While I have a lot that I could be doing currently, I have little motivation to focus on them. Instead, I decided  that I want to write a post about Edinburgh. 

View of Arthur's Seat from the park 

One of our highlights from Edinburgh was Arthur's Seat, which is situated in Holyrood Park. It's a popular park in Edinburgh and it has amazing views of Edinburgh. 

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey which are adjacent to the park 

Arthur's Seat, which is the highest point in the park at 251 meters (according to Google, that is about 820 feet), is the remnants of a dormant volcano.  According to the sites that I visited, and from what I learned in Edinburgh, this volcano formed the land around Edinburgh. Unfortunately, I didn't learn how the hill was named while in Edinburgh, but according to Wikipedia, the hill was named after a reference in the poem Y Gododdin. Y Gododdin, a medieval Welsh poem that remembers old Celtic heroes, references a fort that was on Arthur's Seat and references a soldier named Arthur. Some people believe that this refers to King Arthur, thus the name of the hill. 

Remnants of an old chapel in the park 

The park itself was absolutely amazing. Even though I grew up near the Cuyahoga National Park, which is beautiful, I still found this park to be unbelievable.  To begin with, you don't feel like you are still in Edinburgh when you are in the park. Edinburgh is not an overly crowded city to start with, but being in the park makes you forget that there are buildings nearby (at least until you turn around to admire the view). 

I loved the view though when I did turn around though. As you can imagine being above the city offers amazing views. 

View of Holyrood Palace and Calton Hill

The best views though were from the top of Arthur's Seat. I am happy that we chose to go all the way to the top, even if it was a tad difficult since I was not wearing hiking shoes or tennis shoes. 

Jon and I at the top of Arthur's Seat

View from the top of Arthur's Seat

As I said earlier, Arthur's Seat was one of the highlights of our trip and probably a major factor as to why we loved Edinburgh so much. Visiting Arthur's Seat was a wonderful way to spend our afternoon and really made me appreciate the beauty that Scotland offers. Even though we were only there for two days, this beauty captivated me and I cannot wait to travel back to Scotland to see the rest of the country. 

Kent is currently on Spring Break, so Jon and I decided to travel to Edinburgh with the days that we had off. Since we still had to observe and teach, we were only able to stay for a couple of days, but it was well worth it! 

View of Holyrood Palace from Arthur's Seat. 

Jon and I fell in love with Edinburgh. There are a variety of reasons as to why we love the city, but my number one reason is because the city is gorgeous. Edinburgh was never a top city to visit because I always thought of the Highlands when I thought of Scotland. While I am disappointed that I was unable to visit the Highlands, Edinburgh was a wonderful and beautiful city to visit that is filled with history, which I loved. 

Edinburgh Castle 

One of the things that helped make our trip wonderful was our hostel. We stayed at Castle Rock Hostel which is really well situated within Edinburgh; at least it was really well situated to visit everything that I wanted to see. In addition to an amazing location, our hostel room had a fantastic view (minus the yellow thing):

Obviously, many other things made our stay enjoyable, but I wanted to share the amazing view that we had! I hope to be able to share everything over the next week or so as long as I have the time. Hope all is well at home!

While we were in Prague, we visited St. Vitus, a church founded by Duke Wenceslaus, later St. Wencelaus, in the 10th century. Wencelaus was the grandson of the Bohemian saint and martyr Ludmila and continued his grandmother's work in converting the Slavic tribes within Bohemia. Although he was murdered in 935 by his brother and successor, the conversion of the Slavs did not stop. Once Bohemia was converted, later generations of Bohemian dukes and kings built larger churches on the site to accommodate larger congregations. 

In the 14th century, St. Vitus became the seat of the archbishop of Prague which prompted Charles IV of Bohemia to rebuild the church as a Gothic cathedral. The new cathedral was expected to be a coronation church, a royal crypt, a treasury building, and the resting place of St. Wencelaus; however, the cathedral was not completed until the 20th century. Over its history, it has fulfilled its expectations, but not quite as Charles IV envisioned.  

The chapel where the relics of St. Wencelaus rest.

The interior of the cathedral is not unlike other cathedrals; however, I felt as if though this cathedral is larger than other cathedrals I have visited.

While I loved the entire building, there were two aspects of the cathedral that took my breath away. The first was a structure that I assumed was the tomb of a Bohemian king. 

Built in the Baroque style, the structure is spectacular and I was awed by the grandeur of it. Until I saw it, the tomb of François I  was one of my favorite tombs, but  now it  has been displaced by the above structure (although, I still love the structures that the French kings built for themselves).  

The tomb of François I at St. Denis. 

As I mentioned, I assumed that the structure was the tomb of a Bohemian ruler. There was nothing to indicate who it was for, so that seemed to be a likely candidate. 

However, the tomb actually belongs to John of Nepomuk, a Bohemian saint and martyr. There are contrasting stories as to how he became a saint, but the most likely story, and the one recorded by contemporaries, is that he ran afoul of King Wencelaus IV, not to be confused with St. Wencelaus, over a political issue. In 1393, there was a need to appoint a new abbot for the abbey of Kladruby, an influential and rich abbey that Wencelaus wished to control as he fought with his nobles. Wencelaus had a candidate in mind for the position since secular rulers often appointed their own men to influential positions within the Church.  

However, John of Nepomuk, the vicar-general of the archbishop of Prague, confirmed as abbot a candidate that the abbey and the archbishop backed. This candidate was not amenable to Wencelaus and he ordered the torture and death of John of Nepomuk in response. Thus, on March 20, 1393, John of Nepomuk was thrown into the Vltava River after having been tortured. 

His death sparked a rebellion amongst Wencelaus's nobles, many of whom already opposed him. This rebellion led to his imprisonment at the hands of his nobles. Wencelaus was released upon a truce  and the remainder of his reign saw a build-up of religious tensions, which would result in the Hussite Wars.    

Unfortunately, I was unable to discover why John of Nepomuk has a tomb/shrine in the cathedral that was built in the Baroque era. However, the fact that he was a saint of Bohemia, and is still a saint of the Czech Republic, could explain why this shrine was erected within St. Vitus.

The other aspect of St. Vitus that made a lasting impression on me was the Golden Gate. 

The tower was completed during the Baroque period, but the mosaic, shown below, dates from the 14th century and represents the Last Judgement. 

To me, the mosaic is beautiful.  I feel it is a unique combination of Western art and Byzantine art which, if true, makes sense given the Czech Republic's location within Europe. 

St. Vitus was one of the highlights of Prague. It has a fascinating history that is shown by both its architectural styles and by what the cathedral contains. To me, the cathedral alone would have been worth the admission ticket to Prague Castle and I am thankful that I was able to see it. 

While there is still more to share from our trip to Prague, I have been busy this last week preparing lesson plans and finishing school work and haven't had time to write any more blogs. However, we visited Berlin over the weekend, so I figured that I would sidetrack to Berlin for now. 

Hauptbahnof is the German word for main station. 

As you know, Berlin in the capital of Germany. It is only about 2 hours away from Dresden; however, we took the slow train there so our travel time was extended to 3 1/2 hours. 

As seen by their main train station, Berlin is a modern city. Many of its buildings were rebuilt after World War II since the city was destroyed both by bombings and by the Battle of Berlin. In addition, new buildings were constructed following the reunification of Germany in 1990. While these new buildings create an air of modernity to Berlin, they are oftentimes found next to refurbished historical buildings, which creates a unique charm.

As Berlin's Hauptbahnof is close to many government buildings, we began our tour with those buildings. The above picture is where the Chancellor of Germany, currently Angela Merkel, works, while the below picture is a picture of the Bundestag. 

The Bundestag is the German Parliament that meets in a historical building called the Reichstag. The Reichstag was built during the German Imperial period for the use of  the German legislative body, which was also called the Reichstag at this time. In the 1930's , the building fell into disuse as Hitler began to accumulate power. 

Using a fire in the Reichstag as a pretext, Hitler used legislative loopholes to consolidate his power which ended the power of the Reichstag. This turned the Reichstag into a ceremonial body, who rarely met and when they did , they did not use the Reichstag due to damage from the fire. During the Cold War, the Reichstag remained unused and was eventually closed off by the Berlin Wall. Following German reunification, the building was finally refurbished, both from the 1933 fire and from damage the building received during the war. After the refurbishment was completed in 1999, the Reichstag once more became the home of the German legislative body.   

One block from the Bundestag is the Brandenburg Gate. This gate was originally a city gate built in the 18th century and was rebuilt later in the century to represent peace. At the time it was rebuilt, it was situated on the boulevard that led to the king's palace; however, that palace was demolished by the German Democratic Republic in 1950. 

The Gate itself was heavily damaged in the 1940's and during the Cold War it was inaccessible to both East Berliners and West Berliners. Following German reunification, it was reopened and eventually refurbished in 2002. Following its refurbishment, the area around the gate was turned into a pedestrian square, which is how it remains today. 

Close to the Brandenburg Gate is a memorial dedicated to the Holocaust. The memorial has an interesting design which was never disclosed. This has led to multiple interpretations of the memorial.  Dr. Gommlich has his own theory about the design which he said should make sense once we visit a concentration camp. Wikipedia says that many observers say that the memorial reminds them of a cemetery which is attributed to be the overall design of the memorial. I feel that maybe the designer's purpose was to make you reflect on the Holocaust to derive the meaning which would explain why he never disclosed the design to anyone.

From the Holocaust memorial, we continued on to see sections of the Berlin Wall. Different locations within the city house these remnants, the majority of which are located at Checkpoint Charlie. 

While Checkpoint Charlie was interesting to see, it was very touristy. It was more enjoyable to see remnants of the wall next to everyday buildings, as in the above picture, then to see portions of the wall in a tourist area. However, I suppose that is to be expected and if you enjoy the history of the Cold War era then you should visit Checkpoint Charlie if you are in Berlin. 

  

The stop after Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Cathedral, proved to be my favorite location.  While a church has been located on this site since the 15th century, the current church, built in the Neo-Renaissance style, was inaugurated in 1905 by Kaiser Wilhelm. 

Even though the church is Protestant, in spite of being called a cathedral, it is a beautifully decorated church.  This church was recognized as the Supreme Parish Church and as such was the burial site for the Hohenzollern dynasty, the kings of Prussia and later the emperors of Germany. 

The admission ticket to the cathedral included access to the dome where there are spectacular views of historical Berlin, in spite of ongoing construction. From the dome, you can see a multitude of museums, the River Spree, the construction of the City Palace, and churches, among other buildings. 

The touring of the cathedral was our last major stop for the day and, as I mentioned, my favorite part. I found Berlin to be a wonderful city to visit which surprised me since I have never had any desire to visit. I would like to revisit the city because I know there was a lot that we didn't see and so I can visit Potsdam, the location of Prussian palaces, which borders Berlin to the southwest. Overall, Berlin is fascinating and from our brief tour, it seems as though it is a city that has something to offer to everyone.