19 MAY 18

 Today seemed to be lost in the haze of jetlag and sluggish travel. It began at 5 in the morning for many of us to finish up last minute packing and head off to trier. The travel consisted of a plane and two train rides. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that we cannot remember the plane ride because as soon as we got into our seat we took advantage of the short amount sleep we could get, the same is true about both train rides. For me, however, I could not sleep on the train ride from Cologne to Trier something about the ride there kept me awake. I presume it to be the beauty of the rolling hills and vast valleys of Germany’s agricultural towns with a few scattered towns with traditional German architecture with bright colors to make it that much more surreal. The scenery behind the glass of the train as we neared the Black Forest. Soon dense forests and mountain ranges filled the view, every shade of green was among the foliage. We arrived at Cologne to enjoy the beauty of gothic architecture being the cathedral displayed right outside of the train station. It reminded me of the green thick forest of Northfield, Vermont. With three hours to ourselves, we took to exploring the town around the cathedral and stopped for lunch. My group partook in a traditional German cuisine, bratwurst and koscher beer. We then returned to the train station and made our way to Trier. We put our land navigation skills we learned at Norwich to use when trying to make our way to the hotel walking for what seemed like an eternity, the fact that I wore sandals that day only added to my suffering. Once we arrived it was around 5:00 pm and it marked the end our day what was left was to unpack and to settle down for the night.
 
This is a photo of a fountain found near the Cathedral.
  
The view of the forest outside the window of the train.
 
A street artist painting his diction of roman-style catholic figures. Street art seems to be very common and supported in Germany this, however, isn't the case for the US. I am yet to see a mural being publicly created in our nations capital like this.

A photo of the view from a town in Cologne.

The cathedral outside the train station. 
About the Author:
Alexander Bello is an inexperience e-blogger with no other posts and is from Springfield Virginia. He is studying Electrical and Computer Engineering, and English is not his first language.