Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

Today’s Photos

Woke up early this morning to check out of my etap hotel and head into München, it was a gloriously sunny morning. I took the S-Bahn train which was a 10 minute walk from my hotel. S-bahn which stands for Stadtschnellbahn – fast city train. Was very fast and had all the stops announced in both German and English. They have 3 train systems here…the bahn – long distances, the U-bahn – subway and the S-bahn for commuters in surrounding areas.

Once arriving at the München downtown Hofbahnhof – train station, I was able to purchase my ticket to Wolfegg, which is the town where Nathalie currently lives. Nathalie was my school exchange partner back when I was 16.

The train ride down was really great. The further south I travelled the more lush and familiar the landscape was. All the announcements were in German which was a little difficult for me as one train had a broken car so all passengers from that car onward were asked to get off and move forward. I didn’t realize what was going on until I saw everyone going off and had to ask someone…what’s up?

As I journeyed I was happy to see so many evergreens and some of the alps in the distance as well. I transferred to two different trains before actually getting to Wolfegg. Funnily enough, the further south I got the older the trains got too. They were all pretty good to me, fast on time and well maintained.

Nathalie’s father greeted me at the train station and took me to their home called “Wasch”, just like in France they have homes here addressed with a name instead of a street number. Nathalie fixed me up a great meal of Weißwurst, bread and salad – my favourites.

Then we all took a drive into Ravensburg which is the town close by and where I spent most of my time when I stayed here years ago. Some was familiar but most of it wasn’t, however, all of it was really great to see. Ravensberg has about 10 or more towers throughout the city, some are gates to enter the city and some are clock or bell towers. This town was apparently a fortified “free city” from the middle ages, you can still see some of the wall around most of it. There was some sort of festival of town/village bands here today so i caught a glimpse of some laderhosen.

We met up with Nathalie’s mother in town and all of us went out for a really great Shwabish dinner. I had a wunderbar time catching up even though it was a short visit. I’m sure I’ll see them again in hopefully, the not toodistant future. I’m super glad I was finally able to make it out here, I’m just sorry that my kids, Francois and Diane had to miss it. Hopefully there will be another time soon.

On to München tomorrow.