My First Excursion in Germany

I`m Hema, an Erasmus exchange student from Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India. I`m doing my Erasmus exchange semester at RheinAhrCampus. 

It is the beginning of the semester. I reached Germany and as soon as the quarantine was over, I had the Covid-test at the testing center in Remagen. And yes the result was negative and it was the beginning of my journey at the RheinAhrCampus in Remagen.

                                                          

It was a great start. Do you know why? Because it started with an excursion. Yes! Right when I entered the campus, they had organized an excursion to Cologne. Both the old and the new international students were invited for the excursion with the core team members of Sprachen/Internationales Laurance and Selsela. We had International students from India, Azerbaijan, Germany and Georgia. It was under the supervision of Laurence and the coordinators for the excursion were Azar and Pravesh. We met at the Remagen Hauptbahnhof (Central Station). From there we took a train to Köln Hauptbahnhof. And yes! We reached the largest and the oldest city in Germany “Cologne”.

                                                        

First we visited the medieval Catholic Cologne Cathedral. We had Laurence and Sebastien elucidating about the Cathedral. I got to know from them that it is one of the tallest Cathedral in the world and it took several hundred years to build the cathedral. I was able to see that the cathedral was still being renewed. I was impressed by the interior and the architecture which was in Romano Gothic style.

                                                      

Then came the challenge. We really wanted to go to the top of the South Tower and see the view from there. And do you know what? We had to climb around 500 stone steps of the spiral staircase to reach the top of the South Tower. But of course, the result was fruitful. We had a panoramic view in all directions of the downtown Cologne, the Rhine and top view of the Hohenzollern Bridge.

                                                      

Then we visited the Romano-Germanic Museum. Laurence and Elene explained us that it is an archaeological site. They showed us the Dionysus mosaic which is a unique mosaic and how it depicts the connection of the Roman and the German culture. It had an extensive collection of Roman glass vessels.

                                      

Then we had a nice talk and lunch near the Rhein. It was Pizza and Reissdorf Kölsch. After which we took a walk to the Cologne’s Old Town.

                                                  

We ended the excursion by crossing the Rhine through The Hohenzollern Bridge. Tim briefed us about the bridge. He said, it had both railway and road bridge and it is affixed by couples as a sign of love and commitment. We saw number of love padlocks fixed to the bridge. We crossed the bridge by foot and the views from the far side made the walk worthwhile.  

                                                  

This was completely a new experience for me. I was finding myself amidst wide variety of people and felt elated for I got the opportunity to interact with them. It’s been just a month since I reached RheinAhrCampus, Germany and I already feel like I have learned and enjoyed so much in a month.

Hemavarni from Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.