Archive for the 'Europe – Spring 2012' Category

Submitted by Teri Valitchka

While we have a long day of travel ahead of us today, most of us are looking forward to reuniting with family and friends back home at the end of it. For some of us, this was our first time abroad and for the seasoned world travelers, this was another experience to add to a long list of adventures. On this last day, we each reflected back on the amazing trip we’ve had and commented on our favorite parts of this journey:

Amy – Being inside the tower of a cathedral in Hamburg when the bells began to ring; also noting comparisons between cultures.
Mark – The Swiss Alps were beautiful.
Bree – Relaxing alongside rivers, observing interactions between people, being in the mountains, taking in the lights and other sights we’d never get to see at home.
Jake – Hiking in the Swiss Alps was unbelievable.
Taylor – Being at the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps, as well as taking the tram to the top of the mountain in Heidelberg and enjoying the natural scenery.
Liz – The amazing views and feeling of being at peace in the Swiss Alps, and the picturesque views in general throughout Switzerland.
Megan – Swiss Alps are so pretty! When else will we see this?!
Sam – Swiss Alps were amazing and our pictures of the landscape are beautiful.
Katie – The entire day we spent traveling throughout Switzerland while based in Zurich gave us a good taste of the country (literally – cheese and chocolate!) and showed us why Switzerland is so unique.
Tyra – Exploring the Swiss Alps was awe-inspiring and the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam was great.
Mara – Our authentic German dinner in Heidelberg – we got in late and the owner of the restaurant prepared family-style platters for us to try a variety of German specialties such as schnitzel, sourcraut, pork shank, and fried potatoes.
Ashten – Experiencing new cultures together was a very deep experience and I made new lifelong friends.
Luke – The night in which we were served the family-style German meal was a monumental memory. The struggle to navigate a new city, find the restaurant listed in the guidebook, and get there before the kitchen closed resulted in a little frustration, but many more laughs. Our interactions with the restaurant owner and staff and the reaction of the local German patrons added to the experience, as well as the delicious meal.
Yuri – Meeting two German students in Osnabruck who went out of their way to be hospitable and help us find our way when we got lost. When we asked them why they put in such an incredible amount of effort to help us, they responded that they hoped if they were in the U.S. that someone would take care of them in the same way. This was not only a sign of great German hospitality, but also the basic similarities in human nature around the globe.
Craig – The best day was traveling up to the King’s Throne in Heidelberg, then eating goulash at a German restaurant, and ending the day watching the sun set over the castle from a park. Amazing!
Nicole – Meeting new people, traveling to four new countries for the first time, seeing the various sights; favorite planned group activity was visiting the mountain top in the Swiss Alps and favorite free time activities were touring the Anne Frank Haus and the German dinner in Heidelberg.
Kelsey – Climbing around the mountain top in Switzerland and meeting the helpful German students in Osnabruck.
Callie – Climbing “off the beaten path” to reach a cross set on the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps.
Kurt – The first day at the festival in Osnabruck and enjoying each others’ fellowship more deeply for the first time.
David – Exploring the top of the mountain in Switzerland, the festival in Osnabruck, and the bus rides (joking).
Jeanine – Visiting the Anne Frank Haus, as well as exploring the various old town areas and marketplaces.
Steve – Climbing the tower of the cathedral in Hamburg when the bells rang; seeing the huge old bells just a few feet away and hearing the reverberations in the tower was great.
Teri – The numerous churches and cathedrals with beautiful stained glass, ornate decor, and centuries of history. The feeling of peace and reverence, in addition to hundreds of steps climbed to see out the bell towers brought us closer together as a group. Looking out over the beautiful cities of Cologne, Geneva, Zurich, and others from that viewpoint was amazing. Also, immersing ourselves in a group of former strangers, in new cultures, and in different languages helped us all to learn more about ourselves in the process.

We were all on the same trip, but each of us will take away from it our unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences and feel fortunate to be given this opportunity.

submitted by Bree Surges

The group woke up this morning cheery and excited to have another opportunity to explore Switzerland. After an hour bus ride, we arrived in Lucerne and bought our tickets to the Swiss Museum of Transport. The museum was packed with a large variety of automobiles, trains, planes and much more. This museum wasn’t a typical museum; it was filled with interactive games, interesting facts, video clips, and other fun activities. Some of us got the chance to test drive vehicles, while others rode Segways around a designated area.

After the Museum of Transport, we had an hour of free time to travel around Lucerne. One of our favorite things we saw was the Chapel Bridge. For a little background information, the Chapel Bridge is said to be one of the oldest wood bridges in Europe. The bridge was originally built as a protection for the city during the 14th century. In 1993, the bridge burned down and was later rebuilt. As we walked through the bridge, we were able to see about a hundred pictures of the 12th century city life and Swiss history. Flowers were planted around edges of the bridge and made the area even lovelier. The bridge was gorgeous and the area around the bridge was picturesque.

Jake, Taylor, Craig, Bree and Mark standing in front of the Chapel Bridge.

After exploring the area, we hopped on a tour boat that traveled around the lake. The view from the boat was fantastic. Snow-covered mountains surrounded the beautiful water. At the same time, colorful, unique houses were scattered on the shoreline.

The outstanding view from out boat tour.

Later that night, we traveled for about four hours to the city of Geneva. We got the chance to see amazing Swiss countryside and a beautiful sunset unfold before us as we traveled the Swiss highways. We arrived at Hotel Eden and found it to be among the most hospitable of all our stays. As a bonus, many of us found we had private rooms and baths. We looked forward to a good night’s rest for the next day.

Beautiful view on our drive to Geneva

submitted by Mara Geurts

After a bittersweet goodbye, we left Heidelberg, Germany early this morning and by the afternoon we had arrived in Switzerland. The bus ride was beautiful with the Swiss Alps as the backdrop to some quaint little villages spotting the countryside. Shortly after entering Switzerland, we arrived in Zürich where we checked into our rooms at the Xtra Hotel and then set off on our adventures for the day. The first mission was to obtain the local currency, the Swiss Franc. To my surprise, most businesses in Switzerland will accept the Euro as well as the Swiss Franc as payment.

The next stop was the old town where we visited one of the cathedrals in Zürich. Grossmunster Cathedral was unique because of its modern stained glass windows. One in particular, “The Scapegoat”, caught my attention because of its strange design. After reading about the window art further, I found that it actually symbolized a very traditional Christian belief. All of the windows had a story to tell and they did so in a very unique and sometimes puzzling fashion.

A short walk away was Zürichsee Lake where the group soaked up some sun and took a relaxing stroll. The combination of crystal clear water, sailboats, and homes planted among the mountain tops made me appreciate the true natural beauty of Switzerland. Something I found very fascinating was the fact public transportation includes boat rides across the lake. Because of this, the lake serves an important purpose in the local economy.

Also important to the Swiss economy is the famous financial district (also known as Paradeplatz) and the high fashion shops on Bahnhofstrasse. Two of the most famous banks we saw in Zürich were UBS and Credit Suisse.

After having a glimpse at the banks, we “window shopped” at stores including Chanel, Jimmy Choo, Hermes, Prada, and Burberry. Our tour guide explained that Bahnhofstrasse is one of the most expensive streets in the world.

Overall, this was an impressive way to start off our tour of Switzerland. I would love it if one day I could come back to Zürich and afford to do more than peer through those windows.

submitted by Amy Griedl, Tyra McFarland, and Yuri Burrows

Our day started with a trip to the Heidelberg Castle. After a steep climb up a hill, the entry welcomes one with a set of horizontally placed gun emplacements. The gun holes face a hill an enemy would have to climb before getting to the castle. Upon entry into the court, there is an overwhelming, spectacular view of the living quarters and adjacent buildings. They are decorated with facades from the construction of the masons starting in the sixteenth century through the present day maintenance crews. We walked through the three levels in which the king’s family live. The designs on the doors and windows were amazing and very detailed. Lastly on the tour we viewed the wine vault. This is where they stored enough wine to host parties of over 400 guests in the banquet hall. Overall, the castle was an experience of a lifetime!

Our group then ventured up Konigstahl Mountain to get a picturesque view of Heidelberg from Princess Elizabeth’s garden. According to our tour guide from the castle tour, Princess Elizabeth found her view of the cannons which protected her new castle home to be quite displeasing. After some complaint she was granted a beautiful garden to look out on, which today looks much more like a park than a garden. While we’re sure in its day, the garden was stunning, it could not have been more stunning than our view of the city. With the ruins of a centuries old castle on our left, tress and vineyard covered mountains on the right and the colorful architecture of Heidelberg nestled in between, we could have stood in amazement for days. Once we pried ourselves away from the spectacular Heidelberg panorama, some of the group set out for the top of Konigsstahl, or “King’s Chair” Mountain.

Though we’d like to impress you with a story of a valiant climb to the top, we must admit that we took a tram. The incline to the top was 40% and the tram was built in a stair step fashion to accommodate the steep incline. Once we arrived, the view took our breath away.

We were 249.8 meters above sea level and there is no way any photo could do the view justice. We then set off to enjoy a nature trail filled with beautiful sculpture, art and wild life. Our 2 kilometer walk ended with a visit to a park under a covered shelter area that we thankfully found just before the rain began to pour down. We sat and enjoyed each other’s company atop a mountain in Germany while the rain poured but the sun still shining bright. How much better could it get?

In the evening we all met for dinner at a place called Schnookelock. Our meal was amazing and made even better by good conversation and a live pianist who entertained us with some good American classics. The waiter brought 3 huge platters covered with bratwurst, pork roast and schnitzel. Then came bowls of potatoes, dumpling noodles and sour kraut. Everyone laughed and chatted together and enjoyed their meal. Some headed back to the hotel, some stayed at the restaurant and some found other places to explore, but we all ended our night on a high note!

During our stay in Heidelberg we quickly came to realize how friendly and polite people are in this town of roughly 150,000 people. Today, when we ran to the bus station but still missed the bus we meant to take (number 32), an incredibly friendly pensioner asked us where we were headed. We told him we were on the way to Bismarckplatz and he was quick to tell us that the next train (number 5) would get us there in a matter of a few minutes. Since the sign at the train station said we had 7 minutes until out train would arrive, the friendly retiree shared with us his adventures in the United States in the late 70th, “during President Carter’s time”.

There are many more example of encounters with locals like the one with the friendly old man. A lot of them occur on trains and buses which we have been taking to get to a number of destinations around Heidelberg. Bismarckplatz is our most common destination, as it leads to Altstadt. Altstadt is a busy shopping area that’s packed with centuries’ old architecture, incredible facades, clothing stores, restaurants, and pubs. It’s hard to imagine that this area has been in place since the 1200’s and had withstood the “scorched earth” retreat of the French troops from the Germans in the 1693.

submitted by Jake Gross and Kate Thompson

After a successful day of traveling in Cloppenburg and Bremen we were ready for another day of adventure. We were off to explore Hamburg. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin, and the least densely million-person metropolis in the world. It is also known for being Germany’s largest port and one of the 10 largest ports in the world. One important tourist destination in Hamburg is St. Michaelis Kirche built in 1649. St. Michaelis is one of the most ornate protestant churches and allows tourists to climb to the top of the bell tower to see a panoramic view of the city.

We began our day with another extraordinary breakfast at the hotel where we enjoyed a magnificent meal and practiced a few German phrases we thought we had mastered. After breakfast, we made our way to the train station to get on our first train of the day. During our first transfer, we met a young lady named Daniella, who was very willing to answer any questions that we had about life in Germany.

One of the main questions that we had for Danielle was concerning the standoffish demeanor of most of the Germans that we had encountered. She explained that Germans do not often show their emotions, which leads Americans to perceive them as reserved and sometimes rude. Danielle also gave us some tips on food to try and places to visit with our free time in Hamburg. She also spoke very highly about the United States and told us that she spent time in Florida on a study abroad trip. As it turns out, Danielle is looking for another study abroad opportunity so we gave her our contact information and hope she’ll consider exploring UW Oshkosh for her final semester abroad. The time passed quickly talking to Danielle and before we knew it we had arrived in Hamburg and had to part ways.

Upon arriving at the train station everyone grabbed a quick lunch and then boarded a hop-on hop-off double decker bus for our tour of the city. The bus took us by all of the essential stops in Hamburg allowing us to see as much as possible with our limited time in the city.

We learned many interesting details about Hamburg and the changes that the city has seen during its over 1000 years of history. For example, the downtown was heavily bombarded during WWII, so many of the building were constructed after the war, but many redbrick historic 19-century warehouses, city mansions, and historic landmarks have been restored and now house banks, insurance companies and other big businesses. To have the full Hamburg experience it was essential to cruise Germany’s “ Gateway to the World.”

As our bus tour made a stop to pick up more tourists near the water we decided to hop-off and take a boat tour of the port. As a group of over 25 Americans entered the boat, we realized that the English tour ship had sailed, and our tour would only be conducted in German. However, we were okay as we had our own personal encyclopedia, Craig Jones, who gave us a custom tour of the port and taught us many interesting facts about ocean cargo ships. Although it was a Sunday, the port was alive with recreational and commercial activity. While on our tour, we learned that the Port of Hamburg employs roughly 160,000 people to handle and transport the approximately 10 million cargo containers that travel through the port each year. We were astounded by the size of the port, the commercial cargo ships, and the Queen Mary II. The sophistication of the equipment to load and unload cargo from the ships leads one to think of a futuristic movie setting.

After docking and disembarking from the boat tour some students traveled back to the St. Michealis and St. Nikolai cathedrals to explore the interior and climb to the top of the bell towers. Others headed toward the Rathaus to get a closer view of the architecture and enjoy dinner at an outdoor café on the water. After a beautiful day in Hamburg we met as a group at the train station and began our trip back at for our last night in Osnabrueck. While our time in Hamburg was brief, we enjoyed our stay and hope to visit again.