Sweet Tunes!

One of many groups providing free music at the Vacaville Jazz Festival.

Photos!

If any of you are still reading this, you can access a small portion of our photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/craigrossiter/EuropeanVacation02. We will be adding photos occasionally as we find some worthy of your time.

We Made It Home...Craig's Thoughts

We arrived safely in Vacaville after a long day of travel, even though we left at 9:40 AM from Berlin and arrived in San Francisco at 4:30 PM! But we have been up for 26 hours. Funny how that works. It was a great trip with lots of memories and experiences. Ending in Berlin was fitting for me, because I got to spend some time with my best friend from high school, David Fayram, and his wife Nancy who are teaching high school in Berlin this year. And Berlin is such an amazing city. I found it so moving to see how the city has suffered so much, but is so vibrant and alive. During WWII, 70% of the city was destroyed. While many reminders remain, so much has been rebuilt. Even now, construction continues all around, and and we saw an eclectic but poignant mixture of architecture from the Nazi's, the communists, as well as old original buildings reconstructed and new ultra modern structures. Reminders of how horrible we can be stand side by side with examples of how good we can be. I think I will need a few more days to reflect on what we learned so that it has a chance to really sink in. Check back for some final thoughts from Carol and me, and in a few days I will get some photos uploaded for you viewing pleasure--I will provide a link here in the blog.

Hi from Berlin, Germany and Craig's friends Dave and Nancy Fayram!

Hi everyone, well this is our last evening in Berlin. Off back to the good old US of A tomorrow morning and 10 hours of coach seating. But it will be worth it.
Yesterday after we saw Karen and Stan off on the bus to the airport, we decided to go walking and we found ourselves outside the Charlottenburg Palace after a 45 minute walk. We went in and did the tour. They had the audioguide M3P players with earphones and explain everything. By the way I stand corrected. This palace along with pretty much all of Berlin was leveled during WWII. But they had done such an incredible job of reconstruction, it was hard to tell. the palace was huge but not ornate. Most was reconstructed and most of the furnishings were lost, but the rooms that were saved and the room saved were beautiful. This was the home of Queen Sophie Charlotta, the first queen of Prussia in the 1700's. We saw a lot of black and white pictures of what it looked like before the war and their attempts of reconstruction and replicating the beautiful designs were amazing. But it just goes to show you that in war no one is the winner at it was our bombs against the Nazi empire that destroyed such a beautiful treasure. We then walked outside and walked around the gardens. Even though this is the middle of October it is bloody cold and I mean cold here, especially when the wind blows. I am wearing several layers with two jackets, mittens, a scarf and hat and the cold wind cuts right through you.
About 2 p.m. after we got back to the hotel to pick up our luggage. (We walked for 5 hours and was I pooped), we got a call from Dave and Nancy who were returning from an Italy vacation and we were going to meet them in front of the Russian Embassy and then go to their house together. 3 trains later we finally found them and headed south to their house. They have a lovely apt. south in a suburb of Berlin. Thats all I can tell you. We watched some of the Rugby World Cup. South Africa won. I think I am going to check out Rugby at home. It looks like a cool sport.
Today we got up and Dave and Nancy wanted to take us on a walking tour. So we started out with a train back up to the huge glass covered Sony Center. We found out that it is hollow inside with a huge covering that kind of looked like a huge tent out of fabric material. But the center is a monster with restaurants and shops around the bottom on the inside and offices above. Then we headed back over to the Brannenburg gate via the Jewish memorial. this memorial was soooo coool. From the street it just look like several gray slabs of cement of various heights which were suppose to represent tombstones over Jewish graves. But what you don't realize is that when you walk down inside, there are rows and rows of these, no two are exactly the same shape and the paths inside drop down to where the stones are a good 5 feet higher than your head (whereas at the sidewalk they are just a slab about 6 inches high.) So when you walk down inside, you are surrounded by these grey stone structures. All I could think of what it represented how the Jewish people must have felt locked up in the concentration camps, considered to be all alike as a people. but if you looked closely, the stones were all slightly different demensions and shapes. Thus the Jewish people maintained their own identity while locked in a unified prison camp. It gave you goosebumps to think beyond the immediate impressions.
We then walked over to the Brannenburg gate and saw in stones in the street where the Berlin war wall ran through the street.
We walked over to the Reichstadt building. This is their central government building and the other day didn't have time to stop to check it out. But today we stood in line and got to walk up to the observation glass dome they have in the center on top. From the outside you can see that its a circular ramp you can walk up several feet above the building for a fantastic view of the city all around you. The first thing that struck me was how many cranes are around the city with construction or reconstruction. And on a business day, you can look down the center into the chambers of their government and watch them at work.
By this time even Craig is freezing and so was Dave and I, so we found a tourist shop and the three of us bought Berlin black pullover sweatshirts to add to the layers. I finally started to feel warm but the wind is so cold. While we were standing in line to go up the Reichstadt, there were a few snowflakes. They are afraid they will have a very hard winter.
They then took us to the Bebelplatz square where before WWII in the 1930's in front of the Humbolt University (where Einstein worked before moving Harvard in 1932) the government encouraged students to burn any and all books that was contrary to the facists theme of government that was taking hold in the country. There is now a plaque there of a famous poet who made a statement a hundred years earlier, "Once you start to burn books, next will come the burning of human beings." How prophetic, that this poet had no idea what was to come with the WWII.
We then saw a famous sculpture Kathekollwitz sculpture. You walk in this big empty building except for the marble mom sitting holding a huddling dead son with a saying in the ground in front of her "There is sacrifice with war and violence". what is interesting is that above her in the building there is a round hole in the roof so that when it rains only on her statue, it looks like she is crying. the public have put flowers in front of her on the ground. its quite something.
Then they took us to the Pergamon Museum. We didn't stay long but we went in and saw huge statues, sculptures and artifacts from Assyria, Babylon, Greek and Roman times.
It was a definite wow.
Then we walked over to where they are restoring a walkway made from old pillars of stone, but what was amazing was that these stones had not yet been patched. The patching is to cover the bullet holes left over from the fighting during WWII.
Then they took us over to a part of what was East Berlin behind the wall and saw an ally way of old apts. that showed how runned down, drab and trashy it was to live in East Berlin, then they showed us an alley way that had been refurbished with decorative tiles and fresh paint. The difference was amazing.
Finally we ended up at the Gendarmait plaza with two domed churches and the concert house in the center. near by we found a famous chocolate store. I was in heaven.
They took us to a good German Cafe to eat dinner. Our waitress was from Boston and was moving to Tempe Arizona next week. She was so exited to get out of the cold!
Finally, its about 11 p.m. here and our wonderful hosts are tucked into bed. They are here for two years teaching English in the local school system and need to get up early for work tomorrow. But they were very proud to show us Berlin and we are very grateful for our stay with them.
I can't believe 5 weeks has come to a close. Our lives have been so enriched by all we have seen, experienced, tasted, and heard. It's obvious that we want to come back and learn more about Europe. We are so grateful for all of our wonderful travels and shared it with Karen and Stan. We had a great trip and look forward to coming home and seeing our dear family and friends!
Talk to you soon. For now, much needed sleep and rest our weary traveling feet!
Love from Carol and Craig to all of you at home. See you tomorrow!

Hi from Berlin, Germany

Hi everyone, wow today is the end of our fifth week here and we just saw Karen and Stan off on their bus to take them to the airport and home. Karen was excited to see the good old USA again and everything in English.
We are spending another day in Berlin before heading south this afternoon to stay with Craigs friends Dave and Nancy Fayram. Craig grew up with Dave in Concord.
Yesterday we went on the City Center sightseeing tour around Berlin. These hop on hop off buses are great if you dont have much time and want to see a lot. We first headed east of town and were immediately struck by how modern the city was. We then learned that 70/80% of Berlin was leveled in the WWII. Everywhere we went there was still new construction. We found out in London that they had just been able to pay off all their debts from WWII and had started a lot of reconstruction around the London area. So it seemed to be the same with Berlin. Plus a lot of foreign companies have come in and built skyscrapers, not tall but big. Sony, Japanese, has a huge glass multicomplex building in the city that really stands out. So their opera buildings and foreign embassy buildings were all new, or at least 60 years old. But once in a while you would see what looked like a pre world war building that had been able to survive and reconstructed. They had left what was left of a tower of a church as a reminder of the horrors of war and built a new church next to it. They have interviewed grandchildren of WWII generation and they all say We don't know where Berlin is going, it's in a state of constant building and change, but we do know where we were and we NEVER want to go there again. Its kind of sad to watch how 2nd and 3rd generations of WWII are trying to survive their horrible history and develop a new one of their own. But they are trying.
We first went to Check Point Charlie. This is quite a tourist attraction with the original border building still standing. It was surrounded by tourists, like ourselves, taking pictures. I was excited to find a gentleman who stamped our passports with commenorative stamps from WWII era. For a fee, of course, but it wasnt bad. Craig and I then went into the Checkpoint Charlie museum they had right there and it was incredible to see all the black and white pictures and read personal stories on every wall of how the people tried to escape, how some succeeded and how some failed. I learned a lot about the history of the wall and how it worked. What was really interesting was the museum was filled with young German teenagers who were actually studying their history and were interested in what happened too.
We then went on to their DOM church, main church, and it looked like the original old building, the outside was spectacular but we couldn't go inside to see what we were sure was beautiful. But by looking at all the postcard stands with black and white fotos of 1945 Berlin and what wasn't left, we realized that a bomb dropped in the middle of the church and so a lot of what we were looking at had been rebuilt.
We went then on to the Brandenburg Gate. This was built in the 1700s and Napolean, Hilter and other conquerors have marched under this arch. But what was sad that it ended up behind the wall which existed from 1961 until 1989. It became a symbol of freedom when the wall was finally torn down. It would have been exciting to be here when the wall came down as there was tremendous emotion as East Berlin was liberated.
Finally, we made it to Charlottenburg Palace. We don't know much about this as it was late and we couldn't get in, Craig and I are thinking about walking back there today but it was named for Queen Charlotte I think in the 1700s and survived WWII as it was in West Berlin.
We have had a spectacular time in Europe. We are not sure what we will do with Dave and Nancy tomorrow before we have to catch our flight early Monday morning. But there is so much we want to come back and see in more detail. We only scratched the surface but we still feel that our traveling views have again expanded as we have learned a little more European history and culture. We have loved it here.
We have missed you something awlful and so look forward to seeing everyone soon! We will be home late Monday afternoon and Karen and Stan are picking us up at the SFO airport.
Love from all of us to all of you.

Hi from Berlin, Germany!

Hi everyone, Well we are in Berlin. We had a long ride on our ICE train. It took several zigs and zags between Frankfurt and Berlin. But when we were on straigaways it was rolling smoothly along at 150 mph. We could have a drink on our little table in front of us, play cards and write journals while moving along at 150 mph. It is something to see the countryside zip on by very, and I mean very quickly. We noticed that the southern part of Germany was very mountainous and beautiful but the farther north you come, especially around Berlin it is flat as a pancake and a lot of farming country. I am going to find out how cold it gets here in the winter and how much snow. When we got to the Berlin main train station and found the i information station,we found that we were quite a ways from our hotel. Couldn't walk it and the local train and bus connections were complicated. So it cost us 20 euros to get a cab, 10 euros per couple. But it was worth it. We found out there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin just down the street, so off we hiked to find it. We had good food and Craig and I split a piece of one of the most decadent and ooy gooy of chocolate cake we've had in a long time. OOOOOOhhhhh the withdrawals when we get home and go back on the calorie wagon!
We can tell that we have distinctly gone north in Germany. It is very cold here. Also the main street we walked along was loaded with every possible upscale shopping store you could imagine. Cartier, Gucchi, Channel, etc. But fun to window shop.
Berlin is huge, and by the map even the tour bus tomorrow covers a lot of territory. With one day the hop on hop off bus is the only way to go.
Saturday, Karen and Stan are leaving and looks like it will be early and an expensive cab ride to the airport. There are two and quite a ways out of town. I am not sure what Craig and I will do as we will be coming in from Dave and Nancys, our friends here we are staying with the last two nights before coming home on Monday. We have to figure out how to get to the airport from 45 minutes outside Berlin and be at the airport at 7.30 a.m. Monday morning.
We found out that just last week, Germany passed a country law that there is no more smoking in restaurants. But there must be people that haven't gotten the message as we still see smoking everywhere inside and out. The culture here is based on smoking, I swear, and it will be very difficult for them to have any restrictions on them.
Miss you all and hope you are well. Love from all of us to all of you.

Hi from Frankfurt, Germany

Hi everyone, well we were trying to decide what to do for one day in Frankfurt, and found a tour company that took you out to the Rhine River. We have found out that Frankfurt is probably not a city that we will return too. On our walk this morning by the Main (pronounced mine) River we found their Dom which is there main church. While it was really pretty, all around it was modern buildings. Yet just in front of the church we found what was a Roman bath ruins that had been uncovered dating back to before Christ. As we were walking around what looked like a very small version of "old town" by this church, I found postcards. I wanted one of the Dom church but also found a black and white showing the Dom church in 1945 and the whole city around it was rubble to the ground. We found out on our Rhine tour this morning that Frankfurt was pretty much leveled in WWII and they built a new modern version. So in this postcard from 1945, the Dom church is still standing while everything around it was gone. You could say that it was unbelievable luck that random bombs didnt hit the church, or divine intervention. Who knows. Even their old town is only about 60 years old. They had pictures and tried to reconstruct some of the buildings to look like they did before the war. But Frankfurt is a city of commerce. No tourism. Even the locals during the winter leave. It gets to a minus 20 celsius and all the locals leave and go to warm countries (Mexico, South Amercia, Australia) for 6 months. Its cheaper for them to leave for 6 months than stay in Frankfurt during the winter. So its swamp with tourists here because of the Rhine River in the summer and there is no one here in the Winter. So we took about an hour ride in a bus out to the Rhine River area. We went to what was called the Rhine Middle Section. The river is very long and we only did a small part. We stopped at this one citý and saw a hugh monument they have by the shore of a lady they call Lady Germania. Then we rode a ski lift from up above by her down to a small town called Assmannshausen and had lunch at a local restaurant. Then we got on the huge tour boat and took off in the north direction. We passed several castles along the shore. Some were restored. A couple were ruins. Some were youth hostels or hotels. All were very old dating back to 1000, 1100s and 1200s. We then went down past the Loreley point (the singing siren that lured sailors on the Rhine to their deaths). and caught our boat and returned to Frankfurt. It was a lovely day even though it threatened to rain.
We have been so lucky with the weather. So far (knock on wood) we keep dodging the rain. Tomorrow its suppose to rain, but we are on the train to Berlin so rain away!
One of the things about their trains here. You have to be sssooooo careful around the platforms. When we have been standing at a platform waiting for our train, you have to brace yourself. If one comes through before your train and its not suppose to stop at your train station, it doesnt slow down by the platform. Whatever speed it was doing when it arrives at the train station, it maintains the speed and whizzes through. Its downright scary at times. And we have been on our trains when they whizz through a station without stopping. Its scary to watch the platform fly by. Also, when your are waiting for a train, when it arrives, you have to be ready to get on as its not there very long before it leaves. But their trains are so efficent and definitely on time, so they know something we dont.
The temp. is getting colder and all the trees are turning to yellow and dropping around here. I would love to see Europe in the spring.
Last night Craig was reading and went to turn on the bed light by his side of the bed when it blew with sparks. the whole room went dark. Well not actually dark, as through the curtains the lights from the buildings across the street lit the room up as well as our lamps. But we lost all power. He tried to call the desk but no one answered. He was nervous to go out in the hallway for fear that he had blown the whole floor. But it was just our room and they came and tripped the circuit breaker.
We will definitely looked at American things at home in a completely different light. (Pardoned the pun!)
Love to all, miss you loads! Love from all of us to all of you.