Frankfurt and Marburg with Dad

For Christmas my Dad came to visit me. We got a hostel in Frankfurt, but then spent Christmas day in Marburg. It was raining, but luckily only a bit, so we walked up to the castle and looked through the museum.

They had a lot of really cool things from past occupants of the castle.

We walked back down through the city and I showed him around.

The next day we spent some time in Frankfurt. This is the Frankfurter Dom, where they were having a mass.

We went to the Shirn art museum to an exhibition called “Privat” that was really cool. It was looking at how photography and film, as well as the internet and social media have turned private life 1) into a thing of the past to some degree, and 2) art. It was super interesting.

Then we walked around Frankfurt some more.

In the afternoon, we went to an architecture museum that was across the river.

There was a great view from the river bank of the city.

There was a really cool bridge as well.

We also saw a really small smart car.

The tallest building in Frankfurt had really cool yellow lights on the top.

Overall we both had a really great time, and my next post will be about our time in Munich.

Cologne

My friends Lindsey, Julia, and I took a day trip to Cologne (Köln in German). We used a schönes Wochenende pass and took the train.

Right outside the train station is one of the best sights of Cologne, the Kölner Dom. It’s one of the biggest and most impressive Gothic churches in Europe.

We walked around the city in the afternoon.

We went to a chocolate factory/museum.

They had a small, faux rain forest where they had some cocoa plants growing.

Here are some of the old chocolate molds.

They offer workshops where you can make your own chocolate.

You could also order some chocolate and they would hand make it for you in about an hour, with any ingredients you want.

Let’s be serious—the only reason we were there was to eat chocolate. The gift shop was wonderfully massive, and had more types of truffles than I had ever seen.

Afterwards we walked through the city some more and got some dinner, and finished our day by looking inside the church. The detail and grandeur of the church was truly breathtaking.

Leipzig

Our IUSP group went to Leipzig for a weekend. We took a bus through the countryside, which was beautiful in the fall.

We had all gotten used to travelling on the bus by now, as we had taken it to Berlin. Lots of people slept for the four-hour ride.

Our hostel had a bar on the main floor where we met up and prepared to go out for a night on the town.

Mimi made some “free lemonade” by combining the free lemon juice and sugar packets in her water bottle.

Both nights most of us went to a bar in the old city that was really cool. It was inside a recently excavated medieval church that was primarily underground. They had live music both nights and it was really fun. Unfortunately it was too dim to take any good pictures.

The next morning we were all worn out, but were up bright and early to go on a walking tour.

The building in the center is Leipzig University, and during warmer times of year there is a fountain.  The entire area was absolutely gorgeous.

We spent some time going through the old city (altstadt), which wasn't quite as beautiful as Marburg but still lovely.

We visited Nikolaikirche, the church of St. Nicholas.

Outside:

Inside:

More of the city.

J.S. Bach spent a lot of his life here.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the city and scenery. As a whole, Leipzig is definitely the most beautiful city I've been to so far.

We took a bus tour in the afternoon, and took a break at "The Monument to the Battle of the Nations," which commemorated Napoleon's defeat in Leipzig. It's definitely the biggest monument I've ever seen at 91 meters tall (just short of 300 feet) and had some really lovely walking paths around the perimeter. 

That evening we took a trip to the Leipzig Zoo, which is one of the best Zoos in Europe.

Come at me bro!

Penguins!

Lindsey likes interacting with fish.

It has a huge dome that contains a tropical rain forest that acts as an artificial nature preserve. It took us a good 30 minutes to walk through the whole thing, and we were hot from the artificial temperature and humidity.

Overall, Leipzig was a wonderful city. It was beautiful and much bigger than Marburg without being overwhelmingly big like Berlin. It is definitely my favorite German city so far, and I would really like to go back sometime before I head home in June.