Day 7: A Steep Hill and a Fascinating Speaker

Today we went to Point Alpha Stiftung.  Point Alpha was an observation point along the former East and West Germany border.  The tour/discussion was really interesting, despite the rain--part of the tour was outside.  After a delicious lunch, we had the option to go on a walk.  The walk was not what we expected.  We thought we were going to be walking elsewhere, but instead we walked--really slid back to town.  It was wet and slippery and the guide had to pull me down the hill at one point so I didn't fall. Several people did fall going down the steep wet hill.  :-(  We got back to our hotel with just enough time to clean up and change before our next presentation.  Let's just say washing mud out of jeans in a hotel sink is not fun.

Our next presentation was fascinating.  The topic was growing up in East Germany so we thought the speaker would talk about what life was like--which he did, but I had no idea he was going to talk about how he risked his life and successfully crossed the border. I took eight pages of notes.  His story really stuck with me.  It was sad, but also so interesting.  It's just amazing to me what some people have to go through in life.  I won't share my eight pages of notes with you here because it's not my story to tell, but if you are interested, I'm happy to chat with you (and show you my notes :)).  

After his presentation, we had another presentation on some of the programs at Point Alpha.  A little later it was off to dinner at one of the few restaurants in Geisa.