Christmas Break, part 1

I know my posts have slowed considerably since school started in late October, but now that Christmas break is coming to an end (and indeed, in the interim between writing and posting this, has ended), I might as well let you know what I've been up to these two and a half weeks (ahem...those two and a half weeks).
First of all, here's a Christmas picture of me in front of the Christmas tree at St. Johannes-Gemeinde in Oberursel:

I stayed in Oberursel the whole break, since it turned out to be more expensive to travel outside of Germany during the holiday times. RyanAir, which usually offers the cheapest flights in Europe, required triple its normal fare for the first week of January, when I was thinking about going to London. I can't blame them, really, it's a time when many people are traveling and visiting other countries. I'll save my international trips for the semester break in another six weeks or so; RyanAir from Frankfurt (Hahn) to London is only 20 Euros with a small fee for the bus ride to the smaller Hahn airport- very manageable.
So, even for the first week in January, I stayed in Oberursel but made day trips out to various places, all of which were free since students have free travel within about an hour radius from Frankfurt. I visited Wiesbaden before Christmas, museums and churches in Frankfurt after Christmas that I hadn't seen during my first sight-seeing day there, and Marburg after New Year's.

But before I get into my trips, I might as well update you on our New Year's Celebrations. A small group of students congregated in the Student Association Lounge, drinking beer and talking. About fifteen minutes before midnight, we climbed onto the roof of a low building, and from there to various connected roofs until we got to the top of Wohnheim 2, the tallest building on campus. From there we could overlook Frankfurt, since Oberursel is on a bit of a hill overlooking the city. When midnight hit, the city sounded like it was getting fire-bombed- there were quite a lot of fireworks going off around the city. The Germans took full advantage of the only day of the year in which fireworks are permitted. The city looked like it was shimmering with countless fireworks going off every second. In addition, Pastor Wenz turned on the bells in St. Johannes' Gemeinde for a full 25 mins, which was quite impressive. So it was quite a festive evening. I went to bed soon thereafter, since the my stomach wasn't feeling very good- the beer and champagne didn't mix too well.

So, back to the trips! I enjoyed visiting Wiesbaden, but after researching the city and where I wanted to go, I forgot my list of sights to see and the map I was going to bring. The only map I had was my iPad's Apple Maps app, which was very grainy in places. So, I was pretty much going on memory, which isn't a bad thing, but can be very annoying when you know there are more places to go but don't remember when they open or close or what part of the city they're in.
But, the first thing that I had planned was to visit the Neroberg; I wanted to get the hiking out of the way first instead of saving it to last and huffing and puffing up the hill after walking around the city all day. So with fresh legs that begged to be stretched, I made my way up the hill and got a nice view overlooking the city. I took a panorama of the city with a free app on my iPad...I wonder how it turned out. ttp://360.io/NDAHZQ

Down near the overlook where I took the picture was a memorial to the soldiers lost in WWI. There was one large, rectangular block with , then on a pathway down to the overlook, there were individual stones memorialiizing the soldiers lost in each major battle. I took a picture of the one memorializing the Battle of Verdun, which claimed almost 1 million lives and was an extremely bloody battle. I remember also seeing the Somme stone; over 1 million lives were lost in that battle. The whole war was a turning point in war tactics, the cost of which in lives was very dear.

Also on the Neroberg was the Monopteros (one-wing in Greek). See the picture below There used to be a hotel, but it burned down in 1989, and all that's left is a tower.

Also on the hill and only a short walk away was the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Elizabeth. With its five golden domes, it was very beautiful. Pictures inside weren't allowed (as expected), but here's a few pictures of the outside.

After that I visited the two churches that I had remembered, and took a few pictures of some monuments throughout the city.

The Marktkirche- with the red sandstone that is so popular in this area.

"Our Kaiser Friedrich, in love and gratitude"

The Bath of Wiesbaden, now a casino

St. Boniface's Church

The Bergkirche- a small, quaint, yet very beautiful church

I enjoyed seeing a painting of David with the harp on the organ.

And, remnants of an old Roman wall/fortification.

"Pagan Wall- a Roman bulwark under Valentinian I, about 370 A.D.

Roman Gate- closure of the breach 1902-1903 through Felix Genzmer"

So that's the end of my Wiesbaden trip. You can see the whole album of pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151296174418788.496240.500163787&type=1&l=104e30bc56

I figured I might as well get a blog post off, since I haven't written since Christmas Day. I'm traveling this weekend to Hamburg to see my dad's cousin (he would therefore be my cousin, once removed, right?), Richard Stotz. He and his family live there, and I look forward to see him and whoever of his family will be there. I usually enjoy writing blog posts while traveling on the train, so expect a few when I get back. I have a few already planned in my mind; I just need to write them out, and that's done best when I have scenery whizzing by.

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