Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Last weekend on our trip to Berlin we went to the Pergamon museum.  The Pergamon museum, which we saw on our last trip, was one of my favorite museums.  The entrance is the Pergamon Altar, an ancient Greek altar.  Awhile back a German archeologist was traveling through Greece and saw pieces of of ancient Greek friezes being melted down for lime and, acting immediately (actually it took 10 years and friezes were still being melted during that time)  the Germans secured the rights to it and shipped to Germany.  However, there was a hold up at the port and some of the pieces disappeared.  But it finally made it the Pergamon Museum.  In the next room was a Roman wall that is the largest ancient reconstruction ever.  Then there was the Gate of Ishtar which has 2 defining things, how enormous it is and how blue.  Then we looked at a ancient Islamic fortress which was never completed.  The Sultan gave it to the Kaiser as a gift.  Overall I enjoyed the Pergamon and it is still one of the best museums I have seen.

 Mama, Kegan and Me

 

The Romans wall

 A Floor Mosaic

 The Ishtar Gate

Hiking in Germany

 

The Dragon Gorge

Last week I (Logan) did a lot of hiking.  On Wednesday my school went on a field trip up into the woods. We hiked for about three hours and stopped for lunch and came back.  Then on Saturday we went up into Der Drachenschlucht or The Dragon Gorge.  The hike was amazing.  There were places that were only a metre wide and the rock formations were really neat.  At the end there was a beer garden of course and we ate lunch there.  Papa, Kegan and I got schnitzels and Mama got a beef stew.  We walked above the ridge and went back home.  The next day,  Sunday, we, the Gershenzons and the Hartmanns, went up to Eisenach, a town about an hours drive from Jena.  The Gershenzons are another American family staying here, though they have lived here for fifteen years.  The Hartmanns are from French Canada and also have lived here a number of years.  We have done stuff with both families on previous trips.  In Eisenach we hiked up past an enormous vineyard.  On the side of the path there were grapes and we ate some of them.  A little while later we stopped and had lunch.  On the walk back we took a different route and it was significantly longer.  Over all I enjoyed hiking in Germany.

 

The vineyard

 

Mama in the gorge.

 

Kegan and Papa in the gorge

Random things

Well, we are having a holiday today which means nothing is open and I don't have to go downtown to the store!  It is German Reunification Day.  Sort of like their 4th of July in that is the national holiday.  The kids don't care why, all that matters is that there is no school!  I planned to do this post first thing this morning but the internet wasn't working then so...  And my excuse for yesterday is that I was looking things up for a quick trip to Berlin that the kids and I are taking this weekend.  But I will try and catch up with things (except for last weekends' hikes which I am sure Logan will happily write about tomorrow) so that when we get back from Berlin we aren't behind again.

The kids are getting used to going to school here.  Kegan (again) doesn't want leave.  We only have just over two weeks here in Germany and she'd like to stay longer.  Logan could care less about staying longer but is enjoying his free time playing Magic with some boys here in the park platz and whatever else they come up with when they are kicked outdoors for a while.  It has been sunny all week and that has been lovely.  Not warm, but at least sunny.  It has been about 34 - 38 degrees when the kids head off to school in the morning.  Brr!  And yet Logan still would prefer to wear sport shorts...

 

Here they are getting ready to go in the morning.

 

 

On the path to the kids school, there is a house that found out how to use all the old skis they had lying around.  This house also has a climbing wall on one side.

I have gotten to visit the English classes of the 10th and 12th graders at the school Logan and Kegan are attending.  It has been interesting for me (and I think for them since I was invited back).  The things they are interested in about the US is kind of fun.  The 12th graders discuss current events in their English class (more in the nature of presentations than discussions) and trying to explain to them why our government is shut down was quite something.  They are astonished that all Americans cannot see the harm it is doing to other countries.  We loom large in their worldview and they cannot understand that they are not considered in all of ours.  The 10th graders are amazed the kids in the US that are their age can drive, but not drink beer since it is reversed here.  And one of them had heard the children were allowed to use guns.  Surely that is not true!  And they were almost disbelieving when I said that kids could indeed hunt with their parents.  Finally, all of them have a hard time understanding how large the US is.  They are so used to being in another country within a several hours by car or train, that it is hard to imagine being able to drive so far and still be in the same state, much less the same country.  So many things are the same here (or close enough that it isn't a big deal) that when there are these enormous cultural differences, they really jump out.  It was enjoyable to meet the different kids in the classes, and I hope to do more before we go. 

 

This is the English class I worked with.  The teacher, Frau Bodemann, is on the left.  She spent a year in the US and some time in England and has perfect English.  She is an interesting and kind person.

 

We are grateful that we have all our electronic devices with which to make plans, keep in touch with people, and read and listen with.  It makes being here so easy.  Although I suspect my German would be better if my only choice for reading material was German newspapers, etc!  The kids' German is improving and Reuben's and my German friends are kind so all is well.

 When we grilled in the park platz last weekend the little kids were hilarious.  The sausages came off the grill and were put on a plate and then the kids just forked them dipped them in ketchup and mustard and ate them.  The four of them must have eaten about 30 little sausages.

Then they proceeded to put popcorn on a stick and "toast" it, and were very pleased when finally given bread to toast on a stick.  No marshmallows, bread.

Ega Park

Weekend before last we went to the Ega Park with the Gershenzons.  Ega Park is in Erfurt, about a 30 minute train ride, and then from the train station we walked to the bus stop (and lost the dads when they stopped to buy coffee and onion cakes), for a ten minute ride.
At Ega Park they had a squash display up, and all the squashes were attached to their bases with zip ties!
Below are some pictures, but we only have one picture of an adult.

Naturally Papa was the first to discover the squash surf boarder!

Julia and I sitting on a. . . stone thingy(Logan thinks it's a stone sleigh).

All of the kids in front of a squash whale.

 

Squash clown fish.

 

 Squash and wood turtles.

And, going with the theme, a giant squash octopus.

    A truly amazing chair, like the ones you sometimes see at the beach(it even had sand in the cracks).

Pretending to be under the age limit of twelve, and going on the zip line.

Neon colored watering cans that are actually sprinkelers.

A giant rope jungle gym.  There are allot of these in Germany, not in America, probably because they aren't extremely safe.

Eating ice cream while waiting for the bus to the train station, and then nearly missing our train.

School for Logan

We arrived here 2 weeks before school started that way we could settle in.  In math they are working on advanced graphing, which I have not covered yet, however they have not done almost any algebra.  In history we are covering the French and German revolutions, which I finished last year,  but the review is nice.  We also have art in which we are focusing on drawing the face and the facial muscles.  In music we are observing all the different types of music,  which is new to me.  There is also a class called current events in which we focus on past and present politics.  In the US I just read the Economist to keep up to date.  Geography is focusing on the Americas.  Last year I covered just US history so it is some of it is new.  We also have all three of the sciences twice a week and general science also twice a week since this Gymnasium (high school and middle school) focuses on the sciences.  The chemistry is more advanced than what I am used to but in the others I can keep up just fine.  I also have the go to Latin, it was that or French since in Germany you have to have 3 languages to get in to a college.  It is really hard to learn Latin in German.  English of course is fairly easy but they use British English and some of the words are different.  In German it is pretty hard.  My grammar is not perfect so it is a struggle to keep up, but it forces me to improve my German.  We also have a choice of ethics or religion.  I chose ethics for simplicities sake, it concentrates on obscure commodities like time.

One of my biggest problems is getting up so early, school starts at 7:30 and we bike to school and so have to get up at 6:40. One of the first things that I noticed was the fact that the classes move around as groups rather than just each child going to there individual class like in the US. I am also working on Algebra 2 in my spare time and am about one fourth of the way through it.  I am also watching a Great Courses video lecture series on physics entitled The Greatest Mystery in Modern Physics : Time.  Two days a year, one of which was yesterday, instead of having classes we go on a hiking day and hike around the nearby hills for a couple of hours.  The scenery is nice so even though it is a long hike it is still interesting.  That sums up my experience with school so far.

Odds and Ends in Jena

Well, both kids have taken a turn writing so it seems only fair I put in an entry.  I think I will let Reuben off the hook since part of why we are here is for him to do a large amount of writing for work, and it seems wrong to ask him to do more!  Many things here in Jena feel easy and comfortable since this is our third trip here.  My German is not easy or comfortable.  We have a different apartment this time which is kind of fun.  It is a two story apartment and the great part is not having to nag the kids to walk quietly since we've no one living below us.  We had a bbq party in the parkplatz the first weekend we were here and it was fun to rejoin the community here.  The park platz is just a parking lot that these apartment are centered on, which the children play in and we grill in!  And yes, people can park their cars there as well.  There are some new families here and some of the families here were here on our last visit.  It was fun for the all of us to socialize. 

Besides the kids attending school, we have gone on bike rides, gone to a swimming pool and taken some short hikes here.  So not very exciting.  But it is good to be in a different place  and experience a different lifestyle.  There are a few random things that I've been noticing lately.   The Germans live outside more than we do.  People are outside regardless of weather (although always dressed in appropriate clothes!) and socialize more outside, expect to walk or bike to where they are going no matter what the weather, and generally just go out.  Another thing is that people always go out dressed in real clothes.  By that I mean no sweats, sports clothes or anything like that.  And the women (and some of the men and children too!) wear scarves almost all the time!  I counted today until I forgot and got to 23 women with scarves and 3 without.  Finally, the Germans wear cool shoes and must like buying them because there are a lot of shoe stores! 

Reuben got to contribute to the shoe buying here because he had to purchase new cleats.  He and the kids have been putting their cleats outside on the back porch after wearing them.  One night something (we suspect a fox) scattered them on the lawn, chewed the back of one of Reuben's cleats and made off with the other.  Now the cleats are living on the balcony on the second floor!  

Nothing earthshaking here but we are glad to be back.

 Kegan sitting in our "computer" corner (i.e. the place with the outlets) of the living room

 Logan in the dining room

 Kegan getting her favorite "Langestangen mit Wiener und Kase" at a stand in the Goethe Gallerie

 In front of the grocery store that I go to pretty much everyday.  Every day I walk down the hill, go to the store and haul up what fits in my backpack.  Interestingly beer only fits in Reuben's backpack.

View from our apartment building looking down on the trash house of the apartments, the park platz, then downtown Jena.  A pretty view when the sun shines.  Which it does not do often enough!

 Most of the older kids playing a card game in the parkplatz.  Funnily enough there were 6 little kids sitting in a circle just out of sight of the camera!

 Former East Germany has the best "walk" and "don't walk" lights. 

 This is Kirche (Cherry) the cat who comes by to visit and checks out any and all parts of the apartment if allowed.  But then continues on her way.

Logan and Jakob playing Magic (a collector card game that can only be enjoyed by boys between the ages of 10 and 16.  Maybe I am exaggerating and 9 and 17 year olds can enjoy it too.).  They really did swim for an hour before retiring to do this. 

Munich

 On the Friday the 13th we left for Munich.  Kegan and I were happy to go because we left early enough in the morning that we got to skip school.  We went of course by train.  On the train I watched Puss in Boots and we played cards and read.  We arrived in Munich and went straight to our hotel.  The hotel was nice enough and we dropped our bags and headed to the Deutsches Museum.

While we had been to the Deutsches Museum before it was still interesting.  We started with the mining exhibit and while it was huge it was not that interesting to me.  But I just did not care that much about the subject.  Then I went to the Physics hall and found that room interesting though a little difficult to understand in German.  Next I went to the Aerodynamics room in which there were some exhibits on birds that I found mildly interesting.  Then I went into a re-creation of the Altimira Cave system which was neat.  Though we had to go, I would have liked to look at the nano technology rooms and the chemistry room.

   

The Mining Exhibit

The next day we visited the Residenz.  The Residenz was origanally a castle but was extended by the Wittelbachs, the ruling family of Bavaria. Even though I had read the guide I was still not prepared for the number of rooms in the Residenz.  There are a total of 130 rooms though only 90 of them are viewable.  The Residenz supplied an audio guide but to listen to everything would take hours so we skimmed over some areas.  The major complaint I have with the Residenz was the lack of objects.  I understand a lot of it was destroyed but to listen to audio about stuff that was destroyed 50 years ago is just not very enjoyable.  Even not listening to everything still took 2 hours.  Then we went into the Treasury.  That was fascinating and the sheer volume of crowns,  scepters, jewels and altars was impressive.  The audio was also mildly informative.  The Residenz was huge and while there were some interesting exhibits it was not the best museum that I have been to by a long shot.

While I was not that impressed with the museums the food was good.  We ate at a steak house for dinner Friday night and the hotel served a magnificent breakfast and we ate at an Italian place for lunch the next day.  We also saw the Asam church.  It was built by two architects and was designed to show off what they could build to their customers.  Consequently it was overflowing with statues, jewels, altars and paintings.  We also went to the MarienPlatz and saw the joust at the clock tower.
Munich was interesting but once you have seen it three times it can get a little repetitive.

 

Eating at Maredo
 

Some people with a wagon of beer in the middle of the street. 

 

The MarienPlatz Joust

  

The Asam Church

 

 On the train home.