Munich, Neuchwanstein

Hello once again. Well, I've come down to my last three weeks here. It will be sad to leave, but I'm excited to go home. This past weekend, we were in Munich for four days. I liked Munich better than Berlin. It was more beautiful, cleaner, and there seemed to be more distinct culture. I also took the opportunity to take a day trip to a castle on the southern border of Germany called Neuchwanstein. This is a pretty famous tourist destination. You may have seen pictures of it on postcards or something. It was rather stunning. Even the train ride there was gorgeous with rolling green countryside and the Alps looming in the background the closer we got. The castle itself is breathtaking because it is situated on top of a precipice. I suppose I'll resort to the overused cliche that the pictures don't do it justice. The hostel we stayed at in Munich was also pretty cool. It appears to have been an old castle. The inside is modernly renovated and not nearly as cool as the outside, but it was neat to stay there nonetheless.

This is our group gathering together before leaving the hostel.
Neuchwanstein castle
We decided not to pay for the tour inside the castle, but just getting the views from the outside was breathtaking.

This is from the train on the way there
Staring at the ceiling of a cathedral in Munich
Another cool building in Munich
Yes, its true, Germans drink a lot of beer.
There are lots of areas like this near restaurants where you can sit at a table outside if you want. I think the technical term is 'biergarten.'
I forget what exactly this is.

This is the outside of our hostel

Berlin

Hello everyone! Well, I made it back from Berlin safely. We left last Thursday morning on a bus and got there in the early afternoon. After checking into our hostel (which was very nice) we went on a walking tour of the city led by our group leader, Klaas. It has been said of Klaas that he is the coolest person alive. I will neither confirm nor deny this rather superlative assessment.
At any rate, we walked through the Brandenburg gate, looked at the Reichstag building (the main German government building that may sound familiar from WWII history), went to Checkpoint Charlie (historically significant but modernly unimpressive), and finally to Alexander Platz which is where the big needly tower is. On Friday we visited the government press and information office (which was actually quite interesting but I won't bore you with the details), and the Stasi museum. The Stasi was the government secret police in East Germany before the wall came down in 1989. They went to astoundingly great lengths to observe and control the lives of ordinary citizens in an attempt to preserve and promote the Communist political party. If ever there was a real life "Big Brother" scenario, this was it. So that was very interesting to learn about. Saturday we had to ourselves and I explored the city a bit more with my friend Andrew and then on Sunday we returned to Marburg.
Wow, I only have four more weeks here and then its off back home! Here are some pictures from Berlin:

The Brandenburg Gate

Craig, Carl and Ben

The holocaust memorial

I believe every stone represents one thousand people who perished.

The Reichstag

Me in front of the Berliner Dom (cathedral)

The Dom and the TV tower

The TV tower

These little guys are on the crosswalk signals on the East German side of Berlin. Its kind of a phenomenon.

Again, the Reichstag

Cool statue

Me and Andrew

no further comments

Andrew and I went to the Egyptian Museum on Saturday and this is a bust of Nephretete. I found it amazing how similar her features were to what seems to be the modern day conception of beauty (not exactly evident in the photo), and yet the sculpture is thousands of years old!

Mummy capsules

Me and Andrew on the lawn in front of the Berliner Dom. Lots of people, young and old, seem to really enjoy hanging out in parks over here. I like it.

The Heart of Gold hostel, where we stayed.