Mainau Island

Mainau Island on the Bodensee/Lake Konstance is a botanical pleasure. The Island also host conferences for UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

A ferrie ride to the island, a visit to the Palace, Palace Church, Gardens and Butterfly House were a delight, even in the rain! Tammy enjoyed this trip while visiting one of her friends.

Camp Hill - Lehenhod

CampHill Lehenhod is one of many intentional communities created to meet the needs of individuals with special needs/abilities. A friend drove me to the top of a mountain in the Southern part of Baden Wurttenberg to take a peek at this special community. It was mid-afternoon and it appeared to be "nap time" as almost no one, except the cows and their milk-maid seemed to be out. The websites above will share more photos, if you'd like!

The road is blocked off with ropes while the cows "stroll" from the grassy meadow back to the barn, with it's impressive pile of "black gold". Demeter sign above the door way....bio dynamics is here!

The Bakery, the Main Building for special events, looking over the tops of the greenhouses with a view of the Alps and Lake Konstanz.

Sunday with Andreas and Family

A few weeks ago ,Andreas (Tammy met Andreas in the English class she visited) offered to drive our family on a tour of the Reutlingen area. He took us to the lovely and intimate Lichtenstein Castle . Andreas recently performed was one of the non speaking actors in a new movie about one of our favorite Fairy Tails "Thorn Rosa." The movie has not yet been released, and we hope it is before we depart, so we can watch it!

Then we visited the Mist Caves in the area and had lunch in the forest above the cave. We then met Andreas' wife and two daughters in town and walked along visiting a small Renaissance Fair, a mini-zoo, a very old mill wheel, and the town's history museum. Rain came and we headed back to their house instead of the beer garden we had planned to visit in. Here are a few photos from the castle...

homeschool friends

"Make new friends and keep the old...."

Last summer we followed our Ohio homeschool friend's blog as they lived in Stuttgart for the summer. They are in Stuttgart again and we were able to visit twice. A few weeks ago, they visited us in Tuebingen...where we spent the afternoon in the New Botanical Gardens. Then last week, I visited them in Stuttgart, where I enjoyed the International Market and several churches that were rebuilt after the war. Here are a few of my favorite photos from our first visit.