The day we thought would never come, came...

Sadly, we had to pack our bags, take one more walk around the town of Buhl and head north via van (Autobahn) to Frankfurt.





Our first impression of Frankfurt was "are we still in Germany"? After our month in Buhl, where it really seemed to be the stereotypical German-type place, Frankfurt was loaded with people from all sorts of different backgrounds - african, middle-eastern, asian, etc.

Frankfurt was hit hard in World War II so as a result, there are not very many old historical type buildings. Instead, there are loads of skyscrapers and a lot of buildings looking like they belong to the 1970's. It is a financial centre in Europe evident by the huge "Euro" statue in the middle of town.



Aside from that, it is situated on The Main river. The river splits the city in half and it's an easy walk over the bridge.

And, speaking of walk, that is what we did for the last two days of our trip. We had beautiful, crisp late summer weather - perfect for walking. Again, our trusty little GPS led us to some really neat areas of town and, I don't know what David has done to that poor little thing, but it now seems to stop at all wine festivals (yes, there was another one in this town), all sausage places, all rib places and all coffee shops!







We lucked out and had a great central hotel, with a pool that Adam and Sylvie, of course had to test out. It was so nice that we didn't want to leave - just added more salt to the wound!



But, leave we did.



So, now here we are. Back to reality. Our thanks to all those who have followed us along - we've appreciated hearing from you. And, a big thanks to those here (you know who you are) who kept our homefires burning - in a good way.

We had a great trip and are thankful for all the experiences we had, enjoyed all the folks that we met, the lessons we learned and basically, in a nutshell, the good karma that came our way.

Until the next journey (in the early stages of planning now)...

David, Maureen, Adam and Sylvie are officially now "off the road"... for now.

Rounding the corner...

We headed out on a road trip to see the town of Triberg - known as the cuckoo clock capital of Germany. Along the way, we stumbled upon a lot of other sights and um, er, food that we enjoyed equally as much, if not more.














On another day, we took a drive east to check out some of the towns there. First stop was the Porsche Museum, Adam's pick. Made it there for the opening bell and I was a bit skeptical going to a car museum but it was very well done. We rented some audio guides - they even had a kids version which kept Adam and Sylvie amused for almost the whole visit. They even recited some interesting information that wasn't on the adult version. Sylvie has informed me that she will be getting a Porsche when she is older. Hope so because that's the only way I'll get a ride in one!









The Porsche Museum is located on the outskirts of Stuttgart. By the time we were finished at the museum, you guessed it, it was lunchtime. We headed into town and couldn't believe our luck when we stumbled upon a wine festival going on with rafts and rafts of German food being served - sausages, sauerkraut, spatzle, schnitzel, etc.










On the way back from Stuttgart, we drove through yet another beautiful town. This was called Tubingen. It, like Stuttgart, is a big university town but doesn't have the industry and is much smaller.







So, that brings us to our last day here in Buhl. We have loved it here and we will miss everything - the markets, the scenery, the bakeries - even the church bells that chime every 15 minutes - day and night!


Adam's 2 cents -

It's our last two days in Buhl. Then we head to Frankfurt. Then we arrive back home! Then it’s back to school ☹. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.

We went to a Porsche Museum. It was so cool. We got to see how Porsche started out, how it won all of its races, how the cars evolved over time to some of the fastest cars ever. Joe would love it there. There are so many cars.

I love it in Buhl but it will be nice to be home.


Sylvie -

Hi everyone. We are soon leaving. We did some geocaches. We had 5 to find but we only found 2. We also went to a Porsche Museum. It was so cool. There were race cars and normal cars. I liked it there because you would think that cars would be boring, but they are not. Joey would have loved it. We spent 2 1/2 hours in there.

I will miss feeding the cat Gipsy. He is a boy and he scratched Adam. It was so funny.



OK. See ya.

EXTREMEly fun days!

We've had some really hot weather while we've been here so to find some relief, we've had to source out some swimming pools (in addition to the lake we rode our bikes to). We ran into a lovely couple from Vancouver who sent us off to a pool called "Montana" on the backside of the Black Forest to where we are staying. So, off we went. It was packed there but in a beautiful setting - the diving pool was almost like an infinity pool - going off the edge of the cliff.




We noticed a big difference in the level of supervision at the pools by lifeguards. Basically, there aren't any. Once in a while you see someone who looks official walking around but we were never quite sure what they were doing. Consequently, the slide would become a little chaotic with kids going down upon kids and once you dove off the diving board, you better swim for your life before the next kid jumped off or you would have been wearing him/her on your back! As for running on the pool deck, well, go for it! Nonetheless, Adam and Sylvie's diving has improved and they didn't wear each other on their backs!




But, on a not so hot day, in fact, it had been rather cool, we took off on our bikes later in the afternoon just to get out of the house and stumbled upon the local pool here in Buhl. To our delight, it was open and there was not a soul there. We raced back home, got our suits and within 30 minutes we were swimming, sliding, diving and soaking in the hot tub all alone. It was great! Once in a lifetime. This pool, by the way, is not just one pool. There are multiple pools there. It's really quite the place. People often come and spend the day there - there are grassy areas to lie around on with trees for shade to boot!







On a day we were just driving around exploring the area, we stumbled upon something called "Parcour". This particular place was situated at a local ski hill. Since we discovered this particular place, we've noticed that there are quite a few of them in Germany and they are quite popular. Basically, it is a high off-the-ground obstacle course. If you ask me, something like a cross between "Fear Factor" and "Wipe out". You have to strap yourself on with safety gear, walk on the highline like a tightrope, zip line from A to B, walk on ropes, swing like Tarzan, you name it. The gang was sold so off we went.














Sylvie had to be rescued from this zipline. She came in, hit the landing platform at full speed, bounced off and settled back in the middle of the line. She hung there for a good 5 minutes or so while we tried to figure out what we had to do. All the while, she enjoyed the relaxation until the staff realized that she wasn't going to go anyplace in a hurry and eventually a lady went in to retrieve her off the line and tow her back into the platform.



All in all, it was a great day.


Adam here -

Hey everyone. Still in Buhl. But, I could still stay to eat more schnitzel. We went to this Parcour and it was pretty dang high. Me, dad and Sylvie had not too much trouble, but Mom, on the other hand, had quite a bit of trouble. But it was so much fun anyway. Then we did swimming. We had the whole pool to ourselves and the lap pool was the size of Griffin alone. There were four outdoor pools, three water slides and two indoor pools.

Sylvie -

We had so much fun the last few days. We went swimming in this awesome pool in Buhl and there is 1 water slide, 2 small kids slides, 4 diving boards. Everyone would like it there. We went to an obstacle course as Mom likes to say - Parcour. It's like a really high and hard playground with levels.

David's bit -

Those were some really fun days. The swimming pool in Buhl is First Class (best I’ve ever seen). The day we had the pools to ourselves the pool staff made sure we were taken care of by turning the big water slide on and keeping the jets going in the giant hot pool. On the other occasions when the pool was busy, I found the lack of supervision very refreshing (the beer and food served poolside didn’t hurt either). Everyone had a good, safe time without their every move being scrutinized.

That also applied to the obstacle course. They told us what was expected of us (always have at least one carabiner tied in), showed us how to use the gear and that was the last we saw of them until Sylvie needed help. This type of business would probably go over big at home but I am sure liability issues and regulations have already killed anyone’s attempt.



Apologies for the cuss word in this video. No need to explain. The video says it all.