First we went to a wine tasting in the Arhtal region of Germany which was beautiful. I always imagined wine country to be in France or Italy with rolling hills of grapes vines going on forever. Never I had once thought about a vineyard in a mountainous region of Germany. There were vines all the way on the top of the hills! I can't imagine what it's like when it's time to harvest, everything is done by hand.
The next day we went to House of History, which was actually really interesting. Dr. Wasser surprised me again with how much he knows. He was the tour guide for the museum and was pretty knowledgeable about the important events and some random little stories.
Then on Thursday we took a city tour of Cologne. The day started off with a walking tour given by a funny local with some pretty dry humor. We saw the bridge with thousands of love locks on it! That day was actually one of the coldest we've had since we arrived so I was thankful when we arrived at the lunch place. Ate some fries and some kind of unknown meat that was really good. Afterwards we went to a Gestapo headquarters. The tour was very well done and some of the exhibits even had an english portion so I could read all of it!! It's interesting to think that we're in the country where the Holocaust happened. It's chilling but also neat to be in a place with such vivid history. Afterwards we had a little break because I decided to go on the second tour of the cathedral. The break included some light shopping and then a trip to the Lindt museum. We didn't actually tour the museum, we only spent some time in the cafe. I had the hot chocolate which was aaaamazing. I literally felt like I was just drinking pure chocolate though, it was so rich. Once we were done paroosing the gift shop, where some of us got free chocolate shots, we headed back towards the cathedral for the tour. By then the sun was almost completely gone and the temperature had dropped by about another 10 degrees....and we were going to go up 120 meters to see the top of the cathedral. So worth almost freezing!!! Although the elevator up there was so sketch. We walked across the top of cathedral and saw the roof infrastructure, pretty advanced for being built over a span of a century. I would love to go back inside during the day so I can see what the stained glass windows look like. I might plan a cathedral tour again when my family comes in May. It will be much warmer....
When I got back to the house that night one of my host brothers was there! Max studies something like industrial engineering in a city several hours south of here so this was my first time meeting him. He was very nice and it was good to have someone else in the house for a weekend. On friday night I went out to Cologne and spent some time listening to what is called House music with some friends. Got back pretty late but I got to sleep in for the first time since I've been here. Woke up at 12!! Then I had some chocolate croissants with Max and then we went on a hike up to Petersburg. I definitely underestimated the height of the hill I live on but I still made it to the top. On the top of the hill we could see all the way to the city center of Bonn. Thankfully we had a lot of sun that day and I actually got hot on the way up the mountain. After walking around in the gorgeous hotel we decided to continue our hike to some ruins at the base of the mountain. Everything looked so good in the snow! After walking to the base we had some coffee and cake at the cafe near the ruins. Then we went home and watched some german movies for the rest of the night!
So much happened during that week I still feel like I'm missing something but I'm not sure. Planned a trip to Amsterdam on Sunday and booked a hostel! Woo!!
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