Cologne, Germany

Last weekend Patty and I took a day trip to Cologne Germany. Without a doubt, the most impressive building I have ever seen in my entire life is the Cologne Cathedral. It was absolutely enormous! Construction of the cathedral started in 1248, and it took over 600 years to be completed. The cathedral is one of Germany's most recognized buildings, and one of the largest Gothic churches in Northern Europe. At one point, it was even the tallest building in the world, before it was surpassed by the Washington Monument. During WWII, 95% of Cologne was destroyed by bombing. Luckily, most of the cathedral remained intact. The inside of the cathedral was just as grand and ornate as the outside. Unfortunately, most of my pictures from the inside of the church didn't turn out because it was too dark. Overall, we liked Cologne. We couldn't really see it all in one day, so we will definitely have to go back. Enjoy the pictures!

You can see all our pictures from Cologne by clicking the picture below.

Cologne Germany

More about Seefeld, now that we're not so exhausted

Seefeld was an awesome town...it looked like a little Christmas village that you'd set up on your table. Every building had balconies overflowing with flowers, and there was a mountain view behind everything you looked at. While wandering around I found a gravel trail that took me back into the woods, up against some family farms. The people who lived there had put up those feeding stations where you can put in a coin and get a handful of food to feed their animals. I didn't get to feed them because they wouldn't come to the gate, but I saw a bunch of horned deer and there was a sign nailed to a tree with a picture of a moose. I'm assuming it probably said "don't feed the moose"...that's one of those times when you could get into trouble not knowing the language.
Another neat area I found was just off the trail next to a lake. There was a spot in the woods where 5 or 6 people were standing or sitting totally still with their hands out, all facing different directions. I walked over to find out what they were doing, and I realized there were tiny little birds of all different colors eating out of their hands. I found a spot to sit down and take pictures and just watched as a dozen or more people came and went, feeding the birds and squirrels from their hands.
The hotel we stayed at on our trip was really, really beautiful. Even better was that our meals were included in our board, and they were feeding us almost constantly. We got to try some great authentic Austrian food.
Despite the great trip, travelling is exhausting and it's important to have a home to go back to. We've been trying to make the apartment we are in this month as "homey" as possible, but we're looking forward to being in our permanent apartment soon. We're still not totally sure where that will be, though...

Seefeld, Austria

Within a week of arriving in Germany, Patty and I were sent to Seefeld, Austria for a workshop related to the research project I work on. Seefeld is a small ski village in the Austrian Alps. The mountians were amazing, and we were able to take a couple of hikes while we were there.

Photos From Bielefeld, Germany

Our legs just won't walk anymore

We made it through the big move!  Once we finally got here and got into our temporary apartment, it took us 3 or 4 days to get over the jet lag.  We are 6 hours ahead of Florida, and 7 hours ahead of Tennessee.  On top of jet lag, we have probably been getting 20 times the level of exercise we were used to, because we walk everywhere.  Needless to say, we have been pretty tired.
We have not bought bicycles or cell phones yet..still trying to find the right ones.  We have also been hunting for an apartment (we only have this one for one month), and today we found the one we want!  Now we have to wait to find out if we get it.  Over here, the landlord often lives in the same building you are renting a room out of, and multiple families share a laundry room and staircase, etc...For that reason, the landlords will see multiple people who are interested in their property and they will choose carefully which one they want.  We're keeping our fingers crossed!
It has been a struggle trying to make decisions and big purchases in a place where there is such a language barrier, but we have a wonderful woman in the university's international office who is helping us with pretty much everything.  It looks like we will both be taking German language classes at the University starting in October.
On a side note, thank you so much to all of our friends and family who came to our going away party in Lawrenceburg. It meant a lot to us to have a chance to see everyone before we left.  As for the St. Pete folks, we miss you already and we're glad we got to see that side of the family too.
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