Berlin, Prague, Rothenburg, Luxembourg, London and Liverpool

Berlin was very cool. My favorite was the Pergamon Museum. German archeologists found these glazed brick pieces in the 1920s I think - the site of the ancient city of Babylon. They put the brick pieces back together and reconstructed part of the wall and the main gate to the city. This was originally built by Nebakanezer who sacked Babylon in 597 BC (the destruction Lehi avoided) and carried many of the Jews captive into Babylon. So . . . Wow! And here is the gate that the ancient Jews may have entered the city of Babylon through. Those German archeology guys . . . .

























The other part of Berlin was cool to see was the remnants of the way it was before the wall came tumbling down. Did it tumble? Not sure. Anyway . . . . there's liz at the old Checkpoint Charlie - where you left West Berlin to enter the Russian controlled East. They have left the sign there for tourists like us. So we are standing on the west side looking across the line to what used to be East Berlin. The next shot is of a remnant of the wall about a 5 minute walk down the street - very cool to see. Had to hang my camera from the top of a fence to get that shot . . . hehehe. Got it too!
























So - Berlin for one night and then on to Prague. I have wanted to visit this city for a while now and was looking forward to it. About 3.5 hours from Berlin. Driving into the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) was a change. Germany is modern and well maintained - Czech Rep is not. Drove through a little farming village on the way there on a mountain slope that reminded me of the Roger Moore Bond movie set in Greece where he is being chased down a mountain road in a dinky little car with some beautiful Greek girl (not the Big Fat Greek Wedding girl) by a bunch of bad guys. But Prague is very picturesque - some of the most beautiful architecture in Europe. Someone told us It was left untouched by the Germans because Hitler thought it was so beautiful. And who would argue with that? The city center is especially cool. Lots and lots of people from all over. There is also a big monument in the central square to Jan Hus - one of the earliest reformers who lived here in the 1400s. The cool clock is on a Cathedral off of the square and is 700 years old!! Rainy off and on and really cold.















































So - one night in Prague and on to Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. We had shot part of the film here the previous week (On Liz's second day here) but we wanted to go back . . . it was just too cool. So we had time to see a lot more of the town, walked most of the 15th century wall that still surrounds the city and looked through the cool shops. Took a lot more photos too. Could spend a week here easy.












































We took a day to drive out of Germany and head for the English Channel at the coast of Belgium. We had heard that Luxembourg was another must see so stayed here for a night. But it was cold and rainy and we needed to get moving sooner than anticipated the next morning so didn't see much at all.







Saturday was a crazy one. Drove from Luxembourg to Brussels, negotiated our way into the Brussels Midi train station rental car return area. Unloaded and wrestled our bags through the place to the high speed train boarding area. Purchased our tickets - got our passports stamped by the friendly English customs/immigration guy and rode the high speed (190 mph on the GPS) train under the English channel (31 mile long tunnel) to LONDON TOWN!!! Very exciting. I took a lot of cool video on the ride with the 5D MKII - pretty cool. 1st class seats on the train were only 50 euro more so we splurged :) Worth it . . . . I think. Very cool way to travel - these high speed trains.













So we have decided that we really like London. This is a very beautiful cool city. We could not believe all of the people. It was crazy getting to our hotel from the train station. I had planned to just get a car and drive but ended up taking a taxi - an adventure for sure!!! Fun fun fun. And everyone speaks English here - and with this cool accent!

So the first two shots below are the Tower Bridge taken from the Tower of London Castle. Then Westminster Abbey below that and Big Ben of course was first.





We went to Church in London - Hyde Park Ward at 9:00 AM. Fortunately, our Hotel was just across Hyde Park from the building - 7 Lb cool London taxi ride to/from the Church building. Typical entertaining Fast and Testimony meeting.

















So I have looked forward to getting to Liverpool some day and so we decided to give it a try Monday. Found a Europcar place in the middle of the city, near Westminster so packed everything up and got a taxi to take us. Wow! What a challenge figuring out how to drive a standard transmission car from the right side (left hand shifting) through busy London backward streets. London is laid out like Boston - no ryme or reason. Old wagon trails I think. We made it through alive - thanks to GPS and Liz's left seat passenger driver warnings; a consistent barrage of "Look out!! or Stay on the LEFT!! or Crosswalk! Pedestrains - look out!!" And many more I can't mention here. So a rainy new adventure drive to Leverpool.

The Albert Dock was just too cool. This is where our McBride and some Ellsworth ancestors departed their homeland in 1856. We ate dinner at a restaurant table that gave us the view of the photo below - nearly identical perspective to my backdrop painting for the 1856 Musical. Took a pile of fun artsie shots around the dock while Liz froze her face off. The second shot is a monument there donated by the Church. Next two are fun English countryside scenes driving back to our next shooting area Tuesday afternoon.


































We are now in Chippenham, UK - about 2 hours drive West of London. We will be shooting in a few locations out here for the next few days then will relocate to another area to the East of London later on.

More later!!!!