Berlin

There is SO much to see in Berlin that it's overwhelming. I love this city. You could be here a month and not see everything. The people are great, and it's easy to get around; I've taken the U-Bahn and S-Bahn and have seen countless interesting sites. I think I've taken around 450 pictures. Must sort through all those when I get home...

At the Deutsches Historisches Museum, we were in the 20th century section and this wonderful German man came up to us and started talking all about the years of the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the DDR (in English). We spoke to him for about half an hour and he promised to send me some photocopies of original German newspapers that his parents saved from the '30s and '40s, if I'd send him a book from the United States about the development of the American Constitution!

(As an aside -- we've noticed that it must be the German thing not to look at the camera.)

Just around the corner from that museum, there is a very striking memorial. In the square where the Nazis staged their first book-burning in 1933, there's a little glass panel in the ground. If you look down into it, you see a white room with shelves: an empty library.

I was happy to see that just across the street, in the yard of Humboldt University, there was a book sale going on that same day.

Neuhof and Seligenstadt

On our second day in Neu Isenberg, we had a wonderful lunch at Neuhof with Willi and Maria Hoffman, Poppy and Nonna's friends. Maria couldn't speak English, and we of course can't speak German, so we had Willi translate everything. It was a lot of fun talking with them and they were so nice!

After lunch, they drove us into Bavaria, where they live. We went to a town called Seligenstadt, which has a monastery and church that date back to the time of Charlemagne -- founded in the A.D. 800s. The oldest surviving building in the town, which we took a photo of, was built in the 13th century. Pretty amazing.

Finally, we went to Willi and Maria's house, where Maria has a huge doll collection. I'm talking huge. The few pictures here don't do it justice. Willi even claimed he has to dust the dolls every day, ha! I don't know if he was serious or not.

Maria was extremely sweet and even played the piano for us right before we left.

We took so many pictures that I'm just embedding a Picasa album here:

Click on it to view the whole album.

Tschüss!

We're in Neu Isenberg...

Guten abend! We arrived safely in Neu Isenberg this morning, and Nonna and I were both happy to get to our beds with their eiderdown comforters. We're excited to be here!

Today we took a taxi over to the Zentrum Isenberg, the mall that Nonna used to go to when Poppy was on business trips here. We're about to go to bed now, and then tomorrow we're having lunch at Neuhof with Willy Hoffmann, Poppy's former colleague from duPont, and his wife.

Hope everyone's having a good time back in the US!

MM and PPBJ visit Boston

We had a great time visiting with Mom Mom and Pop Pop Big Jim in Boston! They took the train up last weekend to enjoy lobsters, New England weather (fortunately it was cooler than it's been in a while) and sightseeing. We even braved the waters of the Charles and went on a duck tour. It was a lot of fun.

The weather was beautiful.

At the very end of our tour, just after we went from being a duck back to being a truck, we passed this building. I think it's a federal building -- unfortunately can't remember. But there's a very poignant artifact in front of it:

It's a piece of the Berlin Wall. Much more on that soon...

Thanks, Mom Mom and Pop Pop, for an awesome weekend! Love you!

Charleston slideshow

Here is a slideshow from our great trip to Charleston. If you click on the slideshow itself, it'll take you to my Picasa web albums.

There are a bunch of critters in these pics...a dragonfly and a little green lizard perched on flowers, an enormous spider, and the eyes and nose of an underwater alligator!

Sassentoon?

Hello, and welcome to my little blog! I set this up so that I can post pictures of Germany and earlier summer escapades -- Massachusetts, South Carolina, Delaware, etc. Thanks for reading.

First, why Sassentoon, you might ask.

When I was about two or three, I decided it was time for a change, so I re-named myself Caroline Sassentoon. I also took it upon myself to change Stephanie's name to Soonie Sassentoonie. (Stephanie -- you're welcome.) Where these names came from, I haven't the faintest. Probably had something to do with my love of cartoons.

(Sassentoon days: Caroline and Soonie)

[Side note: this was five years before I changed the pronunciation of my first name from Carolyn to Caroline. That ended up being permanent, to the surprise of some. Hehe.]

Sassentoon only lasted about six months or so. Still, I took it pretty seriously at the time.

One time my great-grandfather, Poppop Romagnoli, took me for a walk up to Wilmington Christian School, where we stumbled upon a girls' basketball team practicing in the gym. (He loved that, of course.) We watched them for a while, and when they took a break, Poppop naturally started talking to them.

One of them asked me, "What's your name, little girl?" I said with a straight face, "Caroline Sassentoon." Poppop got quite a kick out of that.

Anyway, when setting up a blog you need a unique name. And, shockingly -- sassentoontravels was not taken.

Thanks again for reading -- pics soon!