June 7–9, 2014 Frankfurt, Erbach, and Munich, Germany

We arrived in Frankfurt and picked up our rental car from Europecar. They upgraded us to a 4-door VW Golf with a navigation system. NICE. After we finally figured out how to release the parking brake, we were on our way to Erbach and seeing two of our former exchange students, brothers, Stephan and Christoph, and their parents. We have been so blessed to have made such good friends with their family! We enjoyed two nights with them.

We noticed many more RV campers on the road here in Germany. The weather is nice – 86F and sunny so the Germans are enjoying their holidays, as well.

Another thing we noticed is that many of the buildings have solar panels on them. For several years, the German government has subsidized the installation of solar panels in support of green technology. Unfortunately, they will be phasing the subsidies out by 2018 because the demand is so high and so are the costs.

On Sunday we went to Wimsen Cave, the only cave in Germany that you are able to enter in a boat. It wasn’t large, but it was interesting to see. We also took a walk around the huge park and saw a beautiful stream.

We stopped for afternoon cake at the Lagerhaus. It is probably a good thing that we don’t do this often or we would need to join a gym! Tasty afternoon treats along side a nice little stream.

In the evening we had dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant. It is so easy to spend time with them, we reluctantly said our goodbyes today and headed to Munich.

In Munich, we met up with our last school-year exchange student, Paul. This afternoon we spent a few hours visiting and walking with Paul and his mother’s friend, Stefan. We will spend one more night in Munich and see them again tomorrow.

The weather in Germany is definitely summer and we are enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures.