Mainz

a Roman ruin site inside a mall in Mainz

One of the Roman artifacts found in Mainz

The farmers market by the dome.

As you can see we were out in the rain.

Here is the sister city to Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden is known as the richer city and Mainz is more of the cultural center. Mainz also has a university.

Soccer/Football Game in Mainz

The Mainz emblem

The game.

The red team is Mainz

The plastic folded paper thing

My Dad, Jamie and I

My brother, Jim, his wife, Renee and his children, Hunter and Jamie, along with my parents and I attended a professional German soccer game on Saturday March 27th. Mainz, the neighbor city to Wiesbaden (like Saint Paul and Minneapolis) played against Wolfsburg. They lost in the last minutes of the game (the score was 0-2). But it was entertaining.

Word has it the Mainz just made into the 1. Bundesliga which is the premier or first tier league of professional soccer in Germany. They were in the second tier last year. Also they have been a team since 1905 but they are not the oldest team in the league!

According to my co-workers, the announcer mentioned us before the game began. If it happened, we missed because we ate lunch a little late. They handed out a piece of laminated paper that is made so you can fold it. When the paper is folded, it looks like a fan you made with paper in grade school. Fans fold the paper and slap it against their knee or hand or whatever to make a clapping noise. There is one section of the stadium that is a standing section (at least only one that I could see) and there is a guy there with a loudspeaker that leads people into cheers. The fans cheer the entire game and they whistled if they do not like the call a referee has made.

I loved it and hope to go again.

Wiesbaden Easterfest

Sign for the Wiesbaden Easterfest


People dressed up. I am not sure if they just do this fun or if they are paid or what their deal is. This is a lady with her uncle.


this is the weird snail lady hitting on my dad. Which is how I know that man was her uncle. She asked my dad if I was his wife! Mind you, my dad was 38 when I was born. He told her that I was his daughter and she said I am with my uncle.

Apparently the Germans love Easter. They love Easter Eggs and they are fancy, expensive knickkacks that you can purchase. This celebration was also due to the fact that stores were open on Sunday. Yes, two times a year the stores are open on Sunday. This is cause for celebration and parties and a parade.

Buchenwald & Weimar

The zoo for the entertainment of the SS officers and family

A drawing by one of the prisoners.

a rose on the bar of the dog kennels

Cutouts with pictures of people who were in the camp.

The clock that never changes time. It always show the time of day when the American came and liberated Buchenwald.

The door into the camp.

Also, I visited Weimar after going to Buchenwald. It is a pretty small city and they have museums. We spent about five hours here. Really there is not too much to tell other than the fact that the composer of the “William Tell Overture” lived there and I visited his house. The city housed Schiller and Goethe.

This weekend I visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. I went with the USO and it was our first spot. We only had an hour and a half to check it out, which was not enough. It is one of first and largest concentration camps in Germany. The main gate to the camp says literally, "to each his own", but figuratively "everyone gets what he deserves"). This was my second visit to a concentration camp (my first being Dachua in 2005). It is difficult to explain such a dark chapter of human history.

Interestingly, this is one of the sites President Obama visited when he came to Germany because his uncle was one of the American liberators of the camp.

The clock at the camp always has the same time, the time of day when the American troops liberated the camp.

The second time I went to the camp my dad showed me where the artwork from prisoners is displayed. It is pretty powerful stuff. There was the sense of desperation in some and hope in others and a longing for life before the camp.

***** No picture posted yet. Issues with SD card corruption. Hopefully will be fixed shortly :)

I went with the Meyers so I have pictures from the camp but not from Weimar.

Frankfurt

this is the breed of dog that Kevin bought.
indoor farmers market

A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody

Anne and I, the makeup queens of Wiesbaden community theatre

Here is a picture of Kenya, me and Amanda. Amanda is one of the cast members and Kenya is her from Heidelberg. I would like to add that I had been awake since 4 am this day and this is about midnight that night.

As some of you may know, I helped put make-up on the cast of the community theatre in Wiesbaden. I took the tips I learned from Athena doing my make-up and put them to good use. It was not something that I ever planned on doing, but I truly enjoyed it. It was a nice excuse to get out of the house. Also, I was able to meet and spend time with some very nice people. The play was A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody and it is pretty funny. :)

The Land of the Swans

Here are pictures from my trip with the USO to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Disney World was based on Neuschwanstein (as well as the castle in Sleeping Beauty, my favorite Disney movie).

Hohenschwangau was the summer residence of King Ludwig II. I actually like this castle more than Neuschwanstein. Part of the reason was that the tour guide for this castle was fabulous and told many jokes. Also, the inside of the castle was intricate but not overwhelming more subtle details. For me, it is the details of place that makes it wonderful and unique and frankly, the main reason to visit a place rather than just looking at pictures of it on the internet. Most of the rooms had paintings where description was above it explaining the important of the portrait. It was absolutely fascinating. There was a room inside that showed the different phases of the moon.

Neuschwanstein was amazing. The inside of the castle was completely painted. The ceilings were all breathtaking to look at. There was one in particular that I loved, it was deep blue and covered with gold stars. It was extremely difficult to hear the tour guide for this castle. The tour had roughly 60 people in it including crying babies and the tour guide did not wear a mike so it was very difficult to hear her. And Neuschwanstein means new swan stone, there is a fun fact for Jeopardy.

But both tours only showed a few rooms of the castles and were very short (15-30 minutes maybe).

So the funny stories, the bridge to go on and take pictures of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau was closed due to the ice. But myself and three other people in the tour decided to hop the fence (since we had seen other people on the bridge). I slipped on the ice and fell when I got up one of the gentlemen that was with me asked if I needed help on the ice. I replied no I am from Minnesota and deal with ice all the time. As soon as I went to take another step, I slipped on the ice and fell again. It was pretty funny. But I think it was worth breaking the rules to get some of the pictures that I took.