A day at the Chiemsee

The Chiemsee is a big lake not far from Ashau im Chiemgau. V and C had sailing training this week, and on one of the days (the one with particularly stunning weather) the rest of us went along too. T and I spent the day playing in the water, practicing maths and relaxing. Later on K and E came to join us, rowing out into the middle of the lake. It is a beautiful place: wonderfully clear water in a mountainous landscape. The only thing I don't like is the underwater vegetation... as a child I absolutely detested seaweed (there are photos of me in the sea on holiday looking very unhappy as seaweed has just washed into me...).  So I don't particularly enjoy swimming through lake-weeds. But far away from the shore the water is far too deep and you can swim without the threat of weeds. I surprised myself by bravely/recklessly hopping off the edge of the rowing boat and swimming back to the pier! It was slightly further than expected but I did it!

One more photo... a view from our table in a restaurant (or should I say sitting out in the restaurant). Either way is was stunning... if oppressively hot.

Settling in

Greetings from Aschau im Chiemgau (why always the long place names?!). I have been here for exactly one week and am slowly beginning to feel more at home in my new surroundings. The surroundings, by the way, are stunning. The Chiemgau is a region in southern Bavaria, in the foothills of the Alps. I happen to live next door to the Kampenwandseilbahn (cable car), which goes up to the Kampenwand, one of the highest mountains in the region. There's also the beautiful Chiemsee, a lake which I have briefly seen when we transported the boat there...

Day to day, I just get involved in whatever the children are doing, be it playing games or marshalling cars in the car park for the cable car. I practise English with V, help T with homework, Maths and German and generally help out when I can. So far so good.

The weather is hot. So so hot. I probably (definitely) feel it more than the rest of the family, being British and all that. I just want to sit and read... although if it's reading in German that's not such a bad thing. Everywhere here looks so pretty, all mountainous and exciting. It's certainly very different to home.

It's all change

Mum came over to Germany last week, to cheer me up after leaving school and to help me get my ridiculous amounts of luggage home. We had a lovely day in Bad Salzdetfurth and Hildesheim together, admiring the summer markets (like Christmas markets but with normal wine instead of mulled wine). I finally found the pretty bits of Hildesheim... shame it was the day before leaving!

Hildesheim

In the evening we had just enough time to do my favourite walk in Badse. It wouldn't have been right to leave without walking it one last time.

Bad Salzdetfurth

My landlady kindly gave us a lift to the station (so. much. luggage.) but we ended up in a bit of a rush so I didn't really have time to feel sad about leaving Badse. Mum and I were staying in a hotel in Hannover for the night so looked ridiculous checking in for one night with 6 bags. Hmph. And we had a lot of fun navigating the various trains.

Checked in and with one bag each it was then time to have a wander in Hannover. I assumed the role of tour guide, showing Mum the main sights. The Rathaus is still my favourite but it was nice to revisit everywhere else. In the evening we went to the NDR 2 Plaza Festival in Hannover. We missed the first few acts (intentionally) but saw Amy Macdonald and the Sportfreunde Stiller. I obviously enjoyed it... Mum says she did... In any case it was a brilliant way to spend the final night of my year abroad, singing along to Ein Kompliment and being one of very few people in the audience who could understand Amy! Apparently there were over 20 000 people there!

Amy Macdonald // Sportfreunde Stiller

Last day of my year abroad. Waaah. But at least it was a good one, relaxing with Mum in Hannover. We had Kaffee und Kuchen for breakfast and another wander in Hannover, particularly enjoying the Markthalle (an amazing indoor market). In typical year abroad fashion time flew and all to soon it was time to head back to the hotel and pick up the luggage. Now experts on taking suitcases on escalators, we navigated the underground relatively easily and made it (exhausted) to the hotel. Home time. We flew to Heathrow, were collected by Dad and arrived at unchanged Fetcham. Surreal.

Hannover Rathaus

Leaving Bad Salzdetfurth could have been a depressing and somewhat traumatic experience. I have completely fallen in love with it. But it wasn't, having Mum there made such a difference to leaving and the two days in Hannover felt more like a holiday than the end of a year abroad.

However, just because this is the official end of my year abroad doesn't mean my time in Germany is over. In fact, I am sitting in Germany typing this. In a very pretty Bavarian village called Aschau im Chiemgau to be precise. I will be living here for the next three months as an aupair. Photos to follow...