Life of a Single Married Lady

Thanks for the title, JFK! Our final ~36 Germanic hours were spent in lovely Berlin: enormous city, capital of Germany in times past and present, famously divided and reunited, and center of science, politics, and culture. Berlin was originally two cities on either side of the Spree River. They formed strong trade ties, created an alliance, and eventually merged with a couple other surrounding areas to become the Berlin we know today. Unfortunately we could only visit a fraction of the sights to see here, but we certainly gave it our best shot! We began our Berlin day with a bus tour of the city center. Besides the suburbs, one of our first sights was a long section of the Berlin Wall that remains standing and features work from local artists. Later on we saw longest remaining section of the wall, behind which is the indoor/outdoor museum Topography of Terror, which focuses on Nazi repression. The cellar of the Gestapo headquarters was found and excavated, and Topography of Ter...

We have completed all our musical ventures and have now succumbed to pure tourism! So prepare yourself for a flood of pictures from Dresden, a city that is really too beautiful for pictures, but I tried anyway. Dresden was settled by Germanic people migrating east around 7500 BC, but its real beginning as a city was around 1200. Its name is Sorbic for "people of the forest". It sits along the mighty River Elbe. In the late 1700s, Augustus I of Saxony (aka Augustus II the Strong of Poland) decided to make Dresden his home and attract the arts and culture. During his reign and his son's, Dresden became home to stunning architecture and art collections unlike anywhere else. The Royal Palace, or Residenzschloss Dresden, was expanded during this time and showcases many different architectural styles. It was gutted during the bombing and associated fire in WW2 (13-15 February 1945), and until 1992 stood dilapidated. It is still being restored and now houses 6 museum...

A lovely relaxing day today...who am I kidding?? But we had much less bus time so I can't complain too much :) Our day started early with a walking tour of Leipzig. The tour guide for our group took part in the demonstrations against the government in 1989 in Leipzig, which actually began with the churches. Her stories were haunting and interesting, and we really appreciated the glimpse into pre-unification Germany. We saw the University... ...the opera house... ...this cool building outside St. Nicholas Church... ...St. Nicholas Church, built in the 1100s as a Catholic Church but converted to Lutheran during the Reformation... ...the first municipal private school in Leipzig, which educated the likes of Richard Wagner and Leibniz... ...neat covered pedestrian malls throughout the city... ...a coffeehouse with a long history of trade and famous visitors... ...the Leipzig New Town Hall and statue of Goethe, a student in Leipzig... ...and finally bac...