Dresden, Berlin with Potsdam and Dessau too!

Dresden was very nice and though we were only there for 5 or so hours it      seemed smallish. All I can say that the beer I drank and the bratwurst I ate with it were amazing. Also even though Dresden was firebombed many of the more important buidldings that were destroyed have been rebuilt and it is a very beautiful place.

We took the trajn from Prague to Dresden and then from Dresden to Berlin so we did not arrive in Berlin until after 9pm.
                             
Our First day in Berlin we walked to Eisenman's "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe". I personally find it to be a memorial designed by high mjnded desgin bull crap. It does not do justice to the people whonlost their lives and lived ones. Especially when people are walking by questioning what it is and people are treating it like a playground. From there we saw the Brandenburg gate which was surrounded by fences in preparation for a festival celebrating German reunification. We walked to the Reichstag building but realized we should book online and so we went back the next morning. After that we walked to the Altes Museum by Schinkel. On the way back from there we went past checkpoint charlie and on to the Jewish museum by Daniel Liebskind. It was a very interesting building architecturally and instead of focusing on jewish people during the Holocaust attempted to tell the entire history of German Jewish people. It was a very large an interesting museum.

The next day we visited the Reichstag and its glass dome very early in the morning. It was beautiful. After that we took a train ro Dessau to see the Bauhaus. Their we saw the Dessau Bauhaus and the masters houses by Walter Gropius. Very modern stuff for 1925. That night we had our last grouo dinner were I devoured a roasted pork shoulder.
               
The next morning was a free morning followed by a trip to the Bauhaus archive then a trip to Potsdam. There were were able to see the gardens and San Sisi and Schloss Charlottenhoff. A few people left that night and that marksd the end of the big group.

Today Nick and I left the group for good to stay one last night in Berlin. We walked around Museum island and to see the Brandenburg gate one last time. Off to Stuttgart at 6:30 tomorrow morning

Prague

Our First day in the Czech Republic was mostly on a Bus. We visited and toured Mies Van der Rohe's Tuggenhat house, which was quite technologically advanced- and also quite beautiful. After that we travelled to a small town call Brtnice were there was a Joseph Hoffmann museum that was in the building he actually lived in. We rhen drove to a town called Telč to see the renaissance town square. Driving through the Czech Republic I could understand why Czech immigrants may have chosen to settle in Ohio. That nught we arrived in Prague and we were able to see the Carl's bridge and the Prague castle at night which was very cool.

Our full day in Prague started with a hike up to Prague Castle followed by a visit inside of Prague castle including
Golden lane and the cathedral. After that we visted the Alfons Mucha museum. Then we visired the Jewish museum in prague. After that we had a group dinner and enjoyed some good Czech food.