Since old long ago: Ludwigsburg, Germany

Well in less than 24 hours, 2009 will have come, leaving 2008 in the history books. I'm fortunate enough to have split this trip into a 08/09 package, cause if anyone asks me what I did this year, I can respond "oh not much, just Europe." Then I can lean back in my chair (assuming that I am in fact sitting in one) and cackle, whilst tenting my fingers together.

For those of you who don't know, I've been staying here in Ludwigsburg with my 2nd cousin Rita. She's been an insanely good host, and has caused a great deal of fat to appear near my stomach (haha just kidding, I don't get fat). I've slept in late every day so far, and it was nice to have the ability to just sit in a car, while watching the sights come to ME. I got to meet Rita's lovely mother, brother, extended family, friends, neighbors, and hilarious pets.

Just gonna take this mini "paragraph" to say-
Thank you Rita!

My first few days in Ludwigsburg were spent at home, or in Rita's car. She drove me around Ludwigsburg, Marbach and Stuttgart, and showed me all the sights, such as the residential palace, Christmas market (x2), town hall, solitude castle, and all the local fairy-tale architecture. Even without snow, the Christmas markets were just shoulder to shoulder patrons. Many varieties of meat, wine, beer, and candy could be found here, and absolutely everyone was in a good mood (especially the beggars). In this area, there are many hills, and even more stairs. After a few days of stair-mastering goodness, Rita explained to me why every girl in the Stuttgart area has nice legs. It's because of all the stair climbing. Logical!

The most interesting thing about short day trips here, is that you never really "leave" a city to get to another. Just driving along the streets of Ludwigsburg; Rita will inform me that we have just entered Stuttgart, and then in 5 minutes we will have crossed back into Ludwigsburg. In this case, the person across the street from your house could literally be from another city. Another neat thing is night driving. In Saskatoon, when you reach a town/city form the highway, you basically can only see the lights from the first block of houses. In the rolling hills of the Stuttgart area however; you can see little city plots dotting the skyline, as if they were tiny floating cities.

A nice trip was our excursion to the Maulbronn abbey. It was kind of like a mini holy town, with its own farm space, winery, and man made fishing lake. The convent for the abbey is still active, and we were able to take in a tour of the main chapel, which was more interesting than I anticipated. The main thing I noticed was the lack of over-the-top luxury that is found in most public cathedrals. It would seem that the most devout do not require things such as chairs, windows or heat. Gold was nowhere to be seen (shocking!), and most of the inner architecture was simple, and quite bland in a way. That being said, it was a different experience all together to walk the path of a clergy person, and the area was certainly beautiful in its own, very simplistic way.

The biggest "touristy" things we did was visiting (and climbing) the "tallest church spire in the world" located within the city of Ulm. At 161m, the church tower "Munster" was a sight to behold. 768 stairs would take us to the top, and from there I could easily see everyone back home freezing their butts off.
*leans back in chair and cackles, while tenting fingers*
I could also see all the feminists who take male CEO wages, and compare them to female clerk wages, with the only objective of creating an inacurate, and unrealistic statistic based on information taken out of context (that's right, I went there. I will never forget about the pillow. The pillow drives me).

Alas, this blog is not about bashing crazy, flaxen haired zealots. It's about showing everyone that the world is a small and beautiful place. If we all hold hands together, drink hot chocolate, sing Boom De Ah Dah, Over the Rainbow, and of course Kum Ba Yah, we can all appreciate what we have in life, knowing that the time we have must not be wasted.

-Kyle- Sapping it up since 2008 -out