tilbake i Norge!

I'm in Norway! I got here at about 11:00 am on Thursday and am staying with my relatives, the Stokkelands. They used to live in Rochester way back in the day, so I (and the rest of my family - and Grandma) know them quite well.


They live in a town near Oslo. This is the view from their house - gorgeous, right?

Today we went into Oslo to do a bit of touring. Our first stop was the castle.

Norway elected its most recent dynasty. That's right, elected. They apparently have quite a bit of popular support, even tho the prince and princess are kind of … unique. (Princess Märtha Louise has founded an engelskole, where people learn to talk to angels as a form of medicine; and Prince Haakon married a single mother with possible drug history.)


Here's the group of us. Eline isn't in the picture, because she just got home this evening from a rock festival.


Mira, who's five and still insanely rambunctious, also likes ice cream ;)


We went to Vigeland Park, which is known for sculptor Gustav Vigeland's numerous nude statues of people expressing the gamut of emotion at various stages in life.


more Vigeland


Magnus was more mature about it than I was, I think.


It is very pretty, huh? We had brunch here (lefse!).


Then we went to the new opera house, which was coincidentally built by the same architecture firm (Snøhetta) as the library in Alexandria. It is likewise one of my favorite buildings ever.


The walls of it are covered in braille. (photo with Ingvild and Magnus)


the family :)


Magnus the Magnificent did some spectacular magic tricks with his bottle of water.


more opera house

And I'm here until Monday around 5:00 pm, so expect at least one more post about Norway!

Lac de Genéve/Genfer See/Lago di Ginevra=Heaven

For the last leg of our trip, my lovely family and I went to Lake Geneva.


International Red Cross and Red Crescent (Croissant-Rouge - ha!) in Geneva


Geneva has one of the world's largest fountains (le Jet d'eau - that spout on the left side of the photo). They also have a giant soccer ball balloon flying over it in honor of Euro 2008.

Geneva was okay, but Montreux (a small city also on Lake Geneva) was spectacular. It's even prettier than Constance, and that comment's coming from someone with a massive bias toward the latter.


family minus Dad in Montreux


Montreux (it was in the 80s)

While in Montreux we took a boat to Château de Chillon, the castle about which Byron wrote his poem about François de Bonivard.


De Bonivard was imprisoned in the castle with this view to taunt him every day. He was the real life Tantalus.


another shot of Chillon Castle


and another, with Lake Geneva and the Alps as backdrop


Swans are all over this lake. At one place in Geneva (the space of about 6m²) I counted a dozen.


They're also friendly. (They thought my sister had food.)


Dad in front of Chillon Castle


Then we rode first class around the lake for 2 hrs. It was an extremely nice end to an extremely nice trip.

It was wonderful to see the family, and (at least I think) we had a wonderful time traveling this little slice of Europe together.

Frankfurt und Bacharach

as promised!
So I realize most people probably don't read my blog once a day, but this is the best way I could think of to play catch-up with my trip. So as I mentioned in my last blog, each stint of the "Reise" will get one post. Today I'm posting about my trip thru Frankfurt and Bacharach.

We were only in Stuttgart for one day, unfortunately. We spent the next afternoon in Frankfurt. We stored our luggage in some lockers at the train station for €4,00.


We went up this tower to get a view of the city. It cost about €3,50. Frankfurt isn't very pretty. Although it was kind of cool and surreal to be up so high, it certainly wasn't worth the money. I give it *.


For my schweester! HA!


Then we went to the Goethehaus, where Goethe apparently was born. There's even a "so-called birth room". This is Amelia at a so-called desk. She's being inspired thru osmosis. I can't wait to read her next Goethe-esque novel. Entrance cost a bit over €4.


I took a seminar on Goethe's Faust, and last semester I read The Sorrows of a Young Werther, so I was pretty excited to see this so-called plaque!

Then we went to Bacharach. This city is undoubtedly my favorite stop so far. It's small and basically unknown, but it's beautiful! It's near Cologne (or if you're really good with German topography, only about a half hour train ride from Koblenz).

We stayed in a castle up way on top of this mountain/hill! It was a 20-minute walk up steps with my massive amount of luggage!


gorgeous church/memorial to the Jews on the way up to the castle


The next day Amelia and I hiked up to the top of another mountain. This is on the way up. I like the lines, but you can also see a butterfly on one of the logs. Oh, also the weather was spectacular! Probably about high 70s, but windy enough that it was never hot.


me and my view
That's the Rhine down there, and that itty-bitty town is Bacharach.
We would never have known about Bacharach except that Chrissy had stayed here with a class trip in high school. Three cheers for Chrissy!


blossoms, because it's Spring here!


artsy-fartsy


After sitting up on top of the mountain for hours, Amelia and I decided we had to go down, otherwise we'd explode from exposure to too much beauty.


It was a steep hike down, with not too many steps or handrails. It was also thru a mass of vineyards. (Bacharach gets its name from Bacchus, Roman god of wine.)


And since the region is so well known for its wine, we decided it would be remiss not to partake in a local wine-tasting. It was around €4/person and well worth it. I love wine. I give it a ****: not quite a fiver, because most of the wine was white.


On the hike back up to the castle, we passed a goat farm. (That's Chrissy on the left, not a blond goat.)


view from our castle/hostel the day we left

So as I mentioned about a hundred times, yes we stayed in a castle. It was awesome (except for the heinous trekk up the mountain). It was also really cheap, at about €18-19 a night. It also came with a free all-you-can-eat breakfast. You could also purchase an all-you-can-eat dinner for €6. And on the way down we took a cab. It cost €8. If you can split that up several ways like we could, it is definitely worth it! I give the hostel (Hostel Stahleck) ***** - that's right, five stars!

So what do you have to look forward to in my next post? My travels around Germany continue as I visit the northern cities of Hamburg and Kiel!

meine liebe deutsche Familie!

So I spent my Easter break with my amazing German relatives. It was very nice to be with family for the holiday – especially with such wonderful family! Rolf, a distant uncle or what-have-you on my mother’s father’s side of the family (Egenberger), picked me up in Constance, and thus began yet another string of adventures!

We crossed the border into Switzerland and drove to the Rheinfall, a huge waterfall in the city of Schaffhausen.


me, in case you couldn’t tell


This is why I love this region.


We drove up and down between high- and lowlands. As soon as we passed a certain point, everything was green, and then when we reached a higher altitude, everything was blanketed in fresh snow.

We stopped briefly at a Roman Empire-era farmstead. There wasn’t much left, just the stone bases of various building, but the landscape was gorgeous! We were in the flatlands between dead volcanoes, so you could see for miles and miles.


While we were walking back to the car, Rolf and I saw this larger bird chasing the smaller one. They zipped around us for a few minutes before flying off.


Then we drove to Singen to see this famous castle called Hohentwiel. It’s way up there on top of the mountain. It was a long hike! I made Rolf climb all over the place, and although he insists he’s no sportsman, I’m pretty sure he’s an Olympic contender ready to head off to Beijing!


Here we are on top of the world!


Hohentwiel ruins


another view from Hohentwiel
The lake in the background is Lake Constance: home, sweet home!
Oh, and on the left side you can even see the Alps (not well, I warn you, but they’re definitely there)!

Then toward evening we drove to Constance, grabbed some food, and headed off to Augsburg, where those lovely Egenbergers live!


Hermann and Anita, the relatives at whose house I stayed, recently built this Wintergarten. This is where we had breakfast each day.


In Augsburg they were having a big festival called Volksfest (said in the local accent with loads of “sh” sounds). We got there at 10:30 am and had ourselves some Hasenbräu beer. Oh, this is Easter day now, by the way!


Then we went back to the house to have Easter dinner/lunch/brunch/so much food that I don’t think I’ll need a full meal again for a week! From left to right: Walter, Hannah (I’m not sure I spelled her name right), Anita and Hermann. All absolutely gracious, wonderful people!

As I’m typing this, I’m riding back to Constance on the train, and I’m reading this hilarious article Hermann gave me by Mark Twain. It’s called The Awful German Language. Here’s a sample that you Germanophiles will get a bang out of:

“An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; […] it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects […] after which comes the VERB, and you can find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb – merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out – the writer shovels in ‘haben sind gewesen gehabt geworden sein,’ or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. […] German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head.”

They say if you laugh once a day you gain a year in longevity or something like that, so if you have the time, check it out and live an extra decade or two!

In closing, the following transgression: I searched “Easter” in my iPhoto, and found the following picture. It cracked me up so much, that I decided I needed to share it for humanity’s sake.


above: another Easter spent with another lovely set of relatives
Even though I’m off living the good life, traveling the world, I’m still thinking of all of my family and friends on the other side of the globe. Hope all is going well!