Final Day in Germany

On Friday, June 12, 2009, we arrived back in Frankfurt. After dinner with Rotary District 7390 Governor Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hoover and Rotary District 1950 Governor Herr and Frau Helmut Mater, we toured the city. Walking through the streets of Frankfurt, I noticed how even in a big city, everybody still seems to move along at a much slower pace than in our American cities like New York and Philly.

It's a tear-filled goodbye for us, but with a promise that most of us hope to come back someday in the near future.

Thank you to all of our sponsoring Rotary Clubs in Pennsylvania.

Thank you to the Rotary Districts 7390 and 1950 (in Germany)

Thank you to District Governors Mr. and Mrs. Hoover and Mr. and Mrs. Mater

Thank you to the host Rotary Clubs in Arnstadt, Gera, Jena, Weimar, Schweinfurt, and Roth

Thank you to the German GSE Team: Roland, Christian, Ulli, Ulrike and Daniela

Thank you to Peg Sennett and the GSE Committee.

Thank you to Mr. Treiweiler.

Thank you to Will Kirkpatrick for being our fearless leader.

Thank you to my team members: Melanie, Christina and Jessica.

Thank you to our new friends in Germany.

And thank you to Rotary International for this wonderful opportunity.

It is programs like this--promoting leadership, networking, friendship, travelling abroad, and peace--that we can finally begin to see good things happening in the world.

Thank you to all of our loyal readers. Please keep in contact with us. k_lightcell@hotmail.com

Blessings to all around the world!

-Kevin Leitzel-

On the Road Again...

After several days of arguing with Tina, I finally lost the argument. Nürnberg is, in fact, the same city as Nuremberg. My mistake Tina. I apologize. You win.

Once in Nuremberg (aka Nürnberg), we visited the Documentation Center of the Nazi Party Rallying Ground in the Congress Hall. Our tour lasted between 2.5 and 3 hours. In this tour, we learned the history of Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials. Afterwards, we enjoyed a more light-hearted view of the city. We toured Nuremberg Castle; it sits on the hilltop overlooking the city and learned about the devastation of World War II air raids. Approximately 90% of the city was destroyed, but then later rebuilt to look almost exactly as it did before the bombings.

In the evening, we walked through the city and stopped at a beer festival. Once a year, the city holds a beer festival in the land moat surrounding the castle. Here 28 local breweries are represented along with food vendors. As you can imagine, it was an enjoyable evening... - Kev-

Playing in a Creek, Talking to Birds, and a Last Minute Stop in Regensburg

From our hotel in Enderndorf -- the beautiful building overlooking the Grosse Brombachsee (a man-made lake)-- we ventured about two hours to a waterwheel electricity station. Standing in hip-boots, we inched our way through the creek to get a feel for the strength of the water passing through the waterwheel.

Later, we travelled to a bird sanctuary where we met some very friendly feathery friends. The owner, a man with a shaman-like ability to communicate with the birds, showed us some of the neat tricks they can do. One exotic creature flips his head back when there is an audience. He enjoyed entertaining us. Meanwhile a hawk was very giddy for the owner's affection.

In the last minute, we took an impromptu tour of Regensburg. A walking bridge was built in 1146. It still stands today. It is the first stone-bridge found in Northern Europe. At that time, a toll was collected three times across the bridge. I bet they weren't very happy when they got to the end... This bridge was the only way to get across the Danube River at that time. Regensburg was an important trade center as a result of this bridge. The Rhine-Main-Danube channel join in Regensburg. The earliest record of Regensburg dates back to 179 A.D. Today, the city has a population of about 150,000 with an unemployment rate of 1.5%! In the 13th and 15th Centuries, very strong earthquakes destroyed two-thirds of the city. By the 19th Century, the city had been completely reconstructed. - Kev

Schweinfurt - Northern Bavaria

We have moved to the state of Bavaria (West Germany in former times). Our first city stop is Schweinfurt, where we are being hosted by the Schweinfurt-Peterstirn Rotary Club.


We attended Distrikt 7390's Conference on Samstag (Saturday). Rotary International's theme for 2008-09 is Macht Träume wahr (Make dreams real). We had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the 300+ attendees (in German!) with the other two GSE teams from the Distrikt. The team who visited our district in Pennsylvania gave a presentation about their experiences in South Central PA and showed photos of their time in the area. During lunch, we set up a table with tastes from PA: Snyder's pretzels, Herlocher's mustard, and Hershey's chocolate. This also gave us the chance to meet and greet RC members from around the Distrikt in areas we did not have the chance to visit. During the conference, we also saw friends we've made along the way on our trip from Arnstadt, Erfurt, Gera, Jena, and Weimar. "Now this is something really special..." We said goodbye to the German GSE team who we first met in PA. Thank you Distrikt 7390 for sponsoring the team to PA; we had many good times together. It's good to have friends across the Atlantic.

After the conference, we visited Kunsthalle, a former bath house turned into a modern art museum. Next, we were off for a city tour with Fritz before a wünderbar dinner hosted by RC Freund, Barbara. Das Essen war ausgezeichnet!


Sonntag (Sunday) was an adventure filled day. We enjoyed a fahrrad (bike) ride of the surrounding area with Jürgen. We had a personal tour of the 829-year-old village of Königsberg with a former mayor, who told great stories! We learned the discovery of America was assisted by Regiomontanus, son of Königsberg. Columbus positioned his ships based on tables developed by Regiomontanus.

Dinner featured spargelessen at the Weinstall Castell, a vineyard located in the hilltop village of Castell.

While our time in Schweinfurt was limited, we enjoyed the new friends made and the opportunity to explore the region. Vielen Dank!

°tina and kevin:)

P.S. Zum Geburstag Viel Glück Will! (Happy birthday, Will!)

Playing Catch-Up

Hello everyone! Sorry we have been negligent in our blogging duties, but there has been so much to keep us occupied that it has been difficult finding the time to log on. This blog post may be more of a bulleted list than previous entries in order to fit everything in within a short time period. Here goes...

We had a nice final weekend in Jena, touring around at farms, preschools, castles, and other cultural locales. We had met so many wonderful Rotarians and friends and many of them came to say goodbye and wish us well. On Sunday we traveled the short distance to Weimar, home of many great artists and Universities.

Since we've been here for 4 1/2 days or so now, here are some things that we've seen and done:

• Belvedere Schloss - a castle with beautiful gardens and very old trees in the large park
• Ate at a Turkish restaurant named Divan - there is a large Turkish population in Germany. We enjoyed the falafel, lentil soup, and other delicacies.
• Traveled to Eisenach to attend a Lutheran service honoring a retiring Bishop, then went to the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. This castle was very beautiful and included many works of art, including a room of sprakling mosaic tiles.
• Moving back and forth between the Hotel Leonardo and the Hotel Amelienhof because the hotels are booked solid due to a possible visit by President Barack Obama this weekend! And speaking of that, it's neat to be here with such a President in the White House. All the German people we've spoken with seem to like him and think he'll do good for the US and internationally. There are posters hanging up for him and wer were giving "American" cookies with his image printed on it. Yum! There are secret service agents all over the place, including at our hotel! It was funny/interesting to walk into the restaurant for breakfast one morning and hear 90% of the guests speaking English. Not what you'd expect.
• We visited the Buchenwald concentration camp (also a destination for Obama). It was a very sobering experience but one I'm glad we did; everyone should see something like it to honor those that were impacted by this terrible time in history.
• We also visited the Amalia Library - an old and art-filled library that unfortunately partly burned down a few years ago, damaging many valuable books.
• We've strolled through two local Universities: Bauhaus Universitat Weimar and the Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt. One is well known for its art and architecture classes while the other is a highly respected music school with students from around the globe.
• Last night we attended a piano concert of a wonderful Russian/Canadian pianist, then socialized at a local pub.

It's not all touring around though. Our time in Weimar is work too. We had another Rotary presentation on Tuesday night and yesterday we attended a 5th grade English class and helped them with their language studies. Today we're stopping by the International School in the morning and visiting a solar panel manufacturing plant in Arnstadt in the afternoon. We get to see so much of the state of Thuringen - it will be difficult to leave on Friday for Bavaria.

As we approach the end of our 3rd week I just wanted to say another thank you to all the people that have welcomed us into their homes, businesses, and lives. People have taken off work to show us around and for that we'll be eternally grateful! Your cities are magnificent and we've had the trip of a lifetime. Danka! - Jessica

Jena

This morning, we met with the mayor of Jena, Dr. Albrecht Schroeter. Then, we were off to a local vineyard for lunch, about 30 minutes outside of Jena. Afterwards, we visited Schloss Neuenburg, a castle from medieval times. People were setting up stands in the castle for a weekend festival. It compares to our hometown Renaissance Faire. In the evening, Herr Wolfram took us to an architectural exhibit in Erfurt for which he won a prize. Along the way, we learned of different styles of modern architecture in the city.

The trip back from Erfurt was an enjoyable excursion... Thank you, Kristian, for helping us to hop onto the right train.

Bis Spaeter! - Kevin

Mein Liebe--Deutschland!

What a busy day...

The day started off with some rain. Jessica and I met with Herr Wolfram to learn more about architectural planning for city landscape. I was impressed to see how much care and attention goes into the environmental aspect of planning. Then, we went to visit his hillside vineyard. It's a project in the making. The view from the top is absolutely stunning.

Afterwards, Herr Wolfram took us to visit three chateaus/castles--each with their own sense of personality and color. They are hillside as well. The gardens are filled with flowers; hedges and trees are perfectly trimmed.

In the afternoon, we visited the Schiller House, a famous author and correspondent of Goethe's. The Schiller Home was one of five residences for him, but only one survived the devastation of World War II. He lived in this house from 1797 - 1799. It is said that the correspondence letters between Schiller and Goethe are one of the great works of German Literature.

In the evening, Kristian and Stefanie, my host family, showed me a book of black print artwork of New York City. "Vom Rhythmus Der Neuen Welt" by Max Thalman was printed in 1927 in Jena, Germany. The process for printing these pictures involved carving them out and stamping the ink onto a page. Only a small handful of copies exist in the world.

Afterwards, I met up with the team again and a few of my new German friends here in Jena. We attended a barbeque at the home of Herr Olaf. The food was delicious. We talked for hours and a few of us hiked up the hill near his home. At the top is a special monument to memorialize those who were killed in World War I.

Tomorrow, we meet with the mayor of Jena. Then we will be interviewed by the local newspaper. I'm now looking back over the past 12 days, and I can't believe how many places I've visited and how many new friends I've made. Germany is such a welcoming country with many ancient sights to see and wonderful people to meet! The food and beverages here are always good. It didn't take me long at all to adjust to the German way of life...

Guten Nacht! - Kevin