Chapter 3: A tour of Europe... ehem Germany with a side trip to Brussels
As a small child, when I asked my grandma about her family´s origins and how they came to America, she told me, "They took a tour of Europe". I think this was a happy combination of not wanting to horrify me with the notion of centuries of Pogroms, honestly not really knowing where the family came from, and her knack for embellished storytelling (I guess it´s genetic).
As a German Chancellor Fellow, I also have the opportunity to take a little tour of Europe in the form of a two week study tour through Germany with my fellow fellows. Actually for months my friend Jen has referred to this as the thrity of us "going on tour", which makes it sound a lot more rock star than the reality. You may recall earlier posts about our orientation seminar, and this was pretty similar, except this time we were really on the move, nearly everyday a new city, meetings from early in the day until late at night. Mostly I was just thrilled to be back with my BuKa friends. It had been six months since we were all together, and what better way to reconnect than by spending hours packed in a bus together cruising the Autobahn.
So as not to bore you to pieces, and seeing as we´ve still got an art heist ahead of us, I´ll just fill you in on the highlights:
Stop 1: We meet in the city of Leipzig (the Paris of East Germany according to my boss at the Centrum Judaicum, who I must not assume has never been to Paris). Just kidding, in reality, Leipzig was a nice enough mid-size German city. From there we visited some more brown coal mines and solar power factories (if one year in Germany has taught me one thing it is that Germany is really into energy sources and showing them to visitors).
Stop 2: Ingolstadt - home of the Audi Factory (where all that brown coal and solar power won´t do you a bit of good).
Stop 3: brief stop in Bayreuth, recently made famous as the University town of Germany´s most famous plagiarizing politician.
Stop 4: München. A beautiful city, where we visited Siemens, the Max Planck Institute, a beer brewery, the Philharmonic (right after the beer brewery... we barely stayed awake) and then had some free time which I used to see one of the most boring Operas (even for Opera) ever. I don´t remember the name of it, since we got there late and had to spend the first half sitting in the light box, but basically there were some really upset seeming nuns/religious cult members who were very unhappy and whose compound exploded at the end. The explosion was by far the highlight of the piece. Part two of free time involved a delightful hike through the Alps which ended at a Monastery that produces its own beer (quite common apparently - drinking beer is the trick monks used to "fast" for days on end and end up with amazing visions) and makes a pretty delicious pork knuckle (I was also unaware that pigs had knuckles... but life is about learning).
Stop 5: Karlsruhe, to see the highest court in Germany and a nearby Organic Farm, and then to taste some local wine and sing with locals (singing after, before or between alcohol tastings is a favorite BuKa activity).
Stop 6: a day in Frankfurt to visit the European Central Bank, see Goethe´s house, spend the night in a tiny village called Bad Münster am Stein (long enough for me to remember how much I like tiny towns in Germany more than basically anything else) and on to visit a factory and workshop for disabled people.
Stop 7: Brussels to visit NATO (and ask semi-intelligent questions about Libya) and the EU commission, and long enough to insert the phrase "ooh la la" into any and all sentences.
The best parts of the trip, for me at least, were the hours of bus time simulating some type of strange family road trip, if, say, your family was Russian, Chinese, and American with a German dad named Friedrich, who reminded you constantly not to look like a slob at the EU Central Bank, or to prepare good questions for NATO, and gave you fun facts before rolling into unknown cities like Ingolstadt. Basically there is nothing quite like BuKa time.
It was sad to say goodbye and know we wouldn´t all be together again until June (hmmm not so far off thanks to my procrastination in writing this entry).
As a small child, when I asked my grandma about her family´s origins and how they came to America, she told me, "They took a tour of Europe". I think this was a happy combination of not wanting to horrify me with the notion of centuries of Pogroms, honestly not really knowing where the family came from, and her knack for embellished storytelling (I guess it´s genetic).
As a German Chancellor Fellow, I also have the opportunity to take a little tour of Europe in the form of a two week study tour through Germany with my fellow fellows. Actually for months my friend Jen has referred to this as the thrity of us "going on tour", which makes it sound a lot more rock star than the reality. You may recall earlier posts about our orientation seminar, and this was pretty similar, except this time we were really on the move, nearly everyday a new city, meetings from early in the day until late at night. Mostly I was just thrilled to be back with my BuKa friends. It had been six months since we were all together, and what better way to reconnect than by spending hours packed in a bus together cruising the Autobahn.
So as not to bore you to pieces, and seeing as we´ve still got an art heist ahead of us, I´ll just fill you in on the highlights:
Stop 1: We meet in the city of Leipzig (the Paris of East Germany according to my boss at the Centrum Judaicum, who I must not assume has never been to Paris). Just kidding, in reality, Leipzig was a nice enough mid-size German city. From there we visited some more brown coal mines and solar power factories (if one year in Germany has taught me one thing it is that Germany is really into energy sources and showing them to visitors).
Stop 2: Ingolstadt - home of the Audi Factory (where all that brown coal and solar power won´t do you a bit of good).
Stop 3: brief stop in Bayreuth, recently made famous as the University town of Germany´s most famous plagiarizing politician.
Stop 4: München. A beautiful city, where we visited Siemens, the Max Planck Institute, a beer brewery, the Philharmonic (right after the beer brewery... we barely stayed awake) and then had some free time which I used to see one of the most boring Operas (even for Opera) ever. I don´t remember the name of it, since we got there late and had to spend the first half sitting in the light box, but basically there were some really upset seeming nuns/religious cult members who were very unhappy and whose compound exploded at the end. The explosion was by far the highlight of the piece. Part two of free time involved a delightful hike through the Alps which ended at a Monastery that produces its own beer (quite common apparently - drinking beer is the trick monks used to "fast" for days on end and end up with amazing visions) and makes a pretty delicious pork knuckle (I was also unaware that pigs had knuckles... but life is about learning).
Stop 5: Karlsruhe, to see the highest court in Germany and a nearby Organic Farm, and then to taste some local wine and sing with locals (singing after, before or between alcohol tastings is a favorite BuKa activity).
Stop 6: a day in Frankfurt to visit the European Central Bank, see Goethe´s house, spend the night in a tiny village called Bad Münster am Stein (long enough for me to remember how much I like tiny towns in Germany more than basically anything else) and on to visit a factory and workshop for disabled people.
Stop 7: Brussels to visit NATO (and ask semi-intelligent questions about Libya) and the EU commission, and long enough to insert the phrase "ooh la la" into any and all sentences.
The best parts of the trip, for me at least, were the hours of bus time simulating some type of strange family road trip, if, say, your family was Russian, Chinese, and American with a German dad named Friedrich, who reminded you constantly not to look like a slob at the EU Central Bank, or to prepare good questions for NATO, and gave you fun facts before rolling into unknown cities like Ingolstadt. Basically there is nothing quite like BuKa time.
It was sad to say goodbye and know we wouldn´t all be together again until June (hmmm not so far off thanks to my procrastination in writing this entry).
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