Trip to Frankfurt

In their second week in Germany, the students of Chico High School in California visited Germany's financial centre Frankfurt am Main. Being the fifth largest city in Germany there is a lot to see, like the huge amount of skyscrapers and high buildings, that is unique in Germany. Along with Beate of DFSR, Chiara and Paula joined the trip again to tell you everything about it.

Again, we met at DFSR in Heppenheim at 9 in the morning. After waiting for a while we walked to the train station and took the train to Frankfurt. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side again but this time the train was on time since the wet stuff coming from the sky was rain and not snow.

At the train station in Frankfurt we waited for our sightseeing bus that arrived after a few minutes of freezing in the cold. When we had figured out which of the audio tour machines worked and would not burst our ears, the bus started driving and took us through Sachsenhausen, over the Main river and to famous sights like the Hammering Man, St. Paul’s Church and the old opera.

Right before the sightseeing tour

Eating Rösti and Schnitzel

The bus driver dropped us off at the train station again and we started walking towards the "Zeil", Frankfurt’s biggest shopping lane. Searching for food we ended up at the top level of "MyZeil", the impressing mall on the "Zeil". After we had split up in the Food Court but all ended up in the same restaurant, we ate some Swiss food.
 

 Some of the students wanted to buy some souvenirs so we went on a journey to find some souvenir shops. On our way we saw the spice shop of the famous German TV cook Alfons Schuhbeck, went inside and bought tea and spices.

Then, after everybody had his or her souvenirs, we split up again and had an hour to go shopping ourselves. Some of the girls wanted to see the German shop “Liebeskind Berlin”, where you could buy bags, shoes and some clothes if you were rich (which we are not) and some others wanted to look for some more souvenirs.

The sun glanced out - so we took a group photo in front of St. Paul´s Church

St. Paul's Church and Frankfurt's second highest building, the Commerzbank Tower, in the sunshine

We met up again at the entrance of "MyZeil" and slowly walked back to the train station, with little stops at Starbucks and more souvenir shops. We took the train back to Heppenheim and said goodbye.

Visitors from California

Last Sunday DFSR welcomed seven American students from Chico High School in the sunny state of California who are spending two weeks at the Bergstrasse, living with German host families and attending the secondary school "Karl Kübel Schule" in Bensheim. Yesterday they went on an  excursion to the ancient towns of Schwetzingen and Heidelberg with our DFSR Inbound Team and with our two DFSR interns Paula and Chiara who are reporting on the exciting day.

At 9 o´clock in the morning we met the American students at the DFSR headquarters in Heppenheim. After the host parents had said goodbye and everybody was ready and provided with hot coffee, we all went to the train station together. Thanks to the great weather our train was late, so we missed the connection train in Mannheim, but luckily we found another one taking us to the town of Schwetzingen soon. The students from Chico were all freezing but still fascinated by the snow because they never have a weather like that in California. Then we walked to “Schwetzingen castle” and had a great tour with a really funny English guide, who told us a lot about the life of the elector at Schwetzingen castle, Karl Theodor. We were stunned by all the “secret doors” that were actually pretty obvious and the fancy rooms. Unfortunately we could not go into the huge garden because it was too cold but we took a nice group picture in front of the castle.

The students with their teacher Mrs. Snyder and her family in front of Schwetzingen castle

After the interesting tour we took the bus to Heidelberg and went to the beautiful “Old Town” where we got something to eat and could warm up in a cozy bakery. 

The girls in the warm bakery

Happy and relaxed we searched for a place to get money and found a bank. Everyone who entered the bank was shocked by the long queue at  the cash machine which was a funny picture because some of them stood in the entrance for a while looking confused and then decided to leave. While waiting for the bus, we made the most of the time and bought some gloves for one of the girls. Then the bus arrived and took us to the cable railway of Heidelberg castle.

On our way to Heidelberg castle

Inside the castle’s court we divided into two groups and started our discovery tour. There was a big balcony where you can have a beautiful view over Heidelberg and a huge empty barrel that could contain 219.000 liters of wine. Some of the students bought some souvenirs for themselves and their families at home. Before we left we took a look into the pharmacy museum and walked around the castle. Then we went to the cable railway and got down again.

The castle

Heidelberg from above

The students entering the castle's court

We took the bus to the train station and hurried to our train, although it stood in the station for a while.Back in Heppenheim, we said goodbye to some of the students at the train station and the rest walked back to DFSR.

It was a lot of fun talking to the American students and find out more about the American way of life. They were all really nice and kind and it was a fun day. We are looking forward to our trip to Frankfurt next week.

Yulissa having her first German "Milchschnitte" with Chiara