Traveling through Aachen and Koln

On Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010, engineering students and faculty members from Penn State Behrend began a 10-day trip to Germany as part of PL ET 499 International Plastics Experience, a course designed to give students an industrial and cultural international experience before graduation. Seniors Sidney Carson of Erie and Justin Schmader of Leeper, Pa., are blogging about the group's adventures along the way. This is their first post:

So far, the trip has been a lot of traveling. The majority of the group coming over went at least 24 hours without sleeping due to the six hour difference in time zones. Despite this, all of the students were excited to start their cultural journey into Europe. Most of the time spent so far has involved getting our bearings in a society that really isn't much different than our own. We've had to deal with exchanging currency and communicating with shopkeepers and restaurant owners in order to even eat. For some, it's been an awesome experience to engage in some of the German language that we've learned. After a night in Aachen, we took a day trip to Koln, where we toured the Dom (shown in the pictures below), and experienced more of the local German culture and shopping. Tomorrow, we head to Dusseldorf where we're all looking forward to enjoying the K Show, which will display the cutting edge of our Plastics Engineering field, as well as the tour of Aachen University's Plastics Engineering program. Excited to keep all of you updated on the rest of our trip!



The marketplace in downtown Aaachen is a perfect representation of the architecture in the old portion of the city. The majority of the group enjoyed sitting down and enjoying a German Bratwurst in the downtown setting.










The Hauptbahnhof station in Koln is the largest transportation system in Germany. These stations represent the largest hubs in most of the main cities.










This picture embodies the entire experience of the Dom in Koln. The right side exhibits some of the awesome architecture and scale present in the cathredral. The scale of the entire building is unbelievable. On the left side, the golden chest contains the ashes of the Three Wisemen. The amount of history present in the Dom is almost overwhelming.