This past week has been crazy. We haven't stopped since we left Budapest, it's been a whirlwind of travel! Since my last post I've been to Vienna, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Bacharach, Trier, and now, Paris. Sunday we leave for Angers, and it's back to classes. There has been no stopping!
and now I will attempt to describe these past few days:
Vienna
We went to the open market to eat when we first arrived, and then wandered about. The next day, we went to the Spanish riding school and saw the horse performance. Then we went to Shonbrunn Palace (in the pouring rain, and I had forgotten my coat). I had seen it before, so I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it was absolutely amazing. We went to a strudel-making demonstration first, and then since the rain had stopped we walked the palace grounds. We ran through a hedge maze, played on the playground, and then walked up a hill to the Gloriette. Then, we actually went inside and did the standard tour of the palace. That night we ate at an open-air restaurant, that is, a restaurant with a retractable roof and vines for a ceiling.
Salzburg
If you are ever in the Salzburg area, go on a salt mine tour. It was awesome! I'd also been to a salt mine before, but in Poland, so it was a very different experience. The one we just went to in Salzburg had a train thing to take you into the mine, wooden slides to take you to different levels of the mine, an underground salt lake, and allowed us to go to Germany underground! You also get to (well, have to) wear white coveralls down in the mine.
The city itself is pretty quiet, but it was nice. Between Salzburg and Rothenburg, we stopped at Dachau.
Rothenburg
This is a gorgeous city! We stayed at the bottom of the hill of the town, in a hotel made out of a restored mill. It's a preserved medieval town, and it is very nice, if also pretty quit. We took the "night watchman" tour in the evening, which was extremely touristy, but interesting. The next day we went to the medieval torture museum, which was surprisingly fascinating! For example, we saw a drunk tank, chastity belts, and devices for dunking witches.
Bacharach
In Bacharach we stayed in a hostel on a hill that was once a castle, and took a boat tour. The next day was a holiday in Germany, so when we got on the train to leave the city, it was packed to bursting with vacationing Germans and their bikes.
Trier
Trier is a city in Germany near France, and is filled with Roman ruins. We mostly walked around and saw sights- churches, ruins, etc. There really just isn't enough time to get much more done when you're only in a city for a day! I did get a sketch in, which was nice.
Paris
And here I am right now, in Paris. Perhaps it's the past week of hectic travel, or the fact that I've already been to Paris, but I don't see all of the touristy things as totally necessary in Paris. Today, we knocked out a lot after our train arrived in the afternoon (and then we took our luggage on the metro to our hotel.....). We went to Notre Dame, then to the Louvre to hit a few specific pieces- Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, The Raft of Medusa, Hamurabi's code, to name a few. I wish we could have spent more time, but the group just wanted to hit the highlights, and I'm a bit too tired from travel today to enjoy the Louvre like I should. I was glad to see more pieces from my art history classes, though!
Then we went to the Eiffel Tower (which is right by our hotel), sat in the park for a while, and then walked up to the 2nd level (about 400 feet up, or, according to the internet, 719 steps).
It's been a long day, a long week, a long summer so far. I may only have two weeks left in this particular trip, but I'm not even halfway to the end yet! It's gonna be a whirlwind.
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