Flight Fail

Today, after the gate opened, we walked to the gate B23 to wait to board. There we got one announcement after the other: Flight is delayed by 20 minutes, flight is delayed by another 30 minutes, and finally, flight is cancelled due to technical problems. Turns out that the pressure stabiliser had a fault and we couldn't fly. But, luckily, after a battle of opinions, we managed to "win" a spot in Cathay Pacific, flight CX 288. This path will take us to Hong Kong and then to Sydney in flight CX 139.

Frankfurt

I am finally back in Frankfurt, to fly away today with Thai Airways. Currently I  have a 5-hour waiting time ahead.

Karlsruhe Zoological Gardens

This morning, we didn't eat breakfast. We ate brunch in Tante Emma's with my Mum's cousin Torsten. Afterwards we went into the nearby Karlsruhe Zoological Gardens, the Karlsruhe zoo, with his three year old daughter Ella. We visited the petting zoo, the giraffes, the meerkats, the penguins and the wallabies. They even had an albino Wallaby!

The Schremmer family. (Plus two Kappelmanns. Intruders!)

After we showed Torsten the awesome park behind our house, we walked through the University of Karlsruhe to meet our old Friends in Germany, Julia Hetterich and her brother Jan. We played on a playground near the university and then walked to Julia's house to Play there as well. Mum decided to leave us there for another two hours, and so we played Ligretto, Gruselino, Halli Galli and Chess, and only left at about 8:15. It was a great day!

Group selfie with the Hetterich family.

Europa-Park

I had an awesome day today. My first time in an amusement park, and I go to this one: the Europa-Park in Germany, which is the largest amusement park in Europe. We bought a day ticket and enjoyed a massive array of rides and shows: from train rides to rollercoasters and from boat tours to rides up a scenic tower, this park had everything! And everything was sorted in country themes (every country in Europe, in fact!) What we did:

First we rode on a train from "Germany" to "Portugal" where we took part on a watery rollercoaster, even going backwards on one bit, and then a quick walk to "Skandinavia" for a wild water Rafting experience. A stop in "Russia" for some snacks, then off to "Greece". There we spent the most time. A Pegasus rollercoaster and a "slightly" wetter Poseidon coaster took up most of our time there. Afterwards we visited a "very intense haunted house (recommended age: 12)" and once we needed a rest, we attended a wonderful ice-skating show.

All in all, we had a great day that we won't forget.

The M.S. Swiss Diamond

Yesterday we boarded our river cruise ship, the M.S. Swiss Diamond, after having to travel in a bus for about one and a half hours -- although, I have to admit, it was quite luxurious, for a bus -- and then we didn,t even eat on board! We ate in a fancy restaurant and then, when everyone was finished, we drove to the ship. Today we took a tour of Regensburg, which houses the largest free-standing organ in the world. There we listened to a melodic organ concert.

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Rammelsberg Mine

Yesterday we drove to Goslar, a small town in the Harz, which is a mountain range in central Germany, and today we visited the Rammelsberg Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What's special: the ore contains about 30% metals. That's (according to the guide) the highest percentage worldwide. We took three guided tours there, which were: Fire and Water: The Roeder Gallery, From Ore Lump to Concentrate: The Ore Dressing Plant and Mining in the 20th Century: With the Mine Train on Site. My favourite tour was the second one: From Ore Lump to Concentrate: The Ore Dressing Plant, where we were shown the individual process of breaking down the ore, and finally extracting the minerals, as soon as it came out of the mine. First we were shown how the mining cart was emptied then how the ore was broken from football-size to fist-size, from fist-size to nut-size, and finally from nut-size to a watery mass. This watery mass then went through a series of machines to extract the minerals, and then the process was finished. After the tours, we checked out a minerals exhibition, and an exhibition of seemingly 3D paintings that depicted different mining scenes.

Wow! 1020 years of action!

Chalcopyrite

Slate

Pyrite tuber

Banding ore

Mixed ore

Carbonate-concretion

Gypsum crystals

Chalcanthite

Zinc vitriol

An old scene: manually carving the rock.

Boom!

Caution! Radioactive material!

Sieving gold in the old America.

Still mining, but above ground.

At the end of the day: a hot shower, and then nothing but home!

And Another Bike Trip

Today, another bike trip. This time we rode along the Weser, from Wehrden to Bad Karlshafen, which is 33 kilometres return. There was hash browns, chicken nuggets and ice-cream on the way. Yum!

We enjoy our ice-cream on the way.

My delicious Spaghetti-Eis.

Me and my companion (not for long!)

An evening shot of the "bicycle-cade".

AquaLip

Today we went to AquaLip, a swim centre in Detmold. There was a massive tunnel slide, a roman sauna, a 50-metre pool with a 1-metre diving board, a salt pool, which was good for the skin, and a "whirlpool", a large circular pool with a current that would spin clockwise. Inside the whirlpool (the whirlpool only needed the outside ring of the circular pool), there was a pool with bubbles and a few underwater deck chairs were bubbles also regularly rose up. The slide was my favourite, I probably did over sixty rounds, with over ten different slide-poses (I had one where I sat cross-legged in a meditation pose). There was a screen near the pool that showed the last person to go down the slide's speed, the day's best and the best ever. The meditation pose took me 24.37 seconds! I had a great day in the centre.

School: Day 1

Today I went to school for the first time! I was nervous, but the teacher, Frau Vieweger, showed me around. The whole class had prepared for our arrival, with three cakes and a blackboard showing 'Welcome to 5D!' in both German and English. We seated ourselves in a big circle and started doing a Question Answer session. Since it was supposed to be English lesson, we were allowed to answer in English, and, if they wanted to, the other students could ask their questions in English.
The system in Germany is very different. The kids are allowed to wear mufti and the class goes to different rooms for different lessons, each with different teachers. The school layout is also different: the school is divided into separate blocks, each about three storeys high.
The teachers there give me a lot of homework: the German teacher made me write a page-long text about my dream school, which I have just finished, and the art teacher wanted us to finish an "artwork" that "taught" us about the different shades of grey: white, light-grey, middle-grey, dark-grey and 'almost black', and then write a paragraph about contrast. My favourite lesson was sport. In sport, we play a game called Völkerball, a game where the players throw balls with the aim to get everybody on the opposite team out. Hard thing is, the players that are out can still get the other team out, and, in doing so, get themselves back in.

Me in front of the Hermann-Vöchting Gymnasium.

My art homework.

All about my dream school.

Grandma enjoys her ice-cream.

Grandpa likes his more than grandma, he says.

Niklas likes his ice-cream a lot.

I'm loving mine. Delicious!

Another Bike Ride

Today we went for another bike ride around the lake, but this time there was one difference: we stopped at the Moses Hütte, a café on the north shore of the Schiedersee, to have some ice-cream. There was one problem. The only flavours left were strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. There was also no cream! Still, everyone got three scoops of ice-cream and we were happy with that. (Sort of)

Everyone enjoying their ice-cream.

Bike Ride, Library and Theo

Today we went on a round trip on our bikes: a quick circuit of the Schiedersee and then to the local supermarket, Rewe. Then we went home, and four hours later, we walked to the library, which only opens at 4 o'clock and only on Tuesdays and Fridays. There, we borrowed 15 German books, although I only picked 7 of them. These included lots of English books turned German.

My newly stocked bookshelf.

Some of the books that we borrowed (All German).

After we had borrowed our books, Aunt Petra and Theo picked us up straight from the library and we drove home to my Grandparents in her car. Then, Theo, Niklas and I started playing viking chess on the lawn. It was Niklas and me vs. Theo, and each team won one round. Theo was surprisingly good! After that, we ate cake and then straight back to the garden, to play kick-tennis and catch. Again, it was Niklas and me vs. Theo. Afterwards, still in the same teams, we played four-in-a-row. It was all so much fun!

Arrival

Today I arrived in Germany after 24 hours of flight. I am super jetlagged and wanted to go to bed at 2 o'clock (in the afternoon!) After getting out of the plane at 6:25 AM (German time) we rushed to catch a 4 hour long train to Altenbeken and then a half-hour long train after that to Schieder. Tomorrow a boy called Theo (an old friend) will come to my house and we'll have a great time. I'm so excited!

The flight from Sydney to Bangkok.

Some yummy pretzels on the train.

Before the Trip

I am about to leave Sydney for another trip to Germany. This time, mum has enrolled me at her old high school! From Thursday 27 September I will be attending the Hermann-Vöchting-Gymnasium in Blomberg. We have emailed with my classroom teacher, and I have been sent the time table. It'll be so exciting! It will also be easy to get along with the other kids, since the school has only started two weeks ago, so nobody will have made any (proper) friends yet.

Niklas is raising my unopened can of Fanta. Cheers, Niklas!