Merzig, Germany - 22nd May 2009
By: Apperveilchen
Today is another wonderful warm and sunny day. We got out of work a bit earlier and we ran some errands in the city.
Here's us on top of a postbox. Behind us you can see the late Romanesque chruch of St. Peter, built around 1190-1230. It's the most famous Romanesque chrch in this state. Maybe we'll go inside another day and have a look at the cross and the murals.
Here's the town hall in the middle of the pedestrial zone. Quite a nice old building. Most offces are located in a newer building behind it, though.
This is tiny Fellenberg castle. Originally there was a mill that was restructured into this little castle in 1858 by Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg.
Von Fellenberg didn't have any children, so in the mid-twentieth century the building was used as a nursing home and maternity ward. In 1980 it became a museum for regional history.
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Posted May 22, 2009, 2:47 pm
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Saarland, Germany - 23rd May 2009
By: Apperveilchen
It's warm here with 27°C and very humid. I just wanted to show you some flags I saw here. There's barely any wind, so they aren't all that visible. The first it the European flag, then middle one the German flag and the one on the right is the Saarland flag, basically the German flag with the Saarland coat of arms in the middle. you can see that one a bit better.
Here's a bit of history of the Saarland. For more on this area one has to read up, because idfferent parts belonged to many different nobles and it had various status in different states and empires through the years.
The Saarland is the smallest non-city state in Germany. It has about 1 000 000 inhabitants total.
The earliest signs of habitation are dated to about 100 000 years ago. Celtic walls and burial sites are uncovered. There were Roman settlements in this area esp. along the major trade routes through Europe. In the 9th century ist was part of Lotharii Regnum, part of the Carolingian Empire under Lothair I. In the late middle ages it was devided into different territories (that changed size, location and lord many times over time). Some of them arenow represented in the coat of arms: the silver lion of the Grafschaft (= county as in belonging to a count) Saarbrücken with the silver crosses of the Grafschaft Saarbrücken-Commercy, the red cross of the Electorate of Trier, the Alérion of the duchy of Lorraine and the lion of the duchy Pfalz-Zweibrücken.
In the late 17th century France formed a département Sarre. Things were mixed up again during the French revolution when everything left of the Rhine became French and the territories went to Prussia, the kingdom of Bavaria, Oldenburg and Sachsen-Coburg- Saalfeld after after te congress of Vienna. Next came the German/French war and the battle of Spichern in 1870/1, together with the start of the German Empire and the following annexation of Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) it became the 3rd biggest center for heavy indutry in the German Empire, mainly due to its coal mines and iron and steel industry. After WWI and the Treaty of Versailles the socalled Saarbeckengebiet became partly autonomous under the League of Nations and was goverened by France for 15 years. In 1935 it bacame part of the german Empire gain due to a referendum. After WWII it was once again partly independet but governed and economically directed by France. In 1955 people decided against becoming a European territory as planned in the Saarstatut with 67.7% majority. In 1957 it became the 10th Bundesland of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Posted May 25, 2009, 10:12 pm
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Kellinghusen, Germany - 9th June 2009
By: babyamy
Hey mum,
today I arrived at my new host's home. Big Bird welcomed me with a big hug.
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Posted Jun 9, 2009, 8:58 pm
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desk, Germany - 11th June 2009
By: babyamy
Katrin has found a new addiction: creating and sending friendship book to her pen pals or via swap-bot.com.
Well, it looks like a lot of fun but isn't it more important to finish some things for university first?!
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Posted Jun 14, 2009, 8:36 pm
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Katrin's desk - again, Germany - 17th June 2009
By: babyamy
Our life is a bit boring these days. Katrin is busy all the time, there are about four weeks left until her semester is over. Now she spends most of her freetime writing essays or preparing presentations. But she promised us that she will take us with her to Hamburg during the next weekend.
Today she finished her last marketing essay. We helped her to re-read the text and to find mis-spelled words. It wasn't easy because the text was written in German, but we did the best we could.
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Posted Jun 17, 2009, 8:28 pm
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PC Lab, Hamburg, Germany - 1st July 2009
By: babyamy
Finally another update, but it's not very interesting...
Katrin has her final weeks at university before her summer break and she is quite busy finishing all her essays and presentations. Today she took us with her to the PC lab at university. These are Macs and she don't really like them...but the "normal" lab wasn't open and she needed to work on this database presentation.
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Posted Jul 5, 2009, 8:45 pm
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Schwerin, Germany - 4th July 2009
By: babyamy
This weekend was great because Katrin took us with her on a trip to Schwerin, the capital of the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It's the state in the north-east of Germany. Katrin's boyfriend lives here and the four of us explored the town today.
Before we left the house, we had a look from the balcony. At first the tower of the cathedral cought our eyes...
...and of course the neighbouring house. Well when you look through the trees you can see the top of the theater.
Now we are finally downtown, a look at the "Fußgängerzone", the main street where a lot of shops are.
This is the side of the small lake called "Pfaffenteich" (priest's pond). The white ship is a farry which goes around the lake and has four stops on the tour. Katrin likes the art in the lake because it is new. An artist had put more statues like this on several places in town, maybe we discover more...
The cathedral from another point of view.
The contrast of old and new is very obvious on this picture. We were told that during the last years many houses in Schwerin have been re-coloured to look nice and neat. But there are still some houses left which have a typical grey GDR (German Democratic Republic or DDR in German) color (I know it's a cliché, sorry).
Another church, this one is called "Schelfkirche"
Then we arrived at the "Schweinemarkt" (pig market). There are some places in Schwerin which are named after what has been sold there about one hundred years ago. This was the place for the pigs and for me it was time to taka a photo with them:
Our next stop was this funny sculpture thing on the ground. I have no idea what this is supposed to be.
Look at this, in front of the cathedral there are more colorful statues.
Our last stop was the harbour, can you see the towers of the castle in the background? Unfortunately there was no more time to go there.
But there was some time to take a photo with this colorful rhinoceros, the mascot of the Schwerin Zoo. There are many colorful rhinoceroses all over the city.
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Posted Jul 6, 2009, 8:55 pm
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Katrin's room, Germany - 15th July 2009
By: babyamy
Something is going on... I discovered that Katrin grabbed a lot of stuff and put it on her bed before she looked for a suitcase. Seems like I'l be on a journey soon.
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Posted Jul 15, 2009, 8:09 pm
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