Wiesbaden. The capitol

Hallo again,

On Tuesday, I had a very special treat.  We as a group.  The group of people in my language course and orientation program got to travel to Wiesbaden.  This city is the Capitol of Hessen.  The trip took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there from Marburg.  It was through the green rolling hills of Germany.  It was a very beautiful trip.  I quite enjoy the landscape here.  Anyway the first thing we got to do was tour the capitol building.  (Landtag is the German word for it).  We got to see all the parliament offices and the actual location where things happen.  It was in a circle to allow the talking of everyone.  We were able to hear just how State government in Germany works.  It was a very cool tour, but the best is still to come.

After the tour, we went to the hot springs.  The city of Wiesbaden was made on hot springs.  It grew very fast once people started to realize they could make money off of them.  The "baden" in Wiesbaden means bath.  So the city is just one big bath.  The water though tasted like a rotten egg mixed with a sweaty sock that was put in the mircowave for 2 and a half minutes.  It also had arsenic in the water.  So thank God I bought that $60 insurance to bring my remains back to my P.O. box if I die.

The hot springs were cool, but the Castle was the coolest part.  The Schloss Fruedenberg is a castle in the outskirts of town that consisted of ways to test your senses.  It was three stories of different challenges and different sense testing objects.  They two "dark" rooms where you had to find your way out and also to order a beer.  It was to see how you would be blind.  I did pretty well, but I do love my eyes.  The Castle was definitely the coolest part of the day.  We just got to see, touch, feel, and hear so many cool things.

I shall post pictures now...

This a a really cool church.  The people who made it wanted it to be different and all the rest of the churches.  It is made out of brick not stone. 

The new Rathaus.  Town house.  The old one was destroyed in WWII and this is a  rebuild.

The Landtag.  The made it look so simple but inside is beautiful. 

This is how we do it!! Gauthier and I.  

Really love the blues. 

Another shot of the church.  There are a lot of pictures of the church. 

The Rathaus with the German Eagle in the front.

Hessischer Langtag. State Parliament.

This is the history of Hessen in a nutshell.  I don't know how, but that is what they said. 

Told you.

The Parliament room.  It was really cool to compare to the State Government back home.  These guys make a little bit more than our State officials.  They make about 120,000 Euros and year. 

German Eagle again.

Inside the meeting rooms of the Landtag.

Very dark picture. This is the President's room though. 

Lighter picture of Pres' room.

Everything was so detailed!

Prasident of Hessen

 So much detail. 

You can read it.  

I think it is funny that we didn't even notice the mirror until after the picture was taken. 

Rotunda.  

Rotunda's Chandelier 

That would take for ever to light the candles. 

Her arms have got to be tired. 

All of it is Hand done. 

The bottom of the Chandelier. 

Like I said...I told you so. 

My friend from Egypt. 

Yep...

This is where you can go and drink the Hot Spring's water. 

Just a cool building

Volcanoes in Germany!! This is apart of the Hot Springs. 

The minerals are amazing. 

Roman wall in Weisbaden

View from the Roman Wall

More of the wall. 

Roman relics 

Again from the wall. 

Relics

yep more relics.

and more...

Inside the church that I took all those pictures of. 

I really like the blue ceiling. 

Rawr. 

Organ. 

Up front of the church.  

Really interesting statutes 

I went crazy with the church. 

The Schloss Freudenburg.

The walk up. 

The date was wrong...or we read it wrong.  

Castle's back yard.  So fun!

It is a plain looking Castle.  They built it that way so people wouldn't get jealous. 

A gong room. 

It tested your hearing.  We all screamed on the count of three and all the gongs rang.  

The middle floor.  All visual illusions. 

You wet your hands and then rub them on the handles.  If you do it right, you can see the vibrations. 

The start of the second floor. 

Tornado!! We have those.

 So I have this video of a guy playing the gongs.  But Blogger won't let me upload it.  So if you want to see you just email me or see me in August.

Well it's 5:16 and I am going to cook some supper.

See ya,

Seth