The Motherland

I apologize, but things are about to get very out of whack here on the good ol' blog. Since Paris, I've gone to Berlin, Barcelona and Munich, all in the space of about three weeks. As you can tell, there is a lot to catch up on! In order to make it a little easier, and to balance it out because I spent much longer in Barcelona than I have anywhere else, I am going to group Germany together and write about Barcelona next time. First up is Berlin, which is where our entire group went for our second official excursion.

It's really a very beautiful city, but what struck me most was the contrast in the architecture between old and new. There were of course a lot of buildings that are very old, but then right next to them would be some sort of new marvel of modern design. Case in point - next to the Brandenberg gate is one of the most abstract-looking buildings I have ever seen -the school of modern art. The Wall obviously had a huge impact on which architecture could be found where. One of my favorite buildings was the Berliner Dom, which is a giant church with (of course) a huge dome on top. We climbed all the way up there! 

To be honest, I have hardly any pictures from our three days in Berlin. Mostly this is due to being SO BUSY. Our teachers had us doing tours and museums basically all day every day. I just got tired of lugging my rather large camera around everywhere. By the end of the trip, my feet were busted and all I wanted to do was sleep forever. Which I did, in sunny Barcelona. But that's for the next post! 

We also got to go to the Reichstag, which has an amazing design and interior; all very modern and very beautiful. Another place that stood out for me was the Gefangnisgalerie, which is one of the cleanest, most neatly presented museums I have ever been to. There was some incredible art there, including my favorite Caravaggio. 

Of course the Brandenburg gate was lovely. However, they were doing construction for the Mauerfall Celebration later that night, so it was hard to get pictures that didn't involved scaffolding. 

I don't like to post pictures on here that I didn't take myself, so instead I will recommend that you all Google the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. It's an absolutely beautiful building that's fairly new, and I was lucky enough to go see a performance there of the Berliner Philharmonik. Simon Rattle is a hilarious and fantastic conductor, and the program was based around Schoenberg, whose music was perfectly suited to Rattle's mad-scientist type of thing. 

The Mauerfall Celebration (Wall Fall Celebration) was AWEOSME. So many people everywhere! A few of my friends and I got coffee and then camped out near the start of one section of dominoes. To celebrate the fall, Berlin created a bunch of big white "dominoes" that they sent all over the world to be painted by tons of people. Then they all came back and were put in a huge line where the Wall used to be, and then that night they were knocked down section by section. Really a perfect way to commemorate it, I think. There were concerts and speeches and all sorts of stuff. We stayed out forever just walking around the city enjoying the festivities. 

Two weeks later I was back in Germany, but not in Berlin. This time it was Munich, and this time Mom was with me! (The MOTHERland, get it??) We had a great little hotel in the city and spent the first day walking around Marienplatz and looking at all the stores and buildings and stuff. This city was much different - very old, very historic, very...wintry. I can hardly imagine summer in Munich. Especially since they were setting up for the Christmas market, and then we got to watch the famous Glockenspiel on Town Hall. 

Later in the day, we caught the bus over to Nymphenburg, one of the palaces of the electors of Bavaria. It was a huge, imposing place, but very beautiful. Also, there were swans everywhere!

The next day we ventured into the Bavarian Alps to go and see the famous Castle Neuschwanstein. The train ride there was absolutely stunning - it was literally like the train rounded the corner and there were the Alps! It's a bit tough to take good photographs out the window of a moving train, but I tried:

Eventually we arrived at Fussen, an adorable little town perfectly framed by the mountains.

From there we got a taxi up to the Castle. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. Just like a fairy tale, which is why Disney apparently based their Disneyland castle off of this one? Here are some various views of it and from inside:

We even got to take a horse-drawn cart up and down the mountain! Obviously I was thrilled with that.

After taking a tour of the castle, we went back down into Fussen to shop. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized that everything closes really early in this part of the country! Even though it was only 4, we couldn't find anywhere to shop, and just ended up walking around and having coffee. Not bad though, since the town was very pleasant. 

The train ride home was...not as good as the one there. It was crowded, dark outside, and we were tired. We were definitely thankful to get back into the city for a big dinner and then sleeeeeep. 

I'm really glad I got to go to such a beautiful part of Europe with Mom - we both had a lot of fun. Plus it meant I got to stay somewhere with a shower that worked! I'll end with my favorite picture of the two of us in front of Neuschwanstein:

Next time: my extended travel break in Barcelona!