Opening Tour

Opening Tour is almost over, we're in our last destination before heading back to Florence. Here is what we have done so far:

Monday, September 5th - Students arrive all day to the hotels in Berlin (across the street from each other). I did a quick subway trip to Viktoria-Luise Platz!! It was a gorgeous little platz with gardens and a fountain. It's nice to know that I have a platz in Germany! There was a sign explaining who Viktoria Luise was, but it was all in German, so I couldn't understand it. (Just wikipedia'ed Viktoria Luise - and she was a Prussian Princess).

Viktoria-Luise Platz!

Tuesday - The morning was a driving tour of Berlin, with stops at the Berlin wall and the Holocaust Memorial. It was such an interesting tour, with such complex and contrasting stories and accompanying emotions. That afternoon I lead a group of students on an optional tour to the Jewish Museum.

Wednesday - We did a tour of Sachsenhousen, which is a concentration camp outside of Berlin. It is a camp that was used to train officers for other camps, because of its proximity to Berlin.

One of the two Holocaust Memorial gardens we walked through

For both the Jewish Museum, the Holocaust Memorial, and the visit to Sachsenhausen can't really be described adequately in writing. It was so strange and awful and surreal and absolutely horrible.

Thursday we left Berlin for Prague, with a stop in Dresden on the way. I loved Dresden, it was so cute and historic and nice and small, particularly after the massive sprawl of Berlin. There was some sort of market festival going on in one of the squares and it was so great to walk around the little stalls; the students loved it, as did I.

Friday we did a walking tour of Prague and then the students had free time to explore the city. Prague was also incredibly beautiful; for the most part it survived the war, so there were so many legitimately old buildings (rather than the reconstructed buildings and styles we saw in Berlin and Dresden).

A stained glass window in one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in Prague

Friday was Shelley's birthday and so James and I made a giant card on Thursday night and got everyone (or nearly everyone) to sign it. It was super packed full of signatures when we gave it to her at dinner that night.

Saturday we left Prague for southern Germany, with a stop in Nuremberg.

Nuremberg is a beautiful city as well, but it was the most chaotic day yet, as Red Bull was doing a trick bike competition, with ramps and hills set up all over the streets, ending in the square that we had picked to meet our students.

It was complete madness and mayhem. But we finally rounded up all 195 of them, got them onto buses, and made our way to Bad Kohlgrub.

Bad Kohlgrub is a tiny town in the German Alps, in an area filled with other similar small towns. It is about 30 km outside of Munich (I have no idea how many miles that is, just saw the road signs). We are staying in the Shillingshof Hotel, which is this perfect Germany little inn. Being on the Alps means that this town is most popular in the winter for skiing, which I can totally understand. I can picture skiing all day and coming back to the sauna or having hot chocolate (diabetic friendly, of course) in the little restaurant.

Sunday we had mass by the program's chaplain, with the readings and homily reflecting on 9/11. The mass was in a gorgeous church in the town, down a little hill from the hotel. That afternoon we organized three hikes up the Hörnle Mountain, with differing degrees of difficulty. It was absolutely stunning.

Monday we went to Salzburg for the day. It was lovely, although our tour guide that day sort of sucked, so we were mainly left to wander on our own. It is a really cute town, and we had a delicious lunch, followed by the most delicious dessert - knockerl - a Salzburg speciality.

Tuesday we first went to Neuschwanstein Castle, which is one of three castles built by Ludwig II of Bavaria. It is the inspiration for the castle at Disney. It was absolutely gorgeous. Ludwig II died before it was finished, so we only toured through the finished areas, but man, they were incredible. Just gorgeous. And there is a bridge up the hill behind the castle over waterfalls that overlook the castle, so after the tour I hiked up there with some students and took some incredible pictures.

And on the way down there was a little stand where a woman was making fried dough balls and I bought some and they were unbelievably good and fresh and hot and so, so yummy. After the Castle we stopped at the little town of Garmisch to look around. It was a really cute town, but it was about an hour out of our way, each way, and since we were in an area surrounded by cute little German towns, next year we're going to look for a different one to visit.

Wednesday was the long, long drive to Florence (we left at 8:30am and arrived in Florence at 6pm - but part of that was our bus driver passing the street of the school four separate times and not turning!). The bus ride wasn't too bad though, I read, slept, and played Monopoly against some students on their iPod - Totally kicked their butts - woot! At our lunch rest stop I was helping all the students figure out how to pay, then order and get their food and so when it was my turn to order the woman asked me if I was the staff person, and when I said yes, she comped my lunch and gave me a bottle of wine. Not sure yet if this is customary or if she felt sorry for me with the scores of American students :)

Opening Tour is in fact now over, I didn't get internet after Berlin. I bought a wireless card on Friday evening, but it's not working. I'm at the office right now trying to catch up on life. I'll post more later about living in Florence, what I do at work, and my travel plans!