Greg comes to visit!

My cousin, Greg, came to visit us in Germany! We picked him up at the train station in Heidelberg. We were all pretty hungry and found this really interesting restaurant to eat dinner at (pictured below). They had pictures of sheep everywhere so Kurt opted to try their lamb :) It was good!

We then hiked up to the Heidelberg castle. Here is Kurt and Greg.

Part of the Heidelberg castle ruins.

Kurt overlooking the Nekar River.

Greg and I enjoying the view.

Downtown Heidelberg at dusk.

Greg and I went to Mainz (pronounced "mines"). Greg wanted to get a hat but we never found one. This cathedral held many ancient relics. Greg showered us with gifts and insisted they were also belated wedding gifts. I know Doug will be envious to hear we got huckleberry jam! Greg also brought wine and chocolates from Oregon and a book of the Wind River Mountain Ranges! It was awesome! This was the church at Idar-Oberstein. It was built into the rock and the only way to enter is to go in from a tunnel. Legend has it that it was built by a knight in atonement for killing his brother.Here we are at the "Schnitzel Haus". It is the best place around for this dish so we HAD to take Greg there before we left :)

Greg testing the local German wine.

Kurt and Greg jammin out on the guitars ;)

Technik Museum

During the first weekend in May, we took the train to the "Technik Museum" in Sinsheim, Germany with some friends. It was a long train ride, but well worth it. There were classic cars, elite cars, old tractors and farming equipment, trains, tanks and planes used in military combat, German military uniforms throughout history, etc, etc. The museum covered 80, 000 m2 of ground! This place was huge! The De Lorean A car that being designed now to be built in 2015.

Our friends, Mark and Jessie, checking out a chopper in the outdoor exhibit.

We got to tour the Concorde of Air France which travelled around the world in 38 hours and 13 minutes at Mach 2.02 (1350 mph)! If only we owned one of these, then we could meet up with you guys in the US for dinner tonight and make it back before bedtime! :)

The cockpit with it's plethora of controls...Kurt informed me he'd like to have this as our car for going camping with. It is the Lamborghini LM-002 that was built for Arabian Sheiks and there is only 200 of them in the world! I suggested he set his sights on a Ford or Chevy :)

He then suggested that this Ferrari could be our "Sunday car"...

Here we are at the IMAX theatre with our snazzy shades ;)

Japanese Garden

While Kurt was in Berlin, I decided to see some of the things that I have been wanting to see, but knew he wouldn't particularly enjoy. :) One of these things was the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern.

Berlin

Kurt's week with the Deutche Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces)

Above is a photo of my seat in the conference room. The microphone you see to the left was for the translators in a separate room. They would listen and their translations would be transmitted to the headphones your see on the right. We spent the first day in this room discussing similarities and differences between our respective militaries. For the next couple of days we toured Berlin and some surrounding areas. Above you can see their "Reichstag building". This is where their parliament meets to debate and vote on laws and what not. You can see a dome on top and the picture below was taken from inside this dome. The windows in the center allow citizens to see what their parliament is up to. Below you can see the square in which the famous Nazi book burning took place in May of 1933. There is a glass window embedded in the center of the square. When you look inside you can see a room filled with empty bookshelves. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out that well. Below is The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial . As you can see, it consists of many concrete blocks. There are over 2,7oo of them and they're arranged in a grid pattern over a sloping square. I couldn't quite figure out what this was supposed to represent while I was there. I did a little research and, apparently, the memorial design was supposed to create an uneasy, confusing atmosphere... I guess it worked. We also visited Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall. You can still get a visa stamp in your passport there for 2 euros... unfortunately, I left mine in my room... you can also get your picture taken with the German in the US Army uniform (bottom left) for 2 euros as well. Below is a photo of what use to be a Nazi Luftwaffe (Air Force) headquarters building. Today it is their Federal Financial Bureau.

The last group of photos were taken at Seelow Heights Memorial which is approximately 10 miles from the Polish border. It was here that the last major stand was made against the eastern front was made.

April 16-19 1945, was when the Battle of the Seelow Heights took place. In the end, the Russians lost more men(33,000) than the Germans(12,000), but the Soviet advances could not be held off for long. After the 3 days of heavy fighting the Soviets managed to break through the defenses and fight their way into the German capital in the Battle of Berlin. The Germans recruited anybody and everybody for this battle. They recruited Hitler youth, disabled troops, old farmers. and whatever able-bodied soldiers they had left. As you can imagine, there was a lot of propaganda involved. Even now, they are finding on average 150 soldiers every year. Here you can see the graveyard.