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| The Dreiherrenstein Trail through Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. |
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| The Quernst Chapel just off of the trail. More information on the chapel can be found here. |
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| The park is home to part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage "Ancient German Beech Forest" |
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| These markers are not gravestones. Instead, they mark the boundaries of old estates and principalities. |
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| Looking north on the Rhine River from Boppard towards Koblenz. |
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| Looking south on the Rhine River from the deck of our riverboat, the Loreley Star. |
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| Rheinfels Fortress, built in 1245, is now a 5-star hotel and restaurant. |
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| Castle Maus, also called Thurnberg, which was built between 1353 and 1388. |
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| This building is called "Klosterschenke." The front, white part is a tavern, or "lokal". The rear, yellow part is a church. You can only get into the church by going through the tavern. Oh, the priest is also the bartender. He definitely serves his parishioners. |
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| Burg Sterrenberg (left) and Burg Liebenstein (right), also known as "The Hostile Brothers." Click here to read the legend of these two castles separated by a stone wall. |
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| A cloudy day on the middle Rhine River, also known as the "Romantic Rhine," a UNESCO heritage site. |
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| Burg Eltz was built in the 1100's and is still owned by the same family - 33 generations later. The Count still has an apartment in the castle that he occasionally stays in, although most of the time he lives with his family in Frankfurt. |
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| As we left the rain passed and the sun finally shone on the castle. It truly looks like a fairy tail castle. |
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| Hiking back to the car from the castle through the woods. |
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| The entrance gate to the Buchenwald concentration camp. The German saying "Jedem Das Seine" translates to "To each what he deserves." |
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| The gate around Buchenwald with the main guard tower in the distance. The prison housed approximately 250,000 people from 1938 - 1945, of which it is estimated that as many as 56,000 people died or were murdered. Buchenwald was not an "extermination" camp like Auschwitz; its purpose was mainly forced labor, although it was also used to conduct medical experiments on the prisoners. In addition to the Jewish people imprisoned here, the camp was also used for political prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies (Roma and Sinti), Freemasons, criminals, religious prisoners, "anti-socials", the handicapped, and prisoners of war. |
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| The footprints of the former inmates barracks with a reconstructed barracks behind and the muster grounds to the right. there were approximately 70 of these barracks in the camp with up to 1,500 people living in each one. |
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| The Jewish Memorial built in the footprint of one of the former prisoners' barracks (Block 22). The memorial was built with stones from the Buchenwald quarry. The inscription memorial is Psalm 78:6 written in English, Hebrew, and German which says, "So that the generation to come might know, the children, yet to be born, that they too might rise and declare to their children." Of the 75,000 Jewish men, women, and children imprisoned in Buchenwald, it is estimated that 12,000 died or were murdered. |
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| The crematorium just inside Buchenwald's gates, with a guard tower behind. |
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| The execution chamber inside Buchenwald, directly below the crematorium. Prisoners were shot or hung using the hooks on the wall. Their bodies were then put into an elevator and taken up to the crematorium where they were cremated. |
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| The ovens inside the crematorium. Prisoners who dies from sickness or the conditions, as well as those who were murdered by the guards, were cremated here. The ashes were then dumped in the moraines on the surrounding hillside. |
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| The Buchenwald Memorial, commemorating the liberation of the camp and the prisoners' struggle against their oppression. The memorial towers over the town of Weimar, only a few kilometers below. It seems to not only memorialize the terrible slaughter that happened in the camp, but also serve as a reminder to the people in the town below who turned their back on - or were complicit in - the horrendous acts happening right next to their homes. |
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| A stele, of which there are seven, telling the story of the oppression, slaughter, and eventual liberation of the camp. |
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| Memorial around one of the ash pits where the remains of the murdered were dumped. |
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| Prague's Dancing House, also called "Fred and Ginger" which was designed by architect Frank Gehry. |
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| Antonin Dvorak's grave in the Vysehrad cemetery. |
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| Bedrich Smetana's grave, also in the Vysehrad cemetery. |
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| The Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, also in the area of Vysehrad. This is the area of the earliest settlement in Prague. Construction on the Basilica began in 1029. |
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| The Vlatava River, also known as the Moldau, flowing through the center of Prague. |
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| Villa Bertramka, where Mozart is rummored to have stayed during his visits to Prague. This is also where he is said to have written "Don Giovani". |
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| The changing of the palace guard at Prague Castle. |
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| The Cathedral of st. Vitus, Wenceslaus, and Adalbert in the Prague Castle campus. |
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| The view of Prague from the castle walls. |
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| The Czech Senate building below the Prague Castle campus. |
