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Rathaus in Bremen

Top 3 Places to Visit While in Germany

April 21, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Hello everyone. I hope everything is quite well back in Valpo or wherever you are reading this post. Sorry for the long gap between posts. I got a little lazy I admit it. However I did have a great spring break traveling to 6 different countries and 9 cities in our 2 week spring break. It was tough, but beyond worth it! The semester is coming to an end! Let the lack of motivation and cramming begin! For R-95 however, besides getting ready for finals, we have to start preparing to pack our things back up and head home. Our days are limited here in Germany and that got me reflecting on what some of my favorite places were in Germany. So without further adieu I’ll give a quick list of my top 3 places in Germany that I have visited:

3.  Leipzig 

My reasoning for choosing Leipzig can basically be summed up in one word: music. Anyone who has visited Europe knows that in the bigger cities there always seem to be street performers with accordions, violins, or any other instrument they can find. However in Leipzig it was not just the street performers who were excellent, but also because of the musical history that surrounds the city. Musical powerhouse names such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner, and many others have made their way through this city. Any music lover would have a field day here with the amount of museums dedicated to various artists and churches where Bach or Wagner worked and composed. Two of the most famous, for example, are the St Thomas Kirche and St Nikolai Kirche where Bach performed his great works centeries ago.

St Thomas Kirche

St Thomas Kirche

However, Leipzig is not just for your classical music lover. Leipzig was also where the battle of nations took place in 1813. The combined forces of Austria, Germany, and Sweden helped push Napoleon out of Germany after his retreat from Russia. Today you can visit the monument and museum. This would be a great thing to do for half a day in my opinion. The monument itself lies about an hour and a half walk from the city center and is near some other museums.

Battle of Nations Monument

Battle of Nations Monument

 

 

More recently, Leipzig is also a location of many protests within East Germany during communist control. Leipzig is a place where people with all different interests can come together and find something interesting to do. Overall, Leipzig was very interesting to experience. The city was safe and fairly nice to English speakers if you are not fluent in German. I highly recomend giving Leipzig a visit.

2. Bremen/Munich

I should just be honest with you, Bremen, Munich, and the number 1 are all really tied for number 1, but I thought that would be nasty to have a three way tie. After much thought, sweating, and blood letting, Bremen and Munich rank number 2 on my list!

Bremen is a place that I would love to visit again. At first glance, Bremen is not a megga city with a population over 1 million, but let me tell you, with the amount of things to do there, it sure does seem like it. From visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Rathaus in the old town center, climbing up the spires in the St Peter’s Cathedral that originaly dates back 500 plus years, visiting the old windmill, walking along the River Weser, eating at Rathskeller restaurant which houses the largest selection of wine in Germany, or just walking down the shopping district and finding a nice cafe to sip some great coffee. Along with the numerous things to do, Bremen was also home to the friendliest people I have ever met in Germany.

Rathaus in Bremen

Rathaus in Bremen

Whether you are lost in the middle of the night with 100 dollar bills tapped to you while handcuffed, someone will make sure to point you in the direction of a bank, place to stay, and a mental institution because you are crazy if you tape 100 dollar bills to yourself while handcuffed. In all seriousness though, Bremen has some of the most down to earth and overall general nice people. They will go out of their way to say hello to you, ask to offer help if you look lost, give you suggestions on places to see, eat, or visit. People from Bremen are proud of their city and they rightly should be. Bremen comes in 2nd place because of the ability to see most everything in the city in about 2 days visit, but is tremendously increased because of the people. They really made the experience special there for us.

Munich on the other hand, is just a wee bit bigger than Bremen. By a wee bit I mean its more than double the size of Bremen. With a population of over 1 million and during Oktoberfest up to 3 million, you can always find something to do in Munich. Munich is truly the city where it is totaly normal to see a man in lederhosen eating a pretzel and drinking a mass of beer (1 liter mug). Home to some great sites, cool museums, and great food! When you imagine Germany, you are most likely thinking of Munich. From the famous glockenspiel to Oktoberfest to the original Hofbrauhaus, Munich is home to many Bavarian traditions that are cool to take in.

Marienplatz

Marienplatz in Munich

Now, the time you have all been waiting for. THE number one place (in my opinion) to visit in Germany. Well you are about to find out. After this long article post, you will walk away knowing a great place to visit. Knowing what to see and just a couple of things to do. The time is now, the city you have all been waiting for. The place is……………….Going to be given to you in the next blog post because this one is pretty long already.

Thank you all for reading! Let me just say though, every place I have been to in Germany has been fabulous and I highly recomend traveling outside of my recomendations. Anywhere you go you will find some sort of history to discover. I challenge everyone to come visit Germany and make your own top 3 list! Find out my number 1 city and possibly a list of my favorite cities outside of Germany to visit next week. Thanks again for reading and I will see you all sooner than we both know!

The Best Things I Ate This Month: Part 2

March 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Since this wasn’t the most exciting week for me, instead of writing about going to class and doing homework, I thought it was time for the next installment of my favorite foods of Europe. As you are probably well aware, one of my favorite things about living in Europe is eating in Europe. Since my last “Best of” food post was so much fun to write (and research) I have, in fact, decided to make it a series. For each of the four months of my travels, I will post the very best things I ate. While the first post was dedicated to German favorites, this one also includes culinary pleasures from Austria and Paris. Since I only spend 36 hours in Paris, there’s no way I could possibly do its incredible cuisine justice, but rest assured, I’ll be back someday. I have many, many things to share this month, so this is going to be mostly pictures (in chronological order) with short commentary.

First, the Thüringer Wurst, my first experience with street food. Surprisingly good for just 1 euro!

Next, there’s Spaghetti-Eis. It looks like spaghetti, but it’s ice cream. And it’s terrific!
I had this meal in a very old Austrian restaurant in Salzburg. It’s pork roast with the best gravy and a giant Knödel. That’s a dumpling, but I just like the word Knödel.
This was my meal at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. This establishment isn’t exactly known for the food, so the schnitzel cordon bleu was just okay.
The apple strudel, however, was perfect. Fresh and not too sweet.
On a day trip to Ulm, we stopped at a little café for cake and coffee. This is a slice of blueberry goodness.
And now, on to Paris! The first thing I ate there (besides the free breakfast at the hostel) was a Nutella crêpe. They don’t skimp on the Nutella!
While in Paris, we decided to have one splurge dinner at a real brasserie. The steak-frites was great!
And the crème brûlée was even better! That crunch of the sugar on top is the sound of perfection!
     So those were the highlights. Over the next month, I’ll continue to be that tourist, taking pictures of all my food, so I can share it all with you! And next week, I’ll have more travel experiences to share!

Six Cities in Nine Days

February 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments
n the Reutlingen study abroad program, one of the courses is all about Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s an interesting mix of history and theology, and as part of it, we all take a five day tour of Luther and Bach Land. That’s Leipzig, Wittenberg, Eisenach, and Erfurt. Following that, we have five days for free travel, just like after the Berlin trip. This time around, we chose to go to Munich and Salzburg. So many cities, so little time! We did so much this week, it’s impossible to talk about it all, so I’ll pick one or two highlights per day.

Saturday:
We actually arrived in Leipzig late on Friday, but Saturday was our first real opportunity to explore the city. While both Luther and Bach spent significant time in Leipzig, the guided portion of our day was more about Bach, who’s still clearly a local celebrity:

For a different kind of musical experience, that night, I found myself somewhere I never thought I would be: An opera house. By some miracle, we were able to buy very cheap, good seats for that night’s performance of Der Rosenkavalier. I wish I could be one of those truly sophisticated people who knows how to appreciate opera, but I’m still working on it. However, even though I didn’t know what was going on most of the time, the music was really beautiful, and I do recommend that everyone go to the opera at least once, at least just to say you did it.

Sunday:
     On Sunday, we took a day trip to Wittenberg. Here, Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church almost 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the church is currently undergoing a major renovation in preparation for the anniversary. I do think that the Lutherans in our group got more out of the day, but it was still very interesting to see where such pivotal events took place.

Monday:
    On Monday, we moved on to Eisenach, the birthplace of Bach and the location of the Wartburg castle, where Luther translated the Bible into German. For the history, as well as the wonderful views, the castle was my highlight.

That evening, we continued to Erfurt. Okay, my other, smaller highlights of the day were the charmingly eccentric Opera Hostel we stayed in in Erfurt and the surprisingly good steakhouse named “Texas” next door. I didn’t realize how much I missed American food.

Tuesday:
After a tour of Luther’s cloister, we had the rest of the day free to explore this city that pleasantly surprised me. At the beginning of the week, I really didn’t know what to expect of the former East Germany, but I was pleasantly surprised by all four cities, especially Erfurt. Because it’s a well-preserved, medieval town, it reminded me of why I fell in love with Germany. After exploring and enjoying the views from the Petersburg Citadel for a few hours, I spent the next two just sitting in an Eiscafé talking to a friend. It was the first real break I had all week, and while it may sound less than thrilling, it was probably my favorite day of the trip.

Wednesday:
To my surprise, I found out that the 10-day rail pass provided by the program is also valid on trains to Salzburg, Austria. Even though I’ve already been to Austria, I had to jump at the first chance I had to go to another country. Most of the day was spent on the train, but once we got to our hostel in Salzburg, one of our roommates invited us out with some of the other people staying there. Now, I’m not sure yet, what I think of the hostel experience. One the one hand, I had a fabulous, authentic Austrian meal at a table of people from 8 different countries, and that’s an amazing experience. On the other hand, I don’t know how comfortable I am wandering around at night in a foreign county with a bunch of strangers. Plus, it’s really hard to sleep in a room of 8 people snoring, coughing, and sniffling. So the jury’s still out on that one…

Thursday:
On Thursday, we saw the whole city, but the clear highlight was taking a cable car up to the top of the world. Yes, little old me, who’s afraid of heights , stood on top of a mountain. Like a real one… with snow and everything!

Friday:
     I’ve been to Munich before, but I really did enjoy going again. We started the day with a free walking tour, which I highly recommend. It’s a great way to see the highlights if you don’t have a ton of time or money, and I know that many cities offer them. That night, I did the one thing I regretted not doing the last time I was in town. I went to the famous/infamous Hofbräuhaus. Honestly, I didn’t have terribly high expectations of the place because it is a known tourist trap, but still, it’s one of those things you just have to do at least once…like the opera. Anyway, the food was just okay, the beer was beer, and the Apfelstrudel was incredible. (Of course the dessert would be the highlight for me.) But the real reason why you go to the Hofbräuhaus is for the atmosphere. Surprisingly, there were actual Germans there, and we did share a table with them, and we did sing silly German songs. It was delightfully stereotypical!
It was a long week, and I’m glad to be home, but so grateful to have had all of there experiences. Sure, it’s hard sometimes, but this whole study abroad thing, this is the life!

Tübingen

Germany Excursion

May 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Munich

Within minutes of arriving in Germany it is incredibly easy to tell that the German people are remarkably efficient and self-sufficient.  Although many Germans do speak English, they have little need of doing so.  Even waiters in popular restaurants don’t willingly speak much English.  The language barrier in Germany was the most pronounced of any country I’ve been to.  While one can certainly get housing, food, and transportation, there is an entirely different sense of interaction between those who speak German and those who don’t.  Lucky, most of my time was spent with other students from Valparaiso University who are studying abroad in Germany and can speak the language fluently.

The next thing worth noting is the food.  It seems an average lunch consists of a sausage (normally with mustard), some sort of roll or pretzel, and a drink.  The majority of main meal courses are similar.  Meat with some sort of flavoring like gravy or horseradish and a vegetable (often sauerkraut or potato) go with bread to create a hearty meal.  Also, beer is so important it is almost considered food.  In Germany I was introduced to many drinks I hadn’t had before.  Beer is relatively often mixed with cola or lemonade.  A popular drink is bubble tea, which is iced tea with tapioca.  Nearly everything in Germany is carbonated, including juice and water.  While I didn’t like the water, carbonated apple juice was surprisingly good.

During the day in Munich I took a train to the village of Dachau – the name of the village being synonymous with the concentration camp I then visited on the city’s edge.  It is difficult to describe, but something about the place actually feels different. This sixth sense is rather difficult to explain, but if you’ve ever been there perhaps you know what I mean. And if you haven’t been, you should try to go at some point.

Dachau Concentration Camp

After a train ride south through the iconic German countryside of towns hidden among thickly forested valleys we arrived in Tübingen.  While much of our time here was spent catching up with friends from Valpo, we still did several of the touristy things the area has to offer.  We climbed up to the city’s castle, visited the nearby city of Reutlingen, visited a monastery/king’s hunting lodge, and took the iconic Tübingen photo from the bridge across the Neckar River.  Then, all too soon our Easter Break was over and it was time to fly back to London.

There are a few observations worth noting from my travels (and remember these are generalizations).  Europeans (especially the British) love their dogs.  It is fine to make a joke about someone’s children behaving badly, but don’t dare critique their dog.  And not small dogs either – I’ve seen more huskies and german shepherds here than in America.  Smoking is far more common in Europe.  Several places have relatively strict anti-smoking laws, but many other European countries are far more lax.  On Italian trains it seems half the railcar piles out at every stop for a cigarette.  Last, Europe is far less restricted than the US (perhaps due to a lack of lawsuits at every turn).  For example, I visited the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.  Eventually the guardrails stopped and there were signs warning visitors against continuing.  In America, if you did walk through the crack in the fence you’d almost be considered suicidal.  Not to mention that a group of park rangers would immediately attempt to get you back behind the railing.  Here, absolutely everyone continued – and walked right along the sheer drop into the Atlantic.  All the sign meant was that beyond that point the park was no longer responsible for your actions.  This was an expected part of the experience, if you stayed behind the wall your trip would have been far less memorable because the railings only enclose a very small section of the cliffs.

Tübingen

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View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

The Cities of Europe! (part 2)

September 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

1)   Munich, Germany

Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan

Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan

While we were staying in St. Johann, we were able to make a couple day trips to visit places like Munich and Salzburg (both within driving distance). Munich is a great city, but it is definitely touristy. But to its credit, we basically only stayed right in the middle of the city and saw all the typical things like the Hofbräuhaus; I’m sure if you wander outside the “tourist-zone” Munich has many great things that aren’t swamped with Americans. The city had a lot of character to it, and it was also home to some of the most amazing gardens and churches! There was also a big market in the Viktualienmarkt, where my brother got some fresh strawberries.

Hofbräuhaus München

Best of: Hofgarten (gardens); Theatine Church; Neues Rathaus (new city hall) Hofbräuhaus (famous restaurant/brewery)
Not so great: lots of tourists

2)   Salzburg, Austria

View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

The other excursion we took was to Salzburg. We woke up early and drove into Salzburg hoping to see some things before it got too busy. We started at the Mirabell palace, which has quite extensive gardens. From there we made our way over to Salzburg’s

Mozart's Birthplace

most famous shopping street, Getreidegasse. They had EVERYTHING on this street. From McDonald’s to H&M to high priced jewelry, you name it they had it. The house where Mozart was born is also on Getreidegasse. We wanted to take a tour but the lines were kind of long.

Perhaps the coolest opportunity we had was to see the Festung Hohensalzburg (translates

View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

to: high Salzburg fortress). It was amazing to see a medieval fortress, and the views from the top were spectacular. We walked up to the top (much cheaper than taking the tram), and it wasn’t as bad of a walk as it looks. The price of admission to the fortress also includes entrance to all the museums inside, so if you go it is well worth it to see the princes’ chambers, as well as the torture room/dungeon!

Salzburg also has plenty of amazing churches and lots and lots of concerts. When you walk through the streets you are bombarded with advertisements for concerts. Every night, almost every church in the inner-city has a concert. They are very proud of their connection with Mozart, so a good portion of the concerts have at least a couple works by him. While we were there, my brother and I saw a organ concert at the Franziskanerkirche. It was fantastic (and only 14 Euro a ticket!).

Festung Hohensalzburg

Salzburg at night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best of: Getreidegasse; Festung Hohensalzburg (fortress); Concerts

3)   Heidelberg, Germany

During our travels we also made it to Heidelberg, where we have a lot of relatives! We didn’t get to see much of the city, but we did get a chance to visit with family for a couple days. It was very comforting to know that I have family here in Germany, and that I’m always welcome in their homes. I know I’ll be making at least a few weekend trips out to see them!

Family from Ladenburg, Germany

Family from Mannheim, Germany

4)   Zurich, Switzerland

My "I can't believe my coffee was that expensive" face

I’m not sure I can afford to ever go back to Zurich. It was ungodly expensive in the city. To its credit, it was beautiful, but even the cheapest food was unreasonable. My Starbucks Chai Tea Latte (normally 3.25 USD) cost the equivalent of 8.60 USD. For lunch we found an average street café, and it was 70 USD for two beers, a Coca-Cola and a small plate of appetizers. Craziness, I tell you!

Our other mishap in Zurich was with the hotel phone system. We had dropped my brother off at the “Zurich Flughafen” earlier that morning because he had to make it home for school. We wanted to get a hold of him that evening to make sure he made it home okay, so we tried calling using a pre-paid calling card from the hotel phone. We never ended up getting through to him that night, but spent about 4 minutes total on the phone. When we checked out the next morning, the hotel had charged 230 Swiss Francs for our phone calls (about 294.00 USD). Because these charges were absolutely outrageous (not to mention that we were calling a toll-free number within Switzerland) we managed to get the charges down to 20 USD.

I think Zurich was a little pricey – beautiful but very expensive.

Nonetheless, Zurich was pretty

Best of: Bahnhofstrasse (famous shopping street); the lake
Not so great: Expensive

I’ll post soon about some of my adventures in Tuebingen and the local region around Stuttgart!

Bis dann! Tschüß!

 

Ich Liebe Dich!

March 16, 2011 / / 0 Comments

The Old Bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland

I can’t say a lot in German, but I did know how to say “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Please,” “Thank You,” and “I love you.” I tried to throw these out as much as possible and “Ich liebe dich” or “I love you” kept coming up. Mostly in reference to the places we were visiting! When we got to Lucerne I immediately noticed the largest difference from England from the entire trip. And that was that Swiss people are so nice, like so, so nice. On the train, a couple overheard us talking about our hostel and they offered directions and helpful bits of advice for our trip without us even asking. Then on the walk to our hostel we stopped to check a map and within the minute a man—dressed as a revolutionary as it was still Mardi Gras—offered us directions yet again! The entire time we had spent in England, I’ve never met such outwardly friendly people.

Gorgeous Lucerne!

Thanks to all the help, we had no trouble finding our hostel where we crashed for the night. The next morning when we emerged from our hostel we were all dumbfounded by the amazing surroundings we hadn’t noticed because of how dark it was when we got in the night before. Lucerne’s quaint buildings and houses were nestled around a cool alpine lake surrounded by the Alps. The water was full of elegant swans and friendly ducks. The mountains rose suddenly, taking bits of the town up with them, into stunning snow covered peaks. We spent the day wondering the streets then sitting, then wandering around the lake then sitting, then hiking in the mountains then sitting. It was a pretty fantastic way to see Lucerne actually.

The Gutsch!!

The highlight of the day by far was when we saw “The Gutsch” (a huge palace like hotel perched high on a mountain side) and decided to walk to it. The walk wasn’t near as bad as expected and the path gave way to a beautiful forest whose trail was marked with a fresh water spring which we all used to quench our thirst. Side note—you can drink all the water from the springs in Switzerland unless specifically noted. The Gutsch offered a stunning panorama of the city, the lake, and the Alps; it really was breathtaking. The biggest drawback to Switzerland was by far the price of food. If I thought food in England was expensive, a quick trip to Switzerland would clear that matter right up.

Pretty Flowers at our picnic spot in Zurich

The next day as we sat on the lake-side stoop we had claimed as our own and ate breakfast, I knew it would be so hard to leave Lucerne. However, I reassured myself that I would be back one day and that I would treat myself to a night at The Gutsch. We got on our train to Zurich and spent the majority of the day there. Zurich was not nearly as pretty or interesting as Lucerne, but it reminded me a lot of Denver and nothing of England. The cars were big like America, not small and “smart” like England and Italy. We ended up eating dinner in a park with food we bought from a grocery store because Swiss food turned out to be too expensive, yet again.

After our make-shift picnic, we got on a train to Munich where we arrived somewhat disheveled but still managed to find our way to the hostel because it was really close to the train station. The next morning, we were dumbfounded by the bus system but eventually figured out how to take the metro/bus to get to Duchau concentration camp. Public transportation in Germany is so much cheaper than England! We got unlimited day transportation for 3.80 Euros a piece, whereas one ride on the London Tube is around 1.80 pounds! So that was awesome. Duchau was sad and humbling. It is hard to believe that human kind could ever have been that heartless and it made me pray that nothing like that will ever happen again.

After returning from Duchau we stopped into a very cute and very authentic German restaurant and had a (relatively inexpensive!) Bavarian style meal! There were men in lederhosen and children drinking beer (ok, apple juice from a beer stein… we think…) and everyone just seemed really happy. It made me very proud of my hair-itage (as I say this as I touch my hair, in honor of the band Lost & Found).

Haufbrauhaus, see my initials!?

We spent the rest of the day exploring Munich until we had all you can eat fajitas (because Europe has Mexican restaurants and England doesn’t!) for dinner and then we went to the Haufbrauhaus. Now, before I go into this, I need to explain to you two things: 1) I hate beer. 2) I love the Haufbrauhaus because it makes me proud to be German and my initials (HB) are one everything. These conflicting feelings made me anxious to go because I wanted to drink beer out of one of their huge awesome steins! But I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it. What we ended up doing was my friend Lauren and I split one and actually managed— small sips at a time—to finish the whole thing. Go us.

View from the castle!

Neuschwanstein!!

The next day may have been my favorite day of the whole trip, jury is still out. We woke up relatively early and got on a train that took us into the Alps (yay!) to the town of Fussen to see the famous Neuschwanstein castle that inspired Disney’s Cinderella castle. I expected to love the castle, but a couple things caught me off guard. First of all, this place looked so much like my home! The greenery was similar, the mountains were similar, it was just amazing. The second thing was that usually the insides of castles are disappointing. I always expect them to feel grand and lavish, but usually they are cold and stony. Neuschwanstein, however, was absolutely no disappointment. Everything was ornate and decorated and everything there was still originals.

After hiking around the castle, we returned to Munich and met up with Sabrina, a friend of Lauren’s who had studied abroad and stayed at their house some years earlier. Sabrina and her fiancé treated us to my favorite meal of the whole trip. I had an amazing Bavarian meal smothered in mushroom sauce and seemingly endless rounds of drinks (turns out beer is pretty good mixed with lemonade). But the best part by far was the camaraderie, they taught us how to toast like a German (“Prost!”) and told many highly entertaining stories. The brewery was nothing like pubs in England where people tend to keep to themselves and things never seem to be too crowded or too out of hand. This brewery had long tables and you sat and ate and toasted with people you didn’t know. It was so much fun and I really never have been prouder to be a Bauer (which is on many-a signs in Germany) and German. Check out the rest of my pictures here and I look forward to reporting back again soon after Paris this weekend!

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