Gwen Studies Broads

So I sent an e-mail to the Hildesheim people asking if there were tours, and if so, when they were, and they replied back with:

Dear Gwen,
We are sorry: due to renovations, the interior of St. Michael's Church will not be open for viewing until November 2006.

It is possible to visit the cathedral (UNESCO world heritage) or St. Andrews, St., market square, old wooden houses.

Kind regards
tourist information Hildesheim

Gabriele Klimek

Damn!

Thursday was Ascension Day, and everything was closed and we didn't have school, so a lot of people from my program went to Lübeck, which is where the marzipan factory and museum are (check it out at www.marzipan.com). Except they were all going there to go to bars (which apparently are open on Ascension Day. Oh, it's also Father's Day in Germany that day) not to go to the marzipan factory. I thought that it would be fun to go with everybody on the train, and then go to the marzipan factory myelf, but I wasn't sure if they'd be open, so I sent them an e-mail. They replied with:

Dear Sir/Madam,

no we are not open on Thursday 25 May.

With kindest regards

Linda Roie
J.G. Niederegger GmbH & Co. KG
Zeißstraße 1 - 7, D - 23560 Luebeck

Foiled again!

I ended up staying in town and met up with a bunch of people for lunch. We climbed up the water tower and then looked inside a couple of churches. The churches here are from around the fourteenth century, so they're really beautiful, and really old. One of the nice things about Lüneburg is that it wasn't bombed during The War, so there's all this really nice medieval architecture hanging around.

The only problem with Lüneburg is that everything (except bars of course) closes around six or eight o'clock, which kind of sucks. The bus system here is amazing though. In Boston, you go to a bus stop and they have a schedule posted (sometimes) with what time the bus leaves the first station, the time it gets to a station in the middle of the route, and the time it reaches its destination. If you're not at one of those places, you have to guesstimate what time the bus is going to show up. However, it doesn't really matter what time the schedule says the bus is going to show up, since they really don't follow the schedule at all. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has waited for the 39 (a pretty major bus route) for forty-five minutes on a weekday around five pm, only to have three busses come at once. But not in Lüneburg! The Germans are so efficient that they have at each bus stop what time the bus is coming to *that* bus stop. And! It shows up *exactly* on time. The schedule says the bus is coming at 12:52? It's there at exactly 12:52 and not a minute before (or even after!). It's amazing. Boston should really take some notes.

The other big news is that today is John Wayne's Birthday!

Please celebrate accordingly.

Oh, and these pictures were taken by one of the students in my program. Check 'em out!

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j137/ktwtennis7/