Aug 15 - took the train into Koln and went to the Dom (cathedral that survived WWII), enjoyed the street fair with venders, music, beer, watched Danett eat bratwurst and got wicked grossed out, and went through old town
Aug 16 - went into Koln with Ulli and Gisella, entered a building with a panoramic view of the city, went into a few beautiful churches, and tried great beer typical of Koln called Kolsh [very good]. It was the opening of a new modern-architecture mixed with old buildings in the port so the festival was that weekend and we ate great food, drank great beer, and listened to some live jazz music in old town and dually saw impressive new/upscale architecture in the port
Aug 17 - Ulli and Gisella took us into Dusseldorf which is about an hour away to see the new port they were renovating. We saw some sweet new buildings including three residential towers Gehry had recently designed + some awesome art shops (and obviously fantastic ice cream). Mom/Dad Severing were so hospitable and really adored showing us the beauty of Germany.
Aug 18 - We took a train a few hours to Stuttgart for the day to see the new Porsche museum designed by an awesome Austrian architecture firm [not finished], visited the housing/residential project that Mies van der Rohe, Corbusier, and Walter Gropius and many other sweet architects of the time produced to study minimalistic/modern architecture in the form of different residential dwellings. I thought this was pretty amazing.
Aug 19 - relaxing day in Koln store browsing, explored the Koln chocolate factory, buying cheap pashmina scarves for 3 euros [duh]. We also got to watch some Olympics/Olympic highlights in English (thank god).
Aug 20/21 - overnight train (people snoring, uncomfortable seats) + 2 day trains through southern Germany and Switzerland (absolutely ridiculous views)
Germany rules because : Gisella's cooking was outrageously good, Kolsh+cola is an amazing drink, progressive architecture in normal areas jives me, we had conversations in Spanish, Germany, and English daily in the household, I looked a normal height around taller people
Germany sucks because : the language is extremely difficult to learn/speak/understand
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