We are home!

Well, it is now Friday morning, August 1st and we have returned from Germany. Sorry there were no posts for the last few days of our trip, but the internet server at our hotel went down. To give you a quick update, we went to Europa Park on Monday. We had so much fun!! There were rides similar to favorites at Disney World, Six Flags, Wild Adventures, and Sea World. One amazing thing that happened.... we went to see an ice show while at the park. All of the songs were in English, so we were really able to enjoy it. Well, all of a sudden, this guy comes skating out and guess what song is playing?? "Georgia on my Mind"!!! The Michael Bolton version. We could not believe that we were sitting at a show in Germany and hearing our state song!! On Tuesday, we drove into France, toured a fully restored castle, and walked through the streets of a French village. We sampled cookies, and ordered quiche and chocolate eclairs. YUM!
It was very hard to say "goodbye" to Petra again. However, we had such an awesome vacation. God truly blessed us in every way. It was sad to leave Germany, but it is good to be home in LaGrange!

A Day on the Farm??

Today, we went to a "village" of farmhouses. It reminded me a lot of Westville in southwest Georgia, but much older (most of them originated in the 16th or 17th century). These farmhouses were taken apart at their original location in the hills of the Black Forest, and they were put back together in a small village as a tourist attraction. There were about 20 buildings, including farmhouses, grain mills, blacksmith shops, out-houses, barns, etc. We had a little bit of rain in the morning, but it turned into a nice afternoon. Next, we went to a glass factory and watched a man as he made vases. It was pretty cool, and Chris made a vase to bring home. We ended our day a little early because we plan to get up early tomorrow and spend the day at Europa Park, Germany's equivalent to Six Flags. We are so excited!

Off to the Market

We stayed close to "home" today and spent the day in Freiburg. Every Saturday they have a public market in the center of town. It is like the traditional farmer's market, where families grow produce and bring it on a small cart to sell. There are other things, too, like jellies, honey, salad dressing, jewelry, wood carvings, etc. We bought several things to bring home. We took an "official" English-speaking tour of Freiburg this afternoon. We were the only Americans, with the other English-speaking people coming from Ireland and Great Britain. Later in the day, we visited the ruins of a castle that was built in the 12th century. The cathedral in the middle of Freiburg was started in the 12th century also. It is so amazing to think that these buildings were there 500 years before our country was even founded! We finished the day early, so when Dale, Chris and I got ready for some dinner, we actually chose McDonald's! Dale even commented that it was pretty good since we have eaten nothing but "foreign" cuisine since we got here. One of the main reasons we went is because we could order by ourselves. We didn't have Petra or her Dad to translate, but McDonald's is something we could handle on our own. Big Mac is a universal language!

A Day at the Lake

Today we drove south to Lake Konstanz. This is a very large lake that sits on the border of Germany and Switzerland, so we could just barely see the Swiss Alps. We toured a zeppelin museum and ate lunch at a cafe by the lake. We drove our cars onto a ferry to reach another part of the lake (still in Germany) and unfortunately, Petra's family experienced some car trouble. After getting their car to a dealership and securing a courtesy car, we headed to a small island. The entire island is a garden, very much like Callaway Gardens. There is a butterfly center that we enjoyed walking through, but there is no beach area. Instead, at the far end of the island is a large old castle and church. We took a lot of pictures, and we really just had a nice evening walking and enjoying the wonderful evening air. I must say that the weather has been perfect. Although we landed Tuesday with temperatures at 49 degrees and cloudy, the daytime heats up into the 70s and mid-80s with almost no humidity. That makes it very easy to walk around all day and tour these beautiful cities.

Hello, Breisach!

Today we traveled to the town of Breisach. This is the village where Petra attends school, and since the building was unlocked, we were able to tour her campus. We visited St. Stephan's Cathedral, where the oldest parts of the church date back to the 12th century. It overlooks the Rhine River, which serves as the border of Germany and France. The church suffered massive damage during World War II; however, the west wall was spared, and there is a mural on the wall that was painted in 1491. We ate lunch in Breisach, then toured a winery, "Badischer Winzerkeller." We've seen several vineyards in just about every town we've driven through, so it was not surprising to find out that this is the largest winery in Europe. We ended our day with a cookout at Petra's flat in Eichstetten. I must add that Petra remains the ping-pong champion that we all know and love! Sara and Rebecca have informed me that there are just too many pictures that they want to post, so they have set up a "photobucket" account so they can load all the photos there. They are planning to add a hyperlink here that will direct you to the photobucket account so you can see all the places where we are traveling. And here is the link so enjoy! We will post new pictures daily!
Pictures of Germany.

The Black Forest

We ate Black Forest cake in the Black Forest! That was our saying for Wednesday. Sorry for not posting last night, but I was wiped out! We took a 15-20 minute cable car ride to the top of a mountain in the Black Forest. It was beautiful! We walked up the mountain a little farther and up to the top of a tower. At that point, we were at the 2nd highest peak in the forest. We took our picture with the LaGrange Daily News. Just driving through the Black Forest is a breathtaking experience: the small villages, the houses with the red clay shingled roofs, and the flower boxes in the windows. Dale and I are in awe at how beautiful the flowers are. It is amazing what plenty of RAIN can do for a landscape!! We have eaten some really good food here. Luckily, since we walk everywhere, we at least feel like we walk off some of those calories before we get back to our hotel.

We're here!!

It was quite unusual to only have about 4 hours of "night"! Since we were traveling north, then east across the Atlantic, the sun went down around 8:30p.m., but was rising again by 12:30a.m.....well, my watch said 12:30, but in Europe, it was 6:30 a.m. We only napped on the plane, so we have been tired today, but that has not stopped us from walking all over Freiberg. Walking and riding bikes seems to be the preferred modes of transportation. It is no wonder since, by my calculations, gasoline is about $9 a gallon. And we thought we had it bad!
We were so happy to be reunited with Petra and meeting her wonderful family. We got to meet her sister, Karin, just before she left for a 3-week trip to Japan. Petra's parents, Kay and Regine, have already shown us so much of the city. This evening we walked to the highest point in Freiberg. It reminded me of hiking up Stone Mountain, but fortunately it did not take as long. I have already learned that if you want a glass of water to drink at a restaurant, you have to specifically say "plain water" or they will bring you a bottle of some sort of carbonated water.
Well, it is getting late here and we are all still trying to get over our jet-lag and get adjusted to German time. It is Petra's last day of school tomorrow, and Sara and Becca are going to go to school with her. That should be fun! Good night!