Jif Peanut Butter withdrawal!!!

Greetings from Dresden, in the state of Saxony and the former East Germany.  It has been a while as I did not have computer access in Stuttgart.  Thanks to one of my kind colleagues on this trip, I can now update on what has been going on the last couple of days. 

I have had some definite new experiences here in Germany.  One- how friendly the people are and how good their English is.  America really needs to wake up and smell the coffee and require a foreign language and that it be taught in the PRIMARY grades, not when in high school.

I also have experienced pay to pee.  This is something that is so foreign to me.  I had to pay 30 Euros at the castle and 50 Euros at the truck stop in to Stuttgart to use the bathroom.

3rd, Germany does NOT have peanut butter!!!!!!!  They have this stuff called Neutella and I do not like it.  I want some peanut butter!!!!!!!

Anyway, the first picture below I forgot to mention earlier.  It is the building in Munich where Hitler and English prime minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement to avoid war.  My U.S. History students should remember that as part of the appeasement policy towards Hitler.

We had to say goodbye to Munich.  I really enjoyed my stay there and our 2 guides- Alexander and Annette were so WONDERFUL!  So kind and so much knowledge.  I felt safe every minute I was in Munich, even walking around at night and the food was wonderful.  I hope to come back some day.

We then left on Wednesday for the state of Baden- Wurttemberg and the city of Stuttgart.  On the way to Stuttgart, we drove through some beautiful places in Southern Germany and came to Comburg, where the teacher academy is located.  We had lunch there where I had my first taste of Spaetzel (yummy!) and we got a tour of the old monastary and church where the academy is located.  The monastary was 900 years old!!!!!!

To my Iowa readers, do you notice the pictures of the huge windmills?  They have them all over Germany.  Everyone on the bus was in awe of them but I was like no big deal as we have them all over Iowa.  Also my Iowa readers, the main grocery store in Germany is Aldi!!!!!  No joke.  It is a German company ran by 2 brothers.

We then made it in to Stuttgart.  It is a very industrial city with Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Robert Bosch tools there.  We got a tour of the city and then we had a luncheon with the president of the Bosch foundation.  It was great.  They are a major sponsor of the Transatlantic Outreach Program that I am on.

We then went to the Mercedes Benz museum which was interesting.  I got to see the first car and learn how Mercedes became part of the name, it was Benz's daughter's name.  Gotlieb Daimler and Benz are the ones who started the company.  Daimler made the engine and Benz made the physical care and the 2 came together.  We also learned that no car in the world does not have at least 1 Bosch part in it!!!

That evening we went to the plaza in Stuttgart and had dinner and did some shopping.  I got a very SPECIAL gift for my family that is a surprise from the Black Forrest.  It was also at dinner that I saw my first demonstration in Germany of Syrians and what is going on in Syria. I also got to do laundry at a laundry mat so I was happy!!!

I also gave my second gift to one of our guides in Stuttgart, Astrid and she really liked it, especially the Pioneer t-shirt.  Thank you again Pioneer for your generous donations!

We took the train this morning from Stuttgart to Dresden via Frankfurt.  It was 6.5 hours long but kind of fun.  We had taken food from the hotel breakfast to eat on the train and talked and looked at the sights.  I have met some really great people on this trip, especially Shirley, Ellen and Andrea.  We all kind of hang around together.

It is COLD AND RAINY in Dresden and we did a walking tour of Dresden.  Again, an old city but was destroyed in WW II by the Allies and many buildings destroyed and then when the Communists took over it was further weakened.  It has come back some since the fall of the Wall.  We just had another awesome dinner.  I had beef roulade and Kyle, a teacher from Wisconsin on this trip and I split a piece of Black Forrest cake.  YUMMY!

Some of us are going to Prague Czech Republic tomorrow because it is only 2 hours away, but I have decided to stay in Dresden and tour as the weather is suppose to be crappy.  Some of us are going to go to Mass in the morning in German. 

I will post more tomorrow of sight seeing.  It is hard to believe that my trip is half over.  I miss my kiddos and hubby!

Short stay in Stuttgart

Greetings! We are in Stuttgart.  We are only here only for a short time.  Our hotel is in the industrial part so not much sightseeing.  We have an important formal meeting and lunch at Robert Bosch today.  Will try to get back later tonight to share my observations of Germany.

Breath taking views today!!!

What a day!!!!!!  It was absolutely beautiful.  We went took a bus (Mercedes-they are everywhere here) 2 hours south east to the Austria-Germany border, which are the Alps.  Up in the mountains is a castle built by King Ludwig II called Nauschwaunstein.  It was just beautiful.  We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the castle so go on-line and google it so you can see how beautiful it is.  There is quite a story with King Ludwig II.  He went mad and was dethroned and then found dead in a river by the castle.  His death was ruled a suicide but many suspect foul play.

We then enjoyed a nice lunch there at some of the shops at the castle and did some shopping.  We then drove through the countryside.  One kind of cow they have in Bavaria is an Alpine cow.  We then went to this beautiful church just out in the as middle of nowhere called Wiesekirche.  It was breathtaking!!!  It was here that I tried a Bavarian donut called schmalznudel.  It was heavenly!!!!!  (I have not ate anything on this trip that was not wonderful.  Goethe Institut has wined and dined so much.)

Enjoy the beautiful scenary of my pictures.  We leave Munich in the morning for Stuttgart on the west.  Bye!
Joel-I saw this "true wiener" at the castle today!!!!  :)

Informational day today

Today was more informational than touristy.  We first went to a gymnasium (college prep school= called Städtisches Bertolt Brecht.  It is an all girls school, which is we rare in Germany.  This college prep school specializes in the social sciences and mathematics.  The students were not there as they are getting ready for exams but we got to tour the building and meet with some of the teachers and principal.  I appreciate the fact that I have my own room at Johnston and my own computer.  In German schools, the students stay in the classroom and it is the teachers that travel!  Jane B- I thought you might get a kick out of the library.  It was very tiny but they did have copies of Diary of a Wimpy kid in German.

We then went back to Munich and met with the Minister of Education Dr. Andreas Meyer.  It was very interesting to listen to him talk about the problems that Germany has had with the immigration issue and assimilating foreign children into the school system.  It has been a slow and painful process.  To become a German citizen, you have to pass a test in German and it is very difficult.  Also, there really are no ELL classes for immigrant children to learn German so they are at a disadvantage right away.  He also talked about Holocaust education and the tremendous guilt many Germans have about WW II and the Holocaust.  He said they do NOT sugarcoat what happened and take students to the concentration camps.

Then my buddy Shirley and I went on a mission to find some souveniers for our family in Munich but we only had an hour and a half to go and eat lunch and be back at 2:00 pm.  We made it (barely) and got some cool things.  By the way, Jessica- your mom won the bet and it happened at the airport in Munich!!!  Scott- do you see the sign in the pictures?  Do you remember what that is!!!!!! :)  Also there street muscians everywhere in Munich. This was a really good string quartet.

We then met with Jürgen Weigmann, who is a college professor in Munich, who talked to us about helping the students who fall through the cracks and leave school.  He said that Germany is getting better at this but that there still is a long way to go in helping reach at-risk students.  It was very informational. 

We then had a relaxing dinner out on the terrace at an authentic Italian restaurant run by a man and his son from Itlay and it was DEVINE!!!  I had spaghetti with vegetables and proscutio (spelling?).  The for dessert, we had canolis that were heavenly as well.  We were there for 4 hours tonight talking, eating and laughing! 

Tomorrow we are going to Neuschwanstein Castle in the Alps by Switzerland.  It was built by King Ludwig II and was the model for Disneys Sleeping Beauty castle.

Bye for now!