Monday started out early again - the travel period was over, and we had to pack all of our stuff and leave Köln. My bag was super heavy - I should probably have taken a small suitcase with wheels, but everything ended up OK.
I bought a sandwitch at the Hauptbahnhof and we got on the train. The first train was a slower regional train through the Rhine valley. There wasn't an outlet and I wasn't able to catch up on my blog like I wanted, but the view was pretty incredible. There were castles left and right and really cute little towns. I'd like to take a better trip through the area.
The train ran a half hour late because of a lighting caused equipment failure. I'm sure that this made the Germans who had to wait for the train incredibly angry. We even missed our connecting train!
We changed trains in Mannheim to a high speed ICE train and Deutsche Bahn offered to refund part of our tickets for missing the connection. The ICE train was a lot less interesting, though I did get to sit in a compartment and pretend it was the 50's, which was kinda fun! No strangers approached me on this train.
The train arrived in Munich and we took a third train to Holzkirchen. After a short walk from the train station to the city hall, we were greeted with a band (!) and a speech by the mayor. I was a bit nervous about meeting my host family, but after my experience in 2008 I wasn't super worried.
I met up with my ost family on the Marktplatz (more German creeping into my speech, I think most Americans would say "in" the marketplace instead of "on") and got all the luggage into their car. I'm staying with Gerog and Christia Sollfrank. They're pros - I'm their 12th KU student. Georg runs an information technology company from the house, which is really nice. I live in the basement and have two rooms and a bathroom to myself. There's a living room and kitchen on the first floor and a beautiful outdoor covered patio area that looks out onto a well kept garden. Georg and Christa live up stairs.
I came home, unpacked, and had dinner with the Sollfranks. They grilled, which they said is pretty unusual for them. I'm not sure why, as the food was really good. We ate it with some Kansas City BBQ Sauce, which a former student had brought who was one of the first and visited this year on his honeymoon.
After dinner we took a walk around town, pointed out the school, and got my bike ready to go. I unpacked the rest of my stuff and went to bed.
I'm very excited about my host family - the seem like they're really nice.
By the way, I visited Remagen yesterday on the way to the winery and I have some pictures of where the bridge was that I'll post soon.
Castle Count: Through the roof.
3 comments:
That all sounds great! So glad you are in such a good place.
It was the lack of anyone meeting you in your train compartment that should have been the clue...
It sounds great! I hope your classes go well, too. It's easy for me to imagine the winery tour. I know you're enjoying the train travel, even if no romance or murder mysteries surfaced. But it gives you good background if YOU want to turn your writing talents to fiction. Is the Rhine Valley where all those famous posters of castles come from?
I'm glad you got a good host family with nice space and a garden.
It's a holiday weekend for us, of course, but one of the BIG downsides of online classes, is that there are no holidays. I know I could turn my computer off, but I can't change my deadlines.
What will your coursework be?
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