Day 13: Devil's Cave

The last full day I was in Bavaria, Felix and I drove out to see some caves. It was very rainy, and he was tired of taking the American tourist to see castles. But we drove by this small one, so I got to see another castle anyways. ;)

We rode this alpine coaster, which in German is another huge word that I have now forgotten. I swear every time I rode the train the German announcement would take about 5 minutes, and then they would come on and say like three words in English.

It was all kids and Felix and I riding this thing.





Here's Devil's Cave. Doesn't look very evil now does it. Inside was hilarious. It was a pretty nice cave but they set up a light show with dramatic classical music that amused me to no end. The goofy guide who narrated in German could also have contributed to that since I had no idea what was going on.








The next morning, bright and early, I left to take a train back to Amsterdam to leave for Tanzania! As you can see I was really awake when I took this picture in front of Felix's house with his parents. They were such wonderful hosts!

June 2 and 3, 2010

Day 12: Nuremberg

Nuremberg is full of history. In the morning, Felix and I visited a museum at the former Nazi party rallying grounds, which has an permanent exhibit dedicated to how Nazi Germany came about. 

Then we walked around to see the Zeppelin Field which Hitler built to hold his Nazi propaganda rallies.  

It was very strange to be there. Hitler's propaganda videos always look so grandiose, but this place is falling apart. I really didn't like being there. It bothered me much more so than any other museum about the Nazis and the Holocaust. It was that podium that bothered me the most. 

Now the German's hold this rock festival in the stadium. They were setting up for it the day that we went there. All those trailers are from various beer companies. 

After that we had enough serious museums for one day and headed into the center of Nuremberg where the  Nuremberg Castle sits on a hill above the city. I thought it was particularly awesome because the people who built it incorporated the sandstone it is built on right into the walls of the city. Besides making a good building material,  the sandstone is also an aquifer and they dug a well to supply fresh water to the castle. There was a bunch more about the geology, but it was all in German, and Felix didn't know how to translate a lot of it into English. 

Here's the view from the top of one of the towers in the castle. Very rainy and cold day, but it was still beautiful with all the orange tiled roofs. 

The beautiful streets of Nuremberg. 

June 1, 2010

Day 11: Neuschwanstein Castle and the Alps

Doing a little reminiscing about my trip this summer today, so I decided that it was time for an update. Grad school is kicking my butt this semester what with taking two classes, teaching, applying for grants and fellowships, working on my own research, and making a poster for an upcoming conference I'm a little overwhelmed and haven't had time to work on my blog.   

On Day 11 Felix and I drove from Munich down to the Neuschwanstein Castle. It was built by this crazy kind Ludwig the II who was obsessed with the German composer Wagner. Most rooms of the castle have a theme based on Wagner's operas. 

Here I am in the courtyard of the castle. This castle is also the inspiration for the castle in Sleeping Beauty, which I believe I loved so much as a child that my Mom used to ask the librarians to tell me it was checked out even if it wasn't. 

We hiked up to see the view from the bridge that used to be the entrance to the castle. It was a little scary to be up there because the wind made the bridge shake, but the view was spectacular with the Alps in the background. 

May 31, 2010 

Happy Holidays Travis!

On Friday, we had a going away party for our friend Travis. He is going to be researching in Antarctica for the next 6 months, so my friend Kat threw a party for him that included every holiday he was going to miss while he was gone including: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

Everybody had to dress up, and dinner consisted of a Thanksgiving type foods and desserts. We also played white elephant with gag gifts. The bubbles were a hot commodity. And finally we toasted with champagne at midnight. We'll miss you Travis!