Erin's Studienreise.
I've been on the road with the Humboldt Stiftung the last two weeks. As part of the 'cultural education' that is a part of the Chancellor Fellowship, I boarded a bus with the other 28 'Buka' scholars for a round-trip tour of Germany and Belgium.
We met up in Dresden on March 18th, and then visited Meissen, Glasshutte, Bayreuth, Munich, Meersburg, Konstanz, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Leuven, and Brussels. I'll give you just a few of the highlights of the trip:
Dresden - a real architectural curiosity. The entire city was fire-bombed near the end of the war, killing tens of thousands of German refugees who had fled other cities. The city was rebuilt during the DDR time, and since reunification some of those buildings have been torn down, others left to decay, while beautiful modern buildings have been erected beside historical reconstructions of monuments destroyed in the war. The picture above shows me in front of the partially reconstructed Gemaldegalerie, right on the river Elbe.
On our way to Dresden we stopped at Bayreuth, where there is a Baroque Operahouse. this picture just shows some of the overwhelming detail we saw in many of the buildings we saw - almost too much to absorb sometimes.
Ah, Munich - a couple of days with Dave to celebrate our 1st Anniversary (see previous post), and a delicious Bavarian dinner with the Buka gang. We ate pretzels with various spreads, sauerkraut, schweinebraten, and had plenty of delicious beer. Dave even drank two glasses of the special 'Stark' beer that the monastaries created for the Lenten fast - if you can't eat, at least you can drink a beer that's like a meal.
After leaving Munich we drove to the Bodensee, Germany's largest lake which creates part of the border with Austria and Switzerland. We stayed in Konstanz, which is a beautiful Medieval city directly on the lake where it feeds into the beginnings of the Rhine. Konstanz is famous for a council held in the 1400's that picked one pope from three guys who were claiming the title. On our second day there we visited the Island Reichenau, known for its Romanesque churches. This mural was painted about 1000 years ago, and then covered up with white paint during the Gothic period, only to be rediscovered in the 19th century.
We spent a LOT of time on the bus, and every few hours we would stop somewhere and take some time to walk around a city (if we were lucky - sometimes we would see just a rest stop on the outskirts of town). This picture shows my friends and fellow Bukas Jennifer and Jessica in front of the Cathedral in Freiburg - we had just enough time to grab some coffee and ice cream before getting back on the bus.
In Karlsruhe we visited the 'Bundesverfassungsgericht,' a super-long german word meaning the Constitutional Court. This picture shows a Schloss that survived the WWII bombing and which was the original home to the court, which is now housed in a late 1960's building. The night before we went to the court we did a wine tasting along the Rhine, with delicious sweet white wines and a bunch of meats that only a German mind could create (Blood Sausage with big chunks of fat and gristle, and then something that can only be described as chunks of nasty meat suspended in gelatin, then sliced). I ate bread.
Brussels was a relief - after two weeks of common breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, with the gaps in between filled with tours and lectures, I finally got some time to myself to see the city. I wandered in the direction of the main square, which was originally built during the Middle Ages but was rebuilt after it was burned in the late 17th century. Knowing I only had a few hours to 'experience' Brussels, I made sure to get in my chocolate, waffle, and Belgian beer.
All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm glad to be back in Berlin with Dave, sleeping in the same bed for more than two nights, and finally eating home-cooked, non-German food.
I've been on the road with the Humboldt Stiftung the last two weeks. As part of the 'cultural education' that is a part of the Chancellor Fellowship, I boarded a bus with the other 28 'Buka' scholars for a round-trip tour of Germany and Belgium.
We met up in Dresden on March 18th, and then visited Meissen, Glasshutte, Bayreuth, Munich, Meersburg, Konstanz, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Leuven, and Brussels. I'll give you just a few of the highlights of the trip:
Dresden - a real architectural curiosity. The entire city was fire-bombed near the end of the war, killing tens of thousands of German refugees who had fled other cities. The city was rebuilt during the DDR time, and since reunification some of those buildings have been torn down, others left to decay, while beautiful modern buildings have been erected beside historical reconstructions of monuments destroyed in the war. The picture above shows me in front of the partially reconstructed Gemaldegalerie, right on the river Elbe.
On our way to Dresden we stopped at Bayreuth, where there is a Baroque Operahouse. this picture just shows some of the overwhelming detail we saw in many of the buildings we saw - almost too much to absorb sometimes.
Ah, Munich - a couple of days with Dave to celebrate our 1st Anniversary (see previous post), and a delicious Bavarian dinner with the Buka gang. We ate pretzels with various spreads, sauerkraut, schweinebraten, and had plenty of delicious beer. Dave even drank two glasses of the special 'Stark' beer that the monastaries created for the Lenten fast - if you can't eat, at least you can drink a beer that's like a meal.
After leaving Munich we drove to the Bodensee, Germany's largest lake which creates part of the border with Austria and Switzerland. We stayed in Konstanz, which is a beautiful Medieval city directly on the lake where it feeds into the beginnings of the Rhine. Konstanz is famous for a council held in the 1400's that picked one pope from three guys who were claiming the title. On our second day there we visited the Island Reichenau, known for its Romanesque churches. This mural was painted about 1000 years ago, and then covered up with white paint during the Gothic period, only to be rediscovered in the 19th century.
We spent a LOT of time on the bus, and every few hours we would stop somewhere and take some time to walk around a city (if we were lucky - sometimes we would see just a rest stop on the outskirts of town). This picture shows my friends and fellow Bukas Jennifer and Jessica in front of the Cathedral in Freiburg - we had just enough time to grab some coffee and ice cream before getting back on the bus.
In Karlsruhe we visited the 'Bundesverfassungsgericht,' a super-long german word meaning the Constitutional Court. This picture shows a Schloss that survived the WWII bombing and which was the original home to the court, which is now housed in a late 1960's building. The night before we went to the court we did a wine tasting along the Rhine, with delicious sweet white wines and a bunch of meats that only a German mind could create (Blood Sausage with big chunks of fat and gristle, and then something that can only be described as chunks of nasty meat suspended in gelatin, then sliced). I ate bread.
Brussels was a relief - after two weeks of common breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, with the gaps in between filled with tours and lectures, I finally got some time to myself to see the city. I wandered in the direction of the main square, which was originally built during the Middle Ages but was rebuilt after it was burned in the late 17th century. Knowing I only had a few hours to 'experience' Brussels, I made sure to get in my chocolate, waffle, and Belgian beer.
All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm glad to be back in Berlin with Dave, sleeping in the same bed for more than two nights, and finally eating home-cooked, non-German food.
posted by Erin at 3:51 PM
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