Week one has come and gone and the trip has been fabulous! Yesterday we went to the Neanderthal Museum and saw an amazing chronology of the Neanderthal Man. I was surprised to find that there is no Neanderthal/Homo Sapien connection. Not only is there no evidence of neanderthals being in the human ancestory, but homo sapiens coexisted with the Neanderthals! I was also surprised to find that the Neanderthals did brain surgury. They did not do it necessarily because they knew they were relieving inner-cranial pressipure, but perhaps they believed evil spirits were being released. I was even more surprised that some of the patients survived this surgury! Amazing!

My favorite part of the museum, however, was the display case full of artificial body parts and prosthetics. It was a rather modern display, possibly five to fifteen years old, but it played my biomedical engineering heart strings. There was a stent, replavement hip joints, knees, shins, shoulders, elbows, a prosthetic leg, an artificial heart, bladder, a hearing aid, glasses, and more! It was fantastic.

Today we are traveling to Hamburg. We are actually 10 minutes away. It will be a blast! I can't wait to get there!