I had a wonderful time visiting Uta's parent's home in Dortmund. At top are Uta's two sons, Levi (the older) and Jonah. At bottom, we have dinner on the patio. At left is Uta's father and at right is Uta's husband, Wilhelm.
Several photos of the German Mining Museum in Dortmund. You can actually go down in a coal mine although we arrived too late to do so. You can see that the building surrounds a headframe, a familiar sight to my Butte friends although this one is a little different that those in Butte. Uta Roepke, one of my friends and colleagues at Luneburg, invited me to spend the weekend with her family in Dortmund and this is one of the interesting things we did. The views from the top of the headframe were beautiful.
I thought I would add a few more photos of Lubeck, a beautiful city. It has many narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings. This situation allowed it to be burned and destroyed pretty thoroughly during WW II bombing attacks. Today, however, the city has been rebuilt sometimes using facades of old buildings, sometime rebuilding to look like the original, and a few buildings escaped destruction. One of the interesting aspects of the city is that there are often inner courtyard areas beyond the buildings facing the streets. At top, we walk through one of those areas. Next is a scene of another one and then the interior of a medieval church, most of which was designed as a hospital. Then another one of those inner courtyard areas and at bottom, a street scene.
Germany was doing well in the World Cup when I arrived and I believe this was the game where they defeated Argentina. Streets were packed with viewers watching on big screens and Soeren and I were in the bier garten of the News pub. At top, the fans celebrate a goal. Next, Soeren and I enduring in the heat and happiness. Next two are the crowds of anxious spectators.
I returned to Luneburg for my third time this summer to teach the history of the cold war in the USAC program. Our first trip with the students was to the old hanseatic city of Lubeck and the nearby beach at Travemunde. At top is the scene at Travemunde and next is me in my very un-beach attire (it was very hot). Then there are the students before the old medieval gate of the city and at bottom is an interesting medieval plaque that marks the importance of the link between Luneburg and Lubeck. Lubeck was the capital city of the Hanseatic League but Luneburg was the sources of the white gold of the middle ages, salt. This plaque is on a row of old salt warehouses where Luneburg salt was stored until it was shipped out to points along the Baltic and throughout Europe.
