The Cartbahn

This place was awesome. The movie and pictures probably don't do it justice. I wasn't quite last the whole time but it was fun anyway. Losing didn't really matter when you were having fun doing it.

The track

... again

and the Cart... These things went up to about 40 mph and 55 kmph. They were really fun little karts

The host mothers went up to an overlooking outside dining area and were able to take these pictures/movie. The kart that my host mother ended up following may not have been me but it doesnt matter.

After each race we were given something which was a very friendly gesture. After the first race we recieved a drink, the second a hat, and the third a lanyard all bearing the name "Ralf Shumacher Kart und Bowl".

St. Peter Ording

St. Peter Ording was a small town in Northern Germany that borders the North Sea. We had a good time at the beach with Anton's Host Family and mine.

Me, Anton, and Marco

I think that's Me and and Anton way out there. This is the North Sea. A very nice view and VERY salty!

We dug these horizontal trenches about 3 inches deep, then stacked these fragile, elongated clam or oyster shells that were strewn about above it. Then we covered it with sand making it a formidable trap for your foot.

We couldn't resist testing our handiwork.

The North Sea from a hill/pasture near Marco's grandparents house. I had to get a picture.

A saw a cool church from the road and just like a tourist (which was I trying to avoid) embarrassingly asked if we could pull over and get a picture.

This was a dam on a river flowing out to the North Sea

... and the plaque which I cant read... oh well.

And the North Sea from the viewpoint

A statue of the "pioneers" who built the city

I just thought that this view was pretty cool. I really like this style of roofing

 A couple of towers

The street in St. Peter-Ording

A really cool door I saw

Mini Cooper!!! Yay

I really like that style of roofing

Look at that word in the middle! Wow!

The street! How cool!

Another cool roof

The restaurant we ate at that night! First German fare!

Windmills!! They were all over the place there!

A cool shipping channel

Luneburg

As a prelude Luneburg is a city which is upwards of a 1000 years old and has for the most part survived WWII which has left a good impression of the medieval times in and around the area. The architecture is beyond description on the Rathaus (Town Hall - which incidentally I did not get very good pictures of).

These are the small houses bordering the small harbor

Notice the intricate (especially for medieval times) patterns in the masonry and the woodwork with it

The small (and medieval shipping vessel style) boat in the small harbor with the small houses bordering it

The small harbor. You can see my teacher on the deck (on the left) taking a picture of us.

Black Brick was the most expensive building material in the middle ages. If your house was built of it your were very wealthy. Incidentally, this person, in the middle ages, had his house constructed of regular bricks and then had them painted black.

Another woodwork-masonry integration. Also, notice the stone bordering the curvature doorway near the mid-bottom. It was made to look like a large rope on a ship hence the name rope stone. If you had this on your house you were affiliated with the sea in some way. Many houses then had symbolism on them, especially in that era.

I couldn't resist :) Cool huh?

This is a picture of one of two manual human hamster wheels inside of a medieval crane. The people who worked on or in them ran on the wheels in 3-4 hour shifts without a break and a foreman like guy stood at the front which was facing the outside and would shout instructions to the runners like "faster!" "slower!" "stop!" etc all in German of course.

Cool buildings. Notice the stair step design on the roof of the second-to-left building. The more you had on your place of residence, the wealthier you were... again, building symbolism.

Two different pictures of the town hall (rathaus). Obviously it is very decorative and ornate. If you look closely you can see a fountain in front which was a meeting place for that day.

Once again, the stair step.

Der Initial Take

Though the wake up caused by the bump on the runway in Frankfurt may have spurred some intial unhappiness, it disappeared so fast that I can hardly remember it. On my home continent, I never pick a camera and don't appreciate others pointing one at me, but the first thing I do when on another continent is pick up my camera and snap a low-quality picture out of a window. Oh well. The first things I noticed were that everything was written in German (duh :) ), that they have cool liscense plates, and everyone has cool, small, sleek cars. The streets are rather small in places so cars have to to offset from each other parked on either side. It kind of makes for a checkboard street. Sorry KR, I'm for Germany, not the Netherlands. Here are some first-time-in-the-country pics.