Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 659

(Depending on your browser and connection, the video may or may not play. Please let me know if you have any trouble! Either send me a message, post a comment or email me directly.) This particular video will play sideways as that is how it was shot and I don't have access to any video editing programs here. Our students were quite busy Wednesday evening. A solid group went for a tour of Hamburg SV stadium (the local pro soccer club), and others were packed with other plans. Poor Jeff though was without anything to do. I had received an offer to go indoor rock climbing with my host families son, and of course I took him up on the offer! Since poor Jeff had nothing to do, he jumped at the chance to tag along. ... read more

My thoughts on waking up: "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, we're going to Salzburg today!!!!!!!". We couldn't get to Austria without changing trains in Munich though, so naturally, we couldn't resist the opportunity to spend a couple of hours exploring the city before moving onto Salzburg. Our train was at 6:54am, which was insanely early, but we'd had a long sleep and the station was only a couple of minutes from the hotel, so we weren't too done in, and were really looking forward to the day :o) The train journey to Munich took around three hours, most of which was spent with me getting extremely agitated with Phantom Hourglass (I love Zelda, but it really does drive me mental at times!), and we arrived to a very hot and sunny Munich ... read more

Upon arrival at Goettingen train station we were greeted by our hosts and whisked through the countryside to a little village called Sieboldshausen. As the house was elevated slighty it had a fantastic view to the east and west overlooking other villages and forests. After quite an extensive lunch we headed to a little medieval village called Hannover Munden to look at some amazing old buildings which are over 850 years old. On our second day we were taken into Goettingen to see an exhibition of items Captain Cook acquired during his journeys around South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa. This was followed by another big lunch (I see a trend here), before our hosts took us out to see a ruined castle nearby. Right as we arrived at the castle there was a massive storm ... read more

Here in Hamburg, they have a special name for their special weather. Schmuttelvetter. Even if you know no German, it works as an onomatopoeia to tell you what it´s like; grey, cool, air full of drifting drizzle that slowly soaks you without you knowing it. We arrived here night before last, after a late night short haul from Berlin, where we were supposed to stay. Since the only train we could catch was an Inter City Express (ICE TRAIN!), it was going to be really expensive, so we decided to use a day of travel on our rail pass. So we got in around twelve thirty (they say zero thirty here) and caught a cab to our hostel, then crashed dead. Here´s the thing with overnight trains. If you arrive after midnight, you mark down the ... read more

Greetings from Hameln (Hamelin) home of the Pied Piper. We are staying at a friends place until tomorrow. In the morning we take the train to Amsterdam. Meanwhile, here´s some pictures from Berlin.... read more