Last day in Waverly

Right before we left Waverly, we got to visit Wartburg College. Wartburg is located in Waverly and it's where Melissa went to school. Here we are posing by the building called Old Main. The whole college was housed in this building when it was first in Waverly. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

We also visited one of Melissa's favorite places at Wartburg-the chapel. This building was new when Melissa started college at Wartburg. So beautiful! Melissa also found us some German to read (since we are from Germany)! On the side of the church it reads "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott". Which means "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" in English. Wartburg College is named after the Wartburg castle is Eisenach, Germany and is a Lutheran school. Waverly is a sister-city with Eisenach and the two cities do exchanges and make connections in different ways. The saying on the church is the name of a famous Lutheran hymn. We have enjoyed our stay in Waverly but we are also looking forward to our trip home!

At the kindergarten

We got to read some of the favorite books of Melissa's kindergarteners. They really enjoy the Pete the Cat series. There are fun songs as part of the books.

We also helped "do the dishes" in the playhouse kitchen in kindergarten. Even though it was a small kitchen it seemed big to us

We were excited to find special places to sit on the rug in Melissa's classroom. They have been working on learning their letters in kindergarten and we sat by the first letter in each of our names.

Helping at the kindergarten

We got to meet Melissa's kindergarten students. We helped them with counting during math time. They sure are busy in kindergarten!

We went with Melissa to her Bunco night. Bunco is a dice game where you are trying to roll a certain number each round. If you roll the right number you get to use the hole punch to make a punch in your paper. The person with the most punches at the end of the night wins a cash prize. There were lots of yummy treats and much laughter and talking among the ladies!

We arrived save in Waverly Iowa

It was very hot when we arrived at Melissa's (90 degrees F). Melissa teaches kindergarten and it was so hot that her school dismissed early. Most of the schools here in Waverly, Iowa don't have air-conditioning. Thankfully we were able to go home to Melissa's house which has AC. She also had a friendly bear that fanned us to keep us cool.

We have good company here at Melissa's house. She has her old dollhouse that she used as a child that her nieces enjoy playing with now. We found some friends just our size to enjoy a very large pie with!

 It's Labor Day weekend here in America which means picnics/barbecues, celebrating workers and the end of summer. Most people have tomorrow off from work and there's no school tomorrow either. We helped Melissa prepare a spinach salad for her to take to a neighborhood picnic/barbecue. The salad had croutons and a strawberry vinaigrette dressing! Yum!

We visit the World Cultural Heritage "Hercules monument"

 Today we visit the "Hercules" 

Here is a short information:

Hercules is a copper statue depicting the ancient Greek demigod Heracles. The statue is located at the top of a Pyramid, which stands on top of the Octagon. Today "Hercules" refers not only to the statue, but the whole monument, including the Octagon and Pyramid. The monument is the highest point in the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. On 23 June 2013 the Mountainpark and the Hercules were proclaimed as world heritage site during the UNESCO meeting in Phnom Penh.

 We start our day behind the Hercules

 We decided to climb up on the octagon and the pyramid!

Up to the top it takes 305 steps 

The views is stunning 

  And so our new home town looks from above...

 This is the view from the highest window!

 

  The Hercules is made of very soft stone so it often has to be redeveloped.

  On the way down the Cascades we found this trumpet playing Faun.

  Every Wednesday and Sunday water games take place on the cascades in the Bergpark.

 Here many goldfish lives...

 Here ist the Hercules and the cascade in its full glory

We are convinced! Kassel is a beautiful city...

We talked to the HNA

It's been a few days ago... We were interviewed by a journalist from the a newspaper HNA.
We reported about the article on our Facebook page. Now we want to write about the interview here on our blog.
The reason why the HNA reported about us was that we always looking for new hosts.
We lived no longer in Stendal. Our Frind Johannes moved to Kassel and so we went with him. That was also a reason for us to talk with the local press. Thank you Ms. Nickoll for the nice report about us... Here is the article

http://www.hna.de/kassel/kreis-kassel/fuldatal-ort83863/baunataler-schickt-playmobilfiguren-welt-berichtet-blog-davon-5338048.html 

Here Ms. Nickoll asked us a lot of questions about our journey. It was nice to talk with her. We hope to share with all of you her work...

A day in Berlin

After travelling to Finland and Russia we did some sightseeing in Berlin before going home again. 

The city is huge and the best way to go around is by bike.

Jani was driving us around and showing us the typical tourist sights. 

 We started at the famous Alexander Platz / Alex with the huge TV-Tower, it is 368m high and the highest building in Germany.

  As impressing as the TV-Tower is the Brandenburg Gate.

There were so many people doing photo stops us included. It is in between the very beautiful street "Unter den Linden" and "Straße des 17. Juni",

 both street are very nice and it was lovely doing a walk there. Jani also showed us her work place, the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt". It was build in the late fiftys as a congress hall and nowadays it is used as cultural centre with concerts, exhibitions, cinema etc.

From there you also have a great view to the workplace of Angela Merkel our chancellor.

 We also got a glimpse on the impressing Berliner Dom

and the Rotes Rathaus,

the workplace of the Mayor of Berlin. At the end of the day we drove to her most-liked place in Berlin the Rummelsburger Bucht and we saw a fantastic sunset.

 In summary we really liked the city and Jani promised us when we are back here she will show us more of her favourite city in the world.