This weekend was the second of four class trips for the German Politics and Culture class. We started off on friday (as opposed to thursday like for Berlin, but still ridiculously early in the morning) and headed first to the small town of Bochum, where we toured a giant movable structure for a steel mill, which is now a concert venue for a nation wide arts fiestival. On of the most interesting plays that it hosted depicted the story of soldiers marching off to war, a fiance left at home, and a widdower. These three stories took place on three seperate stages in the giant hall, and seven times during the performance, the audiences seats would shift (silently and unnoticably) until they were in front of another stage. Also in Bochum we took yet another bus tour, and then went to the National German Steel Mine Museum. For this museum, you took an elevator down into a series of tunnels, where there were a ton of huge machines and various set-ups that would have been used in a steel mine. It was actually most impressive how the hell they got all of that huge machinery down there. I didn't really learn much about steel mining, but the mine shafts made for an excellent giant playground for college kids...
That evening we arrived in Köln and checked into our hotel. A couple of random notes about the hotel: the bar soap was bright orange and smelled like starbursts, they had an amazing breakfast selection, and a chair that was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep every time I sat in it, I didn't need to sit in it to fall asleep though, because that bed was probably the most comfortable bed i've slept in. ever. We then went to our welcome dinner, where we got to sample Gaffel Kölsch, one of the 24 varieties of the local beer, Kölsch, in Köln. The next morning we took a bus tour of the city and saw the roman ruins in the town, as well as where the famous and ridiculously expensive eau de cologne was first made. We then took a walking tour of the city which ended at the Kölner Dom, which at one point was the highest building in the world, after it's construction which (epically failed) only took 600 years to be built. After WWII, pretty much the entire city of Köln was leveled, with the exception of the Dom, which was relatively unharmed by some stroke of extreme luck. It was a beautiful day and at this point a couple of us decided to walk through the old town and down by the Rhine river. Later that afternoon we had a choice of two museums, and I chose the Roman museum, until I realised that I had already been to it, and then went to the Olympia museum, which was a short history of sports and the olympics, and was located directly next to the chocolate museum, which we visited next. At other meals in Köln i also sampled Gilden Kölsch, Reissdorf Kölsch, and Dom Kölsch (Dom was my favorite).
The next day we left Köln and headed to Bonn, which is a small city of 30,000 which used to be the capital of Western Germany and was the birthplace and hometown of Ludwig Van Beethoven...and that's about it. We had a guided tour through a german history museum, which was very good, mostly due to the fact that our tour guide was extremely funny. We then headed back towards Bremen, attemped to stop at the american embasy (McDonalds) but missed the turn and luckily found a Burger King to raid (as we were in the middle of nowhere at this point, and pretty hungry).
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Bremen, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein
It's been a while since I last updated this blog, but i've also been very busy.
(Niedersachsen)
To start off, the weekend after we went to London, we had two day trips with the German Politics and Culture class. The first was to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp from WWII. The camp was originally a residence for workers at the nearby military base, and then later was converted to a prison of war camp for captured Russians. The concentration camp portion of the camp was later built by the holocaust prisoners, completely separate from the Russian POWs. While Bergen-Belsen was not an extermination camp, thousands of jews, gypsies, and other minorities stil died in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, most of the camp was burned down to prevent the spread of disease when the camp was liberated by the americans, so all that is left was the basic infrasturcture (military transportation and train line) and the memorial museum, which included a series of video interviews that related the stories of the experiences of survivors that went through Bergen-Belsen.
(Bremen)
The next day, we took a quick train to Bremen-Burg to make a change to go up to Bremerhaven (A port that is part of the Lander of Bremen, but is not physically connected to the original Lander). We were informed at this point that the train to Bremerhaven was delayed by 1/2 hour, and then later that the train had broken down and was cancelled (fortunately we had the teachers with us who could understand the german announcement at the station). We were able to call ahead to the Bremerhaven emigration museum and get an extension on regular hours for our group and then catch the next train up to Bremerhaven. The Bremerhaven port was a major port for emigrants to America and all over the world, and the museum gave a very good feel for what it might have been like to emigrate across the ocean (it won the best european museum of the year award last year i believe). The museum was very interactive and simulated the boarding process, life on a ship, and the arrival and testing process (I passed the written test, yay!).
(Jacobs)
The following weekend us Lafayetties hosted a pajama party for Jacobs which we had organised with some help from the college. We started off with a presentation about Lafayette College for the Jacobs kids, which to no surprise was pretty sparsely attended. To my surprise however, the party went pretty well the rest of the night and a good number of Jacobs kids came (the fact that one of the DJs was from Jacobs and knew more international music might have helped). Lauren (from Lafayette, studying in Madrid) also arrived on Friday.
(Schleswig-Holstein)
On Saturday we took a train up past Hamburg to Lubeck. Lubeck was a very cool medieval town. The old town was on a small island built in the twelve hundreds and remained unaffected by the destruction of the two world wars. The entire town was paved with cobblestones and had amazing architecture throughout, including the hospital, which looked more like a decorated fortress than a medieval hospital. Lubeck is known as the "city of 7 spires," which can all be seen sticking above the city from afar. We attempted to find all 7 while in the city, and were eventually successful, although they're a lot harder to find when you're actually in the city. In food news, Lubeck has some of the best Donner that i've had in Germany, and is also famous for it's Marzipan candy, which we also sampled :)
We then took a very slow two-car train to the town of Travemunde, which looked like the middle of nowhere when we first got there, but once we got down to the port (on the Baltic Sea) it was much better. A random notable feature: there are millions of ducks in Travemunde, which will come right up to you and quack and hop in hopes of getting food.
(Bremen)
Today we went to the Bremen Stadium to see our local Bundesliga team, Werder Bremen, take on St. Etienne (France). The game was packed and we ended up right next to the St. Etienne fans, who were yelling, singing, and cheering, non-stop throughout the entire game. It was definitely an experience to be in the stadium and to feel all the energy during the game, much better than an american football game in my opinion. In the first half of the game, we were located directly behind St. Etienne's net, and Werder managed to keep good control of the ball and keep it on our half of the field, eventually scoring the first point of the game right near us. Halftime remark: that was the most efficient bathroom i've ever been in, it's amazing how many people went through so fast. During the second half, Werder seemed to have much less control, but that wasn't all bad, because it meant that once again the ball was usually on our side of the field (teams switch sides at halftime). The game ended 1-0 and we then made our way through the huge crowd back towards the tram stop. There were tons of mounted police and riot police blocking off the exit of the St. Etienne's fans for their protection from the Werder fans, and we nearly got run over by the horses. Overall a very cool experience, that I would not mind doing again if timing permits.
(Pictures, Bremen Parliment + Rathous, Oldenberg, and Hamburg take 2 are still to come, now i have to do hw)
(Niedersachsen)
To start off, the weekend after we went to London, we had two day trips with the German Politics and Culture class. The first was to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp from WWII. The camp was originally a residence for workers at the nearby military base, and then later was converted to a prison of war camp for captured Russians. The concentration camp portion of the camp was later built by the holocaust prisoners, completely separate from the Russian POWs. While Bergen-Belsen was not an extermination camp, thousands of jews, gypsies, and other minorities stil died in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, most of the camp was burned down to prevent the spread of disease when the camp was liberated by the americans, so all that is left was the basic infrasturcture (military transportation and train line) and the memorial museum, which included a series of video interviews that related the stories of the experiences of survivors that went through Bergen-Belsen.
(Bremen)
The next day, we took a quick train to Bremen-Burg to make a change to go up to Bremerhaven (A port that is part of the Lander of Bremen, but is not physically connected to the original Lander). We were informed at this point that the train to Bremerhaven was delayed by 1/2 hour, and then later that the train had broken down and was cancelled (fortunately we had the teachers with us who could understand the german announcement at the station). We were able to call ahead to the Bremerhaven emigration museum and get an extension on regular hours for our group and then catch the next train up to Bremerhaven. The Bremerhaven port was a major port for emigrants to America and all over the world, and the museum gave a very good feel for what it might have been like to emigrate across the ocean (it won the best european museum of the year award last year i believe). The museum was very interactive and simulated the boarding process, life on a ship, and the arrival and testing process (I passed the written test, yay!).
(Jacobs)
The following weekend us Lafayetties hosted a pajama party for Jacobs which we had organised with some help from the college. We started off with a presentation about Lafayette College for the Jacobs kids, which to no surprise was pretty sparsely attended. To my surprise however, the party went pretty well the rest of the night and a good number of Jacobs kids came (the fact that one of the DJs was from Jacobs and knew more international music might have helped). Lauren (from Lafayette, studying in Madrid) also arrived on Friday.
(Schleswig-Holstein)
On Saturday we took a train up past Hamburg to Lubeck. Lubeck was a very cool medieval town. The old town was on a small island built in the twelve hundreds and remained unaffected by the destruction of the two world wars. The entire town was paved with cobblestones and had amazing architecture throughout, including the hospital, which looked more like a decorated fortress than a medieval hospital. Lubeck is known as the "city of 7 spires," which can all be seen sticking above the city from afar. We attempted to find all 7 while in the city, and were eventually successful, although they're a lot harder to find when you're actually in the city. In food news, Lubeck has some of the best Donner that i've had in Germany, and is also famous for it's Marzipan candy, which we also sampled :)
We then took a very slow two-car train to the town of Travemunde, which looked like the middle of nowhere when we first got there, but once we got down to the port (on the Baltic Sea) it was much better. A random notable feature: there are millions of ducks in Travemunde, which will come right up to you and quack and hop in hopes of getting food.
(Bremen)
Today we went to the Bremen Stadium to see our local Bundesliga team, Werder Bremen, take on St. Etienne (France). The game was packed and we ended up right next to the St. Etienne fans, who were yelling, singing, and cheering, non-stop throughout the entire game. It was definitely an experience to be in the stadium and to feel all the energy during the game, much better than an american football game in my opinion. In the first half of the game, we were located directly behind St. Etienne's net, and Werder managed to keep good control of the ball and keep it on our half of the field, eventually scoring the first point of the game right near us. Halftime remark: that was the most efficient bathroom i've ever been in, it's amazing how many people went through so fast. During the second half, Werder seemed to have much less control, but that wasn't all bad, because it meant that once again the ball was usually on our side of the field (teams switch sides at halftime). The game ended 1-0 and we then made our way through the huge crowd back towards the tram stop. There were tons of mounted police and riot police blocking off the exit of the St. Etienne's fans for their protection from the Werder fans, and we nearly got run over by the horses. Overall a very cool experience, that I would not mind doing again if timing permits.
(Pictures, Bremen Parliment + Rathous, Oldenberg, and Hamburg take 2 are still to come, now i have to do hw)
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