Yesterday, May 4, was our first travel day to Germany and started with a flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago and ended with an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Munich. It was a long, treacherous day, but my fellow students and I managed to make the time pass rather quick. Before we knew it, we were all jittery with excitement to be in the place we had been preparing to visit for months: Augsburg, Germany!

Before we knew it, we were going through customs, grabbing our luggage and some snacks, and heading for the bus to take us from Munich to Augsburg. We left the Munich airport around 11am (Germany time, about 5am Pittsburgh time) and had an hour bus ride to our hotel in Augsburg, Ibis Hotel. We had a brief orientation from 2 German staff members from the University of Augsburg, Elisabeth and Nikolas, and then left for a small walking tour of Augsburg led by Professor Feick. It was so interesting learning about different historical sites and buildings, and getting a tour of our home for the next few weeks. I especially enjoyed learning about the once-wealthiest man in the world, Jacob Fugger, and his ties to certain Augsburg sites. Also, I enjoyed seeing how the symbol of Augsburg, a pinecone atop a vase, can be seen on everything from small drain covers to it being displayed on the top of Augsburg town hall.

After our tour, we went back to the hotel for about an hour to rest and went for another tour, this one led by a local Augsburg woman. We learned about the Fuggerei apartments and