One cold but nice afternoon in fall, we all attended a great Knights Meal (Rittermahl) at a local restaurant in Heidelberg's Altstadt (ancient city centre). The restaurant Rittermahl is located right next to the famous Heiliggeist Kirche, which is at the foot of the Heidelberg castle. It was established in 1782 and the restaurant is known for its traditional German food.

WLE Students Romina, Joshua, Dante, Kim (WLE Staff), Angela, Leah and Pedro in front of the "Bierbrezel"

We had to wait for about 10 minutes until the table was set. Everyone got their own water bowl with lemon to wash their hands, a wooden plate, tissues and a pinafore which looked liked table cloths to protect the clothes from getting dirty.

The set table	Angela with her table cloths like a pinafore	The group waiting for the Knights Meal

You might wonder how clothes would get dirty if you eat with utensils. That is the trick with the Knight Meal. We did not eat with utensils, we ate using our fingers. Like the knights, kings, princess' and other medieval people did. Before they served the dinner, we were asked what we would like to drink. Everyone tried to order beer in German of course. Leah already knew about the difference of dark and light beer, and ordered light beer. The beer was served in a kind of drinking-horn. We could not figure out whether it was real or not. After we got the drinks, we drank like the tradition in Germany bids-we lift the glasses and everyone said "Prost" (like the English "cheers").

The drinking-horn filled with beer	PROST!!!	Pedro and Joshua enjoying their German beer

The starter was a vegetable soup served with pizza bread. Well, have you ever tried to eat soup without a spoon? Our unbeaten champ was Dante. He told us that as a child, he liked to eat without utensils at home, and his mother only allowed him to eat using his fingers once a month. That gave him an advantage that we did not have.

Priceless - Dante eating his soup without a spoon	Romina and Joshua eating the soup and pizza bread	Dinner is served

We all got a huge plate, with cauliflowers, broccoli, corn on a cob, zucchini, salad, orange slice, Spaetzle (a special German noodle), Turkish kebab, roast pork (Schweinebraten), and chicken.
	Doesn't this look delicious?

To grab the hot food with the finger cost everybody quite some effort, but we all made it. There were even some special techniques developed. Taking the Turkish kebab wood spit as a utensil was one of the best developed methods to get the food into the mouth. Others tried the technique to stack as much food as possible on a stable ground - the 'Schweinebraten' for example. We all had a lot of fun. Not to mention that we drew a lot of attention on us eating using the fingers. During the dinner some students asked about the different dishes. The Spaetzle for example, one of Leah's favourite, and it was her pleasure to explain what it is to Romina.

Romina, Pedro and Joshua are thinking 'How to eat the hot food without getting hurt?!'	Pedro and Joshua eating Turkish Kebab with the fingers	Leah washing her hands in the water bowl

Dante and Leah ordered a sweet flame cake with Nutella (Flammkuchen mit Nutella). Angela and Romina ordered apple strudel with vanilla ice cream (Apfelstrudel mit Vanilleeis). Since everybody was curios how the dessert would taste like, we all shared the desserts. Joshua wanted to order some cold milk and so I asked the waitress. 'Unfortunately Germans do not serve fridge cold milk like you can get it in the USA', Joshua told me, and he got room temperature milk - again. Well, he still enjoyed it.

Some of us could not finish the plate and some were still hungry (or did they just want to try the delicious dessert our neighbour had at the other table?).
	Pedro and Joshua are enjoying the dessert

Flame cake with Nutella	The apple strudel with vanilla ice cream	Leah tries the cranberry sauce from Romina

We all had a great evening and enjoyed having bad manners for once!

Handball is a very popular sport in Germany. In fact, the Germans even won the Handball world Championship in summer 2007. Handball (also known as team handball, field handball, European handball, or Olympic handball) is a team sport where two teams of seven players each (six players and a goalkeeper) pass and bounce a ball trying to throw it in the goal of the opposing team. The game has a goal similar to, but smaller than the one in football (soccer), though as the name implies, the basic method of handling the ball involves the players' hands rather than their feet. The game has been played internationally since the 1920s.

Handball rules are very broad and sometimes hard to understand for non-Handball-players. A standard match duration consists of two periods of 30 minutes each. Handball is played on a court forty meters long by twenty meters wide (40mx20m), with a dividing line in the middle and a goal in the centre of either end. The goals are surrounded by a near-semicircular line that is generally six meters (6m) away from the goal. There is also a dashed near-semicircular line that is nine meters (9m) away from the goal. Only the defending goalkeeper is allowed to step inside the six meter (6m) perimeter. The ball is transported by bouncing it between hands and floor - much as in basketball. A player may only hold the ball for three seconds and may only take three steps with the ball in hand.

The game just started	Bouncing the ball...	and shooting!

The usual formations of the defence are the so-called 6-0, when all the defence players are within the 6 and 9 meter lines. The usual attacking formation includes two wingmen, a centre-left and a centre-right which usually excel at high jumps and shooting over the defenders, and two centres, one of which tends to intermingle with the defence, disrupting the defence formation, and the others being the playmakers. The game is quite fast and includes body contact as the defenders try to stop the attackers from approaching the goal.

Typical defence scenes		The mascot of the Rhein-Neckar Lions: Conny

There are different penalties for fouls such as a free throw, a yellow card, a red card or a 2-minute suspension. If a player has three 2-minutes suspensions, he will be shown the red card.

We were really glad to have our guide Sandra with us as she knows how to play Handball and was very patient in answering all our questions. We went to the brand new SAP-Arena in Mannheim (SAP is a big company in Walldorf (close to Heidelberg ) and the owner of this company built the Arena not long ago). There are 14,500 seats and besides Handball, the Arena is also home of the 'Mannheimer Adler' (ice hockey) and the Arena is used for many different events throughout the year, such as concerts, shows, fairs etc.

The Arena	Leah and Katarina on the tribune	The fans of the opposing team

Our home team, the Rhein-Neckar Loewen, play in the first German Handball League and encountered the 'MT Melsungen' a team from 'Hessen', Germany .

The Rhein-Neckar Loewen won the game. The only time when the 'MT Melsungen' was ahead was at 0:1. After that the Rhein-Neckar Loewen overwhelmed their weak guests and acquired a considerable margin. After the first half time, our home team led with 16:7. The game ended with a clear victory of 28:22 for the Rhein-Neckar Loewen.

Final score 28:22	Autograph hunters after the game

On a cold and windy evening, we all gathered for a fun night out in Heidelberg’s old town. We were about to enjoy a fabulous dinner at 'Brauhaus Vetter'. The Brauhaus is one of the few breweries in Heidelberg that brews its very own beer! The brewpub's specialty is 'Vetter 33' which back in 1994, was mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records as the strongest beer in the world! Besides the delicious beer, the Brauhaus also has to offer a wide range of delicious food. As we were all very hungry, we ended up having ordered huge plates - almost more than we could eat. There were Käsespätzle (thick noodles with cheese, a delicacy from Swabia), Bratwürste with Sauerkraut (fried sausages) and Entenkeule with Knödel and Rotkraut (dough with dumplings and red cabbage). It was delisious.

Pedro (Mexico) and his Bratwürste	Kasespätzle	Ready to get started

Of course we also enjoyed a German beer. In fact, the Germans are very proud of their beer. Hence, besides a large bundle of hops hanging from the ceiling, there was a huge beer barrel hanging on the wall of the Brauhaus with the following saying: Leut, versauft's net euer ganzes Geld, kauft lieber Bier dafür! (Folks, do not waste all your money on drinking, rather buy beer!). There is another German saying: Hopfen und Malz - Gott erhalt's! (Hops and malt - may God save it!). There are around 1,300 breweries in Germany, more than in any other country except the United States which has 1,500. The German beer market is somewhat sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers' adherence to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (purity requirement) dating from 1516 (and most recently updated in the Vorläufiges Biergesetz of 1993), according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are water, hops and barley-malt. Many breweries worldwide adopted the Reinheitsgebot for their own beers. Germany has between 5,000 and 6,000 different kinds of beer!

Beer barrel	Hops	Brewing barrels

After the dinner we all received a little present from the WLE staff Sandra and Kim. They gave us a little bottle filled with eggnog (of course this didn't really go along with the beer very well, but as it was close to Christmas, it was a very nice idea) and some cookies. We all instantly pitched into the cookies and therefore did not have to order a dessert. At the end of the evening we were all stuffed - but happy.

Pedro and his eggnog	Angela (US) and WLE staff Sandra

Leah and Angela (both US)	WLE staff Kim and Pedro (Mexico)	Group picture