January – February 2020
The first weekend trip of 2020 was to a small city in Baden-Wurttemberg called Ulm. It has a large cathedral and a nice walkway along the Danube River.
Nicely painted Rathaus (City Hall)
Came across a pre-carnival event. During this ceremony they raised a huge tree in front of city hall.
We took a school field trip to Frankfurt for the day to go up the Main Tower and the check out the money museum.
Each Euro bill symbolizes a different period of European architectural history. It has a bridge to symbolize connection and a window to symbolize openness.
If you look at the first letter of code on a Euro bill you can see where it was printed.
Gold is heavy.
The day after the Frankfurt trip I headed to Regensburg for the weekend. It is a nice small city above Munich.
Stayed at the Goliath hotel.
Managed to not get hit by a bus.
Carnival is a big deal in Germany, and the largest parade is in Cologne on Rose Monday. Before going to Cologne, I stopped in Düsseldorf for a night. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese population of any city outside of Japan. There are lots of great Japanese restaurants and shops throughout the city.
I checked out a Goethe museum and a great book store. Book stores are one of my favorite places to go when I travel. I particularly enjoy seeing all the different Harry Potter books, almost every country has different covers.
The day after Düsseldorf I took a carnival crazy 20 minute train to Cologne for the Rose Monday Carnival Parade. These cities, on opposite sides of the Rhine River, are rivals and have competing styles of beer. In Düsseldorf they drink a darker Alt beer and in Cologne a lighter Kolsch.
Carnival in Cologne is very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. In Germany they throw more food instead of beads and you see a lot more horses.