As part of the six week stay in Marburg, Fulbright also paid for us to travel to a few nearby cities for daytrips and guided tours. It’s been so many weeks ago now, and shame on me for not keeping up with writing, that they’ve become nearly mixed together. Frankfurt – we arrived during a museum festival so I spent most of the day museum hopping, three in total before my feet could take it no longer.
Kassel - as I recall, we spent most of the time visiting a tremendous water/fountain system running a good half mile, adorned with various sculptures and flowing ultimately to the lawn of an impressive former palace. This water/fountain system (I’m not really sure what to call it) is a newly recognized UNESCO world heritage site.
Wiesbaden – we were mainly occupied with observing an election related event here; Wiesbaden is the capital of the district of Hessen and the German elections took place just this past weekend.
Finally, Cologne (Köln is the German spelling) I visited not with the entire Fulbright group, but with two other students over a 3 day weekend. My favorite site so far in my time in Germany must be the Cologne Cathedral. I’ve never seen any edifice combine such intricacy with such immensity. It’s the most visited tourist destination in Germany, and I can see why. The construction began in the 1200s and not until the 1800s was it completed (it spent a few hundred years half-finished along the way). By one of apparently several competing measures, it’s the largest and tallest church in Germany and above the Alps in Europe. In the skyline of the city it abides as the central and greatest structure, if not in physical size then certainly in impression. In total we visited it three times or four times in our three day stay; I was able to attend a mass there which was quite a treat as well.
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