Crazy times - end of marathon tourism

Mum has left and is now back in NZ.  Her final week here was a little crazy for me work wise.....including several very late working sessions.  One of those times when everyone just has to step up and make things happen.  Friday saw Monica and Jung-Ah larking about in the office late in the afternoon.  It was a welcome relief after the intensity of the week!  I went for my first run in over a week on Friday as well.  Leaving the office earlyish to be reminded that running is still my fav thing and great for stress.
Thought too I'd better finish the "Marathon Tour"!  Other sights we saw and adventures we had.....



Starting with a pleasant easy day in the botanic gardens.

Worlds largest greenhouse....apparently 

     

Some mighty big plants to be seen

Pretty!

We also visited a concentration camp, which sounds a little grim but proved to be a remarkable journey through history and I was very impressed with the way they had found some kind of balance between memorializing individual stories, capturing the political history and educating along the way.  There were quite a few school groups so clearly this is part of the learning curriculum.  To give you a sense of it some shots below.

Map showing where this camp fits into the "network" that was created

Entrance to the Camp

A typical sell, this camp held both jewish and other political prisoners and has a long history both during and post WWII

Doctors used these samples to characterize prisoners features, which were all carefully recorded, which made for a comprehensive list of internees, many of the records have been preserved

To preserve the buildings glass walkways have been created in several places.  This is the hospital....each of the rooms have these amazing collections of stories about individuals, some of whom survived

This was the "Potato" room, these cartoons where scattered throughout and thought to have been done by political prisoners at some point in the camps history

The Memorial 

I didn't really feel overwhelmed by it all so much as felt it's important to preserve these places both as memorials and as a way to never forget.
After the trip to the camp (about 45mins out of town) we headed back to the city for some lighter activities and to get ready to fly home the following day......or me fly to San Fran and mum to head to St Thomas to meet Karen and Brice.