Final Destination Home
By Lothar. Filed in General, Germany |
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!!!