What is the German for Bus Stop?

Sometimes when travelling, there are experiences that emphasise the poor language skills that most of us British possess. In student days in 1998, two of us such Brits had made friends with a group of Erasmus students from Frankfurt, Brussels and Strasbourg, the majority being from Frankfurt so after a semester of working in a design studio with these guys it only seemed fair to visit them in their natural environment. Two days in, the Germans are in classes so it is time for the Brits to fend for themselves in the city. Thinking we understood a bit of German it was off on the bus to find the School of Architecture.

Bockenhiem Worte is a twenty minute bus ride from the Facultschule, (The faculty housing the school of Architecture) that our Erasmus Exchange operates with. Having no natives to show us around it was off to find a bus stop.  In Germany Bus is still bus, however bus stops are marked by the letter ‘H’ on a yellow stick. The ‘H’ stands for  Haltestelle, hot to be confused with ‘H’ for hospital or helicopter that would usually make sense in England. Haltestelle actually means Busstopstation, the word bus is dropped from the description to leave us with the abbreviation denoted by the initial ‘H’, quite logical really. This squashing ten words together to make one long one is going to take a bit of getting used to. After waiting at the Haltestelle for a few minutes, one of the cyan coloured buses arrives, and we board the bus to encounter our first problem and it dawns on us that we are in a foreign country, and actually unable to hold an intelligible conversation in German. The driver did not speak English, we couldn’t speak German, and there is this kind of Mexican stand off while we try to buy our tickets, however a helpful native behind us. Who can tell us that is cost us six eighty for two of us to ride on the bus to Neibelungenplatz, and we are issued with a single joint ticket, and take our seats feeling just a wee bit silly, and at the same time impressed at how friendly and helpful the natives are.