The Dom in Koln

Koln is NW of Oberursel, about 2 hours away on train, and on the way to The Hague, where I also went for a cross country race.

I went with Matt to Koln over the weekend to visit his old college friends and see the city. No sooner had we left the bahnhof than we were standing before one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen - the Dom. It is the largest church in Northern Europe and was, in fact, the tallest building in the world around 1900. It took over 600 years to build and reminded me of Angkor Wat in Cambodia in the superb stone work and un-real feel.

The Dom in Koln

A view from a spire

Elaborate arches

The hollow-mouthed man

A statement of the country: tiny german garden plots

One of the attributes of Germany which I find most pleasing are the tiny garden plots clustered together around the outskirts of every city. Most Germans live in apartment clomplexes, in fairly close proximity to each other, but many people also have a garden with a miniature cottage close by to go and relax. Fantastic. The garden areas tend to be clustered together, with everyone getting their own neat 20m x 20m section of land with hedges separating the spaces.

A visit to Vienna and Budapest over Fall Break

Vienna and Budapest are marked in faint white boxes

I had a long fall break in the beginning of October and went with Matt to Vienna and Budapest. We traveled by train from Oberursel to Vienna, where we stayed for a couple nights and didn't take a single picture. My good friend Katinka used to live in Vienna and we were fortunate enough to be able to stay in her old roommate Marlene's apartment right in the city. The gradiose architecture of Vienna is a reminder of the city's rich history of power and wealth - with most of the stunning buildings built hundreds of years before Lewis and Clark explored the interior of North America by canoe.

We continued on the train to Budapest, where we spent a week exploring the city, oogling at the impressive architecture, eating cakes, and running up large hills.

The Keleti train station in Pest


The characteristic tall stone buildings of Pest flank narrow streets


A conglomeration of brick and stone built over the centuries

Buda Royal Palace from across the Duna

Rakoczi ut.

Great mustard-colored stonework

Szent Istvan Basilica

The Parliament with the chain bridge (Szechenyi Ianchid) in the background as seen during a run around Margit Island

...same brand, different flavor...

We visited a curious outdoor museum, Statue Park, where Communist-era statues and sculptures were collected from the city after the Soviets left the city in 1991.

A proud and hopeful Lenin

Stalin's boots - all that remain after frustrated students and factory workers cut through the legs with acetylene tourches during the 1956 uprising.

The Great Market Hall, built in 1894

The interior of The Grand Market Hall

Ah the cakes...the fantastic cakes...

Just don't squeeze the tomatoes - one woman took the vegetables out of my hands and chastised me for inspecting her nectarines too closely.