I arrived in Stuttgart on Sunday evening en route for my two weeks of studying German in the beautiful little town of Swabisch Hall.  It really is lovely and if it stops raining I'll post some pictures.

In the meantime here is my super efficient Deutches Bahn train broken down in the bundu where we waited an hour for the next one.

On top of spending Sunday afternoon hanging around Edinburgh airport and the night in an over-priced Stuttgart hotel and much of the morning waiting for a train this was tedious.

 When I got to the Goethe Institute more tedium while I was processed.  Tedious but thorough including as it did uncovering the depth  of my ignorance.  So early to bed for on early start : breakfast served from 7am in the institute caff.  Quite a decent spread. Then a welcome speech from the boss and brief remarks from administration people before being whisked off by a teacher.  There are over 80 students representing 40 countries.  I am the only Briton.  I am also undoubtedly the oldest but while the majority are twenty somethings there is a sprinkling of greyer heads.

In my group we are nine and the level is pretty much at the limit of what I can do but I'm sure I'll muddle through and learn something.  I spent the afternoon on a sort of treasure hunt so I can now for example tell you what you can buy on the third floor of Muller's department store and which bus goes to the swimming pool.

Tomorrow is a public holiday (those three kings) so no classes which explains why my two weeks extend into the Monday of a third week.