Eifel Area

Monday was a long day of travel, after two hours of sleep we caught planes, trains and automobiles to Eschweiller, where Jasmin's parents live (the high speed train hit 290kmhr). It was great actually living the German life the last couple days. There were some language issues as Joseph speaks no English, Tanja speaks a little and Helga does speak some. Our first 3 hours were spent with just Joseph and Tanja, it was like charades. Turns out, eating is different here. Breakfast is bread and cheese and meat. Dinner is in the midday and a small lunch of bread and cheese and meat is had at around 7pm. But it has been really great staying here.

Tues we took a trip to Aachen, the western most German city. It was amazing, the old town is...well really old. The town hall and the Dom (catherdral) which are still in use were built in the 700's during Charlamagne reign who made Aachen his empire's center. All King's were crowned in Aachen for 600 years after that. It has been important ever since the roman times, where the romans made it a spa due to it's thermal hot springs (smell like sulphur, taste like rotten eggs).

Today (Wednesday) we went visiting castle's and small towns. The first was Munschau. Talk about stepping back in time 200 years. We were just giddy walking through there, the only way to describe the feeling is an 8yr old on Christmas day. Words cannot explain how beautiful Munschau was. In the bottom of a deep valley, along a raging river Run was a picturesque town of old style houses from the days when Munschau was a thriving textile industry village. On the top of the hill was a beautiful old castle. You'll just have to wait to see pictures to say any more.

We then visited another castle in Nidiggen. Another huge castle that has slowly been restored after 100's of years of neglect. It is still not quite up to it's previous glory but was still amazing.

This is our last night here with family Hanh. Tomorrow we head for a trip down the Rhine river before heading to Munich.

Until then

Logan, Cory and Damien