Ben and Bonn, Cologne and Kirches

Headed to Western Germany to meet up with Mr. Ben Morris. (Character: Ben, a fellow G&S Board member, a dual citizen of CA and Germany, and an all around amazing and hilarious guy.) Well, at first, Ben was on a class trip-he is studying in Bonn for the summer-and then they went wine tasting, so I spent the day in Cologne which is the home of a fabulous cathedral. Saw a bride and her father pull up in one of those bike taxis, and when she tried to just walk down the side to get to the smaller chapel, the crowd forced her into the center aisle taking pictures and she walked down that aisle, heralded by a trumpeter. I guess if you are going to get married in Cologne cathedral, that is how you would want to do it. Headed through town to the Lindt Chocolate Museum where there are actually little old ladies sitting at the machines making enough chocolate to sell in the gift shop every day. Stopped at the river where there was a huge crowd, on both sides of the river, seeming like they were waiting for something. When Ben called and said that they were all coming into Cologne and to stay there, I wondered...what are they celebrating? Ben still thinks it is an annual fireworks display on a summer Saturday that happened to coincide, but I think they were celebrating good old Bastille Day! Met up with Ben and broke through a barrier with a crowd to a great spot to watch the amazing fireworks display. Made up for not being in Boston for the 4th. And all the fireworks were red, white, and blue (or rather blue, white, and red to the French!) choreographed to a great soundtrack. Everyone was singing and celebrating. Got back very late to Bonn and just crashed, but it is so good to see Ben!

Next day, Ben took me all around Bonn, treating me to the nicest, and longest lunch where I convinced him that he must do Cox and Box for Arts First next year. He convinced me that Apfelschorle, a sparkling apple juice much like Martinelli's, but better, is the best beverage on earth. After about 3 hours, we decided that we should get to the three churches in town we wanted to see before they closed. Went to one way up north of town which had nice frescoes, then down to the Munster in the center of town, and then up the hill for a beautiful Rococo church. We treated ourselves to huge ice creams and apfelschorles because it was so hot and we just did three churches on opposite sides of town in about an hour and a half. Met up with Ben's friends from the program at one of their apartments and spend the rest of the night just chatting away.

While Ben was in class, I took a day trip to the very interesting and ancient town of Trier. It houses plenty of Roman ruins like the Porta Negra, an amphitheater (which is just eh), and the awesome Roman baths. Worth the trip just to run around the underground labyrinth at the baths! Also great was a museum that houses the pieces of a frescoes ceiling from Helena's (Constantine's mother's) house that existed underneath one of the big churches. It looks like a mosaic, but that is just because it was put back together from thousands of tiny fragments! Beautiful frescoes and portraits, and it is amazing that they could put it back together like that! And they didn't even restore the color, but the pigments are all perfectly preserved! Back in Bonn, Ben and I hung out with the summer group talking about everything from baseball teams to travelling to Harvard to art to science jargon to movies...you name it. Ben is a very knowledgable person on all said subjects.

Thank you to all the awesome people who met me and showed me around Germany! I had a great time!