#Daniel'sDEtravels

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Weekend 3: May 26-28, 2017

This weekend was a huge Abenteuer for @drscottclemson... because he left on Friday morning to fly to San Diego for ICA (International Communication Association conference). He was there Saturday all day, then flew back on Sunday/Monday. Needless to say... by the time he got back, he was fried. 

Friday morning we had class (back in the classroom at Aletto, our hotel we stayed in last year! Ah, memories....) - we had a discussion about PR ethics & dialogic communication in PR, then the students had time to work on their final projects. I took the video team ( @blaineeads, @sam-rochford, @marleygoestogermany, and @izzybelledavis ) to Neuersee (new lake) in the Tiergarten so that they could see it as a potential place for shooting spotlight videos. 

Blaine & DT checking out the petting zoo from the park overlook

Video team preparing to shoot Izzy’s spotlight video

The rest of the class stayed back at Aletto to get work done and prep their projects. Friday afternoon was free for travel and work, so we sent the students off to their respective planned & unplanned Abenteuer(s) .

Friday afternoon we reached out to see if the students wanted to go check out KaDeWe (http://www.kadewe.de/) - the biggest, fanciest store I think I’ve ever been in. It’s got 7 floors, and from bottom to top you’ve got luxury goods (perfume, makeup, etc), Men’s clothes, women’s clothes, entertainment, yummy nibbles (everything from food kiosks to tea/beer/wine/tobacco/chocolate kiosks to...... bakeries. So many bakeries). None of the students decided to go, so @liketheoceannotthetree and I went and wandered through the store, then we got yummy baked goods at one of the bakeries. 

Saw this and thought “H would love that!!” - but it’s 2000 euros. So DT took a photo with it.

Bee sting cake! (Bienenstich) - it’s sponge cake, custard, more sponge cake, then topped with an almond/honey praline.... it was one of the most delicious things I’ve had. I’m thinking about going back for another piece. 

At KaDeWe you can get Skippy & Jif! Every American student’s dream. 

Thinking about #GBBO, @smpyle! Sachertorte here and Prinsesstårta below!

Saturday was mostly a work day for me. Took a jaunt around Tiergarten with Sarah in the afternoon for some fresh air, but then came back to get more work done while she continued on for more exploring. 

Getting ahead of myself - went to a church service at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Sunday evening. It was beautiful. Also, I was lost much of the time - all in German. But still a neat experience. Oh - the church pictured here is the ruin of the old church and is a memorial now, the new church is beside it... I didn’t capture a photo of it. See the it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Memorial_Church

Oh, and there was a Lamborghini. NBD. I think I saw six this weekend. It was a pretty weekend for driving your ultra luxurious sports car around, I guess. 

Sunday I went in the morning and rented a bike so that Luke and I could take a cycling tour around Berlin. It was a gorgeous day for it! Fortunately I had remembered to get sunscreen the day before.... because otherwise I’d have been red as a ripe tomato. We met in Potzdamer Platz, then rode through the city to Badeschiff, a manmade beach area on the edge of the Spree (river that goes through the middle of Berlin) with a swimming pool submerged in the river (not river water, normal pool that just happens to be submerged in the river). 

Construction near the MB Arena and East Side Gallery, bonkers how many cranes there are over here.

Panorama of the Spree

Duck-face selfie in front of the massive blue Badeschiff duck. I know, it’s epic.

Oh, and then we went past the Bald Eagle enclosure at the zoo on our way back to Europa Center to get lunch and drop off my rental bike. 

As I mentioned above, in the evening I went to a service at the Gedächtniskirche (memorial church). This is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation - Luther and his 95 theses and all that - so the topic of the service was about Luther and some of his contemporaries and lessons we can learn for today. It really was neat to be in a service there, but I think for our final Sunday I’ll go back to the International church I attended our first weekend in Berlin. 

Monday begins our final week! We’ll get a tour of Olympia Stadion on Monday, the Autostadt on Tuesday, Teufelsberg on Wednesday, and the Communication Museum on Thursday. Thursday morning the students will present their final projects in my class. Friday-Sunday afternoon are free for the students (we’ll be grading frantically), and Sunday evening is our farewell dinner. And like that, it’s all over and we’re headed home. How quickly the time does pass.  

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Riding the go-cart at Tempelhofer Feld! Also, I totally failed to capture any of us in the video here... I think I got their feet? @liketheoceannotthetree & Madeline (Adele)! 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 5, May 11: Happy birthday, dad! How does it feel to be *cough*ty one years old? :)

Today, Daniel, the students, and I got to see one of my most favorite places - Schloss Ludwigsburg! Ludwigsburg Palace was built as a hunting lodge and getaway (read: place to spend time with his mistress) for one of the Dukes of Württemberg in the early 18th century. It has been well-preserved and looks now very much like it would have when it was in regular use in the 1700-1800s.

We took public transportation to Ludwigsburg and had a 2.25 hour tour of the palace. I’ve gotten to tour this palace four times now, and this one (with British expat tour guide Louise) was almost certainly the best time. She was wonderful! I also got to ring the bell that the queen used to summon her Page to bring her hot chocolate. Pretty neat, I know. Daniel particularly liked the gardens - they were his favorite thing. He also loved the "Märchengarten" (fairytale garden) and insisted on posing with the donkey sculpture. He has good taste.

After the tour, we walked into the city center with Laura and Camille, then we sent the students off to have lunch, see the sights, and experience the culture. @liketheoceannotthetree @drscottclemson and I quickly found the city market in the city’s market plaza. It was a typical market day (flowers, fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish), and we found a vendor who happened to be selling…. wait for it…. horse sausage sandwiches. Unfortunately, we got there at the end of the market time and they were out of bread. No horse hoagies for us. Next time!

Instead of a pony panini, we went and found a Döner shop where Trav and I got “Lahmacun” (Turkish pizza), and Sarah had some falafel. It was super yummy! Also, super inexpensive. Which I think is the very best kind of lunch… right @smpyle? Daniel loved the Lahmacun - he couldn’t get enough.

After lunch, we walked down to the mall so that we could have a bit of gelato (because obviously), and so that Sarah could get her phone fixed. She’s had no end of problems getting her phone activated since we arrived. We went to Vodafone, but they were not particularly helpful. Hopefully it’s all cleared up soon.

While we were finding Vodafone, Trav went to find the prison museum in Ludwigsburg. Because he’s super creepy and likes bizarre things. He has a video post about it, you can find it in his feed. By the time we left the mall we had about an hour til we needed to meet up with the group, so rather than join Trav at the (we assumed) depressing museum of depressingness, we went back over to the palace to walk the grounds and see the amazing (and elaborately cultivated) gardens. A few of the students had gone to do the same thing - it was a perfect day for it. After this post I’ll be uploading a video from the gardens - you can see the gardens, the big fountain, and the rear portion of the palace.

At this point it was time to head back, so we hoofed it up to the city center and met up with everyone just in time to walk over and catch the bus.

Tonight’s mission is to knock out some work and be ready for the trip out to visit the Hubers tomorrow! (Note: if anyone who doesn’t already know happens to read this post, the Hubers live in Haubersbronn, a tiny village that’s part of Schorndorf, which is a small city 20 km or so outside of Stuttgart. They were my host family during my GAPP study abroad program in high school. I get to spend the weekend with them. I’m super excited.)