Deutschlandreise (Germany Trip)

The Rotary-organized Deutschlandreise is for all of the exchange students in my district and paid for by our clubs. There are about 66 of us, so they split it into two separate trips. The first 33 of us went on a six-day bus tour throughout the northern half of Germany, visiting many different (way more than six) German cities on a tight schedule and staying in hostels. Even though it was only six days long, it can definitely take up an entire post.

 

KOELN (Cologne)

Cologne Cathedral

The Roman Catholic cathedral in Cologne is the tallest gothic church in Germany and the 4th tallest cathedral in the world. Our tour guide pointed out how it is the ‘perfect gothic church’; most cathedrals have many different types of architecture from restoration in different ages, but everything in this cathedral is completely gothic. We got a tour inside the cathedral as well as through the streets around the base, which were very pretty as well (and less gothic). Compared to many of the other places we went on the tour, this place was probably the most densely crowded with tourists.

BONN

In Bonn we visited the ‘Haus der Geschichte’, a big museum about German history starting directly after the second world war. Under the museum they had actually found remnants of an ancient Roman village, so if you went downstairs there were exhibits about the Roman Empire as well. The museum was very interesting for all of us, as I think most of us aren’t taught about what happened in Germany after the war in very much detail at school.

FRANKFURT

They are proud of their skyline

Shopping?

We only stayed in Frankfurt for about two hours, but got a walking night tour through the city. Frankfurt has a lot of older buildings and typical cobblestoned streets, but they also have a very modern skyline and fancy stores, which was quite a contrast.

BAD HOMBURG – Stayed the night here.

EISENACH – WARTBURG CASTLE

Wartburg Castle

This is the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament of the Bible into German, and I have to say, he chose a pretty nice place to do it. They had to restore a lot of things, such as the paintings, so it probably wasn’t as pretty back then, but the castle is set on the top of a hill and has a nice view overlooking Eisenach.

WEIMAR

Bach’s wife, Ann

In Weimar, the two Rotex (Rotary club for college) members leading the trip set up a scavenger hunt throughout the town. Split into groups, we had to find Rotary wheels drawn in chalk, usually at important landmarks or sculptures. It got dark and rained a bit (hence my bedraggled look in the photo), but my group had lots of fun and took a gelato break near the end (along with other groups – it was a good idea). We were all wearing our flags as well, so we got a lot of strange looks running around the town and checking the outside of every fountain. It was a great way to explore a really beautiful and quaint town.

BUCHENWALD

The gate says “To each his own”, which can only be read from the inside

“Crematorium”

Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp, near Weimar. We watched a short film, got a tour of the grounds, and went to a museum (which was very well done) about the camp’s history. Most of the barracks were burned down, but a few buildings including the gate and the burning building were still in tact (‘burning’ building because – unlike a crematorium – they burned the bodies with fire instead of heating them up). It was a very sad place, and also very cold and cloudy; our tour guide said that the weather is like this about 250 days a year, “most likely the universe punishing the camp”. We could see Weimar from the camp, and over there it was completely sunny!

BERLIN

Don’t worry, I will be showing you a lot more picture of Berlin.

We only spent two days in Berlin, which was much longer than any other place we had been to on the trip, but definitely nowhere near long enough. Berlin is a huge city with many entirely different areas within it. Not only does it have many very old and historic or modern and impressive buildings, it also has a lot of influence from the 50’s or 60’s, when the USA was showing off or when Russia was being (artistically) conservative, and then when the communism ended and there was an explosion of rebellious creativity. In some ways it reminded me more of Prague, with it’s post-communism craziness, but Berlin is definitely it’s own, and much much bigger.

We started with the East Side Gallery, which is the name for the east side of a long stretch of the Berlin wall. There was no graffiti on this side of the wall, so after it fell, artists from all over the world came and painted sections of it. Afterwards, we went to our hostel, which was a really funky place nearby, and then we went to a club underneath the train station. The next morning, we got a bus tour through Berlin, which was a really good idea; he took us from our more graffitied side of town to the main stretch with the fancy stores (including the largest department store in Europe after Harrod’s) and beautiful buildings, then to ‘Museum Island’, which is all Roman-looking museums and courtyards covering a large area. We drove by the book-burning square, got out at the Olympic stadium and Brandenburg gate, drove through the giant park to the Victory statue, and also saw some equally beautiful residential streets outside of the tourist hotspots. It is definitely a very diverse city that kept changing on us after every corner. Here are a few (not all yet) more photos from the tour:

Olympic Stadium (Hitler’s Olympics)

New & Old

Statue by the park

Victory Column

Old & New

We also got quite a few hours of free time to explore the city (some of the photos from that are above), which included (for some of us) walking down the more modern or classic  streets, then exploring the old church (in the middle of the city), and then walking through the park on our way back to the meeting spot. We had Currywurst for lunch, which was delicious. Speaking of food, here are some more pictures:

Currywurst! SO GOOD

Yum

Extra yum

We also ate the most delicious donairs of our entire lives for dinner.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (by Peter Eisenman)

The place we met back up was the Holocaust Memorial, a very large project by an American architect. It consists of tons of cement blocks, but the ground actually dips as you get closer to the middle of the exhibit, so the blocks there are actually really tall. The architect wanted to (using architecture) re-create what the holocaust victims felt; walking through it is meant to hint at the feeling of being alone, having the odds staked against you or loosing track of your loved ones. It was definitely a strange illusion; I took a video of walking through it with Lily and Nina (from Taiwan), so you can see what I mean. Also, underneath the entire thing there is a museum about the holocaust.

Here’s the link to the video (on Youtube) if you’d like to watch it: Walking through the Holocaust Memorial

That night, we got a tour of the German parliament building and dome, which was amazing. The outside is classic, old architecture, but when you step inside, it is all glass and white walls. We got a quick tour of the building, then went onto the roof and into the giant glass dome, which was incredible.

You can see the seats

Inside the dome

Under the dome

Looking over parliament

Hitler

Not Hitler

Sadly, I don’t have any good pictures of the outside of the entire building, as it was raining hard when we went in and dark when we came out.

Two days in Berlin was really cruel, because we got a little taste and then had to leave. I really hope I get to come back to Berlin at some point on my exchange.

AUTOSTADT in WOLFSBURG

Car museum

Audi

Porsche building

Porsche

Autostadt

Museum

Sliced

Autostadt (“Car-town”) is basically a giant theme park about Volkswagen and its brands. I’m not really a big fan of cars, but this place was amazing. There were huge buildings with historical car museums, interactive exhibits, and restaurants, but then there was a separate building for each brand (Porsche, VW, Audi etc.), which showcased the new cars and taught you about their history… and future (ha ha). You were allowed to sit in these cars, but you had to take your bags and jacket off first. The entire park/”village” was sleek architecture, high-tech exhibits and green grass. It felt like stepping into the future. The atmosphere given off by this setting, the slick cars, and the background music (or motor noises) was both inspiring and exhilarating – I can only imagine what an actual car fan would have felt there.

I also hope the staff/salespeople in the buildings didn’t mind a bunch of broke teenagers running around and having photoshoots with the cars.

CONCLUSION: GERMANY IS AWESOME.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me get here!

Bis spaeter!

Hannah