Jessica Goes to Berlin 2012: Goodbye Strasbourg, Hello Mannheim and Heidelberg

Strasbourg continued:

Here is some nice looking bread:

An amazing building (I don't know what it was for), that was outside my hostel and I didn't notice until 2 days in.

The Old town, one of the main roads:

In a secret court yard:

Erika led the way:

The Notre Dame Strasbourg Cathedral in the background:

I may not have translated this fully in my head, so I laughed.

Some French people chasing away the Nazi's. This was on a push/pull childrens stick where the legs would move when the wheel roles.

Molly:

Yum:

For some reason I felt assaulted by this photo:

Here is Henry, thinking about what colour the ceiling could have been:

Blurry, yet pensive:

How to eat like a lady:

How to eat like me:

My Professor:

Shuo, being classy:

I don't know what this sign meant, since it pointed past where people park their cars, and into traffic. Any ideas?

Some of that light show I was talking about:

Andrea was attacked by a tipsy Fiona (in background), and she wound up getting her hair braided.

And that was my last night in Strasbourg. We saw the light show again, and I headed home.

The next day we went our separate ways. I headed out to Mannheim to visit with my family (Aunt Ute and Uncle Bernd). They were all ready to do stuff as soon as I got off the train, and the first thing we did was visit a palace, with large beautiful gardens that are up on the list of German gardens (along with those from Schloß Sancoussi). It was really nice to walk around in the sun with them, and to check out the sights.

The Schloß

Statues that I liked:

Here is Apollo, standing over a water fountain. Ute and Bernd willingly went underneath to let me take their photo. What a fun family!

There were so many animal fountains, and this owl was in the bird area where they kept various kinds of parrots, finches, and budgies.

When I first saw this I thought it was a giant hedgehog being attacked by a dog. Could you imagine a hedgehog that big? That would be awesome, but this was a wild boar instead.

I ran into some Canadians while I was there, but this is the only one wearing a scarf.

Here are some faux ruins, and they were really nice to walk by as well.

And here is a Mosque in the gardens. The moon played an important role in design, and along the boarders of the courtyard the various phases of the moon are drawn out in each corner.

Here' is the mighty stag spitting out some water. His brother was on the other side.

My family has been feeding me REALLY well! I've been getting breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks, and dinner. For desert (after dinner last night) I got some "forest peaches", which are flat, juice, and have their own unique flavour. I love them! Also, they are not as fuzzy so they don't make your face itchy later, and they are really easy to cut.

My aunt made an amazing cake for dessert! It is an east german recipe that reminded me of Oma. It's so good!

Here is Ute with the spargel (asparagus) statue in Mannheim. It looks like both the white and green kinds are being sold.

Here is the family waffen (shield?) for a rich italian family, whos female descendant was married to a german who owns this summer palace.

One of our fancy dinners. The salad is Ute's specialty, and she has a fancy peach vinegar that she adds for a special flavour. My mouth is watering just writing about it.

Adventures with my family on July 23rd 2012 took me to Heidelberg! Heidelberg has the oldest university in Germany, as well as the student prison, and many american tourists, and adorable streets, a castle, a mountain with a tram and a view, really good food in large portions, and boat rides. The funniest part was finding out that many things are closed on Mondays, but I still saw a lot! By the end of the day we were all very tired. Especially Ute who worked early in the morning. (I'm so glad that she was able to join me and Bernd in the afternoon :) )

Here was the house where "Bunson", as in the Bunsen burner, lived:

here are some of the streets I was taking about:

From the German film "blue angel" with Marlene Deitrich, I think this painting in the student jail was of Professor "Un"rath (garbage).

When the students were in the prison (up to 4 weeks for things like public drunkenness, disturbing the peace, etc.) they would make graffiti on the walls, of their faces (saying how long and when they were there), or just drawings, or they would make fun of their teachers, etc.

The longest I found with Bernd was 3 weeks:

Oh! Christimas in Heidelberg! The famous toy factory from Erzgebirge (where I was as a teenager with my grandparents). All that town does is make famous, high quality, high class toys and christmas related decorations/ornaments, such as the original nutcrackers! It was nice to see those products in this store.

The golden goat

There was a large church in the centre of the city, and it was famous for its ugly gargoyles. The inside was really lovely and colourful though.

The stained glass was broken in a war, so they recreated one side of the church's windows with new art-stained glass.

There is a bridge of Heidelburg that is for pedestrains only now. And on the other side is the famous "philosopher's way" walk, where people like Goethe had once wandered.

I found this and couldn't resist taking a picture:

There is a famous chocolate place called "Heidelberg Studentkisses", and this is their logo. My family was sweet enough to buy some for me to take home.

Here is Bernd in the monkey statue. I am surprised how so many of the statues are interactive!

Interesting sky:

Another view of the bridge:

My family took me out for lunch. The portions were huge, and naturally I had the potato soup!

Just a castle in the background, no big deal. (jk. a huge deal! I want a castle in Vancouver!)

The tram that took us up the mountain:

The view from up above:

Ute and Bernd being ADORABLE:

A view from a lower stop:

The castle was slightly destroyed in a war with Napoleon:

Here is Bernds cave:

Bernd, me, and Goethe:

More of the destroyed castle:

How big was the key for this key hole?

The side of the castle with the view over Heidelberg:

After we got to the bottom of the mountain we went for drinks! Ute had "ice coffee", which is ice cream in coffee! Quite different from what we have at home. I also learned that Bernds favourite drink in the world is cappuccino! He was SO HAPPY when he got his drink, after a long day of walking and entertaining: