I've been catching up on sleep all day, sorry this post is so late! So this week is Holy Week, or Semana Santa in Spanish, and we got the week off from school! Three of my friends Mattie, Laurel, and Chelsea, and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and go to Germany, France, and Belgium! We started off the trip late Thursday night/early Friday morning. We caught a 1 AM bus to Madrid (it's cheaper to fly out of Madrid than Sevilla). After a 6 hour, all-night ride to the city, we caught a taxi to the airport, where we first flew to Geneva, Switzerland. After a layover there, we flew to Zurich, Switzerland, and then finally to Stuttgart, Germany where our adventure really began!
Chelsea's brother (Brian) is in the US Army, and is stationed in Illesheim, Germany. He got the weekend off, so he came to meet us at the airport and took us to our hotel that night. Before we went to bed, we wandered over to a German restaurant to have dinner. I had spaetzle! I've eaten this at about a million Anthony family holiday dinners, but now I can say that I've had the authentic thing in Germany! The next morning, we woke up and drove to Illesheim, where Brian is stationed. It's a pretty non-descript town, with a rundown train station, but from there we caught a train into Nuremberg. I was super impressed with Germany's train system. Everything was very clean, and efficient. I felt completely safe the whole time. Mattie's wearing blue, Laurel's in black, and Chelsea's in green.
I absolutely LOVED Nuremberg. Brian told us that a lot of soldiers from his base go there on their day's off. I think it's what I've always pictured when I thought of Germany. It was very strange to not understand the language here, because I'm used to being surrounded by either Spanish or English. I've always wondered if I'd be any good at German since so much of my family is from there. It's so different from Spanish or English though!
We mostly just wandered the city, which was very nice. None of us spoke German, but most of the people we interacted with knew enough German that we could get by. Around lunchtime, we stopped into a bar and sampled some colaweizen. This is essentially beer mixed with Coca-Cola. I don't like beer or Coke, but I thought I might as well try it, and it was actually pretty good!
Nuremberg is also famous for its Bratwurst, so we sampled some of that as well! It's served on little rolls with spicy mustard.
We also stopped by St. Lorenz-Kirche (or St. Lawrence's Church), a beautiful, old, Gothic Lutheran church built between 1270-1350. There was a small exhibit inside about the destruction of some of the church during World War II.
We also stopped by the Nuremberg Castle as well, which was built around 1050. We didn't get to go inside, but we got some great views of the city!
After that, we caught the train back to Illesheim and drove back to our hotel in Stuttgart. The next morning, we set out for Leonberg, Germany. My father's mother's parents (my great-grandparents) grew up in this town before immigrating to America in the 1920s. I'm partially named in honor of my great-grandfather, Carl Stadelmann. The people that lived here that are related to me were called the Stadelmanns and the Wendels. Leonberg was pretty much the cutest little German town ever. My grandpa gave me the address of people who took care of my great-grandmother Wendel. It was kind of amazing to see that the house is still there! The day I visited also happened to be the anniversary of the death of my father. Even though he had never been to Germany, and didn't know anything about the town of Leonberg, I still felt closer to him there in the town of his ancestors.
For the rest of the day, we caught a train into downtown Stuttgart. I have to say, Stuttgart was not as exciting as Nuremberg or Leonberg. Apparently, most of the historic buildings were destroyed in World War II, so it just kind of looked like any modern city except that everything was in German. We still had lots of fun though!
Check back in on Tuesday for a report on the rest of my trip to France and Belgium! Until then,
Carly <3
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