I am back in town and before I say anything else, I want to thank Suzanne and Emily for filling in for me while I was away.  I hope you enjoyed their posts, because I know I did!

I admit that I did have visions of sharing a wonderfully long trip report with you, but after a two-hour run yesterday that wiped me out, plus  staying in bed all day today with a sore throat, the enormous number of details to convey from a two-week study tour is overwhelming.  Especially since I only have a few days to catch up on my regular life before heading to Scotland for the four-day Easter weekend (yep, Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays here).

Anyway, the study tour was fantastic (as well as a little exhausting).  We visited an incredible amount of cities and experienced an amazing variety of places.  Everything from Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to a youth detention facility in Leonberg, from the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium to a work facility for disabled people in Rockenhausen.

I feel pretty at home in Northern Germany, but loved experiencing more of the central, southern and eastern parts of the country.  Overall, my favorite stop on the trip was Weimar.  I loved the contrast between the classical buildings protected under UNESCO (including some of Goethe’s homes) with the reminders of the Bauhaus movement involving Klee and Kandinsky, as well as the energy of a city populated by art students.  It also helped that the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

I could go on and on, but instead I picked out several of my favorite pictures from the trip, and will point you towards loads more photos here.