Happy Turkey Day!

I decided to use today's entry to put up a few of the photographs from my trip last weekend to Seaford! Here is a photo that Ruth had of Great-grandma Lily (let me know if I got her name wrong...I wasn't really sure what I should call her...Agnes Lillian (Lily) Hurwood Deyarmond?).

Here are a few photos that they had of when Ruth and David came to visit California!

And here she had one of the whole family!
Nice color coordination!

And here are some updates:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Munich Day 2

In the morning, we woke up and went to the "English Gardens" since museums and things didn't open until 10 or later. It was cold but very pretty!

This is a man made surfing wave in the river. There were two pretty talented people in wet suits giving it a try while we were there, but I caught this guy mid wipe-out!

Autumn!

Looking at the English Gardens from across the river

The Schloss Nymphenburg, the palace that we visited in the afternoon. The palace and its stables, etc, etc were in a huge circle around us, but this was the most buildings I could fit into one photo!

We lured a swan close to us by pretending we had something in our hands. They are just as gullible as dogs, I guess! Then I felt kind of bad because the swan was obviously quite miffed that we had lied to it.

Inside the Schloss Nymphenburg Palace:

The coronation carriage of some king or another... haha.

A signpost in the middle of the the huge open air market we visited just off the main square.

A lot of the fancy stores along the main street already had a lot of Christmas decorations up! This one was animated and pretty cool. It had attracted a large crowd.

Munich / Dachau Day 1

There are a lot more pictures from Munich but you will have to wait until I am over for Christmas because I don't want to upload them all. Anyway, in the morning Serene and I scoped out downtown...

This is now the Rathaus, but I don't really know what its history is. Obviously, it appears to be a cathedral, haha.

Dachau.


The area around the camp was really beautiful, but I think the juxtaposition brought out the solemnity of Dachau even more.


There used to be hangings and firing squads in this alley.



Rows of barracks used to stretch out along this line of trees. We think the trees must have been alive during the war, because they look very similar to the trees in photos of Dachau.

A photo taken of the "showers," although apparently in Dachau they were never utilized for mass killings. The photo was taking from a room in which bodies were piled up while waiting for incineration.

Cheerful, eh? Well don't worry, the next day wasn't quite as glum!

Munich Evening 1 Photos

Continuing the Reading Week saga, I got off the bus in Nuremberg with a few minutes to spare, so I booked it over to the main part of town and snapped a few photos! "Nurnberg" seemed very touristy to me, in an Innsbrucky type of way. People who have been to Innsbruck will know what I mean.


Bavarian scenery, etc, from the train. It was my first passenger train experience! Everything was super nice! In fact, too nice, as I discovered when the ticket collector made me relocate to 2nd class. Whoops.


By the time Serene and I found each other and settled in, it was already pretty late so we decided just to head to the hostel's bar to see what was going on and to redeem our free drink ticket. 40 minutes later, the same 82 year old guy was STILL talking to me. Serene thought it was funny and wasn't helping at all, but fortunately a guy swooped in and saved me by asking if Serene and I wanted to go to a local beer hall with a few people. We found out pretty quickly that he was from Nebraska (Bellevue West, I believe), which was cool. Below: me, my Nebraskan acquaintance, and a guy who probably shouldn't be staying in a youth-geared hostel...? He was STILL talking even during the photo.

Later, at the Beer Hall, we met a bunch of German guys who were hilarious. This is our whole group (minus the New Zealander taking the picture). The native Munichers are the ones at the end of the table, ha. Everyone else went out clubbing after that, but Serene and I went back to the hostel to plan and to go to sleep! We are too cool.

Prague Day 2 Photos

The next day we went to pay our respects to Dvorak! This is on the way from the tram stop.

Part of a fortification


Maia's little sister assured me that this was an entrance to some catacombs, but I think she might have been pulling my leg.

You can see more of the fortification wall in this photo!

The church overlooking the cemetery where Dvorak is!

: )

Another view of Prague from above

The 'dancing' house

The yellow apartment is Maia's.

They shouldn't have encouraged us to draw Dvorak's body at the museum...

His viola!

Some random chemistry for Dad to figure out...I think it says "Franz Hofmeister."

Prague Day 1 Photos

My apologies, these photos are all kinds of chronologically backwards, but the way blogger uploads photos is kind of messed up. I will try to learn from my mistakes on the next blog post, but in the meantime I'm too lazy to go into the code and re-order these, haha.

So this is at the end of the day, obviously!

The clock in the "old town square" and the bell tower!


I thought this building was pretty cool!


Looking out at the King Charles Bridge

And a photo taken of the end of the bridge while crossing it!

Unfortunately, I don't remember what most of these landmarks are...

This one is the Gunpowder Tower though! My guides had an argument over it, so it stayed in my mind!

In a park that Sean Connery apparently donated money to!

My wonderful tour guides posing in front of the Lennon Wall!

So many landmarks!


Looking over an edge into the royal gardens.

The...king?

St. Vitrus Cathedral

Inside the cathedral:


We ate lunch (I should clarify. We ate our first lunch) at this church!


View of Prague from the top of the hill!