July 16 - 20, 2023 - Munich, Germany - Schaffhausen, Switzerland - Home

We arrived in Schauffhausen (not far from Zurich) around 8:30 pm and were met by our Airbnb host, Stephan. Our apartment was through the doors on the white building on the right in this picture ... up four flights of stairs and no elevator! We said goodnight to Tom and his family and they headed home for the evening. Once settled, we walked a couple blocks to the train station to pick up some groceries for breakfasts. On Sunday, it has the only shop open for groceries!

On Monday morning Tom met us and we took a walking tour of the area along the Rhine. (His wife, Anna, had a business trip so we didn't see her today). We climbed the 277 steps to the Munot Fortress which overlooks the Old Town of Schaffhausen. It was built in the 16th century with forced labor by the citizens. The Fortress was never a residence and its short useful life means that it remains almost exactly as it was built! Its most distinctive features are the cavernous galleries in the foundation. Entering the castle from below we walked the winding stone path up the turret. Nowadays they hold concerts and programs at the top. The Munot guard who actually lives at the top of the "castle" rings the Munot bell by hand every evening at 9pm. We could hear it from our apartment!


There were beautiful views over the city and the river from the top of the Munot.
Around noon we picked up Tom's son, Oscar, from his tennis camp and spent the afternoon near the Bodensee in Konstanz, Germany. We walked and walked then stopped for lunch - then walked some more, we had such a great time!

At Seeburger Park we climbed the observation tower and had beautiful views of Germany and Switzerland at the same time.

The white line was the dividing line between Switzerland and Germany.
On our way back to Konstanz, we stopped to use one of the public restrooms in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. It was MUCH different than Africa! These are all stainless steel inside, with a handle that you use to pull the seat down (for women). On the left were buttons - one to flush, one to dispense soap, and one to dispense water to wash your hands. It was all very high-tech!

Back in town we made our way up the hill to a shop for afternoon treats.

Tobey and I shared this "little" ice cream treat!

Many of the buildings have frescos painted on them.

Tobey and Oscar spotted this interesting sight in the window. I hope it was a doctor's office!

We then headed back to Schaffhausen and spent time at their house. Tobey and I both had a chance to play with Oscar and Romy. It was fun! It was a busy day and we were definitely tired when we got back to our apartment!

Tuesday Tom had meetings in the morning so Tobey and I spent time wandering the streets in Old Town Schauffhausen. It was bright and sunny, but around lunch time the clouds rolled in. We had to race back in the rain to the apartment with our pizza for lunch!




In the afternoon, the sky cleared and Tom and Oscar picked us up and we headed to Stein am Rhein, Switzerland. The architecture is amazing and we had a great time having seven year old Oscar showing us around.






And yes, we did find a shop where we were able to get ice cream!

We headed back to their house around 6 and picked up his daughter. He has the best garage walls ... there were two cars painted on them as you pull in ... and at first glance, I thought they were real! Anna met us back in Old Town near our apartment where we had a wonderful dinner together. It was so fun spending time with them and we hated to say goodbye.

Wednesday morning Tom drove us to the Zurich airport for our flight back to the US. It was an great time getting to spend time with three of our exchange students and their families.

Coming home was long ... Zurich to Boston, then Boston to Denver. Our flight from Boston was late arriving in Denver so we missed our ground transportation back to Fort Collins. Not something you want to happen at midnight! United agreed to pay for Lyft home, so we finally got back about 2am! Needless to say, we were tired. It has been busy trying to catch up, but we were thrilled to be back and see our granddaughter! That's it for this adventure so until next time - travel safely!

July 13 - 16, 2023 - Sylt to Munich, Germany

We arrived in Munich around 10pm and Paul was there to meet us, along with his (sort of) sweet little dog, Lou! We headed back to his apartment in the city where we settled in for the night and Paul left for his mom's house for the night. Little Lou stayed with us!

Friday we relaxed, walked Lou, and caught up on some emails while Paul was at work. In the evening we all took Lou for a walk at one of the nearby parks. She actually belongs to a friend of his who asked him to watch her for a week while she was moving. No worries - but she has been with him for over six months and she LOVES him!

Later in the evening we walked to Olympic Park which is very near his apartment. The Tollwood Summer Festival, a four week event, was going on. There were food stalls, marketplace booths, music, entertainment, and yes, beer gardens! We spent a couple hours walking around checking things out before enjoying an adult beverage and walking back.


On Saturday, Paul cooked us a great breakfast before we headed out to meet his mom, Ava, and take a hike near Tegernsee. It was hot - hot - hot! The Berggasthof Neureuth Alm loop trail going up was steep and I was definitely not in shape for this hike. With several stops (and lots of water) I made it! The mountain hut at the top (elevation over 4000 feet) was built in 1895 on the highest plot of land in Neureuth. It has a nice restaurant where we had an afternoon snack of Kaiserschmarrn, a homemade cake. Ava insisted we get TWO of the apple pastry desserts to share (one would have been more than enough!) It was yummy, but too much.

The views of the lake were amazing!

Of course, we had to have a selfie!

We took a different trail down the mountain and it was awesome! It went through the woods and little Lou raced back and forth up and down the hill. It reminded us of our dog, Penny, when she hiked with us! Roundtrip we went about four miles and 1500 feet elevation gain.

Needless to say, Lou was one tired pup on the drive back to Munich!

After dinner, Paul and his girlfriend, Mara, and Tobey and I went to the Summer Dream Music Festival at Olympic Park. The music was fun and we enjoyed listening to a couple different groups before the big excitement of the evening - the fireworks!

We found a spot on the hill opposite this one - along with thousands of other people! Starting at 10pm, we were treated to a fireworks show like we have never seen before! It had been raining in Munich for several days before and they had to replace the entire show because the "cannons" were ruined! They flew in new fireworks from Italy and it did not disappoint. The show lasted an hour and every display was like a finale!
Here are a couple videos from the show.
https://youtube.com/shorts/NvwveFhXT5A?feature=share

https://youtu.be/OKDhN1Ywfu8

After the show, we headed back to the apartment and said goodnight to Paul and Mara. We had a beautiful view of Olympic Park as we left.

On Sunday, Paul, Tobey and I (and Lou) went to a different park where the guys could have their ping-pong challenge. When Paul lived with us, he and Tobey played all the time - and kept score to know who was the overall winner. Back in the day it was Tobey; this day, it was Paul!

We had such a good time catching up with Paul and spend a few days with him but our time in Munich was coming to an end. About 5pm, another of our boys, Tom and his family picked us up and we headed to Zurich, Switzerland to spend time with them. So we said goobye to our "last" boy and his temporary roommate, Lou and left with our "first"!

Next stop - Schaffhausen, Switzerland!

July 9, 2023 - Nairobi, Kenya to Sylt, Germany

Our last travels did not end in Africa. On July 8, we boarded a plane and departed Nairobi, Kenya at 11:20 PM heading to Frankfurt, Germany. We arrived at 7:30 in the morning, July 9. Wendy, Ann, and Gary headed off to catch their plane (with connecting flights) to Colorado. Shari and Bill were off to the train station to visit one of their exchange students in Germany. We had almost 9 hours to wait for our flight to Sylt, Germany (pronounced Zoolt) to visit one of our exchange students and his family.

We finally arrived at the Westerland airport about 6:00pm. It is a TINY airport and ours was the only commercial flight coming in. We waited as everyone's bags were coming and we waited, and FINALLY, ours were the last two bags to come out. We started over to get them when two policemen took them off the belt and started to examine them. We said they were ours and they questioned us about where were we coming from, what were we doing in Sylt, and asked to see our passports! Finally, they let us have the bags and go. Seems that very few (if any) people travel from Africa to Sylt and because we checked our bags through to Sylt and didn't clear them in Frankfurt they wanted to be sure we weren't smuggling anything!

We were met by Stephan, Ashley and their beautiful two-year old daughter, Amelia, and headed for his parent's home there where we spent four nights with them.

Sylt is the largest and northern most of the North Frisian Islands located in the North Sea, Germany - just west of Denmark. It is connected by rail with the mainland via a 7-mile long causeway. The island formed about 800 years ago and has sand dunes and about 25 miles of beautiful beaches. The scenery is amazing - meadows with grazing cows, and many of the homes (and older cottages) with thatched roofs.

There is an extensive network of bike paths spanning the entire island. Stephan's mom, Marlies, has an e-bike (his dad had to go to France on a business trip) so the rest of us rented bikes to explore the island. Tobey took a standard 7-speed bike, I got an e-bike. It made pedaling so easy - I may be a convert!

Our first stop was St. Severin Church which sits on a hill as we rode into Keitum. It dates back to 1240! The tower was built around 1450 and served as a navigation mark for seafarers, as well as a prison!

The door handles into the sanctuary show the relationship to the sea!
A little further down the path we came to the Keitum village proper and parked our bikes and walked out to the sea. The tide was out and it was interesting to see the barriers which have been built to help prevent further erosion of the island. There are huge windfarms in the North Sea, too. Off in the distance, you can see the causeway and train.
Back into the village we had ice cream which gave all of us the energy to continue on to Morsum-Kliff. Morsum-Kliff is about one mile long and 69 feet high. There have been attempts to mine the area, but in 1923, the area (about 100 acres) was turned into a nature preserve. It was beautiful!

On one of the other days, we biked to List, the northernmost town on Sylt. The reed-roofs on so many of the houses made us think of Hobbit Houses!
Street signs in List have these cute little figures - all different - on top of them!

We biked by one of the largest dunes on the island.

We had lunch at the Gosch Restaurant in List - one of several on the island. The gentleman with the red hat is the owner and he visits many of the patrons while he is there. The food was great, too!

List is a port city and the ferry from Denmark stops here. It was fun to walk around a little before our VERY WINDY (headwinds) ride back to Westerland.

We had a view of the Sylt airport from one of the hills. The white peaks reminded us of the Denver airport - only much smaller!

We enjoyed a walk on the beach (even if it was chilly and sprinkled a bit)!

Our time passed quickly and we had such a good time! It was fun catching up and getting to know Amelia. We had time to visit a park, play cards, and Bernhard returned on Thursday so we even had the chance to spend the day together before our evening flight to Munich where we visited another exchange student, Paul.