German Excursion

My graduation present from my wonderful parents was a trip to Germany (and Paris, but I already blogged about that one)! My best friend from high school and I traveled to Germany to stay with our foreign exchange student friend and her family. Needless to say, it was quite the adventure! Germany is an awesome place! The people there are so friendly and very laid back. We were able to do so many things while we were there for the month.

The shops and restaurants are just as you see in the movies. Quaint and appealing to the eye. I enjoyed shopping very much. They have so many different items to choose from that are all very German-like!

This is a great picture displaying the shops!

We traveled to Koln (Cologne) to see the Kolner Dom. It is a cathedral that began construction in 1248 and was completed in 1880. It was the tallest structure in the world until the Washington Monument was built. The cathedral sees approximately 20,000 people everyday!

The cathedral was damaged in World War II due to aerial bombing. Some parts of the Kolner Dom are still not open due to this. It has some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen in my life. There is not a part of the cathedral that is without intricate detail. It is exquisite.

One of the treasures of the cathedral is that there are three golden tombs inside. They are called The Shrines of the Three Kings. It is traditionally passed on that the tombs contain the remains of the Three Wise Men and there 2,000 year old clothing. There is also a 10.5 ton bell inside! This bell is HUGE! It is the largest of the 11 bells the cathedral contains.

This is the view from the top of the Kolner Dom! It was beautiful and totally worth the 509 steps to the top in a spiral staircase barely wide enough for one person let alone two people passing up and down! It was gorgeous! If only we had seen it at night all lit up! 

Something else we did was hike up a mountain to see the Schloss Drachenburg Palace. It was quite the steep hike but the palace was beautiful!  

It was worth the hike there and back!

We did a TON of other stuff! Germany is such a wonderful place to visit. I would highly recommend it! I could even give you my friend's info and you could have your own tour guide! Thanks for reading my latest post! If you have any question or comment, please write one!

Sie sehen! (See you soon)