On Thursday we visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum, followed by some family time. Friday we said goodbye to our partners and families and headed to Munich. We went to see the Englischer Garten and had dinner there. Then we had a bit of a tour of the old part of the city; Dave lead the tour and added a lot of historical facts.
This morning began with the a trip to Dachau to see the Concentration Camp Memorial site – a pretty intense morning for the students! Then we visited the Olympic Center, where we had lunch at ‘Tollwood’ a big summer market. We caught the Glockenspiel at the town hall in Marienplatz and the had a relaxing evening – everyone is exhausted!

Monday we spent the day at Heidelberg - walked up to see the castle and then acted as tourists in the beautiful city center.

On Tuesday we went to the city of Tübingen. Among other things that we did there, we got to take a Stocherkahn (gondola-but for a whole group) ride on the Neckar River. There was an opportunity for members of the group to 'drive' the boats - you may recogniye some of the drivers in the pictures!

Wednesday the group went to the Wilhelma - Stuttgart's famous and awesome zoo! There is one picture of some of the students looking at the penguins. Wednesday evening was the farewell dinner - the families put on a huge spread for us. Our students sang a group rendition of Buttercup and George performed a rap about the trip with beats by Will, Robert and Rak. The German students had shirts made for both groups with an exchange logo on the back - you can sort of see them in the group picture.

Today, Thursday we are going to the Daimler Museum and then tomorrow we leave Stuttgart and head to Munich!

Wednesday was the trip to the Ludwigsburg. We had a fantastic tourguide - she was completely in character and very entertaining - we learned all sorts of history as part of the tour. The first picture is from the balcony looking at the far side of the castle / palace. The second is the two newly hired guards for the king's quarters!

Thursday was a full day at school with some of the students giving presentations and then actually a free afternoon for them!

The first pics are of the last day in Koblenz. First the whole group at the Deutsches Eck, where the Mosel and Rhein rivers meet. The second is the group with the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in the background. The thirsd is the statue of King Ludwig at the Deutsches Eck - do you recognize any of the people on the upper level? Then there are two pics from the open air viewing of the quarter finals soccer game when Germany beat Portugal 3-2 (second pic is after the first goal). Then a picture from the school on Friday as the German students greeted us when we arrived. Lastly a picture from the volleyball tournament at the "Sports Day" at school today (Monday). We entered two USA teams in a field of 20 teams. The teams came in 13th and 2nd but more importantly, I think everyone had a great time!

Wednesday, June 18

We started off early from the hotel in Koblenz (second picture). We walked along the Rhine River to the boat site, where we boarded and rode along the Rhine to Braubach. There we visited the old castle / fortress of Marksburg (first picture at the top of the hill!).

We had a couple of hours in Braubach to get some food and look around

before we got back on the boat to head downstream back to Koblenz. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so the boat ride was very relaxing!