Deutschland: Fulda, Würzburg, und Frankfurt

After coming back to Salamanca for only a day, and completing my oral presentation in my literature class, I said goodbye and packed my bags for Germany. Last time I was in Spain, I made friends with a German girl named Luisa, with whom I practiced my German. We've stayed in contact since and she invited me to come visit her, since I was in Europe. I thought it would be a nice change from Spain, so I went there for three days. After a 2.5 hour bus ride to Madrid, a 2.5 hour flight to Frankfurt, and an hour drive on the autobahn, I finally got to Fulda, where Luisa lives.

Below is a map of Germany...Fulda and Frankfurt are in the state of Hessen (purple) while Würzburg, where we went on Wednesday, is in the state of Bayern (blue):

One of the things Germany is most known for is its autobahn, or freeway, where there is no speed limit. As in, you can go as fast as you want. Normally people drive at sane speeds (120-150 k/h...that's about 60-80 mph for all of you using standard) but every once in a while a Porsche or other car will pass going 200. Some foreigners go to Germany just to rent a sports car and stretch its legs on the German freeway, but when they're not careful they can get into serious accidents.

Anyway, I went to Fulda since that's where Luisa lives. Fulda is a small city northeast of Frankfurt, of about 60,000 people. It's not packed with tourists like some German cities (i.e. Heidelberg) and surprisingly not many people spoke English. It was all good though, I need practice with my German!

On Tuesday we spent the morning checking out the city's various sites, like the Fulda Dom:



The inside was very different than Spanish cathedrals, with so much white:



Then, we went to the Schloss, Fulda's famous baroque palace, like Paris' Versailles but in miniature:



Me inside the Schloss:



A room:



And an interesting furniture arrangement:



We climbed up a long spiral staircase to the tower of the palace to get a great view of the city of Fulda as well (note the Dom on the left):



After checking out the Schloss, we walked around the city for a while. We passed by the Hexenturm (witch tower), which by the looks of it was appropriately named:



We saw some typical German architecture:



And walked by another of Fulda's landmark churches, although we didn't go inside:

We also wandered around the gardens near the Schloss. It was nice to see greenery and flowers, after so little of it in dry Salamanca. Gardeners put great effort into caring for the gardens to keep them looking good:

One section of garden, complete with gardener:

Another part of the park:



Luisa in the park:



Me in the park:



Lastly, we went up one of the city's hills to look at a monastery. We then walked back down before it started to rain, getting another great view of the city:

Going to Germany was a bit of a culture shock after so much time in Spain. Unlike Spain, Germany is quiet. At first things even seemed a little awkward to me, because people speak softer and they allow longer pauses in conversation. Also, unlike in Spain, almost nobody jaywalks...like, not even when there isn't a car in sight. Bike riding (Rad fahren) is also very popular in Germany, much more than in Spain or the United States. On Tuesday, Luisa and I biked around the city after a rainstorm, trying not to run over all the slugs that came out.

On Wednesday, Luisa's parents took us to Würzburg, which is in the neighboring German state of Bayern. It was about an hour drive on the autobahn, and her parents went on to Wertheim to go shopping at the American outlet stores there. Supposedly at the outlets, you can buy Nike shoes for as little as 50 or 60 euros ($80-$90)...much less than elsewhere in Germany! On the other hand, when I told them how much I had bought my Birkenstocks for in the United States, they were shocked..in Germany they are only 30 or 40 euros. It's all relative, I suppose.

When we got to Würzburg, we met up with Luisa's friend and her boyfriend, and toured die Universität Würzburg:



There were beautiful gardens around the back:

We were an interesting mix of people: Luisa and Katherine, who were German, Katherine's boyfriend who was Spanish, and me, an American. I speak English and Spanish well and German not so well, Luisa and Katherine speak English, Spanish, and German, and Katherine's boyfriend speaks German and Spanish. Therefore, we opted to speak Spanish most of the time in order to best understand each other.

The four of us in the gardens in Würzburg:



We then walked around the city for a while, down streets like this:



Like many German cities, there were trams going up and down the streets:

We found a Markt in one of the main squares, selling things like Blumen:



and Obst:



This church looked pretty cool from the outside, but it was pretty plain on the inside:

After getting some refreshments at a café, Luisa and I climbed up the hill to the Schloss that overlooks the city. It was really hot, and a hard climb, but the view from the top was beautiful. Würzburg is known as a "miniature Prague", because much of the city's layout resembles Prague's in the Czech Republic.

The view down upon Würzburg:

We decided to go back down the shadier, more wooded way, and walked through a forest:



We also passed several summer huts, where people from larger cities will come on weekends to grow gardens and have barbeques, according to Luisa:



We also passed some birds in a cage that wanted some attention:



And a bull statue that reminded us of Spain:



Back in the city, we passed an unusual playground, complete with a running stream and sand pits for kids to play in:



When we got back to Fulda, we decided to go to a Biergarten, very typical of Germany. Luisa got a Fanta mix, and I got a Radler, or beer mixed with lemonade:

The next morning, we got up early to go horseback riding with Luisa's brother and sister in law, who own horses. We rode in an empty field on top of a hill overlooking the city, and it was amazing:

We also went trail riding through the woods. I rode a half Arab named Dara:



And Luisa's brother, calling himself a "German Cowboy", rode a pinto named The Lady:

Boarding a horse is apparently much cheaper in Germany. Luisa's brother and sister in law keep their horses in a fenced in area in the woods during the summer, and board them for only 50 euros a month at a nearby stable. That's in comparison with $400/month minimum board in stables in the United States.

The horses grazing in the woods:



And another horse I made friends with at a barn:





After horseback riding, and typical German bratwurst and kartoffel for lunch, I packed my bags and took Der Bahn to Frankfurt for my flight to Madrid:

Frankfurt is a very big, modern city, like many other cities in Germany. There are few old buildings in most large German cities, including Berlin and München, due to the heavy bombing they endured from none other but the United States and other allies in World War II. When traveling in Germany and seeing so few old buildings, and even a few ruins here and there from World War II, I tend to think (and I apologize for the crude language) that Hitler didn't just screw over the rest of Europe, but he also screwed over Germany.

Germany is arguably the most economically powerful country in the European Union, and personally of all the European countries I've visited, it reminds me the most of the United States. The landscape in Hessen also looks rather like that of Ohio.

Frankfurt's modern skyline as seen from the train station:

After arriving in Frankfurt, I went to the airport and flew to Madrid, then Valencia...more entries to come!

Oh, and before I left Luisa, I had an interesting conversation explaining what peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are. They're definitely not common place in Europe like they are in the U.S.!