What do all of these people have in common? I'm pretty sure I had the opportunity to met any of them this past weekend while we were on our group trip! We set out last Thursday for five days of straight driving, interrupted by the occasional sights to see. I was in heaven. What a perfect excuse to listen to my ipod, read my book (I was reading The Hunchback of Notre-Dame at the time) and stare aimlessly out the window for some 6-9 hours a day. Now I've come home with loads of pictures (300 in all) and lots of fun facts to share!
Germany:
To be rather frank ( pun not intended, but accepted nonetheless), I have had the itinerary for the group trip since December. I knew of only two places on the list and everything thing else I was just along the ride
for. So when we made it to Boppard Germany last Thursday I met the city with muted curiosity. Nothing much more than that. (I would have been happy to stay on the bus and read some more, in all honesty!) I am glad, however that the group trip was not left to be planned by me because I had no idea what I would have missed. We boarded a boat in Boppard that took us an hour down the river, passing little towns and villages along the way. Brittany, one of the girl sitting on deck with us described it the best, "Wow, it looks like Germany came right out of a toy box!" Indeed it does, particularly from the river where the houses and churches look small and quaint nestled at the foot hills of the mountains. From the river we traveled to Wurzburg to the Prince Bishop's palace. Not being a German history major I've pieced together that the palace (pictured at the top of the post) was the home of the Bishop of Wurzburg, who also happened to be the Prince because they combined the State and Church governments into one position, (this to me seems an altogether bad idea, but alas I was never consulted in the matter). All I know is that the palace in beautiful with frescoes and tapestries original to the 18th century which largely survived because of the fore thought of some people who stored everything outside of the palace during the air raids of WWII.My altogether favorite part of Germany however, was the little town that we stayed in the first night. Rothenburg still sits inside the original walls built to protect the city. There are a few cars inside, but larger vehicles such as our bus had to park outside the walls and lets us walk into the city. That walk was like stepping back in time to some magical place. Queue Disney music...
Beauty and the Beast, anybody? Anybody? I thought so. I expected for Belle to come stumbling around the corner with her nose in a book at any minute. Also, I must say that for dinner we found a little cafe just off the town square in view of the fountain that served the most amazing Apple Strudel with whip cream (the handmade stuff, not the gunk from a can) and ice cream.
Before heading out of Germany we headed to Mad King Ludwig's castle, Neuschwanstein, otherwise known as the real Cinderella castle that inspired the one in Magic Kingdom.
Here's where I bashfully admit that I don't have the picture of the castle that makes it look like Cinderella's castle. That picture is taken from a steal bridge that is suspended between to mountains high above a little river that you can hear but never look down far enough to see. Said bridge was so crowded that the people on it couldn't turn around. Oh, and did I mention the floor of the bridge was wood? Yea, no way I was going on that thing. My feet stayed perfectly on the ground and I am ok with that.
Switzerland:
Words utterly leave me when trying to think of a way to describe Switzerland. I think it has been my favorite country so far, so gorgeous, and we wasted no time in getting right in the middle of the beauty. We arrived at Vitznau to have lunch in the Alps.
It made me wish I had thought to read Heidi before I came, and it only got better from there. That night was stayed in Montreux, on the French speaking side of the country. This meant that my four semesters of French would be put to use and I would actually be able to read a menu without feeling like an ignorant American for the first time in weeks. On top of having the best dinner of the trip (perch fillets in this light butter sauce) we had the most wonderful view from the balcony of our hotel room!
Oh and over half the group decided to jump into Lake Geneva about 10:00 at night. I watched.
I nearly ran into the Count of Monte Cristo at Chateau de Chillon the next morning. This beautiful castle was built by the Savoy family on Lake Geneva as early as the late 900s. It is unbelievable how well things are preserved here since there was always been a constant presence of humans in the castle. There are oak posts in one of the feasting halls that are over 1000 years old and hand painting on the ceilings and walls that date to the 15th century.
France:
In addition of all of these new adventures I had the opportunity to visit two amazing sights. The first was the battlefield Verdun. I had not had a lot of background on WWI, and I'm still substantially less read in this area than her younger counter part, but a battlefield for one war is not so different from others. I'm not talking of the historical value here, these are unique unto each sight, each battle, each war. I'm referring to the point of a memorial, the action of remembering.
I have some beautiful pictures of the battlefield with scarred landscapes and patches of stunted or absent trees where nothing will grow because of the chemicals still in the soil. Up the hill there is a cemetery with 15,000 identified French troops and an ossuary containing the bones of over 130,000 unidentified troops.
Almost as interesting as seeing the sight myself was watching everyone else's reaction to the battlefield and the ossuary. After leaving Verdun we headed to Belgium to where the battle of Bastogne was fought, otherwise called The Battle of the Bulge.I'd always heard of the Battle of the Bulge, but knew nothing about it, so it wasn't quite what I expected. But it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
I'm afraid my post it already too long, and I don't want to force you to sit here and read any more. It tried to give the up most highlight from the trip. Of course, there were other places we went that I didn't mention. We had to pass through Austria, Leichtenstein, and Luxembourg to get to where we are going, so I'm able to add them to my "been there" list. For now I had two days of classes before we head out once more!
Tot Ziens!
Oh and as with last time here's the link to the rest of my pictures!
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