The hostel I stayed in Hamburg is worth mentioning. It is very cool and modern, with light colors decorating the walls and huge glass doors. I also received something like a passport at the reception, which if you stayed in all this hotel around Europe you would get two nights for free. I also received a free tshirt. This was very different from other hostels, and it made my stay at the first second enjoyable. But actually each of the hostels I stayed during my journey has its own highlights: some has free drink, some offers free breakfast, some harbors a cool bar, some has interesting designs…

Today is also my last day on my journey. In the morning I walked around the city of Hamburg and climbed up the St. George church. Up till now, I would climb up a church and have a bird view of the city in each of the cities I visited. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and it is not a false claim: standing at the top of the church I can hardly see the borders of the city. The Elbe river flows across the city and makes Hamburg a very important port. Ships sailing along the river and the ports show the prosperity of this so called “the gate to the world”. But today I had no luck, since I didn’t see a single cargo ship…

Hamburg is finished in three hours, plus yesterday night 3 hours, I toured the city 6 hours before I stepped on my train back to Leipzig. The journey has ended; it was so interesting and rewarding. When I came back to my dorm it seemed nothing had happened, yet I know that I have traveled almost around the entire country, saw great sceneries, learnt a lot about the country, thought a lot about various topics, and met many interesting people. This traveling experience on my own will be one of my dearest memories in my entire life.

Back in Leipzig meant the start of the next German course. This course is much more interesting since people are much more diverse: students come from more than 20 countries and regions. Last course almost all the students come from USA, and it makes making friends or speaking German kinda difficult. But this course is much better. I met two Italian people during dinner and we soon became friends. It is exciting simply to imagine how many new friends around the world I would have by the end of this course. Looking forward to it!

Today I travelled to Bremen and Hamburg.

By the way, this morning I found that my toothpaste was stolen. What kind of people these days take away someone’s toothpaste????

Before going to Bremen there was a little story… When I checked the train to Bremen I found out that there were too many people taking the train and I might not get a seat, and the train takes a long time. So then in a second I decided to visit another city: Dortmund. There is only one place I wanted to visit in Dortmund, and that is the very big and famous stadium for Dortmund soccer team. I spent an hour and half in Dortmund, visited the huge stadium and the fan shop.

This was a totally random decision… I never thought I would have time for another city. Maybe this is just one of the advantages of traveling alone: you can have super flexible schedule and design the route on your own.

Bremen is a nice town, with stories that made this city more charming. The Bremen Musicians stays one of the most popular fairy tale of the Grimm Brothers. Today a statue consisting four animals that com from this story, stands at one corner of old town. This statue is very small, and it took me a long time to find it, and at last I realized it stands at the corner I passed at least four times…..

Then to Hamburg. I think this should be a water town, or Venice of Germany! The entire city seems to be on water. There are so many rivers that flows across and in the city. So beautiful. I remembered I said before that only a city with water can be lively. And i think in Hamburg this saying is best testified. At night the color of the sky, the various lights of restaurants and buildings along the rivers, mix with their images in the river and they all together made a harmonious symphony of colors. The old Rathous and other historical buildings not far from the rivers just add to the charming effect of the river in this city.

Red light zone in the morning was quite peaceful, and is not different from its neighbors. I left for Hanau this morning, the hometown of Grimm Brothers who created many fascinating fairy tales. People usually regard Germany as a country of rigorousness, preciseness and somewhat dull and indifferent. But actually Germany is also a very romantic country. From the Grimm brothers who wrote great fairy tales to king Ludwig II who himself is an admirer of romanticism, Germany lacks no romantic aspect.

But Hanau is not a very exciting place… Partly because it was very hot and the whether drove away most of my enthusiasm. Moreover, I didn’t feel very comfortable today. Maybe a little ill. My throat was burning. So in Hanau I only took pictures of the Grimm brothers’ statue and left for Cologne.

The cathedral stands just next to the main station. It is… Very BIG. I have seen many churches in Germany, but this one is like no other… So huge and it seems even graceful, although the gothic style makes it a little dark and gloomy. I sometimes wonder how people living hundreds of years ago could build such a gigantic building. This church in Cologne is more than 150 meters tall. How did people build it!? They must be the genius architects of the time, just like Mozart or Bach in music.

What made my day today was a random meetup with Dr. Huston’s daughter on my way to the top of the cathedral. I was wearing a Rice Engineering tshirt today and the woman in front of me recognized this and asked me if I go to Rice. I learnt that she was also from Houston. And then we began to chat. I was first surprised that she knows so much about Hanszen. Then she mentioned that she is the daughter of Dr. Huston, my shortie professor t Rice. Wow! I could hardly hide my excitement. What a coincidence! Is this the wonder of traveling, that it is very likely to meet people who have such a close connection with me? Such a small world!

Oh and by the way Cologne has its own beer called Kölsch. I had some at one of the oldest Bräu in Cologne. It was served in a very small glass that holds only 0.2 Litter, quite unlike beer in Munich which is contained in a 1 liter huge glass. The waiters will continue to add your small glass if you don’t request that you have already had enough. But it tasted kinda different from other beers. Kölsch tastes light and little bit sweet. And I believe it is well brewed, since I became little drunk with only 2 glasses…

Morning and afternoon in Würzburg. Not particularly interesting, probably because the weather was very very hot… This kind of weather is definitely not suitable for traveling… The highlights though, was again after a rough hike to the castle situated at the top of a hill. The castle was nothing special, but along the way I saw a huge sea of grapes… They are the wine yards, the origin of the success of a number of German wines. In he afternoon I tasted again another wine at the wine house I visited yesterday night. It was a slightly different taste. To someone who knows little about wine, like me, these two glasses of wine represented my journey to Würzburg. The wines are what make the city special.

In late afternoon I travelled to Frankfurt am Main. I was told that this city was not worth touring since it was a rebuilt city and not many historical buildings, but I see this city as a very special one in Germany. It is said to be the only city in Germany that was built skyscrapers after the war, and it seems to be true. It is very modernized city with tall buildings centered in an area along the Main river. I climbed to the top of the main tower to enjoy a panorama view of the city. Frankfurt is nothing compared to Manhattan… But in Europe it should be a huge center for commerce and other business things. At the top of this building it is also possible to observe the landing and taking off routes of airplanes. Frankfurt is special because it has so many tall buildings. No other cities in German has so many I believe.

In the evening I went to a restaurant far from the center of the city, but it was recommended by my hostel, so I think it should be good. And actually it is good. Here I also met a middle aged man who made my day. After my meal I was asking where does Frankfurt belong to during the 19th century. No one could answer my question, so they recommended this man to all to me. He also didn’t solve my question, but we began to talk about regional specialties in Germany, and he bought me a glass of apple wine and told me this is a speciality in Frankfurt. We kept talking about various topics for another 30 minutes and he even invited me to some gay festival in Frankfurt next Saturday. Whether to go or not is still in vague, but I had a great time talking to him and enjoying the glass of apple wine. The only mystery to me is, he seems to be very hateful abut Bavaria. Is it true,chat people from different regions in Germany still have negative opinions about people from other regions? Are some of the German questions today still unsolved?

Thinking about politics is tired… Now going to sleep..

By the way I am staying at the heart of the red light zone in Frankfurt… Nothing dangerous,cut there are always creepy people who too eagerly invite you to their sex clubs…

 I got on the romantic road bus and headed Rothenburg ob Der Tauber. Yesterday’s bike ride left me two tried legs… But that actually made me very happy as I haven’t been working out in Germany… The bus took us to several cities along the romantic road. The sceneries were beautiful as I have seen in various blogs. But the mot fantastic is definitely Rothenburg. This is truly a ancient city! Despite that the city remains the perfect settings of an medieval city, most of the city survived the Second World War. Walking on the town wall, I could see the entire wall that surrounds the city and a huge military fortress to the west end of the city wall. And the postcard scenery, two bridges with a tower… I stayed there for nearly half an hour, taking pictures and enjoying the view. It was truly fantastic! I also had a traditional cuisine at Rothenburg in a beautifully decorated restaurant. All was great.

In the evening I travelled to Würzburg. There was a carnival there! I have heard that in Germany there are lots of festivals. I have seen a few in Leipzig. But seeing a carnival… Wow! I didn’t try any attractions in the carnival such as the roller coaster, because I think this kind of events is best to enjoy with several friends. I am traveling alone, so I just go around in the carnival, enjoying the delightful atmosphere.

After that I had a glass of traditional wine on the oldest bridge of the city. THIS IS WINE MAN!! I know nothing about wine, but this tasted really good.

A little tired but joyful day today.

1. I rent a bike to the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Biking to Hohenschwangau was easy. Listening to Westlife while cycling in the countryside with beautiful natural landscape: this was so relaxing. But the bike ride to Neuschwanstein was not easy at all. The ride was about 2km probably, but the road is going up. I thought it should not be that hard, but actually I was almost out of breath and wet from head to toe when I reached the castle. Ancient Chinese people say that the most beautiful sceneries often lie in places that are hard to reach. At least for the castle, it seems true. Today I biked almost 30km. Most significantly, I rode back from the castle area to Füssen late in the evening at about 10pm. There was no light on the road. I was kinda frightened, and I rode incredibly fast. The cars on the road passed me very slowly. But I arrived at my hostel safely anyways. It was an adventure, and adventures are bound to be dangerous to some degree.

2. The Neuschwanstein. Beautiful both inside and outside. Here I learnt a lot about the kingdom of Bavaria and the king Ludwig II. I think it is cynical, that this king, who did not rule his territory well but spent a large sum of money building things on his own fantasy instead do spending it for his land, was the remembered the best by people today.

3. I wrote yesterday that places with history or stories are much more fascinating than places without them. Here the Neuschwanstein itself presents a lot of stories. Because of Ludwig II’s close relationship with the musician Wagner (真的是超级好基友啊。。对不起这个真的没法用英文表达), there are numerous paintings in the castles that came from Wagner’s opera. The castle is said to be the model for the Disney castle, and they do look very alike. These things make the castle a very attractive place.

4. Another small note: the king’s reading chair is super large,and has almost all the functions one needs while reading. The chair has a book shelf to hold a book and a place to hold water container. It seems that the king like to stay at his room and palace Hahn going out, because he has such great equipments in his castle!

5. Another highlight of the day: watching Shakespeare’s the Taming of the Shrew in the evening. Fantastic show. I read the play last semester during my FWIS class, so it was worth seeing it live. And the money was well worth it! It was super fun, and the actors really played well. I took pictures, but photos along cannot record or show how joyful the play has been. Sometimes some experience can only live in one’s memory, but i believe it will influence the person subconsciously.

Today in Munich. In the morning I visited the Deutsches Museum. Not particularly interesting, thought I spent a lot of time studying sailing technologies. It is amazing that how the ship could remain equilibrium during sailing on the sea still remains an unresolved scientific myth.

Afternoon at the roof of the Olympian park. The boring and hot park suddenly became lively when I learnt the history of the building process of this large tent architecture. I feel a good scenery or landscape is definitely worth going; but if the place has some myth, legends, story or history, it becomes much more fascinating.

The hostel I stayed in Munich was also great. The greatest thing bout youth hotel is that it is lively. People from all over the world gather in the main lounge or the bar, enjoying a drink and chatting with each other. It is also pretty safe. Three times in a row I left my backpack in the luggage room and I still have I today. If I do that in China or even in US I might need to worry about the safety of my stuff.

That was the end of my trip in Munich.

Today arrived at Füssen.

1. I missed the train from Munich to Füssen. I ate some Chinese dish at the main station until I found out I only have two minutes before the train departure. I rushed to the station. I got on the first train I saw. Just as I got on the train, the train beside the one I was on went away. After a few moments when this train didn’t depart, I realized I got on the wrong train.

2. I was very disturbed. The thing that concerned me the most is that I need to arrive at my hotel before nine in the evening. I thought with my missing the train, this is nearly impossible; plus I didn’t have any Internet or cellphone connections.

3. But I was then calm. I thought there’s a solution anyways. Actually I have been thinking in this way since I came to travel. I think this is important: something you don’t know where you are going, and sometimes you have troubles finding ways or something. But I think these things are not at all problems;  as long as one has the courage and curiosity to explore what awaits him/her, one will always find his/her way. I arrived at my hostel 5 minutes late, but I still entered. I would say I am lucky; but also the thought is important.

First of all, how I travelled today.

1. To Mirabell Palace. The two unicorns at the gate of the garden give the place an exotic feeling. All of the statues in the garden look somehow strange, giving the garden a sense of secret.

2. On my way to the old city I met a group of Chinese tourists with a tour guide. I then changed my original plan and followed them for some distance and learnt from the tour guide. The most important thing I learnt was that in the Mozart Cafe there is a very famous dessert called the Noderl, which I previously considered as nothing but an attraction for tourists. I tasted that dessert late in the afternoon, and I was great. Worth the price.

3. I climbed up a hill and on the south side of the river and hd a panoramic scene of the north side of the river. The climbing was fun, although it was kind of demanding, even without any luggage. I then walked all the way and Again to the Hohensalzburg castle. I believe no many tourists have done a tour like this. It was a view of the city from a different angle. That is what I aim to pursue during travel: well planned route+random wandering=surprises and “wow”s.

When I climbed up to the top of the Schloss Hohensalzburg, I immediately fell in love with the city. With mountains, rivers, villages and a sense of a small but popular town, Salzburg is a very cozy place. Especially the castle. I spent an entire 5 hours in the castle, visiting museums, sightseeing, having dinner and listening to a concert. The sight at the tower of the castle was great. Especially you can see the Alps from distance. The clouds dimmed sunlight, and reflected various beams of lights on the mountains. The castle is my favorite castle so far.