Deutsches Edelsteinmuseum in Idar Oberstein (8/3/16)

The heart of the European gem trade is about forty five minutes away from us in Idar Oberstein.  The town is home to Germany's most famous gem mine.  As a result, the town became famous for gem cutting as generations of miners and craftsmen passed down their skills.  Gems aren't mined in Idar Oberstein anymore, but stones are still sent there to be cut and shaped.  We took spent a day in the village exploring the Deutsches Edelsteinmuseum (German Gem Museum).

GONDWANA - Das Praehistorium (7/30/16)

So, we've noticed that Germans seem to really enjoy dinosaurs.  There are huge dinosaur models at the Garden Show in Kaiserslautern, the museum at Burg Lichtenburg features some dinosaur fossils, and the GONDWANA Das Peaehistorium has robotic ones set up in nature scenes.  We went to check them out one weekend and learned a lot about dinosaurs, but not much about why Germans like them so much.

 After the dinosaur displays, the museum went back in time and featured scenes from different periods in history.  We still don't understand how all the information shared in the museum related to each other or to dinosaurs, but it was entertaining.