Alexandria's Adventures in Germany : Viele Spaß in Bonn und Köln!

Hallo! Diese Woche war sehr gut und wir haben viele plätze gefahren.

Okay, I won't torture you with German that may or may not be correct. :)

Time in Bonn is coming to a close, and I only have 6 days left! The idea of leaving is komisch (strange), but this past week as always has been interesting so here is what I have been up to!

Tuesday the 19th of August:

We had our third and final tour of Köln with Hartwig. We covered a lot on this tour. First we visited the St. Andrews Church. It was beautiful. Much smaller than the Kölner Dom, but still just as beautiful with intricate stained glass windows and paintings inside.

This is the door to St. Andrews

Joan of Arc

original painting in the church, hundreds of years old

After St. Andrews Hartwig lead us to the Municipal Museum of Köln. This museum focused on all things 'Köln'. There was a lot of pride in that museum. It showcased inventions from Köln, artwork, old Karneval costumes, armor, cars, and many other artifacts.

this painting shows the lifestyle of people who live on the Rhein, relaxing and feasting

atop the museum

Our next stop was at the Silverware Legend of Köln. Inside they have beautiful silverware that could be artwork. We were invited into a back room to see how a spoon and knife are made. Basically it requires a lot of pounding, stamping, and polishing.

We then visited the St. Maria in der Kupfergasse to see the Black Madonna.

Beautifully carved from wood

Our penultimate destination was to the 4711 Cologne store. While walking over we heard the bells ringing very loudly from on top of the 4711 store. It plays the French national anthem because it was started by French people. While the anthem plays, a soldier comes out on a rotating wheel (like in a Cuckoo Clock) followed by Napoleon on a horse.

there is a public cologne fountain inside the door with the original scent of 4711

French 4711 painting

After all of this walking we visited Heinemann for our third bakery testing session.

Our tours of Köln have always been very nice and enjoyable, not to mention delicious:)

Wednesday the 20th of August:

After class we walked to the Arithmeum in Bonn. This museum focuses on the history of calculating machines. I thought it was very interesting seeing the progression of he time when counting was 1, 2, and many to the industrialized calculating machine thousands of years later.

In this picture you can see string used to keep track of numbers without being able to count. It is indecipherable because no one today knows how to interpret the knots used as markers. What looks like money actually isn't. What happened was that people had 'coins' or pebbles for each thing they want to keep track of. One pebble, one sheep. They only ran into problems when they lost pebbles and the sheep ran away because they couldn't count to check the amount.

Eventually they started to mark pots that held the objects, until they realized that they could just mark tiles for the corresponding container and objects.

Many thousands of years later they came to this contraption, mass produced during the industrial revolution.

Walking home, it already looks like fall

Saturday the 23rd of August:

We had a full day excursion. We visited the Burg Satzvey Castle and an open air museum of old houses, barns, and windmills.

We were given a tour by the Countess of the Castle, an American who married a German Duke. She and her Husband keep up the castle and gardens, while their daughter organizes massive events. At the Satzvey Castle they have giant jousting tournaments, Halloween festivals, Irish Fest, live music, Renaissance fair, and many other popular events. The castle has changed so much over the centuries it has been in the family. The current castle has been expanded from the original small castle that had a moat and a drawbridge.

After the castle we made our way to an open air museum with old houses that were brought together in a village setting to preserve them. There was also a giant windmill, or two there.