Hamburg

Hey guys! Here is my update from my time in Hamburg!

Wolfgang picked us up at the train station in the morning. Cara and I were very tired, so we got to nap in the afternoon while Wolfgang and Barbara were at work. At night, Barbara cooked a delicious meal, including scalloped potatoes which I actually liked! They were really good!

The next day, Wolfgang and Barbara took us on a tour of Hamburg. We drove to the Saint Michels church first. We went to the top of the tower and looked out over the city. It was a very beautiful view, but it was really windy! We then walked through Hamburg, visiting many places and seeing many sights. We saw the huge tower of a church that had been bombed in WWII and the only part of the church that stayed standing was the huge tower. We walked around the harbor a little bit, and it started getting cold and rainy and dark, so we walked back to the car and drove back.

On Sunday Wolfgang, Nora (Jasper’s sister), Cara and I went to the tropical aquarium in Hamburg. This was pretty cool, we saw some neat animals and some sharks. When we got back Barbara, Wolfgang, Cara and I walked down to the River Elbe and walked along there. The weather was sunny, and it was a very beautiful walk. We saw some ships (although it was Sunday, so there wasn't the usual traffic of giant freight ships.) At night, all of us went to the Block House (a steakhouse) for supper, and it was really good.

On Monday, Barbara and Wolfgang had to go back to work so Cara and I had our own adventure in Hamburg. We went to the immigration museum in Hamburg and learned some things about where Cara's family came from, that was pretty cool. We then walked around in the city until we were tired and headed back. We then had a quick supper and left to go meet Nora and Marika (Jasper's girlfriend, who goes to school in Hamburg.) We met Nora and went to a billiards hall where Marika met us a little bit later.

Tuesday Cara and I went into Hamburg again. This time we finally found some spaghetti eis! This is ice cream that has been put through a playdoh-type cutter to make it look like spaghetti and has strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings on top, so it looks just like spaghetti, but is ice cream!!! This is about the best stuff ever! Tuesday night we had a nice supper with Wolfgang and Barbara and then packed up for school.

Ooops, one really cool thing I forgot to include. Monday evening (about 5 pm) we had just gotten back to the Franke's house, and we heard a reallllllly loud crash. It sounded like a huge thunder crack that is very, very close! The crazy thing is, we found out the next day, it had actually been a 500 pound bomb from WWII. As Wolfgang told us, they occasionally find bombs buried that had not exploded during the bombings, and sometimes (like in this case) they cannot disarm them because there is too much corrosion and weathering. So, they drive the bombs (very carefully) to a little island and blow them up. This one just happened to be way more powerful than they had originally thought, and many people close to the island actually had their windows broken!!

Welp, we are in Leicester now, and we are still very busy, so I will update you all on that very soon! Love you all

Catching up

Hello everyone! First off, I am sorry that you haven't heard from me in so long, but the days have been busy and the internet has been hard to find at times. So, I will use this blog to catch up on those days that have passed since I have written. So, this will be quite long but also quite enjoyable!
On the 6th we went to the Picasso museum and the Holocaust museum. The Picasso museum was pretty neat, he did a lot of sculptures and different sculpture like creations as well as paintings. I am very glad we decided to go to the Holocaust museum in Paris. I learned a lot of things, the biggest was I didn't know that in the part of France that wasn't occupied by Germany during World War II, the Vichy government actually helped the Nazis gather up the Jews and ship them out. There were lots of really moving pictures and individual stories as well.
In the night time, we went out for cocktails with Jasper, and then to an Irish pub. It was good to see Jasper and also hear some nice live bagpipe music (in the Irish pub.)

On the 7th, we got up early to climb Notre Dame. This was really great, except that it was quite windy. The gargoyles were my favorite part, and there were two of them that were my favorites. The first was one who was sticking his tongue out, and the second was one who seemed to be chewing on a chicken or duck or something. After this, we walked to the Opera Garnier, which is the Opera that the opera house from Phantom of the Opera is based on. This was a really neat opera house, but we couldn't go into the auditorium because there was a rehearsal! how stupid.

The 8th was the day to leave for Mannheim. We went to Rue Cler, and picked up things for a picnic. Everything was great, except for the cheese. I love munster cheese in America, so I decided to go for that, but in France this is disgusting! We wrapped this cheese in two ziploc bags just so we wouldn't smell it! I think this was one of the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled, and it tasted just as terrible!
We got on a bus for Mannheim, and 8 hours later we were there! We missed Kiran by about 10 minutes at the bus station, and wound up staying in a smelly hotel. gross.
The next day, we met up with Kiran and went into Mannheim. We first went to this museum of science and technology, which was pretty amazing. There was a really huge generator from 1920 that was pretty intriguing. Kiran and I took pictures by it to send to our Power Systems professor. My favorite part was the Biotechnic exhibit which showed how this in nature are engineered to work in modern day systems. One great example was showing a swimming penguin next to a streamlined jet. They had a remarkably similar shape.
We then walked around Mannheim, and saw the schloss that houses the university. At night, Cara and I went to a pub with Kiran and his friend Brad.

Next day Kiran and Cara and I went to Heidelberg. There was this really amazing huge castle, or schloss as they say. It had been sacked twice by the French (why do they ruin everything?) but was still mostly standing. This castle was so cool, and it made me very excited for the rest of the castles I will see on my adventure!

The 11th, we got up at 2am to get on the train for Hamburg. At 10am, we got into Hamburg and Jasper's father Wolfgang picked us up and we went to his house.

That is all for now! I hope you enjoyed the update, and I will tell you about Hamburg very soon!
I love you all!

Versailles

The start of the day had many ups and downs. When I woke up, my throat hurt really bad. After getting up and showering, it was feeling a little better (but still hurting.) Then things started looking very much up as it was sunny and feeling a little bit warm as we walked out of the hotel. Unfortunately, when we got off the train at Versailles it had turned from semi-sunny and warmish to windy, cloudy, and really cold.
We started by getting lunch at a little cafe in the town. I had a panini poulet (chicken panini.) After lunch we walked up to the chateau. Really huge is the only way I can think to describe it now, although I know this doesn't do it justice. We wandered around the state apartments and royal apartments. I was surprised at how small the king's bed was. If I was the king, I would have a huge bed. The queen's bedroom was pretty neat (19 royal children had been born there.) Also, we saw the door where Marie Antoinette escaped the rioters during the revolution.
I was highly disappointed by one thing. There was one room (I think it was a ballroom) with huge mirrors and lots of statues, all leading up to a throne. There were statues and other things on each step leading up to this elaborate throne. EXCEPT, WHEN WE GOT CLOSER, IT WAS FAKE!!!!!!!! the statues and the throne were made of wood! A thin sheet(maybe 3/4 of an inch) of wood painted to look like a statue or throne, with a wooden frame holding it up. HOW STUPID. The French couldn't even remake the throne? so it looked close to real??? dumb.
The gardens were huge. They didn't do too much for me though, as it was soooo cold. It would have been neat to be there in the spring or summer and walk around and enjoy them.

Thats all for day (well, yesterday, I am still a day behind. oh well.)
Love you guys!

Lots of Art day

Foolishly, we planned all the major art museums for one day. It seemed like a smart plan when it was only supposed to rain one day, so we thought it would be good to have a bunch of long, inside things for that day.
As it turns out, it rained early in the morning, and again for about 2 minutes in the evening. I never thought I would ever be that indifferent about that many famous works of art. After seeing all the paintings and statues in the Louvre, and the Orsay, it was just too many. They all look basically the same. I don't understand why the Mona Lisa, or the Venus De Milo are so famous? they look so much like the other paintings and statues??? oh well, I guess that is why I am going to be an engineering, and not an artist, or art critic. The Egyptian stuff in the Louvre was my (and Cara's) favorite (or favourite, I better get used to how the British will spell it.) I liked the huge sphinx the best. Maybe someday I will have a giant sphinx by my house.
The Orsay was another cool museum (probably would have been a lot cooler if I hadn't gone to it directly after the Louvre.) There was a room full of Van Gogh paintings that were really neat. Also, a room full of Monets (you would have really liked that one Lynnea.) They also had more Rodin statues (of course with ridiculously large feet, legs, and hands.) One other really cool thing about the Orsay was a model of Paris they had built in the basement but had clear floors above it. That was neat to walk above it and look down on the little model of the city.
The Orangerie (where Monet's huge water lily paintings are) was next. The huge water lilies of Monet took, i think, 14 years to finish. WOW. they were pretty cool, and HUGE. There were two large oval-shaped rooms that held them, and it was neat as the painting went from sunrise to sunset of the lilies. There was also the personal painting collection of some guy, including some Picasso's. This was a little disappointing, as I found out that the Picasso paintings he had were from Picasso's time painting realism, not his weird other paintings.
As we were walking towards our Metro station, it was 6 o'clock, and we were walking towards the Eiffel tower. That was really cool as it was lit up, and started the glittering bright lights! so cool!

Well, thats all for day (well, yesterday, I am a day behind.) Hopefully I will get caught up tomorrow),
love you all!

Days two and three

Day two:
we went the Eiffel tower, pretty amazing. The coolest part was at night when we were leaving the lights were on, and that looked pretty neat. After the Eiffel tower, we went to Napoleon's tomb. That wasn't as cool as I had hoped for. just a box. oh well.
The army museum was pretty neat, lots of cool guns and bombs and such. They had a lot of old uniforms, and my favorite was the old french helmet (it had a chicken on the top.) After that, we went to the Rodin and saw the thinker, and Balzak. Rodin made some pretty neat statues, but all the people had legs, feet, and hands that were waaay to big proportionately to the rest of their bodies. We also walked down Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed up the Arc and looked out over the city, that was a pretty neat sight.
We went out for supper with Jasper and his girlfriend in a little African cafe, that was pretty neat, except they played banjo and country music. how annoying.

Day three:
We went to Notre Dame, which was amazing, my favorite thing so far. We will climb to the top tomorrow, but the inside was really great. There were lots of big, really cool stained-glass windows. I like those alot.
The Cluny museum was pretty cool, lots of old religious things (altars, relic holders, etc.) There were a lot of really small, very intricately designed things. We also walked to this delicious little ice cream store in the Ile. St. Louis. They had these neat double-headed ice cream cones.
Thats all for today, tomorrow we will climb Notre Dame, and go to the Louvre, and the Orsay!

In Paris!

I arrived in Paris at 7:40 Paris time and after a plane ride where I could not sleep I was rather exhausted! However, I was not too tired to haul Cara's 52 pound suitcase up 7 flights of steep old spiral staircase and then right back down those 7 flights after a slight change of plans with Jasper. Luckily, Jasper carried mine so that I didn't have to take both Cara and my suitcases on those stairs. The metro system in Paris is amazing! We successfully made it from the CDG airport to Jasper's apartment, and then to our hotel without one wrong move! Welp, I am exhausted, and we have a long day tomorrow seeing La Tour Eiffel, Napolean's Tomb, the Arc de Triomphe and hopefully see the thinker in the Rodin!

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying Iowa weather!