Hello from Prague!
As I am sure your students have already told you, we have all fallen in love with the city and are ready to book a trip back here next year for more time. It is such a gorgeous city and despite the throngs of tourists, we are loving every second. Yesterday, the group got up at the wee hour of 6:00 am in Berlin to department for Prague (via Paris) by 10 am. A hassleless journey and we made it here around 4pm. Our hotel is smack dab in the center of the city, two minutes away from the Old Town Square. We can even hear the famous clock tower ring from our hotel rooms! After resting up a bit, we ventured out in the town square and students did a mini scavenger hunt to find 5 items located around the main square. At around 6pm, it began to pour and we all found ourselves in a portico resting out from the downpour looking straigt up at the astronomical clock tower and got to see the changing of time at every hour with a little dance from the wooden puppets attached to the clock and a trumpet call. After this, we took an elevator up to the top floor of this very tower and were afforded spectatular views of the city. The sheer number of red tiles, church spires, and gilded roofs was an amazing site.
We then embarked on a dinner of typical Czech food: goulash and dumplings and went to bed happy but tired!
Today we got up early to walk off some of the dinner and visit the huge Prague Castle complex on the other side of the town. With a local guide, we received a tour of St. Vitus cathederal where several of the Hapsburgs who used to rule the city are buried and several chapels dedicated to national saints can be found. This is the cathedral of the Czech Republic and we learned why. We next visited several rooms of the palace attached to the cathedral and ended our tour with a quick glimpse of the changing of the guard ceremony. Students had free time afterwards and several of us took up some suggestions given by the guide to wander around this more quick side of Prague. We visited the gorgeous Baroque extravaganza of the St. Nicholas church, got a bagel sandwich at Bohemian Bagel Cafe and then walked along the cozy and beautiful island of Kampa in search of a UNESCO World Heritage Site where a wooden statue of the historical figure of the infant Jesus of Nazareth is found. Apparently it has miraculous qualities (with a special story attached to it) and again we were stunned by the ornate Baroque interior. We next moved onto a museum dedicated to the life and words of Franz Kafka and wend our way back to the hotel for some free time. Our stomach was calling again at 7: 30pm and we were all well fed at the famous Cafe Louvre where the likes of Kafka and Einstein once dined (but at separate times of course).
Tomorrow we are back in the realm of the Cold War with a visit to the Museum of Communism in Prague in the am followed by a trip around Wenceslas Square where both the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989 took place. Students will then have free time and many will attend various musical events in town tomorrow. It is incidentally a national holiday tomorrow so we might all land up at a spontaneous culture event too. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
7/1/2012
Hello from cool weather Berlin,
Well the forecast for today's weather provided us welcome relief from the sun and humidity of the past several days. We awoke with a clear blue sky, however clouds headed in and some wind, providing a nice reprieve for the day. We started the morning, after our typical German breakfast of bread with different types of jam, yogurt, assorted fruit, and coffee (the hotel as a machine that makes either espressos, cappuccinos, or mochas...our students are loving these), with a talk about the start of the Cold War from Dr. Arthur Kian, Abbey Road´s director who stayed with the program for the past 24 hours. He spoke about the effects of the Yalta Conference and the development of the two superpowers after WWII. He also gave insight into life in the USSR as he grew up in Soviet Russia and told students about his schooling and daily life hardships under a totalitarian regime. Afterwards, we walked about 12 minutes up the street to Bernauer Strasse, where the official Berlin Wall Memorial is found. Our group met Angelika, a local guide, and we toured the memorial complex, replete with a reconstruction of the two walls, the so-called death strip, a memorial church, and a tower overlooking the structure. We then ended by watching a short documentary about the wall, its construction and how it was torn down.
Next, we headed down the famous Unter den Linden Boulevard and had lunch right next to the Berlin Dom at a Thai restaurant and students had free time to explore the area. Many went to the local Sunday market right behind Museum Island and several went back to the German History Museum to see a free exhibit about the DDR. We then met Dr. Kian again and visited the sensory over-loaded DDR Museum, where students could see, touch, and experience life in East Berlin during the Cold War. From crawling in a trabant, sitting in a replica 1970s kitchen, to looking at typical food and all sorts of various artifacts from the time períod, students learned that life in the DDR came with serious sacrifices. Students had the task of being photojournalists, finding and taking a picture of 3 artifacts from the museum that they felt were really shocking or stood out to them as something that fully encapsulated communist East Germany.
Departing from the Cold War, we moved onto the trendy Hackersche Hof area where students had dinner on their own and then met up either to watch the final Euro Cup Soccer Match or see the whimsical and quirky Moonrise Kingdom.
Tomorrow, students can sleep in and we will spend our last day in Berlin seeing some of the big highlights: the Pergamon Museum (with the famous Ishtar Gate), Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. Students will have free time in the afternoon do so some last minute shopping, pack, and rest up for their departure for Prague the next day. We have an early morning flight and will need to stop over in Paris before heading to Prague. Stay tuned for more information on the last day of Berlin!
Well the forecast for today's weather provided us welcome relief from the sun and humidity of the past several days. We awoke with a clear blue sky, however clouds headed in and some wind, providing a nice reprieve for the day. We started the morning, after our typical German breakfast of bread with different types of jam, yogurt, assorted fruit, and coffee (the hotel as a machine that makes either espressos, cappuccinos, or mochas...our students are loving these), with a talk about the start of the Cold War from Dr. Arthur Kian, Abbey Road´s director who stayed with the program for the past 24 hours. He spoke about the effects of the Yalta Conference and the development of the two superpowers after WWII. He also gave insight into life in the USSR as he grew up in Soviet Russia and told students about his schooling and daily life hardships under a totalitarian regime. Afterwards, we walked about 12 minutes up the street to Bernauer Strasse, where the official Berlin Wall Memorial is found. Our group met Angelika, a local guide, and we toured the memorial complex, replete with a reconstruction of the two walls, the so-called death strip, a memorial church, and a tower overlooking the structure. We then ended by watching a short documentary about the wall, its construction and how it was torn down.
Next, we headed down the famous Unter den Linden Boulevard and had lunch right next to the Berlin Dom at a Thai restaurant and students had free time to explore the area. Many went to the local Sunday market right behind Museum Island and several went back to the German History Museum to see a free exhibit about the DDR. We then met Dr. Kian again and visited the sensory over-loaded DDR Museum, where students could see, touch, and experience life in East Berlin during the Cold War. From crawling in a trabant, sitting in a replica 1970s kitchen, to looking at typical food and all sorts of various artifacts from the time períod, students learned that life in the DDR came with serious sacrifices. Students had the task of being photojournalists, finding and taking a picture of 3 artifacts from the museum that they felt were really shocking or stood out to them as something that fully encapsulated communist East Germany.
Departing from the Cold War, we moved onto the trendy Hackersche Hof area where students had dinner on their own and then met up either to watch the final Euro Cup Soccer Match or see the whimsical and quirky Moonrise Kingdom.
Tomorrow, students can sleep in and we will spend our last day in Berlin seeing some of the big highlights: the Pergamon Museum (with the famous Ishtar Gate), Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. Students will have free time in the afternoon do so some last minute shopping, pack, and rest up for their departure for Prague the next day. We have an early morning flight and will need to stop over in Paris before heading to Prague. Stay tuned for more information on the last day of Berlin!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Three Full Days in Berlin
Dear Abbey Road Parents,
It is now 6\30 and we have spent nearly three full days in Berlin, not counting the first day of arrival here. The students have gone deep in the trenches so to speak on the Third Reich and the Holocaust, while taking in other sites of the city and tasting Berlin´s eclectic cuisines, from traditional German currywurst and pomme frittes to delicious Japanese bento boxes. Day 1 we visited the German History Museum, whirling us through nearly 2000 years of German history, all on two vast floors of the museum, one of which was dedicated solely to WWII to present. Students loved finding Napoleon´s famous hat to looking at WWI propaganda from the German perspective.
Next we took a two hour bike ride around the city, zooming past portions of the famous East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall as well as looking at more working class neighborhoods, such as Kreuzberg, where a huge immigrant population inhabits. Next, we toko a guided tour of the Topography of Terror information center, a place right above the old headquarters of the SS, Gestapo, and the SA. Our fabulous guide told us everything from how Hitler gained power after his election, the development of the SS, and the idea and systematic development of the first concentration camps. On our second day, we continued our journey through this very dark and tragic moment in German history, visiting the New Synagogue, where the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 took place, following this up with visits to the German Jewish History Museum, and then we quickly walked by Check Point Charlie, which was right next to the museum. In the evening, we all met as a group and started our journals of the past two days and students got to share out their experiences in small groups.
Today, we had a free morning and students either went to the Holocaust Memorial in the city, right next to Potsdamer Platz or took a jaunt through Tiergarten to the Saturday Antique Market. Some groups went to the Ritter Chocolate Store and made their own chocolate bars and had a delicious chocolately snack. After lunch, we took a 45 drive out of the city to Sachsenhausen, where we had a 2 hour walk around the first major concentration camp developed by the Nazi regime, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. While a hot day, students were able to get a glimpse of what happened at this camp and the daily life of prisoners of war held here. After dinner we were pleasantly surprised that the director of Abbey Road payed us a visit, Dr. Arthur Kian, and we are happy to have him with us tomorrow, when we venture out of WWII to the Cold War. Tomorrow we will spend our time in former East Berlin and learn all about life behind the wall. Stay tuned for more updates soon. Really enjoying spending time with your students!
It is now 6\30 and we have spent nearly three full days in Berlin, not counting the first day of arrival here. The students have gone deep in the trenches so to speak on the Third Reich and the Holocaust, while taking in other sites of the city and tasting Berlin´s eclectic cuisines, from traditional German currywurst and pomme frittes to delicious Japanese bento boxes. Day 1 we visited the German History Museum, whirling us through nearly 2000 years of German history, all on two vast floors of the museum, one of which was dedicated solely to WWII to present. Students loved finding Napoleon´s famous hat to looking at WWI propaganda from the German perspective.
Next we took a two hour bike ride around the city, zooming past portions of the famous East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall as well as looking at more working class neighborhoods, such as Kreuzberg, where a huge immigrant population inhabits. Next, we toko a guided tour of the Topography of Terror information center, a place right above the old headquarters of the SS, Gestapo, and the SA. Our fabulous guide told us everything from how Hitler gained power after his election, the development of the SS, and the idea and systematic development of the first concentration camps. On our second day, we continued our journey through this very dark and tragic moment in German history, visiting the New Synagogue, where the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 took place, following this up with visits to the German Jewish History Museum, and then we quickly walked by Check Point Charlie, which was right next to the museum. In the evening, we all met as a group and started our journals of the past two days and students got to share out their experiences in small groups.
Today, we had a free morning and students either went to the Holocaust Memorial in the city, right next to Potsdamer Platz or took a jaunt through Tiergarten to the Saturday Antique Market. Some groups went to the Ritter Chocolate Store and made their own chocolate bars and had a delicious chocolately snack. After lunch, we took a 45 drive out of the city to Sachsenhausen, where we had a 2 hour walk around the first major concentration camp developed by the Nazi regime, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. While a hot day, students were able to get a glimpse of what happened at this camp and the daily life of prisoners of war held here. After dinner we were pleasantly surprised that the director of Abbey Road payed us a visit, Dr. Arthur Kian, and we are happy to have him with us tomorrow, when we venture out of WWII to the Cold War. Tomorrow we will spend our time in former East Berlin and learn all about life behind the wall. Stay tuned for more updates soon. Really enjoying spending time with your students!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Let the Countdown Begin!
Welcome to the Official Abbey Road Modern Civilization 2012 Program Blog!
Stay tuned for all the exciting news and photos from Berlin, Prague and Vienna this summer! More to come!
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