Sleeping on a plane is not one of my most favorite activities. But either way, 8 hours to Amsterdam comes soon enough, even though a screaming child decided to have his or her way for about an hour in the middle of the night. After arriving in Amsterdam with little sleep we trekked across the airport for our connecting flight to Frankfurt. Once in Frankfurt, we collected our bags from the oddly quiet airport (akin to library silence) and transferred on a tram to the bahnhoff in downtown Frankfurt. This glass-walled hanger-like structure had several tracks on which various local and regional trains depart from. Europe's rail system is further advanced than the U.S., with massive regional lines connecting much of the continent.
A roughly one hour train ride landed us in the small town of Gelnhausen. Set against the backdrop of wooded mountains, it makes for quite the postcard photograph.
pictures will be coming in the next few days! Look for them!
We walked for 10 minutes through the small streets and up a small hill to the Hotel Grimmelshausen, our home for 3 nights here. Further up the hill is the untermarkt or the lower square, with restaurants, shopping, cafes and a huge cathedral. A sudden downpour on the way to dinner in the untermarkt had us scrambling for rain jackets and umbrellas but it quickly subsided, leaving a thick humidity and warm, yet tolerable evening exploring this city. Much of the buildings here are very old, and each one is unique. The neighborhoods wind around narrow cobblestone streets and the church bells ring every fifteen minutes. After getting some euros out of the ATM (took a few tries) we crashed early, getting adjusted to the 7 hour time difference.
Breakfast in Germany was as I had heard: hard breads, jams and spreads, room temperature milk and juice – but I did find fresh fruit and cereal, some kind of cocoa corn flakes. A friend had introduced me to Nutella in America and they had some here, which is amazing. Nutella is a kind of hazelnut/chocolate peanut butter and it is super tasty. We had our first class of the day today as well for business writing. We talked about a few assignments that will be due in addition to getting to know each other and our next few days. Our first assignment was to go to restaurants in Gelnhausen to ask what was on the menu and to ask if they accepted credit cards. While we were exploring for about an hour we took lots of pictures and saw children on their way to the first day of school. Lunch was from a Kabob stand (basically a pita sandwich with lamb or pork) and it was delicious. According to our professor, water isn't really ordered as a drink at restaurants as it is in America, because Europeans don't drink nearly the amount of water that we do. But after 2 days without more than a glassful, I purchased a liter and a half of bottled “still” water (non mineral) from Norma, kind of like a mini supermarket. I also had a German chocolate bar and thought it would have melted after being in my bag, but surprisingly held together perfectly. A few of us went exploring into a huge grassy area next to a river after Norma, took some pictures and ended up climbing this steep stairway that connected two streets together to bring us back toward the big church in the untermarkt.
The doors were finally open so we peeked inside and ended up tagging behind this Japanese tour group. We climbed up this steep circular stairwell to the top of the organ pipes and saw the towering spires from the inside. The organ was playing while we were checking everything out.
So far, I can tell Europe is built for walking or biking. The streets are horribly tiny, but there are sidewalks and pedestrian only areas for bikes and walkers all over. Plus, the town is so compact that we can get pretty much anywhere I described above in about 15 minutes or less.
Our second day in Gelnhausen was the first class – Business Writing. We climbed up to a medieval castle wall that overlooked the entire city. Pretty sweet way to start the semester! We traveled today to Russelheim, about an hour and a half from Gelnhausen. This city is home to the giant European car maker Opel. We toured the Opel factory and saw how parts were pressed and fitted into place, entirely by robot. The factory buildings were enormous, some stretching for more than a mile in length. All over Europe are Kebab stands that sell Doner sandwiches – kind of like a gyro. I had 2 of them and every stand sells a different We traveled a little bit further after our site visit down to the next town, Mainz. We got to split up in smaller groups and visited some old churches (including the church Gutenburg was baptized in) and walked down to the Rhine river. We had Italian food and sat out on the sidewalk. Our waiter spoke in Italian, we ordered in English, and he confirmed with some of our German speakers in German. It was an early night as we got back about 10 PM.
There is beginning to be a resurgence of the Nazi party in some parts of Germany. In Gelnhausen, there are posters and signs to promote the Nazi party, but there are also posters that declare Gelnhausen a “Nazi-free zone” as local residents and shop owners are hanging them in their windows.
Our last day in Gelnhausen started with a quick class and a little shopping and time killing. Unfortunately one of my friends tripped on the last few stairs coming down in the hotel and she hurt her foot. We helped her on the bus and started the 2.5 hour journey to Nuremburg and she was definitely in pain. While we were getting settled and exploring, we found out our friend has to get surgery for her broken foot. She will be not be able to put any weight on it for 2 weeks so pray for her and a quick and healthy recovery.
That's all for right now. I will have internet almost daily now as we are going to places that have it for free or ridiculously cheap so I'll try to update at least a couple times a week, or whenever we move to a new city.
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