Review: Germany, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, WWII Sites, Train & Boat Tour, History, Culture, Local Cuisine

Spending five days in Berlin, seeing the historical WWII and Cold War sites, great museums, the Reichstag, and a Berlin Philharmonic concert.   Visiting the cultural attractions of Dresden.  Enjoying Leipzig, including Evensong in St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where J. S. Bach was music director for 28 years, the apartment of Felix Mendelssohn, and a wonderful dinner in Auerbach's Keller, a favorite haunt of Goethe's and the setting for a scene in his masterpiece, "Faust."  Walking in the footsteps of Martin Luther at Wittenberg, Eisleben, Erfurt, and the Wartburg Fortress in Eisenach.  Visiting the Cecilienhof Palace, site of the Potsdam Conference, and the nearby Sanssoucci Palace, built by Frederick the Great.  Viewing some sobering places relevant to the Holocaust, such as the House of the Wannsee Conference and the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.  Enjoying Weimar, with the houses of Goethe, Schiller, and Liszt.   Riding the train through the countryside to the Bastei formations in Swiss Saxony.  Gliding through the Spreewald on a punting boat tour.  Enjoying many great meals, and most of all, delicious German bread and pastry!  And last but not least, learning about life in the former East Germany (GDR) and how the peaceful revolution of 1989 came about, from the lips of those who lived through it.