Heidelberg

Our trek through Europe continues with a coach ride straight from the World Trade Organization to Heidelberg, Germany. At this point, we have been almost constantly moving from place to place, staying up late and waking up early every day for more than a week. The exhaustion has caught up to us and every person on the bus passed out as soon as the coach began to move. I was certainly one of them; I don't remember a thing until we stopped at our rest stop in the middle of the Swiss Alps, and it is breathtaking. I thought the Alps were stunning on the way to Geneva, but this view of the Alps literally took my breath away.

Me in front of the Swiss Alps

Swiss Alps

 You know, looking back at these photos, the actual image of the Alps in my head doesn't even come close to the marvel that my camera captured. Breathing in the fresh mountain air, looking at a view that honestly looked like it was a green screen because it was so unbelievably gorgeous, surrounded by new, close friends--it's like something out of a movie, except better because you can't experience a movie like that.

After our rest stop, we boarded the bus again to resume our journey to Germany. The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful; the only thing I remember in between dozes was when we reached the Autobahn and I was watching cars zoom past my window. It was honestly a little terrifying, but it was still very cool to be a part of such an iconic bit of Germany.

Heidelberg is not exactly a major, bustling city like that of Frankfurt or Berlin. It is essentially our equivalent of a college town, except our college towns don't exactly have a majestic castle ruin overlooking our town. This was perhaps the quietest part of the journey so far, rivaled only by serene Geneva. We walked to Old Town after checking in to the hotel and then went to dinner at a place that served what can be considered as "traditional" German food. And by traditional, I mean sausages and meat galore, and of course, massive amounts of beer. About twelve us decided to eat in a group, and almost all of us ordered a liter of beer. Because why not, we're in Germany! And when it came, we were shocked because it was massive!

Joseph's liter of beer

Joseph and Joe's liters.
That is an iPhone 6 and a man's hand for comparison.

After a delicious meal (still not quite as good as Paris, sorry Germany), we headed back to the hotel to rest and change before heading out to enjoy Heidelberg's nightlife. We tried to find a place that I had heard about on the internet, but after about twenty, thirty minutes of walking, we couldn't find it...we don't like to talk about that. Actually, I don't, since I was the one leading the way...anyway, we actually found an Irish bar (in a German town, interestingly enough) that also supported the Pittsburgh Steelers. For the Pennsylvanians in our group, it was a goldmine.

The next day, we headed out to Frankfurt to see a presentation by Deutsche Bank, presented by the Vice President of Deutsche Bank, Corinna Fernando. Because we arrived early, we had an opportunity to explore the interactive exhibit that Deutsche Bank had. There were bits about how Deutsche Bank became a world player as well as some very cool art exhibits featuring Deutsche Bank.

Frankfurt. Excuse the Snapchat caption

This is what you see when you look up inside of Deutsche Bank

A floating and moving exhibit that forms into DB's symbol of the slash

Frau Fernando began the presentation with an introduction on the word "bank" and moved into how money and banking was developed through the years. Like almost every presenter before us, she stressed the importance of history and how it has influenced the world we see today. Much of how Deutsche Bank and the economy of Germany operates today resulted from the consequences that Germany faced from World War I and World War II.

Frau Fernando also described how the bank system in Germany worked. It is a 3-pillar system consisting of state-run banks, cooperative banks, and private banks. There are about 1,800 banks in Germany alone. Some of the challenges facing the banks today is the fact that there are too many employees. The cost to hire, keep, and fire an employee is very high, especially so in Germany, where the labor laws make it quite difficult to fire an employee. However, the fact that Deutsche Bank has decided to close branches and lay off a pretty significant number of employees is a sign that DB is in deep trouble. There have been some major changes to Deutsche Bank that will be effective for the first quarter of 2016 in order to make up for the losses they have incurred for the past year or so.

After the presentation at Deutsche Bank, we headed back from Frankfurt to Heidelberg. We had the rest of the day to ourselves, so after changing and finding a place to eat, we headed out to do some souvenir shopping and a walk through Old Town. However, we had no idea that it was a bank holiday in Germany! Almost every store was closed, except for some restaurants (thankfully) and a couple of souvenir shops. We then made our way up towards Schloss Castle (also known as the Heidelberg Castle). The only way to get up there was to traverse a lot of steps. And by a lot, I mean over 300 steps uphill. It was kind of funny and a little sad that some European tourists passed us on our way up, and we were all breathing hard and struggling while they looked to be enjoying a light stroll up a hillside.

It was all worth it in the end though. The view from Heidelberg Castle and the ruins itself were well worth the hard climb up. In a spur of the moment decision, I decided to climb some of the ruins for a photo op, which I'm glad I did!

Me after climbing the ruins!

Heidelberg Castle ruins

I unfortunately can't find a picture of the view from Heidelberg--I accidentally took a video. I'm not very good at this whole picture taking thing apparently! It was still very beautiful!

We headed back down from the Castle after taking in some of its sights and headed to a beer garden we found earlier. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a very local thing since almost no one spoke English and no one in our group spoke German, so it was a bit of a wash. We headed back to the hotel to rest and change before heading out for the night.

Unfortunately, our stay in Germany was too short and we had to pack up for the final leg of our journey to Amsterdam. Germany was an interesting experience--a country that combines sleek efficiency with beauty with a major emphasis on its ability to produce some very tasty alcohol. I had a lot of fun and I wish we could have stayed longer in Germany!