Week 12 (Monday 23rd - Sunday 29th November)
So, another week of school, which was just as exciting as ever, just with quite a few more teachers off sick. The flu bug is still going round my colleagues, and for this reason I had quite a bit more free time this week, about which I can't really complain!
"So, what did you do in your free time?" is the question I can tell you're all begging to have answered. (and if you're not, then you probably ended up on this page by accident...)
Well, as the title suggests, it's the beginning of the Christmas season in Germany...in the shops it's been Christmas for quite a while, but the Christmas lights and decorations have only recently been put up, and illuminated. On top of that, the Christmas Markets are starting to begin (if you can say that...and if you can't, well tough, I did!). So, a few of us assistants have been out to see the Christmas Markets nearby.
On Thursday evening I met up with one of the assistants in Saarbruecken city centre and we had a look around the Christkindlmarkt in the main street in Saarbruecken, and in the main square. It was a nice little Christmas Market full of various Christmassy things...as well as food, mulled wine, schnapps and some music too! All in all, a nice Christmas Market, despite not being particularly expansive.
Friday wasn't particularly exciting, I went to Sarreguemines and had a short wander...nothing particularly interesting undertaken there, but, a day out, nevertheless.
Saturday was slightly more interesting...albeit substantially wetter (which curiously is the German word for weather). A group of us went to Trier for the Christmas Market there, as well as a general day out. The market was quite a bit bigger than the one in Saarbruecken, and it was primarily made up of stalls selling Christmas related, err, gifts. It was a nice day out; on top of the market, we had a look at the Cathedral and a few of the other sites in Trier. As I said, it was a smidge damp...by that I mean, my trainers took a day or so to dry completely.
After our trip to the Trier Christmas Market, we organised our little trip to Germany's most famous Christmas market next weekend. It'll be a true adventure, so keep an eye out for it!
Sunday was set to be a nice day, the assistants had arranged to meet up in the morning, because this weekend in Saarbruecken there was a second Christmas Market (we're not really greedy, but when you've got space, you might as well make use of it!). This "one weekend only" market was to be found in front of the Castle (in the logically named: Schlossplatz) and was actually, in my opinion, quite disappointing because it had relatively little Christmas related stuff there, and the majority of the stallholders weren't from Saarland at all!
The afternoon, though, was right up my street (not literally...that would be silly as I live in a one-way, narrow, access-only road!). In the afternoon I headed out to Merzig to visit an Eisenbahnmuseum (preserved railway). For those of you who don't know this about me...I'm an anorak (I like trains). So, the opportunity to travel on a German preserved railway was far too strong for me to resist going...so I gave into temptation, and went!
The railway is 16km (10 miles) long and is situated on the east side of Merzig (about 20 minutes from the main DB train station). Merzig Ost station is just a platform, with a car park and a seat...there is nothing else there! I got there in plenty of time and waited for the train, which was very likely to be steam-hauled. It was steam-hauled, not only that but it was top-and-tailed (for those of you who are a bit lost: steam-hauled means pulled by a steam locomotive, and top-and-tailed means that it had a locomotive at each end!) Another good thing about the railway was the type of old carriages they used...they had an area at each end of the carriages where you could stand outside. This was, despite the persistant rain and slightly cold wind (by which I mean to replace the word slightly with bloody) , fantastic. I couldn't see very much, but you could hear and smell it...which as any anorak will tell you is half the attraction! So, all in all a fantastic afternoon out, and one which has reminded me to look out for other Railway Museums and Preserved Railways to visit during my time here.
So, what does next week's installment contain? Probably not a huge amount about school, as that's pretty standard at the moment, but it does contain a pretty impressive adventure. A few of us are going to Nuremberg early on Friday morning (i.e. about 6.40 - that's 5.40 for those of you at home in the UK), staying in a hotel just outside Nuremberg and then returning late on Saturday night (early Sunday morning is possible). Sunday's entry, can almost be predicted now...I slept...
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Chapter Eleven - Eleven Weeks in!
Week 11 (16th November - 22nd November)
So, completely exhausted from my European weekend, last weekend, I returned to school. School has been a bit funny this week...not in the hilarious Jack Dee style, more in a peculiar , unusual way! Swine Flu is a word you hear a lot working in a German school (well, obviously you hear Schweinegrippe, but you get the idea)...and it's playing havoc with teachers and students' ability to turn up to school!
That said...on Tuesday, I came down with one of the worst colds I've had in a long time...it was lucky my colleague text me to say her lesson was cancelled because she was ill...I could barely get out of bed, I had a sore throat, an horrendous cough, I was lathargic (although this has been happening a lot recently - I put it down to old age). Still, I was feeling slightly better the next day, and not wanting to have jokes about ManFlu made in German about me...I went back to work...which wasn't much fun!
Still, I made gradual improvements over the week - and a week later I'm almost completely over it...just a slightly tickly cough every now and again, so nothing too terrible.
The weekend wasn't overly exciting...partly because I still wasn't feeling grrrrrrrrreat (in the words of Tony off of the Frosties advert), and partly because I'd been putting off doing my room for the last couple of weeks...and anyone that knows me will know that I'm not the tidiest of people...so I was living in a bit of a bombsite (yet another allied bombsite in Germany). Still, I did go out...we went to Metz on the train on Friday and had a very pleasant day there, doing random walks around Metz and seeing bits I'd not seen before (hard to imagine, as this was my third visit there!).
Saturday was dedicated to tidying my room...which didn't take as long as I thought it would, so I watched some DVDs as well!
Sunday was dedicated to the trains again...off to a village called Saarhoelzbach, which is the furthest point north in Saarland from Saarbruecken reachable by train! There is nothing there...so I came back and did some more work!
So, completely exhausted from my European weekend, last weekend, I returned to school. School has been a bit funny this week...not in the hilarious Jack Dee style, more in a peculiar , unusual way! Swine Flu is a word you hear a lot working in a German school (well, obviously you hear Schweinegrippe, but you get the idea)...and it's playing havoc with teachers and students' ability to turn up to school!
That said...on Tuesday, I came down with one of the worst colds I've had in a long time...it was lucky my colleague text me to say her lesson was cancelled because she was ill...I could barely get out of bed, I had a sore throat, an horrendous cough, I was lathargic (although this has been happening a lot recently - I put it down to old age). Still, I was feeling slightly better the next day, and not wanting to have jokes about ManFlu made in German about me...I went back to work...which wasn't much fun!
Still, I made gradual improvements over the week - and a week later I'm almost completely over it...just a slightly tickly cough every now and again, so nothing too terrible.
The weekend wasn't overly exciting...partly because I still wasn't feeling grrrrrrrrreat (in the words of Tony off of the Frosties advert), and partly because I'd been putting off doing my room for the last couple of weeks...and anyone that knows me will know that I'm not the tidiest of people...so I was living in a bit of a bombsite (yet another allied bombsite in Germany). Still, I did go out...we went to Metz on the train on Friday and had a very pleasant day there, doing random walks around Metz and seeing bits I'd not seen before (hard to imagine, as this was my third visit there!).
Saturday was dedicated to tidying my room...which didn't take as long as I thought it would, so I watched some DVDs as well!
Sunday was dedicated to the trains again...off to a village called Saarhoelzbach, which is the furthest point north in Saarland from Saarbruecken reachable by train! There is nothing there...so I came back and did some more work!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Chapter Ten - the tenth week!
Monday 9th - Sunday 15th November
So, school was pretty normal this week - the same old things going on, nothing particularly interesting to report from that aspect my time over here.
My weekend, by contrast, was a truly European experience. Three different countries in three different days!
So Friday came around, and I somewhat squandered the morning, but I was determined to go out in the afternoon, so I opened my Saarland Guide book at a random page, and a place called Perl came up. Off to Wikipedia I trotted, and did a bit of research on it. Perl itself is not exceptionally interesting...what is more interesting though is the fact that it is on the Mosel, which, at this point, marks the border of Germany with Luxembourg. So, I thought, why not...it might be nice...then I found out the place the other side of the border, in Luxembourg, is Schengen...home of the agreement, which allows free border crossing between EU member states. It was, for an MLES student, a pilgrimage I had to make. Howard White would be pleased! To say that Schengen is quite small and, excepting the treaty, unimportant, would not be nice...however it is true. It is just like any other small riverside town, only this one was lucky enough to be close enough to the confluence of France, Germany and Luxembourg - really the heart of the SaarLorLux region, and indeed Europe.
On Saturday, me and a few of the assistants headed out of our comfort zone...i.e. out of Saarland, and ventured to the murky depths of Baden-Wuerttemburg. Depths is probably, no definitely, and overstatement...Mannheim was our destination. Mannheim is a very commercial city, which appears to be fantastic for shopping and banking, but isn't really a city basing itself around tourism. Nevertheless, we found the Schloss, and it's quite impressive...as it was a bit cloudy, and looked like it may be about to rain, we decided to go in it and have a look round. Several hours later we came out again! So after our castle escapades we went in search of lunch...which we also enjoyed, before heading back to Saarbruecken. So, whilst it may seem like we didn't do a lot there, I would plausibly argue that there isn't a huge amount to actually do in Mannheim, which is particularly historically, or culturally interesting!
So, Sunday, to complete our european extravaganza saw me heading off to Strasbourg on the first train of the day. It was, needless to say, dark when I left, but luckily by the time I arrived it had brightened up sufficiently for me to see my friends from Bath who were meeting me at the station. They took me on a nice tour of Strasbourg, and we saw lots of different and interesting sites there; like the cathedral, the EU Parliament, and various other French institutions. After lunch, we had another wander, before having a game of football between some english speaking people and some french speaking people...which we won...then, when it started getting too dark to see the ball, we headed back to one of my friends' for some pasta before I caught the train back to sunny (well dark) Saarbruecken.
Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of fun...I seem to developped various flu-like symptoms since then, and have generally not been feeling 100% - but more about that next week!
So, school was pretty normal this week - the same old things going on, nothing particularly interesting to report from that aspect my time over here.
My weekend, by contrast, was a truly European experience. Three different countries in three different days!
So Friday came around, and I somewhat squandered the morning, but I was determined to go out in the afternoon, so I opened my Saarland Guide book at a random page, and a place called Perl came up. Off to Wikipedia I trotted, and did a bit of research on it. Perl itself is not exceptionally interesting...what is more interesting though is the fact that it is on the Mosel, which, at this point, marks the border of Germany with Luxembourg. So, I thought, why not...it might be nice...then I found out the place the other side of the border, in Luxembourg, is Schengen...home of the agreement, which allows free border crossing between EU member states. It was, for an MLES student, a pilgrimage I had to make. Howard White would be pleased! To say that Schengen is quite small and, excepting the treaty, unimportant, would not be nice...however it is true. It is just like any other small riverside town, only this one was lucky enough to be close enough to the confluence of France, Germany and Luxembourg - really the heart of the SaarLorLux region, and indeed Europe.
On Saturday, me and a few of the assistants headed out of our comfort zone...i.e. out of Saarland, and ventured to the murky depths of Baden-Wuerttemburg. Depths is probably, no definitely, and overstatement...Mannheim was our destination. Mannheim is a very commercial city, which appears to be fantastic for shopping and banking, but isn't really a city basing itself around tourism. Nevertheless, we found the Schloss, and it's quite impressive...as it was a bit cloudy, and looked like it may be about to rain, we decided to go in it and have a look round. Several hours later we came out again! So after our castle escapades we went in search of lunch...which we also enjoyed, before heading back to Saarbruecken. So, whilst it may seem like we didn't do a lot there, I would plausibly argue that there isn't a huge amount to actually do in Mannheim, which is particularly historically, or culturally interesting!
So, Sunday, to complete our european extravaganza saw me heading off to Strasbourg on the first train of the day. It was, needless to say, dark when I left, but luckily by the time I arrived it had brightened up sufficiently for me to see my friends from Bath who were meeting me at the station. They took me on a nice tour of Strasbourg, and we saw lots of different and interesting sites there; like the cathedral, the EU Parliament, and various other French institutions. After lunch, we had another wander, before having a game of football between some english speaking people and some french speaking people...which we won...then, when it started getting too dark to see the ball, we headed back to one of my friends' for some pasta before I caught the train back to sunny (well dark) Saarbruecken.
Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of fun...I seem to developped various flu-like symptoms since then, and have generally not been feeling 100% - but more about that next week!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Chapter Nine - Nine weeks in!
Nine weeks in! (Monday 2nd November - Sunday 8th November)
Due to the fact, that now I'm back at school and just doing pretty much the same stuff each week, I've decided that this is going to become a weekly review (well, weekly-ish!) of anything different or interesting that happened during the week.
Seeing as this is the first week I'm doing the compact version - here's a summary of the more mundane activities: went to school, had a few drinks in town with some friends, did some lesson plans, and tidied up a bit!
Now, for the more interesting ones! I'll keep it as chronological as I can!
On wednesday of this week I was invited by the Ministry for Women, Families and Education (they've got some slightly unusual combinations in Saarland!) to go and do some recording for the Gesamtschule leaving exam. (Rather like a GCSE level exam). For this I will be given €50, whether or not they use my recordings! All the English Language Assistants were invited there to take part.
The first challenge was trying to find the place; it was in a distant suburb of Saarbruecken called Dudweiler. One of those places that people who actually live in Saarbruecken call Dudweiler, and the people that live there call it Saarbruecken-Dudweiler! Where I live is the complete opposite, everyone around here calls it St. Arnual, but everyone in the city calls it Saarbruecken-St. Arnual! So, back to the story! After waiting for one of the other assistants at the train station, who never materialised (we later learned he had had to get a Bus Replacement Service due to a train cancellation), me and Claire were forced to make our own way to this place. The main problem was that the person we were waiting for had a map...we had to make do with a rough sketch made from the back of a Bus Shelter! This was OK for getting to the town centre, and then we were slightly lost. So we asked a bus driver, after all, who would know the area better than someone who drives around it all day...as it turns out, absolutely anyone...he didn't have a clue! So, we adopted plan B; we asked at the chemist, the girl behind the counter didn't have a clue either, but luckily a nice old woman in the queue looked upon us kindly and furnished us with some directions. I would be being over generous to say her directions were spot on - but they helped point us in roughly the right direction! Needless to say, we did eventually get there, arriving only 3 minutes later than the scheduled meeting time...not too bad considering!
The recording itself consisted of us doing a lot of sitting around and talking, whilst preparing a paragraph on what we thought of Talent Shows, and after that had been recorded we prepared one on eating habits. Not a lot of effort really required, and quite an easy €50 to earn! So, after the recording we trotted back to Saarbruecken (trotted simply being an abstract verb meaning to go - rather than actually behaving like horses) where I still had a sixth form lesson after school to do!
To Friday then! To set the scene, I have a recurring problem with one of my toes (it seems like to become ingrowing quite a lot, despite having been operated on twice!) and this toe had recently been causing me severe pain (reducing me to between 3 and 4 hours sleep one night, instead of 7-8) and has been quite badly swollen too. So, I decided to go and see a doctor. I sought the recommendation of one of my colleagues who recommended his GP. I phoned the surgery at 7 in the morning, hoping to get an appointment for that afternoon, or if not Monday...two weeks, yes, weeks, was the earliest I could get an appointment! This, I decided was too long to wait!
I had noticed the day previously a doctor's surgery at the bottom of my hill, so I thought I'd give him a ring. I rang before the office hours, but found out he has like a drop-in clinic thing in the morning from 8. So, I popped down their at 8 o'clock and was waiting about 45 minutes to see him (a while, but not as long as 2 weeks!). He decided that it was ingrowing (I can see how he's a Dr.), and he gave me some cream for it, and some plasters! Now, I'm not entirely sure what's in the cream, but whilst it hasn't solved the ingrowing problem, it has reduced the pain by about 95% (the exception being when I stub my toe on something!). I've got an appointment on Monday afternoon with him, and we'll see where we go from there!
Another rant, I feel it necessary to have here, is about the quality of bus drivers on the 121 route. This is the bus that goes past my house, either to the train station, or to the town hall. I had one driver that was distracted first by looking for somewhere to put his pen, and secondly by trying to find change for a €20 note, whilst we were going along. With this driver we ended up on the wrong side of the road on numerous occasions...one of the few times I've been so concerned I nearly walked! The following morning the driver was using his phone whilst driving; which as those of you that know me will know, is a real pet hate of mine, and he crawled along whilst doing it - thus delaying the bus further! (I've become a right German when it comes to punctuality of public transport...I start tutting if it's two minutes late!) And the bus home that evening, the driver seemed to be suffering from a certain level of road rage...he was of the opinion that he, as a bus driver, has the full right of the road, and that anyone else should move out of the way...those that didn't incur his wrath!
On Saturday Claire and I went to Mainz. Mainz is the capital of the Saarland's buffer state, Rhineland-Palatinate. The weather was not great...which is typical British understatement. But the first thing we decided to do was to try and find the Tourist Information Centre - it has to be the most inaccessible tourist information centre I've ever tried to go to! The signs to it pointed, often, in the direction from which you came...it was a frustrating time! But, we did eventually find it, and got hold of ourselves a free street map, which meant we could have a look at some of the things there! Things we looked at included: the Cathedral, the Land Parliament, the Citadel, a few other churches, come nice squares, and we also had a look around the Germano-Roman museum, which was nice. (By nice, I mean it was better than standing in the pouring rain!). My general opinion of Mainz was one of disappointment, I'm not sure what I expected, but after comparing it to two other, non-state capital, cities in the same state, it just wasn't up to the same standard! Never mind, it was a day out, and another bit of Germany seen!
So, that was that...the first of many condensed blog entries. This should make it more interesting for you, the reader, and a damned sight easier for me!
I shall sign off in the words of Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses, "Bonjour".
Due to the fact, that now I'm back at school and just doing pretty much the same stuff each week, I've decided that this is going to become a weekly review (well, weekly-ish!) of anything different or interesting that happened during the week.
Seeing as this is the first week I'm doing the compact version - here's a summary of the more mundane activities: went to school, had a few drinks in town with some friends, did some lesson plans, and tidied up a bit!
Now, for the more interesting ones! I'll keep it as chronological as I can!
On wednesday of this week I was invited by the Ministry for Women, Families and Education (they've got some slightly unusual combinations in Saarland!) to go and do some recording for the Gesamtschule leaving exam. (Rather like a GCSE level exam). For this I will be given €50, whether or not they use my recordings! All the English Language Assistants were invited there to take part.
The first challenge was trying to find the place; it was in a distant suburb of Saarbruecken called Dudweiler. One of those places that people who actually live in Saarbruecken call Dudweiler, and the people that live there call it Saarbruecken-Dudweiler! Where I live is the complete opposite, everyone around here calls it St. Arnual, but everyone in the city calls it Saarbruecken-St. Arnual! So, back to the story! After waiting for one of the other assistants at the train station, who never materialised (we later learned he had had to get a Bus Replacement Service due to a train cancellation), me and Claire were forced to make our own way to this place. The main problem was that the person we were waiting for had a map...we had to make do with a rough sketch made from the back of a Bus Shelter! This was OK for getting to the town centre, and then we were slightly lost. So we asked a bus driver, after all, who would know the area better than someone who drives around it all day...as it turns out, absolutely anyone...he didn't have a clue! So, we adopted plan B; we asked at the chemist, the girl behind the counter didn't have a clue either, but luckily a nice old woman in the queue looked upon us kindly and furnished us with some directions. I would be being over generous to say her directions were spot on - but they helped point us in roughly the right direction! Needless to say, we did eventually get there, arriving only 3 minutes later than the scheduled meeting time...not too bad considering!
The recording itself consisted of us doing a lot of sitting around and talking, whilst preparing a paragraph on what we thought of Talent Shows, and after that had been recorded we prepared one on eating habits. Not a lot of effort really required, and quite an easy €50 to earn! So, after the recording we trotted back to Saarbruecken (trotted simply being an abstract verb meaning to go - rather than actually behaving like horses) where I still had a sixth form lesson after school to do!
To Friday then! To set the scene, I have a recurring problem with one of my toes (it seems like to become ingrowing quite a lot, despite having been operated on twice!) and this toe had recently been causing me severe pain (reducing me to between 3 and 4 hours sleep one night, instead of 7-8) and has been quite badly swollen too. So, I decided to go and see a doctor. I sought the recommendation of one of my colleagues who recommended his GP. I phoned the surgery at 7 in the morning, hoping to get an appointment for that afternoon, or if not Monday...two weeks, yes, weeks, was the earliest I could get an appointment! This, I decided was too long to wait!
I had noticed the day previously a doctor's surgery at the bottom of my hill, so I thought I'd give him a ring. I rang before the office hours, but found out he has like a drop-in clinic thing in the morning from 8. So, I popped down their at 8 o'clock and was waiting about 45 minutes to see him (a while, but not as long as 2 weeks!). He decided that it was ingrowing (I can see how he's a Dr.), and he gave me some cream for it, and some plasters! Now, I'm not entirely sure what's in the cream, but whilst it hasn't solved the ingrowing problem, it has reduced the pain by about 95% (the exception being when I stub my toe on something!). I've got an appointment on Monday afternoon with him, and we'll see where we go from there!
Another rant, I feel it necessary to have here, is about the quality of bus drivers on the 121 route. This is the bus that goes past my house, either to the train station, or to the town hall. I had one driver that was distracted first by looking for somewhere to put his pen, and secondly by trying to find change for a €20 note, whilst we were going along. With this driver we ended up on the wrong side of the road on numerous occasions...one of the few times I've been so concerned I nearly walked! The following morning the driver was using his phone whilst driving; which as those of you that know me will know, is a real pet hate of mine, and he crawled along whilst doing it - thus delaying the bus further! (I've become a right German when it comes to punctuality of public transport...I start tutting if it's two minutes late!) And the bus home that evening, the driver seemed to be suffering from a certain level of road rage...he was of the opinion that he, as a bus driver, has the full right of the road, and that anyone else should move out of the way...those that didn't incur his wrath!
On Saturday Claire and I went to Mainz. Mainz is the capital of the Saarland's buffer state, Rhineland-Palatinate. The weather was not great...which is typical British understatement. But the first thing we decided to do was to try and find the Tourist Information Centre - it has to be the most inaccessible tourist information centre I've ever tried to go to! The signs to it pointed, often, in the direction from which you came...it was a frustrating time! But, we did eventually find it, and got hold of ourselves a free street map, which meant we could have a look at some of the things there! Things we looked at included: the Cathedral, the Land Parliament, the Citadel, a few other churches, come nice squares, and we also had a look around the Germano-Roman museum, which was nice. (By nice, I mean it was better than standing in the pouring rain!). My general opinion of Mainz was one of disappointment, I'm not sure what I expected, but after comparing it to two other, non-state capital, cities in the same state, it just wasn't up to the same standard! Never mind, it was a day out, and another bit of Germany seen!
So, that was that...the first of many condensed blog entries. This should make it more interesting for you, the reader, and a damned sight easier for me!
I shall sign off in the words of Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses, "Bonjour".
Monday, November 2, 2009
Chapter Eight - the Eighth Week
Monday 26th October
So, this is the first full week of my parents' visit to Germany. So what did we decide to do to celebrate the fact that they will be enjoying the full German Experience...we went to France (again). I like Germany, really I do, but I genuinely feel it would be negligent to allow myself not to take advantage of the proximity of the borders with the former Saar protecting power.
Today we took the car to Metz. (Those of you astute readers who have been paying attention to my blog entries will know I've already been there once before with the staff of my Gesamtschule). Now, as I've mentioned previously the French Customs Officers (Douanes) are a little seen species of French officials...but not at the border crossing of the motorway between Saarbruecken and France. These seem to be the less shy type of Douanes. Why do I say this? Well, for the second time in as many visits to Metz I was stopped by the Douanes and asked some questions!
I semi-expected it this time, I saw the look in her eyes when she saw a British car driving towards her...she wanted some English practice, which being the Europhile I was, I declined to give her and answered her in French. This seemed to surprise her, and we were allowed on our way with little fuss this time. I'm beginning to think I may simply have one of those faces, which the French dislike!
So, on arrival in Metz, we encountered the first hurdle, which we'd not had with the coach trip...parking! There was parking available, and finding a space was a little challenging, but not too stressful...the problem was once we'd found the space, it was remembering where we'd left the car! To solve this problem we took the GPS out of the car, saved its location, and planned to use that to get us back!
After leaving the car where it was we headed for a coffee, and then we walked around the cathedral. I still found it as awe-inspiring as the last time I went there. (You can read more about it in the Thursday part of this entry)
After visiting the Cathedral again, we headed into the tourist information office, where they gave us a town map, on which, using the GPS, we marked the location of the car! Following this little breakthrough, we decided to embark on a walking tour of the town, for which I was the guide! (I had, unfortunately, forgotten my red umbrella and bad dress sense, but apart from that I was like any other town guide!) . We had a look at some gardens in front of the barracks, then we walked down by the canalised part of the Moselle (Mosel for the Germanists!) and across the little Paris-esque island in the middle of the River, before heading back up to the Cathedral square, and in turn the car.
We thought it might be nice to have lunch in the botanical gardens in Metz, which shouldn't have been a problem; we knew where they were, we knew where we were and we've got a pretty reliable GPS system...hmm, no quite as easy as it first seemed. Why so? Well, Metz is quite a small city, with quite a lot of people living there, so the buildings are quite tall - the GPS struggles to get a signal surrounded by tall inanimate objects (remember it was originally US Defence technology, if that helps explain it!), but nevertheless, with a certain amount of what I would call intuition and logical thinking (others would probably call it guesswork) we made it to the gardens, where we had lunch and wandered round, before heading home via the E. Leclerc over the border from Saarbruecken to do some shopping for the week.
After dinner, we wandered down into town again for a couple of drinks before enjoying the bus ride home! Long Live Saarbahn!
As a fore-warning, we did do quite a lot this week, so there's a chance this could become a long blog entry...so get yourself sitting comfortably!
Tuesday 27th October
This morning we did my favourite thing in the whole world. (As with the bit from last week, that would also have been written in the sarcasm font if I had one). We went shopping in Saarbruecken. Now, I, being a bloke, am not a fan of shopping, I go shopping when I need stuff - like food for example...I don't traipse around the supermarkets because it's fun, rather because I need something! But anyway, that's what we did...we went round some of the smaller shops, had a look around Saturn, then Dad wanted to rekindle his younger years (so, we tried to go somewhere that was Sepia coloured) so we went to C&A, which he was disappointed with, so we didn't stay too long!
After our morning of fun and games, we headed over to a small town called Voelklingen. At Voelklingen, there is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city of Bath is a World Heritage Site, the Cathedral in Cologne is also a World Heritage Site, as is Stonehenge...so what delights awaited us in Voelklingen - an old steelworks!
The main reason for going this afternoon was that it's free on a Tuesday afternoon - instead of €10 each...this struck me as quite a good deal! It was quite an interesting afternoon - it was interesting seeing how much it had both deteriorated (i.e. become very rusty, and in some places rotted through), and in other places it had flourished - there is a part of the works, which the owners have left as a wilderness to see what develops. It was a throughly enjoyable afternoon - perhaps if I'd understood the steel making process in a little more detail (i.e. if I'd listened a bit more to the details explained to me at GCSE science), I would have got even more from it.
That was about it for Tuesday, with another European journey planned for the Wednesday!
Wednesday 28th October
So, today we were off to Luxembourg (or as us Germanists spell it - Luxemburg). We decided it would be easier to take the bus from Saarbruecken to Luxembourg - that we wouldn't have to find somewhere to park there, which I had heard was truly an horrendous experience bound to cause stress to even the most placid people! At €14 each, it wasn't too unreasonable either! The coach took about an hour and a quarter to get there, and was driven by someone who looked like he was on his holidays from school. (Maybe I am getting old after all!).
The journey was pleasant enough (most of it was on motorway, so there wasn't a huge amount of interesting things to report from the journey itself!). We alighted from the bus in the heart of the old town, as this was where I'd been told it was nicest in Luxembourg. The first thing we did was get coffee...well it seemed to make sense! After that, we headed down to one of the bridges over the gorge between the new and old town. We took some photos from there, and then we headed over to the Cathedral to have a look inside. On the way to the Cathedral we passed the CitySightseeing booth, and we thought it would be worthwhile having a tour to make sure that if we hadn't the opportunity walk around everything, we should probably have seen it from the tour. We opted for the Noddy Train tour, because it was cheaper, and less likely to get caught up in the traffic jams, which seemed so prevalent in Luxembourg.
The Noddy Train ride was as uncomfortable as ever, and my spine is still recovering (everytime I sit down it sounds like someone playing a xylophone down my back!). It took us down into the gorge, from where you could see the old fortifications clearly and it told us a little of the history of the city, sorry Duchy. The only problem was that the majority of the roads were cobbled, and my teeth were chattering as we were going along!
We also looked at the Cathedral, which was nice...still not as nice as Metz, in my opinion, but nice nevertheless. We then did another unofficial walking tour of Luxembourg (i.e. I held the map and chose where we went!). We saw quite a lot there, which I shall attempt to list now! We saw: the Finance Ministry, the Royal Palace, the Parliament Building, the Red Bridge (originally called because it's a bridge, and it's red...I don't know how they do it!), the Municipal (or should I say National, because in Luxembourg they're pretty much the same thing!) Library, the National Bank, the Municipal Park, and Old People's Home (that looked more like a palace to me!), and the Town Hall amongst other things.
Then we caught the bus back to Saarbruecken, before having a meal out in the pub, which I have come to call my 'local'; despite it being nearly 800 miles from my actual home! The food there reminds me of good quality, cheap, pub grub - which I'm a big fan of!
Thursday 29th October
Another day out on public transport today. But, today, at least, we stayed in Germany! We went to Trier on the train. We visited many of the same places as we visited last time I went there with some of the other assistants. You can read about those experiences here if you haven't already! Basically, to summarise, we visited the following places there: The Porta Nigra, the Cathedral, the Electoral Palace (Trier's answer to Versailles), Woolworth (I know, I know, but it was for old times sake!), down by the Mosel(le), then back up past some churches before catching the train back to Saarbruecken. Again, it was a pleasant day, and the weather seemed to hold out, which was nice too!
After dinner, we headed down into town for a couple of drinks at my 'local', before heading back and preparing for a nice day in and around Saarbruecken!
Friday 30th October
Today, we stayed in the environs of Saarbruecken; in the morning we walked out to the pub at Guedingen and had a coffee or two before walking back to Brebach, from where we caught the tram back to town. We did a little more shopping (can you imagine the amount of joy I felt at that prospect?) in Saarbruecken, and I got the new edition of the bus timetable, to find that in fact my local bus service is staying the same as it has been since I've been - still it might work out to be worth it in the long run!
For lunch, I took the old folks out to what we in Saarbruecken affectionately know as the DFG. (Deutsch-Franzoesischer Garten (German-French Garden), which, funnily enough, lies on the border of France & Germany. (Some more outside of the box thinking going on there!) We had lunch there, and had a wander round; it was nice, but with it being the end of autumn, the majority of the plants have gone over, and it was looking slightly folorn. I'm sure it'll look fantastic in the spring/summer though! So, I'll definitely be heading back there! The garden itself came about, basically, because after the war, the people on either side of the border (who had for the last 5 years or so been bitter enemies) decided that they would plant a garden together, and as such the garden is managed by both the Saarbruecken municipal works and the Lorraine authorities.
After lunch, we took another exciting trip out to E.Leclerc supermarket over the border, which was OK. I realise I may be appearing as a little contradictory over my opinion on shopping, so let me briefly clarify; I dislike "going shopping" for the sake of having something to do - I think there are better ways to fill your time like redecorating and then watching it dry, but I don't mind shopping when I need to get something - like food!
Tonight, after dinner, I had my hair cut, and then we had a relatively early night, because we were up early the next morning to head to Koblenz.
Saturday 31st October
For our Hallowe'en day out we decided to travel to Koblenz on the train. The journey itself takes just a little over two and a half hours, but it's worth it. Between Trier and Koblenz the views over the river are very nice - rather like a picture postcard of how I imagine Germany to be! It features the railway running directly next to the river, with steep hills on both sides, completely full of vines - exactly how they harvest them I'm not sure! Oh, I forgot to mention that we took a double decker train, and because the novelty will never wear off, we sat upstairs.
When we got to Koblenz, we had a coffee...this, I ought to add, is pretty standard procedure for us - when we arrive somewhere, it's nice to sit down and decide what we want to see over a coffee! We then headed to the Toursit Information Centre; conveniently hidden next to a Sparkasse. I also checked the T&Cs of the ticket, which meant we could use buses to get around the city - so rather than walk to the Old Town, and the confluence (join) of the Rhein and Mosel, we took the bus, which saved us about 30 minutes or so!
The joining of the two rivers is marked by a statue of a bloke on his horse; not John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but Kaiser Wilhelm I. The statue is huge, and looks out over what is known as Deutsches Eck (German Corner). From there we did the usual...I took the map, and we had a nose around the city. It was a nice city, with many very nice buildings in the old town, and it was obviously a town where a lot has historically taken place, but the tourist map didn't really provide much information. Luckily, I had consulted Wikipedia the night before, so I was up on some of the details! So, after much walking, much photography, and much coffee, it was time to return to Saarbruecken.
The train I'd planned to take should have been straight through, however because of some sort of engineering works, the train we were on was terminated at a town called Merzig, from where we had to change to the stopping service, running about half an hour later. So, that was just enough time to head to the station bar, and have a glass of the local beer.
To illustrate the difference between the RE (Regional Express) trains, and the RB (Regional Bahn - stopping) services one only needs to look at the number of stops they make between Merzig and Saarbruecken. The RE has 3 stops until Saarbruecken, and the RB has about 10. However, because the German railways are run in a more efficient way, the trains stopped, normally, for less than 45 seconds at each of the stations - none of this doors will be locked 40 seconds before departure rubbish over here!
So, after returning to Saarbruecken about 30 minutes later than originally planned, we headed to the usual place and had a nice dinner out.
Sunday 1st November
Today is the last day of my parent's visit here. I'd left today pretty much blank in the itinerary to go to a few places I thought were worth a look, but not worth a whole day! So, to start the day we headed up to the University's Botanical Garden, which was nice, but quite disappointing - less of a botanical garden as one might imagine it to be (a smaller version of Kew), more an open space with some trees dotted around!
So, not to be put off, we headed off to Ottweiler, again a place I'd been before, where not a huge amount goes on; especially on a Sunday! Still, it was a nice stroll, and we had lunch there before heading off to St. Wendel, which is a slightly bigger town, but still as busy as Ottweiler! There's a nice church there, but that's about it really! After St. Wendel we took to Illingen, which is the only place I can honestly say I've seen chalk for sale! We had a coffee here, and a quick stroll around what is pretty much a ghost town on Sunday!
We then came home, relatively early, so that Mum & Dad could pack and load the car for their departure in the morning. Additionally, my landlady had invited us out for dinner at a restaurant just over the border in France, which is like the Ritz of Saarbruecken; not as posh, and more rurally French, not even the best food in the area, but it is the place to be seen if you weild power or money, or want to climb the greasy pole of influence. Another pleasant evening was had by all, with me acting as an interpreter between my landlady and my parents, after having consumed a couple of alcoholic beverages!
So, in summary, a very interesting week, albeit slightly tiring. It was, obviously, lovely to see Mum & Dad again, and to be able to take them around the place where I've found myself!
So, this is the first full week of my parents' visit to Germany. So what did we decide to do to celebrate the fact that they will be enjoying the full German Experience...we went to France (again). I like Germany, really I do, but I genuinely feel it would be negligent to allow myself not to take advantage of the proximity of the borders with the former Saar protecting power.
Today we took the car to Metz. (Those of you astute readers who have been paying attention to my blog entries will know I've already been there once before with the staff of my Gesamtschule). Now, as I've mentioned previously the French Customs Officers (Douanes) are a little seen species of French officials...but not at the border crossing of the motorway between Saarbruecken and France. These seem to be the less shy type of Douanes. Why do I say this? Well, for the second time in as many visits to Metz I was stopped by the Douanes and asked some questions!
I semi-expected it this time, I saw the look in her eyes when she saw a British car driving towards her...she wanted some English practice, which being the Europhile I was, I declined to give her and answered her in French. This seemed to surprise her, and we were allowed on our way with little fuss this time. I'm beginning to think I may simply have one of those faces, which the French dislike!
So, on arrival in Metz, we encountered the first hurdle, which we'd not had with the coach trip...parking! There was parking available, and finding a space was a little challenging, but not too stressful...the problem was once we'd found the space, it was remembering where we'd left the car! To solve this problem we took the GPS out of the car, saved its location, and planned to use that to get us back!
After leaving the car where it was we headed for a coffee, and then we walked around the cathedral. I still found it as awe-inspiring as the last time I went there. (You can read more about it in the Thursday part of this entry)
After visiting the Cathedral again, we headed into the tourist information office, where they gave us a town map, on which, using the GPS, we marked the location of the car! Following this little breakthrough, we decided to embark on a walking tour of the town, for which I was the guide! (I had, unfortunately, forgotten my red umbrella and bad dress sense, but apart from that I was like any other town guide!) . We had a look at some gardens in front of the barracks, then we walked down by the canalised part of the Moselle (Mosel for the Germanists!) and across the little Paris-esque island in the middle of the River, before heading back up to the Cathedral square, and in turn the car.
We thought it might be nice to have lunch in the botanical gardens in Metz, which shouldn't have been a problem; we knew where they were, we knew where we were and we've got a pretty reliable GPS system...hmm, no quite as easy as it first seemed. Why so? Well, Metz is quite a small city, with quite a lot of people living there, so the buildings are quite tall - the GPS struggles to get a signal surrounded by tall inanimate objects (remember it was originally US Defence technology, if that helps explain it!), but nevertheless, with a certain amount of what I would call intuition and logical thinking (others would probably call it guesswork) we made it to the gardens, where we had lunch and wandered round, before heading home via the E. Leclerc over the border from Saarbruecken to do some shopping for the week.
After dinner, we wandered down into town again for a couple of drinks before enjoying the bus ride home! Long Live Saarbahn!
As a fore-warning, we did do quite a lot this week, so there's a chance this could become a long blog entry...so get yourself sitting comfortably!
Tuesday 27th October
This morning we did my favourite thing in the whole world. (As with the bit from last week, that would also have been written in the sarcasm font if I had one). We went shopping in Saarbruecken. Now, I, being a bloke, am not a fan of shopping, I go shopping when I need stuff - like food for example...I don't traipse around the supermarkets because it's fun, rather because I need something! But anyway, that's what we did...we went round some of the smaller shops, had a look around Saturn, then Dad wanted to rekindle his younger years (so, we tried to go somewhere that was Sepia coloured) so we went to C&A, which he was disappointed with, so we didn't stay too long!
After our morning of fun and games, we headed over to a small town called Voelklingen. At Voelklingen, there is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city of Bath is a World Heritage Site, the Cathedral in Cologne is also a World Heritage Site, as is Stonehenge...so what delights awaited us in Voelklingen - an old steelworks!
The main reason for going this afternoon was that it's free on a Tuesday afternoon - instead of €10 each...this struck me as quite a good deal! It was quite an interesting afternoon - it was interesting seeing how much it had both deteriorated (i.e. become very rusty, and in some places rotted through), and in other places it had flourished - there is a part of the works, which the owners have left as a wilderness to see what develops. It was a throughly enjoyable afternoon - perhaps if I'd understood the steel making process in a little more detail (i.e. if I'd listened a bit more to the details explained to me at GCSE science), I would have got even more from it.
That was about it for Tuesday, with another European journey planned for the Wednesday!
Wednesday 28th October
So, today we were off to Luxembourg (or as us Germanists spell it - Luxemburg). We decided it would be easier to take the bus from Saarbruecken to Luxembourg - that we wouldn't have to find somewhere to park there, which I had heard was truly an horrendous experience bound to cause stress to even the most placid people! At €14 each, it wasn't too unreasonable either! The coach took about an hour and a quarter to get there, and was driven by someone who looked like he was on his holidays from school. (Maybe I am getting old after all!).
The journey was pleasant enough (most of it was on motorway, so there wasn't a huge amount of interesting things to report from the journey itself!). We alighted from the bus in the heart of the old town, as this was where I'd been told it was nicest in Luxembourg. The first thing we did was get coffee...well it seemed to make sense! After that, we headed down to one of the bridges over the gorge between the new and old town. We took some photos from there, and then we headed over to the Cathedral to have a look inside. On the way to the Cathedral we passed the CitySightseeing booth, and we thought it would be worthwhile having a tour to make sure that if we hadn't the opportunity walk around everything, we should probably have seen it from the tour. We opted for the Noddy Train tour, because it was cheaper, and less likely to get caught up in the traffic jams, which seemed so prevalent in Luxembourg.
The Noddy Train ride was as uncomfortable as ever, and my spine is still recovering (everytime I sit down it sounds like someone playing a xylophone down my back!). It took us down into the gorge, from where you could see the old fortifications clearly and it told us a little of the history of the city, sorry Duchy. The only problem was that the majority of the roads were cobbled, and my teeth were chattering as we were going along!
We also looked at the Cathedral, which was nice...still not as nice as Metz, in my opinion, but nice nevertheless. We then did another unofficial walking tour of Luxembourg (i.e. I held the map and chose where we went!). We saw quite a lot there, which I shall attempt to list now! We saw: the Finance Ministry, the Royal Palace, the Parliament Building, the Red Bridge (originally called because it's a bridge, and it's red...I don't know how they do it!), the Municipal (or should I say National, because in Luxembourg they're pretty much the same thing!) Library, the National Bank, the Municipal Park, and Old People's Home (that looked more like a palace to me!), and the Town Hall amongst other things.
Then we caught the bus back to Saarbruecken, before having a meal out in the pub, which I have come to call my 'local'; despite it being nearly 800 miles from my actual home! The food there reminds me of good quality, cheap, pub grub - which I'm a big fan of!
Thursday 29th October
Another day out on public transport today. But, today, at least, we stayed in Germany! We went to Trier on the train. We visited many of the same places as we visited last time I went there with some of the other assistants. You can read about those experiences here if you haven't already! Basically, to summarise, we visited the following places there: The Porta Nigra, the Cathedral, the Electoral Palace (Trier's answer to Versailles), Woolworth (I know, I know, but it was for old times sake!), down by the Mosel(le), then back up past some churches before catching the train back to Saarbruecken. Again, it was a pleasant day, and the weather seemed to hold out, which was nice too!
After dinner, we headed down into town for a couple of drinks at my 'local', before heading back and preparing for a nice day in and around Saarbruecken!
Friday 30th October
Today, we stayed in the environs of Saarbruecken; in the morning we walked out to the pub at Guedingen and had a coffee or two before walking back to Brebach, from where we caught the tram back to town. We did a little more shopping (can you imagine the amount of joy I felt at that prospect?) in Saarbruecken, and I got the new edition of the bus timetable, to find that in fact my local bus service is staying the same as it has been since I've been - still it might work out to be worth it in the long run!
For lunch, I took the old folks out to what we in Saarbruecken affectionately know as the DFG. (Deutsch-Franzoesischer Garten (German-French Garden), which, funnily enough, lies on the border of France & Germany. (Some more outside of the box thinking going on there!) We had lunch there, and had a wander round; it was nice, but with it being the end of autumn, the majority of the plants have gone over, and it was looking slightly folorn. I'm sure it'll look fantastic in the spring/summer though! So, I'll definitely be heading back there! The garden itself came about, basically, because after the war, the people on either side of the border (who had for the last 5 years or so been bitter enemies) decided that they would plant a garden together, and as such the garden is managed by both the Saarbruecken municipal works and the Lorraine authorities.
After lunch, we took another exciting trip out to E.Leclerc supermarket over the border, which was OK. I realise I may be appearing as a little contradictory over my opinion on shopping, so let me briefly clarify; I dislike "going shopping" for the sake of having something to do - I think there are better ways to fill your time like redecorating and then watching it dry, but I don't mind shopping when I need to get something - like food!
Tonight, after dinner, I had my hair cut, and then we had a relatively early night, because we were up early the next morning to head to Koblenz.
Saturday 31st October
For our Hallowe'en day out we decided to travel to Koblenz on the train. The journey itself takes just a little over two and a half hours, but it's worth it. Between Trier and Koblenz the views over the river are very nice - rather like a picture postcard of how I imagine Germany to be! It features the railway running directly next to the river, with steep hills on both sides, completely full of vines - exactly how they harvest them I'm not sure! Oh, I forgot to mention that we took a double decker train, and because the novelty will never wear off, we sat upstairs.
When we got to Koblenz, we had a coffee...this, I ought to add, is pretty standard procedure for us - when we arrive somewhere, it's nice to sit down and decide what we want to see over a coffee! We then headed to the Toursit Information Centre; conveniently hidden next to a Sparkasse. I also checked the T&Cs of the ticket, which meant we could use buses to get around the city - so rather than walk to the Old Town, and the confluence (join) of the Rhein and Mosel, we took the bus, which saved us about 30 minutes or so!
The joining of the two rivers is marked by a statue of a bloke on his horse; not John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but Kaiser Wilhelm I. The statue is huge, and looks out over what is known as Deutsches Eck (German Corner). From there we did the usual...I took the map, and we had a nose around the city. It was a nice city, with many very nice buildings in the old town, and it was obviously a town where a lot has historically taken place, but the tourist map didn't really provide much information. Luckily, I had consulted Wikipedia the night before, so I was up on some of the details! So, after much walking, much photography, and much coffee, it was time to return to Saarbruecken.
The train I'd planned to take should have been straight through, however because of some sort of engineering works, the train we were on was terminated at a town called Merzig, from where we had to change to the stopping service, running about half an hour later. So, that was just enough time to head to the station bar, and have a glass of the local beer.
To illustrate the difference between the RE (Regional Express) trains, and the RB (Regional Bahn - stopping) services one only needs to look at the number of stops they make between Merzig and Saarbruecken. The RE has 3 stops until Saarbruecken, and the RB has about 10. However, because the German railways are run in a more efficient way, the trains stopped, normally, for less than 45 seconds at each of the stations - none of this doors will be locked 40 seconds before departure rubbish over here!
So, after returning to Saarbruecken about 30 minutes later than originally planned, we headed to the usual place and had a nice dinner out.
Sunday 1st November
Today is the last day of my parent's visit here. I'd left today pretty much blank in the itinerary to go to a few places I thought were worth a look, but not worth a whole day! So, to start the day we headed up to the University's Botanical Garden, which was nice, but quite disappointing - less of a botanical garden as one might imagine it to be (a smaller version of Kew), more an open space with some trees dotted around!
So, not to be put off, we headed off to Ottweiler, again a place I'd been before, where not a huge amount goes on; especially on a Sunday! Still, it was a nice stroll, and we had lunch there before heading off to St. Wendel, which is a slightly bigger town, but still as busy as Ottweiler! There's a nice church there, but that's about it really! After St. Wendel we took to Illingen, which is the only place I can honestly say I've seen chalk for sale! We had a coffee here, and a quick stroll around what is pretty much a ghost town on Sunday!
We then came home, relatively early, so that Mum & Dad could pack and load the car for their departure in the morning. Additionally, my landlady had invited us out for dinner at a restaurant just over the border in France, which is like the Ritz of Saarbruecken; not as posh, and more rurally French, not even the best food in the area, but it is the place to be seen if you weild power or money, or want to climb the greasy pole of influence. Another pleasant evening was had by all, with me acting as an interpreter between my landlady and my parents, after having consumed a couple of alcoholic beverages!
So, in summary, a very interesting week, albeit slightly tiring. It was, obviously, lovely to see Mum & Dad again, and to be able to take them around the place where I've found myself!
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