Executive Summary

Our trip lasted two weeks. We basically visited five different households for at least one night.

We arrived in Munich on Saturday and stayed with a German family in southern Bavaria until Wednesday afternoon. This family had lived in Auburn two different times. They have two boys who are almost the same age as our boys. We knew them very well from their time in Auburn, so it was a very good visit - especially for the kids since they had some familiar friends as soon as we arrived. In this area, we got to see how our friends live. We met their extended family and they showed us around the area. They don't live far from Neuschwanstein - the most famous castle in Germany, so we made a trip to see it. They also introduced us to sledding.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was staying with German people, getting to know them, seeing their houses and their customs. They cooked authentic, regional meals for us. I got to practice my German a lot! I didn't feel like a tourist, but a guest.

We took the train from south Bavaria (Schongau) to north Bavaria (Kitzingen). We were met by Mary and Charley Schleyer. They are the parents of our friend Marc, who was a visiting professor in the Industrial Engineering Department for one year until this January. Mary and Charley had visited Auburn in 2008. They came to our house for dinner. Mary came back in the Fall with Marc's sister, Gabi. We got to see Gabi and her husband - Marcus. Mary showed us around Wuertzburg and Kitzingen. They also cooked for us and treated very well. It was another great adventure.

Marc arrived on Friday night. We went out for a big dinner and then on Saturday, he took us back to Munich for the weekend. We had a nice weekend kicking around Munich and then on Sunday night took the train to Stuttgart.

In Stuttgart, Alex Bruder met us in the train station. He had also been in Auburn for one year - 2007. We spent a lot of time with Alex. He went with us to Asheville, New Orleans and Lake Martin. He was a guest at our house several times while he lived in Auburn. We stayed in his apartment with his girlfriend, Ramona (who we also met while she was visiting Alex in Auburn). Alex took us out to the Black Forest to meet his parents for one night. There was more snow in the Black Forest and some incredible food!

We flew home from Stuttgart on Saturday.