Lauren’s parents are amazing hosts. They’ve really made us feel at home. This comes at a good time because as Gary and I were looking at the next leg or our journey, Prauge we noticed that our rail pass doesn’t take us there. Plus we didn’t have anywhere to stay. We decided to stay an extra day.

We went shopping with Lauren and Patrick. I’d been trying to find a cool jacket my whole trip and I told myself that if I didn’t find exactly what I wanted I would settle in Germany because it was likely to get cold soon. Not to mention that I lost my hoodie in Madrid. So, we went shopping.

A quick survey of H&M and C&A revealed a strange problem. There were too many jackets I wanted but they were all really cheap….so I just bought four jackets really cheap instead of one expensive one..

After stopping at the Commissary we went to the Castle, explored and took pictures.

More friends acquired we went back to Lauren’s and her Mom made us another delicious meal before hitting the sack.

Where to next:
Originally I thought about putting a poll up on the blog to see where we should go. And then I realized how stupid that would be. I don’t want you people deciding where I go.

We’re thinking we’ll head south to Switzerland and Italy. Some of the kids we’ve met here have talked about going with us.

We arrived in Germany without incident and Lauren and Patrick picked us up from the train station. We went to the YSA family home evening there and met a lot of people.

Apparently Hidelberg is the site of one of the USA’s largest military bases. The base is spread around everywhere and is technically US soil. They even take the US dollar in their American grocery stores. Because of all this the local singles were a mix of german and american many bi-lingual.

After we played chess, cards, basketball and hackie sack the activity was over and we went to the Hildelgenberg. It’s this giant amphitheater where Hitler spoke and is right next to a monastery in the mountains.

Driving up there we encountered dense fog and Patrick took a wrong turn sending the car through the air before he could regain control and flip a u-turn. Once arrived we hiked up the amphitheater and explored the Monastary. I apologize that the pictures aren’t better quality. It was dark, rainy and there was fog everywhere.

We also stopped on the way down and saw a crazy big well. Some of the kids there were saying that the Nazis through Jews down there but I don’t believe them. Feel free to correct me.