Messel Pit

Marcel Schmitz Germany - 27-Jul-05

In March 2005 I made three friends of mine stop by at Messel when we had a three day trip to Frankfurt and surroundings. Well, it was a nice sunny day and we could go the whole way (information tableaus about the Messel Pit Fossil Site along the way) to a platform from where we could see the pit. The info tableaus were quite good, but the pit itself was kind of disappointing. Unfortunately the museum wasn't open as we've been there on a weekday during winterbreak (until the end of March, from 1st April on it's also opened on various weekdays). All in all the pit itself isn't worth a visit, but the museum shall be nice.

Cologne Cathedral

Marcel Schmitz Germany - 27-Jul-05

Well ... Cologne and its Cathedral. I'm living in a small town close to Cologne, around a 30 minutes drive away and so I go there quite often for shopping, clubbing or for meeting my penpals who usually visit Cologne and/or Berlin when they're in Germany. The cathedral is amazing and you actually can't miss it as it's "just there". A guided tour is always a plus when you're there, 'cause then you at least forget about people who don't pay respect to a religious building. I'm Catholic, but not religious and don't care much about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, but I think that we shall pay respect to religious buildings as many people are religious and their feelings shouldn't be hurt

Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust

Marcel Schmitz Germany - 27-Jul-05

It's a one hour drive away from the town I'm living in and so two friends and me went there spontaneously in February 2005. Of course the parks weren't full of flowers and the water in the ponds/fountains was frozen, but it anyway was amazing and didn't take away any of the castles' glance. Both castles are masterpieces of their kind!

Paris, Banks of the Seine

Marcel Schmitz Germany - 27-Jul-05

Paris, the Banks of the Seine? When I made a three days trip to Paris with friends we did lots of sight-seeing there, including many of the famous buildings, such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe and many more, but the best thing we did there was to take a boat trip on the Seine in the evening. It's such a wonderful moment to see the Eiffe Tower by night, shining because of all the small lamps on it.

Paris in general is always worth a visit, but besides all the lovely touristy places you soon will see that those great places always are very close to poverty/poor people who suffer while tourists spend 3 Euro for a glass of coke.

Grand Place, Brussels

Marcel Schmitz Germany - 27-Jul-05

The Grand Place in Brussels is just beautiful! Unfortunately I wasn't there when the flower carpet decorates it, but it anyway is lovely. I've been there on a daytrip with my former French class at school (maybe in 1999 or so) and we all had a great time there. If you're in Brussels you shouldn't forget to at least take a picture in front of Manneken Piss. :-)