I was planning to write a long post tonight with a description of what I've been doing for the past few days and a few pictures. But...the hostel where I'm staying, although it advertised internet access, does not, in fact, have internet access. The other girl in my room (she has fantastically pink hair) and I have been mooching off of someone else's wireless nearby. So...just a quickie and no pictures!
I left Berlin on the 22nd for base camp in Heiligenroth, which is a small town in Westerwald region of Rhineland-Pfalz. I stayed with Markus and Birgit, distant cousins from my dad's family. Long story short: it was an awesome time! Here's the bullet list of what we did:
Jan. 22: train from Berlin, met all the family in Heiligenroth, relaxed!
Jan. 23: visited Trier, about a 2 hour drive from Heiligenroth. Trier is a Roman city founded in 16 BC and is also the birthplace of Karl Marx. Saw the Roman amphitheater, the massive Basilika, the Porta Nigra (erected in the 2nd century) which was part of the medieval defensive wall and is the oldest German defensive structure, and the Forum Baths. I also got a nice driving tour of the Mosel River valley (mondo wine production here).
Jan. 24: visited Cologne, about an hour drive from Heiligenroth. Saw the Dom (Cathedral), which is the largest building I've ever seen by far. It's also incredibly beautiful if you like gothic architecture (like me), and very cold inside in the winter. We also went on a very brief pub tour to sample some Kolsch, the beer made exclusively in Cologne. I think Markus said that there are about 100 different breweries in Cologne? We tried Sion Kolsch and Gaffel Kolsch, both quite good. Dinner this evening was in a restaurant in Nassau castle, a hill castle on the Lahn River.
Jan. 25: visit to Koblenz to see the Deutsches Eck (German Corner), the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Then a tour of Marksburg, the only hill castle on the Rhine that has never been destroyed. Construction was begun in the 1200s and it's been continuously lived in since the 1280s. Current owners are the German Castles Association and the castle houses their main office and residence of the general secretary.
Jan. 26: brief tour of the family history in the Westerwald district with Markus. We drove through the towns where various family members lived hundreds of years ago, including the town that my grandmother's mother's family lived in before coming to America. Very cool. And took the train to Munich today!
Jan. 26-28: exploring Munich.
Jan. 28-29: exploring Nuremberg.
Jan. 29-Feb. 1: back to Berlin until I head to Krakow in time for classes on the 2nd!
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