Homeward These Shoes

Green Mountain Girl went to Berlin!

Berlin was filled with lots of memorable experiences, all of which I was never even able to blog about. Fortunate for you, my GAPP trip blog that my teacher updated while we were traveling includes pictures and write ups of the adventures that we embarked on that week.

Traveling from Neustadt to Berlin was a drastic change, not only in appearance but also mentality. When looking out the window, I no longer saw kilometers and kilometers of vineyards and beautiful architecture, but kilometers and kilometers of concrete littered with amazing graffiti, posters and stickers. I could no longer ride my bike or run alone in beautiful cobblestone streets and trail networks, rather, I had to be street smart and understand city transportation, which I am very grateful to be over with!

These changes were both positive and negative, but they were important to experience and certainly a necessary aspect of the final stages of the trip before returning home!

"Big Blue"

At the Kurfürst-Ruprecht-Gymnasium where I have been attending school for the past two weeks, I was lucky to sit in on a chemistry class for several periods. The teacher brought me and another student to the back room to show us the "Big Blue" of the school. "Big Blue" is a very large copper sulfate crystal...so large that it holds a record in the Guiness World Book! Standing next to it was great, but it just looks out of this world.

Bellow the table there is a tub of blue liquid where strings are suspended into the tub to enable crystal growth. "Big Blue" is the biggest crystal that they have grown so far. The record certificate sits in the window proudly on display. Very very cool indeed.

Here is some info on copper sulfate crystals if you are interested.

Artwork in Eva's house

Here are 4 pieces of artwork made by Eva and her mother. The house has many wonderful pieces that they have created everywhere...simply an artist's paradise!

Sculpted by Eva's mother

Also sculpted by Eva's mother, this one is called 'Rosa'. There are a serious of Rosa like sculptures scattered throughout the house, such as on the porch and on bookcases in other different poses. One is doing a single arm handstand and one is even swimming. This one was once in the local paper!

This piece was made by Eva. I see it every time I walk up the stairs to my room!

A painting by Eva's mother. It is huge, and takes up nearly the whole wall in the kitchen!

From Neustadt to Speyer and back...by bike!

Today I visited Speyer again with Carry and her host family, only this time I did not drive there! I rode 28km to Speyer with my host father on our bikes, mostly on paved bike paths and some dirt ones too. When we arrived in Speyer, we sat down at a nice cafe that had two remarkable guitarists playing on the street for money. They did a cover of Eric Clapton's 'Layla' which I found pretty cool among other songs (both in German and English). After meeting up with Carry and her host family, we went into the Speyer Cathedral, where we viewed the viewed the crypt and tombs of the emperors, known as being one of the largest and most beautiful crypts in Christendom. People who are buried in this Cathedral include Conrad II (founder of the Cathedral), Henry III, Henry IV, Henry V, and unidentified sarcophaguses of five bishops of the Diocese of Speyer, dating back from the 12th and 13 centuries. The cathedral was beautiful and it was also very powerful to be in, because it has so much history. Information about the Speyer Cathedral can be viewed here, since I don't have a picture!

After visiting the cathedral, we ordered some ice creams then walked to the famous tower in Speyer, called the Altpörtel or Old Gate, which was built during the medieval times as part of the wall that surrounded the town of Speyer in 1176. We went of lots of stairs until we reached the top, which provided us with an excellent view of the town of Speyer, including the 3 cathedrals and various shops and smaller streets that the town has. Before riding back home, we also walked to the Jüdishces Viertel or Jewish Quarter, where we visited the remains of a synagogue and bath area. 

My total riding distance today was 58km or 36miles...not too shabby!

 

Here are the 2 other churches in Speyer...

Here are several pictures that I took from the first time I visited Speyer, but you can also visit this website to look at other things that I have seen but have not mentioned in my blog! The site is in German, but can be translated by using this. Enjoy!

Mussbach

Here is the shot of my return trip home after spending Friday night with Eva and her family at a wine festival event held in Mussbach, a town that is only a 15 minute ride from Neustadt through vineyards, cobble stone streets and fields. 

 Riding bikes is the most popular mode of transportation for many here, regardless of the time of day...

Wandertag...to Manheim

Today we traveled to Manheim for the day. We were not required to attend school at all, since it is the last week of school, and students went on their own trips to parks and other towns too. In Manheim, we walked everywhere, and one of the places that we stopped in to visit was a science museum called the Technoseum (Technomuseum). It is the German equivalent of Norwich's Monshire Museum. After spending about 1.5 hours in the museum, we walked to the main street to buy lunch and go shopping in the various shops. It was a hot day, but it was also nice to be able to wander the streets without being required to attend a tour or specific historical sight.

This shot of my two friends is from the Nano section of the museum. 

Here, my friend Alex tries out one of the displays. This floor in particular had lots of fun stations. I think that we were the oldest kids on the floor (average age must have been 7!)

Here is the roundabout in Manheim...complete with fountains and beautiful lawns and gardens!

New Neighborhood!

I am now living with Eva and her family for the rest of the week. Change is always difficult, but this was a very fun and exciting new home to live in and her family is wonderful. Eva is very interested in art, and their house is decorated with various sculptures and paintings made by Eva or her mom, who is an art teacher. It is so wonderful to be surrounded by such talent!

I explored the neighborhood briefly after school was out, and on my run I found a wonderful set of carriage roads and trails. It has become so hot here (low to mid 90's and sunny!) that it is not easy to find shade, but the dirt roads and trails wind through tall trees, so not only is it shady but also occasionally breezy. At certain points throughout the road, there are clearings. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the trails that I was running on ran parallel to the roads that I ran on while staying with Christiana's. I could see the vineyards and sections of the road from where I was running last week, which was on the other side of the valley from where I spent every afternoon running. On the way back to Effi's house, I saw a pack of mountain bikers too. Although it made me really miss my bike, I knew that it was a good thing because it guaranteed that I had found a wonderful location where many people enjoy walking, running and biking. A little bit of exploring isn't too bad after all!

Strasbourg, FRANCE

On Tuesday I was able to travel to France with Christiana's french class for their field trip. Since France is very close to where Neustadt is, it only took 1.5 hours to reach Strasbourg. 3 other American students and my teacher were able to come along as well, so we spent the day in our own mini group exploring the streets and the famous Strasbourg Cathedral and ordering delicious French food.

We were told that this is the oldest building in town.

The Strasbourg Cathedral was so HUGE that I could not even fit it on the camera without capturing much of the buildings detail...

Here is shot from when were were on the street.

When we went inside the Cathedral, it was breathtaking. Not only the architecture, but also the detail in the stained glass was amazing. Strasbourg still has many of it's original stained glass windows, unlike other cathedrals and churches who's windows were destroyed during WWII. To save the windows, they were disassembled and stored in cellars, then false walls were built to protect them even more from damage.  It was quite a process, but well worth it I'd say!

Heidelburg

On Monday, we traveled to Heidelburg by train to see the Heidelburg Castle. After getting off the train, we hopped on a boat tour that took us alongside the beautiful countryside, where castles and various old buildings littered the hillsides. We also passed through 2 locks, which are sections of the river where the water level is either raised or lowered in order to allow boats to travel in different water levels. It was interesting to look out in front of the boat before entering into the locks, because it looked as if we were just going to keep floating off the dams until we would land after dropping quite a bit...that would have been exciting...

A small castle alongside the Neckar. There were amazing sandstone cliffs next to this one castle. I imagine that the sandstone here would be amazing to climb on!

Here, we are coming closer to the town of Heidelburg. It was a hot day and there was some shade on the boat, but not nearly enough to keep us all from heating up from the sun exposure!

First sight of Heidelburg!

When we finally hopped off the boat, we had some time to eat lunch at the Heidelburg cafeteria. At the cafe, you could  get as much food as you wanted, but at the register you weighed the food to determine how much you owed. I thought that was interesting. Heidelburg is also a University town, so we were surrounded by many college students. Most were German, but we did hear English at some tables which made us excited. We also found Ben & Jerry's ice cream, a rare treat here in Germany because usually it is very expensive. But the prices this time were reasonable, and many bought little cups of their favorite flavors. 

We took a train up to the Heidelburg castle, where we met our tour guide who was dressed up in the fashions of the time that the castle was inhabited by noble figures. I felt bad for him because it was extremely hot, and he was wearing a bushy wig, a big black hat, various shirts and a wool vest. In addition to his outfit, he also was a great tour guide. He had great humor and helped us have fun while viewing such a remarkable estate. 

Here is a model of the castle (once it was finished) before it was destroyed a bit from various attacks.

On the outside wall of this building, there were statues of the nobles between every window (it was about a 3 story section of the castle!). This one we liked especially, because of the way his finger is laying on his sword. A bit immature, but back during those times it was a way to show others that they were still able to fight sufficiently because they had the most important fingers for pulling a bow & arrow. That's what our tour guide explained to us, while he held out his own middle finger and joked that in America that is what angry drivers like to do with that finger these days...

A shot from the balcony down on the town of Heidelburg. 

The building in the center of the picture is a church. 

After arriving back home to Christiana's house, I went to her younger brother's school concert, where he played his violin in the mini-orchestra. In addition to the strings, there were was singing. After the concert was over, the Bickert's took me out to their favorite Greek restaurant in Neustadt. There, I ordered döner kebab and a salad and talked about my stay in Germany. It was a great way to end such a busy day and I certainly appreciated their kindness in taking me out. On Tuesday, I left their house to live at Eva's, which is on the opposite side of Neustadt.