Stop two on *the great tour*:

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Limburg, Hessen, Germany
Hoped the train for a full day of travel to the home of Karlo and Barbara Sondermann, people that my parents and grandparents have known for nearly 30 years. To say that we were comfortable and well fed would be an understatement. It was a bit more like my mother, father and sister suddenly spoke German. We were also kept very busy - there’s a lot to see in the 5-metropolis area! Karlo and Barbara took us in to the city of Cologne (Köln) on the 24th of February, an *extremely* cold day. We admired the Dom Cathedral inside and out, then walked around the corner to the Römisch Germanisches Museum, where we learned all about the ancient roman city Cologne developed from. It was a long museum. By the end, we needed to rest our bones, all of us, so we proceeded to "Früh.” This bar is the quintessential Kölner bar, serving Kölsch beer and Halbe Hahn, both of which I ended up consuming (Karlo made me do it!). For those of you that don’t speak German, Halbe Hahn means “a half rooster.” No, that’s not what comes from the kitchen, it’s a sort of sick joke, actually. What really comes is a single roll of bread, a little pat of butter and a slice of medium-aged gouda. I’ll give the Kölnern this: they like their puckery tastes. I tried it, I think I’ll let them keep it. My palate is obviously not refined… That night we went out to dinner with the Sondermann’s older daughter, Hannah, and her husband Achim in the University area of Cologne, where Hannah goes to school.
Day two (the 25th) found the fab 4 of us (Karlo, Barbara, Melissa, me) on a guided tour of the town of Limburg. It was really …downright entertaining, to tell the truth (and pretty durn cold). The city has an amazing number of its original half-timbered houses intact, which tended to be designed with tall ceilings on the ground floor, referred to as “Halle,” and the cathedral was a site to behold, in its transitional Romanesque-to-Gothic style.
That afternoon we left Barbara back home, and the 3 of us went to Frankfurt, also a short jaunt in the car, to visit the museums. We ended up at the German Architecture Museum, surprise, to see their permanent exhibition called “Architecture: from Hut to Skyscraper” (pretty self explanatory), and we happened upon their temporary exhibit of what the future of architecture might hold, as put together by a student group associated with the design school in Stuttgart. I appreciated it a lot, especially because it’s interesting to see how other students, completely out of the realm of the influences that I (and my fellow classmates at school) have received, still come up with many similar ideas.

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Photos

Inside the Dom
It's big and intimidating inside, too. And dark. And did I mention it was cold...?

Cologne 'Dom' Cathedral Entrance
It's pretty intimidating, huh? Especially with the diffused light from the cloud and... excuse me, the architect in me is poking her head out.

We went shopping.
I was *so* good, I only bought stuff I needed, I was so proud of my will power...

Dinner in Cologne
Me, Achim, Hannah, Karlo, Barbara (photo cred to Melissa)

Altstadt Limburg
A few of the half-timber houses in Limburg's old city center

Wattle and Daub
The stuff that goes between the timbers on half-timber houses... whatever they found laying around, it looks like!

Limburg Cathedral
I guess thay weren't as into scaring people into religion as in Cologne?

Outside the Architecture Museum
The view across the river to downtown

Frankfurt's "Altstadt"
All those buildings are reconstructions because the originals were destroyed in WWII. They're pretty convincing, even up close.

The Whole Limburg Family
Melissa, Rachel, Karlo, Barbara, Theresa, her boyfriend (I forgot his name!!!) in the Sondermann house