We received a call at 4am saying that our flight had been delayed. After a couple of hours re-working options with our helpful but clueless NW airlines rep from some office in India, we were re-routed on flights that arrived eight hours later than originally planned. I am glad that we left our phone number when we booked our flights so that we …

The kids slept fitfully on the red eye flight, but we all arrived safe this evening and drove to our friend Edith's house where we received a warm welcome. After some introductions and "Brotzeit", a light evening meal of bread, cheese, and deli meat, we all went to bed.

The kids were both jet lagged and woke up ready to go at 2am. They stayed awake until 7am and then crashed again until noon. It was a great lesson for us that kids sleep when they are tired and this makes it much harder for them to conquer jet lag as they want to sleep at odd hours. I'm glad we planned a few extra days!

In the afternoon, we …

Today we dropped my dad at the train station so that he could travel to north to Berlin. Then we headed to the Wildpark outside of Schweinfurt. This park is entirely funded by local community donations. It houses deer, elk, moose, wild boar, and various native birds in natural habitats. Among the more interesting exhibits are a completely albino …

Today we took a small car ferry across the Main River. We visited a Weinhaus that was designed by Hundertwasser. This 20th century architect created whimsical designs with bright colors and spiraling natural features. The winery had a fish pond to entertain the kids while we shopped for local Franconian wines. After the winery, we traveled to …

Rothenburg is a well-preserved medieval town with an intact town wall and many buildings dating from the 1200-1300s. Although it is touristy, it's also incredibly charming and you can't help but feel that the overpriced souvenirs and crowds of tourists are a small price to pay for its picture-perfect medieval feel. We visited Kathe Wolfhart's …

We spent a final morning with our friends Edith, Harald, Julian, and Enrico. I went shopping for Strumphosen (something in between long underwear and tights that are worn by children of both genders) for Matthew as the days were chilly and we were all catching colds. Then we returned to Edith's for one more traditional lunch of sausages …

Today we all headed to Bayreuth, the nearest small city to their home. We saw Wagner's impressive home and wandered through the nearby gardens that are now a city park. From here, we headed into town for some traditional hot chocolate and then through the pedestrian zone to see some of the cute shops. Most cities in Germany have …

After our illness from the previous night, we got a slow start today. We headed to Conrad and Helen's for the kids to play in the morning. That afternoon, we drove to the small village of Pottenstein and took a ride similar to a luge. We each boarded a car with a joystick braking system. The cars were large enough to put each of the kids in with …