Roman Time

The Sunday after we went to the zoo we went to an old Monastery that had been built on top of a Roman temple, and then to a small Roman fortress/colony. Florian and Ann were back in town staying with Mama and Papa again so they came too before they had to head back home. I think Mama and Papa thought we weren’t seeing enough of Germany so they planned this whole excursion for us haha. Anyway, first was the Monastery, with a cool sundial clock in the courtyard:



The church was very old, I don’t remember how old it was but it must have been a thousand years at least. All of the paintings on the walls had faded away; you can barely see them above the altar. The church was pretty humble compared to others we have seen. I think it tried to stick with Roman architecture, since it was built on the foundation of a Roman temple.



Then we headed down to the crypt! Yay, my first crypt! Brian thinks its weird but I seem to have a strange fascination with crypts, dead people, and mummies. It’s only because we don’t have them at home…and it’s just cool…



Here is the altar in the crypt, and the paintings were a little bit better here. The crypt had moldings that looked very Roman but I forgot to take a picture. It was basically heads with snakes and stuff. Oh, and the bronze face by the window is supposedly John the Baptist’s death mask. Or something like that. Everything was in German so I’m just going by what Brian says.



A better picture of the mask:



Brian was trying to be all artsy fartsy with his photo skills, so that’s why this picture is all crooked. But I wanted to post it to show the different architectural styles that the church had, since it had been built over many centuries.



Then it was off to the Romangarten as the Germans call it. Basically, it was an old Roman colony, mostly made up of soldiers and their families, so it had a bath and an orchard and other things a fortress wouldn’t normally have. Here’s the model of it back in the day:



And here’s what it looks like now:



Not too exciting huh? Yeah, it was kind of a letdown for me, but everyone else was excited so I played along. We stuck around the orchard for awhile because they had plums there, and we picked the nice ones off the ground and ate them. The only part of the fortress that was still standing was one of the towers, so we headed over there and took pictures.





I thought at this point we would be going to the medieval castle I had referenced earlier, but Mama and Papa said it was too late and we had to go back home. I was pretty disappointed, but our Roman excursion was better than staying at home. :)

Wilhelma Zoo

We have done so much in so little time it seems, but I never sit down to write about it! So this is going to be a great undertaking. I will begin where I left off, with the Stuttgart Zoo – which is actually called the Wilhelma Zoo. We went there on 7/18/09. It’s a very interesting zoo because it has both animals and a huge botanical garden. It was kind of like walking through a park…with wild animals haha. The first things we saw were the penguins! The zoo was so different from our zoos back home (it was super clean for one…) because you can literally get right next to the penguins and other non-threatening animals. I could have kissed them I was so close!



Then we walked through a bird aviary, which was pretty cool because all these different mixes of birds were right around our heads chatting away. We saw cockatiels and budgies and even exotic birds. Some of them even walked on the ground and you could pet them. My favorite part of the bird aviary was, ironically, not a bird. It was a little family of wallabies! At first I was very disinterested in them because they were far away and not doing anything, but then a little baby wallaby fell out of his mommy’s pouch and was hopping around so he won me over. So sweet.



We went to the reptile exhibit next (it was so hot in the crocodile room), and my favorite was the big snake because it had obviously eaten recently. In the picture you can see the big lump in his tummy. Brian and I speculated what it might have been. My guess is naughty German children.



Next was the aquarium, where they had some of the strangest animals I have ever seen. There were fish with horns, turtles that had feet and heads shaped like rocks, and other weird things. One fish particularly interested me, because it kept its eyes above water.



The monkey exhibit was one of my favorites, because they had some really interesting tiny monkeys. They looked so inquisitive and stared at everyone and played with their monkey friends as well. I thought they were cute. There were smaller monkeys than in the picture below, but they moved so fast I never got a good picture of them. I also did not get a picture of the zookeeper playing with the 3 baby gorilla toddlers in the glass room, but Brian and I stayed there for quite awhile and watched them. They reminded me so much of human babies because they were playing inside a cardboard box. Just like human kids, they’d rather play with the box than the toy inside.



One of my absolute favorite things was the chickens! We got to watch baby chicks hatch out of their eggs. It was amazing. I mean, for a city girl it was anyway. Some chicks had just hatched when we arrived so it was adorable to watch them rest from their very stressful and draining journey.



There were of course the regular zoo animals, elephants, tigers and all that. For some reason most of the large cat animals were not out, but the tiger was awake and in his glass enclosure. You could touch the glass and get right next to him. I’m used to seeing them from a long distance, so I was amazed how big they are up close. The animals in the zoo seemed much more active than in our zoos, check out this elephant reaching for some plants!



The baby animals were of course my favorite. There was a baby giraffe, baby camels, and a baby rhino…well he was actually more like a kid rhino, but still. The giraffe was very sweet and got really upset when it realized its Mama had gone to the other side of the enclosure. Giraffes are such strange looking animals.



Brian’s absolute favorite part of the zoo was the polar bears for some reason. They were probably the least active animals we saw, since they were snoozing the whole time. Here’s big boy on his rock:



Overall it was very enjoyable. Zoos appear to be much cleaner and bigger than the ones back home. However, they are more confusing because they don’t give you maps and it was pretty hard to find where we were going sometimes. I’m glad we went though, it was a lot of fun.

Heidelberg Castle

Well I better start my post on our trip to Heidelberg Castle before my memory runs away from me. Let's see...it was Monday around noon when we finally left the flat and walked to the rail station. When we got there, we were sad to discover that the automated ticket machine does not take credit cards or bills, but only coins. 1 and 2 EUROS come in coins, but we didn't have enough. So, Brian said he would go and find a store to get money at. I didn't want to be walking around aimlessly and wasting my feet energy (we all know how temperamental my feet are), so I sat on the corner and waited. And waited. And waited. For an hour. Finally Brian showed up in the opposite direction waving his arms and carrying a large bottle of Fanta. Well, at least he showed up with some drink. Apparently he got lost on the other side of the village, finally had some German kids direct him to a baker who was open, and then had to make his way back to the rail station. So, we actually didn't get to the Castle until almost 2pm. Thankfully the sun doesn't set until 10pm here, so we had plenty of time.



The walk up to the hill was horrendous. And it was even more so because it was hot and sticky. My jeans and my shirt were just sticking to me...it was so gross. If there is one thing I hate it's being hot and sticky. But, with a number of rests up the rather steep path, we made it to the Castle. It was such a pretty view, but as you can see in the picture, I wasn't quite enjoying myself yet haha. I was still so hot though, so we went down into the cellar area of the Castle, where they keep the great tun I think it's called. Basically, it's a huge vat of wine. In fact, it's the largest in the world, able to hold 220,000 liters. That's 65,000 gallons...if I remember correctly.


Notice that the top of the tun has a flat surface and railing; it's a dance floor! How crazy is that? You can get your drink and your dance on in the same area.

Then I had to pay 50 cents to use the f'ing bathroom...yes they charge for that in Europe. After that I got an ice cream and felt better. The first order of business was to take pictures of the inner courtyard...



...and then time for the German Apothecary Museum! Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be that exciting, but I ended up really enjoying it. I love all those glass vials with the names on them, and the good smelling stuff inside. Mama actually has the same kind at her home (I wonder where she got them...they were selling them for 15EURO a pop at the Gift shop) and they are great decorative objects. Besides, I like the smell of herbs. So we wandered around, checked out some cauldrons, sniffed some things, and chuckled over the dead newts and snakes that they used to use in these potions. Cool beans.



Then we walked around the Castle grounds, taking some funny pictures, like this one:



And enjoying the scenery of the ruined Castle. Here is a picture of one of the towers that was destroyed:




This is the other side of the Castle as well. Isn't it amazing how grass grows just about anywhere. And...is that a tree?

It was getting close to 5pm, and the heat was killing us, so we decided to head home. We were so happy to get back to the flat and take showers. Overall the Castle was very interesting, hopefully the next Castle we visit will be more intact!

So Much To See

Heidelberg Castle "on fire" for the Light Festival.



The Old Bridge over the Nekar.



Me being silly at the Monastery.



The Monastery tower.



Brian overlooking the cliff, with Heidelberg Castle.



Heidelberg Castle and the old town.



After running up all those steps Brian reenacted the scene from Rocky.



The Nazi Theater.



Kisses in the Monastery.



Brian being silly.



Florian doing his best Bruno impression.



My friend the ladybug.



One entrance into Hohenheim Palace.



The ceiling inside Hohenheim Palace.



The beautiful molding of the Palace.



The view from Papa's office.



This is a special garage that two different households share. Two spots for each, and the platform moves up or down to get to your level. Genius!

So Much To Do

Saturday was a pretty busy day. Florian was being inducted into the Lion’s Club, which I guess is some kind of service organization, so Ann had to make two salads for the occasion. Finally they decided to make one salad at Mama’s and one salad at Heidelberg (which I helped with). I can’t remember what time we left to go to Heidelberg, I think it must have been around 5. The Lion’s Club thing was at 8, and Brian and I went. It was business casual so I borrowed some of Ann’s clothes. We are the same width, I’m just about 6 inches taller. Her feet are bigger than mine though so I had to buy some shoes at the German’s version of Payless. They are cute sandal wedges and I will probably wear them again. Anyway, the Lions Club was pretty boring, mostly because I wasn’t feeling too well after the car ride and because everything was in German.

I did learn this though – Germans learn British English in school, therefore when they speak English they have a British accent. This was extremely bizarre for some reason. Florian does not have a British accent, probably because of Brian, and Ann is French so she doesn’t have an accent either. It was kind of unexpected. Everyone was really nice there of course and the young man who was hosting even offered me his room if I needed to lie down. The whole ceremony of induction went on for what felt like forever. Finally it was time for the Light Festival at Heidelberg. Flo had to stay with his Lion chums, so Ann took Brian and I to watch it. She used to be a tour guide for the city, so she basically knew how everything went down. It was very interesting and beautiful, and I enjoyed the fireworks. For those of you interested in the history of the Castle, you can learn more about it here, and for the history of the Festival check here. By the end of the night we were exhausted and rolled into our beds at home. Brian and I slept in the living room on the air mattress, it was actually pretty comfortable.

We slept in pretty late on Sunday and finally got around to sightseeing after lunch time. We went to see two very old monasteries (like…a thousand years old) and a Nazi Theatre across the River Nekar. The first Monastery was very small and mostly ruins except for the tower which had been added later. We went to the top of the tower and I was surprised how high up we were, since it hadn’t felt like that many steps. It was quite scary, and beautiful, so I had to get back down quickly. The next part was the Nazi Theatre, which is outdoors. I guess it was built sometime in the 30’s, and was used for rallies, plays, and other propaganda stuff. It seats about 6,000 people. Then we went to the last Monastery, which was much bigger and in slightly better condition. It even had crypts, but you weren’t allowed to go down there. We stayed there for quite awhile taking pictures of the scenery and the flowers before deciding to head back. Flo and Ann knew a really nice café so we went there for an early dinner. I had kasespatzle, again, because it is soooo good. Oh, and the other thing about Europe, no free refills. So frustrating. After a very tasty meal we headed back to the apartment and watched a movie before going to bed early, since Flo and Ann had work in the morning.

Monday found us at Heidelberg Castle and some parts of the city. Since this post is going to be ridiculously long, I will blog about this part of the week later, along with some pictures.

Brian and I decided to head home bright and early to Stuttgart on Tuesday. We took the bus to the train station and bought our tickets. We took a medium fast train. There are three different types of trains (I think). There is the regional train, which is the cheapest and the slowest, then the train that we took, and then there is the ICE which is like 200+mph and more expensive. Our train ride was very nice as we got to see the countryside. It took about 50 minutes total, about half the time it takes in a car. I think we were probably going 80-90mph. The train was very nice and comfy as well – more room to stretch your legs than in an airplane. Then we took the bus home from the train station. Brian and I were so happy to be “home” in Stuttgart with the slightly colder and less humid weather. We caught up with Mama and Papa before heading to bed early to catch up on lost sleep in Heidelberg.

Wednesday was pretty laid back, mostly a day of resting our tired feet and minds after all the excitement in Heidelberg. Brian did some studying to prepare for the archives as well. After dinner, Papa took us to visit Hohenheim Palace. The palace was turned into Hohenheim Institute, where Papa works as a professor and botanist. We walked around the grounds, took pictures, and Papa even took us to his office and laboratory. The view from his office is pretty amazing. We could even see someone in a hot air balloon! Then we went home and Brian and I watched The Sandlot on my laptop before bed.

Thursday was a rather exciting day, though we didn’t do much physically. Mama took us to the travel agency so we could ask some questions about the Euro pass (a rail pass that you can use throughout Europe). While we were there we also asked about Paris, which is fairly easy to get to from Stuttgart. Lo and behold, we ended up booking a 3 day trip to Paris while we were there! We leave Friday the 24th and come back late Sunday night. We are staying at the Opera Hotel in the Opera Quarter of Paris. We also got a bus pass for the city that lasts three days. All together for the rail ticket, the 2 nights at the hotel, and the bus pass it was 226EURO, or about 300USD. I think that is pretty good. So, we are very excited! We also set up a plan for traveling between August 3-August 23, but until that is finalized I don’t want to post anything. We have someone to stay with in Zurich hopefully, as well as in Hamburg, which will cut down on Hotel expenses. Our travel plans are looking great so far!

So far we don’t have any definite plans for this weekend – though we do need to do our laundry. I think we will try and go to Stuttgart Zoo and visit the best preserved medieval castle in Germany (can’t remember the name, it starts with an N). Mama and Papa also want to take us wine tasting in the Rhineland, so hopefully the weather will be good. Still no ring yet, sorry Mom and Dad. I could hound Brian for it, but I know he has some great plan and I don’t want to ruin it. :)

Pictures

Here are some pictures to accompany the last blog post:


Mama and Papa with Brian after opening their presents!


See the lady with the ski poles? This is called Nordic Walking here. It is very popular for exercise! I think it's hilarious and had to take a picture in case no one at home believed me.


The creek just behind Mama and Papa's house.


The view from the gazebo in the Hohenheim garden.


Me drinking beer at the cafe!


Brian and I with Flo and Ann on Friday night, giving them their presents!