On Thursday, we spent the day on a bus trip to Neuschwanstein castle. Bayern was celebrating the religious holiday of Christihimmelfahrt and also Vatertag (Father's Day). The first order of the day was getting to the bus on time and pretty much running through the subway system between trains. On holidays, the U1 subway runs only every thirty minutes outside of the main core of the city. Hindsight being 20/20, we really should have eaten breakfast at 7:00 instead of 7:30. Oh, well. Long story short, we made it, huffing and puffing onto the bus. Some of us participated in my very specific GAPP bus-bingo (I really should change the name to bus I-Spy) game, with very specific items to find, such as a half-timbered house with at least three window boxes full of RED geraniums, while some caught an extra 90 minutes of shut-eye. Once at the castle, we did another bike ride around Swan Lake and took pictures of both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We then ate our picnic lunch and watched a close up magic show, performed by Brad, our tour guide for the day. A brief rainshower postponed our runs down the Alpine Slide and unfortunately limited the number of times the students could ride the sleds to only one. At 3:30, most of the students hiked up the front mountain-bike path to Neuschwanstein while I rode the local blue bus with Anna, Olivia, and Emma. The waterfall gorge path had been closed the week before by a landslide, otherwise we would have all hiked. We took obligatory "selfies" on the Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge). Our tour of the castle was led by an official tour guide who had the mannerisms of Sheldon Cooper from the TV series "The Big Bang Theory". The GAPPies tried to get him to answer questions about King Ludwig II outside of the memorized "official tour" script with no success. We then walked back down the mountain in a rain shower and boarded the bus back to München. I believe everyone slept on the bus ride back, including me. We rounded out the day by having supper at the "Altes Hackerhaus" on Sendlingerstrasse. We had the distinct honor of being seated in the basement, near the bathrooms because it was so busy but any port in a storm when you are travelling with 7 hungry teenagers. Hackerhaus specializes in bayrisches Essen. Students tried Schweinebraten, Jägerhackbraten and Maultaschen and Sauerkraut.
On Friday. we packed our things and made our way to the München HbF to catch our Eurocity train to Heidelberg. It was a little cool and rainy but several students wore shorts. By the time we boarded, many of us were suffering from blue fingernails and goosebumps. We shared our compartment with an large group of French students and a German Bundeswehr soldier. Many chose to catch up on sleep again as we drove through the German countryside. In Ulm, we were able to see the tallest church spire in the world as we briefly stopped and in Stuttgart, we could see the Mercedes Soccer Arena. In Heidelberg, we had to catch the S1 to Homburg. The train was completely packed, so we had to spread out with bag and baggage along the length of the train. By Mannheim, most people had disembarked, so we could finally find seats and put our luggage out of the way. From Heidelberg to Homburg was 2.25 hours, as the S1 is a regional train and stops at EVERY train station along the way. Our homestays were waiting for us on the platform and there were a few awkward moments while everyone tried to figure out to whom they "belonged". I was very happy to see both Frau Schaefer and Frau Buhr on the platform. Now was time for the real test to begin, 24 entire hours without Frau S.
On Saturday evening, we met at the Weier for a Grill und Begruessungsparty. The teenagers all hit it off spectacularly while I got to know the parents a little bit. The Schwenker (a swinging grill) took care of the cooking, and the families brought along a potluck smorgasboard of bread, salads and desserts. After the party, I once again deserted the students until 11:30 on Monday morning at school.
I spent Sunday afternoon exploring the Saarschleife and the town of Mettlach, home of the famous porcelain factory, Villeroy and Boch. Reports about the weekend will follow in tomorrow's post from Mike and Anna.
On Monday, Frau Buhr's 6C English class gave us a tour of the school grounds. They were nervous about giving native English speakers a guided tour for the 1st time since they began learning English last year. The 6C students "ganged" up on our 7 Americans 2 or 3 to 1, but I think they did a wonderful job. Here is a photo of our GAPPies and our intrepid tour guides.
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