Hello everyone! Just a quick photo dump before I’m off to München for the weekend and I go off the radar for a bit until after my birthday on Monday! Yesterday I went with a group to the Augustinermuseum, which had a special exhibit on National Socialism in Freiburg, and then the Archeological museum. Today we had a tour at Badischen Winzerkeller, Germany’s largest wine bottling facility, and I was over the moon. So, without further ado, the pictures of said tours!
The Augustinermuseum houses many of the original sandstone statues from the Freiburger Münster that have been removed and replaced by copies due to weather damageThe gargoyles, as you can see, are extremely disturbing, and they were meant to be. They are supposed to represent the seven deadly sinsI frankly think they look hilarious but I’m not a peasant from the Middle Ages so what do I knowAccording to the tour, when the museum wanted to celebrate the dedication of this new organ (1935) in the historic facade, the Nazi Party intervened and the ceremony was completely under the influence of the swastikaIt is really hard to imagine that something so vivid is hundreds of years oldIt is not as hard to believe that mothers have been giving their kids this exact look for hundreds of years
Ok, so here come the pictures of the National Socialist exhibit. I didn’t take many, but I did take a few of things that really made the reality of the matter clearer to me.
National Socialist propaganda from FreiburgA sign announcing a speech to be made by Hilter in Freiburg on July 29, 1932“The German Woman chooses Hitler”A lot of Freiburg was damaged during the war, the Münster is the only building that survived intactIt’s one thing to read about atrocities, or to see them acted out on-screen. It is something completely different to see something like this in person
I have to say, Freiburg makes no attempt to smooth over their rough history during WWII. To have a complete exhibit dedicated to showing exactly what happened and what led up to the war is something from which I believe every country could learn. I am very interested in seeing through my travels how other German cities handle their history.
So, the archeological museum!
There was chain mail you could put on, what more can I sayHalsey rocked it pretty well (He’s in my program)
Ok, on to the wine! Sorry in advance for all the photos!
I don’t understand much German, but I know a wine processing chart when I see one!Bottling room!Look at them go!Old fashioned grape pressWine regions of Germany, including…Freiburg!Our guide explaining how riddling and manual remuage is done. I couldn’t tell from the German but I’d know those riddling racks anywhereWe ended our tour with a wine tasting in a cool room that looked like something out of a Medieval movie
And I got to live out my dream of being at the head of the table in a great hall
And that’s all! It was a very busy few days, and it’s about to be even busier! I’m off to pack for München, tschüss!
Hallo! Wie geht’s? It’s been a rainy few days here in the famously sunny Freiburg. That has not deterred me from doing a great deal of things, however. Here’s a brief overview in what I’m sure everyone is really here for, pictures:
We went up the hill Schlossberg for a great view of the city (note the vineyard on the bottom left!!)Cloudy but still amazingThe famous Freiburger MünsterA close up of the Münster. There is a market in the plaza underneath the cathedral each dayWe snagged lunch at the Mensa (student cafeteria) for about 3 euros. Super cheap and really good, there are 2 options every day for the cheaper meals, vegetarian and normal.We went on a hike yesterday! 9 miles and 95 flights of stairs…Lunch halfway through the hike was at Walderstaurant St. Ottilien, right by a church in the woods.
So, as you’ve gathered from my picture tour, I have walked a good deal, and eaten about enough to make up for it all. The food here is beyond amazing, and I’m starting to pick up some words here and there (Wanderschuhe means hiking shoes, adorably enough) thanks to exposure and my German intensive course that just started on Friday. I’ve done laundry, hung stuff up on my walls, and booked a bus and a hostel for a trip to München this weekend. It may be supposed to rain all week, but that’s not going to stop me from doing as much as possible! My roommate already signed me up for a winery tour on Thursday without even needing to ask me, so that’s a good sign in my books. Tschüss for now!
And here I am! Hallo aus Deutschland! It is a grey morning in Freiburg, but the sunrise from my bedroom around 7 was pretty fabulous (1 to you guys in the states)
Aforementioned cool as heck sunrise
If any of you want to send me mail, I just learned that this is how addresses are formatted:
Katherine Lloyd
Engelbergerstraße 41E/03/34
79106, Freiburg
GERMANY
41E is the building, 03 the floor, and 34 the room. So there you have it. Now you all know where to find me!
The two planes I took to Frankfurt were relatively uneventful, it was the train ride that really got me. To any one that’s never been to Europe (me at the time) and grew up in the US (and not in a big city) the European railway system is a real challenge. I cleared customs and followed the instructions from IES to a ticket machine to purchase an ICE (high-speed railway) ticket to Freiburg. A nice old German couple even offered to help me figure out the steps on the screen. The problem was, they did it all in German. So, 5 minutes later I was holding a ticket that I couldn’t read, and with no way to translate it because for the first time in years I didn’t have a functioning cell phone. First world problems, am I right? So, I lugged my bags to the station and stood around trying to figure out the schedule. It was about as clear as mud so I asked a woman at the info kiosk when the next train left for Freiburg. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but lets just say that 2 hours and several other mix ups later I was on a train that I was positive was stopping in Freiburg. I might have been sitting in a seat that was apparently “reserved” (for whom, I don’t know, because I couldn’t read my ticket to see if I had an assigned seat or not) but no one seemed to care because the woman who checked my ticket just punched it and moved on. So, first “crisis” averted.
The first thing I noticed were the solar panels. They were everywhere. On houses, major buildings, car enclosures, you name it. Shoutout to the incentives the German government put in place for that. There were also community gardens in every town I passed by on the ICE train. It’s wild. When I landed, I noticed a few things that just seemed “off”. Being to Europe for the fist time is kind of like seeing everything through a slightly distorted mirror. There are street signs, but they’re different, people are driving on the highway, but they’re going just fast enough that it catches your eye (I hate to stereotype but… yeah), cities are sprawling puddles of lights, but they are set up differently, and from what I can tell, are less grid-like than cities in the US.
When I arrived in Freiburg, I grabbed a taxi to the IES center, where I met my fellow students. From there I moved into my “flat” that I share with 6 other students (one of whom is in my program, Anna, who I can already tell is going to be an amazing travel buddy). My bedroom is massive, and the kitchen and bathrooms are nice as well. We have wifi (!!!) and the chores are all shared. I’ve only met one of our other roommates, but I’m looking forward to meeting the rest. From there I passed out for an hour and then went to dinner with the group at an Italian restaurant. Our tutor Joel, kind of like an RA in the US, showed us around the city and we basically had a blast.
One of the cute as heck streets in Freiburg. Look at those buildings!!
I don’t want to ramble too much, but I can tell that this is going to be a really cool group of students to hang out with. We have breakfast at 9:30, in about an hour, and then orientation/city tour/buying a SIM card and all that jazz. Classes start on Friday so it looks like we’re just getting to know each other and the city until then. Auf Wiedersehen!
Welp, here it is, my travel blog. It took me an embarrassingly long time to come up with the name, so if you hate it kindly keep your dislike of a good play on words to yourself (honestly, it could have been planetrover, ick). I depart from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at 1:41 pm on Monday, make a short stop in Charlotte, NC, and then head to Frankfurt International Airport, where I will arrive around 7:30 AM on Tuesday. I have a packing list written up that is worrisome in length, and a laundry list of tasks I have yet to accomplish. Things need to be scanned and laminated, Euros have yet to be ordered, let alone acquired, and I still don’t know whether or not I should bring my Docs AND my hiking boots. Yet none of this really matters, because I’m going to be in Germany in 5 days, FINALLY, and things will come together as they always do. So there we are, the blog is made (sort of, I can’t figure out how to customize it) and we’re in business. Expect an update upon arrival or while I am en-route to my home away from home for four months, bis bald!
All Abroad! 