Long Over Due!

  Hey everybody. I want to start off this by saying it is completely Andrea's fault that we have not posted anything for 2 MONTHS! Just kidding. It's been really busy around the house and to be honest, I haven't had my camera out all that much. That should change and we are gonna try to do better.

  The real reason I am posting is because I'm back in Germany again. I'm in one of the cities I've already been to this year, but it's still a nice place with plenty to see. Things have changed since the spring, even though it feels about the same as it did when I came in March. The high here yesterday was about 46°. One thing I've noticed here in Germany is that most towns have lots of gardens throughout and surrounding them. This town, Esslingen, is bordered on one side by a tall hill with an old guard wall on top. I took picture from that wall last time, looking down on the city. Then they were planting and working grape vines on the hill. Yesterday from the city, I took a pic with my phone of the hill. The grape vines are all green now and I was told they are loaded with grapes. We are going to try to walk up the hill one day this week and I'll try to take my real camera. Anyway, here is what it looks like from the city streets.
 

The hill in the background is covered top to bottom with grape vines

I also took pics last time of one of the open greens they had in the center of the city. Yesterday they had some kind of presentation going on. I'm not sure what they were talking about but you can see they had a decent turnout for a windy 45° day! It still amazes me that it can be windy -which it almost always is here- and cold, but you will see people out walking everywhere. Not just one or two either. I guess your body gets used to the cold, but it sure is a shock for us southern U.S. guys!

I'm not sure what it is growing on the sticks, but they had different types of flowers on them

On the way to dinner yesterday afternoon, we walked past this BMW and I just had to take a pic. This thing makes a Mini Cooper look huge! I would hate to drive this thing in the States. I could run over this is my truck and probably not even stop.

This is Rodney, my traveling partner this trip.

Check out my dinner last night. There was no way I could eat all of this, but I tried hard. I needed some leftovers for today anyway ;) Just to clarify, this is a personal pizza not one for the table to share. If you order pizza in Germany, each person gets their own pizza. The crust us super thin and it is baked in a hearth and they are REALLY good!

My guess is this pizza was at least 20" in diameter. It was wider than half the table!

 To Andrea and the kids, I love you and really miss you! I wish you could be here with me. I'm expecting a post with some pictures from you guys too! LOVE YA'LL!!!