*~`*~Gonzalez Family`*~`*: Mom and Dad in Germany!

Mom and Dad came last week to visit me in Deutschland. We filled up the week with lots of trips, sightseeing, and best of all, visits with international "family." First, we saw some of the big sights in Berlin. Then we spent 2 days in Kassel, visiting my exchange family and seeing sights there. Then we came back to Berlin and did a bit of shopping. Next we spent a day in Potsdam and finally, we got to see Hector (our exchange brother from Spain) and Heikki (mom's exchange brother from Finland). Here are some pictures from our wonderfully eventful week.

Sunday: After going to church (in German) we went briefly to a carnival/market that just so happened to be on the same street as the church. They had a lot of food, a little entertainment, games, and trinkets to buy. After walking around and eating a bit, we made our way to the touristy historical areas. We did a lot of walking, since taking a bus didn't really occur to me, and poor mom and dad were exhausted after seeing the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Unter den Linden Street, the Memorial for Jews killed in Europe, Potsdamer Platz, Memorial to the Soviet Soldiers, the Sony center, Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie museum.

*dad being a true German with a sausage in one hand and a beer in the other*

*by a remnant of the Berlin wall*

*the bear is the symbol of Berlin*

*in front of the Brandenburger Tor*

*in front of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building*

*by remnants of the wall*

Monday: We left Berlin early on Monday morning to go visit my host family from Kassel, where I was an exchange student 5 years ago. We visited during most of the day, and then later went to visit several small nearby villages with the beautiful wooden frames (Fachwerk Houses) which escaped damage during the war. We also toured two Castles (the fortress types) which used to be divided by the border between East and West Germany.

*dessert/coffee hour with my host family: Bettina, mom, dad, Oma Elli and Opa Rudolph*

*with my german grandparents!*

*in Hann Munden, a nearby town with the historic Fachwerk Houses. Over 70% of Kassel was destroyed during WWII, but these nearby villages were untouched*

*at the top of the tower of castle ruins*

*another castle, which has now been converted into a summer camp/bed and breakfast*

Tuesday: Tuesday was another day with the Schluz family in Kassel, who took us to tour another couple of castles. The first was Schloss Wilhelmstal, which was a summer palace and one of my favorites from my former time in Kassel. In the afternoon we toured Loewenburg, which is now my favorite. A certain king wanted a medieval castle, but as none existed in the area, he built himself a castle as though is was a couple of hundred years old. The furniture, the paintings, even the chapel (which was built to be Catholic even though everyone at the time of building was Protestant and all of the services were Protestant) were "from" medieval times. Later we visited the city center, as well as the rest of the Schlosspark (castle park) where in addition to the fake medieval castle, the same king had built a giant fountain (along the side of a mountain) with a statue of Hercules on the top, several waterfalls, another castle, and a Roman aqueduct. That night, we went to dinner with the Schluz family (sadly without Katha) and dad ate wild boar.

*a summer palace, Schloss Wilhelmstal, in Kassel*

*in the garden of Schloss Wilhelmstal*

*view of the Orangerie from der Raum, a modern art instillation in Kassel*

Wednesday: We took a train back to Berlin on Wednesday, and after resting a bit, we saw a famous church (Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche) whose half-bombed/half-modern state reminds Germany of it's past while looking forward to the future. We tried currywurst, which is Berlin's culinary delight (a curried sausage). In the evening we went shopping at KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store. After we got some Asian takeout food to eat at home, I led my parents on the wrong train-- as I realized, we tried getting off, but mom jumped out while the doors were closing. Rather than separate, dad and I had to hold the doors open while she squeezed back on..... but the bag with our food had to travel to the next stop stuck in the automatically shutting doors. We were scolded by a few Germans (we don't know exactly for what), but we made it home with everything (food included) intact.

*with the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche in the background*

*inside the church*

*trying currywurst*

*outside of the KaDeWe, about to do some major shopping*

Thursday: In the morning I had a class, so mom and dad rested and then met me to tour Potsdam in the afternoon. It was a horrible day and rained non-stop, so we didn't do everything we had planned. we did tour the palace Sanssouci, which was beautiful, and we found a gorgeous church called Friedenskirche (peace church) which really was extremely peaceful. After seeing the Venetian mosaic behind the altar, we stopped in the Dutch quarter of Potsdam for an early dinner, did a little shopping and then headed home.

*Schloss Sanssouci*

*dad outside of Sanssouci*

*courtyard of the Friedenskirche*

*behind the altar of the friendenskirche-- the mosaic was brought from venice*

*mom and dad in the Dutch quarter. They're laughing because I ran ahead to take the picture, and mom was so used to following me that she ran right behind me*

Friday: We were fortunate to be able to coordinate trips to Berlin with former exchange family members and met them on Friday. In the morning we met Hector, who lived with us in 2001, and then we met mom's exchange brother from Finland, Heikki, and his wife for lunch. In the morning, Hector took us to the district of Berlin where he used to live, where we went to a Turkish market. After lunch, we took a tour bus to see more famous sights around Berlin, then went to museum island to see the Berliner Dom, a majestic cathedral. After that we stopped at a cafe for a small dinner and then headed home to pack.