up for a tour tomorrow.  Plus I don’t know that you should talk about anything other than Sachsenhausen.  So I’ll save the tour of Berlin for tomorrow.

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Goodbye Schwerin

July 1, 2010 at 5:00 pm (Germany)
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Today we visited Neukloster, a little town about 45 minutes away from Schwerin.  We went to a Gymnasium, which is the high school for kids on the university track.  We took a tour and talked with a few teachers and sat in on a couple of classes.  We only had a few options for classes because most of the students were traveling throughout Germany or the Czech Repulic.  (These kids get to travel with school a lot!)  One of the classes we visited was a bilingual geography class.  These 13 year olds are taking geography in English.  It was very awesome.

Then we had lunch at a fantastic restaurant on the Neukloster See.  It was very pretty and the food was excellent.  I had a salad with several types of goat cheese.  Someone else in our group mentioned later that she looked this place up and it was a 4 star restaurant.  It’s in a very picturesque location. 

We also visited a small museum about the Neukloster when it belonged in East Germany.  This museum was the work of one man, who used to teach in the GDR.  He has done an excellent job, it was a great museum.  The Trabant car out back belongs to him.  When you ordered one of those cars, it took 12 to 14 years to actually receive it.

After our museum tour we went to meet the mayor of Neukloster.   We get on the bus, expecting to go to some town hall or other official place.  We pull into a dirt parking lot by the lake where people are swimming and sunbathing.  I wasn’t sure if we were swimming or fishing with the mayor or what.  So we walk by all these people who are enjoying the afternoon to a little cafe I guess in the area where there are tables set up outside and we have coffee and cake with the mayor.  (In my case I just had cake.  Good cake too.)  We got to talk to him for awhile.  This is his first year in office, and his term is 8 years! 

After the visit with the mayor (who looks very laid back) we headed back to Schwerin for our last night.  I napped on the way back and now am trying to get the most out of my hour at the internet cafe.  I hope in Berlin things will be easier.  Either more internet cafes or else more affordable internet in the hotel room, which I would really prefer so I can use my own computer with a familiar keyboard.  Then I can also post pictures.

We’ll get our last dinner in Schwerin and head back to the hotel.  We leave tomorrow morning at 8, and stop at Sachsenhausen on the way to Berlin.  This is a schedule change.  We were actually supposed to go to Sachsenhausen on Saturday at 3pm.  This is when Berlin is playing Argentina.  So the schedule has shifted so we can go to Sachsenhausen and watch the game in Berlin.

I’m looking forward to visiting Berlin but I will miss Schwerin.  It’s nice to kind of know where you are and to be able to get around a little on your own.  Although we are in Berlin for several nights, maybe I’ll learn my way around there as well.

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