Summer, pt 4

My summer was crazy and full of different activities! I'll cover what I did in 4 separate posts.
Part 1 - Oregon
Part 2 - Colorado
Part 3 - Germany
Part 4 - France and Germany again
---

After the end of my festival in Germany, I had five days free before my sister returned to Germany from visiting the United States.  I decided to visit an old friend, Pierre, at his family's house in the Alsace region of France.  He had told me all about the beauty of the area, but I thought he was exaggerating until I went there myself.

On the first day there, Pierre took me to a castle overlooking the valley where he lives.  The castle was built in the twelfth century, and was absolutely amazing! The views from the top of the mountain were also georgeous, despite the cloudiness, and from up there we could actually see Germany and Switzerland!

 I loved visiting all the small towns in this wine region.  Each had its own personality and features.  This town is where Pierre went to high school.  He told me they would sometimes cut class and climb up to these two castle ruins to hang out and explore.

Pierre's family's kitten, Milka, absolutely loved me, and I loved her! We spent lots of quality time together in their beautiful home.  I loved their home.  They had chickens and geese in their yard, as well as a lot of fruit trees and grapevines.  We ate one of the chickens for dinner, and Pierre's mom cooked lots of delicious, typically Alsacian food.  Yummy!

This is architecture typical of this region.  This defensive wall runs all the way around his village, and many of the homes include this ancient wall as one of their home's exterior walls.

In Colmar, one of the larger towns nearby, there is a ton of stuff celebrating the creator of the Statue of Liberty, who was from there.  It was bizarre to be driving down the roads and see this huge copy of the statue in a totally foreign country!

 Directly before my departure from Alsace, we went on a short hike up to the aforementioned castle ruins.  Pierre told me the story (of questionable veracity) of why there are two castles from the same time period that are so close together.  The lord of this area had two sons, and so they each had their own castle.  They used to play jokes on each other.  They started getting up in the morning and shooting an arrow at their brother's window as a prank.  One day, one of the brothers accidentally killed the other! This started a war between the two brothers.

It was so cool to be up there wandering around.  I could really imagine how the people lived at that time.  It's amazing to consider how the average person's life could be so extremely different just a few centuries ago, which is such a short time in the context of human history.

Before I left, I had to have a pretzel, which is typical of this region.  It was great to see and spend time with an old friend again!

Next, I took a train to Paris, just a few hours away.  After all, how could I go to France and not visit Paris?!? But it was a little strange being in such a stereotypically romantic city alone, but I still had a good time, though Paris wan't my favorite of the cities I've visited.

 My first activity was of course visiting the Eiffel Tower.  I decided to take the stairs, which I really liked.  It was cool to have a panorama of the city, and fortunately I had a map so I spent a long time at the top orienting myself in the city.  I liked the Eiffel Tower as an architectural marvel, but to me it was a little underwhelming because there is so much media hype regarding its beauty (see: every rom-com ever).

 They say Paris is the city of love, and I met the love of my life there.

 I spent a few hours at the Louvre, which I really enjoyed.  Some areas of the museum were waaaay too touristy, and it bothered me a lot how everyone was just taking pictures and not actually enjoying the art.  Thankfully I was there alone so I didn't have to worry about satisfying someone else's desire to see the Mona Lisa or any of the other famous pieces at this museum.

 My favorite thing I saw in the city was the Notre Dame cathedral.  I loved the feeling of this place .  Even though I'm not Christian, I really felt something special here - maybe just the centuries of history.  I also was lucky enough that there was a concert happening in the cathedral on one of the nights that I was visiting.  It was really an incredible experience to hear the sacred renaissance music I've studied in the venue it was designed for.

 Of course I had to enjoy some escargot in Paris!  I was practicing my French during this week, and got good enough to be able to order my food without using any English.

 I loved this cathedral and was living within walking distance, so I spent a lot of time in this garden.

 I loved this banana and Nutella crepe!

One more view of the cathedral, from a bridge covered with locks of love.

 Next, I returned to Germany to take some lessons.  However, the teachers weren't available until right at the end of my trip (thus the whole long stay after the festival), so I went to Frankfurt to visit my sister for a few days.  She had to work (she plays in an orchestra), so I watched some of their rehearsals.

 Their concert that week was at a refurbished monastery, so during their dress rehearsal I wandered around a bit.  This room was the monks' dormitory.

The stage at the monastery.

I then had a quick trip to have three lessons.  My favorite of the places I visited, I liked Essen-Werden the best.  It was a really cute little town, though Essen itself wasn't so beautiful.

Back in Frankfurt, I had one day free to spend with my sister.  We walked around a nearby park, where we saw river otters.
We also went on a bike ride to a really nice Biergarten on the river.  It wasn't very cold but I was by this point very sick from all the travel, but I wasn't going to pass up the chance!  Actually, after the bike ride, I felt so awful, I passed out for a few hours on my sister's couch.

On my last day in Germany, my sister and I spent a lot of time playing backgammon.  She beat me every time! So sad.































Altogether, I had a great summer! It was a lot of travel, and at the end I got really sick, but it was a good experience, and I'm glad I did it.