Crawley Family Vacation / Tschüss Deutschland

A few weeks ago my family arrived in Berlin. I had the opportunity to show them around my home for the past 5 months and introduce them to my coworkers. After my last day at MODOMOTO and moving out of my apartment, we set off on our tour of Germany. Instead of my normal way of traveling by planes, trains, and buses, we chose to ride in style. My dad of course wanted to rent an Audi and drive at high speeds on the Autobahn.

After leaving Berlin, we visited Wittenberg where Martin Luther lived and nailed the 95 Theses. Then, we traveled to the former capital of Saxony Dresden and took a tour of VW’s Transparent Factory. Next, we visited Nürnberg for an overview of Nazi history and to have lunch with my friend Alex Göldner and her mom. Then, we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a beautifully well-preserved medieval town. The city’s gates and wall were so well in tact that you could walk around the perimeter of the city on them. Afterwards, we drove down the Romantic Road to Füssen for the stunning Schloss Neuschwanstein. Our trip concluded in Munich. Here, we toured Dachau Concentration Camp, which American forces liberated at the end of WWII. We also visited Allianz Arena where the Bayern München soccer club plays and ate at the Hofbräuhaus with a couple of my friends from Elon. The next day we flew back to Cleveland.

So that’s a wrap! I’m back and grateful for all of the wonderful memories I made during my year in Germany. But, I am also grateful for the challenges, too. It taught me about independence and perseverance and gave me a greater appreciation for the German culture. In addition to the many German cities I visited, I had the opportunity to travel to 10 other European countries. Although I won’t be finishing the dual-degree program at ESB Reutlingen next year, I am looking forward to returning to Elon in the fall to complete my bachelors. Though this adventure has come to an end, I know that I still have many more to come. Thank you all for sharing this year with me.

Unfortunately, I have exceeded my storage limit for uploading photos on this blog so I couldn’t upload all of the pictures from our trip. I will post the pictures on Facebook instead. (Just my luck on my last post!)

My family arrived safely to the Berlin Tegel airport!

These stones commemorate where the Berlin Wall stood and trace the former border between east and west Berlin.

This map shows the four occupied zone of Berlin until reunification.

Spencer under a piece of the wall at the Checkpoint Charlie memorial.

One of the former watchtowers for the wall.

Spencer, Mom, and I at the Holocaust Memorial.

These kids were crazy jumping from block to block which were at least 20 feet high.

My family in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Still jet lagged, Spencer and Dad took a snooze on my bed while I finished packing.

Mom and Spencer at Alexanderplatz

in front of the Berliner Dom

Spencer trying to escape over the wall! Oh no!

I felt like this memorial was a great way to describe my year with a blend of German and American.

Mauerpark

driving on the Autobahn at 200 kmh which is about 125 mph

the door where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses

Dresden

Frauenkirche

Zwinger

King Richard

We took a tour of the VW Phaeton plant in Dresden. Here they assemble the luxury car by hand and only produce about 8 cars per day. The basic Phaeton starts at 75 000 EUR.