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...
Showing posts with label Trier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trier. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
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!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Chapter Seven - The Seventh Week
Monday 19th October
So, today we headed off to Trier, which isn't actually in Saarland, instead it is in Rhineland-Palatinate (or as the Germans call it Rheinland-Pfalz). Rhineland-Palatinate is effectively a cushion for Saarland against the perils of the rest of Germany - it surrounds our little Bundesland on all its internal borders.
Trier is also the oldest city in Germany (according to Wikipedia, which is always right!), the birthplace of Karl Marx (him of communist manifesto fame, rather than a brother of Groucho!), as well as having some roman buildings too!
We caught the semi-fast train there, which took us just over an hour, which wasn't too bad. The views along the side of the river are pretty nice...what I would describe as picture postcard Germany. In fact, when we went along there this morning, the mist was just rising off of the river, and it was quite eery (I'm not sure how we'd spell that in English, so that's how it stays!).
When we got to Trier we thought we'd have a look around. There were a few places we thought we ought to see there, for example; Porta Nigra (an old Roman gateway to the old city) - still looking quite impressive considering its age, The Dom - which is a real mish-mash (that technical term again) of historical periods, with the main part being built during the Roman times, and other bits added on through medieval times. We also thought we ought to visit Karl Marx's house, which, if I'm honest, was a bit of a let-down. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but it didn't really live up to it!
So, we did have a look at all of the above places, as well as wandering aimlessly (although we had a map, in case it wall went askew) through the streets of Trier; some of which were very pretty. There was also a market there today, and a mini-Versailles. Then we headed towards the river, which is the Mosel (Moselle in French) and walked long there for a bit, admiring the views on the other side.
Then we headed back to the Bahnhof, and enjoyed a nice train journey back to Saarbruecken from Trier, again enjoying the views from the train window!
This, ladies and gents, is why I came to Germany!
Just to make it easier, and to save uploading photos to two different places. You can see my Year Abroad photo album here
Tuesday 20th October
Sorry, it's taken me an age to get round to updating this....this can be explained simply by saying "Microsoft Windows". I shall explain more about this later!
After our trip to Trier yesterday, we had originally thought about going by tram to Sarreguemines and then taking an SNCF train further into France. This idea, typically, encountered problems! This time in the form of a national strike by SNCF (who else!). Not being deterred from a day out in France, I thought we might go to Forbach (which I think is just one big housing estate full of HLM (council flats, for non-French speakers)) and if we go as a group we may find something else worth visiting...so we arranged to meet at the train station to catch the bus to Forbach in the morning. I have travelled to Forbach by bus before without problems using just my university semester ticket...however, for some reason best known to the driver, we weren't able to travel on this bus...so again, determined to visit France today, we waited quarter of an hour for the tram to Sarreguemines.
We had another wander around Sarreguemines (although, it was still pretty dead), had a cup of coffee, looked at the cinema to see if there were any films worth seeing (there weren't any on until the evening), and then headed over to Intermarche to grab a few groceries before heading home.
So, all in all, a typical day - brick walls, more brick walls, and a couple more just for good measure! Still, the tram ride was pleasant!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the computer problems....so when I got home from Sarreguemines I flicked on the laptop, went and put the kettle on, came back ready to log-in, to find it had a corrupt boot-up file...being a technical whizz-kid I knew what this needed, so I switched it off and on again! Erm...this didn't work, and I was out of ideas! So, this wasn't a pleasant evening all in all...and a day in which Obstacles seemed to be the word of the day! You'll be pleased to know the computer problems were solved later on in the week!
Wednesday 21st October
Today I had my final round of bureaucracy in Germany...after this, no other German authorities need to be told about me! I had an appointment at 11am at the Auslaenderamt (Foreigners' Office) to get something called a Freizuegigkeitsbescheinigung (which I now know is effectively a piece of paper, saying that I can do as I please in Germany as I'm a citizen of the EU). I walked there from home, and got there about 10.35, and my number was called (another one of these ticket and number systems) at 10.45. The process involved me handing over pretty much every other piece of paperwork I had accumulated during my time here and the man in the office photocopying it. Then he gave me this piece of paper and I was free to go. I left the office at 10.55 (5 minutes before my original appointment time) - this was a true example of German efficiency at work!
Following my appointment, I decided to have a random day out on the trains, so I travelled on the train to a town called Dillingen, where I'd seen there was a branch-line, which I thought I'd take; just to see where it goes really! It goes to a place called Niedaltersdorf - which is, as I realised, just a small village with a church, a river, and a pub (which was closed for lunch!). Thus, it was a difficult place in which to kill 45 minutes waiting for the train to come back - so I sat down and read some of my book! After going there, I headed back to Saarbruecken, with the intention of going shopping...this I didn't do, preferring instead to head home and do very little!
Thursday 22nd October
Today, I had a lot to do! With Mum & Dad arriving in the evening, I felt it was necessary to do some tidying up! So, I started in earnest to do that about 10 am, after being distracted by the internet far too easily! After tidying for a bit, I decided it would be a good idea to iron the clothes that had been languishing on my clothes horse for the past few days - when at the same moment, I realised my laundry basket was full...so off I trotted to the washing machine with my bag full of clothes.
After I'd started the whole washing process, and begun to iron...I remembered I had to go shopping too. So, down to the bus stop I went with all my bags and shopping list. I had a bit more shopping this week, what with having to feed two other mouths and all, so it was a bit bloody heavier coming up the 67 steps to my house!
When I got back, I finished the ironing, and fetched the washing from the machine, and reloaded my clothes horse (so, really my room was just as full this morning, all I had achieved was to put some more of my clothes back in the wardrobe!).
During the afternoon, I had the fun job of dusting and cleaning my room! Ladies & Gents, please take note - as nice as laminate flooring looks, it is a right pain in the backside to keep clean, as it attracts dust like nobody's business!
As you can tell, the bulk of my day was well planned, well executed and generally was a lot of fun. (I've not got a sarcasm font, but if I did, this last sentence would appear in it!)
When Mum & Dad arrived, we had some tea, and spoke to my landlady, and then we went for a walk down to the Schloss, and had a beer before enjoying the bus ride home!
Friday 23rd October
So, on the first day of my parents' being here, we decided that instead of enjoying some of Germany, we would have a trip to Sarreguemines. We wandered around there for a bit, had a nice walk around the market, and then had a coffee! We then walked down by the side of the Saar (or Sarre, if you're a patriotic Frenchman), before heading off to Kleinblittersdorf for lunch and to repeat my walk from Kleinblittersdorf to Guedingen.
I should, at this juncture, briefly mention the weather (well, as there's three English people here - it would be negligent of our stereotype not to!) - it was a drizzly and cloudy day, but not exceptionally cold.
The walk was broken at Guedingen, where they conveniently left a pub, with a couple of drinks, before walking back to Kleinblittersdorf. It would appear that in this part of Germany they have employed the same person to count the distances as they have in Devon. (For those of you who don't know - Distances in Devon are often far further than the signs tell you they are - e.g. if a sign tells you it's 5 miles to Modbury, be aware it could be 8 actual miles!). How do I know this? Well, at one end of our walk, it purports to be 5km to the other end, whilst at the other end walking back along the same path will be 7.5km...where do the extra 2.5km come from? Who knows!
After walking as far as we did today, we decided to stay in and watch a film tonight.
During the film, we decided to use my computer's own rescue and recover system - this basically reformats my computer and then kindly installs Windows back on it. This might sound awful, but luckily I had saved a lot of my work on a memory stick, so that wasn't so bad! What's more annoying is that I now have to re-install a lot of my software back on the computer, which is more a time-consuming problem than anything else! Damned computers!
Saturday 24th October
Today we went to a couple of towns not too far away from Saarbruecken - indeed actually doing something in Germany! One of these was Saarlouis, which I had already visited with some of the other assistants; here we walked around the market and the infamous Tedi shop (basically a poundstretcher). We also had a walk along the side of the moat around the old fortifications in Saarlouis, which was very nice. At the moment, it is a perfect time to get some fantastic pictures of the orange, and red leaves on the trees!
After lunch in Saarlouis, we headed off to Merzig, where we actually went in a Woolworth (not quite the same thing as the ones which closed in January, but started by the same American). After walking around the town, which is nice, but there really isn't a lot here (except for two train stations!)...there is, though, a hill, from which you can have some fantastic views over the Saar and over the valley. (I've already put some photos on the blog in one of my September entries, if you're interested!)
This evening my landlady cooked a typical Saarlaendisch dinner for us. It consisted of a rare Saarlaendisch delicacy...err...maybe, not rare....in fact, not normally a delicacy....potatoes. The meal started with Potato soup, followed by pureed potato with cabbage, followed by a Lyoner sausage (which is originally French, but the Saarlaenders like to claim ownership for it!). This was finished off with stewed apple, and a few pieces of french cheese. All of this was washed down with a little (or, in fact, quite a lot) white wine! I would also like to add my name to the list of people (mainly students) that argue that alcohol makes languages easier and more fluent!
All in all, a very pleasant evening to end a pleasant day! It was also an opportunity to get to know my flatmate a bit better, because prior to this, we had often passed like ships in the night (me early in the morning and her late back in the evening!).
Sunday 25th October
So, today, we went out to see some more picturesue places within Saarland. The main reason for this was that everything is shut on a Sunday. The first port of call was a small town in Northern Saarland called Mettlach. Near to Mettlach is a famous bend in the Saar called the Saarschleife (Saar loop)...it is basically the only thing that normal Germans would recognise from the Saarland! I'm no geographer, so I'll explain it in layman's terms - it's basically a bend in the Saar, which almost goes back on itself. (I will put some pictures up when I put that piece of software back on my newly reformatted computer!).
From Mettlach, we thought it would be a good idea to walk along the river, to see what the loop was like from the bottom of the hill. It is pretty unimpressive to be honest. Admittedly, the river finds itself in a very deep wooded valley, which at this time of year is very pretty with the autumn colours, but in terms of noticing the actual bend, it's negligible because you are on the bend for so long, it becomes normalised.
So, after walking around the bend and back, we decided to head up to the viewpoint, from where there are some pretty good photo opportunities to be had of the view over the Saarschleife. We took some photos and decided that it was well worth the journey!
It was a little bit early to go home, so we headed over to Losheim am See, where there is a railway museum (which I knew would be closed, being a Sunday and all). It was surprising how easily accessible the museum property was; you could walk pretty freely around the main platform areas, and they are running trains along their preserved line at the end of November - so guess where I'll be then!!!
After briefly walking round there, we headed home and had a nice stroll down by the Schloss (castle) in Saarbruecken before catching the friendly bus back!
Several European, and intra-German excursions planned next week...I'll keep you posted!
So, today we headed off to Trier, which isn't actually in Saarland, instead it is in Rhineland-Palatinate (or as the Germans call it Rheinland-Pfalz). Rhineland-Palatinate is effectively a cushion for Saarland against the perils of the rest of Germany - it surrounds our little Bundesland on all its internal borders.
Trier is also the oldest city in Germany (according to Wikipedia, which is always right!), the birthplace of Karl Marx (him of communist manifesto fame, rather than a brother of Groucho!), as well as having some roman buildings too!
We caught the semi-fast train there, which took us just over an hour, which wasn't too bad. The views along the side of the river are pretty nice...what I would describe as picture postcard Germany. In fact, when we went along there this morning, the mist was just rising off of the river, and it was quite eery (I'm not sure how we'd spell that in English, so that's how it stays!).
When we got to Trier we thought we'd have a look around. There were a few places we thought we ought to see there, for example; Porta Nigra (an old Roman gateway to the old city) - still looking quite impressive considering its age, The Dom - which is a real mish-mash (that technical term again) of historical periods, with the main part being built during the Roman times, and other bits added on through medieval times. We also thought we ought to visit Karl Marx's house, which, if I'm honest, was a bit of a let-down. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but it didn't really live up to it!
So, we did have a look at all of the above places, as well as wandering aimlessly (although we had a map, in case it wall went askew) through the streets of Trier; some of which were very pretty. There was also a market there today, and a mini-Versailles. Then we headed towards the river, which is the Mosel (Moselle in French) and walked long there for a bit, admiring the views on the other side.
Then we headed back to the Bahnhof, and enjoyed a nice train journey back to Saarbruecken from Trier, again enjoying the views from the train window!
This, ladies and gents, is why I came to Germany!
Just to make it easier, and to save uploading photos to two different places. You can see my Year Abroad photo album here
Tuesday 20th October
Sorry, it's taken me an age to get round to updating this....this can be explained simply by saying "Microsoft Windows". I shall explain more about this later!
After our trip to Trier yesterday, we had originally thought about going by tram to Sarreguemines and then taking an SNCF train further into France. This idea, typically, encountered problems! This time in the form of a national strike by SNCF (who else!). Not being deterred from a day out in France, I thought we might go to Forbach (which I think is just one big housing estate full of HLM (council flats, for non-French speakers)) and if we go as a group we may find something else worth visiting...so we arranged to meet at the train station to catch the bus to Forbach in the morning. I have travelled to Forbach by bus before without problems using just my university semester ticket...however, for some reason best known to the driver, we weren't able to travel on this bus...so again, determined to visit France today, we waited quarter of an hour for the tram to Sarreguemines.
We had another wander around Sarreguemines (although, it was still pretty dead), had a cup of coffee, looked at the cinema to see if there were any films worth seeing (there weren't any on until the evening), and then headed over to Intermarche to grab a few groceries before heading home.
So, all in all, a typical day - brick walls, more brick walls, and a couple more just for good measure! Still, the tram ride was pleasant!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the computer problems....so when I got home from Sarreguemines I flicked on the laptop, went and put the kettle on, came back ready to log-in, to find it had a corrupt boot-up file...being a technical whizz-kid I knew what this needed, so I switched it off and on again! Erm...this didn't work, and I was out of ideas! So, this wasn't a pleasant evening all in all...and a day in which Obstacles seemed to be the word of the day! You'll be pleased to know the computer problems were solved later on in the week!
Wednesday 21st October
Today I had my final round of bureaucracy in Germany...after this, no other German authorities need to be told about me! I had an appointment at 11am at the Auslaenderamt (Foreigners' Office) to get something called a Freizuegigkeitsbescheinigung (which I now know is effectively a piece of paper, saying that I can do as I please in Germany as I'm a citizen of the EU). I walked there from home, and got there about 10.35, and my number was called (another one of these ticket and number systems) at 10.45. The process involved me handing over pretty much every other piece of paperwork I had accumulated during my time here and the man in the office photocopying it. Then he gave me this piece of paper and I was free to go. I left the office at 10.55 (5 minutes before my original appointment time) - this was a true example of German efficiency at work!
Following my appointment, I decided to have a random day out on the trains, so I travelled on the train to a town called Dillingen, where I'd seen there was a branch-line, which I thought I'd take; just to see where it goes really! It goes to a place called Niedaltersdorf - which is, as I realised, just a small village with a church, a river, and a pub (which was closed for lunch!). Thus, it was a difficult place in which to kill 45 minutes waiting for the train to come back - so I sat down and read some of my book! After going there, I headed back to Saarbruecken, with the intention of going shopping...this I didn't do, preferring instead to head home and do very little!
Thursday 22nd October
Today, I had a lot to do! With Mum & Dad arriving in the evening, I felt it was necessary to do some tidying up! So, I started in earnest to do that about 10 am, after being distracted by the internet far too easily! After tidying for a bit, I decided it would be a good idea to iron the clothes that had been languishing on my clothes horse for the past few days - when at the same moment, I realised my laundry basket was full...so off I trotted to the washing machine with my bag full of clothes.
After I'd started the whole washing process, and begun to iron...I remembered I had to go shopping too. So, down to the bus stop I went with all my bags and shopping list. I had a bit more shopping this week, what with having to feed two other mouths and all, so it was a bit bloody heavier coming up the 67 steps to my house!
When I got back, I finished the ironing, and fetched the washing from the machine, and reloaded my clothes horse (so, really my room was just as full this morning, all I had achieved was to put some more of my clothes back in the wardrobe!).
During the afternoon, I had the fun job of dusting and cleaning my room! Ladies & Gents, please take note - as nice as laminate flooring looks, it is a right pain in the backside to keep clean, as it attracts dust like nobody's business!
As you can tell, the bulk of my day was well planned, well executed and generally was a lot of fun. (I've not got a sarcasm font, but if I did, this last sentence would appear in it!)
When Mum & Dad arrived, we had some tea, and spoke to my landlady, and then we went for a walk down to the Schloss, and had a beer before enjoying the bus ride home!
Friday 23rd October
So, on the first day of my parents' being here, we decided that instead of enjoying some of Germany, we would have a trip to Sarreguemines. We wandered around there for a bit, had a nice walk around the market, and then had a coffee! We then walked down by the side of the Saar (or Sarre, if you're a patriotic Frenchman), before heading off to Kleinblittersdorf for lunch and to repeat my walk from Kleinblittersdorf to Guedingen.
I should, at this juncture, briefly mention the weather (well, as there's three English people here - it would be negligent of our stereotype not to!) - it was a drizzly and cloudy day, but not exceptionally cold.
The walk was broken at Guedingen, where they conveniently left a pub, with a couple of drinks, before walking back to Kleinblittersdorf. It would appear that in this part of Germany they have employed the same person to count the distances as they have in Devon. (For those of you who don't know - Distances in Devon are often far further than the signs tell you they are - e.g. if a sign tells you it's 5 miles to Modbury, be aware it could be 8 actual miles!). How do I know this? Well, at one end of our walk, it purports to be 5km to the other end, whilst at the other end walking back along the same path will be 7.5km...where do the extra 2.5km come from? Who knows!
After walking as far as we did today, we decided to stay in and watch a film tonight.
During the film, we decided to use my computer's own rescue and recover system - this basically reformats my computer and then kindly installs Windows back on it. This might sound awful, but luckily I had saved a lot of my work on a memory stick, so that wasn't so bad! What's more annoying is that I now have to re-install a lot of my software back on the computer, which is more a time-consuming problem than anything else! Damned computers!
Saturday 24th October
Today we went to a couple of towns not too far away from Saarbruecken - indeed actually doing something in Germany! One of these was Saarlouis, which I had already visited with some of the other assistants; here we walked around the market and the infamous Tedi shop (basically a poundstretcher). We also had a walk along the side of the moat around the old fortifications in Saarlouis, which was very nice. At the moment, it is a perfect time to get some fantastic pictures of the orange, and red leaves on the trees!
After lunch in Saarlouis, we headed off to Merzig, where we actually went in a Woolworth (not quite the same thing as the ones which closed in January, but started by the same American). After walking around the town, which is nice, but there really isn't a lot here (except for two train stations!)...there is, though, a hill, from which you can have some fantastic views over the Saar and over the valley. (I've already put some photos on the blog in one of my September entries, if you're interested!)
This evening my landlady cooked a typical Saarlaendisch dinner for us. It consisted of a rare Saarlaendisch delicacy...err...maybe, not rare....in fact, not normally a delicacy....potatoes. The meal started with Potato soup, followed by pureed potato with cabbage, followed by a Lyoner sausage (which is originally French, but the Saarlaenders like to claim ownership for it!). This was finished off with stewed apple, and a few pieces of french cheese. All of this was washed down with a little (or, in fact, quite a lot) white wine! I would also like to add my name to the list of people (mainly students) that argue that alcohol makes languages easier and more fluent!
All in all, a very pleasant evening to end a pleasant day! It was also an opportunity to get to know my flatmate a bit better, because prior to this, we had often passed like ships in the night (me early in the morning and her late back in the evening!).
Sunday 25th October
So, today, we went out to see some more picturesue places within Saarland. The main reason for this was that everything is shut on a Sunday. The first port of call was a small town in Northern Saarland called Mettlach. Near to Mettlach is a famous bend in the Saar called the Saarschleife (Saar loop)...it is basically the only thing that normal Germans would recognise from the Saarland! I'm no geographer, so I'll explain it in layman's terms - it's basically a bend in the Saar, which almost goes back on itself. (I will put some pictures up when I put that piece of software back on my newly reformatted computer!).
From Mettlach, we thought it would be a good idea to walk along the river, to see what the loop was like from the bottom of the hill. It is pretty unimpressive to be honest. Admittedly, the river finds itself in a very deep wooded valley, which at this time of year is very pretty with the autumn colours, but in terms of noticing the actual bend, it's negligible because you are on the bend for so long, it becomes normalised.
So, after walking around the bend and back, we decided to head up to the viewpoint, from where there are some pretty good photo opportunities to be had of the view over the Saarschleife. We took some photos and decided that it was well worth the journey!
It was a little bit early to go home, so we headed over to Losheim am See, where there is a railway museum (which I knew would be closed, being a Sunday and all). It was surprising how easily accessible the museum property was; you could walk pretty freely around the main platform areas, and they are running trains along their preserved line at the end of November - so guess where I'll be then!!!
After briefly walking round there, we headed home and had a nice stroll down by the Schloss (castle) in Saarbruecken before catching the friendly bus back!
Several European, and intra-German excursions planned next week...I'll keep you posted!
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