Dresden Sister City Year in Review Event November 12th, 2013

The event was held on the 29th floor of the Huntington Building at the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur. I had never been there before and was so impressed.

This was the view of the buffet and the city, it was amazing, a four story atrium!

Dorit, the Executive Director of Dresden Sister City made sure that all of the exchanges were well represented and made sure that the beer from the city of Dresden, Radeberger, was stocked at the bar!

It was a fantastic evening and I spoke about my incredible experience in Dresden. That is Dixon Miller on the left who is the President of Dresden Sister City and Dorit is beside me. None of this would be possible without her! Thank you again for this opportunity!

Related articles

• Our “Stammtisch” (carahcasler.wordpress.com)
• Meeting the mayor! (carahcasler.wordpress.com)
• A “who’s who” of the Dresden Marathon! (carahcasler.wordpress.com)

Our “Stammtisch”

This was on our last day, after hiking in Saxon Switzerland. Maybe you remember my earlier post about what a Stammtisch is? We saw one in the cafe when we were taking a break and I had to take a picture. This is the group of athlete ambassadors that Dresden Sister City sent to Dresden! We will be meeting again this Tuesday at the Year in Review Event for Dresden Sister City. Maybe we will see you there or at a future Columbus Stammtisch!

Dresden Sister City Athlete Ambassadors 2013

A “who’s who” of the Dresden Marathon!

This gallery contains 7 photos.

  Who ran with me? Many, many people, over 9,000 marathoners and half-marathoners, the highest number Dresden has had of participants! I was so excited to see people dressed up and ready for fun. The Erdinger beer bottles were a … Continue reading →

What’s that? YOU want to be a part of the exchanges?

Learn all about it here 🙂

http://dresdensistercity.org/exchanges/

Be a part of the fun!

All dressed up in Dresden!

Saturday night before the race I was invited to the sponsor event held at the Dresden Hilton. What a blast!

My friend, Herr Ewers!

This was a dinner and recognition event that Herr Rainer Striebel invited me to. Herr Striebel is a Rotarian who was so kind to pick me up and share a lovely evening with stimulating conversation. While there, I ran into Herr Ewers who is an enthusiastic runner and Democrat and even wore his “American” tie for the evening! I had met him the day before at the Kaffee und Kuchen event with the deputy mayor.

Herr Striebel completed the half marathon. Herr Ewers said he was only doing the 10K because he is an old man and the Morgenpost man said he runs for fun! The event was filled with laughter and fun, a great way to alleviate my pre-race jitters! I was so focused on using the correct formal forms in German that I didn’t have time to worry about the race! Thank you so much to Barth Cotner for reaching out to Rotary and making the connection for me. This was one of those “once in a lifetime” moments that I will not forget!

From left to right: Herr Ewers, my host Herr Striebel, me, Herr Striebel’s friend from the Morgenpost newspaper.

Meeting the mayor!

Our tour guide Tom.

Well, the deputy mayor! One of our activities while in Dresden was a coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) meet and greet with the Deputy Mayor Winfried Lehmann! We were also treated to a city walking tour with an incredibly knowledgeable guide. It was great to be so welcomed and treated with such care. The deputy mayor praised Dresden as a beautiful city to get married and urged us to tell our friends, so in case you are looking for a nice place to “tie the knot”? Consider DRESDEN 🙂

Maybe we will be in the Dispatch travel section?

Ryan and I in front of the Frauenkirche on our tour.

Stephanie sharing the Columbus book with the Deputy Mayor!

 

My host family!

While in Dresden, we stayed with volunteers who wanted to host our stay. My family was Mandy Oehl and her two daughters, Magdalena and Judith.

From left to right, Magdalena, Judith and Mandy

Mandy was the perfect hostess and even moved out of her room so I would have peace and quiet to prepare for my race! Mandy has a lovely home in the Löbtau area of Dresden, near the center of the city, on a hill with a view of all the towers of Dresden.

She has a lovely home and prepared meals for me, my favorite is always breakfast and she introduced me to a new food!

A typical German breakfast table

I have always loved Nutella, but imagine Nutella with crispy, crunchies in it, to die for!

The other host families were just as nice and cared for us as if we were international celebrities. We were often treated to dinners and events that tourists don’t experience.

Judith helping me out with the public transportation system.

Our host families enjoying coffee and cake after a hike in Saxon Switzerland

Thank you to Antje Beutekamp for finding us such wonderful hosts during our stay!

 

Race Day! 20.10.2013 um 10 Uhr

Here we are, excited before the run. From left to right, we are Shawn, Stephanie, me, Ryan and Rick. Most of us ran the half, but Rick ran the whole marathon with a time of 3:15 or so, incredible 🙂 This is the large gathering area in front of the convention center in Dresden on the bank of the Elbe river.  This was the headquarters where we picked up our start numbers, got massaged afterwards and could get a free spaghetti dinner. There was even a mini beer garden set up for the spectators.

We had great weather, partly cloudy, 50-60 degrees and NO RAIN! Some noteworthy differences between the refreshment stations here and in Germany: they serve water, hot tea, energy drink, raisin bread and bananas at EVERY stop and all of these things plus beer and Coca- Cola at the end! Many of you know how in Columbus and at other races you are encouraged to get your refreshment package at the end and leave the corral, that was not the case here! We stayed for about one hour enjoying the beer. Also interesting, the water was in small glasses and the beer was in half liter sized glasses!

Related articles

• Radeberger Pils, a German beer from near Dresden! (carahcasler.wordpress.com)
• Empty Bench Along the Elbe (milfordstreet.wordpress.com)
• Dresden-A great place to end a Vacation (pandbtravels.wordpress.com)

 

I’m off!

I’ll be riding in this

to go and do this

and then EAT THIS 🙂

What would you write?

What would YOU write?