Kelter Esslingen am Neckar

Hallo Tonia,
wir freuen uns, dass Du Dich so gut eingelebt hast und so viele nette Leute kennengelernt hast.
Hoffentlich klappt alles weiterhin wie am Schnürchen. Deine Berichte sind wirklich interessant und lese sie mit Begeisterung.
Uns geht es auch gut. Zur Zeit ist es etwas stressig. Der Garten nimmt viel Zeit in Anspruch, von der Obstwiese in Amstetten ganz zu schweigen ...

... das, obwohl ich noch nicht einmal die Hälfte des Liedes gespielt hatte! Wahnsinn! Das war ein wirklich unbeschreibliches Gefühl für mich, obwohl ich von mir selbst nicht behaupten kann, dass ich so etwas selten erlebe. Frau Kolbs Klasse hat hervorragend mitgemacht. Allerdings fand ich es sehr schade, dass die Zeit nicht gereicht hat, um tiefgehende Gespräche mit den Schülern zu führen.

Einen Abend zuvor nahm sich Frau Kolb die ...

... the Germans. They down played this of course but history is history and it did advance their technology quite a bit. They also had an exhibition of all the famous cars from movies or used by stars including The Pope Mobile, The Jurassic Park cars and Ringos car! We did a simulation of being in a racing car which was pretty fun! I could never drive that fast!

We stayed at a ...

We'd learned enough to say "zwei fur schloss, bitte," and enough to hear "nein." But we didn't understand a word of the lady's explanation after that . . .

For our second weekend in country, Jon bought 3-day passes for the trains and busses. We found our way by bus to the train station, up to Ludwigsburg by train, then on another bus to the schloss, pretty good! We even thought we found the castle, looked just like the picture on the ...

... get off early to wait by a cemetery until the bus comes back, and the driver can chuckle at us. The bus goes right up the hill, good to know. We got off the bus and started walking, looking for signs. We finally turned around and saw the tomb right behind us. The bus drops off right at the base of the tomb, also good to know. Anyway, it's a nice walk to the top and a welcome breeze when you get there. And the view was totally worth it.

Another ultimate weekend, although this time I went with the Frankfurt team to the Junior championships in Gemmrigheim. We did some training to prepare for the upcoming German mixed nationals and European championships, and were there to provide a showcase game for the young´uns against Sugar ...

... of the Mercedesturm to get a nice view of the city, for free!

On our drive back we spotted a castle ruin high above the autobahn and tried to find it. We climbed up a steep and winding hill through wine fields to the castle gates, which were locked. A sign posted on the gates stated that the castle is private property and trespassers will be fined. Unfortunately this is the only thing I took pictures of from our entire trip.

Eigentlich ist es ja bequem. In Budapest in den Euronight einsteigen, schlafen und fahren, im Speisewagen frühstücken und erholt in Stuttgart ankommen.

Als Eisenbahnfreund hat man die Angewohnheit, dass man an jedem interessantem Unterwegshalt aufwacht und aus dem Fenster sehen muss (auch wenn es stockdunkel ist). Als ich dann irgendwo in Wien nach ca. 2,5 Stunden zum 300 ...

... s really Germany. But America is still the land of large food portions, that's for sure. We worked a lot on grammar in school today, and with various jobs in Germany, which is what we worked on a little bit when I was in Martin's class, but this time it was more detailed and straightforward. I'm such a nerd, I really like the grammar stuff. In the afternoon we played a game in which we wrote a type of job on a sticker and put it on the back of the person next to ...

... it's still a really sweet ride. I ended up buying a hat and taking 3 free posters from that place. Oh yeah, I paid for it with my BMW card, which I find amusing since they're competitors. I took the S Bahn back to the city center, and walked around a bit more until I got too tired of walking. I walked to this place and then I saw this restaurant named "El Chico". I was so excited to see Mexican food, since I haven't had any for over a month. Here is the nice ...