A Visit from Home!

   Hi everyone, I’m finally working on getting caught up with my blog, so here’s what I did with the rest of spring break.

   Just a day after I got back from Greece, my grandparents came to visit me all the way from Texas. After a bunch of delays and some cancellations, they finally made it to Germany and I met them at the airport. The first day they were here I just showed them around the city and then went with them to the hotel. It was so nice to see them after so long, and there was so much to talk about and to catch up on. How’s everyone doing back home? What’s changed a lot since I’ve been gone? Have my siblings destroyed my room? These are just a few of the things that we talked about.

   The next day the real sightseeing began, of course with the cathedral. After seeing the main attraction we saw some of Cologne’s other sights, such as the Hohenzollern Bridge, the Cathedral of Great St. Martin, and the Schildergasse. While it was nice to be out and about, it was much nicer just to spend time with them, showing them my city. After seeing all the main tourist attractions, we spent the day afterwards seeing some other parts of the city, such as the Rheinpark on the other side of the river and the Wallraf-Richartz art museum. We also rode the gondola across the river, with a great view of the city.

   Saturday I wasn’t able to make it over to their hotel, or into the city at all actually, due to some really big demonstrations and protests. The AfD, a very controversial far-right party in Germany, was holding a conference in Köln and because of this there were going to be massive protests throughout the city. Some people were supporting the party, but a much larger majority was protesting their presence in the political system of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Despite the entire city being shut down, my grandparents were able to take the metro over to my house and together with my host parents we had a nice afternoon eating cake and drinking coffee, or Kaffee und Kuchen in German.

   At this point we had already seen a lot of Köln, so we headed into Bonn Sunday morning, after going to mass in the cathedral. Bonn is just an hour south of Cologne, so it’s not too impractical to visit. After walking around the city a bit and seeing the cathedral, university, and Rathaus (town hall) in Bonn, we visited the Beethoven Museum, in the house where Beethoven was born and raised. After that we stopped for some lunch and moved on to the botanical gardens, which were actually surprisingly nice. They were next to an old mansion, and had plenty of greenhouses, some which even reminded me of Texas.

   And before I knew it it was Monday, the last day my grandparents were in Germany. We made the most of the day by going to Drachenfels, where we took the historic cog railway up the hill to the castle ruins atop. Next we visited the palace halfway up, which was also really nice. After spending most of the day there, we came back to Köln. I went back home to help my host family prepare dinner, as my grandparents were coming over for dinner that night. We had a very German dinner of white asparagus (which is only in season for 2 months, very exclusive), potatoes, and some wurst. After dinner we talked for quite a bit, before I finally walked with my grandparents to the train station, said goodbye, and then walked back home. It was sad saying goodbye again after such a short time, but I loved the entire visit, and I was just looking forward to seeing them when I get back.

                   

     

   And that’s finally it for Spring vacation; I’ll hopefully be able to catch up more quickly from here, so keep a look out for further posts! Bis Später!