In which we walked around the city

13.05.13

Yeeeeeah, clearly I need to write these up faster.

The classes are organized thus: A language lesson, in which we work helping the students develop their communication skills, improve reading comprehension, and address any language related problems they might be having.  After a break, there's a culture lesson taught by Rex.  After another break, there's The Third Hour, which is a block of time we can use to go on short excursions, invite a guest speaker, or have a discussion about those experiences.  Our first excursion was a walking tour of the inner city led by program coordinator Volker Horn.

Here we are gathered in the courtyard waiting for the tour to start.  Our classrooms are located in the part of the building to the right.

Here again is das Gemaltes Haus, featuring paintings of victorious knights and other allegorical figures.

This is the entrance to the courtyard we were in in the first photograph.

This is the Weikhard Uhr, a clock in the Hauptplatz that makes a handy meeting place.  The fellow facing me between the two students who have their backs to the camera is Volker.  He's a knowledgeable guide, but I do wish sometimes that he had a louder speaking voice.

Another view of the Hauptplatz.  The architectural style is called Historismus, because it seeks to evoke earlier architectural styles.  The facades of these buildings aren't necessarily quite as old as one would expect from the individual architectural elements.

Another view of the Hauptplatz.

One focus of the tour was to show us some of the courtyards and alleyways of the city.  Through this passage, we can see how the walls of this building are supported by a buttress.

Here's an old water pump.

There are some renaissance era buildings in the city.  Even in the newer buildings, the hallways facing the courtyards are often open in a way that seems to indicate a stronger stylistic influence coming from Italy than from the north.

Parts of the hallways may be enclosed with glass windows.

This building with an ornate oak facade is a bakery.  This bakery previously supplied the court with bread when there were still royals running around.

This building was a school built by Jesuits.  The upper round windows used to provide access to a dove cote.  Again you can see buttresses.

This is a flowering tree of some kind in the courtyard of the Jesuit building.  A man working on his garden was kind enough to let us enter to look at the building.

 This is a theater.

Here is another view of the cathedral.

This was in the courtyard of the old university building.

 Here we are walking downhill.  I like it when we get to walk downhill.

Here's another view of the mausoleum.

More cathedral.  Looking at it from the outside, you wouldn't expect at all that it's full of baroque ornamentation.

Ah, downhill...

Here's another courtyard.  The building used to belong to a fellow who bribed Nazi officials to help smuggle Jews out of the country during WWII.

I know they're essentially flying rats but I still like pigeons. 

 Here's the exit to that courtyard.

There are some courtyards that contain restaurants, who then have outdoor seating in the courtyard area.  The tapas place we visited was set up in this manner.  I like them.