Berlin!

Here are some photos from the optional excursion to Berlin. The first shot show the group posing in front of the new American Embassy in Berlin, just opened July 4, 2008. The Embassy is on Pariser Platz, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. In the second shot you can see the group standing on the former location of the Berlin wall. The double brick path runs the complete length of the wall as a reminder of the once-divided city. This part of the wall is right in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the second shot. There were a lot of people in the city this day, but if you look closely you can see the group.

Part of the excursion included a boat tour on the Spree River, which offered an up-close view of both old and new Berlin, as well as the entire federal government area. The last picture shows part of the group on the boat with the Federal Government building in the distance (the glass dome).

Erfurt

The Sommerkurs left for Erfurt, the capital of the state of Thuringia, right after lunch. We spent the afternoon first with a guided tour, then free time. Some students went shopping, others sat in a cafe, some spent time investigating the town. Erfurt is unique in that is was directly on the via regia during the Middle Ages, and was very well know for the plant "Waid", which was used to make a vibrant blue dye. The first picture shows one of the buildings used for curing the plant. There had to be multiple windows in the roof due to the process of using urine/ammonia to cause the reaction.

The city also was never completely destroyed by war/fire so that there is a wide variety of buildings from the gothic cathedral (see the side portal with the "wise" and "foolish" virgins) to buildings in baroque and renaissance styles standing directly to Bauhaus and 21st century buildings.

One of the key sights remaining from the Middle Ages is the Krämerbrücke, a bridge that is filled completely with shops. The 14th century university buildings also still stand.

Bergfest

Here are a few scenes from our daily activities. The top photo is the ice cream truck that comes around almost every afternoon. He is very popular with everyone. The middle photo shows a bush that grows almost everywhere. Those orange-red seed pods are NOT rose hips (I asked). Can anyone identify the plant? The bottom photo shows the group and several of our German hosts in front of the Shortemühle restaurant where several local Ilmenauers treated the entire group to first a tour of the ore mine (fluorspar, used in steel production) then a delicious dinner afterward. Our host is the gentleman on the far right of the photo, who had visited Blue Ash in May with about 30 other people from the area. Yesterday was the half-way point of the course, and we all enjoyed the evening picnic and bonfire on the other side of the big lake to celebrate that event.

Weimar

The group travelled about 1 hour to Weimar, a UNESCO site, and 1999 Cultural Capital of Europe. The first picture is the town hall, complete with its Meissen porcelain bells (look carefully at the bell tower and you will see the different shaped white bells). Weimar is known not only for Goethe and Schiller, German authors and poets, (the two lower pictures show students posing with the statue in front of the National Theater), but was also the location where the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) drafted its constitution for Germany's short-lived first try at democracy. The second photo shows the UC students waiting for the tour guide. If you click on the third picture down and look carefully, you will see the Döner stand in the background where several of us had a lunch of falafel sandwiches.

More fun and games

What can I say....A much more successful group.