For our finale day, I wanted to venture outside of the hustle and bustle of the city and explore the historic town of Potsdam. After looking at various options, several of my TOP fellows and I decided to take a chance on renting bikes in Potsdam and exploring the city on our own. While this […]
Category: Exploring Germany
Day 11 – An Evening Visiting The Brandenburg Gate, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, & The East Side Gallery
With a break in the heat and humidity, several of my TOP group members and I decided to spend our evening visiting some of the most notable places in the city. Using public transportation we were able to experience everything on our must-see list within just a few hours AND everything that we saw was […]
Day 11 – Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Today marked the beginning of the end of our time in Germany in many ways. While it was our second to last day in Germany, it also brought our trip full circle. We spent our first days in Germany learning about Thomas Buergenthal’s life in Göttingen after WWII and today we traveled to Sachsenhausen, the […]
Day 10 – The Federal Foreign Office, A Stop at Deutsche Bank, Checking In with Checkpoint Charlie and Exploring the Local Parks
Two of the major contributors that made our Wuderbar Together, Celebrating the Year of German-American Friendship, possible were the German Federal Foreign Office and Deutsche Bank. Our TOP 3 group was able to thank them for the opportunity this afternoon as we received an invitation for lunch at the Federal Foreign Office, followed by a […]
Day 10 – A Morning at the Berlin Wall Memorial
This morning I was able to explore the Berlin Wall Memorial. There is so much to see and do here and a person could easily spend half a day exploring this memorial, which is several city blocks long. The memorial is only one block away from a train stop so it is also very easy […]
Day 9 – “Germany Today”, the Colorful Neighborhood of Kreuzberg and A Few Must See Stops
For our first full day in Berlin, my TOP group and I took the train to the Charlottenburg district. Here we were warmly greeted by Professor Wolf Wagner, a German political scientist and author of several publications on the topics of the German university system, East and West Germans, poverty and culture. To provide us […]
Day 8 – Evening Exploration of the Jewish Quarter in Berlin
After checking into our hotel and a quick dinner nearby several members of our TOP group set off to explore the neighborhood. Our hotel (see link below) was situated direction between the Alexanderplatz train station and the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. If looking for places to stay, I highly recommend this location. Public transportation is […]
Day 8 – A Tour of the Historic Reichstag Building in Berlin
Day 8 – Reichstag Building Within a few short hours of leaving BMW Leipzig our bus rolled into the outskirts of Berlin. Even from the outside of the city the many changes Berlin has undergone over the years was apparent. Entering through what was the former GDR we passed through various historical buildings, abundant amounts […]
Day 8 – US Consulate General Leipzig and BMW AG Werk Leipzig
Today marked the final leg of our trip where we would leave Leipzig and head to the final destination of Berlin. On our way to Berlin we made several stops including the US Consulate General in Leipzig and the BMW Factory of Leipzig. This week also marked the beginning of record high temperatures in Germany, […]
Day 7 – The Leipzig Forum of Contemporary History
Sundays in Germany are very different from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the week. The majority of stores and businesses are closed, with the exception of a few on the main thoroughfare. The hotel we stayed at in Leipzig had recently just opened (Motel One) and we were fortunate that our hotel […]