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Germany
I spent the past 2 weekends visiting various cities in Germany - Stuttgart, Munich, Trier, and Saarburg. All very distinct from each other, I was lucky to experience different flavors of Germany with each stop.
Day 1: Stuttgart
First stop was Stuttgart, last Friday. Famous as the site of Porche and BMW, our first stop was of course the Porche museum. I didn’t expect to be too interested in the car museum, but looking at all the different cars turned out to be very entertaining. Some of my favorites:
80’s car
Celebration of 50th anniversary for Porche Australia - decorated in the style of the Aboriginies.
Following our tour of the museum, we explored Stuttgart and stopped in the modern art museum - KunstMuseum Stuttgart. As usual, the hours I spent wandering the museum and discovering German artists were my favorite of the weekend. I was especially struck by Otto Dix, whose work was cynical, grotesque, and captivating all at once. Its worth a few minutes to google search his work, but I believe you need to see it in person to experience the full effect.
After dinner, we ventured to the top of the TV tower, where we watched the city lit up like a Christmas tree as we sipped on hot chocolate. What a wonderful end to my first day in Germany.
Day 2: Munich
The majority of the day in Munich was spent at the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest. This festival was everything I expected and more - lederhosen everywhere, lots of beer tents, lots of bratwurst, all in the middle of a huge carnival with rides and arcades. It was Germany meets Six Flags. The best part of the day was having the opportunity to meet people from all over Europe. Just like everything else at Oktoberfest, the tables were huge, so sitting with people you didn’t know was inevitable. None of us were wearing lederhosen, so we stood out like a sore thumb. One of the boys we were traveling with was wearing a Canada shirt, which initially struck me as a bad idea since it made us seem even more touristy. But it turned out to be a great way to meet people who loved Canada, including an Italian hockey team! That served as a lesson to me: if its clear that you don’t blend in a culture, you might as well represent your own culture with pride. That evening, we explored the rest of Munich and I was amazed at how breathtaking it is. I will certainly return when I have more time. Not only was the architecture stunning, but the streets were filled with the most beautiful music. At one point, we stumbled into a string quartet and piano playing Mozart in the middle of the street. The scene was so poetic it stopped me dead in my tracks and I just stood and listened in awe for 10 minutes.
This past weekend, I spent time in more traditional German towns - Trier and Saarburg.
Day 3: Trier and Saarburg
Trier was the most exciting city for me to visit due to its connections to both my heritage and high school! Just minutes after stepping off the train, I saw the city gate, Porta Nigra, which I immediately recognized from the New Trier High School emblem.
New Trier - Porta Nigra
Trevian pride.
The rest of our time there was pretty standard - explored a Roman amphitheater, admired the Cathedrals, tried some local food, etc. Unique to this weekend in Trier was a festival in celebration of their sister city in the Netherlands. But as I’m starting to notice, it seems that even festivals are just a standard part of weekend in Europe!
Giacomo, Katrina, me, and Curtis in Trier.
After lunch, we were ready to explore more of Germany, so we hopped on a train for Saarburg, where we heard was a fun place to go tobogganing. Indeed it was! My last experience with any sort of summer luge was in Lake Placid with my dad where we rode on the olympic bobsled course. These toboggans didn’t go nearly as fast as the bobsled, but it was still fun! We also explore the castle at the top of the hill (shown below) and enjoyed the quaint architecture of the little town.
Saarburg.
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