Today is sports day at school so we spent the morning watching the activities on the school field.

Our bus leaves at 2pm and we are flying on flight FR761 (flight status) which is currently showing no delays.

We met at school at around 8.00 before walking into Eltville to meet Mrs Schmidt who would be giving us a guided tour of the town.

We started our tour on the bank of the Rhine River and walked over to the castle where we learnt about Eltville's most famous citizen Johannes Gutenberg (more info) (who, as I'm sure you'll know, invented the movable-type printing press). We also got a chance to look at the rose gardens and other sites of the town.

After the tour we walked to a local sparkling wine factory and met the German students for a tour of the facility. On the tour, we learnt about the manufacturing process of sparkling wine and a had a chance to taste and purchase some of the wine made there.

After the tour of the sparkling wine factory we returned to School so that everyone could make their way to their respective German homes.

Photos in the gallery 

We arrived at school for 8am and set off on our walk to Eltville train station for our journey to Rüdesheim where we took a ride on the Rüdesheimer Seilbahn (Rüdesheim Cable Car) at the top we first visited the Niederwald monument Germania and had a bit of free time for a drink/bite to eat before heading off on a hike around the sites of the area. You can see a map of the area here, we visited most of the sites along the route including a trip through the "Historical Enchanted Cave". 

After the walk we descended on the Assmanshausen chair lift into Assmanshausen where we had a bit of time for a wander before our boat ride back to Rudesheim for the train journey back to Eltville.

We walked back to School for a barbecue party with food supplied by the parents. Various activities took place including football and badminton. The party went on until about 9.30 when we all packed up and went home for some well earned rest.

Photos in the gallery 

We arrived at school at 8.00am before walking to Eltville train station to catch the train to Frankfurt.

Once in Frankfurt we walked to Römerburg square whilst waiting for our ride on the Ebbelwei-Expreß sightseeing tram. The tram whisked us around the various sites of Frankfurt (you can see the route here) whilst Mr Muller gave commentary.

After the tram ride we made our way to the Museum fur Moderne Kunst (Museum of Modern Art) where we saw works from Bernard Buffet, Andy Warhol and other artists.

After the art gallery we had some free time in the city centre before taking the underground to the train station for our journey back to Eltville.

Photos in the gallery. 

We arrived at school at 8.00am and were greeted by the headteacher Herr Rogler. He was very pleased to see us, but stressed that the week would be very chaotic as this week is their "Projekt Woche" which is similar to our enrichment week. Herr Rogler reminded us that this is the 15th year of the exchange and that next years cohort of students are raring to go and are frantically signing up.

The morning was spent in lessons before our walk to Kurfürstliche burg (Archbishops castle) to meet the Bürgermeister (Mayor) Patrick Kunkel.

Kerry has sun burn, Suman has given up bossing us around, Matt has experimented with hair bobbles, Chris is picking up the language nicely and the students are all having a great time.

More updates as the day progresses.

Update: 

At around 11.25 we walked to Kurfürstliche burg and were greeted by the Bürgermeister. We had orange juice (Sect for the adults) and biscuits before a welcoming speech by the mayor and Herr Rogler. We also had a group photo taken by the local press.

After our time with the mayor, we had some free time in Eltville town centre for shopping and/or lunch followed by a walk back to school to meet the buses home. My group and I arrived back at school a good 20 minutes before everyone else so we had a nice rest in the shade of a large tree whilst the others sweltered in the heat  

Photos in the gallery

The teachers spent their day walking along the Rhine from Kaub to Loreley Rock. Photos in the gallery.

Suman, Kerry & Verena went shopping in Wiesbaden which is where the WAG's spent their time during last year's world cup. Suman couldn't quite afford a pair of Versace jeans so settled for a pair of shoes .

Matt & Chris spent the morning in an independent record shop before lounging around on Herr Müller's balcony soaking up the sun.

Hopefully we'll get some more interesting stories to post from the students over the next couple of days,

See the day one gallery for photos.

The coach left at 3pm for the start of our long journey to Stanstead airport. After waiting in line for what felt ages, we checked in to find that the plane was delayed for an hour. Fortunately the time flew by as we all sat around chatting and listening to Chris read aloud.

We arrived in Eltville at around 1.30am and were promptly collected by our respective partners and whisked off to our beds for a well deserved sleep.

Days two and three are spent with our partner families. Hopefully I'll get some stories from the students to post up over the following days.