Today we had a big drive back to the airport, but we did have time to get in a few experiences along the way.Driving in Germany was pretty interesting because we were back on the right side of the road again, but the thing that through us for a loop was the round abouts going in the opposite direction. Well at least they were going the opposite for us since we've really only gone left around them. I had to get a picture of a righty one.
We also got a taste of the Autobahn. For the most part it seemed just like a regular three-laned interstate, but then all of a sudden something swished by. I looked down at Kevin's speedometer and he was going 80 mph and we just had some kind of car drive by us like we were standing still. Later on Kevin was trying to pass someone and then all of a sudden he whipped over back in the center lane and another car zipped by him. He said he didn't even see them coming until they were about ready to run into his rear end. He had read in one of the travel books that you aren't supposed stay in the fast lane very long if you are passing....they were right! I got some video but I can't find it right now to load it up....plus it was hard to catch people because they were going so darned fast. Also from the first day we got in Germany, Kevin kept asking me about this town called Ausfahrt that he kept seeing signs for. I said I hadn't heard of it and looked all over the map. Well, after seeing it for several, several miles we finally had it occur to us that the signs were at all the slip roads or off ramps. "Ausfahrt" means "Exit" in German...ha ha!
With this being a car driving trip we alternated between really nice sit down dinners and McD's/Burger King for quick in the car meals. Here is my cup of Sprite (real Sprite I tell you...with the good stuff like they use in the States, granted I've finally gotten used to the stuff in the UK after 2 years). I just think it's cool to see how to say "I'm love it" in German. That's the one cool thing about Germany. Eventhough you don't know how to read or speak or understand German, you really don't need to to get around. Everything is usually written in English as well and a lot of people speak English as well. I still feel really ignorant about not knowing the language, but I am going to force my kids to learn it all.
Our last place to visit in Germany was Darmstadt which is just south of Frankfurt. Well we didn't really get to visit as much as we just did a drive through. What makes this place so special to me is that it is the birth place of my dad's great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Christian Schafbuch. He is one of the first Schafbuch's in my lineage to immigrate to the United States. They started in New York and then moved on to Sumner Township in Iowa County settling on the farm that I first lived in when my parents moved from Wisconsin to Iowa. My hopes were to find other Schafbuch's living in the area. I did some searching online but had no luck so I thought we could find a telephone booth that might have a phone book in it but no luck with that either. After some confusion with our rental car and my miscalculation of how long it was going to take us to get to Darmstadt we didn't have any time to stop so I took lots of pictures and video from the car.
Darmstadt is a big modern city now. I'm not sure what it was like back in the 1800's when my great-great-great-great grandparents lived there, but amongst all the modern I saw this really old stone wall. Not sure what it is but I snapped a photo to fulfill my need to see something from the past.
I didn't find much of my roots in the city but I do have to say that the country side around it was beautiful farm ground. I can see why they picked the part of Iowa they did to settle in. Darmstadt the city seemed like a nice modern place to live today. It is an industrial city and is famed only by some of the art-deco architecture. Some day I may go back when I've been able to learn more.
With this being a car driving trip we alternated between really nice sit down dinners and McD's/Burger King for quick in the car meals. Here is my cup of Sprite (real Sprite I tell you...with the good stuff like they use in the States, granted I've finally gotten used to the stuff in the UK after 2 years). I just think it's cool to see how to say "I'm love it" in German. That's the one cool thing about Germany. Eventhough you don't know how to read or speak or understand German, you really don't need to to get around. Everything is usually written in English as well and a lot of people speak English as well. I still feel really ignorant about not knowing the language, but I am going to force my kids to learn it all.
Our last place to visit in Germany was Darmstadt which is just south of Frankfurt. Well we didn't really get to visit as much as we just did a drive through. What makes this place so special to me is that it is the birth place of my dad's great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Christian Schafbuch. He is one of the first Schafbuch's in my lineage to immigrate to the United States. They started in New York and then moved on to Sumner Township in Iowa County settling on the farm that I first lived in when my parents moved from Wisconsin to Iowa. My hopes were to find other Schafbuch's living in the area. I did some searching online but had no luck so I thought we could find a telephone booth that might have a phone book in it but no luck with that either. After some confusion with our rental car and my miscalculation of how long it was going to take us to get to Darmstadt we didn't have any time to stop so I took lots of pictures and video from the car. 
Darmstadt is a big modern city now. I'm not sure what it was like back in the 1800's when my great-great-great-great grandparents lived there, but amongst all the modern I saw this really old stone wall. Not sure what it is but I snapped a photo to fulfill my need to see something from the past.
I didn't find much of my roots in the city but I do have to say that the country side around it was beautiful farm ground. I can see why they picked the part of Iowa they did to settle in. Darmstadt the city seemed like a nice modern place to live today. It is an industrial city and is famed only by some of the art-deco architecture. Some day I may go back when I've been able to learn more.We finally got to the airport in fine "Jane" fashion the short cut through the country and on the opposite side of the airport so we got a great scenic tour of the Frankfurt airport.
The interesting thing about this airport was that you go all the way through to the gate areas before you go through security. They had a security point to cover four gates and there was absolutely nobody in the airport that day...it was really weird. As we sat to enjoy one last "real" Pepsi before heading through the pain of security, we noticed that there seemed to be chicken wire lining the top of the walkway. It struck us kind of weird until we got through and saw that it was keep people from throwing things into the waiting area.
Now I know that my kids are darn right adorable but it was crazy how everyone seemed to stare at them all the time. We do have a pretty unusually stroller so we get lots of looks and ahhs to see that there's actually a second little one underneath. But today took the cake...as we went through security one of the guards was a young woman and she offered to hold Harrison as I helped Kevin get stuff off the conveyor belt, but then she started to reach for something. She pulled out her camera phone and asked if she could take her picture with Harrison. I didn't really know how to react, but I let her take the picture. My poor kids are never going to be able to president or some high ranking official because people from all over the world keep taking their pictures.
Now I know that my kids are darn right adorable but it was crazy how everyone seemed to stare at them all the time. We do have a pretty unusually stroller so we get lots of looks and ahhs to see that there's actually a second little one underneath. But today took the cake...as we went through security one of the guards was a young woman and she offered to hold Harrison as I helped Kevin get stuff off the conveyor belt, but then she started to reach for something. She pulled out her camera phone and asked if she could take her picture with Harrison. I didn't really know how to react, but I let her take the picture. My poor kids are never going to be able to president or some high ranking official because people from all over the world keep taking their pictures. Anyway, we had a great trip in Germany and a great flight home. There was a huge traffic jam outside the off-airport parking place that we used so we asked Jane to find us another route. Well she took us through a very interesting part of London that in all honestly looked a lot like some of the interesting parts of Peterborough. We were sure glad to finally get home!
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