nothing endures but change

Koeln in 40 minutes

on our way up to the Netherlands we had a 40 minute layover in the Kölner Hauptbahnhof. so Greg and i did Köln in 40 minutes. this entailed running around the base of the gorgeous Kölner Dom (which is entirely too enormous to get a decent close-up photo of, and too closely surrounded by the Bahnhof and other buildings for one TO get far enough away to get a picture of it in its entirety), paying mad €€ to geh aufs Klo, and hurriedly drinking a Kölsch Bier at the bar before our train left:

these pictures really don’t do it justice..

prost!

Kloester, usw.

in one of the courses i took this semester we studied aspects of medieval life and culture and, being in a place surrounded by architecture dating back to medieval times (generally considered to be AD 500-1500), we had the opportunity to do several excursions. on one occasion, we visited several nearby Klöster.

first we went to Maulbronn, which was founded around 1147 and remained a monastery until the year 1537. however, several of the old buildings are still in use today as a small school that still exists on the grounds. we could even see young students up in the second floor of this part while we were there:

notable scholars and visitors of the Kloster Maulbronn have included astronomer Johannes Kepler, from 1586 to 1589, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, from 1786 to 1788, and poet and writer Hermann Hesse, from 1891 to 1892. Hesse’s novel “Unterm Rad” was heavily influenced by his stay in Maulbronn.

another interesting aspect of the Kloster Maulbronn was the invention of the “Maultasche” (similar to ravioli) which were - allegedly - first served in this dining hall:

according to the legend, a large slab of beef magically appeared before the door of the Kloster on a sunday, a day during which the monks were to be fasting (which in those days just meant that they were not to eat any Vierfüßler, or four-legged animals.) this was a dilemma because the certainly couldn’t break their fast in the plain view of God, and they certainly didn’t want to waste such good food, (and it goes without saying that they didn’t have the means to store the meat until the next day.) in the end, the monks created Maultaschen so that they could eat their meat, without God being able to see what was actually hidden in the pockets of pasta.

there was also a reallll old magnolia tree in the middle of the Kreuzweg (and, as is the case with any 900-year-old building, scaffolding in the background!):

we then visited the Kloster in Lichtenthal - just outside of Baden-Baden - which still exists to this day as an operating nunnery. other than that it is still in operation, this Kloster was a bit unremarkable (i guess they start to blend together after a while..) but the nuns were nice. and they even fed us.

here’s what the primary chapel looks like:

and this fountain in the square in the middle was pretty cool too:

after visiting Lichtenthal, we spent a little while in Baden-Baden, which is always a fun time. although the only thing any of us could really afford was Kaffee und Kuchen. it is a really lovely place to stroll around, though:

and on the way home, we stopped in Ottersweier and ate at “Steinel’s Straußenwirtschaft.” (it’s one of the places around here that serves Flammkuchen, Wurstsalat, Wein, usw. and literally ALL of the food is made from ingredients produced by the same people who cook and serve it.) really cool concept. decent Flammkuchen…and great wine!

Staufen

between the fascinating Ruinen up on the Hügel at the edge of town and the charming, small town itself (along with the great wine that comes directly from the Weinbau surrounding the ruins and village), Staufen is a prime destination for a weekend afternoon, and less than an hour by train from Freiburg.

here’s a view of the ruins surrounded by Weinbau taken from near the Bahnhof:

a few months ago we showed up, bought some wine, hiked around, and had a picnic up on the hill between the walls of the ruins:

and bouldered up the uneven stone walls a bit as well:

oh..and there’s this giant metal bicycle by the train station. that i climbed on.

hhannnnyway. just a month or so ago, i returned to Staufen on the way back from an excursion with a course i was taking for a shrumoreort Stadtführung and, of course, a Weinprobe. i learned during this visit that Staufen is - according to legend - where Faustus (the guy who sold his soul to the Devil for knowledge and magical powers) supposedly died:

die Wartburg

founded in 1067 and built beginning in 1155, die Wartburg Palas has been an important location in the political, religious, and other aspects of the history in that area near Eisenach and throughout Germany as well.

not only did Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Martin Luther spend time there (Martin Luther, of course, while he translated the New Testament from the Greek to the German in 1521 in what is today known as the Lutherstube”), but important events in the original unification of the German states in the mid-1800s took place here as well.

here’s a view of the Wartburg from the side (complete with construction scaffolding on the tower and all, haha):

and the Lutherstube:

Dresden

The dynamic of this city as a whole is really quite incredible, as the majority of the city has been rebuilt in the last several decades after severe allied bombing in 1945 when over 90% of the city was destroyed.

highlights included the lovely Elbe allgemein, the Hoferkirche, the Semperoper (which, like the Frauenkirche, was rebuilt as a very accurate replica of the original building after the war), the Residenzschloss, the Zwinger palace, neues grüne Gewölbe and of course, die Frauenkirche, among others.

a view of the Residenzschloss on Opera square. The Semperoper is behind and to the left you can see the end of the Hofkirche:

one of the most incredible and poignant sights in Dresden is the Dresdner Frauenkirche, which between the bombings in ‘45 and 1994 remained in this state:

however, beginning in 1994, a reconstruction began - using many of the actual stones from the destroyed Frauenkirche (which you can see, by the darkened bricks in the new building), and today the Frauenkirche looks like this:

the cross atop the church today is a replica of the original which was produced in London and given as a gift in 2000, and was eventually placed on top of the church on 22. June 2004 (the 60-year anniversary of D-Day). The original cross can still be seen in the sanctuary today:

here’s a view of the skyline during the sunset from our hotel window:

another one of m favourite parts of the city was the alternative/student-y/up-and-coming area. This place was full of chill bars, music and vinyl stores, headshops, thrift stores, and cool art.

here’s me, greg, and christian at a super-cool bar called “Mein Wohnzhimmer.” It was full of vintage art, old-school wallpaper and furniture and EXcellent music (among Portishead and other exceptional groups, they played Radiohead’s Kid A in its entirety while we were there!!!)

one final thing i really enjoyed in Dresden was the newly restored Albertinum museum. This lovely museum exhibits art from Romantics such as the phenomenal Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter (an Easter German painter from Dresden who has continued to make interesting visual art for several decades).

Insgesamt, Dresden gets a 10 out of 10 in my book. I only regret that we had limited time to spend there. I’ll definitely be back in the future.