Guten Nachmittag! (even though it´s morning back in the States)
Yesterday we took a quick day trip to the city of Heidelberg. We left class about an hour early in order to get more out of our day in the city. We arrived at around 2:00 in the afternoon and met our guide for a tour of the Schloss (castle) for which the city is known for.
Our tour guide Valerie, who is originally from Britain, had come to Germany in her 20s, met a nice German man, got married, and stayed here! She explained that she knew no German when she first came, but quickly learned the language through her immersion experience. She was full of information about the city and the castle, so we had an enjoyable time!
The castle is located at the top of a very large hill (like most castles in Germany), so we got more exercise again by climbing 315 steps to the top (there was also a tram for those who did not feel like breaking a sweat). What made it a little more exhausting was that someone had numbered each step all the way up, so you always knew exactly how far you had to go, which was not always that comforting. . . At the top we were treated with a gorgeous view of the city and the large hills that surround it from several sides. We also had a great view of the Neckar River that runs through the city. It looked like a postcard picture, it was so pretty and I think that terrace of the castle ranks up there as one of my favorite places here. The castle itself is actually partially destroyed thanks to an invasion of the French several hundred years ago as well as a lightning strike that started a fire and destroyed what was not destroyed by the French...but there are still some rooms and partial rooms left as well as statues on the outside of the walls within the courtyard. Another highlight of the Schloss is the Grossen Faß, or large wine barrel. It is actually the largest in the world! This barrel was HUGE! It could hold over 200, 000 liters of wine and was only filled up completely three times.
Another thing I found interesting was that many famous people have actually visited the castle and city. The German poet and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the city and Schloss and wrote poems about the place. There is also a story about a woman named Marianne that fell in love with Goethe during his stay and wrote poetry with/for him. But she was already married and Goethe just up and left her and never saw her again. There is a famous poem of hers that is on a plaque near the castle for everyone to read, and some even wonder if she actually wrote some of the poems that have been attributed to Goethe. But we do not know for sure.
Other famous visitors include the composer Robert Schumann and writer Mark Twain. Twain actually spent a day in the student jail to see what it was like. Speaking of students, Heidelberg is also famous for its university that was started by monks centuries ago. In the 19th century they had what was called the Studentkarzer, or student jail, where students went when they were charged with minor offences, like public intoxication. They were served bread and water for the first day or two (I heard varying reports over how long the bread and water lasted), but afterwards they could have friends bring them food and drink and visit with them. It almost sounded more like party house then a "prision". The duration of their stay depended on the offence, but most lasted between 1-7 days. In the prision´s rooms, of which there are only five, the walls are COVERED with 19th century graffiti. It was pretty cool to see. Many fraternity insignia were painted on or carved into the walls and window frames, along with poems, cartoons and other such scandalous things. That is why Twain wanted to visit the jail, because he wanted to see what it was all about and what the students did there. He wrote about his adventures in Heidelberg and Europe in his book A Tramp Abroad, which I sort of want to read now...
Anyway, after our tour of castle and a little bit of the city we had free time to grab dinner and check out the street shops in their pedestrain zone. That is one thing I will miss about Germany- it seems like most cities have pedestrian zones with little shops for ice cream, gummi bears, souvenirs, books, Italian bistros, and lots of other things! We then piled back on the bus and headed back to Marburg. It was a short little trip, but it was not too hectic and was a little more relaxing than others we have taken.
Today was our last real day of classes, since tomorrow is....just guess...another holiday! No school tomorrow because we think it is the celebration of Jesus´s Transfiguration (but we are not quite sure). I think I already said this, but in Germany they have national holidays for several religious ones, which is sort of funny, because apparently Germans attend church less frequently than Americans do, yet they get all these days off of work and school. . . So tomorrow we are going to Weimar and Eisenach with Speak+Write, so we will be with other students from our classes here as well. It is an all day affair, as we are leaving at 7:00 and probably will not get back until after 8:00. Then we have our final test and our project presentations on Friday! You Wartburgers are lucky you have finals tomorrow and then you are done. I don´t think that is fair. . . :)
I will try to write one more post on Friday to wrap this whole experience up and fill you in on the details of our last trip.
I wish everyone back in Waverly good luck with finals tomorrow and that they had a great May Term on campus! Also, those May Term Abroad trips that are back in the States already, I hope you had as much fun in your foreign country as I did!
Tschüs!!!
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FIRST eye am an android not a robot or human somewhere in between them eye answer blogs with poetry
http://www.poetrypoem.com/charlax3
http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?poemnumber=907155&sitename=charlax3&password=&poemoffset=0&displaypoem=t&item=poetry
Dear AlcatraZ
Dear AlcatraZ
Fabel57
CharlaXFabels
The tugs chart the waters on southern California a few seals and old sea lions and a Mermaid or three still fathom and they play on Alcatraz Island. In the middle of the San Francisco Bay, the island of Alcatraz is a world unto itself. Isolation, one of the constants of island life for any inhabitant - soldier, guard, prisoner, bird or plant - is a recurrent theme in the unfolding history of Alcatraz. Alcatraz Island is one of the most popular area attractions of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, offering a close-up look at a historic and infamous federal prison that was long off-limits to the public. Every cartoon had the Birdman we knew WHO he was before we knoe any of the details of his life. Burt Lancaster made the man bigger than life. The silver screen showed us the prison life. How many prayers are in those walls just waiting to be gutted and torn down in the fall but wait you are now a Tourist attraction some people even get photos and pics of lavish dinners in the cells and even once there was a man from Chicago visited you in the course of his survival he was given a place there to stay not unlike the new Hotel. Alcatraz is usually defined as meaning "pelican" or "strange bird." "Alcatraces" Robert Stroud. Al Capone AlcatraZed. George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, Alvin Karpis (the first "Public Enemy #1"), and Arthur "Doc" Barker, these were just the Famous Amos in the joint. In an unrelated manner in a Charlax manner this is a filler a non nude item. Flash the spam is getting creative the people who send such useless imfonotions make the attempts to get the readers to stay the executions of the deletions of the missives. One such item states the reason. This is not a joke this may seem like it should be a joke to you but this one is not a joke. This was on my spam message and eye deleted it anyway. Just an item from the Twilight Zone. Now back to the story. June 11, 1962 - Made famous by Clint Eastwood in the movie Escape from Alcatraz, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin vanished from their cells and were never seen again. A fourth man, Allen West, believed by some people to have been the mastermind, was also involved; however, he was still in his cell the next morning when the escape was discovered. An investigation revealed an intricate escape plot that involved homemade drills to enlarge vent holes, false wall segments, and realistic dummy heads (complete with human hair) placed in the beds so the inmates would not be missed during nighttime counts. The three men exited through vent holes located in the rear wall of their cell - they had enlarged the vent holes and made false vent/wall segments to conceal their work. Behind the rear wall of the cells is a utility corridor that had locked steel doors at either end. The three men climbed the utility pipes to the top of the cellblock, and gained access to the roof through an air vent (the men had previously bent the iron bars that blocked the air vent). They then climbed down a drainpipe on the northern end of the cellhouse and made their way to the water. It is believed they left from the northeast side of the island near the powerhouse/quartermaster building. They used prison-issued raincoats to make crude life vests and a pontoon-type raft to assist in their swim. A cellhouse search turned up the drills, heads, wall segments, and other tools, while the water search found two life vests (one in the bay, the other outside the Golden Gate), oars, and letters and photographs belonging to the Anglins that had been carefully wrapped to be watertight. But no sign of the men was found. Several weeks later, a man's body dressed in blue clothing similar to the prison uniform was found a short distance up the coast from San Francisco, but the body was too badly deteriorated to be identified. Morris and the Anglins are officially listed as missing and presumed drowned. In the movie the guards left a white rose for the swimmer who was Eastwood eye rally cannot remember who he was supposed to be Frank eye suppose he would not have been the Morris {Anglin} Brothers a little dry charlax humor its dehydrated HAHAH. Eye am such a poor swimmer that eventually if left alone in a great expanse of water eye would have to footstep out of there or drown. This is an obscure reference to JESUS walking in the storm. The End of AlcatraZ the fable not the island. Have you even noticed that people have a different way of talking UP to some and Down to others dressed for success is UP the ladder prance and dance smile at them and give them all the information please dressed in the real world in jeans and shirt is Down the nose the looks the smell the nose begins to curl the lip quivers thus and the information is not nice it is of course the shifting of them gears in robot minds. A man with a suit and tie approaches the mocrowave they smile he inserts his egg and bagel from his house the bagel fries the egg slides off eye find it on the side of the mocrowave and then they look at me he must be off that poor man wearing jeans is lost why do you want to eat hot food.
Please poor one don't use the thing our mocrowave is for the rich and famous egg. The oatmeal tastes so tasteless cold but mourning charlax presses on.
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