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Another GAPP exchange is coming to an end. On Friday, Gabi and I buy another round of train tickets for our group. Gabi and Joe take the students by train from Porz for a final visit to Cologne. I drive our Smart rental car and meet them in front of the Cathedral.
Today there is no more sight-seeing on the agenda, just free time and shopping. Gabi and I rather eat instead: lunch at the Dinea Kaufhof restaurant and for dessert “Bienenstich” from Merzenich bakery. We also buy some “Mohnkuchen” to take back home.
In the evening, there is a nice good-bye party in the school. The teachers and a couple of students make some brief speeches. It seems that all the parents and students, German or American, had a great time and enjoyed the whole experience. The chaperones receive many thanks and chocolate or flowers.
Gabi makes some final remarks about the importance for people from different cultures to meet and understand each other, and I feel a little emotional, since this is our last exchange trip.
On Saturday, we “fly” on the ICE 529 from Koeln-Deutz to Frankfurt Airport. First, there is the usual commotion on the station platform in Koeln.
There are many hugs and good-bye tears, with German families and our students forming a big crowd. I begin to wonder, how I will get the Americans all untangled and on board the train. The Deutsche Bahn solves my problem. For the second time in four days, our reserved train coach does not stop at the designated platform area. Now I have our group running after the train, with all our luggage in tow. Gabi tells the conductor about our 34 people, and the train has to wait until we are all on board. The train travels the 164 km distance in 50 minutes, with a speed of up to 300 km/h or 187 MPH (102 miles in 50 minutes). We are faster than the cars on the Autobahn next to us!
Our flight continues to Philadelphia and Albany, where we arrive at 10PM, 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
Prior to landing, the flight attendant welcomes our students back to Albany, telling the other passengers over the PA where we have been for the last 2 weeks. We are happy, when all the students are picked up by their parents. Gabi gets a lot of thanks and hugs. This has been a great group of young people, who were very easy to travel with. Students as well as parents are very appreciative for all of Gabi’s organizational skills and successful execution of the entire exchange program.
Good job, Gabi.
Now take a break, relax and get your health back! We are done with GAPP!!!

On Thursday, February 25, Berlin is under a sunny, blue sky, and it is finally a little warmer. We take the S-Bahn to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which was finished just in time for the Soccer World Cup in 2006. The ultra-modern train station has a multi-level open hall and we can see the trains running on different levels either in a north-south or east-west direction. It is quite impressive for being in the center of a big city.
At 9AM, we are the first visitors and can walk right into the Reichstag. The audio-guide is very informative, and we have great views of Berlin from the glass dome’s spiral ramp. It is perfect weather for picture taking.
We show the kids the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, Stelen Holocaust Memorial and the new US Embassy next door.
I navigate S1 and U6 and we emerge at the Check Point Charlie Museum. After the museum tour, some students buy Russian military fur hats at Checkpoint Charlie. Lunch and free time is at KaDeWe Department Store and Wittenbergplatz. In the afternoon, we have some more time for shopping near the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche. Our ICE takes us back to Koeln, where we arrive at 21:30.
We made it back without losing any students on the Berlin trains or subways. At times, I had to encourage them to pick up the speed a little. A couple of the young people who kept up with my pace, made a comment about my fast speed at my “old age”.
My feeling is: you will never be as young as you are today!

Today, we are traveling on ICE 845 from Koeln Deutz to Berlin Ostbahnhof. Gabi is still coughing and can barely use her hoarse voice. She should have stayed in bed, but her sense of duty will not let her leave her students without their leader.
We leave Cologne at 7:30, and Gabi is sleeping, while our train makes a stop in Bielefeld, Gabi’s birth place.
We pull into Berlin Ostbahnhof at 12:30. It is overcast and rainy, and we only have a 10 minute walk to our A&O Hostel. Gabi goes to bed and I have my marching orders. Joe, Todd and I take our students to Kuerfuerstendamm and the museum “The Story of Berlin”. There is no time for lunch, and I have a quick Knackwurst mit Broetchen from a supermarket. Lunch cost me 2 Euros! The students have assignment sheets with questions, regarding the different periods in history, displayed in the museum. They are running around the history exhibits, trying to find the answers. It makes them focus on a few highlights. Later in the afternoon, we take the S-Bahn from Savignyplatz to Warschauer Strasse. We walk in the rain along the East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin Wall which has been newly painted with colorful art work and peace messages.
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The visit to Aqualand is a lot of fun. The kids enjoy the different pools, whirlpools and water slides. Gabi and I relax in the whirlpool and steam bath, followed by a nap on a hot stone platform. After 4 hours, we all get dressed and assemble in the pool’s lobby. All of a sudden, John yells for help. One of the girls has passed out and is lying on the stone floor. I check her breathing and pulse and she regains consciousness. Simultaneously, Gabi is feeling faint and is sitting on the ground as well. Joe is getting 2 bottles of water and we rehydrate the 2 ladies. Our student hit her head during the fall, but shows no signs of concussion. On the way home, Gabi feels weak and has chills and nausea. She is unable to eat the good dinner, which our host Maria had prepared for us. After dinner, Gabi insists on coming with me to the Koeln-Porz Hospital, where our student’s head injury is being evaluated. The girl has a normal neuro exam and is being discharged. We are given the type-written doctor’s report and a bill. The total hospital bill came to 30 Euros, or 42 USD at the current exchange rate. In the US, this visit would have cost about $2000!
We are not done yet. Earlier today, another student fell at school, injuring his knee. We only hear about it, as we are leaving the pool. I examine the swollen knee and find a large hematoma, possible joint effusion. I tell him that he also needs to go to the ER tonight. Sitting in the hospital’s waiting room, we attempt multiple phone calls, but his host family is not answering. I program their address into my GPS, and thanks to the computer voice, we find their house in the darkness and rain. Nobody answers the door. They call us around midnight, informing us that they went to a different hospital. The knee is not broken, but our injured student won’t be able to come with us to Berlin tomorrow.
Late at night, our GPS guides the way back to Maria’s house. I say a million thanks to Carsten, who had given me the GPS as a Christmas present. We could not have done it without it! Thanks, Carsten!
Finally, I can put my sick Gabi to bed, so that she can get some rest. She is having flu symptoms, and I don’t think that she should travel to Berlin tomorrow!

It is raining most of the time during our stay in Cologne. Monday, February 22nd is no exception. Today we take a chartered bus to Amsterdam, Holland. We leave with our 30 Shen students from Koeln-Porz Gymnasium at 8 AM, and at 9 AM, we are still stuck in the Cologne morning rush hour traffic. Stefan, our bus driver, lives in near-by Leverkusen, and knows every short-cut and back-alley. He leaves the Autobahn, where the “Stau” has caused the traffic to come to a grinding hault. For the next 30 minutes, he drives our big bus through narrow city streets and residential areas of Cologne. Gabi and I are sitting in the first row, and have a chance to admire his heart-stopping driving skills. A few times, we hold our breath, when he drives full speed dangerously close to parked cars. Any minute now, I expect him to wipe out a few cars with his big bus, but his aim is perfect. Eventually, we come to the Autobahn in Leverkusen, and can cruise to Amsterdam without further delay.
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On Tuesday (Veilchendienstag), we walk around Wuerzburg and do not notice any Karneval (mardi gras) activities. The kids are all provided with a city map and are free to explore on their own.
I change 3 100 Euro bills into 10 Euro bills and the students get their lunch money. Our bus picks us up at 13:00 and we drive along the Main river and the Franconia vineyards to the medieval town of Rothenburg. It is sunny, but bitter cold, as we walk through the snow-covered narrow cobblestone streets. Gabi explains the sights and museums, and we all do our individual sight seeing tour.
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We arrive in Munich on Sunday afternoon and are greeted with a Live Music performance on the Marienplatz. The rhythms are waking us up and we climb the tower of the “Alter Peter”, having a great view of the Marienplatz, Rathaus, Frauenkirche and central Muenchen. Frauenkirche is closed and we take our bus to the Burg Schwaneck Youth Hostel in Pullach. The staff at the youth hostel is extremely nice and accommodating. We are staying here overnight and the lady provides us with free shampoo and towels, so we all can take a long awaited shower before dinner. Remember: after 2 days of travel we still don’t have any luggage! We are being served a very tasty Bavarian dinner: Schweinebraten, Knoedel and Blaukraut, with ice cream for dessert. Not your run of the mill youth hostel noodle dinner!
Gabi and I have a very large room, overlooking the banks of the Isar River. The kids spent the evening at the computers in the “Cafe” or in the Burg’s Kegelbahn (bowling). After some more phone calls to US Airways in Frankfurt and Muenchen, most of our suitcases are being delivered after dinner and another shipment in the middle of the night. Tomorrow, we will hunt down the last 3 missing pieces of our luggage!
Our group are the only guests in the Youth Hostel tonight and we have a quiet, restful night.
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Our group collapses on the cots in the Charlotte airport departure hall at
3 AM. Some of us had planned ahead and took the pillows and blankets from our canceled flight.
It is freezing cold in the Terminal and I am happy to have my fleece vest, leather jacket and blanket. Starting at 4 AM, the Terminal comes to life with a PA announcement about not leaving your luggage unattended (repeated every 15 minutes). The only problem is that we don’t have any luggage. It makes it very difficult to get any shut eye! Before going to “sleep”, I was able to rebook our group on a flight to Frankfurt via Philadelphia for the next day.
This is how we celebrate Valentine’s Day 2010!
We are up again at 6 AM and look for our luggage. All but 2 suitcases are gone, and we are assured by US Airways staff that our luggage will be on our flight. At 9:15 AM we fly back to Philadelphia. Flight US 9011 is an empty 767 wide body and we can stretch out on empty rows, to get some more rest. At 5 PM on February 13th, we take off from Philadelphia, final destination Frankfurt, Germany. The seats in Economy are pure torture.
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Gabi is doing it again. This time she is taking 30 High School students and 4 adults on another GAPP Exchange Trip to Germany.
In the beginning, things are running smoothly. After take-off from Albany International, the pilot flies North and gives us a nice aerial view of Clifton Park, Round Lake and Saratoga Lake, before turning South-East.The flight from Albany to Charlotte is smooth sailing, and in Charlotte we have about 3 hours until our US flight 704 is scheduled to depart for Frankfurt, Germany at 8:10 PM.
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