Riding the rails - Part 2

After our rainy day in Prague, we hopped the train for our next destination -- Chemnitz, Germany. During my college years (oh, so long ago), I spent most of my summers in Chemnitz working with LST campaigns. This was my first visit in five years and the first time Brian (and Sharkdog) visited Chemnitz. There's too much to share here, so I'll just hit the highlights.

We happened to visit on a weekend when several things were planned with the church. The church is always busy, so it's hard to visit on a weekend when something isn't happening. On Saturday we attended the 50th birthday party for Larry Sullivan, one of the missionaries who works with the church. On Sunday, there was a potluck after the worship service, so Brian and I had a chance to chat with some of the church members. On a side note, while we were waiting for lunch to begin, Brian asked me if I was worried there might be a lot of cabbage dished. I told him that I wasn't worried and sure enough, there wasn't a bit of cabbage. However, we weren't so lucky at dinner.

Happy birthday, Larry!

On Sunday night we decided to try a new Mexican food restaurant. I had mixed emotions on this one. The last time I had Mexican food in Chemnitz was at El Taco. I should have had my doubts based on the name, but I gave it a try. I was served something that tasted like a pancake with a bit of ground beef, lots of beans, corn and a stack of cabbage. I think I ordered a burrito. On Sunday, I figured the worse that could happen is I would get a good story about German-Mexican food. So we gave it a try -- and I was very impressed. I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food, but I would place this as my second favorite Mexican food restaurant. Take a look at our tasty food.

When you think of common foods included in a Mexican dish, cabbage probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But apparently, it's a requirement for Mexican food in Germany. The nachos were delicious once we removed the cabbage and the rest of the salad on top. I had burritos (there's cabbage here too!) and Brian had wings. I'm not sure that really counts as Mexican food.

We also got the chance to play Wii. The boxing was definitely the funniest to watch, but I didn't try playing it.

I love the way Seppel is pointing and laughing in the first photo. But he ended up looking pretty silly too.

And, of course, we took Brian and Sharkdog on a tour of the sites of Chemnitz, which consist of a huge head and some penguins.

That's one big head! Including the base, this monument of Karl Marx is approximately 25 feet tall. It was erected in 1971, during which time the city of Chemnitz was called Karl-Marx-Stadt. The city decided to keep the head as a reminder of the socialist period. The huge plaque behind the statue says, "Workers of the world, unite" in four languages.

The plaque on the ground says that if you walk in a straight line all the way to Antarctica, you'll run into the largest colony of penguins -- or something like that. I don't really remember, so I may be way off. In any event, we enjoyed taking Sharkdog's photo with the penguin colony in Chemnitz. There were several parents there trying to get photos of their kids with the penguins. Silly parents! They'll take pictures of anything!

Sharkdog, as always, was a big hit. Everyone loves Sharkdog.

Karen and Sharkdog - Karen, Sharkdog and Seppel - Dirk and Sharkdog