Germany Part I (Altenburg)

So we were in Altenburg Germany from July 23 - 28 for the wedding of Christian's friend Katrin who he met while on an exchange in Stockholm a few years back. We stayed at her parent's house on the top floor and they fed us all kinds of fresh delicious meals. I thought that I would split the trip into three blog entries since we took a ridiculous number of photos, and one entry would simply be too long. I think I'll tell the story with the pictures. As always more photos on flickr.

We took an Easy Jet flight to Berlin since we didn't realize that Ryanair flights land in Altenburg. Notice the little windmills - Germany is jam packed with them. Then a high-speed train to Altenburg.

When we arrived, we walked into a big back-yard party at Katrin's parent's place. There was a big crowd, wedding games, unlimited drinks, unlimited bratwurst (I was particularly excited) and even a few English speakers. This game was probably a lot funnier facing the front of the sheet, but you get the idea.

I'm told that much of Altenburg was spared from war-time bombing, and so there are a number of great old buildings left in-tact. This is the central square - a big wide-open space full of shops and cafes.

This is also in the main square.

Everyone has gigantic window-boxes bursting with pretty flowers.

I have never seen so many cobblestones.

This is the entrance to a tall bell-tower that we climbed. The sounds inside were amazing, we scaled these almost impossibly steep creaky old wooden stairs and the bell started to toll while we were inside. We could feel the reverberations through the stairs and hand rails. I had to cover my ears at one point because it became almost painful.

Here's one of the views of the town from the top. It was sort of a use-at-your-own-risk scenario. It would be easy to topple over the railing or fall down the steep steep steps. The place wasn't plastered with warning signs like you'd see in Canada, but I liked that.

This roof-top greenhouse would fulfill my ultimate fantasy if I lived there. Think I'll find one in Toronto?

We also went to a little zoo that was on an island in the middle of a small lake near Katrin's parent's house.

These guys seemed a little pooched from too much sun.

Christian was a wiz with the camera.

We saw lots of amusing and beautiful animals, but zoo's tend to leave me feeling pretty sad. Christian captured the feeling beautifully in this shot. It's just a little dirt on the window, but it looks like this guy is crying.

After the zoo we went on a good-old-fashioned romantic row around the island zoo. Perfectly romantic if you don't pay attention to the wacky animal sounds emanating from the zoo. The goats made Christian crack up.

In the name of gender equality, I did some of the rowing too. Look at my big guns.

We finished off with some beer and good food at a restaurant by the lake. Christian even found some dark stuff.

I'll finish with a view of the pretty German countryside. Katrin's sister Julia and her boyfriend Lars drove us around a little. P.S. German radio is awesome.