An Afternoon in Weinheim

Last night Sarah told us about a free "beginning of the semester" breakfast at the Anglistiches Seminar aka place where classes in English are offered. Heidi stopped by this morning and then we walked over and met Sarah. Just your typical German breakfast that I absolutely love. A wide variety of rolls with butter, jams, cheeses and meats. Best way to start the day! The three of us planned to take a little trip to Weinheim for the afternoon. I went back to my room a little early so that I could grab my camera and they picked me up on the way. Weinheim is a cute little town that's not too far away. We can get there with our Semester Tickets (a ticket we buy at the beginning of the semester that lets us ride busses, trains, etc. for free within a certain area. Good stuff).

My stomach hurt really bad while we were on the train so I wasn't too talkative the whole way there. But as we walked around the town some I started to feel much better. We were going to have some coffee and cake at a cafe, but the one we went to was really full and the only available seating was in the smoking room. No thank you. So we walked outside and Voila! An Ice cream shop! So of course we stopped there and even got to eat our ice cream outside! I got cinnamon and mango. Weirdo combination, but those two flavors are so yummy. On our way into get our ice cream, a little girl was sitting outside with her mom and said "Die Kinder wollen auch Eis." And in English she said "The children want ice cream too!" HOW CUTE?! So yea. We were children for a little while. Heidi and I both got two flavors of Eis. Sarah had only gotten one and then decided that she'd go back for another, but instead came back with two!

We walked a little down the street and bought a few postcards. Then I saw this sign for an Ampelmann store. Ampelmann literally means little traffic light man. The Ampelmann is a symbol from East Germany and when Germany was reunited, the East Germans protested to save the Amplemann and now he is used at pedestrian crossings in Berlin and many other cities throughout Germany. There were three of those stores in Berlin, but I never made it to one and I was so bummed. So you can imagine how happy I was to see that there was a store in this little town. I talked to the woman in the store for a little while and she said that there are only four stores. Three in Berlin and then the one we were at. Why they decided to have one in Weinheim, I will never know! So I bought a postcard and a keychain and was so happy!



The rest of the afternoon was spent browsing and walking through the town. There are at least three castles there that add to the beauty of the town. I think the town is a little bigger than Heidelberg, just not as many people...or tourists! We walked down to the train stop just in time. After we got on, my stomach started hurting again. A bunch of AJY people were going to the Opera tonight, but I didn't really feel like going. I was going to just suck it up and go anyway, but decided that since I didn't really feel that well and I needed to do a few things at my apartment anyway, I would just pass on this one. I'm sure they'll go again. And if not, I can just go by myself if it's something I really want to do. The fact that it was basically pouring when we got back didn't help the situation either! We were all going to dress up and I didn't want to shower and get ready just to go back out in the rain! So when we got back to Heidelberg I went to the bank and then the grocery store. I rode the bus back so that I didn't get completely soaked. I sent a few emails that I had been meaning to send and also started working on the calendars in my room. I love those calendars because then I can really see what I have planned and what my schedule looks like for the new few weeks. I also watched Blue Crush. Such a great movie! Makes me want to surf!