Travelog for: Mr.Zwie-Mueller

Back in Bruchsal we took a sunset photo of the schoolyard and part of the school St. Paulusheim.




Bruchsal is located at the edge of Kraichgau to Rhine valley, so partly it is really flat and partly hilly. You see the baroque church St. Peter and the house Santa Maria in the far. We live with our hosts near to both buildings.




St. Paulusheim is a private catholic school, founded by padres of the Pallotti order.

Today we walked to a restaurant and had lunch. On our way back we took some more photos. You can see houses of Bruchsal in the far.




Here is a building of the fire brigade school.




You still can see many wayside crosses around Bruchsal.




I really didn't realize before, that we hadn't been in Bruchsal anymore, but now we are back.

Today we drove to Cologne. Petra's husband had to be there for a Trade Fair and Petra met olgamaus.

Here is some information about Cologne (wikipedia):


"Cologne (English pronunciation: /kəˈloʊn/, German: Köln [kœln], Kölsch: Kölle [ˈkœɫə]) is Germany's fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.

Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln) is one of Europe's oldest and largest universities.

Cologne is a major cultural centre of the Rhineland and has a vibrant arts scene. Cologne is home to more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics and sculpture. The Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom and the Photokina."


Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom) is the city's most famous monument and the Cologne residents' most respected landmark. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996, it was designated a World Heritage site; it houses the Shrine of the Three Kings that supposedly contains the relics of the Three Magi. Residents of Cologne sometimes refer to the cathedral as "the eternal construction site" (Dauerbaustelle).








Cologne Central Station: On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station, making it fifth busiest station in Germany.




Then we walked down to the Rhine.




We turned around and took a look back to the cathedral.




Here's the Hohenzollern Bridge.




Great St. Martin Churchis a Romanesque Catholic church. Its foundations (circa 960 AD) rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was badly damaged in World War II, with restoration work completed in 1985.




We then walked around the Imhoff-Chocolate Museum. 








We took a look back to the Hohenzollern Bridge, cathedral and Great St. Martin.




The museum is run by the Schokoladenmuseum Köln GmbH. Since March 2006, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli has been its partner in producing exhibits. Prior to that the partner was the Cologne chocolate producer Stollwerck, and the museum was formerly known as the Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum.

On this photo you can see, how high the water was in 1995 and you can see, where we took the photo with the chocolate girl, where we stand for the view back to the churches and bridge. The yellow line shows the way we walked around the museum and the green line the way, where we came from.




Inside the museum we saw all the machines which are necessary to make delicious chocolate.








There is a real chocolate fountain! We all got wafers dipped into melted chocolate. Yummy!




This equestrian statue shows Frederick William III of Prussia. You can see here, who else is on the base of the statue.




The Heumarkt is beside the Alter Markt the biggest place in Cologne historic city.




There are several small breweries in Cologne. This one is located at the Heumarkt.

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Another brewery in the small streets of the historic city.




It started to rain and we walked back to the cathedral. We entered it and it was so so dark inside, that we had problems to take nice photos. So please excuse the quality.




So this was the last photo of Cologne and we drove back to Bruchsal again.

Today we were invited to celebrate our host uncle's 80th birthday. We celebrated at a Greek Restaurant close to the Rhine. In the early afternoon we went on a walk to have a view on the Rhine. Both, the Rhine and the Neckar flow through Mannheim. Mannheim is a nice city, Petra told me, but she had no time to show more than the Rhine.

The weather got worse. It rained heavily in the afternoon and we were happy to stay inside the house, but of course we took a look at the wonderful rainbow.

Finally I found time to read these two pages of two different newspapers of the week. The one is about Bruchsal asparagus. Bruchsal is famous for its asparagus fields and auctions.





The other newspaper page is about the baroque palace of Bruchsal. I think, you have a good view to many different parts of the main building with the church tower, but still many houses are missing.

We have typical April weather in Bruchsal. There is sunshine and the next moment there is hail and thunder and rain.

Today evening we saw a nice double rainbow. My host family still has to fight with illness

We are on our way to Trier today. My host and her husband invited us and her husband's parents to join them on the trip. Here I enjoy a cup of cappuccino in a motorway restaurant.

When my host's parents in law were young, they lived in Trier-Ehrang. Actually they were born there and grew up there. We saw all the places, which were important for them. This town is a suburb of Trier, which is located in Rhineland-Palatinate. There live about 10 000 people and it is the third largest district of Trier. It has municipal laws since 1346 A.D.

Here we see the church St.Peter of Ehrang.






Then we went to a house, which was built in 1805. Here you can read about it:

At lunch time we drove to Burg Ramstein. After eating a tasty meal we went the last metres to Burg Ramstein and took some photos there. The castle is surrounded by wood. The first castle was build 915 A.D., the one, which we see now was built sometime around 1300 A.D. The former tower house was about 25 metres high and had four floors.

Because my host's parents in law are older people, we had no chance to have a walk in Trier and see all the sightseeing places really close. Her father in law sits in a wheelchair and her mother in law needs a walker, so it is too difficult for them. Nevertheless we took the chance to take a look at the sightseeing places from a place called Petrisberg. It was a bit difficult to take photos, though, first my host didn't have her own camera, second we had the sun against us and third either I or the landscape was sharp and so we had to zoom in some parts to give you a closer view on some places.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC on the banks of the Moselle. Trier lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of ruddy sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Mosel wine region.

The city is the oldest seat of a Christian bishop north of the Alps.

With an approximate population of 105,000 Trier is ranked fourth among the state's largest cities; after Mainz, Ludwigshafen, and Koblenz.

You can take a look at the link. My host says, that she loves Trier and that you should come and see it, if you get a chance to visit this part of Germany.










We will go and see St.Matthias in the late afternoon.













I'm really sorry, but we also had no chance to catch a short view to the most famous Porta Nigra, because you can't see it on the photo above - it is just too small as you can see on the zoomed in photo.

St. Matthias' Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Trier. Monks have lived in the present St. Matthias' Abbey since late antiquity. The monastery adopted the Rule of St. Benedict in about 977. The abbey was originally named after Saint Eucharius, first Bishop of Trier, whose tomb is in the crypt. The church has been given the status of a basilica minor.









The abbey church, a Romanesque basilica, is a renowned place of pilgrimage because of the tomb of Saint Matthias the Apostle, after whom the abbey is named, located here since the 12th century, and the only burial of an apostle in Germany and north of the Alps.





Just above the tomb you see the sleeping statue of St. Matthias.

Our last stop was Igel, what is hedgehog in English - what a funny name for a town. We stopped here to take a photo of the Igel column, which is UNESCO World Heritage. The column is 23 metres high and was built in 250 A.D. by the brothers Lucius Secundinius Aventinus und Lucius Secundinius Securus. The original column is in a museum in Trier.

Today we go out for another day trip. I'm sure, I will enjoy it.