Thursday, September 13th
We awoke and caught our plane to Frankfurt.
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| At the Frankfurt Airport Train Station |
We had been in Frankfurt
only a dozen days earlier, but it seemed like three months.
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| After WWII, the Turks came in to help with the manpower shortage. |
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| So there are Kabab places everywhere - delicious. |
We took a train to
the countryside to stay with some more of Alex’s friends from the Hanau ward,
the Baumann’s. Brother Baumann picked us up from the train station, and drove
us to their house. They have a nice family – 9 kids, which is rare in Germany.
But half of their children are grown, so they had plenty of space for us. They
fed us well and made us feel very welcome.
Friday, September 14th
The Baumann’s loaned us three bicycles so we could ride out to the local
castle about five miles away. The ride was pleasant and scenic.
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| Along the trail to the castle. |
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| Resting by the corn field. |
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| The castle in the distance. |
Alex had the
bike with the comfortable seat. Lisa and I had bikes with hard plastic, narrow
seats that had all the comfort of sitting on a shovel handle. So we rested a
lot and walked our bikes up hills, and we eventually arrived at the castle. We
were too late to enter the castle for the falconry demonstration, but we
watched the birds fly around from outside the castle.
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| Falcon flying above castle. |
Then we went in and
toured the place. It was everything you want in a castle: a tall keep to climb
up for the view, a kitchen complete with fire in the fireplace, torture
apparatus, period furniture, a deep well, and a wedding party outside making a
lot of noise.
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| View from the top. |
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| The rack. |
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| Office furniture. |
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| Alex studying clock works. |
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| The keep. |
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| The castle from outside. |
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| Fire in the kitchen. |
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| This is really cool. It's a library chair, which if you flip the top over becomes a set of stairs to climb up to get a book. |
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| The deep, deep well. |
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| Autumn Crocus - Source of saffron |
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| On the road again. |
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| Cottage in a little village we rode through |
We returned to town and ate sauerkraut, potato dumplings, and other
German dishes. I really do not like sauerkraut, but authentic German sauerkraut
is actually fairly edible.
Saturday, September 15th
The Baumann boy, Paul who had recently returned from his mission in
Scotland, gave us a ride to the airport where Lisa and I flew home and Alex
took a train to Hamburg to begin his semester abroad.
It was a great trip.
