Karlsrhue





Friday was Shar’s first day sans school, so we took advantage of the sunny weather and hopped on an express train to Karlsrhue. I had noticed that the layout of the downtown is remarkably similar to that of Washington, DC, and a quick Wikipedia check confirmed my suspicions, that the American capital was likely modelled after this German city. In Karlsrhue, the castle is at the very centre of town and the city streets all fan out from the castle. It’s really quite an odd way to set up a city. Washington, DC, is also set up this way, with the streets fanning out from the White House at the centre. The White House, arguably, also bears a resemblance to the Karlsrhue castle. 



On our train ride into the city we sat beside a train conductor from East Germany on his way home. He told us his town has lots of neo-Nazis. It shocked me that a) he would be so open about it and b) that they actually and truly exist! As far as I could gather they mostly just start fights after dark.

We got off the train and began our walk into the city. Directly across the street from the train station is the Karlsrhue zoo and Shar did her best to convince me to make the zoo our first stop of the day. I resisted, quite stubbornly so, but our walk bordered the zoo and it took only a glimpse of the boats on the lake to change my mind. The zoo was beautiful! It is mostly large gardens where exotic birds roam free and elephants eat leaves in their pen beside the lake. We took a gondoletta ride 20 minutes to the other side of the gardens, where most of the animals are kept, and spent hours meeting giraffes, chimps, penguins, emus, camels, leopards, etc.

When we got tired of the zoo, we walked 20 minutes to the castle and ate our sandwiches on the stone steps facing the gardens out back. Because it was after 2pm on a Friday in September (did we ever have lucky timing) we got in free, saving us the entire 50 cent student admission price. The castle interior has been modernized and turned into a museum, full of interesting medieval artifacts and such. The best part was the tower that, after climbing way too many stairs, offered a fantastic view of the city.

We shopped a bit, took naps on some Turkish rugs in a corner of the museum (hehe), got gelato, and caught the train back home, where Jonas was waiting for us. Good day!