Heidelberg

Soo With the girls still gone, Tiffany and I decided to go on another little day trip to a small town 3 hours away called Heidelberg. It was a beautiful small town that was located between two large hills along a river. We left early in the morning and it was pouring the entire first half of the day. It was terrible!

When we got off the train we bought a day pass that allowed us to get on and off the buses for free and to get into the castle for free and up the huge hill also. So we started out to find the castle. We had to ride this tram thing up to the castle! The castle was awesome!

The castle dated back to the 12^th century and was added on a redone many times, so what it looks like now is a bunch of random buildings put together! During a war the towers were destroyed and never were fixed. We walked around the exterior castle while it was pouring rain! We walked into the castle courtyard and looked around and then went into one of the rooms to look around.

We were looking for this giant Wine barrel… and we found this one that we thought was it, it was sooo big! Lol then we went around the corner and saw the real one. The largest wine cask in the world, 55,000 gallons of wine and was able to serve 5,000 guests and people who lived in the castle. It was Giant and really cool!

The view from the castle over the city was beautiful! It was so foggy and rainy that morning but it was still beautiful!

Then we went into the German Pharmacy Museum and looked around, it was ok, nothing too exciting!

We then took the tram thing all the way up to the top of the. It was called the Funicular Railway and the lower part is considered to be the most advanced cable railway in Germany where the upper part of the railway is considered to be the oldest electric-powered cable car line and is all made out of wood. We got on and rode all the way up to the highest point in Heidelberg, Konigstuhl Mountain. The elevation is 1,864 feet and when we were up there all we could see was fog… very disappointing but at the last minute the fog let up just enough that we could see the town a little bit! If I had been totally sunny that would have been one of the COOLEST views ever!!!!!

We walked down and through the old town, walked around the Church of the Holy Spirit that was built in 1400 by the King of Germany. And then the Hotel Zum Ritter St. Georg, one of the few mansions to survive the war. It was really beautiful!

We hadn’t ate much all day so we stopped in at this little cute German place and sat there for a while talking and ate a delicious chicken in mushroom sauce and friend potatoes!!

We walked around the old town still and looked through all the shops and places. There is also a University in the town and we walked around the square and campus. At one point there was a school prison where people would be thrown into for getting in trouble. They used it all the way up until the mid-1900s.

We then walked around and went to the old bridge, or the Carl Theodor Bridge which has an old gate on one side. There is a statue of a monkey beside the gate that wishes people good luck and a safe return to the city! The monkey was funny looking and we had a good time taking pictures with it.

The entire trip was a lot of fun, and the town was so beautiful! It was a small very peaceful town, very similar to Trier, just a bit smaller and even more German! I had a blast!

Our next trip is next weekend, we are going to NICE, FRANCE!!!!! BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO EXCITED! J

Köln

Sooo Kenra and Audrey both left me this week, so I am on my own for a few weeks! Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning Audrey left at 2:30 am and flew to Dublin, Ireland where she met up with her best friend Laura and her family from home. They have been in Europe for a week and now they are going to visit Ireland and London. She will be back on Tuesday. I walked Kenra to the train station at 4 am that same night so she could catch the bus to the airport in Frankfurt. She flew back to Kansas City for 2 weeks for her best friend’s Wedding!

So I am here alone but I have lots planned to do and places to go! So that same night that both the girls left I left that next morning with my friend Tiffany who is from K-State as well. I did not sleep at all that night which was a huge mistake but I thought I could handle it. I could have but somehow I got really sick about that same time.  Anyway Tiffany and I hopped on a train at 8 am and went to Köln. Köln is the 4^th largest city in Germany and is located along the famous Rhine River. It was a 3 hour train ride and I somehow managed to stay awake the whole time. Tiffany and I talked the whole way. Her and I have known each other for a year now but haven’t been all that close. It was nice to get to know her better and take a trip together without Kenra and Audrey, it was different and I had a blast.

We decided to follow my Rick Steven book and take the walking tour through town, the main thing to see is the GIANT Cathedral. It was Breathtaking!!! We walked out of the train station and there it was, it was huge and unbelievable! The construction of this huge cathedral was started in 313, between bishops and wars, different buildings were constructed and torn down, then re constructed again as they tried and tried to build this huge cathedral. In 1300 they decided to start the construction of what is standing today and they worked on this thing all the way until 1880 when they finished it!

So we gawked at this thing for ever and the inside was about the same! SO large and amazing! We then decided to take the long climb up to the top of the tallest steeple. It was 157 meters (515 feet) and 533 steps to the top and it was a very narrow spiral staircase all the way up to the top. I was so sick by the time I got to the top and exhausted!!! The view from the top was wonderful though! And totally worth it!!!

The Rhine River was Beautiful too, we got to walk all along it and even decided to take a river tour since we had an extra hour to burn till our train left to go back to Trier. The tour was pretty good, just a large river boat that took us a little ways then turned around and went the other way a little bit. I didn’t see as much and I thought I would, and the entire ride was with a hundred very loud Asians… so that was annoying but it was very relaxing on the water!

We ate lunch at a very traditional German restaurant and Tiffany had a traditional German thing I’m not for sure exactly what the name of it was but something like Black pudding… it looked ok. But I felt really bad all day, I was so sick. I don’t ever remember being this sick. But I ordered the traditional German soup and it was good! Hit the spot perfectly!

We also went to a chocolate Museum!! It was pretty neat, we were kind of short on time so we had to rush through it but it was really interesting. It talked about the different types of coco plants, where and how they grow and how chocolate is made from the fruit! It went through all of that then we got to watch them actually make chocolate on the machines and the process of how the chocolate is molded and formed. Even got to try some of it! Then at the end there was a HUGE chocolate store. This is when you could tell that I really was sick… I spent half an hour in that store and didn’t even buy one thing!!! If I was normal I would have spent $50 or more J ha ha haa

We caught the train home at 8:30 that night and it was the longest and the worst train ride of my life. I was so tired, not sleeping for so long really caught up with me. Plus on top of that I was soooooooo sick! And my body hurt so bad, I tried to sleep and did a little. But anyway I made it home and crashed very quickly!

Tomorrow I am going on a day trip to Bonn with the college group! Then on Wednesday I will go to Heidelberg with Tiffany for another day trip!!!