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humped zebra photo
+ 15 - 10 | § ¶Along the Ostsee
This weekend we continued our attempt to see as much of Germany as possible before we head back to the States (more on that in the coming weeks). So, we headed north into the state of Schleswig-Holstein, visiting Eutin, Flensburg, and Schleswig. (more)+ 14 - 10 | § ¶Lutherland
Just over eight years ago, I tried to visit the Lutheran pilgrimage site of Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, the town where Martin Luther first rebelled against Rome. However, I was distracted by a couple American women with a bottle of wine, so I never quite made it until this past weekend. Jenny and I spent Saturday in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg and split Sunday between Dessau and Magdeburg. In Wittenberg, we learned about the history or the religion in which we were both raised. In Dessau, we learned about a prominent form of architecture. Finally, in Magdeburg, we saw the horrible architecture caused by the Soviet rebuilding after World War II and an interesting attempt to change that legacy. (more)+ 18 - 7 | § ¶Local Tourism
Last Thursday, we took some time from my studying and Jenny's work to see something in Hamburg that we'd been unsuccessful in seeing for quite a while: Hamburg's Rathaus (Town Hall). We'd tried to take the English tour several times, but had always been thwarted by something ridiculous like a triathlon. This time, we succeeded. (more)+ 15 - 16 | § ¶Queen of the Hanseatic League
Yesterday, we took a day trip to Lübeck, an old Hanseatic city not far from Hamburg. We had talked about a longer trip to Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Copenhagen, or Stralsund (a resort town on the East German coast of the Baltic), but we forgot to consider one important thing: August. In August, most of Germany and the rest of Europe goes on vacation. So, searching for a hotel at the last minute in a resort town was a futile exercise. We decided to just do a day trip instead. (more)+ 15 - 11 | § ¶Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a great book for a transatlantic flight. I'm not so sure it's a great book in its own right, though. (more)+ 11 - 16 | § ¶The Lord of the Rings
Similar to my decision to reread the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, my decision to reread these books was inspired by a movie. After watching the fourth commentary track on The Return of the King, I decided I had to reread the series. It hadn't been that long since I had read them (between the releases of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers), but I had watched the movies so many times that I had lost the original plot in places. Plus, I had read the books very quickly the first time in order to finish them before seeing the films; I wanted to catch what I had missed or not understood. It's taken me since about February to get through the series, but I finished last night. (more)+ 10 - 14 | § ¶The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series
After having seen the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and having my discussions of the movie clouded by a poor memory of the books, I decided to re-read all 5+ books in the trilogy. Since I had first read them in high school (and college, for Mostly Harmless), I had listened to the radio series a lot, so my memory was clouded. I wanted to go through the series again and see how they held up after all this time. (more)+ 6 - 16 | § ¶Calm Weekend, at Least for Me
This should be a quiet weekend, the quietest in a while. I think it will be the first weekend since mid-June that we are not either traveling or hosting a party. It's not going to be quite that calm for Jenny, though. She's on a train returning from Aachen now, and she'll have to return Sunday evening for more work.I think we'll tour the Hamburg Town Hall (Rathaus) and try to bike and shop and plan for more travel later in the Summer and Fall. The most important thing will simply be letting Jenny relax a bit after a crazy weekend in Prague and a hectic week of work.
