Travelog for: Drescher

We visited all the important places in the main city of Germany.

BUT FIRST - VERY IMPORTANT - a yummy breakfast   


Here you can see me in front of the famous Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). Berlin Cathedral is the colloquial name for the Evangelical (i.e. Protestant) Oberpfarr- und Domkirche (English analogously: Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, literally Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church) in Berlin, Germany. It is the parish church of the Evangelical congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. Its present building is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough.


Here you can see me in front of a museum


LOOK! The famous Fernsehturm! The Fernsehturm (English: television tower) is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. Close to Alexanderplatz, the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic administration who intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 meters, it is the tallest structure in Germany.


Afterwards, we paced the Brandenburger Tor 
The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). During the post-war Partition of Germany the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.


Me in front of the Reichstag! The Reichstag building (German: Reichstagsgebäude; officially: Plenarbereich Reichstagsgebäude) is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament (Volkskammer) of the German Democratic Republic met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament (Bundestag) of the Federal Republic of Germany met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn.
The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification on October 3, 1990, when it underwent a reconstruction led by internationally renowned architect Norman Foster. After its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.

There are many places in Berlin where you can find memories to the Berliner Mauer. The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.


The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (German: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial (German: Holocaust-Mahnmal), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38 m (7 ft 10 in) long, 0.95 m (3 ft 1 in) wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m (8 in to 15 ft 9 in). According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial's official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. An attached underground "Place of Information" (German: Ort der Information) holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.




Here you can see me on "Straße des 17. Juni" with the Siegessäule behind me. The Victory Column  is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes, designed by Friedrich Drake. Berliners, with their fondness for giving nicknames to buildings, call the statue Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".[1]

The Victory Column is a major tourist attraction to the city of Berlin.

On the last day we explored Berlin from the water. See me on the boat 

Today, I said goodbye to my hostmum and -dad. Thanks for the wonderful time in Germany.

Mum - I'm coming home 

Drescher returned safely home to Kansas, where he met Spoink, the baby pig who is being bottle fed by the host family. Once he's big enough to be outside on a regular basis, he'll be going to a  family that plans to keep him as a farm pet for a 4-H project

Host mom took me to see the Neosho River again. She said that in the twelve years she's lived here, she's never seen it this dry. You can definitely see the results of the drought!!

Today I experienced an anime convention called Motaku! We are going to be here for the whole weekend and it's so fun! Today I played in the board game room, met people in costumes, and learned about kandi beads!

We had lots more fun at Motaku today! We went to several interesting panels and people watched!

We visited the host family's friends and met their cats! They have nine cats, and I liked these two best!

The host family loves to go to Red Robin for the amazingly delicious veggie burgers!

Sunflowers are the Kansas state flower, and this sunflower grew in the host family's back yard! It got really, really, really tall all summer, then it bent over, and now it has little sunflowers!

It finally rained today!! It was very badly needed. Host mom said she heard that two days ago, one of the small towns ran out of water. Everything is dry and there have been fires. I sure hope we keep getting more rain!

We walked over to the Cottonwood Garden to see what is left as summer starts to fade. The Cottonwood Garden was just a vacant lot until someone bought it, landscaped it, and donated it back to the city for everyone to enjoy.

Drescher is headed for Austria!

Hi there!

Today I arrived in Vienna, and something very embarassing happened to me

I was waiting in the letterbox for my hostmum to get me, when another voyager she hosts came by. He is called Mr. Furrington. We liked each other immediately and decided to suprise hostmum by getting me out early, and then waiting for her in the flat.

Well, so Mr. Furrington tried to pull me through the opening of the letterbox. And really, that opening is soooooooo small- I'm sure I would have got stuck if I wasn't so slim. However, halfway through the opening I wasn't convinced of the idea to get me through there anymore    And I was right.... I myself got out allright, but I lost my pants in the progress....

It was soooo embarassing, but Mr. Furrington was very nice about it. So it wasn't that bad