Cody und ich fahren nach Augsburg

This will be a quick post, but here are some photos from Cody and my last two days. Yesterday we rode to Augsburg to spend a few days with my amazing relatives one last time before I have to go back to the States.


Last night we went to the Kirchweih beer tent in Augsburg. Cody and I finished our Masses with smiles.


Then today we went on a tour of Augsburg led by Rolf and Hermann. Here we are posing with a gorgeous lady-gnome.


This is a Holbein (one of four) in the Augsburg Cathedral.


Annakirche


more Annakirche


the Goldener Saal in the Rathaus (City Hall) - Why doesn't Byron's new million dollar capital building look like this?


And the last thing we saw on our tour was the Fuggerei, which was the very first "social settlement" in the world. It was built by Jakob Fugger the Rich in the early 1500s to help out the poor. It runs on the same principals today: If you're a Catholic Augsburger who's suddenly fallen into poverty (by no fault of your own), you could live here for €1 per year!

Afterwards we went to visit Sir Walter at his home. He turns 90 at the end of August! It was very nice to see him again.

Tomorrow Cody and I fly to Croatia at 11:30am! I'm very excited, but it's also sad to have to leave the Egenbergers. They have been (as always) spectacular hosts :)

PS - Und Max Haase, falls du dies noch liest, bitte schicke mir eine Mail (CMEHalverson@gmail.com), damit wir uns wieder in Verbindung setzen können!

dans la région de mes ancêtres

Kind of spur of the moment, Kirsten and I decided to go to Strasbourg in France on Saturday. It was just a random decision, but how many times in your life do you have the opportunity to just up and go to France for the day? Not too many, so off we went!

It took us under three hours by train, and the ride cut through the gorgeous German country side and for a while through the Black Forest.


Strasbourg is in the Alsace région (state) of France, where my mom's mom's family comes from. It's actually a fascinating area (not to mention beautiful), because Alsace has been traded back and forth between the French and the Germans for centuries. So you can see the influence of both cultures all over the city (cf. the half-timbered houses in the above photo).


Many streets also have both French and German names. ("Little Rooster Alley")


We went to the cathedral. (rose window)


And climbed up the tower. Here you can see the market.


the cathedral


Strasbourg is very pretty.

For lunch we had delicious French food from a pâtisserie. Then we went to the Musée zoologique, which was very cool - and cheap (€1,50)! Plus the woman at the counter thought we were German when she heard me struggling with French, so she spoke to us auf Deutsch!


The museum consisted of tons of taxidermied animals. Most of them weren't dressed up like something from Narnia, but I couldn't resist this photo op. It was actually extremely interesting and well done over all. They even had two mounted coelocanths.


We also went to the European Parliament, where the EU's legislature meets.

Then I bought an oddly shaped French baguette to take back to Constance with me. (It has horns on the ends!)

And today I walked back to Insel Mainau with two friends. We could see the Alps as we crossed the bridge! I love studying abroad!

Exkursion Freiburg

So yesterday (Saturday for me), a bunch of us from the language course went to Freiburg in the Black Forest. The weather was perfect; the town was pretty. Here are about a thousand pictures from the trip.


Freiburger Münster (Cathedral of Freiburg)


I went on the German language tour (there was also an English one). The tour guide was nice, but very bad. She always talked insanely quietly, so no one could hear her. Then after she was done talking she would yell at us to catch up with her. Then when we actually got somewhere, we'd have to wait like a year and a half for her to start whispering again.


While we were in the Münster, they were having Youth Days or something, so there were a bunch of teenagers singing and leading service. The singing was terrifyingly bad.


So it was really loud in the cathedral, but our tour guide still wouldn't speak up. She did complain a bunch about how the children were ruining the Münster atmosphere.



This is inside a different church. It's Franciscan. I took this photo for you, mom - check out the icons.


We ate lunch at the Mensa in the University of Freiburg. It was a huge meal. This university, by the way, was founded before Columbus landed in America!


magnolias, apparently


They were having the weekly farmers' market on the Münsterplatz. That was a lot of fun. We got to wander around. I had gelato (€0,70!).


Rathaus (town hall), farmers' market (you can see an umbrella), fountain, and Münster


street musicians (I like this photo a lot. The guy with the head scarf or whatever reminds me of a Dürer painting. Or maybe a Vermeer.)


graffiti


photo of Erika and me


This is what the sidewalk in Freiburg looks like. Seriously, all over!


Do any of you remember the movie Miss Potter?


advertisements on the Münster
Three of us went back to see if the Münster had cleared out a bit.


It hadn't. Now they were having mass. Bad English cracks me up (and reminds me of my German).


last one - me in front of the Münster
This is number 6 in a series of about a dozen failed photos.

historische Stadt

So as I mentioned, on Saturday a bunch of us from the Sprachkurs (language course) went on an historical tour of Constance. Here are some of the photos.
(PS - I went to the bridge that connects the two halves of Constance today, and it wasn't foggy, so you could see the Alps! I love Constance!)


Just kidding, this isn't from the tour, but it is my new phone. Pretty sweet, right? Plus I misspoke/mistyped: it only cost €50.

This is a monument to Count Zeppelin. I don't remember exactly (maybe because the entire tour was auf Deutsch), but maybe he was born here in Constance.


This is the Inselhotel. It's really pretty amazing for a hotel! It's an historical site. Inside there are all of these really old paintings that recount the history of the island all the way from the 100s when Constance was originally inhabited by the Alamanni (hence Fr. allemande, Sp. alemán) tribe (see below).


Our tour guide told us the Alamanni probably didn't live this well.


There was this one room that was entirely filled with images of martyrs being killed. I'm not sure what the room used to be used for back in the day, but now it's a dining hall. Guten Appetit!


riverside in Constance


Konstanzer Münster (Cathedral of Constance)
It was built in three separate stints in three separate eras (Romanesque, Gothic and something else… sorry, mom). It's one of many different churches here in Constance, but so far it's the only one I've visited. Chrissy went here last Sunday for mass.


inside the Münster


building near Münsterplatz


These things crack me up! In German they're called Seehasen, which would translate to something like "Sea Hare," except that already refers to something else in English (it's related to sea slugs). There are a bunch of things around town named Seehase this and Seehase that.

Well that's it for today. Bis bald!