Summer, pt 3

My summer was so crazy and full of different activities! I'll cover what I did in 4 separate posts.
Part 1 - Oregon
Part 2 - Colorado
Part 3 - Germany
Part 4 - France and Germany again
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After a super-early morning departure from Colorado, I took three flights to arrive in Dresden, Germany.  Organizers of the festival picked me up at the airport and took me to the small town of Moritzburg, where the festival took place.

There are a lot of things I could say about this festival, but this is the internet, where nothing ever goes away, so I'll just stick to the good things - I made a lot of nice friends, and I got to visit a place I'd never been before!

This is the castle in the town of Moritzburg.  To me it seemed more like a palace than a castle but apparently they are the same word in German and for some reason they translate it as castle rather than palace.

As participants in the festival, we got to see a lot of cool stuff in that area of the country.  One highlight was touring an instrument factory! The tour was very brief and there were lots of people crowded into small rooms, but it was still interesting to see the pieces and get a general sense of how things are made.

One of our concerts was in a VW factory.  It was awesome to see all the old cars on display, and to see the new ones being manufactured!

Another concert was at another castle/palace, which had a vineyard in back.  The grapes were really sour.

We had one free day near the end of the festival, and I went with some friends to Dresden.  It was amazing how old the buildings seemed, though they were pretty much all reconstructed after the bombings in World War II.

I also had a good time playing with the other horn player at the program.

And what did I do with the rest of my time, you may ask? Drink, is the answer! Not just beer (which came out of a vending machine in our dorm)...

...but also at cafes all over the place!

At one of these cafes, I discovered one of my favorite beverages in Germany - the Eiscafe.  Unlike an American ice coffee, German ice coffee is basically a coffee float.  Yummy!!!

After just about two weeks at this festival, it was finally time to continue on to other adventures.  Check out the next installment soon at Part 4: France and Germany again!