Here we go (finally) - the blog of my trip to Europe. The words are from the handwritten journal that I kept, interspersed with pictures. Enjoy!
3/12/2010
We've been on the plane to Amsterdam for a while now. The trip has been pretty crazy so far - at least the flying part. It took forever to check in at the Anchorage airport so we were an hour late getting out of that airport. When we got to Minneapolis, we were in a holding pattern for another 45 minutes or so. We got to run through the airport to get to our Amsterdam flight - at least they held it for us so that we could get to the international gate.
The drive up yesterday wasn't bad. Absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun. I'm really starting to get excited, having fun with the Nortons and Mark (we'll pick up Nancy in Anchorage). I'm also exhausted - time to sleep soon!
I'im at the point where I just want to be there. I know it's going to be crazy when we get there - busy and crazy and all that, but I'm excited to get to see everything. All of the opportunities that we'll get.
3/13/2010
Well, we're in Europe - Berlin, to be exact. I'm ready to go to sleep, but we're on the bus heading to the museum, so I can't sleep.
The
Pergamon Museum was amazing - I felt so bad though, because we were all so tired from jet lag. Just walking around was draining, not to mention climbing the Stairs to the Pergamon Altar, and exploring everything out there. Add into the fact that the voices on the handheld informers were soothing, and it was kind of hard to stay awake. So much beautiful artwork though, and then you consider how long ago it was when they made it, and it's just awe inspiring.
3/14/2010
Today we took a tour of Berlin. It was really interesting. There are cobblestones that run along the entire center of the city, representing where the wall was. We also went to see
Checkpoint Charlie. We stopped there for a little bit, and I had this really good bruschetta for lunch. So many tomatoes!
It's been incredible to just drive all around Berlin. So much of the city has been rebuilt after the bombings. There's still traces, though. We sang at the
Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, and it was so incredibly beautiful.
This is the ceiling in the "first church" that was bombed out during the Second World War. It was later rebuilt, into this church with amazing blue stained glass.
We also stopped at a
memorial for Holocaust victims. It was pretty intense. It looks strange (just a bunch of cement blocks) - but when you walk down, there's just this feeling of descending into pure loneliness. You can hear the echoes of the people around you, but it's actually really difficult to see them. You're surrounded by these blocks - about the size of a grave - some of them are 10 feet high. Intense.
We also went to the Brandenburg Tor.
It must have been really intimidating with the wooden gates to hold people in (or keep them out) back when it was actually functioning as a gate.
It's hard to tell the difference between East and West now. The government has done so much to rebuild and redesign the city (perhaps to wipe the ghosts of what happened?)
We also saw the Television Tower, one of the highest buildings, built in East Berlin by the Soviets. The guide said that there was one in each major Communist city - to show their power and might in building tall things.
---end of bus tour---
Now we're on our way to Leipzig. We're going to get to see Thomankirche, where Bach did so many amazing things. The scenery here reminds me of the Midwest - lots of flat and farms and windmills and all of that. Quaint little villages - we passed the church where Luther "set down the new rules".
It's strange, all of the things that this trip makes me consider - definitely Karl and Sarah F. because of all of the Lutheran stuff - and the Pergamon. Geeky Greek stuff. It was incredible though, to see all the remnants of the Greek culture. I wish we'd had longer and not been qute so exhausted, there was so much that I couldn't process.
18km to Leipzig! I'm starting to get excited. We're going to actually get to sing where Bach did so much work - he was the choral master there for 27 years, and it was the one church that kept his music alive, when he was in his "not so popular" times. We're not here for long - off to Prague tomorrow - time for our first country switch!
---later that night---
Today was just intense. The trip to Leipzig was pretty and relaxing, but just being here - the tour was so crazy. There's so much culture that here that I wasn't entirely aware of - Mendelssohn and Schiller and everything. We sang Bach IN Bach's church.
Here's the group of us, next to the Bach statue.
We also got to wander around the city a bit, and go to the
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof. It was pretty intense - lots of shopping, and LOTS of cute earrings and jewelry and goodness. I got some really good stuff, for pretty low prices as well.
****I'm going to write one entry for each country. Prague and Telc will be the next installment!
Castle and shopping time today. 
He's the guy who started the Moravian church, which is pretty cool. I haven't been able to find many books about it, though.
The Astronomical Clock - so amazing. We sang "What a Wonderful World" right before it went off our first day in Prague.
Relics inside the Prague Castle of the Remnants of the Church of the Virgin Mary - built in the years 882-884.
This is the President of the Czech Republic. We saw him at the palace. :)
The facades were so cool - originally built like that to keep the town safe.
Just one of the little turrets still left from when it was a fortress.
