Colmar / Prague / Switzerland / Frieburg / Vienna / Munich

Ok, here we go. Four weekends in one post. Let’s see how this works out.

Colmar, France: Skylar, Steven, Aaron, Molly, Julia, Christy and I went to this quaint (okay Christy and Molly, the town is cute) little town in the Alsace region of France. The whole place looks like La Madelaine, very nice. Also very expensive. It was actually cheaper for us to stay in a hotel than rent beds in a hostel. We saw the wonderful Musee d’Unterlinden housed in an old monastery. The highlight of the collection is the Issenheim altarpiece, this amazing five or six part painting depicting, among other things, St. Anthony being tempted by some creature that must have inspired “Where the Wild Things Are.” The painting was beautiful, a really neat piece of art. It was weird to see all these people there discussing it in a secular sense, as some dead piece of history, when to me it is still so profoundly alive and spiritual. I thought that was sad. We also did a nice self-guided walking tour of the town, saw a cool water tower and cathedral and generally enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Prague, Czech Republic: Boys trip this time, Skylar, Aaron, Steven, and I. We took a sleeper train to Prague, shared our berth with “Smelly-snoring-man.” It was not the most comfortable night. Prague is a really beautiful town, lots of high baroque architecture with a really cool “astronomical clock.” Actually, Prague had a lot going on for it in the way of clock towers. We spent two days there, did the walking tour, watched blue-grass bands perform on the St. Charles Bridge, saw the old Jewish quarter with it’s ridiculous cemetery, and drank the best beer of my life. It was so good. One night we went to a jazz club, and met a very drunk Norwegian who claimed to be “the last viking.” He offered to take us up to his room for some “drinks,” but having seen one too many slasher flicks, we politely declined. I will say that the town felt a little touristy and trashy sometimes, like they were really trying to cash-in on their new-found status as the “it” place in Europe right now. I think it will be a really amazing city in about ten years when it has calmed down a bit and “grown up” a bit.

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland: Meghan and I went to Lauterbrunnen for a day to enjoy some hiking in the Alps. Out friends mercilessly made fun of us for going on a couples weekend–even though we aren’t a couple, to which my lady-friend in Waco can attest. Switzerland is profoundly beautiful, and our hostel was situtated right in the middle of this huge glacier carved valley beneath the Eiger and Jungfau peaks. We spent the day hiking and cable-carring from village to village, sampling the local cheese and chocolate, marveling and God’s glorious creation. I particularly enjoyed the culture, everyone was a farmer and lived idyllic lives as cattle-herders and cheese-makers. It made me want to do that myself, actually.

Frieburg, Germany: On our way back from Switzerland, we stopped off in Frieburg to check out the Black Forest. We stayed at an amazing hostel built in an old warehouse that had musical instruments and a library. Frieburg reminded me a lot of Colmar actually, very quaint and picturesque, with neat little guard towers all of the place. The Black Forest itself was fairly anti-climactic, but that was perhaps because we had just left the Alps. I would like to go back again in the summer time when things are blooming and the trees are green.

Vienna, Austria: For Easter break, Justin, Sarah, Sandy, and I went to Vienna and then Munich. Vienna has been my favorite city so far, like Prague, but classy. The Viennese really know how to live The Good Life. For instance, Vienna is the home of such great luxuries as the coffeehouse and the chicken-fried steak. Thanks to the plundering ways of the Hapsburgs, they also have some of Europe’s finest museums. I particularly enjoyed the royal treasury, which had Napoleon’s cradle, and also Schönbrunn Palace, the 1,400 room summer residence of the royal family, making me wonder what their normal place must have been like!

Munich, Germany: After a day in Prague, we headed off to Munich to sample the beer and see the sights. Sarah got sick and had to go home, but I will say 10 out of 10 to the German health-care system—she didn’t have to pay a dime for the doctor to see her at midnight the day before Easter. Munich is the heart of Bavaria, which is where most of our German stereotypes come from: beer, lederhosen, oompah bands, fabulous wealth, and of course, Nazis. Justin and I took the free walking tour sponsored by our hostel, which was really good. After the tour, we went out to a beer hall with our tour-guide, drank excellent beer from a comically oversized stein, ate sausage, and talked about the holocaust with an Israeli and a black Bavarian. That afternoon we also visited Dachau, a former concentration camp. It was strange being there, in the actual place where so many terrible things were done, and then juxtaposing that to how nice of a place Germany is today.

And that was my last weekend trip. Class ended a few days ago, and we are now into our first few days of “the Month” of travel! It’s been a whirlwind so far, and I can’t believe that I won’t be going back to Maastricht until the end of April, the day before we leave for the US. On one hand, I wish I had spent more time in Maastricht, soaking up its culture and history, but on the other hand, I have got to see so much. It amazes me to think that as a 21-year old, I will have seen the Western World. I have been truly blessed with these opportunities: thanks Mom, Dad, God.

As I mentioned though, we are now starting the Month. From the end of finals until the end of April we have off to go do as we please, so we’ve planned a grand tour of Europe. Here is my prospective itinerary:

Part I: TO THE NORTH
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bergen, Norway
Oslo, Norway
The Lofoten Islands, Norway – north of the Arctic Circle
Stockholm, Sweden

Part II: Wine and Tapas
Paris, France
Tours, France
Madrid, Spain
Seville, Spain
Barcelona, Spain

Part III: Is it Spelled Hercules or Heracles?
Cinque Terra, Italy
Roma, Italy
Florence, Italy
Corfu, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Athens, Greece

It’s highly ambitious, but I think we can do it! Wish us luck!

Berlin

I’m going to try and get caught up with posting this week. That unfortunately means, however, that the quality of these next few posts might not be that great. So, apologies in advance to the two of you who read this (Mom, Dad).

A few weekends ago Justin, Sarah, Molly, Christy, Sandy, and I went to Berlin. The city is so new and sparkling and well, un-European, if I may say so. Since it was practically destroyed during WWII, and then totally neglected during the Cold War, everything seemed to be younger than I am. It felt alot like the trendier parts of Dallas or Austin. Every now and then, however, you would stumble across places of immense historical significance — the spot where Hitler committed suicide, leftover sections of the Berlin Wall, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window. It was surreal to see epic pieces of the past juxtaposed to the humdrum of living in the present.

On Saturday we took the New Berlin Free Walking Tour, which was great. The guides work on a tip-only basis, so they do a really good job. We saw all the major sites, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Tor, the Holocaust memorial, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz (the location of the infamous Nazi book-burning), I could go on. That night we had Mexican food, and it was delicious.

The next day, Justin and I wandered around the city while the girls went museuming. We stumbled across a wonderful street market with the best quiche and olives I have ever had. It was a really international moment – a Swedish woman with an American boyfriend selling French pastries on the East side of Berlin to an American studying in the Netherlands. We then walked to the grassy square on Museum Island and people watched for a few hours, lots of fun. We met up with the girls at the Pergamon Museum, which houses a very impressive collection of loot from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Near East. They reconstructed an entire Greek temple inside the place, along with the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and an excellent selection of Greco-Roman nude sculpture.

My most lasting impressions came from Berlin’s reactions to its Nazi and Communist past. Although the war ended more than 60 years ago, they still wear shame on their sleeve. The Holocaust memorial is huge, unsightly, and in the very middle of town–not to mention the official name, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial in Bebelplatz bears the inscription, “Where they burn books, they will also burn humans in the end.” What must it be like, to be a German today, knowing that your parents or grandparents were part of such a terrifying movement? With regards to Communism, however, they seem to be doing their best to forget. During our walking tour, we crossed between East and West Berlin continuously, and I would not have known had it not been for our guide. When I look at the last 100 years of my family’s history, visiting Berlin becomes one of the more important events in my life I think. The idea that I sent my grandparents who fought in WWII and raised families during the Cold War a postcard from East Berlin staggers me.

Since Berlin, we’ve been to Colmar (small provincial town in France) and Prague – and this weekend I’m off to the Black Forest in Germany and the Swiss Alps – exciting!