You Go Nate!

How I Spent My Sommer Vacation - Part III (July 7th-11th):
MOMMY, WHAT'S A SCHLOSS??

A translation from some would have you believe that a "schloss" is a "castle." The picture above is of a schloss. Does that look like a castle to you? Others might call it a palace. But that doesn't quite fit either. So I propose that we just stick with the word "schloss"

I spent the next week (July 7-11) in Lüssow with Sybille & Wolfgang and Sybille's cousin Unna-Eike. Unfortunately Sybille got a bad cold right after her party, then I got it as well and so I spent quite a bit of time just relaxing and recouping.

When I was more mobile, however, it was actually quite nice to have Unna-Eike around because there were several times when Sybille would give me the keys to the car and say, "ok... you guys go do something fun."

So one day we went to the nearby town of Güstrow (the county seat). We visited an art museum with the works of a famous sculptor who worked in Güstrow. After that, we had a fine afternoon wandering the town of Güstrow and visiting its old churches and pleasant streets and squares.

We also visited the Güstrow Schloss....

Then Unna-Eike treated me to a banana split!

One day Sybille took us on a drive through the countryside.

We visited an old church.

Yippee!


And an old medieval tower in the midst of a corn field.

That night Sybille had tickets for the four of us (with Wolfgang) to see a concert in the nearby town of Sternberg.

The concert was of the Leipzig Boys' Choir from the church of St. Thomas (where the composer JS Bach worked for several years before his death.)

They sang several works by Bach among other things. They were excellent, and listening to such great singing in such an beautiful church with such great acoustics was a wonderful experience. It was Bach as he was meant to be enjoyed.

After the concert there was a beautiful sunset reflecting on the church and main square.

And so I ran around and snapped a few shots before heading back.

The next day Sybille dropped of Unna-Eike and me at the Güstrow Wildlife Center where we met up with Sybille's daughter-in-law Stefi and her son Elias (featured in the last post). This wildlife center was quite interesting. It is a sort of "zoo" except that all the animals (almost) there are native to this part of Germany. Also, there are no "cages" as in a typical zoo, but fenced off areas where the animals lived. The deer, however, roamed around the park freely.

The best exhibit was, of course, the brown bears.

We got there right after feeding time and got to see the two bear brothers fight each other in the water.

DEER!

They also had a Guinea Pig Village where the guinea pigs lived in little houses and ran around their village eating and making more guinea pigs. Of course, this might remind you of another guinea pig incident from 2006.

They also had the "Mouse House." This was a little room decorated like somebody's kitchen and inside lived a family of mice.

Here you can see them eating together at the table. It was such a clever way to exhibit mice!

There was also a goat area where one could enter and pet and feed goats. I had Unna-Eike take this photo and while she was working with the camera I started to feel a little nibble on the back of my head...

So it was a fun, relaxing week in Lüssow. I continued to eat fresh raspberries off the bush and cherries off the tree.

Here is Sybille and Wolfgang making home-made jam from the raspberries and currants from their garden. (Take a close look at Sybille's apron.)

Saturday morning I said goodbye to Sybille and Wolfgang drove me to the train station. Where was I headed to next??? You'll just have to wait a few days to find out!

Here is my Picasa album from Mecklenburg:

Mecklenburg in Summer

Next time: What do Otto von Bismark, Napoleon, Michael Jackson, and Matt Damon have to do with one another? Find out soon....

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