Thoughts, Travels and Tournaments: My experience at Solitude

9th Jan 2014 : Day of Arrival at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.

To put it in a gist, my day was filled with long queues, travel woes, a heart full of excitement coupled with sheer delight, at the academy's sight ! :p

My Lufthansa flight from Mumbai to Frankurt was sooooo over crowded , mostly with US returning Bombayites, that I was stuck in a Traffic Jam at 1 am at the entrance of Mumbai Airport for 15 mins, had to wait another 15 mins OUTSIDE gate C before I could get in, only to join longer queues at the check in counter, immigration, boarding & even within the flight itself.! Hushhhh..I was soo tired that I slept throughout the flight..I was soo tired that I dint notice that the flight dint take off for 1 hour well past its time of departure..which had its own consequences..anyway , so basically my flight journey was not so exciting , but the next part of my journey more than compensated for it because - I had a TRAIN to Stuttgart !! YAYY !

Before I proceed further, I would like to share 1 useful piece of info : Frankfurt railway station is connected to the Airport so its very convenient to book a train to your onward journey within Germany. However, if you are not familiar with Frankfurt airport then its advisible to keep a minimum 2 hour gap as the Airport is SOOOO HUGE & complicated that its very easy to get lost, or atleast feel lost !

THE FRANKFURT RAILWAY STATION !

Its sheer bliss to travel by rail or road when you dont have any work to get done, deadlines to meet, or a tournament venue to reach - when you can simply be in the moment, & enjoy the experience of travelling. Even more so when you are in a new city, a new country...I spent my whole train journey just looking out of the window..:)

& clicked some selfies :p

Finally, I reached Stuttgart at around 1 pm, took a cab from the station - my cabbie was an Indian who helped me a lot with info about the place & also with my super heavy bag - and as we approached the academy this is what it looked like ..........

& as we went around the building trying to find the entrance, THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE !!

THE SOLITUDE CASTLE !

Only now did I recollect that 'Schloss' - from Academy Schloss Solitude - meant Castle in german !
Thats rite ! I am staying in an actual castle and I am going to be here for the next 3 months !! yayyyy !!

Much happened in my 1st week here, but will write about that next time, for now here are some pics of the Academy campus :)

Notice the 'A' ?

I find these typical german windows soo pretty ! I realised the windows are this way not only in the castle but infact in most of the houses in germany ..