London

At the Museum of Natural History

Riding the Tube!

On the Millenium Bridge, St. Paul's in the Background

The boys discover they like Indian food!

A beef eater guards the crown jewels at the Tower of London

Brandon poses with an archer

Ready for Battle!

On the ramparts at the Tower of London

Learning all about medieval weaponry

The tower bridge

We have been home for a week now, and I'm just getting around to posting some of the pictures from our last few days in London. We had a great time -- we spent an entire day at the Tower of London. The boys really loved seeing everything there. We also went to the Science Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Tate Modern, and the British Museum. London was expensive, but all the museums are free, so that helped.

Copenhagen

We have been back in Austin for almost a week now, so I'm finally taking some time to catch up on the blog. After leaving Berlin on the 16th we had a very nice weekend in Copenhagen visiting Mike's relatives from his Dad's side. We also visited Tivoli Garden -- the kids enjoyed the rides.

Back to Berlin

Playing at the fountain at Wittenberg Platz where we had our last dinner with Rhonda



High above Berlin looking out from the TV tower


Marx and Engels forever looking at the Berlin TV tower...




Some pictures from the East Side Gallery -- former Berlin Wall




Photos from our boat trip on the Spree

After returning from Prague we had a bit of a rest day on Sunday, but did go to an art-deco museum in Charlottenberg and met some friends for dinner in Kreuzberg. The boys had a good time, we were mainly hanging out at playgrounds. Monday was too hot (90s - no air conditioning) so Rhonda took the boys to the zoo while Mike and I did a little shopping (Mike needed sandals) and then went to work. I did a presentation at the Free University of Berlin on my research and then we all met at a beer garden in the Tiergarten for dinner.

Tuesday was Rhonda's last day in Berlin, so we started off the day with a boat ride on the Spree river through the center of town. We ended up at the East Side Gallery where you can still see parts of the Berlin wall, painted with interesting murals. We then walked to Alexander Platz and went up the Fernsehturm (TV tower) to get a 360 degree view of the city. Finally, we went and got Rhonda a Berlin shirt at the Addidas store, and had dinner at a German restaurant. It was a very full day! Rhonda left this morning, so I'm finishing up my work here, and getting ready to head to Copenhagen and then London next week.

Prague

We had a couple of days to work in Berlin before taking a few days to have some fun in Prague. We left Wednesday morning on the train and arrived in the afternoon -- plenty of time to wander around a bit and enjoy the old town. Unfortunately my allergies kicked in and I had watery eyes the whole time, but I didn't let it slow me down too much, except for going to bed a little early Thursday night, so I missed a night of jazz music with Mike, but we were able to go out again Friday night, since my sister Rhonda is with us. The highlights of the trip were seeing all the great architecture, doing a little shopping with Rhonda, drinking the amazing beer, and seeing the castle, in particular the basilica within the castle that had amazing stained glass. I can now add the Czech Republic to countries I've been to in Europe...the worst part of the trip was getting home, our train was delayed by 3 hours so we got home around 12:30 in the morning, but the kids held up pretty well during the delay and slept on the train. Enjoy the photos!

Dresden

Another week has passed in Berlin. Rhonda arrived on Tuesday, which allowed Mike and I the opportunity to go out to a nice dinner Friday night to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. The restaurant was great, and we enjoyed a nice long evening to ourselves. Saturday morning we took the train to Dresden. As you may know, Dresden was fire-bombed toward the end of WWII and it has taken until recently to restore many of its treasures. The Church of our Lady was only completed about a year ago, and the castle which holds many of the treasures of the Saxon Kings was only restored in 2006. The city is a mix of old and new -- much of the new being huge apartment blocks created when Dresden was still part of East Germany. Here's some of the sights:

Potsdam

Saturday we decided to go to Potsdam, which is just to the West of Berlin. It's a beautiful town, but the main sight to see is the Sans Souci (no worries) palace. Mike and I coudn't help but sing "don't worry be happy" while we were there. But we started at a nice garden near the train station, and took a walk through town on our way to the palace. Brandon was excited that there was Brandenburg Street and Brandenburg gate, which both had his name in them. He also likes the Brandenburg gate in Berlin.
Next stop was the garden surrounding the palace -- there are actually several palaces on the grounds, but we only went into Sans Souci.














It was another long day of walking, but well worth it. The grounds and palaces were all amazing, although not quite as spectactular as Versailles, which was the model. However, the grounds were certainly nearly as large as the area surrounding Versailles.