Baden Baden

Hello again!

So Saturday the 24th, the HHK took a trip to Baden Baden, which is a really gorgeous city in Germany that is known for it's natural hot water springs (the name literally means Bath Bath) We woke up and took a train from Horb, somewhere around 9:00am. 

Our guide was 18-year old Leonie, who attends a local high school. That seems fair right? Give a group of thirty-five foreigners who are all twenty-something to one girl who hasn't finished high school yet. She was pretty stressed, but we all tried to make it as easy as possible for her.

It took two-and-a-half hours to get to Baden Baden. Then we took a bus from the train-station to the downtown area, where we began our "tour".

We walked to a casino that some of us weren't old enough to go in... it was really pretty though!

Then we walked to a pretty famous Bier Halle, more accurately, a Halle, because it had nothing to do with Bier.

(A couple of Putti on the wall)

And finally to the bath-house

Then we were given a couple of hours to do as we pleased. Sight-seeing, shopping, or...

you can be like Adam, Kimmy and Brian, and buy a beer at like 11:30

I decided to do a combo of sight-seeing and shopping.  Everything was pretty expensive there, and we were told that for a very long time, only exceedingly wealthy people could live there. Which explains why we saw HUNDREDS of old women in fur coats. I have never seen so many different kinds of fur in one place! Some were just traditional, others were fancy with lots of little details. There were fur vests, fur hats, fur mittens. Basically the last place on earth anyone from PETA should ever go. 

Most everything was far too expensive for me to go shopping, so I ended up just taking lots of pictures of cool things and places.

(We could hear the water from the hot springs behind this door)

(Some cute little slippers, an owl, and a strawberry)

(There was this little girl who would come to the window and dance and wave, but as soon as we looked, she would run away. So I had to be ultra-stealthy to snag a photo. She's basically the definition of adorable)

(Like Horb, there were tons of hills, and so, lots of stairs)

(Kelsey with her new husband, the hunter)

(I'm not exactly sure what this means, something about not kicking circles if you're under a flying car, next to a house in a bubble. Must happen more than I thought it did)

(Brian having a deep, intellectual conversation with someone who might actually understand him)

We spent a few hours in Baden Baden and then headed back to the train-station, to ride for another 2.5 hour ride. 

All in all, a pretty good trip.

Eloise at the Plaza

I HAVE ARRIVED.

So the plane was delayed by an hour and forty-five

 minutes, leaving plenty of bonding time for most of our group. We boarded the significantly-less-than-full plane, and prepared for the six hour flight. We weren't sure at which point it was no longer 11:00pm and was suddenly 5:00am, or when 12:00 became 6:00, so we all tried to get as much sleep as possible, except for Brian and Adam who were too enthralled with the on-board flight, "Nights in Rodanthe," to even consider closing their eyes. 

We finally arrived in Frankfurt at 8:00am local time, where we bought train tickets to Stuttgart and then finally to Horb.

(Brian and me on the train)

(Brian, Kelsey, Joe and Michael in the back)

(We're pretty sure this means:

 Step 1: Get down rectangle

Step 2: Hit red button on window with wooden mallet

Step 3: Massage window.)

We got more than one dirty look from locals, because of the sheer bulk of our luggage.

Needless to say, when our already-delayed train pulled into Stuttgart, it was against the laws of physics for our group of nine to make it from platform 15 (which by the way is the longest platform known to man) down to platform 7, with all of our luggage, in under six minutes. So we missed our train to Horb.

We caught the next train which left an hour later, meaning that we would arrive in Horb an hour later. Or so we thought.

Up until this point we had been so wired for our next stop that we would get ready about twenty minutes before we got there. But Horb was our last stop, we didn't need to get on any more trains, we just had to get off the train. An easy enough task.

Unless the train decides to stop for about thirty seconds and then keep going.

In that case, only Kelsey and Joe can get off, leaving seven of us on the train.

The next stop was Sulz, where fun goes to die. It was this teeny little barren wasteland, where we got off and waited for a train to head in the other direction. Which was fortunately only five minutes.

We finally got to Horb and met up with our host families. Peter drove me back to his... HOTEL ... which is GORGEOUS. Back in America I had joked with my mom that I would be living in a hotel room. Turns out, I AM!!! It is wonderful, on the third floor with a great view.

(My sink)

(My bed)

(My table)

Classes started today, and it seems like this is going to be a pretty amazing stay in Horb. Well I will keep you all posted about what's coming up next! Auf Wiedersehen!