Sonntag war mein Freitag

Heddiw treuliodd y disgyblion y diwrnod gyda'r teuluoedd. Dydw i ddim wedi clywed siw na miw gan unrhyw un. O ddarllen y blogiau amrywiol heno, cafodd pawb brofiadau amrywiol a diddorol.

Ces i ddiwrnod grêt. Ar ôl brecwast y bore ma, es i gydag Ulli, fy mhartner i bleidleisio. Mae'r Almaenwyr bob amser yn pleidleisio ar ddydd Sul, a heddiw oedd cyfle'r Almaenwyr i bleidleisio yn yr etholiad Ewropeaidd. Hefyd roedd nifer o etholiadau lleol, megis y maer a'r cyngor tref, felly cafodd Ulli 5 papur pleidleisio bron yn holl liwiau'r enfys. Un jobyn diddorol oedd ar gael oedd Ortsvorsteher. Mae'n ymddangos mai'r prif gyfrifoldeb yw mynd â charden a bwnsh o flodau i bobl pan fyddan nhw'n cael eu pen-blwydd yn 80! Roedd y papur Ewropeaidd tua metr o hyd, ac roedd angen bwrw 44 pleidlais ar bapur y cyngor tref. Roedd y cwbl yn gymhleth iawn a dwi ddim yn synnu heno i glywed fod y canran lleiaf erioed wedi pleidleisio yn yr Almaen!

Y prynhawn yma aeth y staff draw ynghyd i le o'r enw Schwetzingen lle crwydron ni o amgylch gerddi hen gastell. Roedd yn lle hardd iawn, ond bu'n rhaid i ni redeg am gysgod sawl gwaith wrth i ambell gawod hynod drom ddechrau'n go sydyn. Yn ngerddi'r castell gwelon ni fosg, felly roedd Miss Bedwyr wrth ei bodd. Wedi hynny aethom ni i gael hufen iâ, a chyflwynon ni Mr Williams i greadigaeth Almaenig hynod, sef Spaghettieis, hufen iâ mewn siâp platiad o spaghetti bolognaise! Yn amlwg, nid yw'n blasu o spaghetti nac o sôs bolognaise, ond yn hytrach o hufen iâ fanila a sôs mefus, gyda siocled gwyn yn lle parmesan. Blasus iawn! Heno cawsom ni bryd o fwyd blasus yn Speyer, a chafodd Miss Bedwyr Sauerkraut unwaith eto. Aethom ni wedyn i gerdded o amgylch yr Eglwys Gadeiriol - adeilad anhygoel sydd yn dyddio o tua 1,000 o flynyddoedd yn ôl.

The pupils spent today with their host families. The school mobile has been quiet all day - no news is good news! From reading the blogs, everyone seems to have had varied experiences during the day. Everyone seems to have had fun despite the "gemischt" weather which was promised, and was extremely mixed indeed.

My day started after breakfast with a visit to the local polling station with Ulli, my partner. Today was Germany's chance to put Europe right, as they always vote on Sunday here. Their European ballot paper was combined with various other brightly coloured local election papers including mayor and town council. The European ballot paper was about a metre long, and the town council paper required 44 votes on a piece of A3, with every candidate (over 80 in all) allowed up to 3 votes. The most interesting job from what I could see (but only one candidate = small piece of bright pink paper) was Ortsvorsteher, and the job spec involves visiting people on their 80th birthday with a card and bunch of flowers. Annemarie Feig has that job tonight and probably for the next four years or so. She'll be keeping Interflora busy as there is a really big old people's home on her patch. Nice job if you can get it. All in all it was a fairly complicated business and it was not surprising to hear tonight that Germany had their lowest turnout ever.

This afternoon we met up as Welsh and German staff and visited some lovely castle gardens in Schwetzingen, diving in and out of some really heavy showers. Miss Bedwyr was impressed with the mosque on site and we had a nice time wandering around aimlessly before heading for a local ice-cream parlour. Spaghettieis all round - a new discovery for Mr Williams's limited but ever increasing knowledge of Germany. Vanilla ice cream is the spaghetti, strawberry sauce is the bolognaise sauce and white chocolate shavings masquerade as parmesan! Only in Germany ... Tonight we ate at Speyer which involved more Sauerkraut for Miss Bedwyr and a crisis-inducing shortage of sausages at the restaurant. We walked our massive portions off by having a good walk around the lovely town and having a peek inside the 1,000 year old impressive cathedral.