Castles on the Rhein and Roman Ruins

After getting back from our epic adventure (see details in my last post), I had no desire to leave Germany ever again. This worked out well because the weather was absolutely gorgeous when we got back and there's nothing better than biking to a Biergarten and drinking a local beer in the sun. Last week was our last week of classes, though, so there was also quite a bit of work to do. Now I'm in the finals period, but my first final isn't until Saturday and I don't have to go crazy on the studying front just yet. We decided to take advantage of this time and go on a little German vacation.

We (three friends and me) originally intended to go to the Fairy Tale Road, which is a long route connecting lots of castles and historic towns featured in the Brothers Grimm stories. This would have been lots of fun, but it's also quite expensive since it's not all that close to Freiburg and would be better seen with a rental car. We decided to downgrade a bit to save money, and after talking to my flatmate about his recommendations, we looked into a shorter trip on the Rhein River where we could see some other castles.

Our trip began at the train station in Freiburg on Saturday morning. We had a Schoenes-Wochenende ticket, which is a special saver ticket that allows up to five people to travel anywhere in Germany for 37 Euros. The catch is that you have to take ultra-slow regional trains, but still, that price can't be beat. Our first stop was the city of Sankt Goar, which is a small town on the Rhein with a huge castle called Burg Rheinfels. On our way there on the train, we passed castle after castle overlooking the river. There are dozens in that area of Germany and it was really cool to see them one right after the other as we headed towards our destination.

The Burg Rheinfels

My flatmate lives in that region of Germany and recommended the Burg Rheinfels because it's a great castle for exploring. Not only is it huge and sprawling, it has a gigantic network of tunnels deep underneath it.

Our adventures in the tunnels were alternately fun and terrifying. They ranged from tall and dimly lit to tiny and pitch-black. There were no safety lights or exit signs in these - they were completely original except for a thin white line painted on the ceilings of some of them. We saw an absolutely massive spider above our heads in one. I bolted from that tunnel faster than I've ever run in my life and I can't even bring myself to upload the picture of it. It's too terrifying to know that it could have dropped on us at any time! We fortunately didn't see any more spiders like that, although they could have been there in some of the smaller, pitch-black ones. We crawled along with only two cell phones for light, but we tried to test ourselves and go along in complete darkness. It was really exhilarating, but quite unnerving at the same time. It would be extremely easy to get lost in that labyrinth and there were no guards or anything to make sure that everyone could get out. Regardless, it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me! I think we all lost a few years of our lives with the spider incident, but we emerged at the end relatively unscathed.

Faces of fear/excitement. That tunnel was pitch-black.

We had to crawl quite a bit on this trip...

We stayed in a nice youth hostel right below the castle that night. I had had to write e-mails in German to get us the reservation and I had to speak quite a bit once we got there to figure out how to pay for the room. Even though I was traveling with two good German speakers, they were both conspicuously silent as I tried to explain to the hostel clerk that we didn't want to join the German Youth Hostel Association. It turns out he spoke English, but he seemed to enjoy listening to me mangle his language. Oh well - as long as my German is intelligible, I consider my interactions a success.

The next leg of our trip took place in Trier, which is the oldest city in Germany and has tons of Roman ruins left over from the reign of the Holy Roman Empire. We took the train from St. Goarshausen (right across the river from Sankt Goar - we had to take a ferry) and had an absolutely beautiful scenic trip across the state. I didn't get pictures from the train because they were too blurry and the window was dirty, but we rode through fields and forests that were reminiscent of California. My time in Europe has made me a big fan of train travel. It's so nice to sit back and relax while seeing countryside you wouldn't see otherwise, especially in a beautiful country like Germany. I didn't mind the long ride to Trier at all because of the gorgeous scenery, and even in the more nondescript areas, I had Harry Potter in German to occupy me.

The Roman ruins in Trier were really interesting. We didn't have time to see absolutely everything, but we saw the main city gate (the Porta Nigra), walked to the amphitheater, explored the main cathedral and its grounds, and walked around the remains of a coliseum. It started raining heavily partway through our little tour, but it stopped in time for us to enjoy walking around the high sides of the amphitheater. It's really amazing to see ruins like those in modern cities, especially in a highly developed country. Of course that's commonplace in Europe, but for an American, it's pretty special. Roman ruins in Germany are a little less common, though, which explains the high number of tourists and tourist traps. We avoided that by grabbing a quick lunch of Currywurst and ice cream and eating on the fountain in the main square. The central square reminded me of Prague, which we visited SO long ago...

The Porta Nigra (city gate)

Our disheveled and rain-soaked group at the amphitheater. Love these guys.

The amphitheater (you could walk around in tunnels there too)

We got back around 11:30 last night after a long trip on the regional trains. Regardless, we all had so much fun. The three people I traveled with shared my desire for a budget-friendly German vacation and we all had a great time seeing the castles, exploring the scary tunnels, and then coming back to Freiburg. Most of the people in my program are currently traveling internationally, but I could not be happier to be in Freiburg for the remainder of my time here. There's so little time left and I want to enjoy it as much as possible. I'm really lucky to have found great friends and flatmates to share it with.

Also, here are the links to my photo albums! People reading this who are my friends on Facebook can also see the pictures that other friends have tagged me in. I'll add some of those to the blog as they get posted online.

Romania and Bulgaria: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171176&id=599810215&l=d7dc681c59

Greece Part 1:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171190&id=599810215&l=9279756c53

Part 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171291&id=599810215&l=3f9b543eb0

There will be more pictures as soon as Facebook lets me upload them (from our epic journey back to Germany as well as the Sankt Goar/Trier trip). It basically does things when it wants, not when I want it to...

I've got a nice week of relaxation/finals studying ahead. At least there's plenty of time for both! It's raining back in Freiburg, but I managed to make it to the farmer's market because it started pouring. We're hoping to go to the pool with a water slide as soon as it warms up again. All for now - bis spaeter!