Today was my last full day in Deutschland, albeit a successful one.
Observation 25.
You know those crutches that hook around your arms and that you automatically associate with a born disability, like the one Jimmy from south park uses? In Germany, if you have even the slightest limp, you use those.
Observation 26.
For the best, most fit people in the world, Hitler, you Germans sure do have a crap-ton of deformities
Observation 27.
Have you ever noticed that the harder you look for something, once you find it, the more common it becomes? (ie, I had two bratwursts today)
Alright, so, remember that the last time I slept was 3PM yesterday.
I got back from the lab this morning, downed two cups of coffee, and took a fifteen minute nap. Apparently this can make one feel alert for a long period of time- it made me feel caffeinated and tired at the same time. Anyway, I took the bus to the trains station ("Hauptbahnhof") and after fumbling with the German ticket machine and ultimately getting some help from the attendant, I was on the 9:30 train to Worms (with a change at Mannheim- kind of like changing at Jamaica). I always assumed the tourist helper/travel agent people at the train stations were supposed to speak English, but when I arrived at Worms Hbf, the woman didn't speak a lick of it. She did know the word for "map" though so that was okay. Anyway, I had decided that I would plan my trip for Worms once I got a map, and since this map was terrible, I did no planning. I was pretty sad but decided I'd have to start somewhere, so I found the Jewish Cemetery (the oldest Jewish Cemetery in Europe, mind you) and walked around, said some prayers, etc. I couldn't read any individual graves (they were all in Yiddish and/or Hebrew) but I could tell that they were damn old. The one grave I did see was the oldest one in the cemetery- from 1070AD.
After that, I kind of wandered towards the main cathedral when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a colorful sheet of paper with lots of notes on it. Proud of me for being so respectful at his house of worship, I'm pretty sure G-d himself placed it there- a full color map of Worms, complete with two walking tour routes of the city, labels for the twenty attractions, and facts about all twenty. Made my day far more enjoyable.
Before I talk about seeing the City, let me talk about the city itself. Worms is really old and has some fantastic pieces of architecture. However, there is almost no context as all the buildings are built in completely different styles. Heidelberg has an "old city," and even though all of the buildings are from post 1750, they have a theme that ties them together, one that even the modern buildings try to either match or back down from. In Worms, people just built whatever, wherever, so you have a mess of architectural styles, mostly gross modern Walter Gropius apartment buildings that make most of the city look kind of like Central American slums. In addition, the only way I think I can describe Worms is in comparison to Heidelberg- Heidelberg is classy, Worms is trashy. Both cities take pride in their culture, but while Heidelberg tries to fit in with it, shape it, and apply it, Worms flaunts it- it only matters to them that they are "Germany's Oldest City;" they don't care about what it is that makes them the oldest. Lets make an American comparison. If Heidelberg is an auto show, Worms is a NASCAR event. Also, in general, the people in Worms are either mullet-bedecked or hair straightened cigarette smoking teenagers, dark old fat people, and deformed adults. Not a single pretty blond-haired German college girl in sight.
Not to say I didn't enjoy the town; I loved it. I just wanted to point this out.
Anyway, my tour took me all about the town- mostly to places where Martin Luther went, thought, and spoke during the Diet of Worms. These were fairly uninteresting since most of these sites have since been replaced by modern monuments and because I think Martin Luther was a huge asshole. Anyway, then I got to some of the real interesting parts- before WWII, Worms had a very large Jewish population and an extraordinarily old synagogue dating from the 1030s. Though most of the Jeiwsh Quarter ("Judengasse") was destroyed during Krystallnacht, after the war the stones and debris was used to rebuild the quarter which now serves as a sort of modern museum. The synagogue itself also has an extremely old mikvah (pool used for spiritual and religious purposes, kind of like a baptismal font) and some relics from before it was destroyed the first time. After seeing the temple (which has a memorial in it for Worms' holocaust victims attempting to name all of them, fyi) and saying a prayer for the dead, I went off to see some more of the city. The tour took me to a few monasteries dating from the 1400s, the Nibelungen bridge (with a really wacky looking tower, look it up), past one of very few Renaissance-era buildings still privately owned, and onto the town hall. Also, the entire thing led along the Old town wall, parts of which date back to the Roman Era, but most of which have been reused as parts of homes or museums and stuff.
The tour ended with the Cathedral, built in the Romanesque style in the 12th century. It was gorgeous- built in stone, and the altar was about the size of my house and all gold. There were loads of stone reliefs on the walls and the church was so massive, whenever a noise was made it seemed to reverberate to infinity. It was pretty kickass.
Anyway, after seeing the cathedral my feel hurt, it was lunch time, and I felt as like it was time to go to sleep. There was a museum of Worms' history and I didn't want to see it but would have felt guilty if I missed it, but it ended up being closed so I meandered back to the Hbf, grabbed a pretzel, and passed out on the train. When I arrived back at the Heidelberg Hbf, a bratwurst cart mysteriously appeared on the platform, so I had a massive brat sandwich for only 2 bucks. Even better- the guy started talking to me in German, I looked at him blankly, and then he began to speak Italian. HE THOUGHT I WAS ITALIAN (i think.) Finally, I got to the bus stop and laughed with an old man about how "Deutsch" is "Tedesco" in Italian (he asked me what language I spoke and I was already on a roll so...) since "Tedesco" was the only Italian word he knew (He spoke zero English, I later confirmed) and Deutsch is just about the only German word I know.
Then, instead of going back to the Kernphysikalisches Institut, I decided I would spend my last day in Heidelberg overlooking the city, so I took my bus to the last stop, the aptly named "Königstuhl ("King's Throne"), a 550 meter peak and the tallest mountain in the Neckar River valley. It was a clear day and you could see everything for about 35km- you could even see Worms through the little observer glasses!
So that's about it, and this would be my last journal entry for my trip to Germany. I hope you enjoyed reading it, because I sure as hell enjoyed experiencing it, and maybe next time I leave the country I'll actually have someone to go with so I don't develop a German accent simply because the only person I have to speak to is Dietrich.
