Strasbourg (Straßburg)

Prochain arrêt: Strasbourg (Next stop: Strasbourg)

This is a long overdue post of Strasbourg which I visited on the 12 April. Strasbourg is a city that lies in the Alsace region of France, and is well known not only because of tourism but also because of its importance of the location of the European Parliament. However, the metropolitan area, or the core of the city turned out to be quite small and walkable such that we completed the main area of the city much faster than we expected.


The photo above is a picture of the Gare de Strasbourg (Strasbourg train station). The outer shell reminded me of the Allianz Arena stadium in München, or the Esplanade back home. However, it is quite obvious that this glass shell was an add on to the inside, because once you have passed through the glass enclosure, you would see the actual station. But nevertheless I thought it was a really beautiful design.

La Petite Alsace, Le Petite France

Petite France is a quarter in Strasbourg that is notably the most beautiful area of Strasbourg in my opinion although some will testify against. What is prominent here is that you see lots of Fachwerkhäuser (half timbered houses), making you wonder if you are really in France or Germany.

Actually its nothing surprising, considering the location of Strasbourg and the Alsace region, which is at the border to Germany. In fact, Strasbourg and Germany is seperated by the river Rhine, and Strasbourg is accessible from the German town of Kehl by walking over the river through a bridge. And more importantly, if you consider the history of Alsace region or Strasbourg, it has changed hands frequently between claims of Germany and France. Also, since the Frankish empire from the 3rd to 10th century, Strasbourg has been heavily influenced by Germanic culture.

Quai de la petite France

Because of its picturesque setting, most of the people who were there were tourists, mostly German tourists, not surprisingly. And if we were to translate petite France, it would mean something like small France or something along the line. However, it turns out that the origin of the name petite France was that this area used to be flooded with prostitutes who worked here during the middle ages, and some of the Fachwerkhäusern could well be possibly brothels. And it was here that the syphillis was so often contracted such that the syphillis came to termed as the French disease.

However, there are no more brothels, at least explicitly running brothels, today as well as no signs of streetwalkers. What we see on the streets are however, painters painting the scene as well as peddling their art works. Also a lot of cafes lined up along the canals.

Barrage Vauban

The Barrage Vauban (Vauban dam) is a wall which was built in the 17th century. We climbed up to the terrance and was welcomed with the beautiful pananoramic sight below.

From here we are actually facing petite France

Charmaine: Boon Song, I put the map in your bag ah.
BS: You wanna put the map in my bag?
Charmaine: In the side pocket ok? U want it u tell me. I help u take.
BS: I think I should be able to reach it.

Grande Île de Strasbourg (lit: Grand Island of Strasbourg)

The Grande Île de Strasbourg is actually a historic centre in the core of the main city area. It was classifed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988. One of the main highlights of this historic centre is of course the Strasbourg Cathedral.

The cathedral was completed in 1439 and was the world tallest church until 1880.

The main feature of the church is undoubtly the astronomical clock. The clock is known to be highly accurate as its time of construction and its complicated functions was truly a marvel.

French pastries at the historic centre. The small petite cutes ones cost 3.60€ each. Actually such French pastries are common place around Alsace, like the last time when we were at Wissembourg we also saw many shops selling such snacks.

The French train that took us from Strasbourg back to Wissembourg where we changed to the German train to return home. It seemed that this French train appeared to run on diesel instead of electricity.

We completed our exploration of Strasbourg in a much shorter time than anticipated. Basically we saw the main things less the European Parliament, but I would say that Strasbourg is perhaps worth a day trip and just that. Thankfully Mannheim is not that far from Strasbourg.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/12AprStrasbourg

Thingstätte at Heidelberg

Heidelberg beim Abendrot (Heidelberg at sunset)

Gorgeous. This is enough to describe the view of both sides of the neckar river, the Philosophenweg on one side and the Altstadt on the other. Although Heidelberg is only 20minutes away from Mannheim, one looked like paradise, the other looked like an industrial leftover. While I have been to Heidelberg a couple of times already, this is the first time that I came here during sunset at 9pm. Yes, thats how it looked at 9pm here, because we are into the summer season while the sun set late.

The side of the Philosophenweg, a route that cuts through the hill at the middle lower part, just slightly above the houses. The neckar river

The side of the Altstadt and Schloß

Walpurgisnacht in der Heidelberger Thingstätte

The Walpurgisnacht, or Hexennacht (witches night), as it is called here, takes place on the night of the 30th April here. It was believed that witches would hold a huge celebration on the Blocksberg mountain in the north of Germany during this night to welcome spring. As a result, it has become a tradition to celebrate this night with a big bonfire.

In Heidelberg, the Thingstätte, an amphitheatre which was built in the 1930s by the Nazis for their rally purposes hidden within the hill above the Philosophenweg.

The Thingstätte could hold a capacity of up to 20000 people, and this is how it looked like on a normal day.

As a result, it was natural for people to think of using this place as a celebration. And so everyone made their way up to hill in the dark when the sun set. It was quite a difficult walk up as visibility was practically nothing. Back to the army days at night when we had field exercises.

When we finally reached the Thingstätte after about 1 hour of hiking up the hill, this is what we saw. Everyone was partying, dancing, getting drunk, playing with fire, as well as bbqing.


The huge bonfire at the centre stage of the Thingstätte

Some interesting observations

Such an event reminded me of an aspect of the deutschen Volkskultur (German folk culture). Long hikes up hills or castles perched on hilltops through forests with friends has always been an aspect of such a culture that has existed since centuries ago, even before the unification of Germany in 1871. Today such practices are still common even among the young. Of course, despite the tiring walk up, everyone was singing and drinking along the way. Some people were already drunk even before they reached the Thingstätte. And more importantly, people were hiking up the hill with heavy crates of bottles of beer. I remember someone saying that he was totally gone after all that alcohol that he did not remember how he managed to find himself at the bottom of the hill the next morning.

Another very interesting observation is the way some guys there conduct their bbq. It was so primitive that they used twigs to stick their sauages and cook the meat!

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/30AprThingstTteAtHeidelberg

Food for thought

Mensa is the equivalent of canteen, just that instead of stalls we have fixed menus everyday which can be viewed online for the week. There is a saying that the best Unis in Germany usually have the lousiest Mensas around, while the best Mensas in Germany belong to the Unis which are unheard of. This could probably explain why Uni Mannheim's Mensa food is getting from bad to worse, that I'd starting to think that I could cook better than them. Perhaps it is the law of diminishing utility, for the first time when I ate, I thought Mensa food was not bad. Even for a person like me who has an inclination towards salty food, the food at the Uni Mensa is way too salty for me. And yet I am surprised to see how some Germans can still add salt to their soup or fries.

Here's some pictures of my productive persuits which will probably interest my mother more than anyone else. And yes, they are edible, at least to this moment as I am still alive typing.

Gulasch - some sort of Hungarian stew
Minced meat with diced potatoes, carrots and red peper
Fish fillet with creamy sauce and potatoes.Pork chop with Jägersoße, mushrooms and boiled potatoes.
Honey meat balls - loved every bit of it

Sliced fish soup

Simple egg omlette with mushrooms and melted cheese

Mini crepes with nutella and banana slices. And its not burnt. One of my hot favorites for supper.

Exchange students do work afterall

Its now 1am in Germany and I just came back from school. Not that I've been in school all day but I came back in the afternoon and went out in the evening to prepare for the case study which we have to present with my other group mates. I remember that in NUS, whenever there are exchange students taking a particular module, we'd always be very happy for the reason that they will help to skew the bell curve to our advantage - that's the horrible NUS system. But yet at the same time, we're afraid to be in the same group as them to do group work or assignments, for the same reason that they'd be too slack. I remember telling Ying Tee once that because there are full time students in the group, it won't be nice to sabo them, and she readily remarked the same observation as I had in mind that we'd always siam exchange students for group work back in Singapore.

There are 4 of us, 2 full time students - German guys Tobias and Tim and 2 exchange students -this French gal Claire and myself. Everything has been going smoothly and we get along very well. Tobias and Tim are in their 8th and 7th semester and are therefore very hardworking and enthuiastic. Claire, although being an exchange student like me and always going away on excursions, travelling or partying, does not appear to be totally bo chup at all. And Tim is coming to Singapore next semester for an internship with BASF. I found it quite comical because most people would rather do an internship with BASF in Germany instead of overseas.

Till now I am quite happy with the progress we're doing with our case, although I must say that I feel that marketing is to some extent - bullshiting and smoking your way through with high sounding models like "4 Ps Model"- place, pricing, product, promotion, "3 Cs Model" - customers, company, competition, as well as SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis. As an econs major who is so used to seeing everything mathematical and concrete as well as complicated diagrams, this marketing pill is hard to swallow. It was something like during the first semester at NUS when I took soci exposure module. Ok, maybe marketing is not as empty as soci (I know I am gonna be flamed by making such a statement bout soci) but it can get really tok cock. Its the first time I am taking a course in marketing and I am not sure if I will take marketing next sem when I am back at NUS as a breadth module. One thing for sure, marketing courses always have chiobus, wherever the course is conducted, be it in Singapore or in Germany.

Anyway time to sleep as I gotta wake up 5 hours later for first period classes. There should be no travelling till after the 6th May after the presentation as well as the next wave of common tests. Scheiße!

Trier (and a little bit of Koblenz)

Like being in little Rome

Trier (pronounced as 3-er) is at the edge of Germany at the western side near the Luxumberg and the French border. Therefore it is not surprising to see a lot of French students there on excursions. It is one of Germany oldest cities, well it maintains that is the oldest, and this is contested by Worms, which also claims that they are the oldest cities. The day spent in Trier was like a day spent in little Rome, because it much of the structures seem to give me the impression that I was in Rome, although the intensity was definitely not as much. I have never been to Rome before and I am really looking forward to it in June. Hence Trier is like a preview of what I can probably expect in Rome.

Indeed, a check after the trip revealed that Trier was founded by the Romans in the 15th century BC, and its collection of Roman monuments and structures led it to accquire the UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1986.

The Porta Niga, which is the Latin equivalent for black gate, was built in the 2nd century. The pillar was purely iron rods. Resembles a corner of the Colosseum in Rome? I will do a comparison after I have been to Rome.

The Hauptmarkt (main Market), a marketplace which has a square which was lined up with beautifully painted houses. There was an interesting movement, or demonstration when I was there. It was a movement to encourage people to go vegetarian and stop eating meat. What happened was that the demonstrators, who were all ladies, stripped to their panties and bras and with their skin dripping with red paint, to imitate blood, they went around giving leaflets and explaining to their people about their movement. Not surprisingly, it attracted alot of attention.

The Dom, which looked more like a fortress than a cathedral
Below: one of the most priceless monuments in the Dome.

Kaiserthermen - This was once an imperial thermal bathing complex. This ruined structure you see is part of the section of the hot pool area.

The Amphitheater - the place where gladiators won and died. It had a capacity that was once able to hold 20,000 people during matches. If you look at the stage at the picture above, you can see two small stairs that lead to the basement cellar.

And this is how the cellar looks like in the basement. It was a once used to keep caged animals, prisoners as well as corpses.

Das Karl-Marx Haus: Karl Marx the father of communism, was born in Trier in the very house above. It was quite surprising to hear that because to me, Marx is very much associated with Berlin and Jena, where he came up with most of his revolutionary ideals.

Koblenz I

From Trier, it took about 1.5 hours to get to Koblenz. The view from trains were splendid because the route that all trains would take from Trier to Koblenz was through the Moselle Valley, a very sceneric route of 195km between Trier to Koblenz. And during the grape harvest season, this valley is also a great place to taste German wine, where the country's finest wines come from. Actually the visit to Koblenz was rather last minute, because there was little time and I had to transfer trains at Koblenz to go futher up towards the direction of Münster and so I had only 1.5 hours to see what I could. It was really what I would say "touch and go". However I am very certain that although I have touched and gone, I will be back in Summer again to cover the rest of what I have not seen, because I missed out the most beautiful places in Koblenz which were out of reach.

Anyway I did manage to take some nice pictures in Koblenz:

Am Plan, this is a square that used to be a place for public executions.

This crossroad of the main shopping street, the Löhrstraße, is called the 4 towers. It is a pretty intersection where the corner of 4 17th century buildings face other.

The deutsches Eck - "the German Corner" - This is the corner in Koblenz where the Moselle river joins the Rhine river in Germany. As you can see, the German flag is right at the tip of the corner.
Facing the deutsches Eck is a grand statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Emperor who was best known as the figure behind the Unification of Germany during the mid-19th Century.
From the side of the deutsches Eck, looking across the Rhine river, you could see the mighty fortress of the Ehrenbereitstein. Unfortunately I did not have the time to cross the river and go up the fortress! I am very certain that from the fortress I am able to get a panoramic view of Koblenz. But I will do it the next time.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/04AprTrier02

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/04AprKoblenz02

Some Random Thoughts II

Will I .... ?

Woke up this morning at 7.55am to realise that the Stuttgart trip was being cancelled at the last minute, and Charmaine was apologising when she heard that I woke up so early on a Sunday. Actually I am quite happy that the trip was cancelled, so that I could do what I badly needed to do which is to mop my room and clear up all the trash that has been accumulating.

While I was moping the floor, with my hands and a piece of cloth, it struck upon me that 2.5 months have past, which means I will have 3.5 more months before I return. I compared the pictures of my room today and on the 1st February when I first moved in. I remembered it was empty except for the furniture, and the walls had nothing on it.

The wall is pasted with bus/tram timetables, a map of Europe as well as the transport tariff system and a lot of other stuff, but none of it is academic.

Rows of beer bottles waiting to get refund for the glass bottle.

I was thinking, will I continue to mop the floor when I return? Will I continue to do my own laundry when I return? Will I have to bother to check the temperature every day? Will I continue to cook my own meals when I return? Will I wash my own plates and dishes after eating? Will I bother to spend a few hours at the supermarket every week to shop for cheap groceries? Will I continue to drink beer every night? Will I have to observe the bus and tram timings before stepping out of the house?

Some great findings this week

I think this week is great because of two great findings especially. Firstly I got myself a bicycle, not that I bought a bicycle but with the help of Stan and Zhirui whom I must thank a lot, we assembled a bicycle from three different bicycles which were spoilt. They were left lying in the cellar downstairs unlocked and that took us like 1.5hours to dismantle the parts and reassemble. It was quite exciting to do so because we were behaving like thieves with all the tools and noise while trying to be discrete at night. Moreover there were signs pasted on the walls of the cellar informing that 5-10 bicycles were stolen during the last month and that residents should be careful. Stan got something out of it too. A cool bicycle frame that was left behind. But the best thing is, now I can ride a bicycle to school like all Germans, especially when I miss the bus in the morning because the bus driver left 1 or 2 minutes earlier than the stipulated time!

The second cool thing that I found this afternoon at the backyard was a mattress. It was presumably left there by someone, but I was quite surprised because the mattress was still in a good condition and it did not stink or have any stains on it. Moreover its exactly the mattress that all of us staying in this hostel sleep on in our rooms. With much zest I lugged the whole thing up into my room and turned on the heater to warm the mattress since it was a little damp due to the drizzle when I found it. Its a great find because 1 month later Shujuan's friend is gonna crash over at my place, and 2 months later Ying and Py are coming as well. And talking about that, we are going on a Europe trip together. 5 countries, 9 places, 12 days. Looking forward to that, but it also means that my days in Germany are limited and I'll have to return home.

"Turning" German

After dinner with the Singaporeans at Palms, as we were walking home, I was telling the two gals, if there is a place in Germany which is "not so international as Frankfurt", "not so expensive as Munich", "where the bus and trams are not so incomprehensive in terms of frequency at night and during weekends as Mannheim", "where there exists no Ausländerfeindlichkeit like in East Germany", I would want to live there and not come back. When I went home, I thought about what I said, and I think that actually Mannheim is not a bad place to live in after all. The cost of living is not as high as other German cities, and the transport tariff system here is wide. Till now I have not come across any other Verkehrsbund (transport association) in Germany that has a bigger tariff coverage as the VRN, which is the association that operates in Mannheim.

And when they asked me what's Ausländerfeindlichkeit, I stumbled because for a moment the English equivalent slipped out of my mind! I was quite surprised because this is not the first time it happened. It happened like twice this week already. I remember Herr Chan saying that there will be a stage during the process of learning German or being left in a German speaking environment that you will find that your English standard has dropped while your German standard has improved but not perfect. Its like "half way" of both languages. You start with nothing in German and get to something, and you start with English as your native language and then you find that you get a mental block sometimes.

Maybe the head of the international office at Mannheim was correct when she told us during her first meeting with the exchange students that we'll cry two time during our stay here. The first time is when we just arrive because the city is so ugly and we just want to pack our bags and leave. The second time is when we really have to return home. I did not cry the first time but I am quite certain that I will the second time. I was talking to Navy on the bus just now and she also said that she does not want to return to Hongkong too, where reality will bite all over again. Probably that's also why a lot of exchange students are scrambling to sign up for internships in Germany. I'd very much like to as well, there are a lot of internship offers in Germany but unfortunately I have to return to Singapore. There are unfinished businesses there. But I am quite sure I will leave Germany with unfinished businesses as well. 3.5 months is still quite a long way but the day will come.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

A medieval jewel

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which may seem to be a long German name, actually means "Rothenburg over the Tauber", and the Tauber is a river in the northern part of the Bavarian state. Well known for its preserved medieval town, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is indeed one of the most beautiful medieval gems around in Germany, although it is a rather small town and 3 hours is probably all that is needed to check out every corner of the town.

One of the entrances to the medieval town, from the direction of the Bahnhof

The pavement of the Altstadt is preserved to the extent that the lanes are cobbled, stoned, and uneven. The Rathaus on the left. It looks like some cartoon Flintstone house, that you see in fairy tales.

The medieval houses are magnificantly picturesque and tastefully painted with pastel colours.

The view from the Rathaus

In order to get the best view of the town, I climbed up the Rathaus and squeezed myself into a small exit at the top of the Rathaus. From the top I could see the whole town and the town walls that enclose the town. It was a wonderful sight as the pictures below testify. Moreover the snow that was sliding or beginning to melt on the roofs added more taste to the photos:

The same view as the previous picture except this time from the top of the Rathaus.Notice the snow on the roofs.
Can you see the old town wall?

Unlike the town wall in Nürnberg which was actually a replica of the old town wall that was destroyed by the Allies in Jan 1945, the town wall at Rothenburg ob der Tauber is original. It has existed since the 13th century. How is it so that the town was spared from the Allies during WW2? It turns out that actually Nazis were sent to defend the town during WW2 and the Allies were on the verge of completely flattening the town. In fact, it was mentioned that quite a signifiant proportion of the whole town was damaged, slightly less than 50%, but the Altstadt emerged relatively unscared. But what was more important was that the US Assistant Secetary of War John McCloy understood the historic importance and beauty of the town and so he ordered the military not to fire artillery shells at the town, thereby preserving the town but capturing it using other means.

I am not sure if the cannons here are from medieval times as well.

The square holes in the walls are where the cannon barrels are positioned.
Plönlein, a fork in the road, which is one of the sights which appear in most postcards of Rothenburg ob der Tauber

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/25MarRothenburgObDerTauber