On Saturday, we visited with Sean's aunt and uncle in their wild and colorful garden of flowers.
William played with Ricardo, son of Hilda, the entire time! (Thanks, Ricardo! Hoe bevalt het nieuwe school?)
Peter en Cinty. 
The next day, we stopped at this beach along an inlet of the Maas river to have a little picnic. I highly recommend the beach, it was lovely. I do not, however, recommend a picnic in the sand with children of the above age groups ( see above photograph). They didn't eat much and their fruit got all sandy...but they had a lot of fun playing in the sand!
After our big day in Koeln, we travelled North to overnight in a much smaller town called Neuss. In Neuss, we found some very beautiful and calm city parks. We feed the ducks bread and watched them as they swam sweetly to us from across the pond. We stopped feeding the ducks when they got out of the water and started flocking over the bridge toward us in one big moving swarm of hungry "buck-bucks" right out of a Hitchcock movie. Help! Nature!
...There's only so much the auto focus function can do to help!
After the afternoon chocolate experience, we wanted to properly acknowledge the goodness and greatness of the Lord. A visit to the mighty Cologne Cathedral was just what we needed!
I think this is now my favorite museum ever. You wouldn't believe how much we learned about chocolate! Plus, there were free samples and a very very big gift shop dedicated to only one purpose.
Look at the machines! See the chocolates coming along the conveyor belt after they come out of the molds? Who eats the defective ones?
It's not just Curious George who goes to the Chocolate Factory!
We arrived in Koeln in our usual state, hungry. How lucky that we soon found ourselves sitting along the swollen Rhein river with this beautiful backdrop of old fishing houses...
eating matjes (herring) fillets...
... and tasting our first Koelsch beer ever. The Koelsch was a light and slightly sweet bubbly cold pils, a delightful accompaniment to an afternoon of travelling with young children.
Here we are, after the meal. William still looks backwards through his binoculars. He always sees dinosaurs or wolves that the adults just miss.
Margaret sees the dinosaurs.
As we drove north in Germany, we saw more and more wind turbines creating energy in a sustainable way! Their modern forms rose majestically from the fields and forests, each turn a new direction for our planet.
The first stop on our week-long tour of the Rhein valley and Holland was the Heidelberg Castle.
From the castle gardens, there is a beautiful view of the Neckar river.
We spent a lot of time playing in the beautiful gardens. Some of us had a lot of pent up energy to release after having spent a few hours in the car. 
With children, you are always stopping to smell the flowers ( whether you want to or not!!). These ones smelled pretty good.
Sometimes I am so preoccupied with handing out snacks and drinks to the small demanding people in the family that I forget to take pictures that include Sean! I am grateful that Sean is such a good photographer, and I resolve to take more pictures of him...next time.
Today we took our fussy children to an animal park near Konstanz.
They liked feeding the deer clover.
Look at this guy!
When William got tired of walking, Margaret pushed him for a while.
We saw bears!
And even went on a pony ride! I love rides that grown-ups get to go on too!
This was William's pitiful face as he waited for the Wiener Schnitzel to be ready the other night. Sometimes 5 minutes can seem like forever, especially when you're four.
This evening, Nadia taught me how to make Wiener Schnitzel!
We fried 'em up...
until they were done. 
Today I learned how to make Kaesespaetzle. I'll add the recipe later, but this is what it looked like. You feed the batter through a cheese-grater-deely into boiling salt water...
...and wait a few minutes until it looks like this.
Then, you add the grated Emmentaler cheese and carmalized onions with salt, pepper, and bullion.
On our way to Austria, William got a very special treat: he got to go to a McDonald's! I don't think we had been to one in a year and a half! The playground was fun, and the food was the same as always. Felt like America!
William had been asleep in the car, so I carried him up the first part of the mountain until he was more awake.
William walked up the hard parts of the mountain all by himself!
Oma, on a hike from Ludescherberg to Raggal and back with me!
So pretty!
