In the good ol' days the wall one ran along here. Thats before communism had to up and crumble! Ohhh foooey! 

One of many memorials dedicated to Holocaust remembrance. Right smack dab in the middle of the city.
 

Brandenberger Tor, then and now 

Berlin, ohh Berlin, do do do do do.... Berlin whoo whoo how pretty thee are... do do do do da da da da.. 

Opera house in what was East Berlin. I must add that Berlin's mix of comminist russia, the capitalist pig USA, German history, totally destroyed buildings, art, and night life make for one fascinating city.
 

So last weekend I went to Berlin. Stayed at a colleague�s friend�s house. An this was on the corner, we didn�t know if it was art or joke. But Berlin is not a normal European city and none of us denied the fact art can take many forms.
 

Neat tree support thingys holding up a roof 

My natural engineering inclination identified this as super cool! If a train hits the stop at very high speeds, instead of horribly derailing and causing mass destruction, this device will attempt to slow the 500 tonne train (through a clever, German engineered rubber band) down enough to only cause horribly devastating destruction.
 

911 GT-2 with the Super Extra Fast option. (only 900,000 extra!) 

Apparently the first Porsche ever! I mean first ever produced! I could be wrong because the explanation was auf Deutsch. 

Porsche land!!! (thats Porsche with an E however pronounced like an A) 

Vrrrroooooommmmmmmm!!!!! 

This car was being renovated but quite possible is the most advanced race car EVER!! No really, in 1937 this car had 736 hp, and could reach 380 kilometers per hour! (thats like 5000 mph!!!!!! or something) 

My dream car... actually one among many. 

Went to the daimler benz museum in Stuttgart. Quite possibly the most expensive car ever!  

Hohenzollern Schloss. Great place when it doesn't rain like the amazon. I can see the castle from my apartments balcony - it's a very tiny white dot! 

Hund = dog and ... well you get the picture 

Tuebingen was celebrating the 200 anniversary of something. Here is quite possible the best cover band ever! Really.. for a country that recently got last place in Europe for a dancing/singing contest, I was proud to actually attend this event and see these old white hair men really rock! 

The next weekend Laura (rommie) and I visit old rommies from Freiburg. No pictures of the city but this was is the torture museum...  

After Florence visited AIESEC member Klauss in his home town of Calw and had a barbecue! 

The ULTIMATE le Poste!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (part 1)

Zzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... huuukaaa oooookkkkkkkk zzzzzzzzzzzz..... ahhhhhhhhh chehem zzzzz... wha.. wh... blog... blog... update..... web... zzz. wha.. zzzzz... ahhh chehem... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh update weblog!!!!!

Yes it is about that time. In what has become my monthly weblog post I will try to update to all those reading what I have been up to the last 4 weeks - an in hopefully as little writing as possible. But that what pictures are for!

So I left off when I was about the ship off to Florence to visit Matt and Chris. Took a joyful 12 hour night train, or "schlafzug" with beds for tiny little miniature midgets (5'3" and miminiaturer). Anyway, arrived to meet Matt at the train station only to find out they had only gotten a few hours sleep because CHRIS GOT STABBED IN THE EYE!!!! Or more like around the eye with a beer bottle (see picture). Some guys tried to pick pocket him and a fight ensued. Chris and Matt were winning until one of the scared, yellow-bellied Italians decided to get pansy on his ass. All's well now and apparently Chris is healing just fine. The photo below really doesn't show the injury well, so I've blown up the important part a little. The photo actually is of us overlooking Florence.


The rest of the trip was low-key and interesting. We wondered around Florence seeing the important things. Oddly, Michelangelo's David looks strikingly familiar!



We also visited Matt's dad in the small town of Greve at his very "modest" Italian Villa. Here is the view atop the fortified forbidden city.


It was a nice reprieve from the hellish tourist crowds that infest Florence all year round (we were there in April!).

Below is the location where very important history took place! Also, in the movie Hannibal, where Hannibal Lecter eats brains, he hangs some guy from the balcony pictured here. This also gives you the idea of the tourist infestation.


Afterwards, a quick flight Pisa ---> Stuttgart and back to work on Monday!!! Woooo Hooo. Matt and Chris headed to Munich and then on to Amsterdam for what I hear was a very smooth and enjoyable trip! (really!)

That's it for part one, part two covering as much as I feel like writing (probably less photoshop) will be posted soon. So check back my millions of readers!