Today was a productive day experiencing the public transit system. We met at our intro to Germany class then headed out to take a bus to the train to downtown. Standing their waiting for the bus it started sprinkling, and then pouring. We had TWO umbrellas and our jackets sitting in our car just a 5 minute walk away, but it was only 5 minutes until the bus was scheduled to arrive. 20 minutes later we were still waiting when the bus finally arrived. Brad and Macie were soaked, Kaylee was dry since she got to share someone's umbrella and Nikki was half dry - her front was dry from the umbrella but her back was soaked from the rain. PLUS - Brad managed to get struck by lightning from the tree he was huddling under. He had been leaning against the tree when the lightning started so he was pushing off and heading away. There was enough of a charge in the air that, as he was pulling his had away, the electricity sparked about 1 inch across the air and zapped him in the hand. Thank goodness he wasn't in contact with the tree anymore. We can all now say that we know someone who was struck by lightning!

We took the bus to the train to downtown where we learned about the train system and figured out where to go to take a longer distance train (like one to Paris or Rome). We then walked around the historic area checking out some of the sites like the old castle, city hall (which had the coolest elevator that ran kind of like an escalator -- there are about 20 cars that go up in one track and down another so that you step onto a moving elevator at one floor and step off on another or take the other side to go down -- it was pretty neat - here's a link - they're called paternosters). Of course, we all rode on it a couple times!

After that we walked around an indoor food market - the freshness and choices are exceptional! Then we ate lunch at a cafeteria - another excellent german meal! We then walked around the downtown park more, went up the Mercedes tower and then took the train back. When we got off the train, it was to discover the bus we needed to take didn't run for another hour. Since it was just about 1-1/2 miles back to the base, we opted to just walk it. Kind of funny only us 4 and one other guy originally walked it, but by the time we left the parking lot we saw another 3 from our group hiking back also. A 35 minute walk beats the heck out of a 60 minute wait before the bus got there - plus it was good for us - and most of the walk was through the woods on a bike trail, so it was scenic too!

We then headed back to the hotel again where everyone crashed out for a well deserved afternoon nap.