Germany Trip

SUPER LONG POST!

Our trip to Germany was so fun! Not only did we get to see some amazing things, but most important, Tom won his meet and did GREAT!

The first challenge once we landed in Frankfurt was to catch a train and go to Cologne. We got our luggage, bought train tickets and made it to the platform for our train.

Here is Kinley on the way to Cologne - we are a little bit tired.

This is a shop right by our hotel. Kinley and I liked to look at all the animals out on the street. She would even give them all hugs and tell them bye when we left.

After a short nap, we went to the Dom Kolner. This is a huge, beautiful Gothic cathedral that is right down by the major train station. We got to look inside and it was amazing! There were gorgeous stained-glass windows, beautiful paintings, a mosaic tiled floor and just an overall beauty to the entire church.

On our walk back to the hotel, we decided to stop at Hard Rock Cafe' for dinner.

Kinley was getting tired and didn't want to eat or take a picture with me.

After I let her get down and dance, she perked up for a bit.

The next day we ventured out to the Chocolate Museum. There was a whole history of when people started using cocoa and how its harvested, and our favorite part...the chocolate factory! We got to sample the Lindt chocolate from this fountain. Again, Kinley not into the picture.

This is the "train" we took from the chocolate museum back to the cathedral so we could get back to our hotel. Kinley had been seeing these and was so excited we got to ride in one.

From here, we took a couple trains up to Marburg where the meet was held. Tom had been at the track, so by the time we got to Marburg, checked in our hotel and then walked down to Tom's hotel, he had been there only a couple of minutes.

We hung out for a little then went with the team to a restaurant where the athletes got to eat free all week - good food for us! We said our goodbyes and then went back to our hotel for a good night's sleep.

We got up a little early and met Miss Reva for a day trip to Kassel. One of the reasons I wanted to go here was because this is where the Grimm brothers (of the fairy tales) grew up. I am somehow related to them (Great-Great-Great Uncles or something).

Outside the museum by a poster.

We only got to see the floors of the museum about the fairy tales because the floors with the life and work were under construction. I took this picture of some artwork by the 3rd brother before I was told no pictures - oops.

The town of Kassel was interesting because it wasn't really very old. It was bombed during the war and most everything looked like 50's architecture when everything was rebuilt. We took a little tram to the edge of town to look at 2 different castles.

The first was Lowenburg. It looked great, but was too far away to walk up there. The second was the a very extravagant castle with an aqua duct system coming 1.6km down from it, and there was a big statue of Hercules on top - I think he is a symbol of the town.

Lowenburg


Schloss and Hercules (there is scaffolding on the left of Hercules)

Cute girl in a tree

One of the pools that the aqua ducts ran through.

I don't really know what this building was for, but now its an art museum. We went up to the third floor to see a few Rembrandt and Reuben paintings. Pretty amazing how detailed and long lasting some of them are.

Now, on to Marburg.

We took a tour of the city to see the Landgrave's castle and Elizabeth church. We also found out many other neat little facts about the town. All through town there were different reminders of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. They would come to Marburg and occasionally stay.

Kinley by the little fountain in the center of town

The seven dwarfs on one of the walls of the castle

Up by the castle overlooking the town. See how the spire is leaning. Its so if it would catch fire it would fall away from the church.

This is Elizabeth church. Our hotel was less than 100m from here, so we walked by at least a dozen times on the way to and from Tom's hotel.

Elizabeth hospital. Elizabeth built this hospital to help anyone in need, and the medical industry is still one of the major industries in the town.

After the meet (I'll post more on that later) we spent the next day at a Roman military base first built 2000 years ago and then in Frankfurt.

The gate of Saalburg. This was rebuilt in the 1800's and they weren't sure how it really looked, but it looks neat now.

The family picture

Frankfurt main train station

Reva and I got caught in the rain storm

Tom and Kinley stayed dry at the cafe'.

This trip was amazing! I had such a great time and I think Kinley did too. I have many pictures of the meet and other things dealing with the Thorpe Cup, but I'll do a separate post about all those.