1.  Arrival in Cologne

At 4 a. m. one morning in July, I set foot on foreign soil for the first time, the first non-British land to be honoured with my  presence being Belgium. As I slept during most of the journey across this probably delightful country, all I remember of it is a marked lack of towns and a distinct odour of cabbages. I stumbled off the train at Cologne Station, more asleep than awake and became engulfed in a frenzied mob of people brandishing photographs and frantically trying to discover their
owners. The holder of my photograph discovered me, and before I could say the German equivalent of Jack Robinson I was being spirited away in a grey Mercedes.

Suddenly, as we were crawling along the autobahn at something approaching 95 m.p.h. my host cried, "Yippee, yippee yi Cowboys" I soon discovered that this, along with "Hello Mrs. Applebee" and „sleeping very well", amounted to his total knowledge of English, which didn't facilitate a great deal of fluent conversation.
Despite this, we managed to communicate fairly well in a mixture of French, German and Russian, and I discovered that the Germans are really a most hospitable race.

    
engulfed     verschlungen, verschluckt, verloren
frenzied     wahnsinnig
mob of people    lärmende Menge von Leuten
to brandish     schwingen
frantically    verzweifelt
the owner     Eigentümer
the holder    Besitzer
equivalent     entsprechend, gleichbedeutend
the equivalent     der Gegenwert, das Äquivalent
before I could say Jack Robinson    im Handumdrehen; bevor ich bis drei zählen konnte
spirited away     verschwunden, weggelockt
to crawl     kriechen
to approach     sich nähern
m.p.h. = miles per hour    Meilen in der Stunde
the host     der Gastgeber
to amount to    sich belaufen auf, betragen
the knowledge    die Kenntnis
to facilitate     erleichtern
a great deal of     ein großer Teil
fluent     fließend
despite this     trotzdem
to manage     bewerkstelligen, können
to communicate     sprechen, sich unterhalten
fairly     ziemlich
mixture     das Gemisch
really     wirklich
hospitable     gastfreundlich

Arrival in Cologne / Questions
1.    Had this writer been abroad before?
2.    Through which country did they travel?
3.    How much did the writer see of this country?
4.    What were the German hosts carrying when they met the English visitors?
5.    What car did the writer's host have?
6.    Could the host speak much English?
7.    Which languages did they use?
8.    What is an odour?
9.    What does the phrase "to be spirited away mean'?
10.    Which British car or cars could one compare to the Mercedes?
11.    What is pidgin (pigeon) English and who speaks it?

Discussion or essay topics
1. Rail or road travel - which do you prefer?

Arrival in Cologne  / Notes

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2. Autos In England - Die berühmtesten Automarken sind Rlnt^ ^^.^"'° '^^'^^" ^'^^^^ verschwand
3 Hbahnl^'l" l'^rr^" '''''■ ^°-^- '^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "'^^^ "^^°^ -^^- -ht in Massen ^. Autobahnen - England hat mit dem Bau von Autobahnen c^ ? ^®^^"'^* ^^^ch sein Kleinauto, den Mini
4 Cee ZTeeJZT'^''''' ''''^' "''^""^"^ ^"^^^^"^^"- '^' ^'^^'^^ ^- letzten l^un u^^A y' ^^^»'^y» - amerikanischer Cowboyruf Heno. M... App,e.ee - SCa.e.Ue,, vo. ein.en ..IZ . oeu.sCan. se. .eKann.. ]