Week 3- How many miles did we walk today?

This seemed to be the main question at the end of every day this week. This past week we got to see so many different sites close to Bonn! Our first site to see was the Cologne Cathedral. I’ve seen it in pictures, but they don’t do it justice at all. Not only did we get to see the outside gothic architecture and the inside with all of the relics and stained glass, but we got to go on a tour of the roof and the inside workings of the church. The guide was excellent and did a great job of explaining the history of the architecture and timeline of how the church itself was built. It is crazy to think that this cathedral is older than the United States of America.

In addition to the Cologne cathedral, we went on a tour of the Roman-germanic museum. When the Germans were excavating that site to build something, they came upon a layer of an old Roman city which is now where the museum is showing all of the different artifacts found there. An interesting statue I found was the head of a young boy, known as Emperor Nero. He is known as one of the most interesting emperors on the throne. He obtained the throne at the young age of 17 and his first few years were known as the “golden ages.” However, he soon ruthlessly tried to make himself completely independent by having his stepbrother, mother, and wife killed. After many other crimes, the Senators and the guards forced him to commit suicide. This tragic story reminds me of all of the classic tragic Roman plays. There were many other statues of emperors and various other Roman people.

Later in the week we took an excursion to the Koblenz Opera House, one of the oldest opera houses in Germany. It was really cool to see the opera house in person and be able to link what he had been learning about in our Neuro class about architecture and sound. My favorite part was Dr. Wasser taking the stage and singing for a short time on the stage. 

We also got to see a castle/ fortress. I loved taking the gondola over the river up to the top of the cliff where the castle was. We got to have a tour and learn about the different battles fought and the logistics of the entire grounds. It’s interesting to be in a culture where castles and wars make up such a big part of the history. The view from the gondola was beautiful! Overall this week has been great and I can’t believe we are halfway done with the program… Crazy!