Back from ... somewhere

Okay, I have been "away" for quite some time. Where have you been, you may ask. Well, I have been nowhere in particular (I wish I had): Bamberg and a few days at my parents.

So, everyone who wanted to see me had to come to Bamberg. And I was fortunate enough and family and friends made their way to the gorgeous city of Bamberg. I am not sure, but I think I never ever posted some pictures.

First of all my brother Mario and my sister-in-law Anita finally visited me in my chosen student-town. It was the first time in 5 years that they made it. I did a guided tour around the city centre and told them all the interesting stories - I am a history student, so I better know the mediveal history of the town!

little Venice (with my university library on the right hand side)

inside the "Alte Hofhaltung" where the Bamberg-King-Murder took place in 1208 and the Catheral (with four towers)

here you can see the other two bell towers

inside Bamberg Cathedral

At the moment Bamberg celecbrates: 1000 years of the Bamberg Diocese (1007-2007)
Therefore there are various exhibitions, light installations (like here in the cathedral) and other events going on around the city.

New Residence

inside the Rose Garden behind the New Residence (with my brother Mario)

Rose Garden

St. Michael Monastery (picture taken from the Rose Garden)

entry to St. Michael's chapel

Bamberg city - I live somewhere close to the yellowish church

Altenburg

Over the next few weeks I had some more visitors: Petra and my friends from "Inspiration" - my choir.

I had not seen Petra for 3 years. First of all she only returned in summer after 12 months in New Zealand and before that she was studying in Hannover - so somehow we had not seen each other for ages. But that did not matter. It was good to have her here and as she is in Nurnberg at the moment to get her Waldorf teaching degree, I hope to see her more often from now on.

My friends from Inspiration had planned a trip to Bamberg for ages and unbelievingly they finally found their way to the RAMA DAMA - the yearly open shopping sunday when all shops open up their storages, so it is a kind of huge car boot sale! That was great, but I fell out of the car that day and had a nasty bruse for 2 weeks!

However, when I was at home one of the weekends in October, we had visitors from Hemsbach: my confirmation godmother and her family. We made a trip to the potash pit in Merkers. It was really great, even though we looked a bit stupid!

This pit is quite famous. During WWII the Nazis brought all their gold and presious picutres and other art from Berlin to the pit to protect them from the bombings and to hide it from the Americans. Of course they finally found it when the war was over. Some of the gold and pictures somehow got lost afterwards...

During the German separation Merkers was part of the GDR. They found this kristal-cave and they were afraid to tell the authorities because they were sure that they would sell it out to get "West-Mark". So they decided to tell no one and the secret was kept until the Berlin Wall came finally down. Now it is one of the major attractions of the pit, because it is the largest kristal-cave in Europe.

the "deepest grafiti" in the world

The next few weeks will be hell - after Christmas. The exams are coming up and as you see from the timetable on the right, it is a tough one: 17 exams in 3 1/2 months! So wish me luck everyone and don't worry, if I do not post as often as I used to be.