Quick Update

Hello,

I have been so busy these past three weeks and time has been flying so I have completely neglected my blog! I have a little bit of a break these next two weeks because of exams so I will try to update sometime in the near future about my trips to Munich, Neuschwanstein and Nuremberg, Barcelona and Prague. Everything is going well!

Remy

Hamburg & Bremen (January 24-26)

I really enjoyed both Hamburg and Bremen but the main thing I have to say about the trip was that it was the coldest 3 days of my life. Unfortunately, most of the things to do in Hamburg and Bremen are outside and the temperature was -10 degrees Celsius, -20 degrees Celsius with the windchill. For all of you Americans, that is about -4 degrees Fahrenheit! I never wrote about this, but I forgot my winter jacket at home (in Wichita) so I had to buy a jacket at the PGA store in the DFW airport. This was the only jacket that I brought with me to Hamburg, so I had to buy a new one right when I got there. If this gives you any indication as to how cold it was, I wore two long sleeve shirts, two coats, two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, gloves, a hat, and a scarf and was STILL freezing cold. I also got to experience my first European hostel on this trip. Our roommates didn't talk to us, which was fine since we probably spent less than three hours there. I also experienced my first of many overnight trains on this trip. Overnight trains are often taken for trips that are about six hours long and save having to pay for a night's accommodation. They are great except that you arrive at your destination between 6 and 7 AM. I am becoming an expert at finding things to do before most places open at 10 AM. I went on this trip with two of my friends, Cynthia (from USC) and Emily (from WashU). Though most of what I remeber about the trip was that it was so cold, I will try to give an overview of my trips. I'm going to try making lists to change things up.

Hamburg:

1. 7:15 AM: arrived in Hamburg/killed time

2. 10 AM: Viewed The Rathaus (town hall)

 The Rathaus (with new jacket)

Largest Apple store in Germany 

3.  11 AM: Free Walking Tour - Walking tours are offered in most big European cities and they are great for travelers on a budget because they are free (minus a tip). The one in Hamburg usually lasts about four hours but our guide cut it down to two because it was so cold. Here are some highlights:

A Cathedral with a jazz band of elderly people

This is actually the one of the coolest things I've seen thus far. This cathedral was bombed (like most of Hamburg) in WWII and left as-is as an anti-war memorial. The bells are in a minor key to indicate sadness or "melancholy".

 Hamburg has over 2000 bridges which is more than Amsterdam and Venice combined!

 The starting point of the Fire of 1842 which burned down most of the city

The building in the far right is the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie which will be completed around 2017 and costs 600 million euros to build 

4. 2 PM: Lunch on the port -Lunch was mostly just to get out of the cold, but we ate at a traditional German meal.

5.  4 PM: Ferry Ride - Hamburg is one of the most important ports in Germany, so we took a ferry ride to see all of the infrastructure. As a Supply Chain Management Major, this was pretty interesting to see.

6. 6PM: Miniatur Wunderland - This was an AWESOME museum that had miniature models of lots of cities around the world. It was kind of hard to capture in a picture, but it was way cooler than I expected and a must-see if you're ever in Hamburg.

mini airport

 This is a miniature of the exact ferry that we took earlier in the day!

7.  9PM: Checking in to the hostel/Chinese dinner/nap

8. 12:30 AM: Reeperbahn - The Reeperbahn is like the "Vegas" of Germany and prime time to go is 3-4 AM but we went a little early. They have a Beatles tribute there which is actually not very impressive.  The crowd was a little seedy, so after walking around for a little bit, we decided to people watch at one of the classier bars on the street. 

 The Beatles Tribute (they started in Hamburg)

9: 6:45 AM: The fish market - We got home from the Reeperbahn around 3 AM and had to be up to be at the fish market at 7 AM because our train was at nine. The fish market is another Hamburg must-see. It is open on Sunday mornings and in the summer around 300,000 people are there every Sunday (I think). They had delicious fish and a live band! 

Bremen:

Bremen was very different than Hamburg. They had an awesome Rathaus which is a UNESCO Heritage site. Everything in Bremen is centered around the story of the Musicians of Bremen, which I still need to look up, but there are statues of a horse with a dog, cat and rooster on its back all over the city. Bremen was not quite as cold as Hamburg, which was nice. Beck's beer is brewed in Bremen, so we ate a the restaurant featured by the brewery. We also went to the Schnoor which is the oldest part of Bremen and has lots of little boutiques. Here are some pictures from the day:

 Making a wish on the statue!

 Schnoor

 The most important Ronan statue in Europe

The Running Dinner:

Before Hamburg in Bremen, WHU sponsored a running dinner (also called progressive dinner) where we got in groups of five and had a different course of a meal with a group of different German students. This was a very bizarre experience but featured great memories, food and meeting lots of new Germans! Here are some pictures: 

Also, that weeks Tauschie Tuesday featured food from Japan, including plum wine and SUSHI! So delicious!

Heidelberg & the Regional Tour (January 17th & 18th)

            

Two weekends ago I went on a day trip to a German town called Heidelberg and on a tour of the region! One of the good things about Vallendar is that it is only a short train ride away from lots of cool “day trip” type locations in Germany. On Friday, a group of us visited a historic town called Heidelberg and on Saturday, the WHU International Relations Office sponsored a regional tour to visit a castle, a brewery and a local German restaurant.  After that, we had the quietschie (which means freshmen) party on campus themed “WHUps I Did it Again” or 90’s, though they did not play any Britney Spears music to the most people’s disappointment.

Heidelberg:

Since I am behind on blogging, I’ll just hit the highlights of each trip. Heidelberg is one of my favorite towns that I’ve been to in Germany so far. It has a partially destroyed castle that’s on a hill, which gives a great view of the historic city. It is right on the river so there are some beautiful bridges there. Heidelberg also has the longest pedestrian shopping street in Germany (maybe Europe, but don't quote me) where we stopped for some traditional German food and desserts (Pictured Below).  As in every German town, there are some beautiful churches in the area as well. 

The group that went to Heidelberg 

My friend Cynthia and Me on the very cool train to the castle (actually was lame)

Pics from the Castle that we never figured out the name of

 Shopping Street

 Food

 Some unique stained glass

 Me and My Schneeball (Snowball), a German pastry

The Regional Tour:

For the regional tour, which was sponsored by the International Relations Office, we visited the Marksburg Castle, the Lahnstein Brewery and had a traditional German dinner at a restaurant called Maximilians. The Marksburg Castle is unique because it is one of the only castles in the area that is still intact post World War II. One thing that’s interesting about Germany is that many of the landmarks and attractions (or even full cities) have been restored from damage sustained during World War II. At the brewery, we had a tour from a very interesting guy nick named “Ozzy” after Ozzy Osbourne followed by my first ever beer tasting! Surprisingly, I didn’t hate all of the beers that we sampled.  The last event of the day was dinner. We were all so hungry that we mistook a hot stone, which was set out to warm our platter, as bread and even tried to cut it. When the food came out it was great! We shared a platter of schnitzel, steak, potatoes, pork, noodles, corn, fried peaches and much more amongst our table and were almost able to finish it!  After dinner we finished the night at the WHUps I did it Again Party which was very fun!

Marksburg Castle

 This was a punishment device used for women that talked to much. They would have to stand in the square with this on and if they talked, people would throw tomatoes at them.

Lahnstein Brewery

"Ozzy"

 Beer Tasting

 Maximilians!

WHUps... I did it again!