Written by Rod

Whilst Hamish and Belinda headed to Dublin, I was enjoying a sidestep to Heidenheim, in the south of Germany. Let me backtrack a bit, though. My last school day for the year (Friday) kicked off in a most unusual manner. On arriving to the staff room my eye was drawn downwards to a bit of movement on the floor. Squirming away in the corner of the doorway was a wee tiger snake, no more than half a step from my feet. It took a while to register that it was, in fact, a snake welcoming me to my Friday. (I have taught for a long time and a staff room snake was a new experience for me! One more thing ticked off the bucket list.) Thankfully it headed underneath a couch, waiting to be captured, but it did not bode well for my last day at work. Waiting for me at the other end of my day was my adorable year 9 double Maths lesson. Luckily I survived both of these incidents relatively unscathed and ready for my trip to Europe.

I said so long to Belinda and Hamish at Dubai before my solo flight to Munich. There I caught a bus to the Central Train Station. No problems then buying my train ticket for a 3 hour trip to Heidenheim, with one change of train (all listed on my ticket) at Ulm. The train departed at exactly the 2:35 pm advertised kick off time; German efficiency, I thought to myself. Many announcements were made (all in German) as I mindlessly noticed how many farms had vast arrays of solar panels. However, one announcement was also thankfully made in English; informing me that that train would split in two at Augsburg, with the front half going to Ulm and the rear half going elsewhere. Of course, I was at the very rear of a very long train. At Augsburg I made a mad dash along the platform, getting as close to the front as I could, just to be sure.

At Ulm, things got messy. I had about 20 minutes between my trains and made my way to the advertised platform (again on my ticket) to find a very crowded train. I panicked and quickly found a small crevice to slide into, before thinking: I wonder if this is actually my train? It wasn’t. Disaster narrowly avoided as I alighted just before it departed to God knows where. Another train then arrived, on a different platform. Nobody seemed to know for sure where it was heading, but I took my chances and arrived safely in Heidenheim 50 minutes later (at 6 pm), to find Esther, my hostess, waiting for me. I do a quick calculation to realise it is just over 36 hours (with about 1 hour sleep) since we left Wangaratta.

Klaus has been unwell lately, but he and Esther are generous and welcoming hosts. We stayed with them on our last trip to Europe and I am pleased to see them. Klaus tells me that German Bahn (rail) is rubbish and I was lucky to get a train at all!

We have six students on exchange here at the Max Planck Gymnasium and I meet them for lunch on Sunday and visit them at school on the Monday. It is a fun visit and they are all enjoying their time on exchange.

I get to the station in plenty of time to catch the 1:00 from Heidenheim back to Munich. The train does not arrive as the platform gets more and more crowded. The information board maintains the 1:00 departure line until about 1:15, when it just gives up and starts telling the time, pretending there was no train scheduled. Somehow the train has just vanished! No announcement, but gradually the commuters gravitate to platform 2, to catch the 1:24 train. Much to my relief, this one does show up, albeit a bit late.

The next morning I am at Munich Terminal 2 at 6:15 am for my 8:30 flight. The Lufthansa area is vast and bright and yellow. I have checked in online and arrive at baggage drop to find no queue (not one person) and 4 staff to assist me. I am through in 20 seconds. Security is slightly more busy. Passport control is a joke; I walk my way through the maze of crowd control ribbons, literally the only person in the queue and am through to the departure gates at 6:22 am. Unbelievable! The bubble bursts, though, when we have to walk down 8 flights of stairs and catch a bus half way across Munich to our smallish plane which has not one spare seat and no meals. Just a few bland biscuits flung at passengers from a cardboard box. Still, I am on my way to catch up with meine Familie.