The past few weeks have flown by. Last week, we took
excursions to Cologne and Koblenz where we toured a cathedral and a medieval
fort. The cathedral was built over the course of 500 years and somehow survived
both world wars with minimal amounts of damage despite the destruction to the
surrounding city. We took a tour that took us around parts of the cathedral
that most people would never get to see. We were able to see an amazing panorama
of the city from the very top.
Koblenz was super interesting as well. The fort was built
upon an old roman outpost and we were able to go down into what used to be the
old roman moat. The fort was last used in World War 2 as an anti aircraft
outpost. To get there we took gondolas across the Rhine. I learned the Koblenz
is sister cities with Austin, TX, which is my hometown.
We started the weekend off with a trip east to a small village
where Henning, our AIB guide, and his band were performing in a music festival.
It was really cool to be able to experience a German Rock concert.
The next morning, we boarded a train and headed out to Brussels
for the day. Brussels had to be one of the prettiest cities I’ve seen in
Europe. We mainly stayed in the town square but that in itself was too big for
just one day. I really wish we would’ve had more time there; I’m considering
going back.
This week we traveled through Hanover on our way to
Norderney, a German island on the North Sea. In Hannover, we were lucky enough
to take a tour through the Hannover Medical School and research center. We
learned about regenerative medicine research done with Axolotls. In the
hospital, we were given a presentation on ventricular assistance devices which
are used on patients with decreased ventricular outputs either awaiting a
transplant or if they are over 65, for the rest of their life.
From Hannover, we traveled to Norderney. Norderney ended up
being one of the prettiest, most relaxing, astonishing places I’ve ever been
to. The little island was settled a few hundred years ago by Frisians who were
tired of mainland problems such as taxes. The island grew to prominence in the
1800’s when a Badehaus (bathhouse) was built on western edge of the island.
Norderney’s bathhouse was the second German bathhouse but the first one to be
on the North Sea. Bathhouses were built as a rehabilitive get-a-way for the
rich when it was discovered that salt water was a cure for many dermatologic as
well as respiratory syndromes. We learned that modern science has indicated the
salt water as well as the dynamic thermal stresses put on the body in a
bathhouse are extremely good for the lymphatic system as it acts as almost a
pump. In Germany, modern doctors can and do still prescribe a few weeks at a
bathhouse as a preventative measure against stress, burnout, depression, and
many other ailments.
We took a tour out through the mud flats surrounding the
island that are known as the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mud
flats were unreal, we saw hundreds of birds, mussels, clams, worms, and many
other organisms native to the Wadden Sea area.
Currently, we are on a train back to Bonn to catch a flight
to London in the morning. I’m excited to be in an English speaking country, it
will be a nice relief to not have to use google translate every time I need to
talk to someone. This trip is flying by faster than I ever could’ve imagined… I
don’t even want to think about the fact we only have 2 weeks left. I’m no where
ready to go home and no where finished seeing what all Germany has to offer.
Guten tag!
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