Adventures with Family!

Hello everyone!

So the past few weeks or so have been pretty busy, but in a good way! My mom, stepdad and brother came to visit me about a week and a half ago, and stayed until last Sunday. We bought German Rail Passes and traveled a ton. It was seriously crazy- Saturday they got here, Sunday we stayed in Heidelberg, Monday we went to Köln (Cologne), Tuesday we went to Basel, Wednesday we took a much-needed break and stayed in Heidelberg, Thursday we went to Stuttgart and Ulm, Friday we went to Mainz, and Saturday was a day of packing and last things in Heidelberg.

It was great to see them all, and I had so much fun showing them around this city that I love so much. I took them to Yufka's, the döner place friends and I eat at like at least twice a week (we're basically regulars which is fun. The people recognize us by now), and we got to try out delicious typical German food restaurants that I never got around to going to because I didn't have the excuse/need/money to do so. We ate some delicious food, let me tell you.

Traveling so much meant long days, but I got to circle more cities on my map of Germany, so it was totally worth it. Köln is somewhere I've been wanting to visit, but had been saving it as a place we could visit for the first time together. Unfortunately, because it was a Monday, the other things we wanted to do: visit the German-Roman Museum, visit the Chocolate Museum and the Mustard Museum, were all closed. We were super bummed, but the Dom was so incredible, I'm not sorry we went, I just wish we had known and had decided to go a different day. Oh well, life is for learning, right?

I had been to Basel before, with Brian, and I liked it enough to bring my family there- we even got off at the "wrong" stop again so I could walk them through the (in my opinion, at least) prettier part of the city. The last time I was there, it was a beautiful, sunny day, but this time it was, unfortunately, not, so we were pretty cold. We found warmth, though, in a pretty church, a museum that we ended up not actually touring, and a coffee shop.

Stuttgart and Ulm were unintended visits. We had planned on going to the Bodensee, Lake Constance, but after realizing it took at least 3, if not 4 hours to get there from Heidelberg, we decided to stay a little closer to home. Stuttgart is the most industrial city of the places we visited- it was a totally different feel than provincial Heidelberg, or historically famous Cologne. I felt like it was more businessey despite the fact that there were residences of dukes and kings in the middle of the city. We only saw the Ulmer Münster in Ulm, the cathedral which is really

pretty (and cold!). It's famous for being super tall, but I actually didn't climb it because we didn't

have a ton of time, and it was also so cold we didn't really feel like it. I'd like to go back, though.

We decided to go to Mainz and check out the Gutenberg Museum We decided to go to Mainz and check out the Gutenberg Museum, just because I enjoyed it so much the last time I went, while visiting a friend who, incidentally, I happened to run into while at the museum. It was quite the fortuitous event- she was able to guide us to a good place for lunch where something pretty cool

happened.

At this restaurant, the Eisgrub-Bräu, our waitress heard me speak in English to my family, but order in German, and so knew that I spoke both languages. A few minutes after she had taken our orders, and we had gotten out drinks, she comes over and asks me to follow her, because they needed my help. I was a little confused, but I got up and followed her into the kitchen,where a group of concerned-looking people promptly handed me a phone. “Hello?” I

asked. “Yeah, hi! I’m trying to make reservations for tomorrow, I was wondering if there were any openings…” I quickly realize that she speaks no German, and was having trouble making these reservations, so I follow the manager to a back room where she opens a book of reservations, and proceed to translate reservations for a group of 11 at this restaurant. It was one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had, let me tell you. I felt so useful, and happy at being able to help…it was wonderful. I felt even cooler when the waitress came over to our table a few

minutes later and asked if we liked beer, to which I responded (obviously) “yes!” and then gave me a liter Fläsche of their house brew as a thank you. It was pretty neat.

I took approximately a thousand pictures of everywhere we went, a few of which you have the pleasure of viewing here on this very blog! Lucky you.

From the top: the Kölner Dom, my brother kicking it at the Heidelberg Castle, a view of Köln, the Rhein and part of the tower from the top, a cool bench (it says "Gutenberg" in case you can't tell) outside the Gutenberg Museum, and a mosaic inside the Ulmer Münster in Ulm.