A couple pictures of Mannheim...

For those curious about my new home, here are a few shots I took. Mannheim is not exactly a beautiful city, but these pictures aren't too bad. The city is very working-class and not at all a tourist stop. In addition, EVERYTHING is under construction. At this point, however, I can honestly say that I consider Mannheim home and am used to things.

This is the Wasser Turm- the water tower. It is without a doubt the prettiest thing in Mannheim. I took all these pictures the same evening- which was a typical Mannheim evening. It couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or be sunny, and this usually results, as it did this night, in a very interesting sky. This view is from the front.

This is only a little while later and from the back. There are gardens and a large fountain which lights up at night. It's unexpectedly pretty, and this was the first time I had actually explored back here. Pretty artistic, isn't it Jess?

Me on the water tower.


I just thought this picture really defined the city. Construction equipment and concrete under an amazing sky. The light was beautiful- glad I ventured out that night...

Yeah August! It's been an interesting, if not completely random month as far as traveling goes. My friend Nicole came over for a visit the last week of July and helped me move. Thank god because I would have probably never made it here by myself! I had to leave my room in Ulm on 28 July but couldn't move into my room in Mannheim until 1 August.

While I was homeless that weekend Nicole and I traveled around. Our first stop was Koln (Cologne to us ignorant Americans). It was fairly high on my list of places I wanted to see, and my first big traveling disappointment. Let me explain...



Here is the Kolner Dom- the gigantically enormous and very famous cathedral. This was undeniably impressive and beautiful, especially inside where I have never felt more like the peon that I am. The cathedral is right next to the train station- very convenient. What we should have done was get right back on a train after seeing the cathedral. However, we decided to stay the night in Cologne and do some more sightseeing since we had not arrived until about 4:00 in the afternoon.
We had no idea that Cologne is a dirty, smelly city in which everything (that still existed at all) on our outdated, free tourist map was under construction or closed that day. We spent the whole time walking around looking for things with little success. For instance:

This is THE ROMAN GATE. A stop on our "map." If it looks tiny, that's because it was. We searched for this thing forever because it sounded fairly cool. When we (finally!) turned the corner and saw our long sought after destination we almost fell over laughing. Its in the middle of ugly, modern buildings and the other side was, of course, covered in scaffolding. I honestly think it was built a few years ago and they just claim it's Roman.

We also tried to go to the chocolate museum. Closed. Huge disappointment. Mom- I know you sympathize.

To really sum it up- this was the highlight of my stay in Cologne:

I've been craving a french vanilla iced coffee since I arrived in Germany. (As my friends from Ulm undoubtedly remember- haha) This was the first Dunkin I've seen since I left and it was here of all places! To make matters worse, I had just paid way too much for an iced coffee from starbucks (can't believe I've admitted that I bought starbucks in europe), and therefore did not get my glorious dunkin. Tragic, I know.

I realize it sounds like we were miserable- we really weren't. Our terrible luck actually became funny by the end of the day. All in all, glad I went. But FYI to anyone going to Cologne: see the Cathedral, then get back on the train!

We got out of Cologne bright and early the next morning. Next stop: Bonn


I loved Bonn, it was absolutely beautiful and I wish we could have spent more time there. We planned this stop as a break on our way to Koblenz where we had a boat to catch. We only had about 4 1/2 hours in Bonn so we did a short walking tour and agreed that Beethoven's house was our 'must see' stop while we were there.

His house has been converted into a wonderful museum, which we toured. They have great displays of his instruments. It was a much needed relaxing stop for us. But, as I mentioned, we had a boat to catch...

We did a boat tour down the Rhine River from Boppard to Bacharach- two unbelievably cute towns that I'm glad we had a chance to see, however briefly. It took about 2 1/2 hours and looked just like this picture most of the way. Around every corner was a quaint German town, usually with a castle on the hill over it.

Another cute town on the Rhine...

Some castles....

A lot of them were too far away to get really good pictures, but these give the general idea.

That's it from our adventure. The following day we went to Heidelberg, which is right next to Mannheim. I'll have pictures from there on the next post.

My second weekend in Mannheim I decided I needed to get out of here, and planned a last minute trip to Dresden. I went with a friend of mine from the international program - we just stayed one night and even though it was a long trip (about 6 hours) it was completely worth it. The city is gorgeous, even with all the construction that is still going on to restore it. We joked that it was so refreshing to be in a beautiful, clean city, as Mannheim is far from either.

This is the Schloss- the castle. It was here that they had tournaments, etc. The main schloss was not nearly as pretty and the only thing exciting was a very unexpected erotic art exhibit inside. I guess it would have been helpful to know how to say "erotic art" in German so we could have known what we were getting ourselves into. Oh well- learn something new every day, right?!

I love this picture- the sky looks so forboding and dramatic. It actually did not rain on us, although it certainly seemed it would at any moment. The weather has been like this lately- the day can start out beautiful and in no time it looks like Armageddon.

And last but not least, the Frauen Kirche. This is the most famous church in Dresden, which was unfortunately closed by the time we made it there. A little disappointing, but what can you do?

On a random and lighter note- I've finally discovered that sausage can be delicious. After a very scary experience in Salzburg with a disgusting sausage (as I'm sure Anna remembers well), I have come to almost enjoy a good bratwurst. Never thought this day would occur. I have obviously been in this country for too long!