This is a bit late, but about a week ago I went to visit Ching (about 2 hours away) for the weekend and we did a bit of sightseeing we had a great time.
About 2 weeks ago, Ching contacted me and asked if I wanted to spend the next weekend with her and travel to another city with her. I have a great host family here so they told me I'm welcome to leave Friday-Sunday (and even longer if I wanted). So Ching and I started making plans. We considered Ludwigsburg, Cologne (Köln), Bonn, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt.
On Friday morning I boarded a train going from Bickenbach (my local train station) to Frankfurt to catch a train to Koblenz to meet Ching. I got to the train station early so took an earlier train. I made it to the main station (Hauptbahnhof) in Frankfurt and had time to eat lunch and explore the station a bit before boarding my next train. I really love all of the hauntbahnhofs I've seen so far here in Germany. They're a great combination of old and new architecture and they're fascinating. I also love the train system here, it's timely, safe, and somewhat affordable (especially if you travel in groups.) After an hour or so in Frankfurt, I boarded my train to Koblenz. I enjoyed the beautiful train ride along the Rhine River. There are castles built all along the river and there are also vineyards and beautiful villages and houses. It was a nice ride.
I was so happy to meet Ching in Koblenz! We haven't seen each other much at all since high school. And I never spent time alone with her, so it was cool that the first weekend we spent together was in this beautiful country. She took me back to her adorable university town (Vallendar) and I napped in her room while she was in class. That night we ate dinner at an adorable (and yummy!) Italian restaurant then explored the town, the university campus, and the island nearby. Although it was cold, it was nice to walk around the town. Later Friday night we made our plans to go to Bonn and Köln the next day.
We woke up the next morning and took an hour train ride from Koblenz to Bonn. The train ride was once again beautiful. When we arrived in Bonn, we walked through the beautiful city to Beethoven's birth home. It was so cool! It was amazing to see the room where Beethoven was born, see his handwritten score, look at his worn-out piano keys, etc. I'm not even a huge into music history, but it was so amazing to be there, I got chills. After exploring the home for awhile Ching and I got lunch then took the U-Bahn (subway) to the modern history museum. Ching taught me a lot at the museum. It was great to learn more about German history, considering I don't know much.
After the museum we headed back to the train station to board a train to Köln. We had an interesting ride there. It was the day of a football game so we ended up in a train with a bunch of drunk football fans. It was nice of them to offer us seats on the full train and beer (that we didn't take, of course). It was interesting to sit with them. When we boarded the train they started chanting a Japanese football player's name thinking Ching was Japanese. It was funny because the whole time they were trying to speak to her in English and to me in German. I was quite flattered that they thought I was German, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. Once we cleared things up, they spoke to us in English. It was still quite entertaining because they were so drunk.
Once we walked out of the hauptbahnhof in Köln, we saw the huge cathedral. It was so beautiful! We got to walk through and see all of the beautiful alter, sculptures, windows, and just the architecture. The ceilings were so tall and the whole building was gorgeous. I loved it!!
After exploring in and around the cathedral we looked around around the city some and saw the Rathaus then walked over to the bridge. The bridge that stretched over the Rhine was utilized by cars, trains and pedestrians. Along the pedestrian path, the bridge was covered with thousands of padlocks. Couples in love write or engrave their names on a padlock, lock it to the bridge, then throw the key in the Rhine. It was fun to look at the locks.
After watching the beautiful sunset from the bridge we decided to warm up by doing a bit of shopping. We shopped around and Ching ended up with an adorable blazer and I got a new pair of heels from H&M. After shopping we decided to go get dinner. After walking into a few over-crowded and/or over-priced restaurants, we found a great, tiny Italian place. We ate great food and didn't talk the whole time because we were trying to figure out what the girls next to us were talking about. They were speaking half Italian and half German. I picked up a few Italian words, and Ching picked out some German. I loved being there because I could speak to the waitress in Italian and didn't have to ask for English. That felt so, so good. After dinner we headed back to the hauptbahnof and headed back to Koblenz.
The next morning we slept in and I headed back to Seeheim in the afternoon.
I had such a great weekend with Ching. We spent so much time talking about the past, present, and future. We shared stories with each other about high school and previous years in college. We talked about our love for Germany and for European men. We talked about our futures in Europe and things we loved and hated about America. It was such a great, great weekend. It was so exciting and so relaxing at the same time.
About 2 weeks ago, Ching contacted me and asked if I wanted to spend the next weekend with her and travel to another city with her. I have a great host family here so they told me I'm welcome to leave Friday-Sunday (and even longer if I wanted). So Ching and I started making plans. We considered Ludwigsburg, Cologne (Köln), Bonn, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt.
On Friday morning I boarded a train going from Bickenbach (my local train station) to Frankfurt to catch a train to Koblenz to meet Ching. I got to the train station early so took an earlier train. I made it to the main station (Hauptbahnhof) in Frankfurt and had time to eat lunch and explore the station a bit before boarding my next train. I really love all of the hauntbahnhofs I've seen so far here in Germany. They're a great combination of old and new architecture and they're fascinating. I also love the train system here, it's timely, safe, and somewhat affordable (especially if you travel in groups.) After an hour or so in Frankfurt, I boarded my train to Koblenz. I enjoyed the beautiful train ride along the Rhine River. There are castles built all along the river and there are also vineyards and beautiful villages and houses. It was a nice ride.
I was so happy to meet Ching in Koblenz! We haven't seen each other much at all since high school. And I never spent time alone with her, so it was cool that the first weekend we spent together was in this beautiful country. She took me back to her adorable university town (Vallendar) and I napped in her room while she was in class. That night we ate dinner at an adorable (and yummy!) Italian restaurant then explored the town, the university campus, and the island nearby. Although it was cold, it was nice to walk around the town. Later Friday night we made our plans to go to Bonn and Köln the next day. We woke up the next morning and took an hour train ride from Koblenz to Bonn. The train ride was once again beautiful. When we arrived in Bonn, we walked through the beautiful city to Beethoven's birth home. It was so cool! It was amazing to see the room where Beethoven was born, see his handwritten score, look at his worn-out piano keys, etc. I'm not even a huge into music history, but it was so amazing to be there, I got chills. After exploring the home for awhile Ching and I got lunch then took the U-Bahn (subway) to the modern history museum. Ching taught me a lot at the museum. It was great to learn more about German history, considering I don't know much.
After the museum we headed back to the train station to board a train to Köln. We had an interesting ride there. It was the day of a football game so we ended up in a train with a bunch of drunk football fans. It was nice of them to offer us seats on the full train and beer (that we didn't take, of course). It was interesting to sit with them. When we boarded the train they started chanting a Japanese football player's name thinking Ching was Japanese. It was funny because the whole time they were trying to speak to her in English and to me in German. I was quite flattered that they thought I was German, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. Once we cleared things up, they spoke to us in English. It was still quite entertaining because they were so drunk.
Once we walked out of the hauptbahnhof in Köln, we saw the huge cathedral. It was so beautiful! We got to walk through and see all of the beautiful alter, sculptures, windows, and just the architecture. The ceilings were so tall and the whole building was gorgeous. I loved it!!After exploring in and around the cathedral we looked around around the city some and saw the Rathaus then walked over to the bridge. The bridge that stretched over the Rhine was utilized by cars, trains and pedestrians. Along the pedestrian path, the bridge was covered with thousands of padlocks. Couples in love write or engrave their names on a padlock, lock it to the bridge, then throw the key in the Rhine. It was fun to look at the locks.
The next morning we slept in and I headed back to Seeheim in the afternoon.
I had such a great weekend with Ching. We spent so much time talking about the past, present, and future. We shared stories with each other about high school and previous years in college. We talked about our love for Germany and for European men. We talked about our futures in Europe and things we loved and hated about America. It was such a great, great weekend. It was so exciting and so relaxing at the same time.
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