Cologne and Bonn

This past weekend I went on a little Saul adventure, taking the train to Germany partly because I had never been there, and partly because I thought I deserved a little break after a stressful week of midterm exams. I spent Friday night and Saturday in Cologne, situated right along the Rhine River, with many cathedrals and medieval architecture. The most impressive building in Cologne, and undoubtedly the most beautiful church I have ever seen, is the "Dom," a humongous cathedral located right next to the central train station. Not only is it extremely large, but the inside is gorgeous, and you can climb the belfry (only 533 steps!) and get one of the most amazing views you can imagine of the surrounding city, with the Rhine as a backdrop.

Most of my touring involved me walking around aimlessly, with no idea where I was going, snapping photos of things that looked interesting to me. I popped into several churches, all of which were beautiful, and also strolled along the Rhine for quite awhile. Due to a rainy spell, I decided to check out a museum, so I went to the German Sports and Olympic Games Museum, which has some really cool sports artifacts and some interesting tidbits on Olympic history. The 1936 Games, held in Berlin, were a pretty major event (in which Jesse Owens so famously dominated in track and field, much to the dismay of the German government) and they have some cool stuff from that era.

My hostel in Cologne was just a 10 minute walk over the railroad bridge, which crosses the Rhine, heading away from the Dom. I shared a room with a Japanese student from Kyoto, on a month-long tour of Europe as his first trip outside of Japan, and we seriously talked for 3 hours. He was extremely nice, and it was a perfect example of some of the cool people you can always meet when staying in hostels.

Saturday evening I took the short train ride to Bonn, where I stayed in a hostel literally located in a nature reserve that is a half hour bus ride from the city center. It was a really peaceful location, and just the type of place I needed to spend the night to recharge and relax. On Sunday I explored Bonn, which on a Sunday morning is quite calm and charming. The only people on the street were churchgoers, children, and people perusing through the humongous market they set up in one of the main squares. Once again, I got to go inside several churches, which are scattered all over, including the largest in the central square where my dad was baptized. In addition, Bonn has one of the most gorgeous parks I've ever seen, with what is essentially a soccer field-size green area facing a huge palatial building.

The coolest thing I did on my whole trip, however, was visiting the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven in Bonn. Not only can you tour the house in which he was born, but they also have incredible displays of instruments he owned and musical scores he wrote, which appealed to my piano-playing side! It is crazy to think that such an important musician was born in such a modest dwelling on a side street in a small town like Bonn. And it is amazing how much of his original manuscripts, writings, and compositions they still have in great condition!

Overall the weekend was extremely relaxing, and it was fun to be able to go out on my own and be a little adventuresome. It may seem goofy, but it was really nice to just get away from everyone and everything in Brussels and just have a weekend to myself. Luckily most people in Germany speak English, or at least enough to communicate. It was cool to see a country I hadn't seen before, and simply taking the train through the German countryside was breathtaking. It's definitely an area I would like to explore more! Oh and I probably gained 10 pounds from eating the amazing and rich food in Germany. What a place.

If you'd like to check out some of the pictures I took, my internet is being really slow about it, but I am in the process of posting them to my Shutterfly website. If you haven't checked it out, please do!! The address is:

http://saulinbrussels.shutterfly.com/