Author: Kendal

We arrived at the Düsseldorf airport at 7:00am (Germany time), which is 1:00am (eastern time). We were welcomed with open arms by a fabulous host family; they then drove us to their house in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The place they live in is amazing! They have the whole backyard to play and frolic in. They were so nice they gave us a traditional German breakfast; filled with different meats, butters, cheeses, and breads. It was like a firework in my mouth. 🙂 The kids then took off to play some one-v-one futbol (soccer) in the backyard.  After we had our warm up we went for about a 2-1/2 hour “walk/hike” throughout their “park/forest”. The adults took the regular plain and boring paths, while the kids took the more dangerous, life-threatening paths (that helped them not complain ;)). It was so cool we climbed this huge hill called “stairway to heaven” and saw some actual World War II bunkers still standing in the forest. Once back to their house the kids were tired and cranky so they retired to their room to play on their computers, while the adults went to get train tickets for Cologne and Berlin; the next couple stops in our Germany adventure. We are trying not to sleep to adjust to the time change but it’s getting very hard.

Traditional German Breakfast

Awesome Hike

Just Don't Look Down