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.
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. We ended our day with a cookout at Petra's flat in Eichstetten. 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. 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. It overlooks the Rhine River, which serves as the border of Germany and France. Stephan's Cathedral, where the oldest parts of the church date back to the 12th century. This is the village where Petra attends school, and since the building was unlocked, we were able to tour her campus. Today we traveled to the town of Breisach. That makes it very easy to walk around all day and tour these beautiful cities. 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. I must say that the weather has been perfect. We took a lot of pictures, and we really just had a nice evening walking and enjoying the wonderful evening air. Instead, at the far end of the island is a large old castle and church. There is a butterfly center that we enjoyed walking through, but there is no beach area. The entire island is a garden, very much like Callaway Gardens. After getting their car to a dealership and securing a courtesy car, we headed to a small island. 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. We toured a zeppelin museum and ate lunch at a cafe by the lake. 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 didn't have Petra or her Dad to translate, but McDonald's is something we could handle on our own. One of the main reasons we went is because we could order by ourselves. 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. The cathedral in the middle of Freiburg was started in the 12th century also. Later in the day, we visited the ruins of a castle that was built in the 12th century. We were the only Americans, with the other English-speaking people coming from Ireland and Great Britain. We took an "official" English-speaking tour of Freiburg this afternoon.
There are other things, too, like jellies, honey, salad dressing, jewelry, wood carvings, etc. It is like the traditional farmer's market, where families grow produce and bring it on a small cart to sell. Every Saturday they have a public market in the center of town. We stayed close to "home" today and spent the day in Freiburg. It was sad to leave Germany, but it is good to be home in LaGrange! However, we had such an awesome vacation. It was very hard to say "goodbye" to Petra again. We sampled cookies, and ordered quiche and chocolate eclairs. 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. Well, all of a sudden, this guy comes skating out and guess what song is playing? "Georgia on my Mind"!!! The Michael Bolton version. All of the songs were in English, so we were really able to enjoy it. we went to see an ice show while at the park. We had so much fun!! There were rides similar to favorites at Disney World, Six Flags, Wild Adventures, and Sea World. To give you a quick update, we went to Europa Park on Monday. Sorry there were no posts for the last few days of our trip, but the internet server at our hotel went down. Well, it is now Friday morning, August 1st and we have returned from Germany.