Sommer in Deutschland (Teil III)

So, after a 4 month hiatus from blogging, I am at home, slightly bored and have realized how my OCD won't allow me to keep the summer prequel to my blog unfinished. So as I promised the one reader of this blog, the gregarious Queen of Lalaland, sometime in September, I am now writing part III! Yay!

I am not so sure where I left off, and the whole trip is starting to blur with less pleasant memories of leather clad dominatrix women in the elevator of my sketchy apartment building this semester, but I'll try to make this less wikipediaesque than my last post.

So, remember last time when I mentioned the Stocherkähne? Well our German class got to skip half of our class one day to go for a ride in one! Basically, they're these funny little long boat that are controlled by long wooden shafts that push along the bottom of the shallow Neckar River. The whole thing reminded me of pictures I've seen of Oxford (or is it Cambridge???) where they have similar boats. Our driver let us all try driving. My performance at this task was a bit of a letdown given my maritime origins, but then again, I don't have the best track record of safe boat driving...

Here is our Stocherkahn driver, who reminded me of Daniel Brühl from Goodbye Lenin, and one of the South Korean girls from our class getting ready to try and drive.

About halfway through our month in Tübingen we made an excursion to Konstanz, Germany's southernmost city on Lake Constance. To me, Konstanz had a very 'Swiss' feeling in its architecture. Fittingly, we found a chocolate shop that was selling 'Gruezi' cookies ('Gruezi' is a typical greeting phrase in Swiss German).

Konstanz from the harbor. 

Idyllic side street.

Nice use of pastel tones. 

Gruezi cookies! 

Konstanz lies right on the Swiss border, so we were able to walk right on over into the good ole' Confoederatio Helvetica. Used to the excruciating wait that is US-Canadian customs aboard Amtrak, it was bizarre being able to walk freely from Germany into Switzerland and vice-versa. Switzerland was a bit of a let down though. The only thing of note on the Swiss side of the border was a creepy carnival. I guess you have to walk more than ten minutes before you get to the good stuff. But at least I can say I've 'been' to Switzerland now.

Swiss license plates. 

Crossing back into Germany. Quite welcoming actually. 

We spent the rest of our time in Konstanz in a particularly welcoming beer garden alongside the harbor. :D

Many items to order at the beer garden! 

I also saw a regal Jack Russell in Konstanz's altstadt. It definitely knew how to work its angles. 

During my time in Tübingen, I also traveled back to Owen a couple of times. My first return was a bit of a surprise. I had gone with friends to Stuttgart, but I didn't have any cell phone, and hadn't told the Gruels if/when I'd be coming. Feeling confident in my ability to navigate mass transit, having spent much time aboard the LIRR and living in Montreal, I decided I would just hop on a train in the direction of Owen and hope for the best. (I had already gone with Miriam once to Stuttgart via the train, so I wasn't being so brazen as to board a random train!) It was actually a quite straightforward trip, but I think I surprised Miriam's family a bit too much! 

Before I knew it, my time in Tübingen was at an end, but not before beholding the great wisdom of these words: 

Contemplating my return to McGill, and unaware that I would soon be banished to the wild eastern frontier of Montreal, I was looking forward to being at home for a couple of days before the start of term. Buuuut, at that very moment, somewhere off the coast of North Carolina Hurricane Irene, a bundle of tropical air gone wrong, was gathering in strength. By the time I called the airline to move my flight, they informed me that I wouldn't fly home until September 2nd, after the start of semester at McGill. 

It was an inconvenience, but not the end of the world, and I got to spend a bit more time in Owen.

Street in Owen.

Fruit groves along the Teck.

School in Owen.

The Burg-Teck from Owen.

Remains of the Medieval wall around Owen.

I like how there are so many places to cut your own flowers on the side of the road in Germany.

Thats pretty much it for now. Hopefully, I'll actually do a good job of keeping up with my blog this semester in Freiburg. Bis dann! 

Sommer in Deutschland (Teil II)

The narrative continues! I don't think I resisted to urge to ramble.

Miriam, Jan and I visited Stuttgart, the largest city in Southwest Germany (population 600,000). Owing to its strategic importance, the city suffered heavy bombing during World War II, robbing Stuttgart of much of its aesthetic charm. While most of the most important architectural features were reconstructed, much of the city's center was rebuilt in an utilitarian 50s style. Nevertheless, the city-planners of Stuttgart appear to have resisted for the most part the urban renewal fervor that swept through 1950s America. Rebuilding followed the centuries old street plan and the autobahn was kept out of the downtown core. Many of the main streets have been pedestrianized including the Königstraße - the St. Catherine's of Stuttgart. So while Stuttgart may have lost its medieval charm, it at least preserved its urban vitality. Wow, I really need to get a life. 

The Marktplatz (marketplace) and Rathaus (city hall) exemplify the functional post-war style, while the New and Old City Palaces were restored to their pre-war charm.

Anyways, after my first week in Owen, it was time to go to Tübingen, to start my Sprachkurs. Tübingen is about a half-hour south of Stuttgart. It is a small city of around 90,000 inhabitants, a quarter of whom are students. It is also an unbelievable idyllic example of the typical German university town. The old city sort of struck me as a kind of 'German Hogsmeade,' filled with shops and crooked medieval houses. And in the surrounding hills, there are a number of stately historic villas, which I imagine must have been built by the university elite of former times. 

A typical summer day in Tübingen 

 The Rathaus close up. Much better than Stuttgart.

 Looking out of the Old City, villa visible in the background

 Nice details!

The Neckar river runs through Tübingen along the southern part of the Altstadt. The boats visible are called Stocherkähne, but more about them later!

    

Of course, I wasn't in Tübingen just to stroll and admire old architecture, I had a Sprachkurs to attend! My class consisted of people from many places including New York, Connecticut, Washington, Utah (my first time meeting Mormons - they left a strong impression), Italy, Russia, South Korea, Japan and Spain. Sadly, no Canadians...Suffice to say that 6 hours of German class and then speaking German with different nationalities all day really did a lot for my German, and I am very glad I got some preparation for next year in Freiburg. More about Tübingen in the concluding edition of this prequel! (I hope you think of this like the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries - a great start to an awesome series)

Sommer in Deutschland (pt 1)

Hallo liebe Leute,
The auspicious Queen of Lalaland has asked me to give a brief report about my 6 weeks in Germany this summer. Though I have never been praised for my brevity, I will try my best.

I left for Germany in chipper spirits, happy to escape the rather repetitive routine that my summer on Long Island had become. My trip was supposed to last 5 weeks - 1 with Miriam's family in the comely village of Owen unter Teck and 4 in the university city of Tübingen.

The flight from JFK to Berlin was unremarkable except for the extraordinary lack of leg room. I suppose that is how AirBerlin gets away with being a budget airline. However, as I leisurely walked to my next flight's gate, a booming voice called "Herr Hart, Herr Hart...sind Sie Herr Hart?" I nodded and produced a sound resembling "ja." The rather tense man to whom this voice belonged then started speaking wildly in German. I didn't understand most of it but enough that he wanted my boarding pass. So I gave it to him as we began to sprint towards the gate.

Finally, we walked up to the plane and and he, no longer tense, asked in German how I liked New York, but at this point the game was over. I responded "well actually I live there." All of a sudden he proceeded to give me a high five while exclaiming something like "oh yeah cool, an American." It was all a bit bewildering to my sleep deprived self.

 I arrived in Stuttgart an hour later to the greetings of Miriam and her brother Jan. Miriam's family lives in Owen unter Teck, the village where my Great Grandma grew up. It is quite picturesque, but a little too small for my liking. Her brother and grandpa make their living distilling liqueur and whiskey...though I only ever sampled a very little amount.

The view across from the Gruel's house. The half timbered building is the City Archives of Owen and was built in the 15th century. 

This is the Gruel's house. A very fine dwelling, I you ask me. 

Ok, so my first day in Germany was spent...in France. Strasbourg (or as I like to call it Straßburg). It is right across the Rhine river and is part of Alsace, the region of France that has flipped between Germany and France more times than I care to count. The city is actually amazingly gorgeous! 

 Miriam, Jan, Thomas and I in Strasbourg

No explanation needed.

The streets signs are actually very interesting in the Old City. You can see the older German sign and the newer French sign. 

Well now this is getting quite long and I haven't really even scratched the surface. That's why there will be parts two and three!!!

Hello! Welcome to my hyper-clichéd travel blog!

So under the pressure of family/many of my friends, I have decided to create a blog outlining my international exploits for the next year. For those of you who don't know, I will be studying at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany :)

Freiburg is located in the extreme Southwestern corner of Germany, not far from the border of France (perfect for spontaneous excursions to the Riviera). It has the reputation of being the sunniest and warmest city in Germany, so it should be a welcome respite from the vile Montreal winter, to which I have yet to grow accustom.

As long as I don't have to read a German translation of The Murder of Charles the Good by GALBERT OF BRUGES, all will be well.