We were supposed to leave from School at 8.00am this morning, but I was late so we didn't leave until 8.15am. Whoops. Our journey took around 1hr 30mins which Suman used to catch up with some much needed sleep. 

Once in Cologne we left the coach and met with our tour guide from the Cologne Tourist Board. Our tour lasted around an hour and we learnt about the cathedral, the Roman history of Cologne, the Rhine river, etc.

After our guided tour we walked to the Chocolate Museum to begin our second guided tour of the day. We learned about every aspect of chocolate from the harvesting of the cocoa beans to the packaging of the final product. We even got to taste dried cocoa beans and the finished article in liquid form from the Lindt chocolate fountain. We then had some free time in the museum and chocolate shop where we all bought some chocolate products.

After we'd chomped through some of our chocolate we wandered back to the coach for our journey back to school for the ProjeKt Woche (Project Week) festival and presentations. 

Project Week is similar to our enrichment week, however students have to produce a presentation or exhibit about their work. The german exchange student's project was to create an exhibit of photos and stories from the exchange. You can see photos of this in the gallery. Along with the exchange exhibit there were exhibits on italian food, bicycle maintenance and even llama care with two live llamas.

The main event for a number of people on the exchange was the football match between our students and students from the school. I have no idea of the result as I didn't stay to watch but I'll find out and post it later. After our football match, some of the German teachers played some of the German students. During this game Herr Muller (my host for the exchange) was injured and it appears that he has broken his toe. He's currently at the hospital.

Everyone is now back with their partners for their last night in Germany. I guess they'll be a few parties tonight, but I think I'll just pack my clothes and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Photos in the gallery and project week gallery.

Suman and Lexie's gossip column: It seems Sebastian was interested after all, so Ellie and Sebastian are now 'going out' or whatever kids say nowadays.

The plan for today was to do the Rudesheim ring tour as per last year. However, because of the bad weather, we decided that it would be too dangerous to walk on the steep paths and small steps through the forest and to travel on the chair lift so we only completed part of the tour.

We met at School at 8.30am and walked to the Köln-Düsseldorfer boat stop on the Rhine River for our boat ride aboard MS Drachenfels to Rudesheim.

Once we arrived in Rüdesheim we walked to the town centre where we had free time for shopping, etc. before walking to the Rüdesheimer Seilbahn (Rüdesheim Cable Car) for our ride to Niederwald monument Germania. We took photos and had our lunch before returning on the cable car to the centre of Rüdesheim for some more free time.

We then returned home on the train to Eltville.

Lexie and Suman have no gossip today.

Sorry for the lack of 'humour' in this post. I'm tired and about to fall asleep.

Photos in the gallery.

We met at school at 8.30 and were greeted by Herr Rögler the headteacher at Gutenberg Realschule who was delighted to see us all and spoke very highly of the 16/17 (disputed) years of the school exchange program. Suman is still recovering from his firm german handshake.

We then walked into Eltville town centre for our guided tour of the town with Gabi from the Eltville tourist board. She gave us a very detailed history of the town and its buildings. One of which was a Catholic crypt which was mistaken by one of our students for an old posh German toilet.  

Unfortunately during the tour a bird died and fell off of a roof, missing our students by a few centimetres. Ethan was convinced this was a gypsy curse brought about by him picking up a feather earlier in the tour, this is still unconfirmed as of this time.

To undo the curse Ethan had to remember two facts from the tour and recall them to Matt on return to the town centre. He passed the test and I will be consulting with the gypsy elders as soon as possible.

We then went to the Kurfürstliche Burg where we were to be received by the Bürgermeister(Mayor) who for unknown reasons could not attend. It is speculated that this could be due to the aforementioned curse. As a compensation we were allowed to climb the 120 (counted by Dominic) steps to the top of the tower where we were treated to panoramic views of the town and surrounding area. Suman selected some of the students to accompany her into the printing chamber, the count chamber and the history chamber.

After much confusion with the toilets, the pictures of boys and girls on the door didn't seem to be enough of an indication, we walked to the pedestrianised zone and had free time for shopping and spaghetti eis.

Whilst the staff were shopping there was a brief but heavy rain storm which (un)fortunately the students were caught in. I guess they'll remember to take raincoats next time.

After our free time we walked back to School where we were collected by our respective partners.

We're off to Wiesbaden this evening for some traditional German Sushi and, no doubt, more shoe shopping.

By the way. Alise loves Marcel and Ellie loves Sebastian who, despite her continued efforts, isn't interested.  Steven is trying to pair off everyone else on the exchange to take the attention off the fact that he loves Jenny. That's all from Suman & Lexie's gossip column.

Photos to follow later on once I get to use my own laptop.

Photos at the gallery.

We all met at Eltville train station at 8.30am for our 9.00am train to Frankfurt. The journey was uneventful other than for Dominic's gobstopper which ended up covering most of his face much to the disgust of the rest of the group .

Once in Frankfurt we took the underground to the Senckenberg natural history museum where we had just over an hour to wander around the exhibits in our groups. My group particularly liked the embalmed whale's heart and, for some unfathomable reason, the lift.

After the natural history museum we ate our lunch before walking to the nearest tram stop for our sightseeing tour aboard the Ebelweiss Expreß. Our tour guide and DJ for the trip was one of the German teachers Herr Müller (Marco) who explained the landmarks of the city and provided us with entertainment in the form of german pop and folk songs, karaoke and dancing with Suman, Lexie and the students joining in. We all got to try some apfelsaft (apple juice) and the teachers had some apfelwein (apple wine).

After the sightseeing tour we walked into the city centre for some free time which the students, Suman, Lexie and Verena used to go shopping whilst Marco and I relaxed over a nice healthy Burger King meal (I have to work hard to maintain this physique of mine). 

We got the train back to Eltville where we were met by splendid sunshine which quickly turned to a thunderstorm and then quickly back to splendid sunshine with a rainbow on the horizon.

There is a fireworks display in Eltville tonight as part of the Sektfest so I'd imagine quite a few of our students will be enjoying the show later.

Fore more photos see today's gallery.

Message to Alice's mum: Alice says hello

We currently have no news from the students as they're all still with their exchange families for the weekend,  so I thought I'd update you with what the staff have been up to.

Saturday:
We all slept in after our long day on Friday and had a lazy day before visiting the Sektfest (sparkling wine festival) by the Rhine in Eltville. Here we had chance to sample local wine, see german singers sing english songs with german accents and eat sausages. We saw a few of our students enjoying the festivities (although obviously not the alcohol) and had a nice evening soaking up the atmosphere.

Sunday:
Another lazy morning before we visited Hessen Park to see if it would be a suitable activity for future exchange visits. We had a lunch of traditional Frankfurt Green Sauce and I had a dessert called a "Kalter Hund" which translates to "Cold Dog". How could I resist?

Photos will be posted as soon as I can get chance to get them off of Suman & Lexie's cameras.

Anyway, the exchange activities start tomorrow (Monday) so I'll be updating with full posts every evening so come back soon or follow us on Twitter to be notified of updates.