Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to finally finish the blog. Our last week in Germany consisted of a lot of class work, field trips, and studying. On one of the field trips we took a bus tour around Bastogne and learned all about the Battle of the Bulge. It really was a very interesting city that still kept a lot of historical buildings up. We also went a little bit outside the city and saw some fox holes left behind from the war.
Unfortunately, the last few days in Europe weren't the most exciting. We were in this really neat "community type" area that had a game room, a dinning room, a nice park-ish area outside, and a pretty walking path. However, we weren't really able to enjoy any of these things because of how much we were trying to focus on studying for the final.
After we took our finals we got all packed up and headed to our Rhine River cruise. Although we were all extremely exhausted from the trip and studying, the Rhine River cruise was still really awesome. There were castles on either side, and little towns and vineyards going up and down the hills as we rode past. It was so pretty and quite incredible to see the houses and castles built on such steep hills.
After six long weeks of being in Europe it was really nice to be back in good ol Texas. I hope I get another opportunity to go to Europe because it was truly an amazing experience. Thank you mom and dad for allowing me to go on such an incredible trip! I love you both so much for it! And thank you everyone for reading this blog and keeping up with me during my trip!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Germany
Today started out sad, as we were all very depressed to leave the beautiful city of Paris, but also some what excited to see Germany. We drove about 3 hours and stopped in Verdun to see Fort Duoumont and Citadel. At Fort Duoumont we followed Dr. Bradford through a series of tunnels that showed what the soldiers living conditions were like during the war there. There bed chambers were the most interesting i thought. They had a bunch of bed bunks in a room, each bunk smaller than a queen but much larger than a twin. Now, that wouldn't be a problem if each bunk didn't have to have 3 people on it. This meant that six men took up the space of one bunk bed. The room wasn't even that large, but multiplying the amount of bunks in the room meant almost 100 men in this small area. I can't even imagine having to live in a place so cold and dreary.
After the Fort, we all got back on the bus and headed to Citadel. This was another set of tunnels. However, instead of walking around we got in this little cart thing and rode through the tunnels, watching videos and seeing models of what would be going on back then. It wasn't the most exciting ride...but still pretty cool to go through the tunnels. After that we headed towards McDonald's for lunch, and then got back on the bus to continue on to Germany. It was another 3 hours to Otzenhausen, so I'm really glad I fell asleep.
Alex and I are roommates once again (I know we just can't get enough of each other haha). Our room is really nice, we each have our own beds, and the room is very spacious. The hotel room we shared in Paris was gorgeous, but if you were at all claustrophobic you would have dropped dead within two seconds. This place is also very convenient, everything we would need is very close by. Our classroom is just downstairs from our rooms. There is another building right next door that is kind of a "party room". They have a ping-pong table and Foosball table. There is also a laundry room downstairs. In the last building there is an extremely nice bar that plays American music and has a pool table. It really is a nice place! And perfect to focus on school work since we won't be going downtown or anything. We had dinner near the bar tonight which was delicious! Mom, I know you said German food wasn't really that good, but this was pretty wonderful haha. We had BBQ sausage and ham for a main dish, potato salad, pasta salad, bread and some kind of carrot thing. They also had roasted corn on the cob which was delicious, and some tomato thing that had some garnish stuff on top. All in all it was a great meal and I'm really excited to eat again haha.
Well it's pretty late here...Alex and I decided to do Watson's extra credit paper tonight before classes started back up again. So we each had to watch a movie and write a 2 pg review on it. Alex watched Schindler's List (amazing movie, but I had already seen it), and I watched the movie Strike; a German film that talks about the Polish workers strikes after the war. It mainly focuses on Agnieszka Kowalska, a woman that becomes one of the founders for Poland's Solidarity Union. It was a great film and very easy to write about because of the powerful story line. But anyways time to get some sleep, night!
After the Fort, we all got back on the bus and headed to Citadel. This was another set of tunnels. However, instead of walking around we got in this little cart thing and rode through the tunnels, watching videos and seeing models of what would be going on back then. It wasn't the most exciting ride...but still pretty cool to go through the tunnels. After that we headed towards McDonald's for lunch, and then got back on the bus to continue on to Germany. It was another 3 hours to Otzenhausen, so I'm really glad I fell asleep.
Alex and I are roommates once again (I know we just can't get enough of each other haha). Our room is really nice, we each have our own beds, and the room is very spacious. The hotel room we shared in Paris was gorgeous, but if you were at all claustrophobic you would have dropped dead within two seconds. This place is also very convenient, everything we would need is very close by. Our classroom is just downstairs from our rooms. There is another building right next door that is kind of a "party room". They have a ping-pong table and Foosball table. There is also a laundry room downstairs. In the last building there is an extremely nice bar that plays American music and has a pool table. It really is a nice place! And perfect to focus on school work since we won't be going downtown or anything. We had dinner near the bar tonight which was delicious! Mom, I know you said German food wasn't really that good, but this was pretty wonderful haha. We had BBQ sausage and ham for a main dish, potato salad, pasta salad, bread and some kind of carrot thing. They also had roasted corn on the cob which was delicious, and some tomato thing that had some garnish stuff on top. All in all it was a great meal and I'm really excited to eat again haha.
Well it's pretty late here...Alex and I decided to do Watson's extra credit paper tonight before classes started back up again. So we each had to watch a movie and write a 2 pg review on it. Alex watched Schindler's List (amazing movie, but I had already seen it), and I watched the movie Strike; a German film that talks about the Polish workers strikes after the war. It mainly focuses on Agnieszka Kowalska, a woman that becomes one of the founders for Poland's Solidarity Union. It was a great film and very easy to write about because of the powerful story line. But anyways time to get some sleep, night!
I Love Paris! cont...
The D'Orsay Museum was really spectacular! My favorite things to see there were the Degas Ballerina's and the Toulouse Lautrec collection. After the museum we headed back over to the Louvre. We had already seen a few things there, but Alex ended up showing me a part of the "Da Vinci Code" so we decided to go back and look at the same paintings they showed in the movie. It was pretty cool to see it all right in front of us. Well after that we were so tired from all of our walking that we decided to head back home and relax for a little bit before dinner.
We laid down for awhile just to catch up on some rest. Then we took showers and got ready to meet a few people downstairs for dinner and our last night out in Paris. We took the metro down to the Latin Corner to experience some of the early night life, and just see the area. It was a really cool spot. There were a lot of really neat cafes and bars all along the streets it was really cool. We had a nice dinner at one of the cute little restaurants down the street. After dinner we decided to head back near our hotel, get a few bottles of wine and then go sit in front of the Eiffel Tower as a group. It was a lot of fun, there's so much going on at the Eiffel Tower at night and every time it lights up it is so pretty! At first it was Michal Ann, Stephanie, Cam, Alex, Daniel, Kaitlyn, Allison, Alan and I, but then about an hour later Kyle, John and Rex joined our group. It was a great way to spend our last night in Paris!
We laid down for awhile just to catch up on some rest. Then we took showers and got ready to meet a few people downstairs for dinner and our last night out in Paris. We took the metro down to the Latin Corner to experience some of the early night life, and just see the area. It was a really cool spot. There were a lot of really neat cafes and bars all along the streets it was really cool. We had a nice dinner at one of the cute little restaurants down the street. After dinner we decided to head back near our hotel, get a few bottles of wine and then go sit in front of the Eiffel Tower as a group. It was a lot of fun, there's so much going on at the Eiffel Tower at night and every time it lights up it is so pretty! At first it was Michal Ann, Stephanie, Cam, Alex, Daniel, Kaitlyn, Allison, Alan and I, but then about an hour later Kyle, John and Rex joined our group. It was a great way to spend our last night in Paris!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)