Back from Germany...

Hi all. As most of you already know, I was in Germany, but am now back in beautiful LA. It actually made me kind of sick when I looked out of the airplane window. All I could see was nice looking suburbs with a green tree in front of every house continuing, uninterupted into the brown smog. For some inexplicable reason, it is really obvious that LA is a desert, but maybe that is just my reaction to the color of the air. If you haven't figured it out yet, I don't really like LA very much.

Just to put it out there before I embark upon my travel log, I am going to participate in the Wake Forest debate tournament in North Carolina, from September 17 through 19. Needless to say, I would be thouroughly disappointed if, after travelling all the way across the country, no one came to keep me company. Other first semester prospects: Saint Marks in Dallas, Texas, The Glenbrooks in Chicago, and Manchester in Massachusetts. I'll get back on those.

Now, the following is a rather long winded account of my travels, so be warned and don't blame me if you get really bored reading it. Actually, now that I look at it, it is really, really long.

After leaving TASP, I flew directly to Germany, watching movies the whole way 1. to keep myself from thinking too much about everyone and breaking down crying and 2. because it was the first time I had had one of those private monitors for my seat, and I was impressed that I could see movies the whole time. I got to Germany early and had to wait around the Munich airport, which wasn't too bad because the terminal is brand new and really cool (the computer monitor at every help desk is designed by Porshe, there is barely a person in the entire airport, and, although we only found this out on our way home to America, they have a beer garden in the airport). The next day I took a day trip to Augsburg with my dad and saw the oldest stained glass windows in the world in, perhaps, the ugliest cathedral in the world (except, maybe, the LA cathedral, which looks like a huge factory or a pile of shit). The day after that we left for Belgium from, perhaps, the ugliest building in the world (the Munich Central train station). We headed towards Belgium and stopped for a night in Aachen, Charlamagne's capitol and the location of the coronations of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire for several centuries. We then continued to Antwerp, stopping for a few hours in Mechelen to see the cathedral. Two nights in Antwerp, the home of Rubens, van Dyke, Jacob Jordeans (notice the remarkable similarity to the name of our good friend Jordan Jacks), Ruckers, and the printer, Plantin. Then we continued to Gent, which is quite picturesque with three churches within view of each other and a great medieval castle. The cathedral also holds the famous Adoration of the Lamb alter by the van Eyke brothers. One night there and then two nights in Bruges, the biggest tourist attraction in northern Europe. The tourists were really tough to handle and made the, otherwise, charming center of the medieval city feel like Disneyland. Once we fought our way out of the center and explored some of the lesser known medieval churches and alleyways, however, we could really taste the essence of Bruges, as the entire city, not just the center, is completely preserved. The museums are also surprisingly empty, although they are in in the middle of the most frequented parts of the city and absolutely fabulous (my favorite was an old hospital with, I think, nine Memling paintings).

We then continued to Tournai where all Hell broke loose (it gets its own paragraph). First of all, there were no cabs from the train station, so we had to walk with our bags. Luckily the walk wasn't too far, but it was a bad omen. Then our hotel on the main square announced, when we arrived, that they had not recieved our reservation. We were redircted to another hotel which although dirt cheap, had really uncomforatable beds and no showers in the rooms. Even that was tolerable however. We found signs that declared that the cathedral was opening at two, so we had a nice long lunch, considering we had time to burn. After lunch however, we walked over to the cathedral only to find that it was still closed. After walking around it several times checking all the doors and telling the tour guides that asked that, "no, the front door wasn't open either", we discovered at the entrance to the cathedral treasury, that the day before the cathedral had been closed for repairs. The enormous implication of this was too much for my Dad. You see, the cathedral, with a romanesque nave and transcept and a high gothic choir, is supposed to be the most beautiful in Belgium and even if one considers it too subjective to compare them all, my dad does have a particular fondness for ealry medieval architecture, and almost everything in Belgium is fairly late; in any event, this cathedral was supposed to be the high point of the trip. You can immagine my Dad's reaction: he sort of whispered to my Mom to "at least get the church guide", except there were four or five either fucks or fuckings in there somewhere, and then he exited the shop. He was kind of sulky for the rest of the day, and finding the romanesque church on the main square also closed, he definitively declared that there was not another thing to see in the entire city. We did end up walking quite a ways to find another medieval church, but the city itself was poorly preserved. No one slept all night, and the next day we were happy to leave.

Brussles was much better. The Musee de Beaux Arts was absolutly amazing, aside from being the subject of an Audin poem. The cathedral was, of what we had successfully seen, perhaps the most harmonious work of architecture and could easily have rivaled a French cathedral. The next morning however, at the site of another Audin poem, the Garre de Midi, we found that we had missed our train back to Germany, and my Dad declared that this was the worsed thing that had ever happened to us in the history of all our travels and he cursed a good deal. When my sister actually ended up asking for help, however, we got seats for the train two hours after what our planned departure had been. The last stop on the way back to Munich was Cologne. We saw three of the twelve Romanesque churches of the city and, of course, the cathedral in addition to some Roman ruins.

Our hotel had the most amazing view of the Cologne cathedral. Because of our need to get an early getaway the next morning, we had to find a hotel close to the trainstation. As a result, we were also close to the cathedral. That night there was a huge thunderstorm and we had the most amazing spectacle ever out of our window. We could see the dark form of the largest Gothic church ever built which was itself an amazing sight against the night sky. On top of that however, the storm was direcly behind the cathedral and periodically, brilliant flashes of lighning would light up the entire sky and the cathedral. It was raining fairly hard, and we could see the rain hitting the two towers of the cathedral almos horizontally, pouring huge quantities of water through the gargoyles. And of course the crashes of thunder merely added to the experience. The show was so absorbing that it was the first time that I was living entirely in the present. Afterwords, however, my brain wouldn't let the moment slip and made the connection, however weak, to the fireworks that we tried to see at TASP.

We got back to Munich without incedent and after taking 900 pictures on the trip. A few days later I went with my Dad to Regensburg and a day after that, I went with him to the best Classical CD store in Munich and, although he had been there twice before that summer, he spent 150 dollars on more cds.

Everyone is getting a postcard from my travels to and within Belgium. I've been thinking of everyone and missing you terribly. I look forward to seeing people and strongly encourage anyone to call me or visit me. I love you all.