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06.22.04
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Our flight here was great; it was delayed a short time in Frankfurt because the airport was crowded. We got a great upgrade on our rental van. We had reserved a small mini-van but we were able to upgrade to a nice large VW Multivan with lots of room and variables for seating and storage. We drove from Frankfurt to Neckarzimmern to our hotel in Castle Hornberg. This place is along the castle road in the Neckar Valley between Heilbronn and Heidelberg. The castle was built between 1200 and 1600 and was a knights castle. We are staying in a great 2 room unit with a bath. The view from the terrace is amazing. You can see a large swath of the Neckar river valley and barges going up and down the Neckar River. After a short nap we drove along the Neckar to Heidelberg. We picked Christa up from work at the Hotel Schmitt. We stopped at a small pub and had a beverage while we waited for her to get off work. We went to dinner at a small local pub called “Schwarzen Peter”. We had schnitzel and brats and vegetable raviolis, mmmm, tasty. After dinner we went back to Christa’s to visit for a short while and then back to the castle to get a good night sleep.

<TAYLOR>
The flight here was kinda cool but I wouldn’t want to fly a lot just because it took FOREVER. On the armrests were the controls for the in flight movies and TV along with this really cool channel that showed a map of our planned flight, our land speed, altitude, miles traveled, miles ahead, time at destination, estimated time left, outside temperature, and a bunch of other statistics as well. On the map it would show what we are flying over and it was really cool to see where we were and how much further we had to go. And the coolest thing was that on the radio on channel 9 we could listen to the radio traffic from air traffic control to our plane and from our plane to others and if the pilot was on the same channel as other planes you could hear them too. When we got to Germany we had to wait for maybe 10-15 minutes to get to the gate because there was only one way in and one way out and there were a couple of planes taxiing out when we got there. After we got of the plane we headed through the gates and got to the baggage check. The first thing my dad did was head to one of the smoking stands and lit one up like a jerk, but it was really funny. The best part was that everyone that got off and headed to baggage claim had to walk past the smoking stands haha. We left the terminal and went to where we could get our rental car and to my dismay right on the wall was a cigarette vending machine it was too funny. For 4 euro u could get a pack of smokes, the only deterrent was a sticker that said you had to be 16 years old to use the machine. We went to get our van but my dad had to go through the trouble of upgrading our van because the original one we had rented, a Volkswagen Touran, would have been very cramped with all of our luggage. The new car we got, the Multivan, is much bigger and it’s pretty nice. I wish we could have gotten something like an Audi A4 wagon or something like that but it’s fine.

After we figured out the best way to load our luggage we headed out of the parking garage towards der Autobahn. Where the exit of the garage left us we could only get to A3 and A5 North but we needed to go south on A5 to get to our castle. We ended up going North West on A3 then taking some smaller freeway and we eventual figured out how to get back to Frankfurt. To get to our hotel we had to take the A5 South ‘til we got to A6 East then we had to take a smaller highway north through some towns to get to Burg Hornberg. On our way up B27 through Heilbronn we saw an Audi factory and man it was huge. There was a field of Audi’s of all different models and colors along with a train loaded up with them. A bit further up the highways was an airplane museum with planes up on stands basically so they kinda looked like they were in flight, I hope we can go check out the factory and the museum if we have time. We drove right along the Neckar River and saw barges and things going up and down it. When we arrived at the town we had to take a small road up the hill to the castle and on the sides of the hills were grape vines and trees. The castle is amazing, its hard to describe it just because I know I would leave out a bunch. We brought al of out stuff fin and I took a quick nap.

When I woke up mom said it was time to go pick up Christa from work. We decided to just take B27 back to Heidelberg and we got kinda lost in the front streets, but we figured it out. When we finally found parking we were maybe 3-4 blocks away from Christa’s hotel where she works. We had to wait a couple of minutes before she was off so we stopped at a local pub and sat outside and had soda and beer. MEIN ERSTE DEUTSCHEBIER!!! It was good which I guess unless you go somewhere strange all German beer is good. After we finished we walked over to the Hotel Schmitt where Christa works and she was already walking down the street towards us. We all gave here a hug and said hi. We decided instead of driving somewhere else we would eat food at a local place. When we got there it was pretty busy because there was a soccer game on, Sweden vs. Denmark. Go Sweden! I had Bratkartoffelen mit Bratwurst, which is fried potatoes and sausage, and a beer to drink. Dinner was good and everyone enjoyed it even though Gabe was still a little bit out of it. After diner we all loaded into the van and we headed to Christa’s apartment in Rohrbach a small area a bit outside of the main part of Heidelberg. On the way there we stopped at a gas station and Christa bought a couple of litres of Coca Cola for us to drink. Christa brought me and mom a beer each and Gabe dad and Morg had cola. We sat around talking and laughing for a little while and then after maybe half an hour decided it was time to call it a night. We all packed in and said gute nacht to Christa and headed back to the castle. I was tired and kept falling in and out of sleep on the way back. When we finally got here I went straight to my bed and crashed. I had been awake for way too long.

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