German cities

Get to know some german cities!

Let´s start with a little introduction of the city where we are studying. Koblenz is the third biggest city in Rheinland–Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), which is one of the 16 Bundesländer Germany is divided in. We have a population of 105.000, more than ten thousand are students from our Fachhochschule and the University Koblenz-Landau. We would like you to get an impression of what you could do here in a few days, so just imagine you would come here to visit our school and we would show you the area.



Koblenz

On your first day we could start by showing you our college in Koblenz, where you can study all kind of studies like architecture, business or medical engineering. 

After lunch in our MENSA, we could go for a quick shopping tour in the city. Koblenz has two large shopping-centers, one called Forum Mittelrhein with over 80 shops just opened last month. 

After that, you would probably like to relax, have a drink or something to eat, which we could do next to the Rhine at the city beach, or if you still have energy left, we could have a walk through the famous historic city of Koblenz and have a coffee in one of the many cafe´s or right in front of the "Deutsches Eck", which is one of the famoust monuments in Germany, located where the Moselle flows into the Rhine. 

As you can see, Koblenz has a lot of beautiful places where you can spend some time drinking coffee or having a beer, especially since the BUGA (federal horticultural show) last year, where they invested a lot of money into urban beautification. 
The next day we could show you some of the cultural places and activities in Koblenz, for example a show in the theatre of Koblenz or a visit at the famous castle Ehrenbreitstein, from where you have a beautiful view over the Deutsches Eck. If you are more for museums, there are over 15 in the city that can be visited almost every day. 

Koblenz is also attractive because of the enormous number of bars, restaurants and discos, which is very good for students, who are most weeks going out on Thursdays, because it´s student night and there are a lot of special offers for students.

We hope we were able to give you an idea of what Koblenz is like, but we would also like to show you some other cities which you can reach fast and easy by train or car from Koblenz.

The next day we could visit an even bigger city, which is only about one and a half hour by train from Koblenz. The city is called Mainz and is the capital city of Rheinland-Pfalz with 200.000 inhabitants, one University, one Fachhochschule and a lot of other schools and education institutes, which is why there are a lot of students in the city.

Mainz

There are a lot of things to do in Mainz, for example shopping in one of the many shops in the pedestrian area or in one of the shopping centers, for example the Römerpassage. After that we could visit a football match of the famous FSV Mainz 05 football team in their big stadium called Coface Arena, which is playing in the german premier league.

If you are not too tired after that, we could party in one of the clubs in Mainz or maybe in Wiesbaden, which is a city with a population of 280.000 right on the other side of the Rhine, reachable in fifteen minutes by train from Mainz.

Tip: If you are here around Christmas time, you should definitely visit the Christmas markets in Mainz or Wiesbaden, which are really big and beautiful.

Frankfurt

On another day we could visit Frankfurt, one of the most important cities (especially because of their financial district) and fifth biggest in Germany, with a population of 690,000.

The easiest and cheapest way to get from Koblenz to Frankfurt is by train within less than two hours.

On our way to the city we could stop at Frankfurt airport, Europe´s second largest airport with more than 50 million passengers each year, from where you can reach almost 300 destinations around the world with more than 110 different airline companies.

Afterwards we could visit the stock exchange, which is the world´s 10^th largest, in the central district of Frankfurt. In the afternoon we could go to the famous Frankfurt Zoo with their big variety of very rare and special species. They have over 4500 animals from 560 different species there and it's visited by over 800,000 visitors every year.

At the end of this day we should definetely relax on a river cruise or drink a beer in a café at the riverside of the Main, looking over the amazing Frankfurter Skyline.

Trier

If you still haven´t seen enough of Germany, we would like to show you Trier. It has almost the same population as Koblenz and you can reach it within less than two hours by train.

The best place to begin a small sightseeing tour in Trier is at the Porta Nigra, the roman city gate. 

We could walk to the Electoral Palace, which is one of the most beautiful rococo palaces in the world and the Amphiteatre, which was built in the 2nd century for cruel games with gladiators’ and animals, with space for over 20,000 people.

If you haven´t seen enough, we could make a short river cruise over the moselle river or go to Trier´s beautiful palace garden to relax and enjoy the atmosphere of this old historical city afterwards.

If you are not too tired for shopping, there are a lot of shops in the pedestrian area and of course a big shopping center located right in the central district of the city.

Trier is also really nice for partying and meeting new people, not at last because of the University and the Fachhochschule in Trier, which makes the city interesting for a lot of young people.

We suggest that we end our trip to Trier with a historical wine cellar tour, tasting the delicious Moselle wine, hearing stories about the wine production in Germany and especially in our area. But as long as you are not here to visit us, you can only read about the wine in Hannah´s and Nadine´s blog entry. Unfortunately you can´t taste it yet ;)
                                                                                                                      Jenny & Eva

Sources:
Picture 1: probity of our school
Picture 2: http://www.immobilien-newsticker.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/10082012-forum-mittelrhein-koblenz-shopping-center.jpg
Picture 3: http://umzugshelfer.studenten-vermittlung.com/data/sites/3/fotolia_3785436_xsmainz.jpg
Picture 4: http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de/bilder/weihnachtsmarkt-mainz.jpg
Picture 5: http://images.airliners.de/nachrichten/bilder/fraport_terminalB_79d7308116861814ab92d3490eeb6f52_470_317.jpg
Picture 6: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Skyline_Frankfurt_am_Main.jpg.
Picture 7: http://www.treveris.com/picture/porta_nord_frontal_detail.jpg
Picture 8: http://www.schwarzaufweiss.de/burgenland/images/weinprobe2.jpg