Germany

Deutschland

Facts about Germany

• Capital: Berlin
• Language: German (Deutsch)
• Currency: Euro (€) (EUR)
• I attended Oktoberfest with my son in 2012
• The Autobahn lives here and most of it has no speed limit
• Education in Germany is free for everyone

GERMANY SUMMARY – 2011

My first visit to Germany was an exchange trip through school. After returning to tech college to enhance my skills, the Administrative Professional program I was taking had an exchange program with the Wihelm-Merton-Schule in Frankfurt. In the spring, the students from Appleton, Wisconsin, made the trip to Frankfurt; and in October, the students from Frankfurt made the trip to Appleton. The trip was lacking participants so I was able to bring my mom along, who had never been out of the country.

This was my first trip to Europe and I was so excited to be going. We arrived in Frankfurt on March 20, 2011. My mom actually arrived the day before, I missed the flight and she flew on to Germany with my class.

The school arranged accommodations and my mom and I stayed with an instructor, from the school and his family; Rolf and Ann and their two daughters, Darta and Ina.

Did a lot of sightseeing between classes. Visited Frankfurt, Hessen Park, Heidelberg, Hochst, Bad Homburg, Darmstadt, Rüdesheim, Bonn, and Offenbach during this 2-week adventure.

GERMANY SUMMARY – 2012

The purpose of my second visit to Germany was to meet up with my son, Jesse, who had just finished walking the Camino. He flew in from Spain to meet me for Oktoberfest.

I rode from Amsterdam with Yoran and Caesar; Yoran was a friend of Jesse’s that stayed with us for a month and Caesar was his buddy. 

We all rented a small apartment together and attended 2 days at Oktoberfest. It was pretty awesome!

GERMANY SUMMARY – 2020

My trip to Germany this year was to attend some conferences in Berlin. There were 3 events that I had planned on attending, however all were cancelled due to Covid-19.

I stayed at an Airbnb with Luis, a photographer. The weather was pretty cool and it rained most of the week that I was there. I wandered each day to different areas of Berlin, and took a trip to check out Potsdam.

Places visited in Berlin during this trip include:

• Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
• the Berliner Dom
• Alte National Gallery
• the Neues Museum
• the Pergamon Museum
• Berlin Radio Tower
• the Spy Museum
• Checkpoint Charlie
• Holocaust Museum
• the Berlin Wall Monument
• the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
• the Brandenburg Gate
• the Victory Column