Spring is Finally Here - Germany Week 12

              After Easter was a short week that began with an excursion to Bingen am Rhein. We went to a museum dedicated to Hildegard von Bingen. She was a nun in the 1100s and founded two other monasteries. She is significant because of her three volumes of visionary theology. She said that she had visions from God from a very young age, and when she was older, she started recording these visions. In the museum, there were large copies of the images from Hildegard’s visions. It was so interesting to look at them and try to interpret what they may mean. There is so much symbolism that we may not know of that fill these images. Along with Hildegard’s visions, there were images of other visions from women of the time. I don’t know how anyone can decipher those images. After the museum, we went and had lunch in a restaurant on the Rhein. We could see the Mäuseturm, or Mouse Tower, and the ruins of the Ehrenfels Castle. It was such a great view and I think I will really miss the Rhein when I go back home. The rest of the week was spent in classes and preparing for our enmodes presentation, which was quickly approaching. What was great was that the weather was finally warming up.

              Before going to bed Friday night, I set my alarm for 4am the next morning. Because of the time difference, my registration was at 4:45am here in Germany. Not ideal, but I managed to wake up and get all the classes I needed. However, I did not wake up when my next alarm went off at 7am, meaning that I missed the train to go to Cologne with Darby, Lois, Camella, and Ibk. By the time I woke up and looked at the clock, the train was long gone. They were going on a bike ride and wouldn’t be done until around 1p, so I slowly got ready for the day. I finally hopped on a train around 11am and made it to Cologne around noon. Since I wasn’t supposed to meet them until 1pm, I decided to walk around and do some shopping. We all met up back in front of the train station and walked around some more, exploring different stores and streets. Eventually we made our way to the Chocolate Museum. This museum was basically a self-guided tour through a gigantic building that went through everything related to chocolate. There were rooms about the history of cocoa, what the current industry is like, how it was made in the past, and how it is currently made. I am pretty sure we were in there for hours. And we got chocolate so that was pretty great.

              On Sunday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. A group of us decided to go to the Hofgarten for a picnic lunch and games. I am pretty sure all of Bonn was outside that day. The park was so alive with people sitting on blankets and playing soccer and riding bikes. The trees and grass were so green and it really felt like Spring in Germany. The sun was out and the temperature was in the high 70s. We sat out there for hours playing dominoes and Exploding Kittens (weird game, but still fun). This weekend reminded me that a weekend in Bonn can be just as fun as a weekend in another country or city in Germany. When I look back, it’ll be Bonn that I miss the most.