Nürnberg and etc.

This week, despite the rain and lack of acitivity, was pretty good. We took advantage of the fact that Manuela's mom had a pass for the transit system to Nürnberg, and it expired on Friday :(

But anyway, on Monday we were going to purchase a Museum pass to see a few museums around Nürnberg, but then we found out that pretty much all the Museums in Nürnberg are closed on Monday. Then it started to rain! Convenient! So we took cover as much as possible and saw a few churches, and I have to say they were very different from the churches I've seen up 'til that point. They weren't as elaborately decorated or... I guess... beautiful as the other churches I've seen. I don't know why that is, other than it's probably just the building style of the

architects that built these churches. Interesting fact that I wouldn't have noticed if the City Guide I had hadn't pointed it out, is that

one of the most notable churches, St. Lawrence Church (St. Lorenz Kirche) has two different steeples. I guess it was simply this way because the architects couldn't agree on one style.

<---- note. I didn't take this picture, I just realized I don't actually have a good picture of this church for some reason.

After touring a few churches we went on a sort of bus tour of the city. It wasn't that great. I wouldn't recommmend this tour if I knew what the name of it was.

I don't think we really did anything cool again until Thursday when we toured Nürnberg again. We went to The New Museum (Neues Museum) and Germanic National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) Both were pretty good, I definitely liked The New Museum better. I would suggest to anyone going to the Germanic National Museum that they should go there knowing what they want to see, or at least go more than once or something. There is way too many exhibits to go in there without some sort of strategy. But I'm glad we went! Because I would have been left wondering what it was like if we hadn't.

On Friday night we went to see Inception, thankfully the only movie the Cinema played in English was awesome!!! I loved the movie :D and the cinemas here are very different. It's kinda hard to describe how they are different though. One of the biggest differences is that the seats are all individually assigned. So it's better to book a ticket ahead of time, to be sure that you get

good seats. Because you can show up 30 mins before the show like we did, and there was hardly any seats left that weren't in the front two rows. Luckily we went back 5 minutes before the movie and the reserved seating had become available. So we had good seats! Oh and the seats are way more comfortable here. Like, my butt DIDN'T hurt after the two and a half hour movie.

On Saturday I prepared a "Canadian meal" for her family. It wasn't actually very Canadian. But I guess most people don't put gravy on their fries. I made them poutine and beaver tails. The cheese we used for the poutine was totally not right. It wasn't Canadian cheddar and it wasn't cheese curds. I should have made my own cheese curds, but I didn't know I COULD do this until it was too late :p oh well. It's hard to get what you need for a national dish when you're not in the country of it's origin sometimes. But the beaver tails were soooo gooooood!!!! They weren't really the same as actual beaver tails, but they were SO GOOD despite that! I ate way too much though, and I was actually scared my stomach was going to like, rip, because I

exceeded maximum capacity.

<-- my delicious creations

Anyway, it's now Sunday morning and the sky is overcast, yet again. Today we're going to see a musical somewhere. Tomorrow we will go to Neuschwanstein and Stuttgart and Bodensee I think. It should be a good start to the week!

Ciao! :D

Passau

St. Stephen's Cathedral
A vague map

HI-

This weekend Manuela's family and I went on a trip to Passau, Manuela's mom's hometown. Passau is a lovely city on the border of Austria and Germany.

(you'll notice I've included a map. Please note that the route is NOT accurate, I actually have no idea which way we went, and I didn't really bother to follow roads when I drew that line)

It's about a two hour drive from home.

We left at about 9:30-10 on Saturday morning, and I didn't really pay attention to the time again until I went to bed that night. We stopped at an awesome chocolate and candy store somewhere along the way. This is the website :) http://www.seidl-confiserie.de/ it's in German, but if you have Google Chrome it will translate it for you. Anyway, there was a lot of samples and Manuela's parents spent a lot of money there :D it was wonderful!

Then we got to Manu's aunt's house in Passau, and sat around for a while until there was cake and tea ready :) it was lovely! There was lots of cake and I definitely ate way too much. After that we went to the city and did a little bit of sight seeing. We walked a bit along the Donau River (Danube) which is the second largest river in Europe! :O and a bit through the old city, and went through St. Stephen's Dom (Cathedral) It was yet another beautiful beautiful building. (I'm beginning to see a trend) Then we ate ice cream :3 I had some even though I didn't want any. I find it very difficult to say no to ice cream.

After that we headed back to her aunts, and a bunch of her other family was there. It's a yearly thing they do, it's sort of like a reunion I guess. All her mom's brothers and sisters get together in Passau and have a BBQ. It was pretty delicious. A few of her aunts and uncles spoke a bit of English to me :D

The next day, after breakfast we headed back out to the city and walked through the old city, and we visited the campus of the University of Passau, which is the nicest campus in Germany or something like that. It's true! It's very nice and modern and sleek. I liked it :) Then we walked all the way up to where three rivers meet, and this is what Passau is famous for. It's the Donau (Danube) Inn, and Ilz. If you actually looked out at the water at this point, you could see the change in the water where one river flowed into another. Then we headed home, stopping at the chocolate store again, but this time to the Café attached, where I had a Latté Macchiato and thought of home :3 I can't wait to have Sputnik again! Oh well. I'll take what I can get here :p

Okay well I was gonna write about my adventures in Nürnberg but at the moment I'm pretty tired and sore, and I have a lot of other things I should be doing.

And I'm hungrrrrry

okay bye for now!

Hello Again

I only blogged just this morning before I left, but I realized that I have actually done more than that. The day after we went on the walk in the countryside, I accompanied Manuela on a field trip to Nürnberg and before leaving I had no idea where we were going! But we went to this blindness-awareness centre or something? I actually don't know what the technical term for this place would be. Anyway, there was this dark obstacle course or something that you would walk through and you would have to feel what's around you and make sure you don't fall/run into anything. It was scary! I kept on blinking at first, hoping that the light would come back, but it never did. And after a while in there you kinda got used to it, but I could never imagine going blind for the rest of my life. It was really cool :) (if that's the right word) Then we went to to the Wöhrder Wiese park in Nürnberg and just chilled and ate a bit of snacks and stuff. It was pretty good, but I didn't know very many people there. The following day (Wednesday 21/07) we went to Nürnberg in the evening, we did a very little bit of site-seeing. Like, as in, we went to the castle and stood on the patio thing and looked over the city. It was really beautiful! I'm not sure if it's just the persepective we were at or anything, but it seems like German cities seem to have different skylines than North American. There doesn't seem to be any sky-scrapers. I don't know though, maybe when we actually go to a big city like Berlin or Munich I'll see some skyscrapers :D. Anyway, it was fun to just chill. Then I finally got to see Erlangen on thursday. We did a little bit of shopping, just me and Manu. It was fun :)

On the weekend I did a little partying, and maybe too much? I died on Sunday, and it has actually developed into some sort of flu or cold from being in the cold too much! Anyway, I'm getting better. It's Wednesday now, and this has been the best day since Sunday, but I'm still feeling no better than average. I'm sure I'll recover soon :D

until something else happens!

-hannah

ps, this is a link to pictures from Nürnberg on Wednesday. But you have to look after/through the Bamberg photos to get to them :D

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=461210&id=806235190&l=c69d6b5f4d

Hello Again

I only blogged just this morning before I left, but I realized that I have actually done more than that. The day after we went on the walk in the countryside, I accompanied Manuela on a field trip to Nürnberg and before leaving I had no idea where we were going! But we went to this blindness-awareness centre or something? I actually don't know what the technical term for this place would be. Anyway, there was this dark obstacle course or something that you would walk through and you would have to feel what's around you and make sure you don't fall/run into anything. It was scary! I kept on blinking at first, hoping that the light would come back, but it never did. And after a while in there you kinda got used to it, but I could never imagine going blind for the rest of my life. It was really cool :) (if that's the right word) Then we went to to the Wöhrder Wiese park in Nürnberg and just chilled and ate a bit of snacks and stuff. It was pretty good, but I didn't know very many people there. The following day (Wednesday 21/07) we went to Nürnberg in the evening, we did a very little bit of site-seeing. Like, as in, we went to the castle and stood on the patio thing and looked over the city. It was really beautiful! I'm not sure if it's just the persepective we were at or anything, but it seems like German cities seem to have different skylines than North American. There doesn't seem to be any sky-scrapers. I don't know though, maybe when we actually go to a big city like Berlin or Munich I'll see some skyscrapers :D. Anyway, it was fun to just chill. Then I finally got to see Erlangen on thursday. We did a little bit of shopping, just me and Manu. It was fun :)

On the weekend I did a little partying, and maybe too much? I died on Sunday, and it has actually developed into some sort of flu or cold from being in the cold too much! Anyway, I'm getting better. It's Wednesday now, and this has been the best day since Sunday, but I'm still feeling no better than average. I'm sure I'll recover soon :D

until something else happens!

-hannah

Hello Again

I only blogged just this morning before I left, but I realized that I have actually done more than that. The day after we went on the walk in the countryside, I accompanied Manuela on a field trip to Nürnberg and before leaving I had no idea where we were going! But we went to this blindness-awareness centre or something? I actually don't know what the technical term for this place would be. Anyway, there was this dark obstacle course or something that you would walk through and you would have to feel what's around you and make sure you don't fall/run into anything. It was scary! I kept on blinking at first, hoping that the light would come back, but it never did. And after a while in there you kinda got used to it, but I could never imagine going blind for the rest of my life. It was really cool :) (if that's the right word) Then we went to to the Wöhrder Wiese park in Nürnberg and just chilled and ate a bit of snacks and stuff. It was pretty good, but I didn't know very many people there. The following day (Wednesday 21/07) we went to Nürnberg in the evening, we did a very little bit of site-seeing. Like, as in, we went to the castle and stood on the patio thing and looked over the city. It was really beautiful! I'm not sure if it's just the persepective we were at or anything, but it seems like German cities seem to have different skylines than North American. There doesn't seem to be any sky-scrapers. I don't know though, maybe when we actually go to a big city like Berlin or Munich I'll see some skyscrapers :D. Anyway, it was fun to just chill. Then I finally got to see Erlangen on thursday. We did a little bit of shopping, just me and Manu. It was fun :)

On the weekend I did a little partying, and maybe too much? I died on Sunday, and it has actually developed into some sort of flu or cold from being in the cold too much! Anyway, I'm getting better. It's Wednesday now, and this has been the best day since Sunday, but I'm still feeling no better than average. I'm sure I'll recover soon :D

until something else happens!

-hannah

ps, this is a link to pictures from Nürnberg on Wednesday. But you have to look after/through the Bamberg photos to get to them :D

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=461210&id=806235190&l=c69d6b5f4d

guess who's sorry????!

I AM. I'm sorry, I haven't written on here in agez. I've actually been getting kind of busy. And whenever I'm not busy I'm feeling sick or something. Or tired. Being to tired to blog is a common excuse. But now I'm bored! And I'm not feeling that great, but compared to how I've been feeling for the last few days, I'm not doing too bad.

So the only really significant things I've done since Bamberg have been 1 going to Pottenstein and exploring Devil's Cave, and 2 I walked in the countryside with Manuela's mom. The walking in the countryside wasn't really too stupendous but it was relaxing and I still had a good time :D

Anyway, since it's been so long, I don't really remember what all we did when we went to Pottenstein. We made impeccable timing as we were the last tour of the day, and we were the last in the long line of people in the tour, which meant we could lag behind and take better pictures. And the tour guide had a remote thing that allowed him to play the English version of whatever he was saying about the cave. I don't know a lot about the cave, because it's more about the current visuals to me. Here's the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Cave_(near_Pottenstein)

After touring the cave we went to Goßweinstein and went to the little Basilica there. It was gorgeous! But very small. Then we ate ice cream :D (my favourite thing to do) It wasn't the best ice cream I've had in the world, but it was pretty good. It was called Chocolate Kiss :D (how cute!) Then we came home and ate pizza! Manuela wasn't able to come with us because she was studying for her driving test. (She aced it :D)

The next day, Monday, I went with her mom and her mom's friend to some trails and stuff in the countryside and forest area close to Grafenberg I think. It was nice :D

Anyway, that's all folks! (All I have time for) I'm sorry, but I wrote this in like 8 minutes, and now we're going to the bakery to have breakfast I hope :D should be delish.

I've decided it's too difficult and time consuming to post photos directly on here so, heres the link to the photo album on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=463382&id=806235190&l=8e16615923

(I think you can access it even if you don't have facebook)

LOVE HANNAH

A Blast o' Fun in Bamberg ;)

Hello folks. If anyone actually does check my blog on a regular basis, I'm sorry that I haven't been posting anything recently. I've neglected it for long enough, now I have loads of time by myself though, and I can ramble on about what's been going on. I won't go all the way back to my last blog, because quite frankly, not a lot of notable things have been happening, but I'm focusing this post on my trip to Bamberg this past Sunday, (July 11)

Okay so, we decided to go to Bamberg, as Manuela's mother was telling me that Bamberg is a world heritage site and is a member of UNESCO or something. After seeing this historic city, I can see why they would want to preserve it! Bamberg is a city known for it's beer. Although I didn't get to try any of this beer, we passed countless beer taverns and a few breweries. There was also loads of tourists and for the first time since I've been here I was able to hear people casually speaking English as a first language. Anyway, we parked the car somewhere (too far from the old city), and trekked around the city all afternoon on foot. It was a scorcher on the streets, but there was decent amounts of shade, and the buildings we went into were all air conditioned. The first building we went into was called Altes Rathaus, the former city hall, now made into a museum of some sort. A lot of the stuff in the museum was porcelin and while it was somewhat interesting, I wasn't really paying that much attention. The side of this building had a enormous, what I was told is Baroque artwork painted along the wall. It was incredible to see.

I probably won't post these in order, because I actually don't remember in which order we visited them. I think after this we browsed in a few shops and then stopped at Café am Dom, and I had a delicious piece of Austrian chocolate cake. I wish that every piece of cake I ate was this exquisite and rich.

Then we wandered off to the Bamberg Cathedral, which was huge and glorious! I didn't really get much information on this cathedral but her mother mentioned that it is almost a thousand years old, but has had to be restored a few times. It was immensely huge and I wish this could be captured in photos, but I don't think it can.

Following this we headed to the "Rosengarten" which is exactly what it sounds like. A huge garden bursting with roses, bushes and trees. I could have stayed in there for the entire day, the air was just so fresh and natural, despite the dozens of tourists walking around it was relaxing. Not only were the flowers delightful, but it was also placed on (kind of) a hill overlooking the city. The view was once again, gorgeous.

After this we wandered off to St. Michael's Monestary or something like that. This church was not quite as large as Bamberg Cathedral, but the statues and decorations were some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Manu's mother told me that people come from all over to get married here. There was flowers on some of the pews, probably signs of a wedding that had taken place recently. Anyway, like I was saying, the details and decorations were so elaborate and beautiful, and there was just us in the sanctuary for the most part, so we could roam and wander and take photos with no difficulty.

Bamberg is such a gorgeous city and if you ever go to Bavaria I would highly recommend even just roaming the streets for a day. It's definitely worth your time!

After leaving Bamberg we stopped at a tradtional Bavarian beer garden (Biergarten) for some dinner. It was nothing extraordinary but it was delicious. We ate pretzels, bread and cheese :)

And that concluded our exhausting day exploring Bamberg.

ps, I will be uploading pictures of Bamberg, but my patience has reached it's end right now. Blogger is having difficulties granting my photo uploading wishes D: