Welcome to Germany!

Monday 25/4/2011

Hi everybody!

Today we arrived again in another country, namely Germany. It’s already the seventh country of our trip and after two months of travelling, I’m really starting to miss home. We’re so close to Belgium and it’s really tempting to change our route, just to see our family again. But on the other hand, in a few weeks our trip ends so it’s really not that long anymore. I’m certainly going to enjoy these last few weeks because I’m having the time of my life!

At 10.30 A.M., we landed at the airport of München and after a short drive, we arrived at our hotel in the centre of this beautiful city. Münich is a very important political centre because it’s the capital of the Free State of Bavaria and there’s also the Bavarian State Parliament.

All four of us were impressed by the city. On the one hand, all the ruins of historic buildings are reconstructed and on the other hand, there are a lot of modern buildings with a very impressive architecture. It's really the perfect mix!

Our first destination was the “Deutsches Museum”, which is one of the oldest and largest science museums in the world. We already visited a lot of museums on our trip but this one was really interesting. At the museum, you can try out different things at workshops and, assisted by young scientists, you can do your own experiments in the DNA visitor’s laboratory! But to make sure that the museum didn’t explode, we wisely stayed out of the lab and took part in a guided tour. This tour was very interesting and we got to know some of the key exhibitions in the museum.

Today was really a cultural day because after a delicious lunch, we visited the Nymphenburg Palace. We went to the Great Hall, the Queens Bedroom, the Blue Salon and the North Antechamber. But after these four places we had enough of history and paintings so we decided to go outside, to the Nymphenburg Park which is the “garden” of the palace. But actually, I don’t think you can really call it a garden if you know that there’s a lake in it and it has several fountains! We walked in the park for two hours and afterwards, we went back to our hotel where we had a delicious dinner.

Lieze

Tuesday 26/4/2011

Today, we went to the Hellabrunn Zoo, which was founded in 1911. There are more than 5000 animals which all live according to their geographic distribution in complex communities. The zoo is really gigantic and after a whole day, we still hadn’t seen everything!

First, we visited the “Jungle Tent”, the habitat of the wild cats and other animals who live in the jungle. It was really impressive! Other units we’ve visited are “Australia” and “Asia”. In that way, our journey doesn’t just lead us from Nigeria to Norway, but also a bit through these two continentsJ

Today was a very beautiful day with nice weather and we took advantage of it by picnicking outside. It was just lovely!

After this long day, we still had to travel. We took the train at Hauptbahnhof to Nürnburg and now I’m really tired so I’m off to bed!

Talk to you soon!

Wednesday 27/4/2011

Hi!

We decided that today we wouldn’t visit any more museums or palaces, but we would discover the city ourselves. This morning we took the underground railway to the Hesperides Gardens. We found the name of these baroque gardens really strange and a gardener told us that they are named after the “Hesperides”, the daughters of Hesperos. They guarded the golded apples in Greek mythology.

In these gardens, you can find almost 50 different varieties of citrus plants and also a remarkable sundial. We just kept walking around from one place to another and we completely forgot the time! It was already 1.30 P.M. when we started looking for a place to eat and we just entered the first restaurant we encountered, the Goldenes Posthorn. But perhaps it would have been better if we just looked a bit longer… The servers were disoriented and they carried out the dishes separately. So, I finished my main course when the others had to wait another 15 minutes to get theirs. Not to mention that they forgot to bring me they salads that I had ordered! Besides, the prices were rather high although the food wasn't very tasty.

After this bad meal, we didn’t feel like visiting another important place so we just went to a football game! We got tickets for FC Nürnberg – SC Karlsruhe at the EasyCredit Stadium. And although I’m not really fond of football, I really had a great time!

Thursday 28/4/2011

Hello everybody

This morning, around 6 A.M., we arrived at our hotel in Frankfurt and although we’re all very tired, we managed to get up at 9 A.M., after only two hours sleep.

After breakfast, we decided to do something completely different than cultural visits. As Frankfurt is one of the leading financial centers in Europe, we adjusted our stay in this city completely to finances. I know that may sound boring, but actually we really enjoyed it.

The city is often named “Bankfurt” and when you walk through Frankfurt, you understand immediately why. There are the “Deutsche Bank Twin Towers” which are visible from almost everywhere. And when I stood in front of them, I felt soooo small! You really can’t imagine how high they are until the moment you stand next to them. It’s incredible!

Further, we also saw the Eurotower. In that building, you can find the headquarters of the European Central Bank. And the last important financial building we saw was the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In front of that building there are the statues of a bear and a bull and I absolutely didn’t know what there was so special about them, let alone that they had to do something with finance. But from a local inhabitant we’ve heard that these statues refer to market situations: bull market and bear market. When there’s a bull market, there’s an increasing investor confidence and with a bear market, there’s a general decline in the stock market over a period of time.

So today was really a different day compared to the others, I even learned something about economy! It's a pity we didn’t have more time, but at 6 P.M. we had to leave for the next part of our trip.

See you soon,

Lieze

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-GT0_Hw2Y  (This is a link to a short movie, made at the Great Hall at the Nymphenburg Palace)