Wednesday was a relaxing day for the group of RIT students in Germany. Instead of spending the day in Paderborn as we have done in previous days, we instead ventured out to see new locations and eventually made our way to a city called Bielefeld. The day was particularly sunny and warm, and made for a great day of walking around outside and enjoying the area.
In this city, we spent some time in the late morning and early afternoon walking around looking at the various shops in the area before settling down to eat lunch at a restaurant called Vapiano. While the menus were and unique style of paying for food via an accumulating card took a moment to understand, the food served at the restaurant was bursting with flavor and had various ingredients I had not heard of before.
After the lunch, we continued to walk around the city as we made our way towards Sparrenburg castle. In the city on that day they appeared to be setting up for a carnival, as Thursday was to be a big public holiday for Germany. It was interesting and fun to see all the carnival rides setup throughout the city streets and the various street vendors selling all manner of things from clothing to familiar “American Food”.
On the way up towards the castle I was able to see increasingly widespread views of the city, as the castle was perched on a rather large hill. Once we got to the castle, we had some extra time to spend while waiting for a guided tour through various parts of the castle, and I decided to spend that time taking as many pictures as I could. I was even able to get some wonderful pictures of the city from the ground level of the castle itself.
Once the tour started, we spent some time initially in the open air looking at various things in the castle yard such as the various castle towers and water well, but soon after made our way down into the crypts for a history lesson on the castle itself and the lifestyles of those who inhabited it. Down in the crypts we looked at the general dining area for the various soldiers that lived there, the bakery where all the bread for the castle was baked, and even the castle jail. I found the tour incredibly satisfying, and most of the information in the tour was translated and relayed from German to English which I appreciated significantly.
After the castle tour was through, the group then climbed to the top of the tower in the middle of the castle to get a birds-eye view of the surrounding city.
Once some time had been spent at the top of the tower and everyone navigated back down stairs inside of it safely, the group primarily had one goal in mind: To eat Spaghetti Ice cream. To satisfy this goal, a group of our German counterparts discussed where the best place in the city was to acquire such a treat, and led us to an outdoor ice cream restaurant where we could experience spaghetti ice cream in the fullest. After dining on ice cream and discussing a wide variety of topics with those at lunch, the group decided on returning to Paderborn to call it for the day in order to rest up for the coming Game Jam.
