Halloweenie... Movies, and Rest

After Paris I was exhausted but we had a project to finish up. I ended up working on it almost all night with a few other people which ended up being fun, but we didn't think we would have had to pull an all nighter while in Germany. Oh well...

Friday the 31st of October was Halloween for us
Josh, a studio friend, always has a party for Halloween called Halloweenie. We cook hot dogs and dress up. So to keep that tradition alive my host family offered their house for the party. I think they are pretty excited that they had a real American Halloween party this year. Even the little boys dressed up and got in the spirit. My teacher came and did face painting, and I, along with 4 others, was a fall leaf. Since this is my first "real" fall I thought it was appropriate. Four other students dressed as the Presidential and VP canditdates... It was hilarious! We had so much fun just spending some time relaxing for Halloween. I spent most of the day getting ready before the party, but I also went shopping and bought some really cute boots that I have been wearing since it is getting very cold now.

Saturday the 1st of November
Girls Night! We decided that since no one went out of town this weekend that we would have a girls movie night. The AIB studio that we have class in has a projector, and our program director gave us permission to come up late and watch movies on it. We all brought snacks and watched Just Married and Love Actually. They both seemed fitting because they take place in Europe. It was a fun night.

As a side note:
Right before leaving for Paris our class carved Pumpkins and here is mine (its is supposed to be Nataile Portman):

J'adore PARIS

I very badly need to update more! I am behind right now because I have had school work, more small trips, and sickness. I am feeling much better now, but everyone in studio seems to be alittle sick, or recovering. Okay, time to update everyone on my excursions.

Ryan left early on Wednesday the 22nd of October.

Thursday 23rd
We went on a day trip with school to Schloss Dyck in the town of Juchen which is an old castle area that was turned into a artistic garden display. Each garden is separated by a very tall Miscanthus grass so it was almost like finding your way through a maze. After looking at all the gardens we had a picnic "brown bag" lunch, and headed to a sculpture garden in Stiftung. I am still not sure how the sculpture garden was put together, but it was an amazing site! The garden is full of these small brick buildings that are full of art work, sculpture, painting, etching, and more.

Friday 24th
PARIS! Catrina, Josh, Brad and I arrived in Paris in the afternoon and headed to the hotel, which was actually outside of the city boundary (meaning it took us forever to find). Once we found it and rested for a little bit and then meet up with Kari and Tim who arrived on a later train. We all ate a snack outside of the Louvre while enjoying the grand views of the city. The Louvre has a special deal where people under the age of 25 get in free on Fridays after 6pm! So we went to the Louvre for free. The Louvre is huge, so we only looked around the parts that we really wanted to see including the ancient Louvre, Greek and Italian Sculpture, The Mona Lisa, The Venus De Milo, and a few other interesting pieces. Then Brad and I went to Moulin Rouge and took photos. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Chat Noir where we enjoyed escargot, wine, salad, and roast duck. It was delicious! Then we went to the Eiffel Tower to watch the night light show.

Saturday 25th
We went to Versailles and watched the Musical Fountain Show from 11am to noon. They only turn on the fountains on certain days for a few hours. They are so beautiful, and the music playing only added to the wonderful experience. Versailles was a must when visiting France.... I loved it. After Versailles everyone wanted to go rest at the hotel except for me and Kari. So, we went shopping in Paris. It was so much fun. We walked through the strip of designer stores that we couldn't afford, and then got excited when we entered into the cheaper area. I might have bought a few too many souvenirs. When everyone was rested they came to join us for dinner. I ate such a wonderful meal of pasta with salmon, salad, and an apple tart desert. Then we all went to the Eiffel Tower again to watch the lights and relax. We stayed there for a while before going back to the hotel.

Sunday 26th
We didn't want to try to do too much because our train left in the late afternoon almost evening. We went back to the Eiffel Tower, because it is beautiful, and ate lunch, sketched, and took a ton of pictures. Then we headed to the Opera House where the Phantom of the Opera story is based. There was a band playing on the steps which was fun for us all to listen to. I bought one of there CDs. They were all music students in Paris. Before catching our train we bought a few fruit tarts to share, and I got some Paris Fashion Magazines to look at on the way home.



We got back into Bonn pretty late, but it was worth it. I had so much fun in Paris. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to, so another trip in the future is a must. It was also fun to be able to use my mediocre French again. J'adore Paris...

Vienna Waits for ME

I know I am very behind on my posts, so I will try to catch up quickly.

After our 10 day break, I only had about half a day to get my stuff unpacked and get back to school. The break ended on Monday October 13th.

Tuesday October 14:

Ryan came to visit me! He meet up with us in Cologne when we where on a short tour of the Harbor. It was pretty hectic. We had lunch, stored his luggage, and then meet back up for the second half of the tour. Then we got back to Bonn and he had fun meeting my host family. They are so kind. They let him stay here.

Wednesday 15:

We went on another school trip to Hagen and Dusseldorf to look at different Harbor designs for a project we are working on. It was really fun to see some work that I have already seen in books before. When we got back to Bonn it was pretty late so we came back to my host family's house and ate dinner with them. Then Ryan played guitar for my host family and the little boys played along. It was so adorable. They are both musically talented!

Thursday 16:
Another trip to Dusseldorf, by this trip the whole class was so tired of moving around. It was exhausting, but the tour of Architecture was fun. When we got back to Bonn, Ryan and I went out so that I could show him more of the city.

Friday 17:
VIENNA! We booked a blind flight and ended up going to Vienna, Austria. It was so beautiful, one of my favorite cities so far. On the first day we went to the Belvedere Museum to see The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I have never seen such a beautiful painting. It doesn't even compare to the prints.

Saturday 18:
We woke up early and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast at the hotel, and then went out to the town. We went to see all of the famous Doms, and then went out to a beautiful Garden just outside of the main town. We ate a reasonably priced 3 course meal in the gardens. It was a fun treat. I don't know if anything I have ever experianced would compaire to eating a wonderful meal in an enormous garden in Vienna with Ryan. For the evening we went to a small concert of Mozart and Strauss. It was held at the hall that Mozart used to perform as a child. Then we went to the Vienna Film Festival, Viennale. Ryan was so excited to go because he is quite into film stuff. The movie we saw was awful, but the theater and experiance was alot of fun!

Sunday 19:
Last day in Vienna! We didn't want to be too stressed, so we went to the museum district and just spent all day in museums until our flight left. We saw some very interesting exhibits, and more beautiful paintings by Klimt.

Monday 20-Tuesday 21:
I had school today, but for lunch my class mates, Ryan, and I went out to a nice place to get some authentic German cuisine. It was delicious. Since Ryan was about to leave, I tried to show him all around Bonn. We spent alot of time walking and just having fun. He really got to see what my life was like over here.

Wednesday 22:
I took Ryan to the train station in Cologne very very early. He had to leave to go catch his flight back home. I was sad to say bye to Ryan, but my day was extreamly busy after he left. We had a tour of the Bonn U.N. Campus. Then we had a personal presentation on what the U.N. World Conference is expecting for Bonn this Spring.

10 Day Break Pictures

Here is a sample of pictures I took in Italy and Greece:

Venice:

Rome:

Pompeii:

Athens:

Santorini:

10 Day Break

Sorry for the delay in my Blog. I have been busy with school and travels, but I took this weekend off from traveling to relax and catch up with different things. Here is an overview of my ten day break:

October 3rd:
We got home from the school trip from Prague and then I repacked to leave that same day. It was really crazy and hectic but I had already decided with Brad, Cat, and Josh that we wanted to get as much traveling in that we could. So we hopped on a night train to Milan, Italy.

October 4th:
We arrive in Milan around 7am with only a few hours layover. So we bought a map and headed for the Milan Dom. It was very pretty but not as grand as the Dom in Cologne. The street beggars and vendors in Milan really scared us because they kept grabbing our hands and pushing merchandise on us. I really thought I was going to get pick pocketed, but no one did. My overall impression of Milan was that it was expensive and not a place I would want to revisit.

After Milan, we hopped on another train going to Venice! We were in Venice until late evening. It is one of my top 5 favorite cities I have visited here so far. We walked all around Venice taking photos and sketching. We also bought some bread, wine, cheese, olives, and olive oil to have a picnic dinner at sunset. The sunset was extremely beautiful, there are no words to explain how much I loved Venice. I really want to go back and spend some more time there. Shortly after sunset we went to the train station to wait for our next night train. This is when we started a card playing tournament of spades.

October 5th:
We arrived in Rome around 6am and found our hostel to drop off our luggage. Then we went on a jam packed self lead walking tour. It was so much fun, but we were all very sleepy. We went to the Colosseum, the ruins beside the Colosseum, San Marco Basillica, Monument Vitorio, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, and much more. When we got back to our hostel we found out that they cook a big spaghetti dinner for everyone staying there. It was so good, and free! At our hostel we also met some amazing people from all over who were traveling all around Europe. We had so much fun talking to them about our travels.

October 6th:
We went to Pompeii. On the train ride up to Napoli we meet some women from Texas! We had so much fun talking to them. When we arrived in Pompeii we got tickets, a map, and a little guide book of the town. We didn't pay to take a tour, but we ended up hearing alot from other tours we passed. We saw almost the entire city in just a day. It was amazing to view the way people lived in 79 AD. Pompeii was a very awe inspireing experiance.

After Pompeii, we went back into Rome to our hostel, got free dinner again, and then went ot bed early.

October 7th:
Rome day 2! We had alredy been almost everywhere we wanted to visit in rome, so we spent the morning shopping, doing laundry, and relaxing. Then we went to St. Peters Bassilica/The Vatican. We didn't go inside because we didn't want to wait in line, and we forgot to wear close-toed shoes. We went back to the hostel early to meet up with some of the people we had meet there. We all ate dinner together and then spent the evening at the Trevi Fountain. This was one of my favorite moments in the trip. We exchanged email addresses so that we could all stay in some sort of contact. Everyone was so much fun.

October 8th:
Today we flew to Athens Greece. The flight was really nice and had a full meal. When we arrived in Athens we found our hostel, which was nicer but not as much fun as our Rome hostel. We dropped off our stuff and then went shopping on one of the major shopping strip areas. Shopping in Greece is the best because they have so much amazing stuff and it is all very cheap. We then grabed some dinner and headed back to the hostel.

October 9th:
We went to the ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Mar's Hill, and saw the Theatre of Dionysos. It was a very busy day. Athens is really beautiful, and the weather was perfect.

After all the site seeing, we had to get to the Port of Athens to catch a Ferry to Santorini. The ferry ride was not too bad, but we arrived in Santorini at 2am, exhausted.

October 10th:
The arrival in Santorini was a blur. We got into the port and the hotel picked us up. We got to the hotel and went back to sleep until late morning. Then we got up and went to the beach that was located right down the street from our hotel. The beaches in Santorini are black sand beaches. They also have whtie and red sand beaches. In the afternoon we rented 4 wheelers and explored the island. We hiked around to the red and white beaches, and then we went up to the highest point of the istand to watch the sun set. When we got back to the hostel, we got some groceries to make dinner and then watched a movie in our hotel room. The hotel was really nice, but we ended up being the only guest for the night which is a little creepy. I guess that is what happens when you go on the weekend right after tourist season.

October 11th:
We spent all day laying on the beach. Then we had to be back on the ferry in the late afternoon. This time the ferry ride was misrable. It was so windy that the boat rocked back and forth the entire time. When we got into Athens again, I felt pretty sea sick. We found our hotel in Athens and then went to bed very late.

October 12th:
Our last day in Athens was spent shopping around and just wandering. We didn't have much on the agenda. In the afternoon we had to catch our flight back to Rome.

October 13th:
Travel day! We spent this entire day traveling by trains back to Bonn. We went from Rome to Milan to Zurich to Bonn. It was a long day and I was SO happy to get back to Bonn.

That is the end of my 10 day trip... I have much more to post tomorrow about what has happpend since then. I have so many pictures, but I haven't had a chance to go through them all so I will post some later.

School Trip Berlin and Prague

Ok, I will try to update as best as possible starting from the beginning of our school Berlin trip.

Berlin:

From Saturday September 27th to Tuesday September 30th.

On our first day in Berlin our class met with an urban planner named Christian Hajer. He took us on a tour around Berlin to show us some garden projects, parks, post war architecture styles, and parts of the Berlin Wall. It was extremely interesting to be in a city with such a unique history. For dinner we went to Der Kartoffelkeller (The Potato Cellar)... YUMMM!

The next day we toured the Berlin Olympic Arena, then we went to a building by Le Corbouser, an architect who tried to build using human proportions.

The last full day in Berlin was very different. We got to go to a waste water treatment plant that was renovated into a ecological design testing facility. Then we went to the top of Potsdamer Platz, which is a tall tower that overlooks Berlin. After that we went to a few other research facilities including one on green roofing.

Tuesday was our last morning in Berlin before we left for Prague, so we had some free time. I decieded to go to the Brandenburg Gate and The Holocaust Museum. It is strange that not even 20 years ago people would get shot by trying to walk under the Brandenburg Gate to West Berlin. Also, the Museum was so powerfully done. It was difficult to see, but I am glad I went. I really enjoyed Berlin overall. It is very similar to New York with the architecture, culture, and overall pace.

Prague:

Tuesday Evening September 30th to Friday October 3rd

We arrived in Prague very late on Tuesday, so we had a group dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. My first impression of Prague was: Why are we here, its so desolate! This soon changed.

Wednesday morning we had our first guided tour. Once we came to the central part of Prague the entire architectual style changed. The buildings are beautiful! We walked through the city "golden cross", the Jewish Quarter, the town square, and then saw the Charles Bridge that connects new town and old town Prague together. Wednesday afternoon we had some free time, so I went to see the Frank Gehry building, the Dancing House. It was so beautiful. Then I went to Hotel Europa to get a cup of coffee with some of my studio mates. This Hotel Cafe is designed to look like the Titanic's dining room. It was spectacular, but the coffee was expensive. Then we had a group dinner at teh Pilsener Restaurant which was so much fun. There was music, and traditional Czech food.

On Thursday, we had another guided tour accross the Charles Bridge and into old town. It is hard to explain old town so I will make sure to add many pictures. We had the entire afternoon off again, so I went to the flea market, and a few other stores. It was freezing in Prague so I bought some well needed gloves. We ended our stay here with a Puppet show of Don Giovanni at the National Puppet Theather. It was so much fun to watch a puppet opera. I really did love the beauty of Prague, but the culture is so much different than what I am used to. Also the Czech language and currency is much more confusing than in the places I have visited in Western Europe.

Friday was a travel day. We got back into Cologne at 2:10pm, and then I left for my 10 day break at 6pm! Only a few hours to get ready.

It's already getting late here, so I will continue my travel update (Italy & Greece) tomorrow.

Berlin and Prague update

I can't write a long entry, but I just wanted to mention that I am currently in Prague for my last night, and earlier this week I was in the Berlin! Both of these cities are beautiful. We came with the whole class, and had some time to sketch, have "class", and tour. I say "class" because it doesn't feel like class, but I am learning so much from our discussions, sketch time, and small photography experiments which are hard to explain so I will try to do that later. I miss everyone, and along with everyone in my class, I am starting to refer to Bonn Germany as home... I guess I am getting well acclimated there.

My next adventure starts tomorrow night. We are off for our 10 day break, and I am going to Italy and Greece with 3 friends. I should have alot of updates on Berlin, Prague, Venice, Rome, Naples, Milan, Athens, and Santorini when I get back.

Update

I haven't had much time on my hands to update. I am on a school computer, so I will upload pictures later.

Here is a brief overview of what has been going on the past week and a half:

Wednesday the 17th we had our second tour of Cologne which explained the history of the churches and Roman structures throughout the city.

Thursday we went to Aachen, Germany which is an important city because it was home to Charlemagne. Aachen was built around hot sulfur springs, which was a main draw for people with rheumatism (like Charlemagne). The city is full of history, and pride. It was beautiful. After our tour, my classmate Devon, and I went to one of the famous spas of Aachen and had a glorious time relaxing in the saunas.

Along with 8 other people I left Aachen to go to Amsterdam. We spent our weekend in Amsterdam, which was interesting. Amsterdam is a beautiful city that is also extreamly dirty. We went to the Anne Frank House, which was moving to say the least. Then we went on our own planned out walking tour of the city to save money. We ended up seeing almost everything from the train station to the outer rings of canals. That was really beautiful.

This Monday, the 22nd, our class had a tour of Brühl Germany which is located between here and Cologne. It was also the location for the kings hunting grounds. After lunch we came to Cologne and got a personal tour of the excavated area under the Cologne cathedral. This showed the site of the roman church and each church that procceded it until the gothich cathedral was finished.

I have really had to be going a mile a minute with all the projects and tours we have had. I apoligize if it takes me a while to respond to emails, but I do enjoy reading them.

Puetzchen's Markt & Sleep

This past Friday was the first day of Bonn's Puetzchen's Markt which is a large 5 day long fair. Our group went on the opening day to see all the rides, vendors, food, and music. It was alot of fun, but expensive and very exhausting. After two rides and some food I was ready to join the A.I.B. group in the big "beer tent". There they had bands playing, and people dressed in tradtional German lederhosen serving drink and food. We learned alot of German songs. It was an interesting night, but I went home early because I had a sore throat.

The next two days, I spent sick in bed with the Flu or something like it. I had a small fever. My host family checked on me and brought me tea every time I woke up. They are really nice. Today I am feeling much better, and I am just spending time working on homework and plans for weekend trips.

Trier, Germany

Today we visited Trier Germany. It is a very interesting city because it is thought to be the oldest city in Germany. It was founded by Celtics before the Romans built a more structured city. We went to a garden exhibit first to see the gardens that the different "sister" cities of Trier donated. The one that was close to home was donated by Carter and Burgess, a landscape architecture firm in Fort Worth Texas! It was very well done and had a statue of a longhorn in the middle. The British style garden had apple trees that we could all eat from so we had some apples as a snack before getting on the bus again.

The bus tour was difficult to follow because it was a foggy day, which was a disappointment to us all. Then we walked around town to make some sketches, but it started to rain very hard and we had to stop. The best part of the day was when we went to a vinyard and had a tour and wine tasting.

That pretty much summed up our day. I will lhave to scan in my sketches to show you what we have been working on here.

Getting to feel at "home"

I have been in Bonn for a bit over 2 weeks now and I am just now feeling at "home" here. It is nice to be staying in Bonn as a home base because the city is so full of culture and international awareness (since the Germany U.N. building is here). I really am getting to know my way around town and around the public transportation system, which is much more confusing than the one in College Station. This week has gone by SO fast.

Monday we had class and German lessons. Then in the evening we all went to one of the concerts for the Beethoven Festival. Beethoven was born in Bonn so every September Bonn has a month long festival to celebrate their most famous "son". For this festival famous musician's come from all over the world to play Beethoven's music. The program we are with got us all tickets to one of the concerts on Monday. It was the French National Orchestra, and it was moving. We all enjoyed the music. It is just inspiring to be able to walk down the same streets as such a genius. There first piece was Beethoven's 8th symphony, but I am not sure what the second piece was.

On Tuesday, we had class and then Marck Mueckenheim, an amazing German Architect, came to teach us about the history of German Architecture. We will have him come speak a few more times for the German Culture/History class I am taking. Then I just spent time walking about Bonn with friends.

Today, Wednesday, was like a dream. We visited Cologne as a class. I had already gone with friends to look around, but we had the first of 3 tours of the city. We toured the cathedral (St. Peter and Mary's Cathedral) which is the most Gothic Cathedral ever built. I have a bunch of pictures but I only put a few in this post. The first is of the burial place of the three wise men. They originally were located in Palestine, but moved a few times before being given to Cologne as a gift. The second picture is of the oldest stained glass in the Cathedral. All the glass and interior were kept safe during WWII by being removed and placed in bunkers. This glass shows the different bible stories which was important because the majority of people couldn't read or write, and the pictures helped explain the stories. The next picture is one of the 3 organs located in the cathedral. This organ is so powerful that it is only played during organ concerts. The last picture is of a part of the cathdral that was lazer cleaned. It took 2 years to clean this with a lazer because it could only clean one square millimeter at a time. We also looked at the anceient ruins left in Cologne, and traces of the changes from development of the city.

Tomorrow I get the pleasure of going to Trier for the entire day. Our class will be touring what is thought to be the oldest city in Germany. I am excited!

Pilgrims, and Germans

So to catch you up to date...

Wednesday we had classes, and then I went to an authentic German restaurant with some friends to have some yummy traditional food. It was delicious to say the least. I had a turkey steak with pineapple, a salad, and fries. Ok, my food wasn't "traditional" German, but it sounded to good to pass up.

Thursday we had class which included a "field study" assignment of walking around town and drawing things that caught our eye. It was so much fun. We all are excited about our field study class now. I am going to have some great sketches when this semester is over! Then we went on a guided English tour to the House of Germany History, which was amazing.

We don't have class on Fridays so some of my friends and I went to Cologne or (Koln in German) to see the Cathedral and the Chocolate Museum. The Cathedral is so aw inspiring that I can't even began to explain its beauty. Then the Chocolate Museum was a blast too. We ended the night with the University "pub crawl" to find all the college hang outs. It was alot of fun, but rainy so most of us went home early.

Saturday I spent time reading, working on homework, doing laundry, and just relaxing with my host family. They had some friends over so Martha made and fresh apple pie (using the apples from her garden... YUM). I got in a long conversation with them about America and our culture compaired to Germany. It was a fun discussion.

NOW finally, Today we went on a 10 mile hike/walk on part of the St. James pilgrimage. It started in Euskirchen and ended in Bad Munstereifel. The St. James pilgrimage is one of the 3 pilgrimages that is said to forgive sins by walking it. I am very sore now, but it was worth it. We stoped at a few churches along the way and learned about their importnace to the pilgrams who used to hike all the way to spain. People still do this. The entire trip is from Jerusalem to Northern Spain. It has become a craze again very recently to go on these pilgrimages. There are signs along the way for you to follow.

Now I am at home, about to crawl in bed and try to get enough sleep for tomorrow.

Sprechen sie English?

Today we had our second day of classes which included my "field study" class, an essential German session, and another historical tour about German post WWII Gardens. Classes here are very different than at home because they are less structured by times and assignments. In fact I am still unsure how the grading systems will work for my German classes.

Our tour was at the German History Museum, but we only toured the gardens so some of us may go back to visit the museum itself. I guess it was a slow day compared to the past few days which has been nice.

I am going to add a few pictures of my walk home to this post. I was riding a bike to school, but I found that I can walk to meet some friends at the subway station and get to school much faster. This is helpful because I am not very comfortable on a bike anyway.

1st day of "class" and more

I didn't post yesterday because I was so sleepy by the time I got home. We went on a Rhine Cruise yesterday, and it was a beautiful day for it. Sadly I forgot to take my camera and will have to get the pictures from one of my friends.

We road a bus to Bacharach, Germany and had a chance to look around a different type of German town. Then we got on a river boat and road that for 2+ hours until we got to Barubach. Barubach has the only fortified castle on the Rhine that has not been destroyed and rebuilt. We had a great tour of the castle, and learned alot about German history.

Today was also exciting! We had our first class this morning at 8:45am, it was a German culture/history/language class. Then we got to go meet one of the Deputy Majors of Bonn in the old capitol building. Bonn was the Capitol of Germany 13 years ago before it moved to Berlin, but since the move the economy has bounced back. Now Bonn is a Universtity town that also holds the United Nations, and it is a cultural hub in Germany. Also, Bonn is a leader in sustanable city desing and research which is one of the reasons our program is here. We got to discuss all of this with the Deputy Major which was astounding!

After lunch we had a tour at the Bonn Universtiy Botanical Gardens. I had already seen some of it, but the tour was very informative. It intrested all of my class because we have to learn so much horticulture, and we all enjoy the subject. Then we had our first Bonn history lesson, which was a walking classroom envirionment so that we could see things as we learned about them.

Over all it has been a great, action packed few days here, but I love it. I feel like I have been here much longer than 6 days!

Art and Castles

Today was wonderful but exhausting. I woke up early to go with a group of friends to the Kunstmuseum Bonn which is the Bonn Abstract Art Museum. It was alot of fun, but we all enjoyed the beauty of the building more than than most of the art. The building is a post modern architectural dream. The permanent exhibits all had meaning to the city of Bonn, which used to be the Capitol of German. It is no longer the capitol but it still mainatains some of the most amazing art throughout history.

After almost 2 hours in the museum we met up with more people to have a picnic in one of the beautiful parks near the main University building. Everything I have eaten here is WONDERFUL, and it is very cheap to eat in Bonn compaired to other German cities.

Around 1p.m. we decided to go to the region of Konigswinter to visit one of the castles in the Bonn area. It was quite an adventure because we got on the train and ended up at the end of one of the tracks and having to walk back to the last station to switch trains. We got lost for about 30 min. before we found our way back, but it was so beautiful that we didn't mind too much. After finally getting to Konigswinter, we were all very tired but we kept on walking till we got to the train that takes you up to the castle. It was worth it because it was beautiful! Outstanding really. I have never seen anything as beautiful as the views from this amazing castle. We whent through the histroy museum inside, and walked around the landscaped gardens. Then we had to walk all the way down hill to get back to town, and then ride a train home. I went and got some yummy food and then biked back to my host family house... needless to say I have had a long day, and there are many more of that to come.