Deutschland!

So, since it has been a long time since my last blog I have decided to give a brief summary of my stay in Deutschland. My week there was so much fun! We did so many things and saw a lot of cool places. It was awesome. I stayed with the Majers. They live in a cute little house in a cute little town called Dinslaken. The surrounding area is a very industrious area. This is because of the Rhein River which goes right by all of the towns there. So as you drive through this area you see a lot of industrial factories.

The last full day that we were in Germany with the Majers we went to a Coal Mining Museum. In that area of Germany there used to be about 250 different coal mining companies/mines. Today there are only 3. This is because the cost to mine the coal became too big so now Germany imports a lot of its coal. The coal mining museum was very interesting and educational. The old coal mining factory where the museum is at is HUGE! The mine below the museum is big enough to fit like 3 Washington D.C.s!

Pictures of the Coking area, coal carts, and the elevator shaft.

One day Lisa and Laura took us to a town called Xanten. In Xanten there are Roman ruins and the Roman museum. I actually didn’t realize that the Romans went all the way to Germany. Yes, that is embarrassing to admit but it is true. So it was really cool to see Roman ruins without even having to go to Rome. Joerg joked that since we saw Roman ruins in Xanten there would be no need to go to Rome. Joerg is a funny man.. So in the ruins there is a Roman temple, an old amphitheatre and the old city wall. All were very cool to see.

Temple

Statue

Amphitheatre

Most of the nights that we were there we went to the “Altstadt” parts of the surrounding cities. So we went to Düsseldorf, Duisborg, Dortmund, Dinslaken, and I’m sure there are others but they all seemed to start with a D and I could never keep them straight… But Düsseldorf is like the fashion capital of Germany. All of the people in Düsseldorf were very well dressed with their furs and latest fashion sense. And I walked around in Maddie’s old ski coat… yeah I felt a little out of place and underdressed. There might as well have been the words “FASHION IDIOT” stamped on my forehead. Something that I really like about Europe is that they put the prices of the things shown in the window in the window. So you can be walking down the street window shopping and you can know exactly how much the things in the window cost. The most expensive thing that we saw was a necklace for 125,000 Euro. Things are very expensive in Düsseldorf.

I really like the Altstadt. I like how the streets are made of cobblestone and the shops are cute and the streets are small. I just love that feel of things. It is something that we don’t have in Utah. It is always fun to look around and see when the buildings were built. The only sad part was that it was cold and so we just walked around really quickly and tried not to be too cold. But it was a lot of fun. We saw a cool Lego Giraffe in one of the small towns. And in Duisborg there was a tower that told time by the lights on it. There were way cool buildings and way cool things to see and delicious food! We got crepes with Nutella on them in one place and those were delicious. There was always something good to eat with the Majers. I am very grateful that I was able to spend time with the Majers. They are truly wonderful people. I had a lot of fun and saw a lot things when I was with them. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with them again somewhere in Europe.