We did our best to wake up with the alarm this morning, but did hit snooze a couple times. Our major high point for the day wasn’t coming until 10, so we had an opportunity to take our time. We both got ready and headed down to the breakfast area of the hotel, which had a wonderful spread of breads, cheeses, meats, yogurt, and cereals. Of course, there was Appenzeller cheese in all its varieties. We’ve had the silver variety, which is more mild, at Alina and Peter’s, so we each tried some of the sharper stuff. The breakfast buffet also had a couple different juices and some water, so we were well stocked for the start of our day!
We still had a little time to kill before our big 10am arrival, so we wandered the streets a little bit and found some stores that were open. I had hoped to find another small change purse specifically to carry my Swiss francs: a) because I am that person, and b) just so I wouldn’t mix up my coin-based francs and Euros. We found a store almost directly across from the hotel that sold a variety of items, from Swiss Army knives to cuckoo clocks, to bags. That is where I found my little leather change purse embroidered with the word Switzerland, as well as an edelweiss flower, Swiss flag, and another flower I am unsure of. I am very excited about it :) We headed back to the hotel for a bit to await our special guest for the day, and as 10am drew closer, I found myself getting a little nervous (for no reason). I think I was just anxious because it’s been a while. I didn’t have to wait long because shortly after 10, I caught sight of who we were waiting for: my high school German teacher, Frau Huss!! Fun fact: Frau Huss is originally from Appenzell, which is 90% of the reason we are visiting currently. She also just retired, and so I had reached out to her to see if she’d be visiting home at all over the summer, telling her a little bit about our plans. As is obvious by this post, she was, and so I was SO HAPPY to be able to see her again today, and in her hometown! Frau walked us to some parts of town that we had not yet explored, including showing us her childhood home, some of the local schools (including the Gymnasium she attended), and the Catholic Church, which we had briefly gone in during our morning stroll, but she took us down into the cemetery to show us where her dad is buried. We then got some lunch at a restaurant connected to one of the other hotels in town. She told us about rösti and spätzli, which are two traditional Swiss dishes. The first is a fried potato dish that is often topped with fried eggs and cheese. The latter are dough-y style noodles often cooked with Appenzeller cheese and comes with a side of apple sauce. Both were EXQUISITE! Throughout the time we spent with Frau today, we caught up about things in our lives since I graduated. I have always felt bad that I don’t keep in better touch with some of my teachers, but I always have done my best to keep tabs on them somehow, whether through social media, younger siblings of friends, or otherwise. I was so glad I was able to reconnect with Frau and we talked about working on getting together again more when Brandon and I return to the states, her being both retired and not far from where we live! We parted ways after lunch so she could go visit her mom and we went back to the hotel to regroup. We relaxed at the hotel for a couple hours, long enough to experience a nice storm roll through. There was hail and everything!! It was pretty intense! When we were ready to roll again, we went back to a couple shops we passed earlier in the day to take another look. We also bought some chocolate from a store that happened to also be across from the hotel :) Neither of us was hungry for a big dinner, so we popped into a bakery to get some rolls, and then found a cheese shop that also had some packages of sliced meat, so we bought some prosciutto-like ham and had a little picnic in the hotel room. It was quite fun! Appenzell has just been a dream to be in. I am so glad we got here, and that I got to see Frau Huss, and that Brandon got to meet her. I am quite sad to be heading out tomorrow, but I know we will be back here sometime. If anything, we need to come back for the yodel festival, which starts tomorrow (town got busier as the day passed today with people coming in for it)! It sounds like such a cool event and I’m sorry we’re going to miss it! That being said, as with each destination, I am excited about where we’re going tomorrow. But, as always, you’ll have to wait to find out why. Until then, enjoy these photos of the most charming person and place!
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Likely to be a short post today (but I am pretty good with flourish, so we’ll see…), and that was mostly because we spent the majority of it traveling.
We left BaseCamp this morning just after breakfast to head to the main train station. On the docket today was the longest travel day since our actual flight to get to Germany. We had a series of trains to ride today as we headed south to Switzerland. The first leg of the trip was the longest; we spent a little over 6 hours on our first train. It was a pleasant ride. Our car was pretty empty the whole time. We did sit behind a family that had two kids who looked to be about middle school age. Within the last 90 minutes or so of the ride, they were antsy and kept getting up and messing around, but they were respectful. They were on the train before us and only got off one stop prior, so I can only imagine how long they had been traveling today! There were snacks on the train, but nothing substantial, so we were pretty hungry when we got to our first “layover,” which, ironically, was in Austria. There was a bakery at the station, so we got ourselves something and then had the great fortune of returning to the platform we had exited our previous train from in order to catch our next one. The next train took us to St. Gallen in Switzerland, where we then caught an S-bahn to our final destination, Appenzell. But Alicia…Appenzell doesn’t sound like a tourist destination…why go there??? Because, dear friends, TOMORROW, Brandon and I get to meet up with someone very special to me who happens to originate from Appenzell. But, again, more on that tomorrow ;P For now, I will tell you we are staying at a beautiful place called Hotel Löwen, and Appenzell is the picture of a quaint alpine village. We saw the Alps as we rode in and we were both in pure awe! I am so excited to do some exploring tomorrow, though we did grab some dinner nearby, and it was AMAZING! So, I think that’s about all I’ve got for today. Stay tuned for the special guest reveal tomorrow! To take full advantage of the singular full day we would have in Bonn, an attempt was made to be up around 8. It was incredibly quiet at BaseCamp last night. Aside from Brandon and I, I had only seen two other older couples roaming around. When we got upstairs for breakfast, I noticed there was also a father-son duo and one other older couple I had not seen the night before. By all accounts, I think we were the only ones who did not arrive by bike.
Breakfast was a nice buffet bar of various cereals, bread options, meat, and cheeses, not unlike the breakfasts we enjoyed with Alina and Peter (except BaseCamp didn’t have Frischkäse [cream cheese], so I was a little sad). After breakfast, we walked a couple blocks down the road to catch the bus to the Deutsches Museum. It was a cute STEM-based museum with a good number of hands-on activities. Naturally, all the signage was in German, so we tried our best to read some, but not all of it. At one point, there was an activity with a camera that took about 1000 photos of an object placed in front of it and then showed how those thousand(s) of images got processed in order to actively identify the item. A gentleman who worked there explained the process to us (again, in German), which we followed a bit of. We had said to him at one point that our German wasn’t so good, and all that did was change some of his verbiage to words I felt were maybe a tad easier for us to process…but he never spoke English. Again, it was good practice, though! It took less than an hour to go through the Deutsches Museum, so we headed to das Haus der Geschichte, or the History of the Federal German Republic Museum, which was closer to the center of town. The ride to the museum was interesting because our bus driver never actually stopped at the stop we requested, but he did stop at the following one, so we just walked a little. Brandon figured he was new because he was showing some indications of checking a schedule or something. I was just glad we were only one stop from where we had to be :) At the history museum, they had an extensive display on the history of Germany from the end of WWII to present day. There were a lot of very humbling artifacts from the liberation of the concentration camps, and signs throughout the displays were in both English and German, so we could track pretty well. There were about 4 floors of video screens, artifacts, and information about the difficulties of dividing the country after the war, how life differed between the two sides, the divide between older and younger generations with the dawn of the 70s, Germany’s reunification and the celebrations and struggles that resulted, Brexit, and so many other things. A lot of the material we read and propaganda posters on display in the section about the two sides of Germany, and the information about the political atmosphere at the time, felt a little close to home for us. The parallels were not ideal….It was a really great opportunity, though, and especially with the museum being free admission, I highly recommend it if you ever go to Bonn. Following the museum, we were a bit hungry, so we found a restaurant about a 12-minute walk away to get some food. I had bratwurst and Kartoffelsalat. Brandon had this delicious pork “chop” with pineapples and cheese, and it came with fried potatoes. By the time that wrapped up, we were ready to head back to BaseCamp to chill. *Side note: We LOVE BaseCamp so much, and we cannot wait to come back again! At BaseCamp, we took some time to relax. Many of our folks from breakfast seemed to have moved on because there was a swarm of teenagers when we arrived. Not sure if it’s a school trip or a bunch of friends on holiday, but it’s a little rowdier currently than it was this time last night. But it’s okay they’re having fun :) We ordered dinner for delivery tonight from a local Italian place. It was a experience we may not try again, given the language barrier. The delivery driver called when they arrived, but hung up before Brandon found them, so we thought they left. Luckily they hadn’t, and we got our food :) Tomorrow is primarily a travel day. We’re going to a very special place in Switzerland, but you’ll just have to wait to find out why ;) Not a lot of pictures today, but please still do enjoy! For only the second time this trip, we had alarms set to make sure we got ourselves up at an appropriate time today. Whatever for, you may wonder? Because, dear friends, today we were heading out of Hattingen for the next three weeks to venture around more of Germany, and some of its surrounding neighbors, ON OUR OWN (dun dun dun!)! The first stop on our three week “round trip” had us (eventually) on a train to Bonn, the former capital of West Germany…
Construction/Maintenance work began today on some of the tracks in Hattingen and the surrounding area, so we knew that our options for getting to Bonn would include some adventure. Our plan was to take the S-bahn out of Hattingen to Essen Hauptbahnhof, and then we would be transferring at Essen to an IC (intercity, but not express..that’s ICE) to Bonn. However, construction was happening between one of the other Essen stations and the Hauptbahnhof, so we were going to go Hattingen --> Essen Steele, then Essen Steele —> Essen Hauptbahnhof. Then, of course, shortly before we left, that course got cancelled, so we decided to get our initial train out of Hattingen and then figure it out from there. Alina very kindly offered to drop us and our things at Hattingen (it is about a 90 second drive by car to the station), but Peter’s early meeting ran short and so he took us instead. As he dropped us off, he said if anything changed or trains didn’t come to let him know because he had a gap between meetings and could probably get us to Essen to get our train to Bonn. We thanked him and said we should be okay…which, naturally, turned out to be a terrible thing to say. The alternative train we planned to take once out of Essen Steele was now running behind and we would NOT make the train to Bonn we had planned, which was mostly a problem because we reserved seats and didn’t want to eat the (very insignificant, to be fair) 9€ we spent to do that. So, we spam called Peter in a panic until he did come to our rescue and got us instead to Bochum, which was the stop prior to Essen Hauptbahnhof for the train we were taking to Bonn. So, once again, thank you very much, Peter, for humoring us in our panic :) The train ride to Bonn itself was fairly uneventful. Lovely, but uneventful. We got to Bonn just before noon and had to grab a Straßenbahn to the station closest to our lodgings, which is called BaseCamp Bonn. BaseCamp is SUPER COOL! I don’t remember how we found it, but Brandon had come upon it in an internet search about a year or so ago when we started considering using hostels for our trips away from Hattingen. It is an old converted warehouse made to look like an indoor RV park, basically. All the “rooms” are refurbished transports, including Airstream trailers, a Swiss cable car gondola, train car, and others. We rented the gondola, and it is a DELIGHT! Despite check-in being at 3, BaseCamp also let us check in right when we arrived, which was nice because we were just going to see if we could stash our bags while we got some lunch. As I’ve noticed so far, the current occupants are us and a handful of older couples, including one who came in on their bicycles! BaseCamp has really nice bathrooms and shower areas, as well as some snack offerings at the front desk. It is smaller than we first thought based on pictures, but it’s homey :) We found lunch at a restaurant called Different. Brandon got tortellini and I had grilled chicken mac and cheese. The waitress picked up fairly quickly that we spoke English, so we didn’t get to use much German then, but we’ll have more opportunities :) We then headed back into the city to explore for a bit. There were a lot of cool shops and beautiful churches. One of them was having some work done, though I think it was open for exploration. We found the area of town (because there were lots of signs lol) where Beethoven’s house was, and we briefly listened to a little spiel about the start of his life. We didn’t tour the house, though we could, because I just wanted to walk around outside. After a few hours, I was starting to get a little tired, so we got ready to head back to BaseCamp to chill before getting some dinner. We explored the upstairs area when we returned, which is where we’ll get to have breakfast tomorrow. BaseCamp also has a few shelves of books and a seating area with some nice vintage leather couches. We laid down for a bit and then decided to find some dinner. There was a sports bar less than a block from us called Dotty’s that looked good, so we walked there quite quickly (it was almost directly across the street). We both had some Flammkuchen, mine was a veggie one and Brandon’s was bacon and onion, and we shared some fries with ketchup, mayo, and onions. A very sweet dog popped up at one point, and we eventually figured out, we think, that they belonged to the restaurant, but that is still unconfirmed. Back at BaseCamp, we got some showers and settled in for the night. I am looking forward to seeing how it is to sleep in our gondola tonight, and I am excited that we are here still tomorrow, too! Brandon and I have decided we have to get some of our friends and family to come here sometime because we’re sure they’d love it! Until tomorrow, friends, enjoy the pictures! It was a fairly lax day today. We got up around 10 and had breakfast on the balcony and then debated on what to do for the day. The weather was a little overcast and they were calling for rain in the afternoon, but we were all feeling pretty good, so we decided to go for a walk in the woods nearby.
It was a short drive to the entrance of the trail we used, but the parking lot was busy due to it being at a restaurant that had been used for a wedding yesterday (Alina saw pictures on the site’s Instagram). The trail itself was a little more challenging than I think either of us originally thought. It was mostly flat, but there were a couple of hills we climbed that got us a bit winded :P Along the walk, we wandered to Alicia’s Wildnisschule that she will be attending this upcoming week. It was a really cool property! We also got to walk through someone’s property who owned llamas. There were 5 of them and they were very cool! Two of them got pretty close to the fence, even modeling for some photos a bit. Along the path of the llamas were also some fun inspirational signs with quotes both in German and in English. We also passed some wild cherry trees along the way and ate cherries off of them. After a couple hours, we finished our hike and went back to the house to clean up and relax. Peter came downstairs to hang with Brandon and I, and the three of us watched Knives Out. Brandon just bought it for Peter on 4K because he hadn’t seen it. We watched the movie in English but used German subtitles. I’d definitely consider watching it in German sometime to see if the humor and wittiness still comes through. Dinner tonight was pasta with homemade pesto and leftovers from yesterday’s garden party. Alicia finally showed herself at this point. Up until then, she had been relaxing in her room the whole day, including at breakfast. Then, Brandon and I headed back downstairs to tidy up and repack for our next adventure tomorrow! A mostly uneventful day, but still lovely :) Until tomorrow, friends! Yesterday (yes, you read that right) was a day for doing some maintenance and meeting even more new people!
As always, we started the day with breakfast on the balcony, which featured some new Swedish style bread, in addition to the plethora of meats, cheeses, jams, and other spreads available. The Swedish bread (whose name I am forgetting at the moment) looked a lot like graham crackers, but it contained some seeds and other yummy things; ‘twas quite yummy! The major plans for the day weren’t until the evening. We were having a garden party to celebrate the numerous recent birthdays, Alicia’s finishing Grundschule, and (as Alina put it) Brandon’s return to Germany! There were a handful of neighbors coming over for dinner, so after breakfast, everyone began on some prep work for the shindig. Peter, Brandon, Alicia, and I tag-teamed doing some maintenance in the garden. The hedges needed trimmed, so Peter took the clippers to them while the rest of us picked up and collected what fell off. We all had to work together to make sure we didn’t get in the way of any cars (or the bus) that came down the road as the outside of the hedges got done. At one point Alicia and I stepped away from hedge duty to collect some berries from the garden as Alina was preparing some food for the party during the day and needed them for a special dessert. Berries collected, I went back to help with yard work, which had moved across the street to the path by the river. Peter was breaking up and collecting random grass patches that had grown in the street so that the path for rain to flow down to the storm drains was clearer. He also mowed some of the grass on the side of the path closer to the river so it wasn’t poking out at people walking by. All in all, everything went pretty quickly over about 2 hours or so. I headed inside while Brandon and Peter took the hedge trimmings up to an area by the rowing club. Alina was nearing the end of her food preparations, but she had collected herbs from the garden to finish making herb butter and tzatziki, so I helped with that. I made the tzatziki mostly on my own (I had to ask for a couple reminders on how much of different things to use), and I helped mix up the herb butter. With those done, prep had finished and now it was time for everyone to clean up and relax. Around 7, guests started arriving. There were six people in attendance (in addition to the Erkes, Brandon, and I) for food and fun: the next door neighbors of Alina and Peter, who are also new parents and brought their very adorable (and little) baby over. Their names were Matthias, Frauke, and Emil (I am genuinely hoping all names are spelled correctly). Also in attendance were some longtime friends of the family: Zirkan, Andrea, and their son, Jack. Peter, of course, was the grill master for the party, so we had loads of perfectly cooked things, in addition to all the wonderful sides and treats made by Alina, including homemade focaccia, a quinoa salad, and a red beet and bean salad. I was so stuffed by the time everything had gotten served that I had almost forgotten to leave room for dessert. However, the good ol’ “dessert stomach” pulled through to enjoy the leftover birthday cake and strawberry-raspberry tiramisu Alina made earlier in the day. There was a lot of good conversation; I did my best to only use German, which went okay lol. By the time everyone headed out and we cleaned up all the dishes, it was near 11pm and I was COOKED. But, I continue to be so grateful for the opportunity to be here and get to know more people and practice and improve my German skills. Today (prepare for potentially two posts) is yet a mystery, but I am sure it will be another fantastic day! ‘Twas a wet one today…which was good for the plants, and for us since we are not made of sugar and, therefore, cannot melt :)
I woke up around 8:30 this morning and then spent about 45 minutes working on getting Brandon up. He was awake most of that time. He even sang me “Happy Birthday” when he first opened his eyes. However, as has been the main issue for both of us, he was extremely comfy, so he didn’t feel like moving and grooving right away. But alas, I persisted, and we both got ourselves together and headed upstairs for breakfast, I was greeted with an exuberant “Happy Birthday!,” and a hug from Alina. Peter also came downstairs and wished me a happy birthday. My Alina-made cake was on the table waiting for me, too! We had some for breakfast, and it was an absolutely phenomenal decision! The cake looked like your “standard” chocolate cake, but it contained a special ingredient…red beets! Not only, then, was it delicious, but somewhat healthy too! It also had a cherry jam within the chocolate frosting on top. Seriously, it was such a great cake! I am an extremely fortunate lady :) Not only, though, did I get a delicious homemade cake, but a gift from Alina and Peter…a cheese slicer! I told them I had been talking with Brandon about getting one when we went back to the States, but now I have one! We will slice and eat SO MUCH CHEESE :D We hung out at the house for a little while as Alicia had a short day at school (it was the last day before break). We wanted to offer her some cake and see how her last day went. She came home just before 11 with an excellent report card and got a gift of her own for being such a good student this year: a new card binder for her Pokémon cards! She did not want any cake in the moment, so we let her know she was welcome to some and then headed out for the day. Our destination was Essen for some shopping and a movie. It was raining pretty hard while we walked to the S-bahn, but we managed. It was about a 20 minute ride to the main station, and then we caught our first ride on the U-bahn (subway) to the Limbecker Platz. It was a three-floor circle-shaped mall. They had some pretty cool stores, including one called Karstadt that reminded me a lot of a Boscov’s or JC Penney, but BIGGER. We had some Chinese food for lunch, and it was excellent! We also went to Saturn (Best Buy equivalent). We had about 3.5 hours to wander and the mall took about 1.5 of that. So, we ventured outside, where it had stopped raining, and found ourselves the IKEA! IKEA was not much different than the ones we have in the states. But, I do love to walk around them and get ideas for (hopefully) our future house. They had Frozen playing (in German) in a little viewing room near the entrance when we got there. We found a number of items that we are going to consider when we’ve got more room for them, including some closets and kitchen shelving. We ate at the restaurant in IKEA, which was incredibly extensive. I was not super hungry, so I got a strawberry shortcake-like dessert. Brandon got some meatballs and fries, and a chocolate mousse. It was all very good! After IKEA, we headed to the movie theater around the corner. We had gotten tickets to see Jurassic World: Dominion in English. We were two of about 7 or 8 people in the whole theater for it, which was nice :) The movie itself was okay. As a person who generally just watches movies without giving them too much thought, it kept me engaged for the most part. However, as a person married to another person whose background is filmmaking and being critical of movies, I give it a solid 6/10. I appreciate that I now give a little more thought to movies than I once did. For example, I felt like the start of the movie introduced a lot of different elements all at once. They got fleshed out for the most part throughout the course of the film, but there just seemed to be a lot happening too soon, for lack of better words. But, I digress… After the movie, we headed back to Hattingen. Alina, Peter, and Alicia were hanging out on the couch when we got to the house. Alicia was working to finish the ocean life puzzle we had started over a week ago. I sat down to help her finish it, and we did it! Finally! We talked with Alina and Peter a bit about some potential plans for the upcoming weeks and then headed to bed. Tomorrow, it’s better weather and some fun plans with the neighbors to be had. Until then, just a few photos today! Plus, a little clip of German Frozen :D Exhausted from such a great day yesterday, getting out of bed when the alarm went off this morning was ROUGH. Once again, Brandon was alive and functional ahead of me, which also threw me off, but c’est la vie :) We got ourselves up, had some breakfast, and got our things together to head to the Straßenbahn for a little before 9. On the docket today was the city of Wuppertal, where we were told we’d find a zoo (and you all know how we feel about our zoos!).
Contrary to many of our outings so far, we rode the Straßenbahn to Hattingen Mitte and then we hopped on a bus to Wuppertal! While not our first bus ride in Germany, it certainly was the longest so far. The ride to Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof took about an hour, and then we got on a very cool train called the Schwebebahn. “But Alicia, why is it very cool?” I am so glad you asked! The Schwebebahn is so cool because the track runs over top of the train, so the cars are suspended in mid-air! It’s a very smooth ride :) We took the Schwebebahn to a station about 2 blocks from the zoo, and then it was all uphill to the entrance. The zoo itself was lovely, and like the trek to the entrance, HILLY. For having lived in Pittsburgh for four years, I don’t think my legs ever got so much of a workout as they did today at this zoo, which, just for the record, is about 17 acres smaller than the Pittsburgh Zoo (If anything, it felt like it was 17 acres bigger. But that may have just been the hills). Anyhow, this zoo had a plethora of animals on display, including all kinds of birds, two monkey houses, a herd of elephants, some lions (that were very hard to find), tigers (that we didn’t see), fish, penguins, guinea pigs, and a bunch of other things! There were also a number of kindergartens, not on display though, just exploring the zoo ;) In fact, we had to contend with some of the little guys today when it came time for lunch because there were many of them in line and they did not order as a whole group. But it was adorable to watch and listen to them because small children are adorable! We spent about 4 hours at the zoo before I was feeling nearly spent. So, we headed back to the Schwebebahn, which we rode end-to-end. That trip took about 30 minutes and gave us a nice view of Wuppertal! On the return trip, we only rode the Schwebebahn to the Hauptbahnhof so we could work our way back to Hattingen. Because of the time we got to the station, we would have had to wait about an hour for the bus we had originally taken, so Brandon found us an S-bahn to Essen, and that would allow us to get a connection to Hattingen. The S-bahn was nice and arguably the least crowded of all the transportation we took today. Once in Essen we deboarded one S-Bahn to go across the tracks (which involved going down one set of stairs and up the next) to catch a second S-bahn that took us to Hattingen. We got off the train in Hattingen a little over a kilometer from Alina and Peter’s house, so we walked along the bridge back to the house. My legs were so tired, and I was ready to crash and burn. However, as “second winds” would have it, we had a seat on the porch with everyone and caught up about our days. That rest helped because then Alicia and I did some art, and we attempted to finish a puzzle we started over a week ago (we are as of yet unsuccessful…ocean life…you don’t realize how close in color it all is until you’re having to finish a puzzle of it :P). Again, as always, it was a delightful day. Tomorrow, the weather is not looking so great, which stinks, but we have some fun plans on the agenda. Not to mention it’s also my birthday :) Until then, a few photos from the zoo for your enjoyment! Thank you, as always, for reading!! Es war wiener ein schöner Tag. We woke up and watched the season finale of Kenobi before setting off for the day’s adventures. The episode was great and you should all watch it if you haven’t already. You will feel many things…
Today was Peter’s birthday, and luckily we saw him before we left for the day. So, we were able to wish him a happy birthday in person! Alicia’s end-of-year school picnic was this evening, so Peter, Alina, and Alicia had birthday celebrations and cake with breakfast this morning. Brandon and I took part in the cake once we were upstairs for breakfast :) We took the trusty Straßenbahn to Bochum and then hopped on an ICE to Düsseldorf. The trip took about 40 minutes, and once we arrived, we headed for the bus stop! We had booked tickets to go up the Rheinturm, a tall tower in Düsseldorf with a 360° view of Düsseldorf, as well as the surrounding areas that can be seen from a distance on a nice day (like Köln). We caught the bus with no problem, even arriving a few minutes before it got there. It felt impressive because our train got to the station at about 5 minutes to noon and the bus picked us up close to the station, but not right at it, about 2 minutes past the hour. So, we walked quick, and it worked! *Side note: I have been loving using my knowledge/understanding of public transit so much while we’ve been here! But I digress… The bus ride to the area near the tower was fairly short, and, of course, I turned us the wrong way getting off the bus when it got to the stop. In an effort to get out of the way, I went on impulse and chose incorrectly. Luckily we didn’t get too far before we turned around and saw the tower, in all its glory, about a block or so from the bus stop. We were early for our reservation, but we were able to go up anyway! The elevator in the tower moved REALLY quick! It climbed 168 meters in no time flat! In the panoramic area, the windows were labeled with what landmarks and/or towns you might see from that viewpoint. It was really very cool! The area also had a bar that served drinks and snacks, so Brandon and I had a small lunch of Flammkuchen and nachos (which were basically the nacho cheese Doritos with salsa). I got a house made lavender lemongrass lemonade, and Brandon had mineral water. As is the pattern so far, everything was delicious :) Once we finished eating, we walked around the whole 360° space to look out all the windows. A few spots had those binocular setups that you could pay 50 cents and see out farther. We did that at a section of windows that looked out towards the airport. We could see lots of planes on the tarmac! Before we went back down the elevator, I got another souvenir Euro from the machine in the bar area. I got one in Köln, and now I have added Düsseldorf. I’m curious to see how many I may end up with! We left the tower and there was a gentleman with an ice cream truck, so we indulged in a scoop each. Another thing I will miss when we go back to America is the ice cream here. It is creamy and delicious, it doesn’t hurt my tummy (or Brandon’s so far), and it is SO CHEAP. I have yet to pay more than 1,50€ for a scoop, and so paying easily double that for stuff when we get back will just feel wrong…Anyhow, we then decided to head to the Filmmuseum, which Peter had suggested to us. It wasn’t too far from the tower, and the weather was gorgeous, so the walk was lovely! Upon arrival, we bought our tickets and the gentleman behind the counter said something to me about my backpack and “der Keller,” which I know means basement or cellar, but I had gotten distracted in putting my change away, so I said to Brandon, “What am I doing with my backpack?” The gentleman then replied “Oh, you speak English! And here I am talking to you all in German!” We assured him we do speak German, but I just got confused, and he was very kind and laughed off the moment with us :) For the record, I could not take my backpack through the museum and I had to put it in a locker down on their basement level a floor below. Bag secured, we headed to the first floor of exhibits, which involved some costumes from Akita Kurosawa films and some other film props and paraphernalia from Greta Garbo. The museum had exhibits about the development of film, from shadow puppetry to stop motion to a whole display of reels of different sized film. One floor was set up like a studio. Another had a number of old film projectors. Throughout the museum, there were different interactive things. My favorite was the area where the green screen was. You could choose a background and then do whatever you wanted. It was very fun! It was a really neat place, and absolutely worth more than the 5€ they charge for admission! I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Düsseldorf! After the museum, we wandered through the Altstadt a little, I found a souvenir shop that sold some postcards, so I got a Düsseldorf one for my collection :) Then, we were both a little hungry, so we found an Eiscafe and had some more ice cream! I had an Eisflip, which was vanilla ice cream, orange juice, and whipped cream. Brandon got a strawberry sundae. Both were excellent! We walked around a little bit by the river before heading to the train station to work our way back to Hattingen. In Hattingen, we went into town to get some dinner. It was about 7, so we were both pretty hungry! We went to the restaurant Brandon tried to go to for lunch yesterday, which was called Cafe Mexx. I had a creamy salmon pasta, and Brandon got a burger. I was nervous about my pasta because I can be funny about salmon, but the menu said it was fresh, so I gave it a chance and was not disappointed! Brandon’s burger also lived up to the hype :) Post-dinner, we headed back to Alina and Peter’s, finally getting in the door around quarter to 9, worn out but feeling good from another great day! Tomorrow, we have a date with some animals hopefully! Until then, friends, enjoy the pictures! As the title suggests, today I went to school! One of the neighbors is a teacher of students with hearing impairments and works at a school that serves a primarily hearing-impaired population, so I was given the opportunity to go with her for a day at work!
I woke up earlier than I have yet while on this trip; the alarm went off at 6am. After a quick shower, I got into the only clothes I felt were suitable for a day of being a “visiting professional” and had some breakfast. Peter kindly made me some toast and tea. Alina asked if I was excited to which I replied, “Ja! Ein bisschen nervös, aber aufgeregt!” Shortly before 8, I walked halfway down the street to the neighbor’s house and then we hopped in the car and off we went! The drive took about half an hour. During that time we spoke, mostly in English but some in German, about the differences and similarities between her school and the ones I’ve been at. We also talked about the unique difficulties that come from working with our special populations, hers the hearing-impaired and mine the blind. She also told me that there were a few new teachers at her school in the last few years, including one who uses a CI (cochlear implant), like many of the children, and four or five who are completely deaf. I thought that was so cool because, as she also said, it provides the children an opportunity to see someone like them succeeding in a way they may not have imagined. The school is called Schule am Leitenhaus Bochum Langendreer. It is a beautiful set of buildings! When we arrived, the neighbor, Kordula, showed me the office, where I said hello to the school director and got a name tag (that I got to bring home!). I also saw the faculty room and the Audiometrieraum where they conduct their hearing tests on new students. I also met a number of other teachers! Then, it was time to head to the classroom. There were 7 students in class today out of a total of 9. About half of them used CIs, some hearing aids, and all used some form of GDS (German sign language). There was a teacher in the room at the time who was one of the aforementioned completely deaf teachers. She was very nice and even though Kordula had to translate much of what she said, I followed with some of her signs based on my limited knowledge of ASL. That teacher left then and Kordula began a lesson on time with the kids. I learned some signs along the way from watching as many of the kids were also reviewing the signs for time/the clock. After a little while, they had a break and I got to talk with one of the classroom aides, and upon the kiddos’ return, they did some more clock/time review, cleaned out their folders for the end of the year, and reviewed a story they had recently read. The day passed very quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to go outside for a few minutes before dismissal. Kordula and I left the building around 1:30, so I was back to Alina and Peter’s by 2. Alicia came home about 5 minutes after I did and Alina kindly made us some pasta. We both ate and then sat on our phones for a little bit. Alina finished up her workday and then the 3 of us headed into town for part 2 of my school day, which involved visiting the English language school Alicia attends once a week. It is called Mortimer English Club. It was Alicia’s last lesson before the break, so the group went to a local ice cream shop where all the kids had to practice ordering in English. They all did a really great job! Before and after the ice cream shop, Alicia’s instructor, Shane (who hails originally from the US) asked the kids about their upcoming plans for break and some general check-in questions. Many of the kids answered primarily in German, but when they did speak English, they all did a good job :) Alina met us after Alicia’s class and we had to do some quick shopping before heading home to have dinner. After dinner, Peter got ready to go meet his diving club, and I *am* (as I am currently writing in the moment) extremely tired from my very exciting day! It was the first (and possibly only) day that I didn’t do something in conjunction with Brandon, who had a lovely day in Hattingen going to the library and eating in town, and I didn’t end up feeling as nervous or underprepared with my German as I thought I may be. So, I am calling it a win on a number of levels :) Tomorrow is Peter’s birthday, but the day is jam packed with a lot of things on everyone’s schedules, so his birthday cake may have to get eaten for breakfast (that is still yet to be determined haha)! Until then, I can’t show many pictures from my school adventures today for privacy reasons, but please enjoy these images of the school building, classroom setup, and the dinosaur lunchbox Peter kindly packed me to take along today :) Until tomorrow! |
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