Heildburg

The first mention of this ancient German city was in 1196. It has been well preserved mainly because of a Allied General who had studied at the city's university and claimed it had no strategic bombing advantage. The university here is the 3rd oldest in Europe (behind Italy and France) and has roughly 40,000 students. The city itself is about the size of Jackson, MS....yet it has a wee bit more charm than our capital city!

We had a wonderful local guide Isabel, who despite her bag lady looks was quite amazing!

One of the last princes of the city was Karl. Turns out he was friends with Benjamin Franklin and saved the famous castle in the city from even more ruin by putting lightning rods on top of it! Apparently the castle had been bombed by the French, who ruin lots of things, and he rebuilt it only for it to be struck by lightning. Well ole Ben helped a German out by sending him his plans for the lightning rods! Another interesting fact about ole Karl...he had 255 illegitimate children.

Somewhere prior to Karl and after the first 3 or 4 Fredrick's there was a Prince named Fredrick that married a French woman named Elizabeth. For her birthday he built the following arch in ONE night and surprised. Included in the arch were hidden surprises...for each one she got a kiss and nine months later an heir. Sidebar: there was a school trip here where every kid was trying to find the surprises and all of them were taking pictures with their school issues iPads minis. Cool stuff!

A few more bullet points:

• Boys had to wear skirts until the age of 7 due to "accidents"
• Professors were paid per year with a cart full of wine barrels
• Catholic churches have crosses atop them. Protestant ones have roosters. If they have been both they may have both.
• Mark Twain spent quite a bit of time here. Check out his books The Innocents Abroad and The Tramp Abroad

A few in our group toured some gardens while a few more stayed behind and sampled more local beer and goods. I'll let you assume what group I was in!

We ended the night at an outdoor restaurant with ALL local food (despite how good that Texas burger looked) and are ready to head to the mountains tomorrow. I'm the only one in the group who has seen the Alps. I CANNOT wait for them to get their first glimpse...truly amazing.

Arrival in Frankfurt

I have been transported back to the days of taking students to Europe. Only this time my students are older than me. It has been comical to watch my dad, his neighbors, and his cousins experience overseas travel for the first time. On the plane Dad sat next to Wendy and I. He was simply amazed at our "process" of preparing for the long haul flight. Neither one of us realized we had a process. It is just something I guess we have perfected over the years. As usual on a first transcontinental flight the newbies slept none. Both Wendy and I got several hours of blissful sleep in!

We arrived to Frankfurt, Europe's 3rd largest airport, at 9:00 a.m. which is the kiss of death when it comes to jet lag (we have to stay up ALL day with some having no sleep). The very first thing the adults did was check their phones to see if there was free wifi. It was EXACTLY what our students did when arriving! After collecting our luggage and eating the most delicious bacon and cheese pretzel EVAH we headed off for an unexpected tour of Frankfurt while waiting on others in our tour group to arrive.

Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany, which up until the 1990s the population included some 30,000 US troops. While taking our city tour and trying desperately to stay awake I took a few notes:

• Germany actually invited Jews to make new communities after WWII. Frankfurt has the 3rd largest community
• Turkish people are the largest immigrant group in Germany (yes we heard about the bombing. Yes we are being aware. Yes we feel safe).
• There are 4 million Muslims, 25 million Catholic's, and 31 million Protestants in the country.
• Two former EAST German's are in charge of the government, one being President Angela Merkel who is the daughter of a pastor
• President Kennedy visited Germany in 1963 and apparently it was a BIG, and I mean BIG deal. He drew huge crowds, they are still talking about it and a plaque was placed on city hall.

• They have apple cider gardens here instead of beer gardens. It is served with lemonade or water.

We visited the cathedral in downtown that isn't really a cathedral but has an honorary mention. Odd yes.

We transferred to Schwetzingen where some took a nap and Wendy, Dad, and I set out to visit the quaint city center for a refreshing beverage.

Our group enjoyed dinner at a restaurant back in the city center of some salad they all deemed the best ever, wienerschnitzel, and ice cream and then it was time for BED! 

I promise to get better at the blogging but it has been a LONG 48 hours and this chick is tired!

Renewed Travel 2016

Dad asked me last weekend if I was going to blog during our upcoming trip. I told him I had decided I just couldn't commit to it. I am one of those "12 month" education workers and our summer is BUSY. Sidebar...all educators work 12 months some of us are just lucky enough to be paid for all 12 of them (props to teachers). I'm also teaching 2 online courses for Hinds and wrapping up a hybrid course for Belhaven. Translation: This trip isn't all play...I still have work to do while I manage to have a bit of fun.

Tonight, in between a great visit with a good friend, I've been watching the Sound of Music to prepare for the Salzburg portion of our trip. I found myself wanting to know the names of the places where they are in various scenes. I'm Googling them. I realize yet again travel is about learning. Many times I have referred back to a blog post when asked questions about the places I have visited. Therefore I am committing to blog again. Read it or not...this blog is for me. I can't promise a nightly update but I do promise myself and those that care to read it that I will learn from our local guides and soak up the vivid history of the places in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland we are visiting.

If only I could do trips without packing and airplanes....