Where in the world is Laura Roth?: Ich möchte, ich möchte, ich möchte Bratwurst!

Aaaaaand Big Trip 2 is now complete as well. I've spent almost as many days outside of the UK as I've spent in it over the last two weeks. :-) I promise that I still go to school too.

This trip was to Germany, but, first, I got to spend some time in London before I flew out of Stansted Airport. I spent that time at the British Museum, which was pretty cool. They've got some pretty sweet stuff in there, not to mention that the building itself is awesome. Afterward, I went to the British Library. I wanted to see a Jane Austen manuscript, but, by the time I got there, all of those rooms were closed. Instead, I sat down and took advantage of their free wi-fi, feeling very studious among a lot of important-looking, studious people and feeling glad to have a seat after lots of walking with all my stuff.

I flew out from Stansted Airport, and I landed in Bremen around 9:30am on Friday. Then, I had almost a whole day to hang out in the city. I walked around a bit on my own before I found the tourist info center. They were offering a walking tour from 2 to 4, so I signed right up. There were three British girls on the tour, but everyone else was German-speaking. The tour guide did a great job flitting between languages. I will always be in awe of people who can do that. I'm really glad that I took the tour, because I saw so much of Bremen that I hadn't happened to stumble upon during the earlier part of the day. The different sections of Bremen have distinct personalities, which is cool to see. There are the historic buildings in one area with two major cathedrals and the old and new city halls. Another area has lots of cute, old-timey shops. One shopping-based area of the city is devoted to touching as many of the senses as possible: Food sellers make their shops and food look, smell, and taste as appetizing as possible, and the square in the middle of the area has a chime concert that happens every hour on the hour accompanied by a mural of rotating panels that tells the story of the river in the city. Another aspect of Bremen that I got to see on the tour was the presence of the fairytale about the four animal musicians. I can't remember the name of the story, but it's about four animals who are no longer useful to their masters. They leave their respective homes to become musicians in Bremen, but, on the way, they come across robbers robbing a house and scare the robbers away by making lots of noise and standing on top of each other to make one big monster. Once the robbers are gone, they get to have all the treasures of the house. ...That was a major paraphrase from what I remember of the story from when we read it in German class in high school (I also scanned the pictures in the tourist center), so don't count on my account being completely accurate. Anyway, the story is extremely well-known in Germany, and the iconic picture from it is the four animals standing on top of each other. You can see that picture all over Bremen.

I took the train to Uelzen in the evening where Sina picked me up! For those of you who don't know Sina, she did an internship with Dad/Pastor John last year. Sina, Jens, and Sina's parents graciously took me in for the weekend and gave me incredible amounts of delicious food beginning the moment I walked in the door! I don't know what all the dishes were, but there was a lot of yummy-ness and bread involved. Clearly, I was a happy camper.

On Saturday, Sina and I took the train to Hamburg. Hamburg is getting its Christmas markets ready, which was fun to see. We took a peek inside St. Peters Church (I think that's the right one.) and the city hall before heading to one of the big Hamburg landmarks, St. Michaelis Kirche (St. Michael's Church). The inside is all white and gold. It's definitely the brightest of the churches that I've been to over here. We got lucky in that the choir was practicing in the sanctuary. They are amazing. Once we'd seen the sanctuary, we went to the top of the church tower. It was a foggy day in Hamburg town; we couldn't see quite as much as you normally would be able to, but I enjoyed the view and being on top of the tower none the less. Next, we stopped for pizza and, then, took a boat tour! After all these boat trips, I think I'm going to have to convince the city of Cape Girardeau to start a river boat tour. Anyway-- back to Hamburg-- there are are lakes (or maybe one big amoeba-shaped lake?) right in the middle of the city, so you can see quite a bit of city via boat. The relaxing rocking of the boat made Sina and me a little bit too sleepy, so we woke ourselves up by going to der Hamburger Dom, which is kind of like a county fair. There were all kinds of crazy rides that we wouldn't dare riding, including a full-on roller coaster. We did ride a swing ride where you sit in a swing and get spun really fast so that you're parallel to the ground. That's about as adventurous as we got. Our favorite attraction was the food. The vendors were selling bratwurst, corn on the cob, cotton candy, big pretzels, chocolate and candy-dipped fruits, and something that looks like Totino's pizza rolls but tastes like funnel cakes. Sina and I indulged in the last two. I got chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick. (I think that is the best idea ever, and I can't believe I never thought of it before.) Sina and I shared a sugar-coated apple and the funnel cake-like treats-- delicious. When we got back to Uelzen, we had a light sandwich-dinner and, then, settled down to watch a Harry Potter movie. Sina and I had lots of fun being Harry Potter nerds together. There's a part of the movie where Harry asks where they are, and Hermione replies, "Shaftesbury Avenue" to which I said, "OH MY GOSH! I'VE BEEN THERE!" It's the little things...

I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and I woke up on Sunday morning to more yummy sandwiches. I think German sandwiches are better than any other sandwiches. At 9, we went to church just down the road. I have to admit that my German is not excellent, and, by that, I mean that I have forgotten almost ALL of what I learned in my 5 years of German classes. So, I didn't catch every word of the service, but I did recognize the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and a couple liturgies. I was also able to sing along with the hymns. After church, we had a little time for Sina and Jens to drive me through Uelzen for a taste of the town. We had an awesome lunch that Sina's dad made. My big discovery of the day was that I like red cabbage. I had my apprehensions being the picky eater that I am, but I ate and enjoyed every bit on my plate. After lunch, all five of us went to a Christmas market full of lovely things. The only thing stopping me from buying and buying was the fact that my already very full backpack is all that RyanAir would allow me to take on the plane back to England. We then met Jens's parents for apple strudel and ice cream at a place that is half-cafe and half-market. It's a nice little place, and it was a good way to wrap up my stay.

When I flew back into London, I was hoping to make a quick trip to Abbey Road to make myself a true Beatles fan, but traffic slowed down my shuttle from the airport to the city enough to cut out my time for that. I decided to go back to the British Library instead, because it's much closer to the train station where I needed to catch my train. The “Treasures of the British Library” room was open this time, so I got to look around in there. In addition to having an early draft of Jane Austen's "Catharine, or the Bower" and Austen's writing desk, they had an entire section devoted to the Beatles complete with scribbled down lyrics and an audio recording of the band members addressing their fans for their Christmas album. That'll do, British Library. That'll do. The room of treasures had lots of other interesting things too. It had the original score of Handel's "Messiah," Beethoven's tuning fork, the original manuscript of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, a couple Shakespeare sections, a section outlining the trials, last years, and execution of Mary Queen of Scots, old and older versions of the Magna Carta, and all kinds of other fun stuff. It was well worth the trip back to the library.

Quite a weekend! To add to the already big weekend, I also passed the point of having less than a month left here. Crazy! The next plane I take will be the plane home. I'll be extremely glad to come home and see everyone, but, in the meantime, let's see how much adventuring I can fit into four weeks!

Laura

p.s. I didn't actually eat any bratwurst while I was in Deutschland, but any good JHS German student will recognize the title for this post!