Week 1
After the long confusion with my visa, my German experience finally started off with a series of connecting flights/trains/buses – Chennai to Mumbai, Mumbai to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Stuttgart, Stuttgart Airport to Reutlingen Station, Reutlingen Station to Tübingen Main Station, and Tübingen Main Station to Fichtenweg by bus. Fichtenweg is where I stay and in total it took about 28 hours from my house in Chennai to my house in Germany, but the time difference between these two places is just 3 ½ hours during summer time (just an interesting analysis)
Anyways, the moment I landed at Frankfurt I realised that so many people speak only German (more than I had expected) and the immigration representatives at the airport knew only German. But nevertheless, Frankfurt airport is an airport to see. It has unbelievable number of terminals and its soo huge. It has shops, bars, restaurants, supermarket, cars on display (even an F1 car) and everything else you can imagine. It is a city by itself and everything is so systemised at the airport (similar to the systemised German way of working). The only thing I did not like about Frankfurt was that I was made to pay for excess baggage for my flight to Stuttgart (well…. after all they have a system and rule for everything and it cannot be bended).
The moment I came out of the Stuttgart Airport I noticed 5 AIESEC members with a huge AIESEC banner waiting for me. I could not have asked for a better welcome and a better reception that followed my arrival. They were so friendly and made me feel at home from the moment I landed. The next day I did go to work, but my company was nice enough to tell me take rest until the next Monday (also because all of them were busy that week with a conference). So, AIESEC members then helped me to finish my bank formalities, registration formalities (to get my tax card), to get a sim card, to get registered for the internet connection (which I should get in ten days) and also showed me around the city.
Waldhäuser Ost or W.H.O. is in Fichtenweg and is the student dormitory where I stay. It might be a student dormitory but has excellent infrastructure. There are lots of buildings (maybe 15 such buildings) with 12 – 16 floors in each building. Each floor is divided into two parts and has 6-8 rooms in each part. The kitchen/showers/toilets are sharing, but the rooms are for individual people. There is a laundry (washing machine/dryer which runs with coins) in the basement of each building. There are 2 banks, 2 supermarkets, a saloon, a restaurant, a bar and a bakery right next to all these dormitories which means that I can get everything out here. All these facilities are available for students also because Fichtenweg is almost at the outskirt of the town (up the hill). Right now there are not many people around in W.H.O. as the university has not yet started (and will start in 2nd week of October).
W.H.O. has of course already taught me a few things – like cooking “ready to eat” food, washing my own crockery, shopping for food/essential items, doing my own laundry, keeping my house clean and living independently. I am sure I am going to learn a lot of other things also. Shall keep you posted on that.
I was surprised to find out that the university town of Tübingen which has only 85,000 people has 2 Indian restaurants and about 30 Indians who live out here. The food in the Indian restaurant sure is expensive, but does taste Indian ;) Lot of students out here do like Indian music and my colleague in the company was in India (Baroda) for 7 months on an AIESEC internship. My company has been taken over by Tata. The mom of an AIESEC member in Tübingen is from Chennai. There is this huge Indian connection here.
There are a few interesting things that I noticed during my first few days in Germany. They have a unique way of disposing off garbage. They divide them into four kinds – glass, paper and recyclable stuff, organic stuff and plastic (& other non recyclable materials). Recyclable bottles are actually bought back from customers by supermarkets so nobody throws away those bottles randomly. The bus/train network in Germany is also remarkable and it is easy for anyone to understand it very fast, also because the trains/buses are always on time. By having a look at the brochure of the bus and the train’s one can easily plan a holiday or a trip across town. It is easy to find space in the bus and also on the train.
My first weekend ended with attending an AIESEC Conference for new members of AIESEC Mannheim (near Heidelberg). It was great to be back to an AIESEC conference and to witness conference in another country. I and another trainee from Estonia went for sightseeing around the conference venue on Saturday. We started off by going to an old castle near Eberbach (near Heidelberg) post which we saw a few beautiful churches. After that we went to the famous open house museum in Gottersodrf (near Frankfurt) called the Odenwälder Freilandmusem. Here I was able to witness the old style houses of Germany (from the mid 1900’s) as they have actually replicas of houses that were built in mid 1900’s. Then I had lunch at the house of an AIESEC member and got to see a German house and eat typical German lunch. Post the delicious lunch I and the Estonian joined the AIESEC members to one of the most famous Stalactite Caves in this part of the world in Eberstadter. They have stalactite’s which are more than a meter in diameter and several meters high and these formations are several hundreds of thousands of years old. Some of these structures resemble a wedding cake, elephant’s trunk, Organ, Lady’s face etc and it was quite interesting. We did have the party on Friday/Saturday night at the AIESEC conference which was fun as well. After the conference another alumni of AIESEC drove us down to the Heilbronn Station via the Autobahn in his car. I finally reached back home a little exhausted and having spent an amazing first weekend in Germany.
The above are the things that I did and noticed during the first few days of my internship. I just have another 15 weeks to go in Germany.
AIESEC Specific:
I did manage to catch up with Chidu at the Frankfurt Airport as he works close by. He was just back that weekend from Paris after having a gala time with Mootha Bhai.
Anyways I did notice a few things during the AIESEC Newies Conference. Firstly, a startling thing was that no one form the EB was there for the opening plenary and the first night party. There were 6 facilitators (all alumni or members of other LC’s) and a chair who presided over the opening plenary – the LCP had some prior commitment and 2 EB members were going to come on Saturday (the lack of motivation amongst current members was quite visible because of this). But, even for a 2 night conference the 6 facilitators met up one day earlier to prepare as they give a lot of importance to the delivery and content of the conference for the new members. Germany has a National Trainers Team which consists of alumni/members and information about all conferences goes to them and they can apply as facilitators and it’s quite common out here that members from other LC’s facilitate conferences for an LC. They actually visibly live the value “Acting Sustainably” – because the AIESEC members (old and new) along with the OC cleaned up the entire venue before leaving and they also washed the utensils etc. The OC out here actually does the cooking for all the members (also because there are no maids out here ;) and most Germans are used to cooking)
Week 2
Tata Interactive Systems GmbH – the company where I work and the company that became part of the Tata group only in January is an amazing place to work at (as of now ;)). TOPSIM Business Games and Simulations have been famous in Germany from 1982 and Tata Interactive Systems took over TOPSIM because it has become the market leader for computer/web based business simulation games in the Germany speaking part of Europe. The Simulations they make are a lot like the Strategy games one can find in the market, only thing these are educational in nature and companies like Infenion Technologies, Metro Group, Daimler Chrysler, Deutsche Telecom are some of their biggest clients apart from universities/training institutes. These companies pay more than 16,000 Euros just for buying one of the readymade modules. The number of employees in Tübingen is just 12 and it’s a small family. Most of them keep travelling to run the simulations or to assist companies in running the simulations.
My welcome to the company was really nice and I was received by Nina (the one who had done her AIESEC internship in India for 7 months) who showed me around the office and explained what Tata Interactive Systems GmbH in Tübingen really does. I got a quick tour of the office and was immediately given work (which was good). I have to work on one of their Simulations which is called Change Management which helps show change managers and senior executives, the possibilities of how to create awareness, how to motivate and how to convince personnel for change process in a company/organisation. It is a really interesting module and is fairly new and is one of the only modules related to the HR, but in case their simulations are one of the most innovative ways of training people.
My German classes are going to start on 4th of October and have to go there for 5 weeks every week day from 8 am to 12pm and then go to work. The company is funding half of the course and AIESEC is funding a part of it – the company wants me to brush up on my German as fast as possible so that I can be more productive out here.
It has started raining here already and is going to get really cold in the coming weeks and will also snow by Christmas time – this is going to be an interesting experience.
2
I shall start the second part of experience with my work place. For those of you who are not yet clear on what my company does, I am attaching our brochure which highlights certain customized simulations that were made. It is a creative team out here and they are always open to ideas and suggestions. Its quite amazing as to how easily they are willing to adapt to new things and new ideas. Most of them are trainers and handle the simulations. They also have a unique lunch system and every few days one person pays for everyone and they note down who paid. In the long run it evens out, but somehow you feel you don’t spend any money on lunch. We also do not have any dress code and they wear formals only when meeting a client or while training.
Till now, I have not yet mentioned about the nightlife in Tübingen, but there are lots of small clubs and pubs. I did check out a few of them and there are nice place where one can just sit and talk. Of course there are parties in the university (yeah… inside the university) and the student dormitory where I live, which have a dance floor as well. Of course alcohol is served here, even in small cafes, but music is different in the pubs and cafes.
The funny thing is that all small towns in Germany (like the one I am in) most of the shops close by 7pm and some shops by 8pm and all of them are closed on Sundays. This means that it is so difficult to get the shopping done. Only shops in the Main Station are open on Sundays. Moreover most of them do not accept international debit/credit cards and accept only German Cards – this problem is only in small towns. You can find a lot of vending machines for cigarettes, sim card recharge coupons, soft drinks, snacks and chocolates etc. because shops close so early.
Just a small correction from my last email. There are 3 Indian restaurants and not two. Me and 10 other AIESEC members went to one of those places for dinner and it was quite a delightful experience to have some more home food. Of course its not very spicy as Europeans don’t like too much SPICE…
On my second weekend I travelled again and went to the famous Oktober Fest in Munich. I did meet up with another AIESEC trainee from Chennai, Rifaye who is currently with Siemens now. We spent the evening together. The first thing one notices, is that there are LOTS of people. Maybe more people than one can find in Sowcarpet. This place was much cleaner, but was very crowded and lot of Europeans dressed in the traditional German dress (I hope you saw those pictures). There are lots of rides which are quite insane and better than the ones you find in India. I did upload pictures of 2 rides I tried out. There were worse rides, but I dint try them out (more about a deadly ride in the 4th week). The main purpose of this festival is for people to drink and you can see people drinking everywhere and there are Beer Gardens (open space where there are tables and people drink) and tents. These tents are where a lot of live bands play and people dance on the tables and have fun. I did not have the opportunity of going inside the tents as seats need to be booked in advance or one needs to come early. I hope my pictures (which also showed the inside of the tents) explained what I am talking about as it cannot be expressed with words.
Week 3
The second day of the third week was a holiday as it was the Unification Day. So, I went sightseeing around Tübingen as I had not got the time earlier. They have a beautiful castle (like most German towns) and a museum in the castle. The castle is now part of the University and classes take place there. They do have some beautiful white casts or figures and I did upload a few pictures from there. I saw their market place, church and other small sights. Then I happen to land at the City Museum which to my luck had a computer museum. There I got to see original models of the first few PC’s ever made in the world, including the Apple 1, Apple Lisa, Apple Macintosh (the first MAC and one of the first PC to have a mouse) and Apple 2C. I also saw some of the initial models of IBM over there. After reading so much about Steve Jobs it was a delight to get to see the first computers that he built along with Steve Woz. Apart from that, the city museum captures the history of Tübingen and displays information about its culture and art.
The middle of the third week marked the beginning of my German classes, which meant I had to get up before 7 to reach my class on time. From the first day itself my professor was teaching in German (meaning no English Translation). First few days were difficult, but then al of us started to understand him. My class is quite global, in the sense that there are people from Belarus, Turkey, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Palestine, Korea, China, Morocco, Serbia and of course another Indian and my German professor. Not all of us speak English and we have to use sign language or German to communicate. We do get homework everyday, but I usually do it during my bus ride to the language school.
Another interested fact about the buses and trains in German. One can drink alcohol in the bus or train. One can take the bicycle in train, baby trolleys in the bus and train and of course even dogs. I guess anything that is portable can be carried in the buses and trains.
On my third weekend, I went down to Stuttgart, as I had heard so much about the Mercedes Benz Museum. So I reached there and went to the museum and I should say that it is one of the best museums I have ever seen in my life. See their site at www.museum-mercedes-benz.com and look at my pictures to know what I am talking about. The museum building itself is a piece of art and they have an audio guide which helps you to know more information about each gallery and specific cars. I got to see some of landmark cars of Mercedes including the 300SL Gullwings of 1952 which inspired the doors for the Mercedes SLR (which also I got to see there). Mercedes SLR is a beautiful sports car which has certain aspects of F1 technology and power. At the museum I got to see the older Mercedes which is still in working condition, the first motorbike, first automobile, and of course new cars like Maybach (which is part of the Daimler Chrysler family) and CLK (in which I got to take a picture in the drivers seat). After the Benz experience and some Benz memorabilia shopping, I proceeded to the famous Modern Art gallery in Stuttgart which I did not find very impressive. Then I had a quick tour of the Wasen Festival which is similar to the Oktober Fest, but is much smaller. The final sight of Stuttgart I had was the Television Tower by night. Its such a beautiful view from the top and one can sit and have some hot chocolate on the top floor and enjoy the view.
That night I slept over the trainee flat in Stuttgart. Some of the trainees and a few AIESEC members were going to Europa Park the next day and invited me along. There was Ania from Poland, Ezgi from turkey, lucas from aiesec and three other common friends of there. So I spent my entire Sunday over there and I must say that it is one amazing theme park. It actually has themes of countries and in each division of the park you can find traditional stuff from those countries (like in Switzerland portion of the park you can find lots of chocolates) and even the rides are built around the theme of different countries. As we reached the parking lot of the theme park we could see an architectural wonder known as the Silver Star. It is one of the tallest rollercoaster in the world and is about 239 feet or 73 meters high (the highest in the world is about 125meters high). It touches a maximum speed of 130 km/hr and lasts only for about 75 seconds, but that 75 seconds can give you such a thrill. The long and slow climb to its first fall is the most frightening and they give you time so that you get really really tensed and then send you plummeting down at 130km/hr from 125 meters. See my pictures in Ringo to see how big this ride was. There were lots of other interesting rides – like there is one ride which is inside a building and is completely dark. It’s basically a mini rollercoaster in the dark and its quite fascinating because you cannot see where you are going. There was another ride which goes around 4-5 buildings. All these rides have been made with such creativity and each ride is unique and different. On the way back I also got to see the amazing navigation system in one of the cars. It can show live updates of where traffic is and show alternative paths to reach on time. By the end of this week, I was so exhausted and dint want to travel for sometime.
Week 4
The 4th week was quite peaceful and during the week I went only to one of the local chapter meetings of AIESEC and then to a small club where they actually played Hindi music, red hot chilli peppers and other recognisable bands. I did find out that a lot of Germans like English music, because German music is not so great (apart from the recent bands which everyone likes). Even on the radio a lot of English music is played and that’s one of the few things that is common in India and German.
During the weekend I was in Tübingen and went for the Boat Ride at the Neckar River which was a nice and relaxing experience. I also check out the Toy and car Museum which is present in Tübingen. They had some interesting things on display, and they had some neat toy houses and miniature cars and trains.
Week 5
The 5th week was also quite peaceful with me just walking around the market place during the weekend. In fact I have been walking so much that I will lose a lot of weight by the time I reach back to Chennai. At the market place there was a live band playing by the name KGB and the band was apparently quite famous in Germany during the 80’s. This weekend happened to be Diwali and I went for an Indian dinner with a few AIESEC members and had a noiseless Diwali. On Sunday, a Chinese exchange student who is part of AIESEC cooked dinner for a few of us and I had sushi and few other typical Chinese dishes.
This week started with me going for a Karaoke Night at one of the clubs along with Chris (a good friend of my trainee buddy – Carmen). We sure had a lot of fun singing Summer of 69 in front of about 75 people at the club. Its was quite interesting to see so many people coming up to sing and they had about 1000 songs to choose from. They would display the lyrics on the screen and provide the guests with the microphone to enable a true karaoke environment. We should open such a place in Chennai too.
Now, I am looking forward to the 9 day Europe tour along with my parents and bro. I shall keep you updated.
3
Week 6 & 7
So, I started my journey from Tuebingen to Frankfurt (which is about 240 kilometres) which took me a little more than 2 hours (Chennai to Bangalore is only about 300 kilometres, which takes about 5 hours by train) by the fast train. I landed there and met my parents and brother at the hotel next to the main station. We had a quick dinner, chatted for a few hours and try to get a quick nap as our flight was early in the morning. Earlier in the evening Suneil (my bro) had taken my parents for a play which was apparently not too good and my parents were even more tired.
In Europe, for budget airlines they have a separate airport which is a little far away. We were travelling by Ryan Air which is one of Europe’s largest low cost airlines (which operates in 22 countries) and it takes about 2 hours from Frankfurt main station to the Frankfurt Hahn Airport (airport for budget airlines) and we had to travel from 3am to 5am in the bus to get there in time for our flight at 7am. Even the airport is called Frankfurt Hahn; it is 130 kilometres from Frankfurt. It was not a very good start for the trip, but it was quite cheap and we arrived at freezing Oslo early in the morning. Even in Oslo it was an airport for the budget airlines and we had to travel for almost 1½ hours to reach the main city.
Once we reached the main city, we heard the hotel is not far away and decided to walk to the hotel. But as we started walking we started to realize that to them walking a few kilometres is no big deal and a 20 minute walk when its 5 degrees cold is normal. But it took us some time to find the hotel, but we also got to see the main market and palace at Oslo as our hotel was close to it. We also had breakfast on the way.
We quickly freshened up at the hotel and then started walking around the main market of Oslo. We found a nice place to have lunch and then proceeded to the world famous - Nobel Peace Center. At the center, we got to know more about the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and their work, and also about Alfred Nobel. There were exhibits that highlighted real problems related to war, peace and conflict resolution. There was something called the Field which was a unique digital gallery about every Nobel Peace Prize laureates and was an interesting way to showcase them. There were also films, exhibitions, electronic wall papers, documentaries about the laureates and the magic book about Alfred Nobel. We also found out that, only the Nobel Prize for Peace alone is awarded in Oslo whereas all other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm (more about this a little later).
We spent the rest of our evening trying to book our tickets for the next 2 days for a trip known as “Norway in a Nutshell”. Once we booked the tickets, we just had a quick walk by the harbor and got back to our hotel as it was getting really cold. The next morning we got up early to go for our tour of Norway in a Nutshell which was a unique tour which took us through some of the most beautiful scenery in Norway's fjords. The trip took us by train, bus and by boat and was pretty much traveling the whole day and looking at the beautiful natural sights of Norway. Fjords are nothing but long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes. The Norwegian Fjords are now on UNESCOs World Heritage List.
One important part of tour was the Bergen Railway, which happens to be Northern Europe's highest railway (as in steepest). This journey from Oslo to Bergen is also recognized to be one of the 20 best railway experiences in the world in 1999. We also traveled on the Flam Railway, which is a 20km-long train journey from the mountain station of Myrdal and down to Flam deep in the fjord and takes around 55 minutes. On the journey we had views of some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in Norway with an ever-changing panorama of tall mountains and thundering waterfalls. Along the Flam Railway the train moves slowly or stops at the best views. We did take out some photos at the waterfall where it was snowing (we sure were excited to see so much snow, but not for long).
We had lunch at the city, Flam, before continuing your journey by boat. The journey goes out from Aurlandsfjord and into the Naeroyfjord, the narrowest fjord in Europe. Surrounded by mighty mountains of up to 1,800 metres high, this branch of the Sognefjord is amazingly beautiful. Then finally we took a boat to reach Bergen where we spent our night. It’s hard to explain this beautiful one day journey, but you can see the video at http://www.fjord-tours.com/video.asp?tur=nin
Bergen turned out to be quite a beautiful city. We went to the aquarium at Bergen and were able to see a penguin’s show, seals show and a large number of fishes and water mammals. We also went up the mountain near Bergen, from where we had an aerial view of the city. We went up by a train which goes on a slope and this type of railways is known as funicular railways which one can see in lots of places all across Europe. It runs on an advanced version of the pulley and motorized brakes.
In the evening we boarded our train back to Oslo, to take our flight to Stockholm. In Oslo, just before we left it was snowing quite badly and was the first snow of the season for them. We had only a few hours left before the flight so we crashed for a few hours at Oslo airport itself.
Early next day morning we landed in Stockholm and checked into our hotel. We took a quick nap after reaching the hotel. When we got up it had snowing a little bit and we went for our tour of the Stockholm City Hall which is famous for its Nobel festivities and every year on 10th of December. The city hall also happens to be one of the oldest buildings in Sweden. The parliament still meets up in the City Hall, twice a month.
After having a look at the city hall, we went for a boat ride (after all Stockholm is built on 14 islands) and had a beautiful view of Stockholm. After that we grabbed lunch and then searched for the Nobel Museum. It took us some time to search for it, also because it is impossible to walk for too long when it’s cold. Mom was finding it quite difficult to cope up considering we had a long trip in Norway.
Then we finally reached the Noble Museum where we saw the Sanskrit mathematics books and bicycle of Amartya Sen, the slate of Rabindranath Tagore. It is great to see the Indian influence everywhere. It was also nice to watch the videos on a few Nobel Prize winners (they had videos on each one of them, but we dint have time to watch all of them).
After that we headed back to the hotel at it had started snowing and was awfully cold. The next day also it was quite cold and we dint get to see too many placed. We did manage to go to the museum of natural history (out of the 75 odd museums that Stockholm has). The Swedish Museum of Natural History houses scientifically important biological and geological collections comprising millions of specimens, making it one of the largest natural history collections in the world. The collections form the basis for the research that is being conducted at the different research departments out there. The highlight out there was the IMAX movies and we saw the one on Greece. The documentary showed the beautiful Greek islands and it was a modern-day journey through time and place. It showed a lot about the the island of Santorini. It told about how it was formed and how the island´s volcanic eruption, was one of the biggest explosions in Earth´s history. The story was about a team of archeologists piecing together the puzzles of ancient history to learn how the field of archeology has progressed. We did learn about the Golden Age of Greece in true IMAX style.
The last thing that we managed to see in stockholm (before we freezed) was the Kaknäs Tower. It was built in the 1960s as a radio and television tower and is 155m/510ft high. It is the tallest structure in Scandinavia at a height of 128m/420ft they have an open viewing platform, with a restaurants (where we had a nice lunch). The view of the city is usually nice from there, but it was snowing and we were not able to see too much. The ride back from the tower to the hotel was quite bad and there was a traffic jam. It was the first few days of snow for the season and nobody was prepared for it (they have to change to winter tyres when it starts snowing). It got dark even before 4pm on that day. We also did have an interesting incident with a pakistani taxi driver (ask me about it later ;))
With that we finished our trip of Scandinavia. The next day was full of travel. We went from Stockholm to Frankfurt Hahn. From the airport we got to the main city of Frankfurt. I had my flight ticket from Stuttgart and my parents and brother had their flight ticket from frankfurt. So we split ip and I went to Stuttgart airport and from there took a flight to beautiful Vienna. After searching a lot for the hotel, I finally reached the place in the night (having done nothing the whole day, except travel.)
The next day morning we got up and we went to the famous Demel Cake Shop. It was the official backery of the emperor in earlier times. We did have breakfast there and bought some delicious chocolate. As we finished our breakfast and came out to the market place, it started snowing. Then we headed to the Anker Clock which is a typical tourist. It strikes at 12 and has a procession of life-size figures. Do check out pictures on Ringo to see the clock. Close by the clock was also the St. Stephen's Cathedral which was quite a beautiful and probably one of the biggest cathedrals in the region. We did witness a holy mass take place out there.
The last thing we saw on that day (after having lunch) was the Hofburg Imperial Palace at Vienna. The museum of the palace was one at which we spent the most time, because it was never ending. It took us almost 4 hours to complete walking through the museum. The palace boasts of various architectural styles, from gothic to art nouveau. Nowadays this enormous complex is home to the National Library, Imperial Treasury and the Spanish Riding School (about which I shall talk after 2 paragraphs). Today, the Imperial Palace houses the office of the President of Austria. So, let me explain what we saw in the 4 hours. There were three different parts to it. The first part was the Imperial Silver Collection. Here we saw exhibits of the dining service and silverware of the Habsburg dynast. The centerpieces and glassware shine as much today as they did in the old days at the Imperial Palace. All the pictures in which you can see a lot of gold and silver were shot here. The second part was the Sisi Museum. This museum compared the myth and the facts about the beautiful and celebrated Empress Elisabeth (Sisi). Among the things we saw were numerous personal objects once owned by Elisabeth as well as the most famous portraits of the empress. The third and final part was the Imperial Apartments. It is the actual former private apartments of the imperial family in the Imperial Palace where Emperor Franz Joseph and his Elisabeth lived. We saw the rooms for the officers of the imperial household, the Conference Room, the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the living room and bedroom of the empress, numerous salons and an old-fashioned bathroom (I wonder why they would want to show us that).
After this, we headed back to the hotel after dinner. As usual, it was freezing cold and was snowing on and off. In the evening, we went to an orchestra performance, as the city is known for Mozart. We went for the show of an orchestra by the name Schönbrunn Palace Orchestra (Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the emperors earlier). Ofcourse the orchestra has no relation to the palace. They played music from Mozart and Johann Strauss. It was a nice experience, but towards the end it did get a little boring (it was for more than 2 hours).
The next day at Vienna started with a tour known as the Vienna Woods. The Wienerwald (or Vienna woods) is a low, wooded section of the Alps and we had a half-day excursion. Starting at the Roman City of Baden with its thermal springs we passed the valley Helenental and went to the former Mayerling hunting lodge. Prince Rudolph (son of Emperor Franz Joseph) committed suicide there in 1889. After that we went to a monastery (known as the Cisterican Abbey of Heiligenkreuz) which was quite beautiful (you can find some nice pictures from here). Finally we went to the Seegrotte Hinterbrühl, where we went on a boat-ride on the largest subterranean lake in Europe. Some props for the movie "Three Musketeers" were taken from here. All in all it was not a very interesting excursion, and was a more a means for people to make money for tourists (as there were souvenir shops in all the three places J).
After the excursion we got back to the city and went to the Spanish Riding School . It is the only institution in the world where the classic equestrian skills has been preserved and is still practiced in its original form. They have one of the most beautiful riding halls in the world. We were not able to attend the show in the morning, but had a nice tour around the school and were able to see the magnificent horses which are trained for so many years (some of them for over 10 years). Finally the 2 nd day also came to an end with us finding an Indian restaurant for dinner. Vienna sure is a cultural city with some really beautiful preserved buildings, palaces and the flavour of Mozart.
The next day we left Vienna to head back to Stuttgart to have a glimpse at the Mercedes Benz Museum (which I had already seen and already explained in my previous emails.). Once we finished with the mercedes benz museum, we headed to the tower in Stuttgart where we had a nice coffee. Then it was time to say goodbye as the long and expensive holiday had come to an end. My brother and parents continued to go to Frankfurt (and then a day trip to Heidelberg in germany) whereas I headed back to Tuebingen. So we managed to see 4 countries in 9 days and it was quite an experience.
The next weekend, I went to an AIESEC Conference for new members form Stuttgart and Tuebingen. I was the chair for the conference and has to basically ensure everything runs on time and everybody has fun. It was quite nice to see the different style of facilitation and conference preparation than it is out here in India. I am keeping this short as some non aiesec members also read this J But one interesting thing to note was that a lot of people knew about India and had some kind of information. Some has been to India or had brothers/sisters who had been to India and this Indian connection is very easy to find in Europe.
During the week, I also managed to cook lunch for my colleagues at work (with the ITC ready-to-eat food that my parents had got). So I cooked spaghetti with the help of my colleague, made the ready-to-eat food, got some bread and dessert and viola lunch was ready. They did like the combination of Italian and Indian food. It was the first time I had cooked for anyone and it does require time/patience to cook.
The weekend after that (my 9th weekend in Germany) I headed off to Düsseldorf and Cologne. I reached Düsseldorf on Saturday morning and met up with stefanie (who was practically my tour guide for the next two days.). I quicky checked in into an hotel and we started out sightseeing and walking spree. We went to the centre of the city and had lunch. Then we saw an interesting church known as the St. Lambert's Church. It is an interesting church because the roof of this church is crooked. Apparently there are lots of stories behind why it is crooked. The church is right at one of the most beautiful harbours I saw in Europe. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place with some beautiful bridges and cruises.
Then we went to the TV tower (which is also near the harbor) and the views was quite spectacular. It was a clear day and the tower has windows that are slanted at such an angle that you can see all the way down to the very base of the tower. Another feature of the tower is the digital clock along the shaft of the tower. It supposedly is the largest digital clock in the world and the time is displayed by lit and blinking lamps at the shaft of the tower. The burning lights are divided into 3 levels. The upper level shows the hours. The middle one shows the minutes whereas one lamp stands for 10 minutes each in the upper part and for 1 minute in the lower part of this same level. The lowest level counts the seconds in the same way as it works for the minutes. It does sound a little complicated, but when you see the tower its easy to understand (after having read my explanation).
We headed back to take a short break and take some rest. We started out again in the evening to be joined by one of stefi's friends and we had some dinner together and had the traditional dusseldorf drink together. As usual, we bumped into Indians (like you always do in Europe, as there are soooo many of them around). We did see the tower and harbor in the night before we headed back.
Next day morning we got up and left for cologne (which is just 30 minutes away from Düsseldorf). The minute one gets outside the main station, the Cologne Dome (cathedral) can be seen. The Dome of Cologne, which was built in the period from 1248 until 1880, is known as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Up until its completion in the 19th century, the cathedral was the biggest building in the world (and the biggest church façade of the world). It is part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage and we actually climbed 509 steps all the way to the top of the cathedral. It took us about 20 minutes or so to climb up all the way and around the same time to come down. It was raining and we dint get too good a view from there, but the experience of climbing up the cathedral was a nice one. We also the treasury of the cathedral which had a lot of different styles of Chalices (which reminded me and stefi of "the da vinci code").
The only thing we saw in cologne apart from the harbour, was the Chocolate Museum (run by Lindt). The moment you enter the museum, you smell chocolate and have the desire to buy some of it. Movies such as "Run Lola Run" had some premieres at this musueum as well. In the musueum, we saw how chocolate is made, the history of chocolate, advertisements of chocolates of older generations. Ofcourse they did give one piece of wafer dipped in chocolate (from the huge chocolate fountain they had). Just imagine walking into a place where they only you thing you see is chocolate (well… you can imagine how tempted one can get to buy chocolates in a place like this).
After the museum, we had a quick lunch in cologne and headed back to Düsseldorf to go to the Benrath castle. The castle is pink in color for some reason and is a Baroque palace with a huge park (or should I say parks). It is an unaltered original environment uniquely preserved. We dint stay there for too long as it was in the open and it was getting cold. So thus, came an end to my tour of Düsseldorf and cologne. I bid goodbye to Stephanie who did a good job of a tour guide (she likes being called a tour guide ;)).