Day 1: Arrival in Germany

Arrival in Germany

 

Rouven and I were at the airport in Berlin at 8 o’clock in the morning to greet our guests from Tel Aviv and Herzliya. The airplane arrived on time but it still took them a while to come out, because one piece of baggage was missing. We used that time for breakfast at the airport while Rouven went for the baggage claim. Fortunately it was found and we go to the bus that took us to Leipzig. On the road I had to answer many questions “Is that the black forest, we are driving through?” “No that’s only a little forest somewhere in Brandenburg, I don’t know its name”, “Does ‘Ausfahrt’ translates for exit?”, “Yes, it does”, “How long is the way to Leipzig?”, “It is about two and a half hours” “Wow there are so many trees and they are so colourful!”, “That’s because of the season” ….

For one half of the Israelis it is the first time in Europe, for most of them the first time in Germany.

As we arrived in Leipzig Frank and Kai were there to greet us. He showed us the hostel, were the Lifeguards were staying and after that we had lunch. Most of them ordered “Schnitzel with Spätzle” and beer. We the tram to a small canal and wanted to go canoeing. But as they all wanted to go into the boats at the same time and wouldn’t wait for someone helping them, two of the managers from Herzliya and Tel Aviv stood on the boat and fell into the water with all their clothes, mobile phones passports, money! Half of us were helping immediately while the other half was taking pictures and couldn’t believe the hilarious situation in front of them. After they were pulled onto the footbridge soaking wet and freezing. Water temperature was around 11°C that evening, 14°C air temperature. First but unintended contact with our surroundings concerning lifesaving here in Germany. Maybe we can show you some on the gallery, but I want to ask for permission first 😉

After that they went to the hostel for dry clothes while we did the canoeing trip. We were having very much fun just looking at the Israelis, because they seemed to use the canoe like the hasaka, two where paddling while one was standing! In the back and steering the boat in the right direction like the gondoleri in Venetia. Or they were having small races between each other and one was holding to paddles, while his friend was filming and paddled like he was on the hasaka. Dinner was really good and we had some presentations of the local club of the German lifesaving organisation in Leipzig and had a nice evening.

Frank took them back to the hostel and explained, what we were going to do the next day. At that point most of the lifeguards were more or less awake for 36 hours. Every one of them was working on Thursday (remember that the shift begins at 7.00 a.m.) and they had to be at the airport at 2.00 a.m. on Friday night. The airplane took off at 5.00 a.m. and most could only sleep for some hours on the plane. So we all went to bed really early, because we had to have breakfast at 6 a.m. in the morning.