parents in germany, part three: the conclusion

this is the cathedral in freiburg where mom, dad, and i went two weekends ago.

there was a tower that you could climb up but i got nervous because the stairs were really, really skinny and there was two-way traffic so this picture was taken from inside the gift shop area which is still pretty high up.

this is a picture from inside the church. they had really pretty stained glass windows, too.

we walked into this little garden area that had beautiful flowers. there was some kind of kid festival going on and there were tons of kids and activites to do. we had some delicious fresh crepes too. yum...

freiburg is in the black forest and we took a cable car up into the forest to walk around.

we walked all the way up to where this observation tower. it is HUGE! the stairs were wider so i was able to climb all the way up without being nervous.

this is me on top of the tower. there was actually another part you could walk up that was maybe twenty steps higher but it was super super windy but i think dad went up there.

all of the streets in freiburg had really pretty mosaic tiles. you can kind of see it here.

there were also all of these tiny rivers through the city. i can't remember what they were called but they have been there since the middle ages when they used to use these as drainage rivers. but today they're clean.

and this is a bacon man. actually it's different kinds of meats arranged into a man. it was for sale. i didn't buy it but it was funny. this was in the marketplace. i wish the market here in bonn had bacon people. oh well.

frieburg was a really pretty city and it's a university town so i could always go back to study there. the black forest is really, really nice. anyway, that's the end of the parent adventures. they are back safe now. i think this weekend i'll be going to munich, assuming everything gets arranged in time. hopefully everything will go well.

parents in germany, part two: augustburg schloss (bruehl) and parent pictures

this is the palace augustburg in brühl. unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside. but this is what the outside looks like. there's something with german buildings painted yellow. there are tons of them.

this is the garden of the palace. it's super pretty. and apparently it's a place where people go jogging in the morning. go figure.

these are the palace ducks. there are also fish in the palace pond things but i couldn't really get a picture of them. but a heron ate one and so did a crow. so i know they're there. somewhere...

these are the statues outside of the max ernst museum in brühl. i could have taken pictures inside with no flash and i might just go back and so that since they didn't have any print books or anything. i have decided that he is one of my favorite artists. apparently i like surrealism. which may explain lots of my dreams.


and, because someone requested parent pictures....

these are the parents on the observation deck thing in königswinter.

this is dad eating a fig newton (of course). he'll be really excited to know that i put this on here. really excited.

this is mom and dad on a park bench in königswinter.

and this is mom looking really excited to be up this high. about as excited as dad will be to see his newton picture. very excited.

in the next post: more animals?!? (also, freiburg, not frei*berg*)

parents in germany, part one: drachenburg schloss (mostly)

so my parents are in europe. they really like it here. this is a story told in three parts. i will update more often, too. well, whenever i think of it i guess. the weather's been super nice here so i haven't had computery things on my mind.

remember a few posts back when i said that i would upload more königswinter pictures when i went back on a nicer day? this is that day. well, last tuesday was that day. this is a picture from way up high in the königswinter hill things.

see that tower thing hiding in the mist? that's the deutsche post tower in bonn. that's right, i could see bonn from way up there. it was windy, too.

this is a picture of the castle-type ruin that we eventually climbed up to. it's pretty neat looking even though there isn't much to look at. i think dad thought it was cooler than i did. that architectness i suppose.

donkeys+pferdchens= tons of pictures taken by lauren's camera.

this is a part of the drachenburg schloss. as you can see, it is under construction. as is half of everything to see in all of europe practically. they would only let you go through the parts that had already been renovated so that meant only the tower. but, if you're sneaky like i am, you find unlatched fence doors and take pictures inside for a bit.

this is the tower from the ground. trust me, it's a lot higher than it looks. there's some part of it that you can't see from this picture or any of them, really, because it's hiding above one of the parts here. it's tall. and the staircase is tiny.

this is the inside, or what i could see of it through these glass panes. you couldn't actually go inside for some unknown reason. even though it looked like you could and there were at least three doors just taunting us. stupid renovations.

this is one tower of the palace from the other, newly renovated one.

this is proof that my parents are here. well, dad at least. this is us (dad and i) on top of the tower outside. it started raining while we were up here. and it was windy. and i thought i heard owls. everywhere. clearly, i had been up there too long.

this is a picture of an outdoor swimming pool way in the hills. i have made it a mission of mine to swim there soon.

stay tuned for parts two and three: where will (did) we go next? what did we do? did i find more animals to take too many picutres of? find out next time on "parents in germany" a BBC special.

rainy weekend trips.

this weekend i went to the cologne zoo. what the pictures don't show is that it was 43 degrees and raining off and on. but we were determined to see animals.

ROCK FISH!!!!!!!!!! it really seems like i was in the tank doesn't it? but i wasn't. sheree and katie wouldn't let me. party poopers....

these are a bunch of carp. there's a bigger aquarium in the near by town of königswinter so i will go there later to satisfy my "needing to see fish" thing.

this is a jellyfish. i thought it was a kind of starfish at first but i was wrong. i need to build up my german sea life vocabulary i guess.

PENGUINS!!!!! this is one of the reasons i went to the zoo. i have to go back with jürgen, my sprachtandem partner, because he really wants to see penguins. i think i can handle seeing them again....

these are baboons. i don't even want to talk about what the baboons were doing that we couldn't stop watching them for fifteen minutes. baboons are CREEPY!

do you see the baby otters?!?!?! they are so cute! they were making these really, really, really, really, terribly cute noises. like "too cute they need to be outlawed" kind of noises.

MEERKATS! or, as they're known in german: "erdmännchen." that basically means "little earth men." also terribly cute.

LLAMAS! actually, i think they're alpacas. but same general family. maybe.

well, i have way more zoo pictures than anyone wants to see. i took over 100 pictures. i also went to königswinter on monday because we didn't have school but it was also cold and rainy and my pictures aren't very pretty. so you don't get to see those until i can go back in nicer weather. but it's really impressive. basically you can travel up into the siebengebirge (seven mountains) and see for quite a ways. we could see the deutsche welle tower in bonn from there. even in the fog. anyway, that's it for this time. sorry for all the animal pictures.