finishing up, for now.
Nuremburg was awesome. Bronia and Misha are just like i remember them, except a little more grey. but then again i have a few grey hairs too.
they picked me up from the train station, fed me lunch and then showed me the city. albert durer's house, lots of cathedrals and old buildings. All the cities in Germany are so quaint and pretty and they seem to look very natural in the snow. i can't imagine these cities in the summer, it doesn't seem right. Anyways, Bavaria definately has some character.
Bronia and Misha also took me to the place where Hitler had his first big rally. This was kinda creepy b/c it's just large bleachers overlooking a parking lot. i'm not sure if it was built specifically for hitler and his rally, but the bleachers and stairs look like they've seen better days. kinda creepy standing at the podium thing and overlooking the parking lot, which is what hitler saw when he was standing there. In nuremburg i noticed that it's ok to talk about hitler and there is even a hitler museum. i guess this is because the nuremburg trials were here, but still, it's a huge difference from berlin where everyone was hush-hush about it.
I had dinner at bronia and misha's and then got back on the train to regensburg.
the next day was suppose to be a day trip to munich, but i was exhausted and there just wasn't enough time. so instead kim, val and i wandered regensburg some more and left for stuttgart in the evening.
i saw very little of stuttgart. kim and i spent the night at john's apartment, who is also from Michigan but is currently working at Bosch. he had a really cool apartment. i had a restless night on an air mattress, but that was ok b/c we headed out early the next day to amsterdam by car. John (big bitzl) was driving and I got to sleep the whole way there, which was about 6 hours.
Amsterdam was pretty sweet. went to the anne frank house, which was probably the most moving thing i saw on the whole trip. it might be because i remember being affected by the book when i was younger, but also the museum was set-up really well. we got to see anne's hiding room and pictures of what it looked like. again, really creepy. the scariest was a picture of a view from anne's bedroom of the buildings on the other side of the canal, where a bunch of jews were lined up and walking to concentration camps (who knows which ones). The buildings across the canal look the same as they did in the photograph. the stairs to the hiding rooms were so steep.
I also went to the Van Gogh museum, which had a pretty extensive collection of 19th century art outside of Van Gogh paintings. There was going to be a carvaggio and rembrandt exhibit in the museum like a week later, but unfortunately it wasn't open when we were there.
our hostel was pretty cool, but people weren't too social. except for boom boom apple sauce (some guy we met in the lobby who hung out with us). boom boom apple sause was convinced that the dutch language was fake, and he kinda made sense b/c everyone in amsterdam spoke incredible english, with no accent at all. Val, kim and i were excited b/c there were 3 19 year old english boys in our room, but i think john ruined our game. oh well.
We also went to the red light district and saw a sex show, which was pretty intense to say the least. some of the girls in the red windows were really hot, some were most likely men, but either way it was an interesting sight to see.
i also spent time in some coffee shops giggling and being silly with the bitzl's which i enjoyed.
I can't figure out if amsterdam or st. petersburg is the official "venice of the north". i don't think st. petersburg or amsterdam are anything like venice though...venice had houses right on the water of the canals...no land in between the doorways and the water. in st. pete and amsterdam it wasn't so extreme. also, the northern canal cities seem alot more livable and less haunting. but the 2 also have a completely different atmosphere from eachother, i can't describe it...amsterdam has dutch women in boots on bikes who would never stop for pedestrians. st. petersburg is just a blur of angry faces...the architecture is completely different as well. i don't know, both cities are worth a visit that's for sure.
so that's my holiday season. i'm really glad i went and i have to say that my favorite part may have been the night sledding in the swiss alps, the hot chocolate in the swiss alps, the eye candy in zurich, the toasty floors in regensburg, bronia's cooking...i had a good time.
they picked me up from the train station, fed me lunch and then showed me the city. albert durer's house, lots of cathedrals and old buildings. All the cities in Germany are so quaint and pretty and they seem to look very natural in the snow. i can't imagine these cities in the summer, it doesn't seem right. Anyways, Bavaria definately has some character.
Bronia and Misha also took me to the place where Hitler had his first big rally. This was kinda creepy b/c it's just large bleachers overlooking a parking lot. i'm not sure if it was built specifically for hitler and his rally, but the bleachers and stairs look like they've seen better days. kinda creepy standing at the podium thing and overlooking the parking lot, which is what hitler saw when he was standing there. In nuremburg i noticed that it's ok to talk about hitler and there is even a hitler museum. i guess this is because the nuremburg trials were here, but still, it's a huge difference from berlin where everyone was hush-hush about it.
I had dinner at bronia and misha's and then got back on the train to regensburg.
the next day was suppose to be a day trip to munich, but i was exhausted and there just wasn't enough time. so instead kim, val and i wandered regensburg some more and left for stuttgart in the evening.
i saw very little of stuttgart. kim and i spent the night at john's apartment, who is also from Michigan but is currently working at Bosch. he had a really cool apartment. i had a restless night on an air mattress, but that was ok b/c we headed out early the next day to amsterdam by car. John (big bitzl) was driving and I got to sleep the whole way there, which was about 6 hours.
Amsterdam was pretty sweet. went to the anne frank house, which was probably the most moving thing i saw on the whole trip. it might be because i remember being affected by the book when i was younger, but also the museum was set-up really well. we got to see anne's hiding room and pictures of what it looked like. again, really creepy. the scariest was a picture of a view from anne's bedroom of the buildings on the other side of the canal, where a bunch of jews were lined up and walking to concentration camps (who knows which ones). The buildings across the canal look the same as they did in the photograph. the stairs to the hiding rooms were so steep.
I also went to the Van Gogh museum, which had a pretty extensive collection of 19th century art outside of Van Gogh paintings. There was going to be a carvaggio and rembrandt exhibit in the museum like a week later, but unfortunately it wasn't open when we were there.
our hostel was pretty cool, but people weren't too social. except for boom boom apple sauce (some guy we met in the lobby who hung out with us). boom boom apple sause was convinced that the dutch language was fake, and he kinda made sense b/c everyone in amsterdam spoke incredible english, with no accent at all. Val, kim and i were excited b/c there were 3 19 year old english boys in our room, but i think john ruined our game. oh well.
We also went to the red light district and saw a sex show, which was pretty intense to say the least. some of the girls in the red windows were really hot, some were most likely men, but either way it was an interesting sight to see.
i also spent time in some coffee shops giggling and being silly with the bitzl's which i enjoyed.
I can't figure out if amsterdam or st. petersburg is the official "venice of the north". i don't think st. petersburg or amsterdam are anything like venice though...venice had houses right on the water of the canals...no land in between the doorways and the water. in st. pete and amsterdam it wasn't so extreme. also, the northern canal cities seem alot more livable and less haunting. but the 2 also have a completely different atmosphere from eachother, i can't describe it...amsterdam has dutch women in boots on bikes who would never stop for pedestrians. st. petersburg is just a blur of angry faces...the architecture is completely different as well. i don't know, both cities are worth a visit that's for sure.
so that's my holiday season. i'm really glad i went and i have to say that my favorite part may have been the night sledding in the swiss alps, the hot chocolate in the swiss alps, the eye candy in zurich, the toasty floors in regensburg, bronia's cooking...i had a good time.