JanandJery

We had so much fun on the Rhine River that we decided to take the cruise upriver on the Main River. The pictures speak for themselves. Later that evening back at the house we had a visitor - Bruni. She is a neighbor who has volunteered to take us to the airport on Saturday. We had an interesting visit with her and look forward to the drive on Saturday morning, so much nicer than a taxi.... read more

A beautiful sunny day so we took a long bike bike ride along the banks of the Main(pronounced "mine") River. A beautiful ride through some new places. Since we are in our last few days of this incredible trip around Europe we have been doing some reminiscing. Today's list is our favorite foods by country. Portugal- piri piri chicken Spain- Valencia oranges, Sangria, tapas Italy- gelato, wild boar, seafood salad with octopus Austria- dumpling soup, apple struedel Amsterdam- fresh mint tea, waffle cookies Belgium- chocolate, Flemish stew Germany- schnitzel, kraut salad, brats, pretzel We missed trying a few local favorites such as fried sardines (Italy) waffles (Belgium), mussels (Belgium), beer and coke mix (Germany), and pickled herring sandwich (Amsterdam). Guess we will have to come back!... read more

We woke up to rain again, so much for the long bike ride today. We decided to take a drive to a couple of villages that are supposed to be good for sightseeing. Jerry has decided that Germany is a great place to drive. First of all there is the autobahn -- a freeway with no speed limit. And second, the stoplights turn yellow before the red light like ours do. But the great thing is that they also turn yellow before the light turns green. Since most of the cars here are manual transmission, the yellow light gives you the opportunity to put your car in gear just before the green light. So if you are paying attention, you can be the first off the line every time -- just like being at the dragstrip! ... read more

You never know what you are going to find when you set out to explore a new place. Today's discovery was pretty cool. The rain had finally stopped so we got out the bikes and headed out. One of the great things about Europe are the bike paths. Most of the time when a road is built the bike path is built at the same time. We will miss them when we get back home. We rode to a park in the little community of Wilhelmsbad. Not exactly sure what this used to be but now the buildings are used for cultural events. There is a toy museum in one of the buildings and an enormous carousel in another. But the best part was the ancient remains of a castle complete with a moat. It looked ... read more

We arrived by train today at our last stop on the tour de Europe. We are in Hanau which is just out of Frankfurt. Again we are staying in this home on an exchange. And this time it is a simultaneous exchange. Wolfgang and Annette are in our house in Brookings while we are here in their house. Two weeks from today we will be home. But there is still so much to see. Tomorrow I think we will explore Hanau and decide what else to see before we board that airplane for an 11 hour flight.... read more