Hello From Germany!

This post comes to you from the lobby of the Holiday Inn in partly-sunny Singen am Hohentwiel, Germany. We arrived safe and sound a few days ago and are visiting Agnes's parents (you may remember that her father celebrated his 90th birthday on the 1st). I'll be regaling you with all the stories (and there are many) later, but for now I thought I'd send a few pictures to whet your appetites...

We found this nice place for a retirement home - Hohenzollern Castle. Unfortunately, the current owners don't want to sell...

Agnes's cousin Anna took us to visit the castle while we were visiting her in Reutlingen, so I had the chance to spend the day in the company of two beautiful ladies...

On reaching Singen, we all went out to dinner to celebrate Papa's 90th birthday. Here are he and Mama, with Agnes's niece Lea. She was sitting directly across from our Leya, and there were some confusing moments with names...


Singen is a very beautiful city, even though it's mainly industrial. It's name of Singen am Hohentwiel comes from the name of the ruined castle on a large volcanic plug that overlooks the city. This is what the Hohentwiel looks like from Mama and Papa's balcony...

And this is what it looks like from elsewhere in the city...

Singen also has a beautiful city garden and park with a large population of ducks that sit around waiting for bored two-year-olds to feed them...


Here are two other views of the city park...hard to believe this lies in the middle of an industrial city...

Well, that has to be all for now. It's almost 10:00 PM here, which means it is about 4:00 PM in Washington. I'm over the jet lag, but keeping up with Leya is pretty exhausting, too.

For those of you wondering (Mike) where your postcards are, they were mailed from the post office here in Singen earlier today. I'll probably be home before you get them, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Have a good day. More thoughts when I can stay awake long enough to write a decent post.

Bilbo