Deutsch o English

Greetings from the capital of Germany Berlin.  I have not had access to a computer so I need to update what has been going on while we were in Dresden.  Dresden is a beautiful city where the kings of Saxony ruled.  Unfortunately, 90% of the city was destroyed in WW II by the allies and then when the communists took over East Germany they did not spend the money to fix the city.  Slowly, since reunification, the city is being rebuilt.  When we arrived, it was cold and pouring down rain.  We got a short tour of the old part of town and then had dinner.  I had my first piece of Black Forrest Cake.  It was yummy.

On Sunday, we had the option to go to Prague because of how close it is to Dresden or stay in Dresden and tour.  Most of us decided to stay in Dresden because of how cold and rainy it was and I did not want to spend more time in a train.

After breakfast, several of us attended Mass at the castle church.  It was all in German, however I figured everything out.  The organ music was beautiful.  In the afternoon, me, Shirley, Andrea and Ellen (my buddies on the trip) toured the city.  We went to the Masters art gallery where I got to see Raphael's Sistine Madonna and some Rembrandt's and Boticelli, Brugel and many others.  It was breathtaking.  They do not allow pictures so I do not have any to show but google them so you can see what they look like.  We then went to the porcelain museum because the Saxony kings were obsessed with china porcelain.  It was really neat.

We then had lunch in a cake shop.  I had a chocolate cake with strawberries and a capaccino for my lunch!  We thought we deserved it after walking around so much.  We then met the rest of the group for dinner I had saxony sauerbratten and finally apple streudel and they were both excellent.

On Monday we met with the Saxony education department.  It was interesting to hear their perspective on education after the reunion of the 2 Germanys.  We had a scary moment there.  Alot of us got on the elevator to go up to our meeting.  There must have been too many of us on it as it stalled and then made this horrible thud like it was going to fall.  We all screamed and then the door opened and we decided to walk up the stairs!

Our second meeting was an organization that is trying to teach tolerance against hatred and neo nazism in the schools.  It was very informative and I hope they are successful.

Our last meeting was at the Dresden water treatment plant.  It was neat to see how they clean the water but stinky!!!!!

This morning at breakfast, I must be getting so good at German that the waitress asked me if I was German or English!!!!  I am pretty impressed with myself.

Tomorrow we visit the German Foreign Office and the German Parliament.  I am then going to meet a friend from high school who lives in Germany!

Later