Atlanta Sightseeing Tour:

Last Saturday ISSP (International Student and Scholar Programs) offered a great sightseeing tour. We visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, the Government Buildings and Martin Luther King Memorial. And we saw a lot of other sights on the bus tour: Coca Cola World, Georgia Aquarium, Martaret Mitchell's House, CNN Headquater, Olympic Village at Georgia Tech and the Turner Field Baseball Stadion. Watch the pictures!

Vienna Sightseeing Tour:
On Thursday my grandfather and I went to Vienna for sightseeing. Especially, we were interested in the guided tour at the Hofburg Vienna Imperial Palace, which was offered because of the 50 year anniversary of the congress center. The tour was great! Further, we walked up the South Tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral, visited the Votivkirche, Burg Theater, Parliament and Schönbrunn Imperial Palace. The weather was amazing! Here are the pictures!

Kunibert, The Knight:
Sorry guys, but this has to be written in German:

Der Ritter Kunibert,
der hatte ein sehr langes Schwert!
Und weil es ihm beim Reitern stört,
setzt er sich verkehrt aufs Pferd!
(It is about the knight Kunibert, which sat on his hourse upside down, because of his long sword.) The Czecks are really cool guys

Prague, The First Day:
Our first sightseeing day in Prague started at 9 am at Wenceslas Square next to the museum. We walked across the sqare and then to more streets to get to the Estates Theater, where once the debut performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni took place. Our next stop was at the Old Town Square where we watched to the hourly play of the astronomical clock. Then we walked through the old town to Charles Bridge. Before we went up the tower, Eugen showed us the oldest part of the bridge.

After passing the bridge we walked along the river Vltava to the bridge Most Legií where we got back to the old town at the National Theatre. Now it was time for lunch. We had it in the Beerhouse of the restaurant After our break we walked again through the old town and through the Lesser Town, where we visited St. Nicholas Church, up to the Prague Castle. There, we viewed St. Vitus's Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and the Golden Lane with the Daliborka Tower. Still, we haven't finished the tour! We took the tram and funicular up to Petrín, where we enjoyed the excellent view over Prague at the lookout tower. Afterwards we visited the mirror labyrinth. After this exhausting - but awesome - day, we had a grate dinner at Sárka's place.

Sázava:
This afternoon we went to Sàzava to see the really nice church Sázavský Kláster. Quite funny, there was a monument with a German inscription. Afterwards we enjoyed a drinks and beer.

Trip to Vienna: Linz Texas Exhibition:
Yesterday I went together with Mario, Doris and Daniel to Vienna to visit the exhibition Linz Texas A City Relates at the Austrian Museum of Architecture. After having lunch at Siebensternbräu we climbed up the South Tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral. I was entirely fascinated by the view. Here are the pictures! At about 3pm we started the tour through the Schönbrunn Zoo. Altogether, another lovely day in Vienna!  

Summerticket Started:
Since yesterday the summer ticket of the Austrian Federal Railways is valid, I'm quite busy with traveling. Our first trip led us to Leopoldsberg and Kahlenberg (in Vienna), one of my most favorite places in Austria. Have a look at the pictures! We enjoyed dinner at (my favorite) Asian restaurant Toka Lee in Grinzing. After dinner we split up - some went home; my three American guests and I went to Prater (see also prater.at and Wikipedia) to see the famous Giant Ferris Wheel (see also Wikipedia).

Our plans for today were quite busy: After their visit of the Schönbrunn Palace we met at Naschmarkt to have a Kebap for lunch. At 1pm we had a guided tour in the Vienna State Opera. Before we had the next guided tour at the Parlament, we walked to see Heldenplatz (Hero's Square), Hofburg (Imperial Palace), Ballhausplatz, Bundeskanzleramt (Chancellor's Office), Minoritenkirche, Burgtheater (Imperial Court Theater), University of Vienna and Rathaus (Town Hall). Straight after the Parlament we walked Kohlmarkt and Graben to St. Stephans Cathedral. After a short break at Starbucks in Kärtnerstraße, we took the tram to Belvedere Palace, which was our last thing to do before we had dinner at Reinthalers Beisl. It was a busy, but nice day!

Concordiaball:
Last Friday, June 6th, Christina and I visited the 111th Concordiaball. We attended the opening ceremony. The ball is arranged by the Viennese journalist's club Concordia, the world oldest journalist's club. The ball took place in the very awesome premises of the Viennese Town Hall. It was moderated by Barbara Rett (Wikipedia, German available only). The opening ceremony was choreographed by Prof. Klaus Mühlsiegl, who is well known as the choreographer of the Viennese Opera Ball opening ceremonies. We enjoyed another great ball night until the end at 5am. View our pictures!

Last Day in Berlin:
We spent the last day of our Berlin trip in Potsdam at the Palace Sanssouci, where we had a lot of guided tours. We've seen the kitchen, the wine cellar, the main castle and the orangery.

The orangery probably was the most impressive one (as you can see on the picture - Elli is fascinated).

After all the guided tours we walked around in the lovely gardens. At about four o'clock we went back to Berlin, where Christina and Elisabeth were shopping at Kurfürstendamm and Peter and I went to see the Berlin Victory Column and had dinner. For departure we met at 7.45pm in the hostel and went together to the train station Berlin Zoologischer Garten. We left Berlin at 8.56pm with the train EN 429 Spree-Donau-Kurier.  

Third Day in Berlin:
Our third day started at 09.30am. We went to visit the so awesome Imperial Castle Charlottenburg. After an interesting audio guided tour we walked through the lovely gardens.

On our next way to the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, Department Store of The West), we took a picture of an Ampelmännchen (little traffic light man), which is rather famous! It became the symbol for the Ostalgie.

Unfortunately, the KaDeWe was closed because of the public holiday Pfingstmontag. Thus, we only took a picutre from the building and took the subway to Sony Center, where we enjoyed lunch and ice cream. Luckily, there was a hotspot! I was so glad to have access to the world wide web!

After this quite extensive break (because of the hotspot), we visited the DDR Museum which is next to the cathedral. It is a nice and amusing museum. After spending about one and a half hour there, we walked along the Spree, Monbijoustraße and Oranienburger Straße to the Hackeschen Höfe (Wikipedia, German available only; official site). After visiting the courtyards we had coffee and, luckily, again - internet access!

Now it was time to go home and prepare for the evening. Again, we went to the Sony Center and had dinner together. Afterwards we enjoyed a cocktail in a nice bar. We took some awesome pictures from the building at night, and caught the last subway to our hostel. Elisabeth, Peter and I were going to have beer and wine in the pub where Peter and I were yesterday. It was supposed to be a long night!