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.

 

 

Under the school was a bakery to heat the school with the ovens

 

A little garden

 

 

 

So much to see in Germany!

 

Tschüss!

 

~Alexandria

 

 

 

 

 

 



First Month In Germany

Hi there! This past week marked my first month in Germany! So much has happened in that short amount of time! I am very much looking forward to the rest of my year here! 

Monday the 11th of August:

(one month since arriving in Germany!)

On this day we visited the BIZ (Berufs Informations Zentrum), which is a german employment agency. It has many resources available to young adults looking for jobs. Our CBYX group was able to work with their programs and find jobs and assess our skills for certain professions. It was very cool to see how easy and organized it is to get help to find a job in Germany. 

Later Monday night I went to the Universitat to see two silent films. There they show two films a night from the '20s from all around the world. Is is held in the courtyard of the Universitat and can seat 1,500 people. While the silent films are playing there is live music to accompany the film. I saw the films Valentin Auf Der Festwiese and  Die Bräute Des Alten Gauners. They were both good films and the music matched the films perfectly! This was such a fun night!

Tuesday the 12th of August:

After school we celebrated two birthdays by going to the Melbad outdoor swimming pool. Although the weather was slightly cold and overcast we had fun hanging out in the pool. Post swimming we got some Eis and chilled in front of the Poppelsdorfer Palace. It is the Summer home for the royalty that lived in the main palace (the University). 

Wednesday the 13th of August:

We had a normal day of classes but afterwards we had a guest speaker from the European Union. I really liked this presentation because it was interesting to hear the history and developments that evolved to create the EU today. We also had the opportunity to discuss big topics like Immigration, TTIP, and what the future of the EU could look like.

Thursday the 14th of August:

On this day we had an excursion to a very serious place in history. We visited and toured the EL-DE House in Köln. This building is known for being the Gestapo HQ and having a prison underneath. The history shown in the museum focused on purification, race, Hitler Youth, and other various groups that were active during the war in either support of the Nazis or against, like the Edelweiss Pirates who smuggled Jews.

prisoners wrote on the walls with pencil

12 people could be held in here

Think German. Buy German. Never the Jews.

People they were checking for German heritage

Friday and Saturday the 15-16th of August:

On Friday I went to Königswinter with two friends and crashed there so that Sara, Morgan, ad I could go to the Rheinau Flohmarkt in Saturday morning. On Saturday we made it to the market and it was packed. It started to rain but that didn't stop us and everyone else from enjoying the market. Around lunch time we headed out with the things we found and went to chill and watch a movie. At the Flohmark I picked up Avatar on DVD and we watched it in english, but later on I plan on seeing it auf Deutsche! Later that night we met up with some friends in Köln and enjoyed the night with some bier that is the the ''best Kölsch in Köln''. 

Time has flown by so fast and I cannot believe that I will be leaving Bonn and all of my friends in two weeks!

I have had a blast here, and there is still time to enjoy it before I go:)

Tschüss!

~Alexandria