One week before the trip!

Well, eight days. We're leaving next Sunday. We'll drive to Battleground WA to stay with friends, then catch a flight from Seattle to Berlin on Monday. It leaves Seattle at 1:15 pm and we will arrive in Berlin at 10:50 am on Tuesday the 21st. There's an hour and 25 minutes provided for us to change planes in Amsterdam, which should be interesting.

Our flights are on Northwest, and they're having a labor dispute. I was really nervous about a strike. It's not settled yet, but it appears as though they won't strike before our trip is over.

In Berlin we're staying at a place called Apartment Guesthouse Berlin. Its quality is somewhere between a hostel and a cheap hotel. It's located in Prenzlauer Berg, a neighborhood which is supposed to be up-and-coming. The subway station is close, and that's the main thing.

One of the main sights we plan to see in Berlin is the Pergamon Museum. There they have the Pergamon Altar, which was brought to Berlin in the early 20th century from Pergamon (in Turkey). The altar is supposed to have come from the temple of Athena in Pergamon. We toured the site of the ancient acropolis in Pergamon in 2002, and here you can see my picture from the temple of Athena.

After five nights in Berlin we leave on Sunday for Dresden. We're taking the train - it's only a couple of hours, I think.

In Dresden we're staying at the Art Hotel, right in the city center. It promises to be an interesting visual experience. Here's a photo from their website. I think it's a staircase.

We plan to tour the Meissen porcelain factory, several museums and palaces, and attend a ballet at the Semper Opera House.

On Wednesday the 29th we'll take the train from Dresden to Prague, where we're staying at another guest house, Lida. It came pretty highly recommended, as did a private guide we have hired to take us on a half day photography tour on Thursday, followed by an all day excursion to Cesky Krumlov on Saturday. We are hoping to get tickets to the opera house in Dresden where Mozart premiered one of his most famous operas.

We leave Prague on Monday the 3rd, taking a train back to Berlin where we'll spend our final night before flying back to Seattle on Tuesday.

Today I am putting together our trip book, with all the maps, confirmations, tickets, addresses, etc. that we will need. I'm going to pack a flash card reader so that I can download pictures taken during our trip and post them here.