My Birthday!

My birthday is today!

It's been far too long since my last post, so this is going to be a long one.

I arrive in Weilheim and meet my family!  (From left to Right)  Here is Manu, Me, Bernhard, Tina and Mona.

The second day I was there we biked some 40 km to Ammersee, a nearby lake!  The weather was beautiful, and the water was nice and warm.

Me and Neuschwanstein.  The castle is much more majestic in appearance then it is inside, but we had a very fun trip.

The view from the back of castle Neuschwanstein.

Hohen-schwangau, the nearby less majestic castle dwarfed by Neuschwanstein.

Near the end of the Neuschwanstein tour.

Next: trip to Munich!  Here is the church in the Marienplatz square.  Every day at 11 o'clock little puppets are turned in circles up in the tower to the amusement of the tourists below.

It's a really big church.

On the old Olympic tower in Munich!  It's the tallest structure in the city, and behind me you can see the stadium made for the Games in Munich back in the 70s.

We also visited the BMW museum, near the BMW headquarters.

Hiking in the Alps, now!  Near the skiing resort of Kitzbuhl (I think that's how you spell it), we had a great view as we hiked.

Gorgeous mountains in the distance.

We hiked to a small Biergarten out in the alps to visit Tina's cousin Sylvia, here seen next to Bernhard and Oma.

It was a fairly long hike from the skii station seen here.

Again, amazing views the camera failed to capture.

And some great Eis afterward!

And the Bavarian countryside is absolutely beautiful.

Bayern ist schön.

I've seen quite a lot of stray cats during my stay in Germany.  They tend to wander around fields and then sleep on the tables in Biergartens.  Or sneak into Bars.

The view of Weilheim from my home in Tankenrain.  Not the clearest view of the mountains though.

On the Train to Munich!

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post.  A lot has happened. 

Okay, right now I'm on the train to Munich, riding second class.  The German countryside is incredible, and stunningly beautiful. 

The guy sitting next to me just walked in our second class room with a beer.  Europe is different in many ways.

Though before I left, I got to feed the donkeys!  Here is Kurt, happy to be fed.  

Here is the Pingen's cat, Paul.  They say he is "nicht freundlich", meaning not friendly, though he was always nice to me.  Maybe I'm just used to very mean cats at home.

Here is all of the exchange students and Anja and Olga, our orientation and German language course teachers at the going away party two nights ago.  

My wonderful host family this morning, before we left for the Koln Banhof. 

Day in Cologne. (Der Kölner Dom)

 The Cologne Cathedral. None of my pictures seem to be able to capture it's massiveness.

Picture from the bottom.  On the left you can see the renovation projects that have been nearly constant on the cathedral.  The old stone is frequently falling into disrepair.

I loved the all the Gothic architecture at the Cathedral, but the statues were fascinating.  I suppose these are disciples or something.  The entire Cathedral had hundreds of statues from top to bottom.

Two more of the many incredibly old statues there!

Again, the architecture was fascinating.  I took a particular fondness to this gargoyle-looking statue thing protruding of the side as I ascended to the top of the 150 meter tall Cathedral.

A closer look.

The Cathedral had a splendid view of Cologne from the top.

The train station is right next to the Cathedral, making it an extremely popular tourist attraction.

Great view of the Rhein as well as the city.

I like panorama pictures, though most of the ones I try end in tragedy.  One of the twelve Romanesque churches in the middle, for example.

Still a long climb from where we were alowed.

One of the twelve Romanesque churches that surround the Cologne cathedral.

More statues at the top!

Lovely  Köln!

Many of the churches that surround the Cathedral are almost as old as Köln itself.

Another shot of the Cathedral from afar.  Another attempt to capture on my camera just how huge it is.

After the visit to the Cathedral we went on a tour of Köln along the Rhein!  Here is one of the great medieval towers along the river!  There are more pictures like this to follow.

Another shot of the Cathedral with one of the Romanesque churches.

 An old tower behind the chocolate museum of Köln!  I didn't actually get to visit it that trip.  I hear they have a chocolate fountain!

Another tower! Hooray!  Old buildings!

 There are many buildings like this in Köln. So old!  So nifty!

I really liked these buildings.  There is another one like that too, over to the left.  I have no idea why they are like that.

 More old churches!

And more!

 The cathedral and the theatre.  They are currently showing "Die Schöne und das Biest."

A view of the cathedral doors and one of the squares in front of it.  Unfortunately this was not the square with the people acting like statues or making giant soap bubbles.

First Days

Hello All,

So, after a long and exhausting trip over the span of 2 days which were as long as 3, I successfully made it to Titz, Germany.  This is where I'll be staying for the next 4 weeks during language and culture study.  School just barely ended for the year here.

 First flight from Ontario to Denver: can you see the Colorado river?

Second flight from Denver to Washington Dulles: I liked the views of the clouds.

Third flight across the Atlantic the next day.  8 hour flight, although we left at 3:30 PM and arrived at 5:10 AM.  After that we had to go through a series of trains, most of which traveled a little over 250 Km/hour.  I have great appreciation for Germany's mass transit system now, though I was sleep deprived the whole day.

After I got there they took me to see the Tagebau, open-cast mining.  %15 of Germany's power comes from the coal mined there.  It was a nice distraction from my exhaustion, so that I might stay awake until I could go to sleep on a normal schedule.

Titz is a small town, and the mining operation surrounds a lot of it.

The view of the churchyard cemetery from my bedroom window.  The church is right next to the house and bells ring every hour.  Thankfully not at night, however.  I still seem to be jet-lagged although I slept plenty last night.

Night Before Departure

Thank you all who have helped me get this far!  Now all of the preparations are over, and it's time to adventure into the unknown. Packed and ready to go.

I depart for the airport in 4 hours.  Time to get some sleep.