Leeds to Mannheim

Alles gut!

This week was spent with Jordan who finally flew out to visit me! It did not get off to a great start because the German train system is somehow even worse than the British one. Despite no notices of delay and the train being in the station before departure time, I only got to Frankfurt an hour after I was supposed to. This happened because after the train had been sat still for half an hour with no one knowing what was going on, they finally decided to tell us that a technical track issue meant we were going to take a different route which took twice as long! By the time I arrived in Frankfurt and got to the right terminal, Jordan had been waiting for over an hour.

After finally meeting him we then had to get the skyline back to the other terminal to catch a train to Frankfurt. This should have been fine, but the station is incredibly poorly signed, and it was very difficult to work out which platform to go to. Eventually we got on a train and headed to Frankfurt main station which was just around the corner from our hotel. We grabbed a German McDonald’s, which for me included camembert donuts and for Jordan criss-cross chips (both only available in Germany) and then headed to the hotel. The hotel was called EasyHotel and seemed to be an extension of Easyjet. Like a budget airline anything other than the basics were extra so there was no Wi-Fi or TV. To cut costs there was also a wooden panel instead of curtains or blinds and the shower and toilet were both essentially in the middle of the bedroom which isn’t particularly romantic! However, the room was really clean, and we were only there for one night.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and decided to explore Frankfurt. Our first stop was the ECB. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to go inside as you must book a month in advance, so we just sat outside in front of the giant Euro statue and ate our breakfast biscuits. We then decided to venture further into the city and passed by various markets, shops, churches and a lot of banks! Eventually, we came to a more traditionally German area of the city with more fairy-tale like buildings. Here, they were also just starting to decorate a huge Christmas tree!

From there we crossed a bridge over the Main and came to the museum street of the city. There were plenty to choose from, but we settled on a visit to the Film Museum. This was incredibly interesting. There were two exhibitions: the history of film and film creation. The first was full of artefacts from Victorian illusions and flipbooks to the first camera and film recorder. There was also a mini cinema where we watched the first ever films that were created and how they were able to use the camera to create different illusions. The second exhibition was full of props, costumes and storyboards from films including Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Shining, The Terminator and Jurassic Park as well as German films such as Lola Rennt. There was a green screen to play with, a booth showing how different lighting effects mood and an open cinema that combined different films to show how genres interlink with the types of music, lighting, sound effects and actions they use.

After spending a few hours at the museum, we were hungry and decided to buy some crepes. Jordan disagrees with savoury pancakes, so he had Nutella and I had ham and cheese. We sat in the Altstadt and got to enjoy some of the nicer views of Frankfurt before moving on to look round the shops (including one called Jordan). The main shopping centre in Frankfurt is incredibly cool. The design makes it look like you can slide inside from the roof!

By 17:30 we had explored most of the city (focussing on the free bits) and decided it was time for food again. We found an amazing Indian restaurant near the train station and ate there. It was strange because the menu was only in English despite the waiters all speaking German and it was funny to hear the German couple next to us complaining about it and resorting to Google translate as my friends and I sometimes need to when it’s the other way around.

After a (slightly delayed) Flixbus back we decided to spend the rest of our time together in Mannheim. After the obligatory first day tour we decided to do something different and booked to go on a 3D light-up crazy golf course. That was a good way to practice my German as it was way out of the city centre and German was all the employees spoke! The course itself was amazing. It had all been painted with glow-in-the-dark 3D paint and came to life in various underwater, jungle-based and futuristic-space scenes when you put your 3D glasses on. The 3D illusion also made it much more difficult to play golf though as you couldn’t work out what was an obstacle and what was just paint! It was great fun but unfortunately Jordan beat me by 2 (but we were both rubbish and got the highest score allowed on at least 3 holes).

On Saturday we decided to have a rest day and watch some films. I made pancakes for us both and we stayed in with Netflix. In the evening though I planned for us to go to a Nachtflohmarkt (night flea market) with some friends. I’d seen it advertised on Facebook and it mentioned stalls and live music which seemed to me like it could be similar to a Christmas market. Most friends cancelled which was probably lucky for them really as it was no where near as I had imagined. It was literally just a flea market that you had to pay for with no live music and essentially just a big hall of second-hand clothes. Needless to say, Jordan wasn’t overly impressed, so we left quickly and walked round the park looking at the animals in the dark instead.

The main event for Sunday was cake to introduce Jordan to the German tradition. However, Jordan was worried about trying German cake because he’s picky, so we ended up having a chocolate muffin each. I also took Jordan round the palace that I study in and we sat in front of the Wasserturm for a bit as it was a beautiful day.

On Monday, I wanted to go around the main park in Mannheim (Luisenpark). This was partly because I’d been told it was an awesome park but also because I had a voucher that you needed two people for. They have a range of birds including owls, flamingos and penguins and lots of different farm animals. Mostly these were very well kept but we did worry about the penguins who didn’t have a big area to swim in and had tags on both wings which they were trying to itch off. Unfortunately, there was CCTV and an electric fence that stopped us from being able to save them though! We moved away from the penguins and looked round the rest of the park. We played giant chess (again Jordan won, partly because I don’t really know how to play and got his bishop and queen mixed up); walked along the river; visited a Chinese Tee House and walked round a sensory garden. Jordan particularly liked the sensory garden as, despite being nearly 21, he could play with everything and make music with trees. He also really enjoyed a kid’s waterpark that we found because if he jumped on a log hard enough it created a water fountain.

As Monday was Jordan’s last day here, after we finished at the park, we decided to go for a meal out. We chose a burger place called Lenok’s burgers (which I had another voucher for). The burgers and chips were all delicious and homemade, if not a bit expensive and I had fun speaking German while Jordan didn’t understand anything again. On the way back, we grabbed some dessert from Netto because Jordan was excited that was still a shop here.

Finally, on Tuesday morning Jordan headed back to the airport on another delayed train and he is now back safe and well in Leeds! I spent the rest of Tuesday working, tutoring and trying to learn my German presentation ready for Thursday. Wish me luck!