Roadtrips on Autobahns in Germany!

A long one ahead...but there are a lot of pictures!!!!

Hello all! I figured that I needed to update on my weekend in Germany before I headed out for Tunisia! A few things that have really hit me in the past few days first though...

1. I have been here for almost 2 months. Wow. Which also means I leave in 2 months. Wow.
2. I'm going to Tunisia this weekend for 10 days. TUNISIA! Africa people!!! Everyone keeps talking about these massive camel spiders... I just googled some pictures and I think I would have been better off if I hadn't. If you are really that curious look it up yourself...
3. I have to pack for Tunisia...how to do that I'm not quite sure.
4. MY FAMILY COMES IN 13 DAYS!!! yay!!!! :D

With those things in mind, let's talk about Germany!!! The whole purpose of this trip was to see my friend Julia. Julia is from Germany and her study abroad experience was at SLU in the fall. We had a class together and lived in the same building which is how we met each other :)

Friday morning I woke up at 4:45am to get ready to catch the first bus at 5:30am. The 990 bus to the Cipro metra station to the end of the A line to another bus that was crammed full of people to the airport. Whew. Then on an airplane to Frankfurt Hahn airport.



By the way, if any of you ever fly there - be aware that this airport is NOT really in Frankfurt. It's an hour and 45 minutes outside of Frankfurt. Sooo to solve this Julia and her friend Martin rented a car and picked me up at the airport. We decided to drive to Cologne but on the way we stopped in Koblenz because there is an old military type base there called Festung Ehrenbreitstein. Very old - but it looks over the city, so we drove up the wrong hill, back down the hill and up the correct hill to get to the top. It was a really nice view of the city. We didn't actually go into the city, but it was a nice view either way.


View from the wrong hill...


Creepy dark tunnel we had to walk through...


Julia and I!


View from the top!

We hopped back in the car and then headed for Cologne. We found a perfect parking space and walked over a bridge into the city. Our first mission was to climb the dome of the cathedral. This cathedral isn't the same as St. Peter's at all. It is very very Gothic - as you can see...


View of Cologne from the other side of the river




Inside the cathedral


We made it allllll the way to the top (after a few breaks for breathers) - 509 steps. That's alot of stairs people! Once we got to the bell area the bells started ringing - which was wayyyy cool, but very very very very loud. A fabulous view from the top!! And...there is a little booth at the top where a man sits and sells things like rosaries and postcards and whatnot. However, one of the postcards the cathedral sells is proof that you have been there... I bought one but decided to keep it :)


The loud bells :)


View from the top!!


Martin, Julia and I






View at night...

After our adventure up the dome we were pretty hungry. Julia and Martin are both vegetarians and it was Friday (during Lent) so I wasn't supposed to eat meat either, and it's a bit hard to not eat meat with German food, so we opted for Ethiopian food. It was soooooo delicious.

We headed back to our car and then drove to another small town, Limburg. It's a town that has an area that wasn't destroyed by the war so the houses in this area are the original German style - alot of other cities have rebuilt some of these houses for tourists and what not but these are the original houses. They were pretty cool.


The one on the far right is crooked if you can't tell...






Me and a statue!


Then we went in this church - which normally wouldn't have been open because it was like 8pm - but it was open. We went in and there was some fancy thing going on with a full choir singing and the people in the pews were really dressed up. We listened to the choir for a bit and then decided that we didn't really fit in so we left.


Very beautiful.


They started presenting cardinals and thanking them and decided that was our cue to leave...

Back in the car and then back to Frankfurt on the AUTOBAHN! It was raining so we weren't going that fast, but there were quite a few cars who zoomed by us. It was crazy how fast they were going!! Julia and I returned the car and then hit the sack - I was exhausted!!! On Saturday morning Julia and I woke up and had creps and then went into Frankfurt. We saw sooo much!

We started out in on of the main squares. These houses and shops look like the ones in the pictures earlier but these were totally demolished during the war, so these are reconstructions.






The Paulskriche - was an old church that was where the German parliament met. During the war everything but the outer walls was destroyed. They rebuilt it, and it is now a hall where they give out prestigious writing awards.


Frankfurt from the riverside.


Then we walked over to the business district. E is for Euro.


Then to the Opera House. Apparently there was a ball there that night - hence the big flowers.


So we took pictures with the big flowers :)


Then we went to the childhood home of J.W. Goethe. That's a statue of him by the way.


An awesome clock in the house - it tells you everything!!!



After the house we climbed (alot of climbing!!!) to the top of a shopping structure for a view of the city.


Then we went to the Frankfurt stock exchange where they have a bull and a bear statue. The bull and I had a stare down, he won.


Frankfurt stock exchange!


Julia and her kitty. She reminded me of Mousey...


Julia had some friends over on Saturday night - they were all really fun to hang out with!


The next morning we had croissants. Julia's kitty gets to sit at the table.


Sunday before I left we headed over to Palmen Gardens - which is a very large botanical garden.


With the palm trees :)


In the playground


:)


I liked the tulips!


One of my other favorites.


Then we went to Julia's school :) Named after the writer who's house we went to....


These are supposed to be for strollers. I however, slid down them.

Before we grabbed something to eat we took an elevator to the top of a very tall building (I don't remember the name) and had a great view of the city :)


My yummy frankfurter with curry sauce.

After a fabulous weekend of pictures and memories I got on a bus in Frankfurt to take me to the airport, a plane to Rome, a bus to the metra, the metra to a bus, and then a walk back to the good ol' JFRC. The weekend really was just what I needed. I love the JFRC - but being around the same people constantly, and when I say constantly I mean eat, sleep, workout, go to class, hang out - everything - with the same people all the time - it's nice to get away for the weekend and enjoy some time away. It also made me miss the JFRC and the community of friends that I've made there.

I have a couple of mid-terms on Thursday and then I have to pack for Tunisia! I'll update when I get back from Tunisia - but it will probably be in segments (10 days is quite a bit to try and summerize into one post).

Thanks so much for all the comments on the Amalfi post! I'm so glad that y'all liked it :)

Love,
Amelia