But then, realistically, this would be the first time that I’ve said "guten tag" in the past week, regardless of my time spent in German speaking countries. I have less than a handful of German expressions that I use - guten morgen (good morning), danke (thank you), and allo (hi) – before switching over to English. It is almost shamefully embarrassing how little I used German over the past week, but it did not keep me from having a wonderful time!
This is a heads up that this post is a long one, but I kept the narration short and included lots of pictures so it shouldn't be that hard to get through. Quite a bit has happened over the past week, and I had a fabulous trip...so here we go!
Lyon, France
February 29, 2012
Take a guess at how the first day of my trip started out. I’ll give you a hint- it was in typical French style. Yep, there was a grève (strike). Of course! Very long story short, I was driven 45 minutes to the Vierzon train station by a complete, albeit generous and nice, stranger who took pity on me since no trains or buses were running north bound. I was then supposed to get a train from Vierzon to Lyon, but of course none were running that direction either. Luckily, the conductor at the train station convinced a train going to Paris to stop for me and three others, and so I took a train from Paris to Lyon and arrived just 2 hours (and 50 euros) later than planned. Stupid strike. But due to two good samaritans, I made it to Lyon!
I wanted to stop in Lyon not only to break up my trip to Switzerland, but also to see a fellow Wake Forest grad and French major, Marykate Wagner. She showed me around the city and we had a great time catching up and enjoying the nice weather. Lyon is the third largest city in France, but it has a very old and comfortable feeling to it!
We rented bikes!
Marykate is with the Hotel de Ville of Lyon.
I'm with a fancy statue.
Lyon during the day and at dusk.
On the left- houses along the river.
On the right- Notre Dame de Fourvière on the hill, looking down on the old town.
We went to Café Jeux with Marykate's friends.
There were literally tons of games on the walls that we could choose from (you can see them in the picture on the right).
MK and I
Luzern, Switzerland
March 1-2, 2012
Luzern (or Lucerne) was my favorite city of the trip. It was quaint, packed with historical buildings, on a lake, and surrounded by snowy mountains. What’s not to like? The first day I arrived in the early afternoon, and I walked around the city with a map and I saw all the sights.
The second day, I went on a tour to Jungfraujoch, which is the highest railway station in Europe and is located in a col between two mountains (Jungfrau and Mönch). This experience was one of the most awesome (as in awe inspiring) trips that I've taken since I was literally looking over the alps. It's inexplicable how amazing it was up there, so hopefully the pictures will give you an idea of what it was like. Our tour guide said that the weather hasn't been this good and clear for 3 months, so I really lucked out on a perfect day since there was not a cloud in the sky all day!
View over the tops of the alps on the left. On the right, pic of me with the tops of the alps.
The old covered bridge.
One of those buildings on the left was my hotel!
The lake with the mountains on a hazy day.
Fyi, this picture is not at all enhanced...it was honestly that colorful!
I woke up early to watch the sun rise over the mountains.
The second day, I went on a tour to Jungfraujoch, which is the highest railway station in Europe and is located in a col between two mountains (Jungfrau and Mönch). This experience was one of the most awesome (as in awe inspiring) trips that I've taken since I was literally looking over the alps. It's inexplicable how amazing it was up there, so hopefully the pictures will give you an idea of what it was like. Our tour guide said that the weather hasn't been this good and clear for 3 months, so I really lucked out on a perfect day since there was not a cloud in the sky all day!
The view towards Interlaken on the way to Jungfraujoch.
Going up the mountain in a yellow cog wheel train!
Self explanatory sign.
View over the tops of the alps on the left. On the right, pic of me with the tops of the alps.
The 20 km glacier sans moi on the left, the same view on the right with me.
Jungfrau mountain, again with and without me.
Up close to the glacier.
Jungfrau mountain, again with and without me.
My buddy for the day, Oluyomi, who is from Nigeria and is working for the Olympics in London.
The Eiger North Face mountain.
Salzburg, Austria
March 3-4, 2012
I will admit that my initial interest in Austria was due to the Sound of Music. There's just something about Julie Andrews twirling around those hills that made me want to go see it for myself. So I left Luzern and arrived in Salzburg early enough to have the afternoon to once again explore the city on my own.
The next day, I did a Sound of Music and Salzburg Salt mines tour. The two tours were completely different, but both lots of fun! The Sound of Music tour showed us around the Salzburg area and gave history of the city as well as fun facts about the movie. Our guide showed us the abbey, the house used for the backside of the Captain’s house, the house used for the front side of the house, the Cathedral for the wedding, the gazebo, and the cemetery. We even got to sing along to the songs in our van with our enthusiastic tour driver who had a strong baritone voice!
The second tour was of a real salt mine, and it was really interesting seeing how the salt is mined. The area around the German and Austrian border has traditionally been used for salt mining, which was very valuable back in the day. I went into a real mine, slid down the original wooden slides of the salt miners, and rode a boat across a brine lake (inside the mountain!). Very cool experience, although we weren’t allowed to take pictures so it’s largely undocumented.
View of Salzburg from the fortress.
I learned that "salz" means salt and "burg" means fortification area, so Salzburg is literally like the fortress of salt. The fortress on the hill just reinforces the name of the city.
Fun fact: Salzburg has 41 churches, 40 of which are Catholic. The bells seem to chime non-stop.
Another fun fact: the onion shaped portion of the towers came from both an Italian and Turkish influence, although neither actually ruled in Austria.
The main church with the fortress in the background.
The house where Mozart was born!
The next day, I did a Sound of Music and Salzburg Salt mines tour. The two tours were completely different, but both lots of fun! The Sound of Music tour showed us around the Salzburg area and gave history of the city as well as fun facts about the movie. Our guide showed us the abbey, the house used for the backside of the Captain’s house, the house used for the front side of the house, the Cathedral for the wedding, the gazebo, and the cemetery. We even got to sing along to the songs in our van with our enthusiastic tour driver who had a strong baritone voice!
The backside of the house (now used by Harvard for study abroad).
And the lake (now frozen) where everyone fell out of the boat.
Where the kids in the movie would swing from the trees.
The gazebo!
The cathedral where Maria and the Captain got married (it's not actually in Salzburg).
Mirabelle Gardens.
Do-Re-Mi
I have no shame.
Going down the slide with the guide.
We wore traditional miners suits, and the slide was at about a 60 degree angle...hence my face.
Munich, Germany
March 5-6, 2012
Munich is the largest of the tree cities that I visited, and in some senses it felt like any other big city. However, during my hop-on-hop-off tour on my first afternoon there (yes, I was the ultimate tourist, but it was the only way to see all the highlights of Munich in a short amount of time), I learned that the city has a great deal of history to it. That being said, most of what I learned had to do with Hitler and that about 80% of the city was destroyed during World War II because of the large Nazi presence. Therefore, the city had to be rebuilt, but unlike in other parts of Germany, Munich rebuilt in the old style after World War II. So in some senses it is a new city in an old city.
The next day, I took yet another day tour...this time to see castles! I visited the Linderhof and Neuschwanstein castles that were in the mountains of Bavaria, and they were both such cool castles to visit since they aren't very old (well, technically 150 years old, but that is like a baby in the world of Europe). King Ludwig II build both of these castles essentially because he was dissatisfied with his life and so he used his castles as a mental and physical escape from the real world.
Standing in Marianplatz
Looking down on Marienplatz from St. Peter's church tower.
Typical Munich.
Yes, I was scared out of my mind on this tiny little walkway.
The ornate inside of St. Peter's church.
The next day, I took yet another day tour...this time to see castles! I visited the Linderhof and Neuschwanstein castles that were in the mountains of Bavaria, and they were both such cool castles to visit since they aren't very old (well, technically 150 years old, but that is like a baby in the world of Europe). King Ludwig II build both of these castles essentially because he was dissatisfied with his life and so he used his castles as a mental and physical escape from the real world.
Linderhof
Built to be like a mini Versailles (complete with a "trompe d'oeil" to give the illusion of a hall of mirrors).
Apparently King Ludwig II liked the concept of an absolute monarchy, but since he couldn't rule with one, he built this castle so that he could be here alone and therefore pretend to be an absolute monarch.
This would be his version of the garden of versailles.
Neuschwanstein
King Ludwig II also had an interest in Medieval castles, so he built this castle.
Standing with the castle and mountains.
Neuschwanstein was built in honor of Richard Wagner, as exhibited by the front bell.
Ironically, Wagner never actually visited the castle.
Overnight Train
Night of March 6
I took an overnight train back to France from Munich, so I’m including this in the blog post because it was a unique experience in and of itself! I had a compartment to myself with a bed and sink, and in the morning the bed was folded up in exchange for pull out train seats and a table was pulled out. The train rocked me to sleep and when I woke up I was in France again! The only thing that could have made it more like an old movie was if Cary Grant had knocked on my door.
From left to right...looking into the compartment, looking towards the door, and the breakfast set-up.
So, if you have made it this far, I'm impressed. One last picture of my trip- I got lost in Paris when walking from one train station to the other (I'm still confused how that happened, I thought I was walking towards the river and ended up in the 11th arr.). Not good. I eventually found my way, and look at all the boats that I found by la Bastille! Who knew that these were there?
Ok, so that's my week in a nutshell. I know it doesn't seem like a nutshell, but I promise that it actually is!
Keep in touch!
From left to right...looking into the compartment, looking towards the door, and the breakfast set-up.
So, if you have made it this far, I'm impressed. One last picture of my trip- I got lost in Paris when walking from one train station to the other (I'm still confused how that happened, I thought I was walking towards the river and ended up in the 11th arr.). Not good. I eventually found my way, and look at all the boats that I found by la Bastille! Who knew that these were there?
Ok, so that's my week in a nutshell. I know it doesn't seem like a nutshell, but I promise that it actually is!
Keep in touch!
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