Heilbronn

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I am writing this blog on a train from Schwandorf in Germany, going to Prague. This train has compartments to sit 6 people rather than rows of seats. It’s like the Hogwarts Express!....and I very much hope there’s a trolley lady I can buy chocolate frogs from!



After my trip to Bacharach, I went to see my friend Anna and her partner Joseph who live in Heilbronn, and who kindly offered to put me up for a few nights. It took a couple of trains to get there, going from Bacharach to Mainz; Mainz to Mannheim; and Mannheim to Heilbronn, but I finally arrived.



Anna and I had a nice dinner and catch up by the Neckarsulm river before catching a bus back to her apartment. Anna is fluent in German (and French) so catching buses etc was SO much easier with her there! I had a few days to chill out and not have to use my brain too much for catching public transport…. So the next morning, I thought I’d take a walk!.......... Oh dear.



Before I left the UK, I had to reserve my return tickets for the Eurostar and get these posted out to me. I asked for the tickets to be sent to Anna’s address as I wouldn’t have time at home for them to arrive. Anna hadn’t received these tickets by the time I arrived in Heilbronn, so I had to do a morning of chasing DHL for their whereabouts. DHL told me that the tickets were in Heilbronn, but they couldn’t be delivered to the address for some reason. They told me the address of the depot, and after a bit of google mapping, I found the depot which would take about an hour and 20 minutes to walk to.



This sounded ok, a fairly long walk but it would mean that I could see some of the city and pick my tickets up at the same time. I started walking following google maps, which led me through the most industrial parts of the outskirts of the city towards Neckarsulm. Along the way, I began to realise that I had no way to communicate with the people at DHL, and that there was no guarantee that they would speak English with being so far out of the city centre. I was trying to scrape the chambers of my mind for the remnants of any high school German which would help me, and all that came to mind was that bloody song they teach to all year 7s --- “Ich habe ein Katze, Ich habe zwei poodle”, and the year 8 phrase “Ich bin nach Spanien geflogen”.



Jesus. H. Christ.



I haven’t flown to Spain and I don’t even like poodles!.... and even if I did they wouldn’t sodding help me now!!



I spent the rest of the walk chunnering to myself about the piss poor state of language tuition in the UK, and why to shite we would spend time teaching children about owning poodles rather than how to catch buses and pick up stranded parcels! I was also chunnering because, what appeared to be a warm pleasant morning was turning into a scorcher of an afternoon!.....and had I brought a drink with me?....of course not!



I made it to the DHL depot, and if anyone has ever seen that Bridget Jones scene where she tries to buy a pregnancy test from a pharmacy abroad, then this situation was a lot like that!



I made a lot of noises like “Nein post habe” and “Ich mochte post bitte!”, and the lady behind the counter said “Ok do you have your reference number please and I will locate the parcel for you”.



Bugger. We really are the shittiest country for speaking additional languages.



After I’d picked up my tickets, I walked back to the nearest high street I could find in search for water and air-conditioning. It felt like a million degrees, but was really about 33/34 C. I wasn’t sure I could stand the walk back, so tried my best to decipher the German bus timetable and ask the driver for a ticket – “Cann Ich haben ein fahrkarten fur harmonie bitte?” I know the German isn’t right, but thankfully, it was enough to get me back into the city centre.



Once there, I managed to do some sightseeing – including seeing an otter in the river! – and walked back to the apartment. We went out that night for pizzas which were HUGE!



The next day, Anna and I went to Stuttgart for the day and saw the main sights. We also went into an indoor market which had every food, herb, spice etc you could possibly imagine from all over the world. It smelled delicious! It also had loads of fruit and vegetable markets, which are amazing just to look at all the vibrant colours. We took the tram to the telecommunications tower (Fernsehturm) and took the amazingly quick lift up the tower to see the spectacular views over the city.



It was lovely seeing Anna & Joseph and talking about all the similarities and differences in languages and cultures. Joseph is originally from Lebanon but has lived in France and Germany so speaks both, and is now learning to speak Japanese. Even though this is only the end of my first week travelling, it’s already making other countries seem closer and less daunting…….so next week I’m off to Lebanon, Mum! …..Haha gotcha ?



So this morning I caught the tram in Heilbronn to the station, took the train from Heilbronn to Wurzburg; Wurzburg to Nurnberg; Nurnberg to Schwandorf, which leads me to the train I am sitting on right now. I’ll give you the heads up when I reach Prague ?

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