In 1980 I had seen the Passion Play in Oberammergau and wanted to see it again. The passion play is about the last days of Jesus and the town has performed the play every 10 years since 1635. The next performance would be in 2000, so in 1997 I booked tickets for my parents and me. Since I would have to travel to Germany to see the play, I began to think of other places I wanted to see in Germany. I decided to go to Berlin (a city no longer divided), Leipzig (home of my favorite composer, J.S. Bach), Friedrichshafen (where the Zeppelin-Museum is located), and Munich (home of the famous Hofbraeuhaus).

My first stop in Germany was Berlin. I had last been in Berlin in 1984 when the city was still divide and I was looking forward to see the city with out the The Wall. I arrived on September 3rd and for the second time in a row, I made my connection but my bags did not. I gave the airline the address of my hotel and they promised to deliver my bags the next day. (Due to my previous experience of having my luggage not make it, I had taken some clothes in my carry-on so it was not a really that bad.) After leaving the airline office, I bought a 3 day travel card and headed to my hotel using Berlin's excellent bus and subway systems.

After checking in the hotel, I took the U-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz. This area had been no-mans land during the Cold War and now is the center of Berlin. It has been complete redeveloped and is now home to the headquarters of many big name companies. I then headed back towards my hotel to have dinner and rest after a long day traveling. For dinner I had a typical Berliner meal of Currywurst and Berliner Weisse (A wheat beer severed with a shot of raspberry syrup).

The next day I took a Walking Tour of Berlin. The tour did not start on time as we were waiting for an additional person to show up. He showed up a few minutes late and was a bit different from the rest of the group as he was about 60 years old while the rest of the group were in their 20s or 30s. He looked familiar to me but I could not place him. At the end of the tour the guide told me that he was Walter Koenig aka Mr. Chekov on Star Trek.

The tour was very informative and showed many area of the city. It finished near Check Point Charlie and I continued to the nearby Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. After seeing the museum's exhibits, I headed to the KaDeWe department store to have lunch. The store is famous for its food halls and the meal was quite good. After lunch I headed back to the center of the city to see the Reichstag (German Parliament) and the Brandenburg Tor.

On Tuesday morning I took the ICE train to Leipzig. Leipzig was one of the largest cities in the former East Germany and has many reminders of its past. I began my tour of the city at St. Thomas Church where Johann Sebastian Bach spent many years as the music director. Nearby is the Bach Museum which house a large exhibit of his belongings and information on his life. After seeing the Museum, I headed to the city center where I saw the Rathaus (Old City Hall) and viewed the cities museum. I spent the rest of the day walking around the old part of the city seeing the Konigshaus Passage, the Apelshaus, and the Madler Passage.

The next day I went to the Musical Instrument Museum in the Grassi Museum complex. I then headed of to see the Stassi Museum (The Stassi were the East Germany Secret Police). The museum shows the amount of effort and level to which the East German government went to make sure there was no dissent in East Germany. It was quite disturbing to see. I spent the afternoon on a walking tour of the city with a group of workers from Deutsche Telekom.

On Thursday I began the long journey from Leipzig to Oberammergau involving three different trains. The trip took about 7 hours but I had finally arrived Oberammergau and soon found my hotel and my parents. The next day we saw the passion play and bought some woodcarvings (which Oberammergau is famous for). Saturday, we backed up my parent's rental car, and headed off to Friedrichshafen.

Friedrichshafen is on Lake Constance and is home to the Zeppelin Company and Zeppelin museum. As we were arriving in the city, the new Zeppelin NT airship passed over us on a training flight. The museum was very interesting and included a partial reconstruction of the passenger area of the Hindenberg. After seeing the museum and having lunch in Friedrichshafen, we headed off to the nearby town of Lindau where our hotel was located. Lindau is a strange place, half of the town is on the main land, and the rest is on an island. It has many tiny streets and reminded me of a German version of Venice.

Sunday, I left my parents and headed for Munich. My hotel was located near the Theresienwiese (Where the Oktoberfest would be held in a weeks time) and after checking in, I headed off to the BMW museum. I was surprised when I arrived to find out that I was there on the one day of the month that it is free. After seeing the museum, I headed off to the Marienplatz and found the Augustiner beer hall where I had a good dinner.

The next day, I took a walking tour of the city ending at the Hofbraeuhaus. The temptation was too strong and I stopped there for lunch. After Lunch I walked back to the Marienplatz and went up to the top of the Rathaus Tower. The weather was quite hot that day so I spent the afternoon back in the hotel. I spent all day Tuesday in one of my favorite places, the Deutsches Museum. This museum is dedicated to science and has exhibits covering everything imaginable. On Wednesday, I took the train to the airport and flew back to the US.

I took these photos with a Minolta Point & Shoot camera and used print film. The photos were digitalized using a Visioneer scanner and were cleaned up a bit with Adobe PhotoShop Elements. Additional Camera Information