June 10-12, 2014 Munich–Witten, Germany

What a busy, busy, busy travel week!

We spent Tuesday in Munich with Paul, our last “school-year” exchange student. It was so fun to catch up and spend time with him. We enjoyed walking around the old town Marienplatz area then to the and Englischer Garten.

Munich is a beautiful city and near the southern end of the Englischer Garten we had fun watching folks “surfing” on the river.

We spent almost an hour watching them!

We ended the day with dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and talking until late which made for a short night! We were up early to get on the road to Witten, almost 6 hours from Munich!

We arrived in Witten late in the afternoon to see Leon, a student we hosted last summer through the Lions Club exchange program, and his family. We had a small snack then were off to visit the Nightingale Mine, an old coal mining operation.
Coal was discovered in the area in 1714 and over the next 150 years, the Nightingale mine developed into one of the most productive mines in the area. It is located near the River Ruhr. Most of the mining operation ended shortly after WWII and in 1979, the area was turned into a museum. After visiting the mine, we stopped at one of Witten’s city parks and climbed the tower for a wonderful view over the river and surrounding area. We loved the “aqueduct” bridge that carries one of the railroad lines.
Again, we stayed up late visiting with Leon, his brother, and parents. The next morning, his dad, Sebastian, took Tobey and me on another tour. Our first stop was the Henrichshutte Ironworks museum. During its peak, 10,000 peopled worked at this gigantic industrial site. They produced coke, iron, and steel and operated for 150 years, until 1987. It was interesting to see the ore bunkers which were also used as bomb shelters during WWII and could house several thousand workers.
After leaving the Iron works museum, we headed to Hattingen to see the 13th century Burg Blankenstein Castle. Today you can climb the tower for great views over the town, the castle is now a restaurant and events center.

Sebastian is an architect, so we really enjoyed seeing all the different types and styles of buildings on our outing.


After lunch, Tobey and I said our farewells and hit the road for Dulmen – about an hour away – to see our third exchange student, Hauke, and his family. More adventures to come!