On Friday we got the treat of a day trip with our friend Ulf. We drove about an hour south to the town of "Lutherstadt Wittenberg," former home of the great reformer himself.

First stop was a medieval castle, Burg Rabenstein.

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Then we arrived in Wittenberg ...

First stop was the brand-new Luther museum, which is in the building where he lived and worked.

The museum is quite impressive, with tons of Cranach paintings (he and Luther were good friends) and a really nice exhibition about Luther's life. Here's Luther's "living room," supposedly preserved in its semi-original condition.

Then we headed to the church where Luther gave his sermons ...

We tested the freshwater spring at the house of Lucas Cranach before heading to the opposite end of town ...

The "Stadtkirche" was ruined in the 30 years war and rebuilt in the new Gothic style. Around the tower it says "A Mighty Fortress is our God" (in German of course) - one of Luther's hymns.

The inside is also quite impressive!

The last stop was Scholsspark Woerlitz, which was designed in the English style and extremely beautiful. (I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of the buildings, since there are quite a few - ) There were even some sheep!

To get around the park you have to take these little hand-driven ferries, which made for much fun -

It was a gorgeous day with good company and perfect weather. Thanks, Ulf!

The weekend continued with a trip to Dortmund, where Chance's friend Birgit and her boyfriend Brian live. Here we are in front of the skyline -

Birgit and Brian are learning to play the bagpipes, and they let me try. I was horrible, of course.

Dortmund had a lot of flying rhinos strewn about ...

On Sunday we went for a lovely bicycle ride to Unna, a town about 15 km away from Dortmund. First we had to pump up the bike tires though!

We passed some beautiful newly-tilled fields - it was almost like being in the country!

Of course our goal in going for a bike ride was to have ice cream at our destination. Chance had a banana split and Birgit had a hot chocolate with ice cream in it ... Yum.

We finished off the day with catching the end of Joschka Fischer's campaign speech ... (he's the head of the Green Party in Germany and has also been foreign minister for the last few years). I clapped just because I thought he gave quite a rousing speech. And I like the catchphrase "JA! zu Joschka." Anyway, we had a lovely weekend in Dortmund ... Thanks, Brian and Birgit, for a wonderful time!

So, it's election time here in Germany - that means lots of interesting campaign posters. This one's for a candidate for the Green Party in our neighborhood - complete with the dog peeing on a sign for Angela Merkel (head of the large CDU/CSU party).

It's been a week filled with children - the other night our friend Petra, who owns the apartment we live in, came over to show the place to a prospective renter, and brought her little Karlotta with! She smiled for the camera and was so cute!!

Last night we had a lovely dinner at our friend Ulf's house, and got to play with his adorable son Gedeon too ...

My sister Gillia's visit was so much fun! On Tuesday we visited Potsdam, home to Park Sans Souci, where Friedrich the Great and others built their summer residences. It's chock full of different buildings, but the most important is "Schloss Sans Souci" itself - a Rococo building which is small but very ornate, with a massive garden ... very impressive.

Friedrich the Great thought it would be more picturesque if there were "Roman ruins" on the hill across from the entrance to his palace, so he built some. You can't see it in the picture, but they're now covered in scaffolding - we can't have the ruins falling into ruin!

"Sans Souci" means "without a care" in French, so we thought it would be appropriate to get a picture of Gil "caring" at Sans Souci. Yes, she cares...

Right next to the palace there's a working windmill, to give the place a "rural" feel. !

Next stop, the Orangerie (in the background).

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The "New Palace" is amazing - if only they let you take pictures inside, we could've shown you the "under the sea" theme ballroom which is covered entirely in shells!!

What would a rococo getaway be without a ridiculously gaudy teahouse??

The park is absolutely gorgeous, with tons of picturesque spots.

There was a lot of walking, though.

On Wednesday, we teeter-tottered.

Then we headed to the Gemaeldegalerie to check out all the famous European art (here's Botticelli -)

... and of course, there is the ubiquitous visit to the Pergamon. (Gil's at the top of the stairs, leaning against a pillar.)

Gil's last day in Berlin was spent doing more museuming. First stop was the Ethnologisches Museum, a massive place with Indian, Southeast Asian, Asian, South American, and Polynesian art. We saw a LOT of statues.

The Polynesian gate makes for a great photo-op --

We stopped for a lunch of chili bagels, coffee and apple juice at one of Chance's and my favorite cafes ... yum.

Next we went to the Altes Museum for a look at the Egyptian collection, which just moved there. Gil was extremely excited and deciphered lots of hieroglyphics for me. It was fabulous!

We didn't realize that the bust of Nefertiti wasn't in a special exhibition, but right in the middle of the regular Egyptian collection! We rounded the corner and there she was ... she gets more beautiful the longer you look.

Nefertiti now sits looking out into Schinkel's beautiful dome - a very fitting place for her.

Then there was much Grecian-vase looking in the Antique collection ... (Jenn, we thought of you!)

We finished off Gil's visit with a dinner at our very favorite restaurant, a little Spanish place with amazing food and friendly service. Of course there was much silliness.

We stuffed ourselves with tapas, but there is always still room for dessert ... (notice the martial light in Gil's eye - I think she's going for the chocolate!)

Gil's visit is continuing with lots of fun. She's even managed to stay awake, despite the time change! Quite the accomplishment.

(I just thought this picture of our street was cool. Gil isn't in it though.)

Sunday we had a lovely day of walking around Berlin. We started at the cloister, where Gil enjoyed taking lots of pictures --

We found a neat fountain which you could go inside ...

(It was quite rainy - Gil looked a bit like Christopher Robin.)