ILoveMyPiccolo

Since it’s a small city, there’s not that much to do, but plenty to occupy you for at least two or three days. (I was there for one.) I visited the Porta Nigra and the Christmas market. Lots of friendly people.

With my gracious host, I climbed the 509 steps to the top of the Cologne Cathedral, once the tallest building in the world. Exhausting for one as out of shape as me, but totally worth it.

I just got back from my week-long trip to Germany. I absolutely loved it. I travelled by train to five cities (Cologne, Trier, Heidelberg, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt am Main). The people were nice, the sights were beautiful, and the food was delicious. My only complaints are my sore feet from walking everywhere and the bad weather. :) And though my German was pretty rusty, I was able to get through speaking German almost entirely.

I’m leaving for Germany three weeks from today, right after the semester ends. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time planning this trip. I made myself a travel booklet with all the information I need to get around within the five cities I’m visiting and a detailed map showing where I’m going. I’m flying into Cologne and staying with a friend of a friend for a night, and then going by train to Trier, Heidelberg, Nuremberg and Frankfurt. It should be a fantastic adventure.

I’m visiting Germany for the first time this December. I’ll be there for a week and I’ll be visiting Köln, Bonn, Trier, Heidelberg, Nürnberg, and Frankfurt. I think I may have overbooked myself slightly. I just hope I remember enough German to get by without looking too foolish.

Just a nasty tourist trap in the middle of the country. Very gimmicky. For some reason my extended family feels it necessary to hold reunions here. Unless overpriced go-kart rides and miniature golf courses are your thing, keep your distance.

This may be my favorite city in the world. It’s so vibrant and full of life. I took my dad there, and he couldn’t see what I liked about it. He thought it was busy and dirty and full of crime. (Of course, taking him on the public bus system might not have helped his impression too much. And being two white Iowans standing at a bus stop in Harlem at night for 45 minutes might have traumatized him a bit. But everyone was quite friendly, so he has nothing to complain about.) When I walk down the streets of New York, I feel like I’m part of a conglomeration of 8 million people, each with their own goals and hopes and fears, but who together form a cohesive, functioning city. I want to live here someday.

I’ve lived here my entire life. It’s a nice city to grow up in. It’s not large, but it’s not small enough to be painful. For a town in the Midwest, it’s reasonably progressive. The education system is great. But it’s not a very exciting place, and I’m happing to be going to college elsewhere (here and here). Not worth visiting, although if you’re passing through, you might as well stop for an IMAX show—or perhaps you’d prefer to see a giant steel tree.

If they opened the moon up for colonisation during my lifetime, I would so be there.

I’m spending the first semester of my third year of university here. I’ve been here for two weeks and absolutely love it here. It’s a beautiful, vibrant, cosmopolitan city. One of my favourite cities I’ve ever visited, and certainly my favourite city I’ve ever lived in.