Wow! We had a snowstorm yesterday that was very impressive!! It came down so heavily, it looked like one of those plays on a high school stage with a scene about snow and some teenage kid dumping fake snow on the scene with a bucket. It only lasted about 20 minutes, though. It was wild to watch. Today, it is a lovely pretty snow, and the temperatures aren't expected above freezing for at least the next week.
My question yesterday asked what the top ten German cities were. I purposefully left it very open ended, so that I could give you a bit more information. And some of my lists may be something other than 10, depending on the category.
First, I will start by population. This is actually a hard thing to do, though, because once you drive around Germany for a bit, you realize there are thousands of little tiny villages, and not so many big cities. But of the cities, here they are, based on information from the CityMayors Statistics website, in order from most populated to least: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Essen, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, and Bremen. A majority of these cities are located in the north or west side of Germany, with Essen, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, and Cologne all located within about 50 kilometers of each other (Ok, kids, how many miles is that? Also, see if you can find these cities on a map.) Although Berlin is quite large, even by American city standards: 3,275,000 inhabitants, the tenth largest, Bremen, is only 527,900. Compare that to the top and tenth most populous cities in the US at New York with 8,085,742 people versus Detroit with 911,402.
Next, I will list by 10 best, according to the http://www.mytopdozen.com/ site: Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Bielefeld, and Stuttgart. The next one on this list is one I have heard much about: Rotthenburg, which is a wonderful town that really has that old world look that we all crave when thinking about Germany. Another beautiful city worth visiting is Bamburg, and for World War II buffs, Nuremburg - whose city was completely rebuilt to its original state after the war. I do have to admit that I have not heard of two of these cities, so perhaps I will explore them a little more on a future blog and then go see them for myself.
Now for 10 locales everyone should see while here, per the official German Tourism Website: Cologne Cathedral, Cologne; Neuschwanstein , Schwangau; Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg; Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin; Church of Our Lady, Dresden; Marienplatz, Munich; German Emigration Center, Bremerhaven; Saxony Switzerland, a national park near Dresden; Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, and the Bavarian Alps - where we live and along the southern border of Germany. I have been to three of these sites, but it looks like I have some more travelling to do to catch up. Fortunately, one will happen in two weeks when we have a friend from South Carolina coming for a visit. One of our train stops is in the Marienplatz part of Munich. Yeah! And of course there are so many places I didn't mention. Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Passion Play that happens in 2010 (and only every 10 years) while we are here in Oberammergau, Formula One car racing, wine festivals, Oktoberfest in Munich. Can I really confine it to just the top 10?? ;-)
As an extra challenge, I recommend you do an internet search on the cities and places I mentioned. There is just so much to learn and so many wonderful pictures to see. Then, some day I highly recommend coming over to see these places in person!!
The word for the day is to visit: besuchen (bay zoo chen - yeah, it's the cat sound for the ch again.)
The question for the day is "Do Germans celebrate Valentine's Day?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
