Leeds to Mannheim

Guten Morgen!

This is my third post this week, but I realised that if I don’t write a post today, I won’t have time till a week on Wednesday at the latest and I have quite a lot to talk about!

On Wednesday afternoon, after writing my last blog post and tutoring, I went to the Ice Hockey again. This time to see Mannheim Adlers vs Nuremberg Ice Tigers in the quarter finals. We had great seats this time and could see the whole rink which meant we never missed a goal and didn’t have to try and focus on the screen. Besides that, the fact we actually had seats was also a big advantage compared to last time as we were able to sit down instead of being forced to stand for 2-and-a-half hours and we weren’t completely trapped in. Unfortunately, there weren’t any interesting fights again, but we did win 7-2 and it was exciting and a great atmosphere every time we scored!

On Thursday, I was supposed to be volunteering at the local food bank but Paisley, who I was going with, was unfortunately really ill so it was cancelled. We will be going in two weeks’ time to try again so fingers crossed for then! I spent the morning catching up on work and cleaning instead, so it turned out to be quite productive. Cecily messaged in the afternoon and I ended up meeting her and Eeva in town for a few hours before my tutoring session. We went around some of the shops and then ended up in a vegan canteen-style place called Heller’s for some vegan cake! Mine was a cherry, chocolate strudel which was quite nice but not the best cake I’ve ever had! It was nice being able to get out the house rather than sitting in doing work all day, but it did result in me sprinting back to log on for my tutoring session on time.

Friday started off with some German work before attending my three-hour marketing communications lecture. Again, watching adverts and the actual content of the lecture is fun and interesting but the course just goes so slowly that I end up being quite stressed out. Once home, I caught up on some lecture notes and finished my comparison blog post before Cecily arrived to help write our presentation for the German history class we take together. Our topic is the Ideology and Propaganda of the Third Reich, so it is interesting albeit disturbing and sad to read and talk about.

Once we had tried our best to translate what we wanted to say into German we went to find Eeva at a vegetarian/vegan falafel restaurant called Bodhi. Cecily had reserved us a table but it was more like a tiny takeaway place and it was completely empty so we could sit anywhere! The food was delicious though, Eeva and I had a falafel, hummus and halloumi wrap with chips and Cecily had a falafel teller (plate) and chips. The place was also incredibly cheap compared to most vegetarian restaurants and was worth the visit. We stayed and chatted in there for a while but soon realised that many other customers had come and go and that we were perhaps outstaying our welcome (the owner also kept leaving the shop and coming back) so we headed home. That wasn’t too bad though as I needed an early night because I was catching a train to Lucerne, Switzerland, the next morning!

After a 3-and-a-half-hour train journey, Derek, Kathrin and I arrived in Lucerne around 11am. We were all instantly amazed; it looked like something on a postcard or out of a film, but it was all completely real and in front of us. There were mountains covered in snow just across the clearest lake I have ever seen. It was astonishing. After a good hour of taking photos of absolutely everything we could see along the river, we walked into the old town to explore. It was mainly full of Swiss watch shops, Swiss army knife shops and designer clothes but there were also multiple stunning fountains and interesting buildings. We also walked along the famous Kappellbrucke and got to take more beautiful pictures from there. Me and Kathrin took lunch with us and Derek bought some to take-away from a Thai food place, so we ate in front of the lake, looking at the mountains.

After food we wanted to work out whether it would be better to take a cruise up to the mountains or take a cable car and actually go up the mountains. After talking to a very persuasive tourist information lady we decided to go for the latter, more expensive but probably more amazing option. We were not disappointed. After a bus ride and two cable cars (one of which was a private car just for the three of us) we reached the top of Mount Pilatus and were faced with stunning views of the Alps as well as a lot of snow! It was incredible and we were so lucky as the sky was bright blue and so clear that we could see everything. Derek’s camera could event zoom right into the bridge we had been standing on in Lucerne a few hours before. We walked up the final stairs right to the peak of the mountain and took more photos from there, but they can’t really capture the beauty of what we saw.

Halfway down the mountain, between the two cable cars we had also stopped. I actually thought the views there were better than at the top as we were literally in the middle of the Alps and could just see snowy peaks. We made a little snowman on the path and left it for others to finish.

After getting one of the last cable cars back down, we still had a few hours to spare. We walked back into Lucerne and found the Löwendenkmal which is also apparently famous. It is a lion that has been killed in war and is resting on a French shield while a Swiss shield is stood up next to it. I can’t say I entirely understood it, but all the tourists were there. We also stopped there to use the toilet and it was both the strangest and cleverest public toilet I have ever seen. You had to pull the seat down if you were a girl and the sink and soap went directly into the toilet bowl.

Before going to the train station, we also stopped for ice-cream by the lake. As we were in Switzerland it seemed quite expensive, but the scoops were big. I just had one scoop of cookie ice cream and it was amazing. Derek had two scoops and Kathrin got two scoops in a cone. Although they weren’t cheap you did get a lot for the money and it was good! We stopped in a supermarket in the train station to grab a quick snack for tea before heading off on our return journey. By the time we got back to Mannheim we were incredibly worn out but so grateful for the whole experience.