Last Bit from Around Town

Thought I'd share some pictures from our last few days.

The square downtown and the Altes Rathaus. One of my favorite locations. It was such a pretty day this day.

When PhD students graduate, they parade around town in make-shift wagons. It is hilarious. This is one of them.

I never ever got tired of the Schillerwiese, the park near our apartment. Evening talks here were my favorite.

Locals enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery in the Schillerwiese. The building in the back is the top of the Goethe Institut.

A sunset we saw on one of our last walks through town. The night was so lovely, that we just walked and talked for nearly 3 hours!

The Deutches Theater. I love the landscaping in the middle of the roundabout.

The library at University of Goettingen. 

A statue we passed on our walk to church each week. These two are a part of the Goettingen Seven, I believe.

Church. 

Our walk to and from church was mostly on the old city wall. It was so lovely.

These are some pretty houses I liked. I passed these a lot on our walks around town.

Last German Eis. Man, it was delicious.

There is an Academic Publisher in town. This is one of their locations. They print a lot of academic theology books in German.

Where Goethe lived in Goettingen.

Where Benjamin Franklin lived in Goettingen.

This is the statue in the center of town, appropriately named the Navel.

Sadly, my favorite aisle at the grocery store. So much Haribo!

My view from the kitchen. 

On our last walk through old downtown Goettingen. We were on our way to Cron & Lanz for dessert and coffee, so we were happy.

I loved this street. We walked it daily, as it was the main road from our apartment to the center of town and the grocery store. It just looks so quintessentially German with the half-timbered houses. 

Pretty view from inside Cron & Lanz.

Our final dessert choices from Cron & Lanz. We were not disappointed.

Planetenweg (Planet Path)

I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but in 2003 Goettingen put a Planet Path in their town. It is all to scale in the city starting near the train station and going all the way into the forest. It is done to scale in length and in size of the planets. (Here's the link to the webpage if you're a geek like me: http://www.planetarium-goettingen.de/Planetenweg/) My goal this summer was to find all the plaques and take a picture with them. Success!

You can barely see the Mercury representation in the middle of the clear plexiglas, it's so tiny.

Jupiter. Forgot to take a picture with the front of it.

Pluto was too small for a representation, but it did have a plaque! We had to hike up quite a ways to find this one.

Frankfurt

We began our long trip home with a two hour train ride from Goettingen to Frankfurt. This was the magazine in the train. Made me giggle to see a piece of home.

Frankfurt Main Train Station. It is huge, but it has a lot of old parts of the original station, like this arch.

Our purpose in going to Frankfurt a day early was to spend the day with these lovely people. The woman in the middle with the blue plaid shirt is my grandmother's cousin, Doris. Her husband is standing next to me, Gunther. Having never met any of my European relatives, it was very exciting to be invited to spend the day at their lovely home. The woman on the right in the back is Doris and Gunther's daughter and her husband next to her. The woman on the right in the front is Helen, my mom's cousin. She is British and lives in Holland with her husband, Jan (who was taking this photo). They were all so lovely and we had such a wonderful time getting to know them. It is a day I will remember forever.

Helen and Jan took us into the main part of Frankfurt to see some sites, one being the Goethe Haus. They thought since Ethan studied at the Goethe Institut this summer, we should see his home. I'm glad they suggested this. It was very neat.

An old upright piano. Cool.

This is Goethe's writing desk. I thought it was neat that he used a standing desk.

The Goethe Haus.

The only Lederhosen store I saw all summer. I had to take a picture.

Getting close to the old city square.

Helen and Jan, our Frankfurt tour guides.

I was obsessed with the sidewalks all summer. I already miss the quaint look.

Old City Square in Frankfurt. It was like walking into a storybook.

Old Frankfurt Rathaus (City Hall).

Frankfurt Dom (Cathedral). It's been through a large fire and the bombings of WWII. The reconstruction is beautiful.

The Main River.

You know I love the flowers everywhere.

The outside of the Frankfurt Main Train Station.

Our last German sunset from our Frankfurt hotel. It was absolutely stunning. Germany is such a beautiful country.