Neuschwanstein, Rot an der Rot, Lake Constance i.e. Bodensee and short visit to Austria
The fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle - 13.08.2012
Made it on a very sun-shining day to one of my dream travelling destinations: the Neuschwanstein Castle. What should one do when being so overwhelming with joy?
I should add that I have made it to this astonishingly beautiful Castle with bravery, as I have carried all my luggages, i.e. one small suitcase, my backpack and a daily bag as well, with me on a (relatively) long journey from München to Memmingen. Well, not as long as that from Berlin to München, but it still takes time. So the Castle was just an added stop, which is not straight-forward, that I wished to make, even I had less than probably two hours with my luggages to manage the uphill road to this breath-taking spot and back to the train. What else could be more joyful that that particular moment when I was standing on the historical Marienbrücke far high above the ground and breathed in this particular splendid view? It was so worth-trying!
Rot an der Rot - reaching to the clouds!
The reason behind my seem-like just a travelling experience, but it was not, was actually a summer school named "Rot an der Rot 2012" organised by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in cooperation with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Rot an der Rot is a town near Memmingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, which is located about 116 km from München (Munich). The summer school was not just a travelling journey but also a learning experience to improve my German as well as to get some insights into the world of physics. Being carried out in German language with the majority of participants being German students - the very good ones, the summer school lasted two weeks from 13.08 to 25.08.2012. In the first week, I have worked pretty hard to a high capacity and full concentration in order to deliver a presentation about great-scaled excavations for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project. If you have not heard about this, I would recommend you to watch the video made by BBC available at LHC - the Big Bang Experiment. I guarantee that you will be surprised by what to see. More about that working topic of mine I will describe in the later part of this entry.
(to be continued)
Die internationale Sommerakademie bot allen Teilnehmern die Chance, sowohl ihren fachlichen als auch persönlichen Horizont zu erweitern. Die Zusammenarbeit mit den überwiegend deutschen Studenten war für mich sehr hilfreich, da ich meine wissenschaftliche Arbeitsweise und meine Deutschkenntnisse weiter verbessern konnte. Generally we had from 9a.m. to 1p.m. presentations from the group, in the afternoon was self-working or sports time. The topic of my group was all around the experimental LHC - I was like a strange civil engineer in a physics group, but in fact it was fun and much has been learnt. In total, there were eight groups working on different topics, including also a topic about dancing - Tanzen. It was right that I have chosen a group of an engineering topic, at least we speak similar language, I mean engineering language and not just some discussions about history or singing and dancing performances (which surely would rip me mentally off). The weekend we had total free time. That was a better thing about this summer school compared to the one in Brussels, in a sense that students had got more free time especially for socializing and extra-curricular activities such as hiking, swimming, soccer etc. During the weekend, several sight-seeing trips were organised. Hightlights were an excursion to the old city Augsburg or the hiking trip to the Allgäu mountain, which would surely be fantastic. It was a little pity that I missed the hiking trip as I needed to finish my presentation on Saturday. Therefore, instead of two trips at weekend, I only could manage to join a bus drive to the beautiful Lake Constance, i.e. die wunderschöne Bodensee, from which I also went for a very short visit to the Bregenz city nearby in Austria.
The marvelous Floating Stage of the Bregenz Theatre, Österreich (Austria) 08.2012.
Pfänderbahn - Pfänder Wildlife Park, Bregenz, Österreich (Austria) 08.2012.
Almost 300,000 visitors a year make the uphill trek to the mountain observation station of Pfänder, west of Bregenz. Pfänderbahn cable car: celebrated as the second-oldest cable car in Austria, it was originally built in 1927 and was massively upgraded with almost double its original capacity in 1994. At the summit of the Pfänderbahn, there is a wildlife park. The park's large fenced-in areas are devoted to herds of red deer, wild boar, mountain goats, and wild sheep. Access to the Wildlife Park is free, although one needs to buy ticket for the cable car drive. It takes about 20 minutes to wander through its 10 hectares of rocky terrain. (Source: www.frommers.com/destinations/bregenz/1904025178.html)
Okay, as you might find that I jumped from places to places and it might be hard to follow, so let's make things more in order.
Cologne Cathedral and Hohenzollern Bridge
"Der Kölner Dom is a Roman Catholic church, one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany, described by UNESCO as an "exceptional work of human creative genius". Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its towers are approximately 157 m tall. The cathedral is one of the world's largest churches and the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. For four years, 1880–84, it was the tallest structure in the world, until the completion of the Washington Monument. It has the second-tallest church spires, only surpassed by the single spire of Ulm Minster, completed 10 years later in 1890. Because of its enormous twin spires, it also presents the largest façade of any church in the world." (source: wikipedia)
(to be continued)
Münich - Memmingen - Rot an der Rot - Lake Constance - Zürich, Aug.-Sep. 2012.
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