First Stop: Canstatter Volkfest and Hamburg.

My brother arrived in Stuttgart last week and is going to stay with us for a month. The day that he arrived here, we decided to go to the Canstatter Volkfest (also known as Canstatter Wasen) to get a little taste of the German tradition known as "Oktoberfest." Although the party wasn't in Munich like the Oktoberfest that you're probably thinking of, the party in Stuttgart is just like it, albeit a little smaller. It is still the second biggest Oktoberfest-type celebration in Germany though.

Event though we don't drink we still had a great time. There were tons of fabulous rides and food booths.

The lights were bright.

What's more German than a wurst?

At this haunted house, there was a man on the balcony dropping a fake spider on people as they walked by. Some people were really surprised and scared by it. We stood and watched for a little while. Hilarious!

One of the "tents" (which were really buildings) were people were singing and drinking. They were huge and there was so many people.

The view from the ferris wheel.

For some reason, I took more videos than pictures. I mashed all the videos together in one. I hope you enjoy!

We had such a great time at the Volksfest. It's so fun to see Germans and how they celebrate things. The rides were amazing, too. They were almost on par with amusement park rides in the US, and the Volksfest only lasted about two weeks!

The next day, we got ready to head on our trip up to Northern Germany and Denmark. Our train was leaving later, so we shopped around for some essentials and waited for Mark to get off work. At around 7 or so, we boarded a regional train up to Würzberg where we were supposed to transfer to another train.

So as we got on the train and were waiting for it to leave, we noticed one guy dressed in business clothes sitting across the aisle from us talking on the phone. Three other guys came in and sat right by him (because on the regional trains, there are four seats facing each other). We noticed there were a lot of drunk people on the train that had boarded from the Volksfest and most were dressed in lederhosen. I looked across the aisle and I noticed the guy sitting across from the businessman was slumped over in his seat. I just thought, "Good grief! That guy must be tired." I had never seen anyone "sleep" like that on a train before.

Soon after that, I heard the guys sitting around him say, "OHHH!!" Then I looked over, and the guy that was slumped in his chair had BARFED ALL OVER THE PLACE. He even barfed on the businessman across from him. We were sitting there trying to decide whether or not to move, then he barfed again! It splashed across the aisle and almost onto Mark's shoes. We grabbed our bags and bailed out of the chairs to some other seats at the end of the car. Pretty soon it started to smell so bad and we were almost getting sick ourselves. We were covering our noses with our shirts to be able to breathe. We looked around the car, and everyone was just sitting there like it was an everyday occurrence. No looks of disgust or anything! Finally, we couldn't take it anymore so we got up and moved to another car. There were more drunk people in there too, and I was just praying the whole time that no one else would barf! It was pretty nasty at the time, but looking back it's pretty funny. It's not everyday that you get to ride a train with a bunch of drunk Germans in lederhosen!

Finally, we transferred to an ICE (fast train) to Hamburg. We got there pretty late and had a taxi take us to our hotel in another part of the city. The next morning, we got up and explored Hamburg. What a lovely city! Definitely a new favorite of mine. Mark loves it of course (he served his mission in the surrounding areas) and my brother loved it, too.

The two guys with the Hamburg Rathaus.

The Rathaus and the square in front. We got some sandwiches at Kamps (a chain bakery) and enjoyed them in the square. Mark and I had some that were made with käsebrötchen (cheese rolls) and they were delicious!

Mark and me by the harbor.

The harbor.

Enjoying the warm October sun.

One of the canals by the harbor. Lovely, isn't it?

This is the steeple of the church of St. Nikolai. The rest of the church was destroyed in WWII and was never rebuilt. Instead, there's a memorial. Some sections seemed rebuilt with bricks to show what parts of it might have looked like.

Some pieces of what remains.

As we were sitting there relaxing by the memorial, we noticed a man dressed as a hummel leading a tour of people around. A man named Hans Hummel used to carry water from the wells to the people of Hamburg. I'm not sure why people still dress up like he supposedly did, but they do!

We continued walking around Hamburg and enjoying the sights. We shopped for a bit, but didn't really buy anything. We went back to our hotel for a bit because later that night we were going to a concert so we rested up for about an hour. Then we headed back into the city to see Trentemøller, a musician from Denmark. He makes music by himself, but when he performs he gets band members to join him.

It was in a small private club in Hamburg, which was awesome because we got to be on the front row. A band called Chimes & Bells (also from Denmark) opened for them. I hadn't heard of them before, but they were amazing!

Chimes & Bells performing.

I didn't attempt to take any video of them just to spare some room on my camera, but luckily someone uploaded a video of them from our concert. We were off to the right in the very front and we had a good view of the drummer. He was so good! I think that drummers should always be put in the front at concerts. They are so amusing to watch. The singer was excellent, too. Overall, an excellent band!

Then Trentemøller took the stage. Wow! It was such an amazing concert. Even my brother, who hadn't heard of Trentemøller before he came over, said he loved the concert.

Trentemøller performing. I tried to take a video, but the owner of the club came by and told me to put my camera away (at least that's what I assume--he said it in German and I couldn't hear him very well.) I was so bummed because I wanted to get a good video. Oh well. He also told another person near me to put his camera away too, but after he left the guy whipped out his camera again and filmed some more. I didn't film any after he left for fear of my camera being taken away from me or something. But luckily for us, someone uploaded some videos on YouTube! So here's some clips from our concert. The first one is a little shaky, but it's still good. The guy who filmed this was on the front row like we were, so this is pretty much the view we had.

The last video is perhaps Trentemøller's most famous song. It ruled, but so did the whole concert! We had such a great time. Our ears were ringing and they're probably still recovering, but it was worth it. I think it was probably one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

It was a long day so that made for some good sleep! The next day, we went to Stade. I'll update that in the next post. :)

Picture Teaser.

My brother made it to Germany! We went to the Canstatter Volkfest last night and had a blast. I don't have time to post about it all now, but I will when we get back from our trip this week.

Until then, wish us safe travels!

Rheinland!

This past weekend, we ventured up north to Rheinland to see a friend who lives in Monheim am Rhein. Her name is Kathrin and she was an exchange student who lived with my friend's family about five years ago. Although I didn't live at home during the time that she lived there, I was able to get to know her briefly when I moved home from college for the summer.

Anyway, she invited us up to come stay a weekend at her family's house. WOW! It was so much fun. Definitely one of our favorite weekends here by far! Mark took the day off on Friday so that gave us plenty of time to get up there. So around noon on Friday, we boarded an IC train (fast train) headed to Cologne. It was such a pretty route! We went up along the Rhein most of the time. There are so many gorgeous towns and there are castles everywhere. SO, so pretty. While we were on the train, we kept taking notes of all the little towns that we wanted to come back up and explore before we go home.

Here's some shots of the Rhein:

Aren't these castles awesome?

I love the barges on the river!

Oh yeah, did I mention that it's hard to take pictures on a fast train? So sorry about the blurry picture! About halfway through the ride, I decided to just take videos. Here's a video I created. It's not HD for some reason so it's not so clear, but I hope you like it anyway. :)

After such a great train ride, we got off in Cologne to catch another short train to a nearby town where Kathrin could pick us up. We walked down the stairs to go to another platform to catch a train and was trying to figure out just where we were, when I looked to the left and saw Michael Ballack (one of the head honchos of the German national team)! Now keep in mind, I don't know soccer very well, I just knew a few players because Mark talks about them. So I stood there trying to figure out if it was really Michael Ballack but I thought I would tell Mark anyway. So I said, "Mark, look who it is!" He was about to walk up the same stairs that we just went down, so we were right next to him. Mark said hello to him and he said "Servus" (another way of saying hello) to Mark. Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool seeing someone so famous in the middle of a train station, and I'm not even that big of a fan. Mark looked like a little kid at Christmas, it was hilarious. After that, we saw the rest of the soccer team headed up towards their train. Mark waved at a few of the other players. I think they were trying to blend in and not be noticed, but that's kind of hard to do when they are a lot taller everyone else and are dressed in all their gear! I wish now that I would have taken a picture or two, but it all happened so fast that I didn't get one. Oh well. :)

After that, we caught another train to a nearby town and Kathrin picked us up. We went to her house where we met her family (this was my second time meeting them) and we had a good time talking and getting caught up with what has happened the past five years since we've seen each other. Mark had a good time playing FIFA on the Playstation with Kathrin's younger brother, Jonas. We also met Kathrin's boyfriend Sebastian. He was also an exchange student who went to Michigan several years ago. We had pizza for dinner then the five of us (me, Mark, Kathrin, Sebastian, and Jonas) went out for ice cream at a shop in Monheim. There they serve spaghetti ice that Mark had told me about before, so I was excited to try it. From what I understand, they take ice cream and press it through a spaghetti maker, then they top it with different sauces and grated white chocolate. We got a berry one and it had the most amazing fresh strawberry sauce! Yum!!

Mark with our spaghetti ice cream. There is also lasagna ice cream, which is what Kathrin ordered. Doesn't it all look so good?

After our delicious dessert, we went on a walk around Monheim and along the Rhein. Because there are some manufacturing plants by the river, it's really bright and we could actually see quite a few things even though it was dark outside. It was so much fun. Later we went back to Kathrin's house and had fun talking and playing FIFA with Jonas.

The next day, Kathrin and I headed out towards Düsseldorf. Mark went to watch a soccer game with Kathrin's dad and Jonas. While Kathrin and I were waiting for the bus, we walked across the street to see the Rhein again. It is so beautiful, isn't it?

We took a bus to a nearby town called Benrath where there is a really pretty castle. The town had some really pretty buildings, too. Completely different architecture than the buildings I've seen in Stuttgart.

We discovered some sort of little carnival. How fun! I snagged some popcorn. Yum!

Me standing by the castle in Benrath.

I don't know what this little building is, but Kathrin and I had fun getting our pictures in it. :)

A pool behind the castle. I was so glad that we were able to see it on such a gorgeous day. It hasn't been sunny here much lately, so I was so thankful for a clear day!

Statues behind the castle.

The back of the castle.

After seeing the gorgeous castle, we headed for Düsseldorf on the S-bahn. One of the first places we stopped was the harbor in Düsseldorf.

The buildings around the harbor had such cool architecture!

See what I mean?

A cool building with the TV tower.

More barges. I loved all the cars on this one. What an amazing mode of transportation!

The walk along the Rhein.

Kathrin explained to me that some families still live on some barges on the Rhein. She said it looked like this one was transporting oil. The side of the barge said the family's name and it had a Dutch flag on the back. How cool would that be to live on a barge?!

Gotta love the live statues!

After we walked along the Rhein, we saw some more streets in Düsseldorf, including the Königsallee which is the most expensive street in Düsseldorf. Then we went to a park and hung out for a little while, then soon after that it was time to go home. I had a great day in Düsseldorf!

Meanwhile, Mark was having fun at the MSV Duisberg soccer game. (Thanks to Kathrin's dad for all these pictures of the soccer game!)

MSV Duisberg is a team that is in the second Bundesliga here in Germany. So not as big of a team as Hamburg, but still a pretty good team.

The fans all showing their MSV pride!

Mark said one of the team members jumped up on the fence by some crazy fans, grabbed the loud speaker, and was doing some cheers with the crowd.

After the team won, they did a little dance.

Mark and Kathrin's dad. Mark had such a great time and was so thankful to be able to go to the game. On the train ride up to Monheim, Mark was lamenting on how he probably wouldn't be able to go to a soccer game. Then he got to go! He was so excited!

Later that night, Kathrin's family had a BBQ for us and made us some delicious food. I love how Germans make their salads--especially when they just throw a bunch of vegetables together with some herbs and it just tastes amazing. Yum!

After dinner, we went up to a nearby night club-type thing to get some drinks. It was up on a hill overlooking the Rhein that Kathrin said used to be a garbage mound. There is a part that is in sand so you can sit on the bench with your feet in the sand and overlook the Rhein. It was so much fun.

Then we had to go home the next day. :( Here is Kathrin's house, with Mark, Kathrin, Sebastian, and Jonas out front.

While Mark hung out with Sebastian and Jonas, Kathrin and I went to see more of Monheim. We were going to see a medieval festival, but they were charging admission and it was kind of expensive. So we decided just to go see the castle in Monheim instead. Isn't it lovely?

Haha! Little boys with swords and shields. Love it!

After that, it was time to go to Cologne to catch our train home. We took the S-bahn to Cologne and went to see the Cologne Cathedral. It is huge!

Stained glass on the inside.

Kathrin told me that there is supposedly the bones of the Three Wisemen inside, and this is the shine for them.

Looking towards the Hauptbahnhof on the steps of the cathedral.

Here's all of us as we prepared to say goodbye. After the cathedral, we went back to the train station to catch a train home. It took us quite a while to get home because we took all the slow trains, but we saw many cities in Germany and it wasn't too bad.

We had such a great time visiting Kathrin and her family. They were so kind to us and made us feel at home. Mark commented that it felt just like visiting family. They are such kind, warm people and we had fun getting to know them more. We are so lucky and grateful to know such good people over here!