A Word From the Middle Ages
On Sunday, we all got up and went on our first class excursion. We went on a charter bus to a small town called Bacharach. The town is famous for its well-preserved town fortification dating from the 14th century. Bacharach is a typical german countryside town, on the Rhine River, with small streets and half-plank houses. The main church was destroyed during WWII; another one now replaces it. After breakfast in a small "kafe," we all got onto the boat for our Rhine River cruise. The boats goes up and down the river stopping at each small town; like a taxi. All the way down the Rhine are vineyards on the hillsides and old castles on the mountain tops. Bonn is situated at the northern part of the Riesling wine valley.
We got off the boat in a town called Braubach. We had lunch at an authentic German restaurant that served us german Zigeuner Schnitzel (roosted peppers with Schnitzel) and Jägerschnitzel (mushrooms with Schnitzel). It was very heavy, but good. We then hiked up to the only remaining original medieval castle (in Germany) not destroyed by bombing. The castle had a moat, three main gates, an entire garden (with fruit frees, vegetables, and herbs), an out house (that fertilized the garden), wine cellar, massive kitchen, dinning room, music room, bedroom, game-room, weaving-room, and toucher chamber. An interesting fact, alot of english words come from the medieval period. "Pig Headed" comes from a medieval toucher cage device that was put around the head of a person. The device had a snout looking thing with a very heavy ball attached with a chain. The person wore this naked and (becuae of the weight) was pulled down the the ground on all fours. Being naked (pink) and walking on all fous though the mud, the person looked like a pig. This deice was used when people got angry/stubborn at each other. So "don't be so pig headed" was a "word from the middle ages, we still use to date" (quote from our tour guide). We were all exhausted after this long day, took the hour bus ride home, and went to sleep.