Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

The sign on all of the 37 concentration camps which said that hard work will set you free.

 This is the main gate/guard tower for this concentration camp.  The clock's face is painted on to show the time of the liberation.

 This is a "trough"like structure where prisoners were forced to walk, then shot.  The wall was wood, so the bullets did not bounce back.  At the other end is a crematorium.

The zone between the camp and electrified fence and block fence.  Any prisoner in this zone was shot immediately.  No one is known to have escaped this camp.  If  remember our guide correctly, she said that 200,000 prisoners went through the camp, 60,000 were killed or died from illness or medical experimentation.  Gruesome.

When the Nazis lost the war, the Russians made this into their own concentration camp, where the cruelty continued.

We walked through one of the Jewish barracks, meant to hold 100, 3 bunks high, at the height of imprisonment, 250-500 prisoners were in this crowded space, an area perhaps 25 x 50 feet.

One of the special barracks' cells (where the most "important" prisoners were held)  we saw where Rev. Martin Neimoller was held.   It was amazing to see the cell where he was kept.He is famous for this quote:  First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- 
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- 
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Breakfast in Berlin, followed by a day of shopping!

Berlin

 At the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, the symbol of peace.

This is the overview of the memorial to the Jewish people who died.  It has many turns,a maze of  hills and valleys within the maze itself.  One can feel the power there.  

Walking through the memorial to the Jewish people killed during WWII.  

Beautiful Dresden

 The golden statue of Augustus from Poland, responsible for the Baroque architecture in Dresden.

 The Cathedral in the square across the Elbe

 Inside the square of the cathedral, opera house, museum.

Just cooling their feet

 From the bridge over the Elbe, showing where old meets new

The Aethenian Fountain

Coffee in the morning

More Vienna

 City Center; parliament

City Center.  The objects in his hands are gold.

 Nannies watching the children in the park in the middle of the city.  The river is behind, as is the train tracks.  Our apartment is just up the street from here.

The flowers grow in the middle of all of the hustle bustle of Vienna.

We leave for Prague this afternoon.

More of beautiful Vienna

Austria for 6 days

 The Austrian countryside.  It was pristine beyond imagination.

 Full moon through the trees in Vienna.  It changed from this brilliant white to a coral color in minutes.

 A view of the Museum of Natural History.  Most of the buildings look like this!!

 The Schonbrunnen Palace, where the emperors from Maximillian's time lived.  It is where Marie Antoinette was born.  Another of the daughters married Napoleon.  Only one daughter (out of 16 children) was allowed to marry whom she wanted to marry--she was her mother's favorite.  all others were married to cement political alliances.

 Neptune's Fountain on the estate of the Palace.  It is also the site of the oldest zoo in the world.  I guess I don't have to tell you who the white haired one is...

The palace as seen from the Fountain.  I don't know the acreage, but I do know it is huge and filled with various gardens, the zoo, fountains, and, of course, the mandatory gift shop!!  Found in every notable site everywhere.  Possibly the one commonality among all countries...

another Wengen rainy day

 Chris and Elli at the top of the mountain.  Snow is falling all around.  

 Mountains all around are snow-covered today.

On our way down by cable car.  Such a beautiful sight.  At this point none of us could feel our fingers or our toes.  We are frozen, looking forward to swarm dry clothes.

Wengen

It's cold and foggy today, rainy off and on.  a good day to just be.  wrapped up warm in a blanket on the balcony of our room, this is what I see.

Milan

 Marilyn and her grate live on!

We walked around a corner, and here it was.  What a magnificent church in the middle of the city, the Duomo.  Next is inside the church.

Chris and Elli looking across the square from the church

Leonardo, Elli and Chris

Looking down a street filled with shops.  What a grand day we had with seeing so many people, beautiful buildings, we all bought shoes.

St. Elena

Doing nothing but listening this early afternoon

and a panorama of the sea

I found this secluded little spot within a hedge and stand of trees.  the best

An update

This is something green in Ireland, in one of the green areas of Ireland, where there are 50 shades of green.

Anthropologists are curious about these gray areas of Ireland, and how the gray things got to be so gray, and here we can see why, because the people inside this place are really really old and their gray hair has spread to the stones.

This was a particularly frightening part of the trip when I thought that Elli had turned into a bear.

Mix of green and gray (see above).  Very old monks live here, from the 14th century, and many of them are reputed to no longer be alive, as evidenced by the massive number of grave markers in the area.

More of the things we have been talking about pictured below.

This is the view that the monks had when they walked around the monastery.  They would look around every morning and say to each other, "Oh my gosh, I love being in Ireland, everything is so green and gray."  (Irish translation not yet available)

This is Elli seeing an apparition of a monkey, that she thought was a monk.

Aha don't forget you are always being watched.

Elli in a tree in the faerie section, it is holding her like it were a hand, and she is ironically posing with her hands here in order to give us a sense of scale.  As you can see, her hands are smaller than the tree.

This is where they put people and crush them when they are not behaving correctly.

This is a cow (Ginger Cows, they call them), a former monk in a past life, and the cow says, "Oh my gosh I love being in Ireland, and this time around I get to have red hair."

This is Elli when she was not as afraid of heights as I am.

We are hearty people and won't take any monkey business from anyone.

A graveyard with the circle and the cross (the pagan and the new in one symbol).  If you pretend these are steering wheels and pretend you are driving a car, someone in charge will come over and ask you to stop.

And of course, this place is just a big meat market.

Italian astrologers built this clock to make you confused about what time it is, in order to get even for an influx of tourism in a beautiful and pristine city.

The water here turns orange at night and scientists cannot explain why.

Elli in an architecture exhibit at the bienalle, pretending to be Mike Teevee.

The same exhibition, demonstrations of ceilings, exposed and etc.  It blew our minds.  Also please note that the colors here are gray and green and also blue and red and orange and yellow (among others).  This is because the Italians have more rods and cones in their eyes to detect color than the Irish do.  At least historically this was true.