Well, my month of travels has officially come to an end and exam season is in full bloom. How convenient that the warmest April ever (ever!) in Britain coincides with me having to spend the days indoors memorizing, er, learning about international marketing theories and making recommendations on how Nestle can best balance the interests between its shareholders and stakeholders. A natural and academic slap-in-the-face if I've ever seen one.
Though, considering the weather on my trip was pretty much fantastic, some forgiveness can be given. And since it is indeed exams, I can think of no better procrastination tool than to recount said weather and corresponding experiences during my time on the continent and elsewhere in Europe. I know the anticipation has been killing many (all) of you, so I'll delay no longer.
First stop: Bonn!
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous before setting off. I'd never taken a trip by myself before, I'm a bit of a anxious flyer, and I had a new, vulnerable haircut. I didn't know what to expect. Then there was the second-guessing: Did I forget my passport? Did I lock my door? Did I hide my computer? Am I sure I locked my door? No, really, did I lock my door?
By the time I finally convinced myself that I hadn't forgotten to do anything it was time to board the plane. My easyJet flight was exactly that: easy. I had three seats to myself a row behind the emergency exit (you know, close enough but without the responsibility of actually opening the thing), we landed half an hour early, I had bag in hand about 15 minutes later, and the entire thing was soundtracked by the new Protest the Hero album. Great!
I met up with my friend Christian's aunt who I'd be staying with, Christiane, and she drove me back to Bad Godesberg, a district of Bonn. Fun fact: Bonn was the capital of West Germany during the Cold War, but it wasn't really big enough population-wise, so it incorporated all of these smaller surrounding towns/villages to make it more "worthy". The total current population? A little less than 320 000. Wikipedia tells me it used to be referred to as Bundeshauptstadt Ohne Nennenswertes Nachtleben (Federal capital without noteworthy night-life). And they say Germans don't have a sense of humour.
I didn't get in until about 9:30 pm, so I went to bed in preparation for the next day, where Christiane graciously offered to give me was a tour up and down the Rhine.
We set off for the Loreley, a giant rock 125 metres above the river and the narrowest part with plenty of rocks that have caused many a boat accident. There's an actual reason behind the name (Old German for "murmurring rock" or "lurking rock" depending on who you ask), but the myth goes that a mermaid named Loreley used to sit atop the rock and sing the most beautiful song to passing fishermen who then got distracted, crashed, and died. At least the soundtrack was good.
Anyway, it was a perfectly clear day and the views of the towns and hilltop castles were excellent.
Burg Katz. Burg Maus is on the next hilltop over. It's a pretty easy translation.
The Loreley of the Loreley.
They grow lots of wine in the Rhine, but the lines of vines are on steep inclines.
Lunch was next and I got to sample my first truly German food in the form of ochsenboullion and rahmschnitzel. It was delicious and the waiter looked exactly like Taylor from Timber Timbre. I also fumbled my way through some German, the first of many, many attempts to speak what seems like a really fun language.
Then we headed to die Marksburg, the only medieval castle on the Rhine that wasn't ever destroyed. The catch with this castle is you can only go inside on a guided tour (that's how they screw you) so I got to join the group of retirees from Florida with their fancy guided earpieces and sunglasses. The tour was pretty good, but only two things really stuck with me. The first is that the salute evolved from knights having to lift up their facemasks when entering a castle as a means of identification, and the second is that residents used an overhanging toilet so everything just fell into the moat that once surrounded the castle.
Die Marksburg (from Wikipedia).
Most of the pictures from the interior were boring castle stuff with the exception of these two:
Chastity belt.
This was really only exciting because I watched Anvil! The Story of Anvil right before I left.
As much as both Marksburg and the Loreley were great, hands down the best part of the Rhine was the drive. Castles dot clifftops around every bend in the road, turrets and towers piercing the sky, and watch over the quaint towns on the river bank. Pretty incredible.
We drove back into Bonn to explore the city centre, almost all of which is pedestrian-only. My camera ran out of batteries just before I was about to take a picture of the town hall, but I managed to get these ones in.
Part of the university.
Bonn Cathedral.
Beethoven, Bonn's hometown musician.
Beethovenhaus, where he was born.
We finished up the day with a bike ride down to the Rhine and a stop for some food and Kolsch beer and to chat with Christiane's neighbours at a local riverside restaurant. It was all quite charming.
Delicious Kolsch.
Prost, Christiane!
Back at the house Christiane showed me some maps of Berlin and Prague as well as tips for what to see and do and we planned my early morning wakeup to catch my train. The rest of the evening was spent trying to figure out my courses for next year. Five hours to be exact. Thanks, McGill. Next time let's put courses online more than two days before registration starts, okay?
But, bureaucracy and incompetence aside, I couldn't have asked for a better start to my travels.
Next up: Berlin!
