MUNICH to BARCELONA

We woke up Sunday morning and packed up our stuff. We thanked Rachel for letting us stay with her. We drove to the airport and filled up the tank with gas along the way. We returned our Ford Fiesta and walked to the check-in. We had no problems checking in or going through security. We got some breakfast and then boarded the plane.

I wrote my postcards on the plane ride (yes, Mike, I wrote you one this time). They are going to have Spanish stamps on them, but the postcards are really from Germany. Did I mention that they didn't give us peanuts on the plane ride? They gave us pieces of cheese cake instead. Tom and Meg slept through it, but I let them know it was good. I was thinking about saving mine for mt brother since he always saves me the peanuts from his flights. I didn't though (he is getting a postcard instead). We made it back to Barcelona safe and sound, but had a litte difficulty getting Tom's and Meg's bags that they checked. We accidentally went to baggage claim B instead of A. We had to go back through security in order to get their bags but we finally got them so it all worked out in the end.

We got on the Aerobus and it dropped us off near the Gran Via apartment and then we had to walk 7 blocks to our apartment. It felt like we had been gone for so long because we had done so much in the past week. We have no idea how Barcelona survived a week without us. We will get this city back on its feet tomorrow after we get a good nights rest.

The weather was in the 70s and sunny here today. It felt so good to finally lose that little black rain cloud that followed us through Germany. Tom and I split a load of laundry this afternoon and I took a half hour nap on the couch in our living room. I then hung up our clothes to dry and came to studio. It was good to see Brian, Ben, and Rob again. It was that same feeling on the first day of school after not seeing your friends all summer. They had good breaks as well. We all have a lot of stories to tell each other, so it will keep us busy for the next week or so probably. We also have to see everybody's pictures.

MUNICH to FUSSEN and back again

Saturday was by far the best day of this amazing road trip. Tom, Meg, Rachel, her roommate, and myself piled into the car and drove south, towards Austria. Our hopes were set on seeing the most famous castle of Bavaria that the Walt Disney castle is said to be modeled after. The drive there was a little tough with some very strong rain and the temperatures dropping. We made it to the castle and realized that the other castle was very close (about a half hour walk apart up the mountain). We bought tickets to have tours of each castle and went to the smaller castle first (Hohenschwangau Castle). The views were amazing from the castle, looking down on a small town and a lake with large snow-covered mountains as a backdrop. We were unfortunately unable to take pictures of the insides of either castle. The rooms were gorgeous and filled with beautiful murals, furniture, and anything you expect to find in a castle. After the tour, we walked down the small mountain and headed to a restaurant to warm up a bit. The rain started to let up a little bit so Tom and I decided to walk up the other mountain to the main castle. It was a great decision. The road was steep and made me realize how out of shape I am (I am planning on going for a run tomorrow morning...I am keeping my fingers crossed that I remember/ force myself to do this). It took us about half an hour to walk up the path to the Marien Brucke, which is a bridge that is hundreds of feet above a waterfall and rushing rapids. The view of the Neuschwanstein Castle was...wow...I cannot describe it. The wind was almost blowing us off the bridge. We couldn't breathe when we faced the wind and hard rain was pelting us as we stood there. It made standing at the bottom of Niagara Falls seem like nothing. It was hard to keep our lenses clean but we were still able to get some amazing pictures (the pictures look like paintings or movie sets. I am having a hard time believeing that these pictures are real). We walked across the bridge but the path faded off into the mountain. We decided to go up higher on the mountain and see if we could look down on the castle. Well, after walking through the mud, stepping over roots and logs, and climbing up the rocks, we came upon a clearing on the edge of the mountain. I heard Tom yell about a rainbow and I went running over to see it. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The sun was shining on the castle and lit it up just for us. A powerful rainbow then burst from within the castle and reached toward the blue sky. We were so captivated by the perfection of what was in front of us that we lost track of what was beneath us. We were a few feet from the edge of a cliff that dropped hundreds of feet into the gorge. We quickly stepped back and caught our breath. We didnt know what to say to each other. We were standing on a muddy cliff, looking at a huge castle with a colorful rainbow, and green and white mountains in the background. I think it was the most powerful experience of my life.

We then had to hurry back down the mountain so we wouldn't be late for the tour. We met the girls at the entrance of the castle and took the tour. The group was a lot bigger than the first castle and the tour guide didn't have a sense of humor (the guide from the first castle made a lot of jokes...mostly bad and corney...but I thought he was funny. I can't pronounce his name but he had a cool coat).

After the tour, all five of us walked up to the bridge. On the walk down, we asked a gentleman to take a picture of us with the castle and mountains in the background. He told us not to ask people in Italy to take pictures because they will run off with your camera. He was a funny guy (he told his 8 year old daughter that he would race her down the mountain but she said she wasn't in the mood). I am glad that my old track coach never found this mountain, because it makes the hills we used to run seem like flat plains.

We then drove off to take the scenic way home, through Austria. We drove along a lake that provided some of the most beautiful works of nature I have ever seen. It was sunset when we reached the lake and there was a full moon over the mountains by the time we reached the end of the lake. It seemed too perfect. We stopped in the very small town of Plansee, Austria to have dinner. We ate at Hotel Forelle, which was right on the lake. We couldn't get a window seat but it was a perfect meal (I had wiener schnitzel...I'm gonna miss it).

MUNICH all day

Well, today was an interesting day. We met a man named Michael at Marienplatz at 10 am. Michael's relation to us first needs to be explained. Mike (the man we stayed with in Rottendorf) has been in the military for a while and has been in Germany for almost 20 years so he has some connections. He told us he had a friend in Munich who owed him a favor and called him up to see if he could give us a tour of the governmental buildings and of the city itself. His friend said yes but then had to go out of town so he had some one else fill his spot. This is where Micheal comes in. He is wrapped up in politics in Munich somehow and he had access to a lot of the governmental buildings in the city. He was an English and politics teacher in Munich, but is originally from Warzburg. We met him in the morning and he walked us around the city. He was very knowledgable and told us a lot about Munich. We went to the Viktualienmarkt, which is a large food market with a lot of different shops and stands selling all kinds of food. We saw the new synogogue, the opera house, and the national theater. He also showed us the Residenz and told us all about the politics of the city. We then walked through the Hofgarten which is the royal garden. At the end of the garden is the former military museum. It has now been added onto and converted into the Bayerische Staatskanzlei, the main government building which was designed to represent the new democracy of the country. He showed us the offices of all the important political people in Germany. It was incredible to walk though that building and learn so much about the government. I still feel like I know nothing about German politics but Michael tried to explain it to us as best he could. We also stopped at Marienplatz again to watch the famous Glockenspiel. When the bells chimed for the new hour, the plaza was filled with people watching. There were 32 figures of almost life sized people that moved around and danced a little bit for us (some even jousted), giving us a five minute or so show. It was awesome to see and I videotaped it with my camera (but something is wrong with the sound recorder on my camera and it isnt picking up sound for some reason). We then went out to lunch with Michael to a Bavarian restaurant that served very traditional Bavarian food. It was delicious. I enjoyed everything I ate in Germany. Twas tastiness. We paid for his lunch as a thank you for giving us such a wonderful tour.

After lunch, we headed back to the apartment, but Rachel was still at work so we took naps in the car. When Rachel came back from work, we hung out in her apartment for a while and then got some pizza for dinner. We went over to her co-workers apartment and met her friends in Germany. They all work for Kraft (she is a packaging major at Michigan State interning at Kraft). They were interesting people and it was fun to hear all these people speaking to each other in so many langauages.

ROTTENDORF to ROTHENBURG to DACHAU to MUNICH

I woke up this morning on the air mattress and I had quite the surprise. Tom had turned into a dog and was sticking his nose in my face. Actually, Tom had climbed onto the small couch in the middle of the night (I hope I wasn't kicking him). So Mike's big dog decided to take Tom's place on the mattress. He just plopped down next to me and rubbed his nose in my face and laid on top of me. I guess it was better than waking up to an annoying alarm clock going "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" or better than the way Mike woke up Meg by banging a spoon on a pot. That was a little loud, but it got her up. We got ready and said goodbye to Mike.

Our first stop of the day was in Rothenburg. It is a small city, but it was worth the stop because it still has the old city walls completely surrounding the city. We parked just outside one of the city gates and then walked up to the top of the city wall and walked along the platform on top of the wall. We then stopped at a bakery on our way to the city center and had some donuts. Walking through the city really felt like walking back in time. There was an old covered bridge for one of the entrances to the city. When we left the city, we walked out of the main gate and then walked along the city wall back to our car. It was a good stop.

We then continued on our journey and stopped for lunch at a diner just off the Autobahn. It was called Bonny's and was basically the same as Denny's. We were hoping for German food but instead we had the choice of a cheeseburger or a sloppy joe. Tom got the cheeseburger and I got a sloppy joe (it was not sloppy and was made up of solid chunks of meat instead of ground beef like a real sloppy joe). It still satisfied us.

After lunch we drove to Dachau, the first concentration camp. It was cold and rainy while we were walking through there which only added to the experience. It was not easy to walk through those buildings and read about the site. The photographs and first hand accounts they had on display were very powerful. We walked through the entrance building (where most of the offices were), the maintenance building (where the prisoners began the registration process for the camp), the roll call ground (where all the prisoners had to assemble every morning and stand for hours to make sure everyone was there), and through the barracks (where all the bunks were located and which became very overpopulated by the end of WWII). One thing which captivated my sense of being there was looking at the trees in the old photographs and walking along the same line of trees along the dirt road to the roll call ground. We were a little rushed while we were there because they closed at 5pm. We were chilled after the walk through the camp so we sat in the car for a little bit afterwards. We then pulled out, glad that we were able to stop and experience history first hand.

Our next stop was Munich. We first had to find Rachel Greene's apartment (She went to Sacred Heart with Meg and was letting us stay with her while we were in Munich). We found her street and luckily found a parking spot a minute away from her door. Meg tried calling her to let her know we were standing outside her apartment but for some reason she couldn't get a hold of her. So Tom and I went to the front door of the apartment and decided to just try ringing one of the apartment doorbells and hope we got Rachel. I pushed the first buzzer and no one responded. Then that apartment unlocked the front door for us and let us into the apartment. Once we were inside the apartment, we had to figure out what floor she was on. We saw the apartment's mailboxes and saw her name on one of them. We were then able to figure out where she lived and she welcomed us into her humble abode. We set down our stuff, got a tour of her apartment, and then headed out for a quick tour of the city. It was about 7 and was a little dark and rainy, but not too bad. We went to Marienplatz, which is a main plaza in the city. We saw the Neues Rathaus mit Glockenspiel (the new town hall with the famous carillon which is a 260 foot tower that has a clock on it with the people who come out and dance on the hour when the clock chimes). We also saw the Atles Rathaus (the old city hall) and St. Peter's Church. We wandered around for a little while and then stopped at a nice restaurant for some schnitzel. I ordered cold meat loaf (I like meat loaf...hot meat loaf). I don't think I will do that again though. It was alright, but ketchup can only do so much.

ROTTENDORF to HEIDELBURG to ROTTENDORF

Today, we left the house around 9 and drove with Mike to Heidelberg, which is a couple hours away. He had a meeting there so we went to spend the day there and do the tourist stuff. It is on the Neckar River which is joined with the Rhine. It was an awesome little city. We parked in a parking garage and then walked down the river to the Alte Brucke, which is the "old bridge." It was raining lightly and started coming down pretty steadily. We decided to do lunch first and then walk up to the castle. Mike told us to eat at the Red Bull, because Mark Twain had frequented that restaurant when he was in the city for a while. It was only open for dinner so we went to a pub next door for lunch instead. The only other customers in the place when we walked in was a big lazy dog staring at us when we walked to our table. The waiter was pleasant and the food was excellent. The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we left, so we started the trek up the mountain to the castle (the train up it was 8 euros for a round trip, but the walk was only 15 minutes, plus the exercise was good for us). The view of the city was amazing from in front of the castle. We walked around the castle grounds a little bit and then took the English tour at 2 15. It lasted about an hour and we were able to walk through a lot of the rooms and hallways of the castle. It was great to hear so much information about what we were looking at. After the tour we walked back down the mountain and into the city. We walked along the main street for a while and stopped at a couple shops. I meant to buy some post cards but couldn't find any that I liked. I figure I can wait for Munich for some good ones. We met Mike at the parking garage and then drove back to Rottendorf.

We stopped at Mike's office for a few minutes so he could just finish some stuff up and then came back to the house to check on Andrew, his youngest son who was home sick today (his older brother left for a ski trip this morning). Mike then took us to a Greek restaurant that he apparently frequents because everyone there knew him pretty well. He even has a special dish they make for him that isn't on the menu. They make it the way his mother used to make it (his family is Greek). It was really good food. Also, in the restaurant was a huge fish tank and a small pond. There were several turtles of all different sizes in the pond and some good size fish. It was very cool. Mike taught us a couple of Greek traditions (he read Meg's future with his coffee cup after he drank the coffee). We then came back to the house and figured out a rough plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow night we will be in Munich (hopefully).

ROTTENDORF to WARZBURG to ROTTENDORF to USA to ROTTENDORF

Today, I was woken up by Mike's dog licking my face. He is an old dog who was an award-winning hunting dog. Now is partially deaf and just hobbles around on his old legs. He is a very friendly dog and Meg's new friend.

We had a pretty slow morning, but it felt good. It is spring break and we are supposed to be relaxing, right? Well, we made it out of the house by noon (I think). We met Mike and his friend Rudy for lunch in downtown Warzburg near the cathedral. We ate at an old mill on the Rhine that looks out across the river onto the dominating castle. The restaurant is known for the ambiance and typical German foods. I ordered the Blau Zipfel, I think. Mike recommended it as a good German meal. It was very tasty sausage. I enjoyed it. We then walked around and Mike took us into the City Council building and took us to a couple behind the scenes rooms (Having been in the military for so long he has a lot of connections and influence when he talks to some people). Mike and his friend then had to get back to work so they left.

Tom, Meg, and I then headed up to the castle. It was a pretty good walk up the side of the mountain to the castle. We weren't exactly sure if we were going the right way or not so we just kept going up towards the castle. It started raining a little and lasted the rest of the afternoon. It put a bit of a damper on everything but we managed. We walked through the parts of the castle that we could. The ticket office was closed so we don't know what the deal was there. There were tour groups walking around but we had no idea where to pay so we just walked through the castle. We didn't go into the museum part of the castle because it cost a little bit and it closed soon, so we walked through the gardens instead. We took a different direction down the mountain and had a bit of an adventure. We saw these random little cottages in a cluster on the side of the mountain that must have been asscoiated with the castle somehow. We saw some very beatuiful landscape, such as rock gardens and a Japanese garden. The cottage neighborhood was a lot of fun to walk through and provided many nice pictures. We made it back to the Rhine River eventually and crossed the bridge back to our side of the river. We stopped at a cafe and had a little something to tide us over until dinner. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some food to make dinner.

I worked on uploading my pictures onto Tom's computer. I used Mike's computer in his basement to check my email and what not.

Meg made a very good dinner tonight. I don't remember the name of it but it was delicious. She said she can't explain what it was but it involved potatoes, beef, lettuce, onions, eggs, and flour. She told us that she will make it for Aldana some night. I hope she does.

After dinner, Mike drove us to the military base where he works. We had to take our passports because we technically left Germany and were walking around on American soil. It was pretty strange. It seemed like a little America. There was a KFC, a Burger King, a Wal-Mart type place, and a basbeall diamond. It wasn't too busy though because the troops are all over in Iraq so it was a quiet night on base. He showed us where his two sons Matthew and Andrew go to school on the base and where the officers all live on the base. It was exciting driving around the area, especially when we stopped in the supermarket. It was all American goods and they used US dollars instead of euros (I bought a Butterfinger because I just couldn't resist).

COLOGNE to RHINE RIVER to FRANKFURT to WARZBURG to ROTTENDORF

So this morning we had planned to wake up before sunrise, walk across the bridge to the other side of the Rhine River and watch the sunrise against the Dom (Cathedral). Instead we woke up at about 9 30 and had some PB & J waffles before our 10 30 tour of the Dom. Our tour was very interesting. It was less than an hour but was very informative. Our tour guide (who was wearing all black and had purple hair) was a very smart lady. She told us stories, legends, and the symbolism of the Dom and the city rather than just babble about the architecture of the building (although she did tell us about its significant architecture). There was a twenty minute video after the tour that talked about the cathedral more. I videotaped it on my camera so hopefully the sound comes out alright (and hopefully the film was not copyrighted). After the tour we hit the road in the direction of our next stop: Warzburg. We drove along the Rhine River on a road known as the Romantic Road. Between the cities of Kolbenz and Mainz (I believe they are called) are several castles. It was a beautiful (but drizzly) drive.

We made several stops along the way. We stopped on the side of the road a few times to get some good pictures of the castles in the mountains and on the edges of the cliffs. We drove through several small towns along the river and decided that we want to live in one of those towns. One of the major stops was at a place called Loreley. It is a rock that is in the middle of the Rhine River that sparked a legend: A ship was sailing down the river and the sailors heard this captivating voice singing in front of them. When they looked to see who was singing, they saw a beautiful lady standing on a rock in the river. They were in such awe of the siren that they did not pay attention to where they were going and crashed the boat into the rock. Now, there is a statue on this rock of a beautiful woman distracting all the boats on the river. We drove up the cliff overlooking this spot. We then, hiked the rest of the way up, following the path to the top of the cliff that looks out onto Loreley rock and the Rhine River. The view was spectacular. We unfortunately were not able to go to any castles because since it is the off-season, none of the castles that we found were open for tours or anything. We have a lot of pictures of castles, however. We saw several, many of which were within a mile of the other. It is a very popular road to drive down in the summer, and now I know why.

We next stopped at Frankfurt early in the evening for a quick bite to eat. We walked around for a little bit and then visited their Dom. It was rather small but I still liked it. It was painted orange and white on the inside, which made it brighter than just the plain grey stone. We stopped at a store on the walk back to the parking garage so Meg could buy a sweatshirt because she was getting chilled from being wet so much (I think the rain is following us). She couldn't find one that she liked, but I found socks that I liked. They were 5 euros for 4 pairs. I have now bought a pair of paints, 4 pairs of socks, and 2 Tshirts since I got to Europe. The only thing left that I would like to buy would be a nice pair of shoes. They are very cheap in Barcelona but I haven't found that right pair yet. All in due time I suppose.

We left downtown Frankfurt at 8 and then made it back to the center of Frankfurt by 8 30. We left downtown a second time at 8 30 and headed south. Part of the joys of a road trip in a foreign place I suppose.

We were meeting Mike (Mrs. McGuire's friend from high school) in Warzburg. He lives in Rottendorf so when we got close we called him and he drove and met us. We then followed him to his house and we met his oldest son who is 15. Mike then drove Meg, Tom, and me into Warzburg to give us an overview of the city. He showed us where the city castle was, the Dom, the Royal Residence, and the Rhine. We stopped at a cafe and then came back to his house. We sat around for a little bit and talked some more about Germany. We slept in the basement in sleeping bags on air mattresses. It felt like a sleepover. I miss those sleepovers when we used to sleep in sleeping bags in the basement (or in tents that were pitched on the sides of hills).

OSNABRUK to COLOGNE

We woke up around 7 30 today, and then again at 7 45, and then finally got out of bed around 8ish. The free breakfast only went from 7 30 to 8 30 so we couldn't sleep in. We went downstairs, grabbed some food, and then packed up our things. Checkout was at 9 am so we all said goodbye to the hostel and drove into Osnabruk to go to church. There was a small little church, pushed back from the main road with vines covering the cobblestone walls, that I wanted to go. The mass there wasn't until 11 15 and we didnt want to wait 2 hours for the mass. We went across the street to a Lutheran church which had a mass starting at 10. We could have gone to the cathedral further down the street, but it was raining and we didn't feel much like going all the way down the street to it. Plus, I had never been to a Lutheran mass and I was interested to see what it was like. We had a half hour to spare before mass so Meg and Tom sat in the church and waited. I decided to go for a little walk through the rain behind the small cobblestone church.

I walked along a path which separated a cemetery from a residential neighborhood. At the end of the path was a neighborhood playground that had a merry-go-round contraption, zip-line, rock climbing wall, sand area, and soccer/basketball court. I walked down the bike path through the park and then headed back. I walked through the cemetery, where it was very peaceful with all the trees and and falling rain.

The mass was similar to the Catholic mass, except for no kneelers and no Eucharist. The organzization of the mass, however, runs much like a Catholic mass. I had no idea what the minister was saying or what the readings were about, but the organ was very pleasant to listen to.

After mass we got in the car and began the next chapter of our trip: Cologne. Along the way, we ran into a little problem, which had grown a little bit by the time we got to Cologne. There was a little crack in the windshield which had grown to about 9 inches across the middle of the window. Meg called up Mike (our main contact in Germany who we are going to meet tomorrow). He called up the car rental agency and explained to them what had happened. He then told us to go to the agency's office in Cologne. It was the first thing we did when we got to the city and we turned in our Clio for a Fiesta... a Ford Fiesta. We said goodbye to our French vehicle and went looking for a hostel with our new American companion. We went to the hostel that was the same company as the one we stayed at in Osnabruk. It was a very nice place and had free parking and free breakfast. It was dorm style living, which meant that we would be in a large room with a lot of other people. We had no problem doing this but I was hoping to find someplace a little cheaper. We drove across the bridge so we were on the same side as the mighty Cathedral of Cologne. We stopped at the Tourist Information center and picked up a few pamphlets about hostels. We found one that looked alright so we went to check it out. It was cheaper than the other hostel but didnt have free parking. We ended up leaving the car in a parking garage and getting this hostel. Since we have to pay for parking, it is roughly the same price as the other one, just with a closer location to the cathedral (which has a tour at 10 30 tomorrow morning we will be taking) and the three of us got our own room. We went to the train station to get some groceries since all the supermarkets are closed here on Sundays. We picked up some pasta and hot dogs for dinner and cooked it in the kitchen in the hostel. We then roughly planned our day tomorrow. We are going to wake up early and watch the sunrise. It should be amazing to watch the colors changing on the facade of the cathedral as the sun rises. We are hoping for some beautiful pcitures.

The hostel here has free wireless internet and Tom brough his computer so that we could upload all of our pictures on it. So for tonight, we have free internet. But I am going to take a shower and go to bed now. Goodnight.

OSNABRUK to LINGEN and back again

The hostel had a free breakfast so we were able to get some bread, ham, cereal, milk, and coffee. After breakfast we did Germany's favorite pasttime called "wandern" which means going hiking. Behind our hostel was acres of woods that had some dirt paths. There were a few runners and a couple of dog walkers. We walked through the woods and saw a soccer field hidden behind the trees, a playground in a little clearing, and then we got mooned by 3 deer. Actually we walked passed the zoo which had an entrance from the woods. I think that it was a very clever entrance. When we looked through the fence we could see the animals and it felt like we were out in the wild with these animals. There was a small monument in the woods that was in remembrance of a school teacher who was killed in a bombing at the site in 1944. We went back to the hostel then and took showers while we waited for Malte and his friend to come and pick us up (Malte is a friend of Phil, who went to my high school for a year as an exchange student. Meg has kept in touch with him).


Malte and his friend Daniel came to the hostel and then we drove to their apartment in Osnabruk. We stayed there for a little bit and then we walked through town for a couple of hours. It was a little drizzly but we didn't melt. They gave us a walking tour of the city and then took us to the university section of the city. They both go to school there and were able to tell us some pretty interesting things about the city. We stopped at a cafe and had some good old schnitzel. It was tasty. We then walked back to their apartment and drove to Lingen (the town where Malte and Daniel are both from). Malte and Daniel drove in their car and we followed behind.

We got to Lingen in the early afternoon. It is a town of a whopping 25,000 people so it didn't take too long to get that walking tour. It was a great place to spend some time though, especially with Malte and Daniel who are hilarious. They told us some of the history of the town and showed us all the interesting buildings and places. (Malte at one time wanted to study architecture so he was able to tell us a lot of interesting things in both Osnabruk and Lingen). We then went to Daniel's house in the late afternoon. We sat in his kitchen talking for a little bit and just relaxed (we were glad that we started this trip in such a small city because we were able to relax and not be overwhelmed by a large foreign city). Daniel's parents didn't speak English but they still brought a few pieces of cake out for us. We then left his house and went to Malte's house (Daniel said he had to do some things...we later found out he took a nap...oh siestas). It was raining pretty steadily so walking through the streets by all the shops wasn't really an option. Malte's dad is an architect and designed their house. It was a very cool house. It was very crisp and clean on the inside. The backyard was relatively small but there was a man made pond (about 20 feet in diameter) just a few feet from the back door. We used his computer to start looking into some hostels in Cologne that we could stay at. We left his house around 6 and drove to Daniel's house to pick him up for dinner.

We went to a restaurant called the Gruner Jager where we could get some typical German food. Tom and I both ordered the schnitzel with mushrooms and sauce. I think it was the best meal I have had in Europe so far. It tasted delicious. The bathroom at the restaurant was pretty cool as well. The wall above the sinks was a fish tank that was about 6 feet long and 3 feet high. There was a great variety of fish in it and, it was amazing to watch them swimming around while you washed your hands. We stayed at the restaurant a little while and then went to a pub that Malte and Daniel usually go to. It was a cool place and the owner was a nice lady. The guys have known her for a while and this was the third bar that she has owned in Lingen. We left the town around midnight and made it back to Osnabruk by 1 30.