Reisen nach Deutschland! (part 2)

(Wow, time flies here... Sorry again that this is coming so late)

Let's talk about my trip to Passau!

It's the first city I've visited on this trip that I've been to before, but it's been almost four years since my last/only time there. As I boarded the bus in the morning, I had mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation. I was going back to a place tinged with so many memories, and with the full knowledge that they were just that: memories...but I missed it so much! Could things really be that different?

A picture from my last trip to Passau. I wish
I could say I look older now...

Three and a half years ago, as we boarded the bus to Vienna, we promised ourselves and each other that we would never forget the Austausch. I spent the entire following year going through my pictures and painstakingly replaying every day in my head, until I was sure that I could never forget. But the funny thing about time is that it passes in waves, smoothing the rocks, and taking some away to leave new things in their place. The best, strongest memories remain, and the rest fade into the background so we can make new ones. I used to think that was a bad thing; now I just thing that's life.

Enough philosophy. Let's look at some gorgeous pictures!

My bus went first to Munich, where I took a train to Passau, arriving mid-afternoon. Julia and her mom, Doris, met me at the train station with huge hugs and exclamations about how I hadn't aged a day. We couldn't stay parked at the train station, so we drove to a parking lot outside Julia's Wohnung (apartment) and walked down through the Universität Passau campus. It was a perfect spring day, with a cool breeze and a warm sun in a cloudless sky.

As we walked down to the river, we happened to run into another former Austausch student named Klara! So ein Zufall! ("What a coincidence!"), as we would have said. We talked for awhile about school and what little we could say to cover the past four years we'd been apart, and then kept walking down the hill and through the campus.

We walked through Julia's faculty (Mathematik) and to a path right next to the Inn river, and they pointed out where the river had flooded last year, rising up to the tops of some trees and in some cases, filling entire buildings. Weirdly enough, there are still some pieces of seaweed hanging from the trees!

Then we walked along the Inn in the beautiful spring-like weather, towards the center of the city. Along the way, we stopped at a café to drink Cappuccino and eat Kuchen (cake) while watching runners and their dogs pass by, all enjoying warmth. 

The flowers were all in bloom!

After we finished, we kept following the river and then walked through the center of the city. Everything we passed looked so familiar, and I tried to recognize the places we had been before. Whenever Julia pointed out somewhere we had been together, I’d have a sudden flash of recognition, though sometimes I couldn’t be sure if I was actually remembering everything.

We decided to return to the car via a shortcut Doris remembered from her time studying at the university, so we trekked up a long hill into the setting sun.

For dinner, we went out for pizza, which was delicious but HUGE!

The next morning, we had to get up really early so we could get onto a train to Nürnberg. We traveled first to Munich, sitting next to a young-ish man who emitted a stench like decade-old cheese and blabbered loudly on his cell phone about nothing in particular. Finally, we transferred to the next train, where we were offered coffee by a  man with a lei prancing up and down the aisle offering coffee with the repeated chant of “Häppy häppy!”

Finally, after three hours on the train (which was actually quite nice – we saw the sun come up over the train hurtling through the Bavarian countryside…) we arrived in Nüremberg and began our tour of the city.

We tried to get into the Handwerkerhof, which usually hosts indoor markets, but unfortunately it was closed for the season. Instead, we walked through the Altstadt, enjoying the sunlight in the streets and visiting three huge churches…

Nürnberger Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

Das Handwerkerhof - too bad it was closed!

Church No. 1

Inside of Church No. 1 - I love the details!

a closeup on my favorite details of the first church

Church No. 2

Posing with the Nussknacker (your turn to guess what that is ^^)

One of the many very dramatic fountains scattered around
the city.

Because how to you go to Nürnberg without getting Lebkuchen?

At the Nürnbergermarkt - the famous outdoor market

This fountain is famous for a golden ring hidden in the fence
around it; it is said that if you look through the ring while
making a wish, it will come true!

Mmmm Nürnberger Bratwurst :)

After lunch, we went first to Albrecht Dürer's house, which is now a museum that offers a guided headphone tour narrated by his wife (of course an actress, not really his wife) and walked through the rooms that had been set up to mirror the way they had looked when he had lived there. There was also a woman in a room at the top who used Dürer's style of engraving to make similar pictures to his. The museum wasn't very big, but I still found it really interesting.

The Albrecht Dürer statue at Albrecht Dürer Platz

Then, when we were finished there, we climbed up to the top of the castle/fortress at the top of the hill, and toured the watchtower and the Brünnen (well):

I counted exactly 100 steps!

The view from the top

From this side of the fortress, you can see the wall as it extends
around the Altstadt

They lower this into the well to show just how insanely deep it is...

The weather was beautiful, so we sat at the café at the base of the fortress and drank coffee, watching the passersby and listening to a street band playing around the corner. Then we walked through the rest of the town...

As the sun began to disappear behind the buildings, we raced back to the train station and rode the three hours back to Passau.

Oh! and I ate a Berliner! (Made famous by the JFK speech ^^)

Sunday morning, Julia and I went for a walk in the unseasonably warm sunshine, underneath another crystal-clear blue sky. Then, in the afternoon, we went into the city and had Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) at the café underneath the Dom, or the huge cathedral that dominates the city.

Then, they walked me to the train station, where we hugged goodbye and promised to see each other again soon, though who knows how much will have changed by the next time we meet...

I took the train to München again, and then a bus from there to Zürich, though this time it took a bit longer because we rode a ferry across Lake Constance - which I was completely not expecting, but it was really cool!