'Sightrunning' in Bamberg

So for my last day in Bamberg I thought it would be fun to do the 'sightrunning' tour that the tourist office offered. You may be wondering..what the heck is that? And it is exactly what it sounds like..a running sight seeing adventure of Bamberg. I went and signed up yesterday but when I got there today with my ticket, the 'running guide' didn't know a word of English. Hmmm I thought...well what can be the harm in it we'll just run and use lots of hand gestures. And that is exactly what we did.

Now, I guess I should have thought this through a little more before I signed up to do this in one of the hilliest cities in the world...but I survived! So my guide and I, oh did I mention I'm the only one on the tour, which was probably good because our German/English sign language would have been lost on anyone else!!









So this is my guide. Notice that he is in front of me and a very old man! Hats off to him because he is in amazing shape...he hardly broke a sweat until the half hour mark! We trotted all around the city. At the beginning, the lady in the tourist office told me that he was excited to show me the whole city, especially from up above..oh goody, more hills!








We went up to where the monastery was as well as the oldest and newest churches. The first one was built close to the year 1000 AD (numbers and years were easy because all languages have fingers to count on)!!

While we were up there we also went to the rose garden again and we even 'stopped running to smell the roses' haha!









He also showed me some magnificent views from above the city. I don't think I could have ever found that place without a local. We were up and down all kinds of side streets, but it made me pretty knowledgeable of the layout of Bamberg.








Four miles and an hour later we had had a great time together, even though I was huffing and puffing the whole way. It is a great way to see the city...even if the locals look at you like your nuts as they order their next beer!!

Tschüs Germany! It's been great! And thanks for such an awesome time Jim! I had a blast!

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Location:Bamburg, Germany

Touring Berlin by Bike

We thought it might be nice to experience Berlin on bikes even though the weather had been a bit iffy. And what a great idea! We took the 'Fat Tire Bike Tours' and our tour guide was an Irishman who had moved to Berlin a few years ago and really new his German history. He took us all around the city, stopping at all of the important stops, but the nice thing was that we never got tired bc the bike got us everywhere so fast!






First off was the 'Dom' (cathedral). It was so beautiful and surrounded by water, like it was in it's own little island. (That's our tour guide by the way). At this stop he also talked about the 'TV Tower' which was built when the East and West were split. Supposedly they were competing with each other for who could have the tallest building.





We then went off to see some other sights one really interesting one being 'Hitler's Bunker' where he spent the last 6 weeks of his life before he committed suicide. The bunker had walls and ceilings that were about 10 feet thick. The whole thing had to be destroyed and nothing remains because they want no reason for someone to put up a remembrance of such a horrible person. He then took us to a watch tower to show us how small they really were. They had no heat and unimaginably cold. You were given some whiskey when on duty to take off the chill.





After we headed to the Jewish memorial that was quite fascinating. It takes up over 5 acres of land in the middle of the city. It is designed with large gray blocks mostly 4'x6' and ranged in height. Some you could easily sit on while others were way above your head. As you walked into the middle of it you seemed to get a sense of disorientation, maybe a portrayal of what the Jewish people were feeling as they walked into the camps (just speculation).











Our last stop was a big grassy knoll in the middle of many old, beautifully constructed buildings. It was a perfect place to end the tour and thank God for such a beautiful day! We could not have asked for better weather!! We all bought ponchos just in case, but we didn't even need them!

Location:Downtown Berlin, Germany

Berlin Wall

What an amazing experience it was to go to the Berlin Wall. I had never really thought to much about it, I was only 3 years old when the wall came down in 1989, but I am amazed at all that I learned. It was also quite shocking that this wall only came down about 20 years ago. It's like I was standing in the making of history. Usually in our history lessons, we talk about something that happened many many years ago, but this is history that the people of Berlin are still trying to work through. Unreal.

So we went to three different parts of the wall during our stay in Berlin. First, we traveled to a part where you could see the separation between the two walls and all of the obstacles that one would have to go through to escape. They also had a look out tour that you could climb up into so that you could get a bird's eye view of what it looked like as a whole.

We then headed over to Checkpoint Charlie (the American checkpoint between East and West). There were pictures there showing how people used to try to fit into compartments in cars, disguises, anything to get across to the other side. We even heard a story of a man who took a woman across who looked like his wife, stole her passport and brought his wife back instead (a date gone really wrong)!

Saving the best for last, we then headed to the largest remaining part of the wall that is now called the 'East Side Gallery'. Many artists have come from all around the world writing and painting inspirational murals on the walls. I would say it goes a good mile long and demonstrates the freedom and 'life' that the East Berliners now have. Beautiful.

We also wanted to learn a little more about the Communist lifestyle and how it affected the East. So we stopped by this great museum called the 'DDR' (Deutsche Democratic Republic). It was such an interesting Museum that explained the 'Brain Drain' and how the Communists tried to keep everyone under them. They censored most types of music from the West, all newspapers that did not share their political views and were only allowed to travel in other Communist countries. Again, I cannot believe that this was going on right here in Germany just 20 years ago. Unbelievable.