The kids went back to school on Monday this week. Ryan is starting 10th grade, Brooklyn is starting 12th grade, and Matt is starting 35th grade đ. I canât believe itâs Brooklyn’s senior year already; it seems like she was just starting kindergarten!
Friday, the school held âSenior was Sunriseâ to celebrate the start of the year for the seniors. Brooklynâs on the Class Council again this year, so she left around 5 a.m. to set up and attend the event. They had a huge turnout, and everyone had so much fun!
That night, Matt and I went out to dinner with some friends and stayed out too late as usual.
Matt and I went to the Wimsener Höhle Caves in the Swabian Alb on Saturday morning. It’s basically a turquoise lake inside a mountain, which you can visit via a small guided paddle boat. Some friends had gone last year and raved about how awesome it was, so I promptly put it on my list of places to visit.
I originally planned to take the whole family, but the kids really wanted to sleep in. Matt humored me, though, and we made the one-hour drive to the caves.
I had booked one ticket in advance, as I didnât know if Matt would come with me or not. I figured we would just grab another ticket at the gate if he could come. I did not expect a huge, long line when we arrived, and all the tickets being sold out for the next week. All this for a 15-minute boat ride; I really could not believe it! Matt had a coffee while he waited for me to take the short boat ride. I ended up being on the first boat of the day, and while the caves were pretty and the water was blue-green, Iâm not sure it was worth the one-hour drive. I canât believe so many people come to see these caves, and Iâm glad I didnât drag the kids out here! It would be one thing if you were going to spend the day hiking or doing other activities in the area, but it was not worth it just for the caves. It was a nice drive, though, and Matt and I got to drink our coffee together, so I considered it a good morning!
On the way home, Matt and I stopped at the BMW dealership and finally picked up the car after it finally had the gas tank door fixed! In the end, even the dealership could not open it and had to rip it off and replace it. It took five days to get the car back! Then, we went home for a nap.
Saturday night, we joined some friends for a karaoke party. We used to do karaoke all the time when we lived in Maryland, but we havenât done it since we moved to Germany. It was so fun getting back into it, and we had some awesome food to top it off!
Sunday, we had another day trip planned. Iâve wanted to do a Frankfurt bike tour for years, and we finally found a day we could all go. Unfortunately, Ryan had to stay behind at the last minute to work at a bake sale for Boy Scouts. But, Brooklyn invited a friend, and they and Matt accompanied me to Frankfurt.
We took a three-hour bike ride through the city and had so much fun! We biked through the old town, the new financial district, and the opera quarter. The guide stopped us at many great places to take pictures and tell us Frankfurt’s history, which was established as a fort for Charlemagne in the 800s.
The weather was also a perfect sunny and 70° day- perfect for biking, and our guide was so funny; we laughed the whole three hours after the bike tour. At the end, he told us how funny WE were and said he couldnât believe how much he had laughed (the Germans are normally very reserved).
After the bike tour, we stopped at Chipotle for lunch and then Five Guys for milkshakes. It was great being able to get American fast food!
We all loved Frankfurt so much! It was really surprising because it doesnât have a great reputation. But it seems like a beautiful, modern city with lots of things going on- at least the downtown area seems that way. There seems like there would be even more to do so Iâd love to come back another time.
When we were done with all our stops, Matt drove us back home- Iâm not sure how he was able to drive 5 hours round trip in one day; the rest of us had to sleep on the way home. We ended the day in our favorite place- on the couch watching TV!
Gilcrests Abroad 