Cathedrals, Food, and Cancelled Trains

This past week we spent back in Bonn (well… kind of…). On Wednesday, we took a day trip to Cologne to see the cathedral and a Roman museum. The cathedral was absolutely breathtaking. I had always heard that it was one of the most amazing sights, but I had no idea of how amazing it would actually be. We walked through the cathedral and saw the beautiful stained glass as well as the golden box that is said to hold the bones of the three magi who visited Jesus. Once we walked through the cathedral, we had guided tours that took us up an elevator on the side of the cathedral to three different levels. We go to walk behind the walls of the cathedral and look into it from above. The corridors were so narrow, but walking through them felt like you were walking back in time. We were also able to walk through little walkways on the outside of the cathedral and saw the flying buttresses and other incredible architectural components. We were also able to go to the top of one of the towers and see an outstanding view of the city. This entire experience was one of the coolest things I have ever done, and I am so thankful that I had that experience. Words cannot describe how it felt to be in that cathedral.

While in Cologne, we also visited a museum that held Roman artifacts. The museum was built around a tile mosaic floor that was discovered, and the floor was astounding. It was in unbelievable condition for being 2,000 years old, and it was almost eerie to stand there looking at it and thinking about how people danced, talked, and walked across that floor so long ago. The museum contained many other incredible pieces, such as delicate glass vases and containers. While there, I found a small statuette of the Roman goddess Minerva. Minerva is the Roman equivalent of the Greek’s Athena, who I find to be an interesting mythological character. Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and war strategy and was the patron goddess the arts. She’s the daughter of Jupiter (Zeus) and was born from his head. The Romans also had a sort of medical version of Minerva and regarded her as the goddess of doctors and medicine. Minerva, along with Jupiter and Juno, was first worshipped at the main sanctuary of the Roman state. I have always seen Athena as this strong female figure in the ancient mythology who was known for her wisdom, not just sexuality like many women and goddesses of the time.

The next day, we took a day trip to Koblenz. While there, we visited the Koblenz Theater house that was built in 1787. It was a rather small theater, but I presume that was normal for the time it was built. We toured the theater itself was well as the carpentry, make up, and painting studios. After the theater, we went to tour a fort. Out of all of our excursions, this one has not been my favorite, but the view from the top of the fort was pretty spectacular.

Friday was a short day of classes, and 9 of us left early the next morning to go to Brussels. Brussels was an absolutely amazing city, full of good food, and… well… more good food. Our goal going to this city was nothing more than eat waffles, fries, and chocolate. The Grand Place was absolutely beautiful, and the parks were so nice to just sit and relax in. Overall, this was two days of eating, walking, and laughing. But what was such a great weekend had a really rough ending. We rush to get to the train station for our 6:25 train and end up getting there with time to spare, but it turns out that our train got cancelled. So…… we spend the next two hours running to trains, switching platforms, being crammed into a train like sardines…. But we finally got back to Bonn around 10:30, back to the house by 10:50, and in bed by 11:45 only to wake up the next morning at 5:15 to get to the station by 6:20. But hey, adventures in Europe, right?  

-Alana