Post-Cruise: German Land Tour to Weimar, Erfurt, Dresden and Berlin
Weimar: Home to Goethe, Franz Liszt, Bach, Kandinsky, Martin Luther, the Bauhaus Art Movement, etc, etc. This beautiful old city has so much history. We very much enjoyed a morning walking and touring the old town. And for lunch a famous Thuringian Bratwurst.
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| The beautiful shopping street from the Theatre Square to the Market Sqare |
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| Getting a famous Thuringian Bratwurst at the Market |
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| 15th Century Architecture |
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| Lutheran Church |
Kirms-Krackow house and Gardens - An example of a Baroque (17th century) house and Gardens
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| Wiemar Castle Museum Guard House |
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| A requisite charming coffee cafe |
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| ....And Beer Garden |
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| Inscription over door says 1753 |
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| So much charm and history on these original narrow cobblestone streets |
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| These well-worn cobblestones have seen a lot of wear and traffic over the past 600 years or so. |
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| A medieval monestary where Luther once preached, and is now the Franz Liszt Music School |
Now, off to Erfurt for dinner and the night. We stayed at the Radisson Blu in Erfurt - very modern and quite a contrast to the history and architecture we saw in Weimar and Erfurt.
ERFURT, GERMANY
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| Walking into the old town from our hotel |
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| hmmm, where will we have dinner tonight? |
Lots of interesting buildings
DRESDEN: A city rebuilt from the Ashes
What a nice surprise to tour the old city centre of Dresden. This was a city known for art and culture in northern Europe and was destroyed by firebombs in 1945. 90% of the old inner city was destroyed and 25,000 civilians lost their lives.
Most of the historical buildings have been reconstructed from the rubble using new stone and whatever remaining pieces of stone survived. A truly remarkable place.
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| Photo from the City Hall in 1045 |
Zwinger Palace, Dresden
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| Swinger Place in a 1900 coloured photograph. It was completely destroyed during the war. |
Walking into the rebuilt palace
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| Similar view as the 1900 photo, but there is no double spired church in the background |
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| Google Earth photo of the reconstructed Zwinger Palace, and Opera House Square beside the Elbe River |
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| Same building as the above 2 photos in 1945 - apparently this was all that remained of the palace. |
Walking around the old town of Dresden. Every building here was rebuilt in the last 50 years or so.
The Stunning Wall of Kings made of Dresden China Tiles
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| The Procession of Princes - all the Saxon Rulers through the ages depicted in a Mosaic wall made from Dresden China (Meissen China) |
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A Meissen China Shop with it's logo of crossed swords is placed across from the Mural.
Some lovely things in there ($$$! ;-) |
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| Yup, a Canadian themed restaurant in the town square ... decorated in everything Canadiana, eh! |
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| Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) just reconstructed in the past 25 years or so. |
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| Ruins of Frauenkirche in late 1940's |
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| A lovely spot overlooking the beautiful Elbe River. |
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| The Dresden Skyline on the Elbe River |
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| On the bus again and off to Berlin |
More Canola Fields .... absolutely beautiful countryside
BERLIN
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| Arriving a Alexanderplatz -former east Berlin |
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| The Beautiful Hotel Leonardo Royal. Remodeled from a former East German apartment block |
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| Mary and Norm at the Berlin Wall |
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| The wall now has a fence around it to prevent people from taking souvenir pieces |
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| The wall memorial 1961-1989. The former wall is marked out on the streets throughout Berlin with red brick |
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| Wall Memorial |
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| Red brick marks the Berlin Wall's former location |
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| Brandenburg Gate |
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| View from the Brandenburg gate to the Tiergarten |
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| Checkpoint Charlie (photo taken from bus window) |
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| Baroque Berlin Street Corner |
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| Modern Berlin Street Corner |
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| Damaged building remains as-is as a memorial to the war |
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| Angela Merkle's Office (AKA the U-Boat) |
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| One of the oldest buildings in Berlin -a beautiful Baroque Armory that survived the bombings |
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| Berlin Cathedral |
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| Symphony Hall |
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| Ampelmann was one of the few things to survive from East Berlin. It was the symbol used on all pedestrian street lights. There are many souvenirs of the Ampelmann. |
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| The Holocaust Memorial |
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| Holocaust Memorial |
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| Canadian Embassy and some pieces of the Wall at Potsdamer Platz |
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| Potsdamer Platz and the Canadian Embassy |
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| The funny little east German cars ... terrible cars that wouldn't go very far or very fast (so no one could escape ;-) |
DRIVING TO POTSDAM
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| Driving over the "Bridge of Spies" as seen in the Tom Hanks movie |
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| Deserted East German Border Patrol Building |
San Souci, Palace of Frederick the Great
Cecilienhof Palace - Churchill, Stalin and Truman met here for the famous "Potsdam Conference" in 1945. This conference was essentially to decide how to divide Germany.
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| Norm at Castle Cecilienhof. Home of the Potsdam Conference. |
Lunch and a walk in downtown Postsdam
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One of the many beautiful Mansions in Potsdam
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BEFORE AND AFTER:
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Refurbished apartment building
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What most buildings looked like in 1989 when the wall came down
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Farewell Dinner in Berlin
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| Time to go! Will never forget all those bright yellow canola fields. |
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