München Germany

I finally made it, I got to go to Munich and see my favorite soccer clubs stadium, and it was amazing! The stadium is huge, and in fact can hold up to around 71,000 fans. Depending on the seat you get it could cost you anywhere from 150 euros to 300,000 euros a season. Trust me though, even though the 150 euros seems cheap enough there is a very long list of people all trying to get these cheap tickets. The chances of getting them would be like winning the lottery. Allianz Arena is home to FC Bayern München and fun fact, each season the players on the team get a brand new Audi that they have to drive around for the season, when the season is over and the new one starts guess what, they get another brand new Audi. I only assume they end up returning the previous Audi but either way that isn't even part of the contracted amount of money they get. Also, currently the stadium has three different light options for the outside of the stadium, they can light it up Red (usually done when Bayern has an away or home game), white (usually when the Germany national team plays) or blue (when the other less known Munich soccer team plays). If you haven't ever seen pictures of the Allianz Arena when it is lit up you should, I would post a picture of it here but unfortunately when we went to the stadium it was not late enough in the day for the stadium to be lit up. This is a model version of the stadium that was in the Museum however.

There are so many more facts about the stadium I could ramble on about but for the most part what you need to know is, the stadium cost about 340 million Euros to build.... which is about 480 million dollars.... which was built back in 2005 so the numbers may be a bit under what they should be for today.

 

Well now that I have pretty much talked your arm off about the stadium, let me talk to you about the rest of Munich. The BMW museum is pretty amazing, it of course has a lot of cars and bikes that BMW made and it also has a small section of Rolls Royce cars.

One of my favorite cars at the BMW museum though, would have to be this car.

The BMW car that was used in the James Bond movie, Goldeneye! Now quick side note this was the car model that was used, not this exact car I am standing by. But still pretty awesome. Now next to this BMW Museum is the Olympic park, however there was a bike race going on so we were unable to get very close to the stadiums used.

Now, no trip to Munich would be complete without seeing the main city, and man is it a pretty city. One of the biggest churches I have ever seen sits in the main city.

Along with this church there is also a lot of other government buildings and churches. But if you ever end up making it to Munich there is one place that you absolutely must go. And that is the Hofbräuhaus. It is one of the biggest beer gardens in Munich and is pretty famous or its atmosphere. Not only is the 1 liter of beer good, but of course the food is as well. If I had more time in Munich I would have defiantly tried to drink more because there is so many different types of beer that they have.

 Well I think that is all I have for now, oh one quick side note! The 1 liter of beer that they have at HB, it has about 7% alcohol in it so in American beer you would have to drink about 2 liters... but trust me if there is one thing I have learned while in Germany. It is that beer in America has a while to go before it reaches German level.

Till next time,
Jonathan Stahl

 

Ludwigsburg Castle

Ludwigsburg Castle,

this castle is by far one of the most amazing things I have visited so far since being here in Stuttgart. It is a gigantic castle with a beautiful scenery around it. As you can some what tell from the picture above, and yes that circle behind me is in fact a gigantic fountain. It is hard to describe the castle in words, trust me it is better to see it in person then to look at pictures but I will give it a shot. The picture above is the "backyard" of the castle and is actually built somewhat into the ground. By this I mean that if you go in through the door and walk to the other side you will be on a balcony overlooking the courtyard which looks like this. 

Again, there is a fountain that is in the middle. As you can somewhat see on the right, there is in fact a wedding reception taking place. The day I went to the castle there was six weddings that were taking place in the castle. So it is a popular place to have a wedding. Anyway, the castle is also surrounded by gardens on three of the four sides. Which of course are all quiet amazing looking. 

As you can probably imagine the castle was built more for leisure then it was protection. In fact, it was built by the very man that started the city of Ludwigsburg, who died before the castle was completely built. Another interesting fact about the castle is that they wanted to use marble in the inside of the castle but since it was not a big resource in Germany, they instead used other material and then made a paste like paint to cover the walls and make it look like it was marble. This also allowed them to use different colors instead of just one. Unfortunately, pictures where not allowed to be taken inside the castle, even though one of the guys in our tour group kept falling behind so he could take pictures... But anyway, for the most part there was a lot of rooms. A cool feature of the castle as well was you could stand at the very end of the castle on the Kings side, and look all the way down the hall to the other end of the Queens side of the Castle. 

If you ever make it to Stuttgart, I highly recommend taking a trip to Ludwigsburg and seeing the castle you wont regret it. Well that is all from me for now, I will have more soon as I am heading to Münich on Saturday. So stay tuned! 

Jonathan Stahl

First Week in Germany

Hello to all my readers!


It is hard to believe that I have been in Germany now for a week already! Luckily, today is a holiday here in Germany so I thought today would be a good time to catch everyone up on what I have been up to. It has been an amazing time so far though. I am working in a lab here at the Stuttgart Campus (more like the science part of the campus). So far research is going well, I have already made part of the molecule that I am suppose to be making. Here is some pictures of the lab I am working in.

Its a pretty big lab actually, there are 5 graduate students that work in the lab. It has been cool to work in the lab though because it is so much different then labs in college courses. Mostly because, you are able to work at your own pace, meaning if I am working on a reaction for the day, and get it done early, I can leave and go home. Also, it is nice to be able to work on something that I have more control of how I complete the lab instead of being told how to exactly complete the process. In the lab I am working, it is very common to go eat lunch and then after lunch to go have coffee break right after. Which I find very relaxing. It is different though how much more relaxed everyone seems to be here when it comes to there jobs, for example, most places are not open past 4 during the week and no stores are open on Sunday. 

Old Castle

Luckily I didn't spend all my time in the lab this week, and was able to go and see the Altes Schloß (or the old castle) in Stuttgart. Unfortunately, the castle was closed when we arrived so I was only able to get pictures of the outside of the castle. It is also next to the New Castle which is currently being used for the German government building here in Stuttgart. However, it is still a very pretty area to be at especially during the weekend when everyone is out on the lawn relaxing.The New Castle is the one that is pictured below, I couldn't get a good picture of the whole building because the statue that stands in front of the building is being repaired.

New Castle

New Castle

I was also able to go to both the Mercedes and Porsche Museum here in Stuttgart. Now a lot of people like the Mercedes Museum more then the Porsche one because it is 8 stories tall were as the Porsche Museum is only 2. But the Porsche museum lets you sit inside of a Porsche.... So I mean you can decided for your self which Museum you like better.
It was still a very cool experience to go though both Museums and see all of the cars that were on display, especially since Mercedes had such a high influence on the first cars that were made. Also, at the Mercedes Museum, you were given an audio tour which allowed you to listen in on whatever you wanted to at the Museum instead of having to hear the same things over and over again. Which is why I have headphones on in the Mercedes picture. I also got to see the outside of the Mercedes Benz Arena which is were Stuttgart's Fußball team plays. Well short of uploading all 150+ pictures I have taken so far this week I think this is about it for this week. Hopefully you enjoyed the read. Oh, I almost forgot! The beer in Germany is in fact the best beer I have ever had, just thought I would mention that.

Till next time!

Jonathan Stahl

Arrival to Deutschland

Hallo,

As you may have heard, I arrived in Germany safely on Monday. It has been a very interesting adventure so far. Mostly just becoming familiar with how the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn (two of the public train systems) work. Along with learning enough of the language to be able to navigate around. Being in Germany, you find out very quickly that they really like carbonated water. And most of the bottled drinks are only kept to room temperature. I start doing my chemistry research tomorrow around 9:30 am which is the typical start time for jobs. One big thing in germany is that most shops and stores are closed after 5 or 6 everyday. Bars being one exception. Also, my posts on here may be less frequent because I still do not have Internet in my room. Thus, I have only my phone for internet. Anyway, greetings from Germany!

Danke Schöne, 
Jonathan Stahl