The date we’ve all been hoping for is nearly upon us. That’s right, we’re about to return home to the United States of America. If the plan stands as is, then we’ll be back home by July. With this great news in hand we quickly plotted out the places we still would like to visit and began scheduling. For this particular weekend we were picking Joanna up at the Frankfurt International Air Port on Sunday morning. So we decided to hit the special interests points near Frankfurt.

We departed Sembach AB early on Saturday and drove just over an hours to Heidelberg Germany. We drove this fairly large city from end to end looking for the Castles. Finally, we came upon an Army base where we got our directions from an MP at one of the gates to housing. Once we had a bearing it was only a few minutes to the castles. We parked in one of the Hotel parking garages and ate at their Greek restaurant. Afterwards we took the cable car to the top of the hill where the castle fortress stood. As you can see from the pictures it was a beautiful site.

At around five pm the rain rolled in and shops began closing for the day. So we took the cable car back down to the city at the basin. Here is where the pictures of the fountains and the gate were taken. We had intended to stay in one of the hotels there but all were booked full so we decided it was time to move on towards Frankfurt. On the Autobahn 5 we enjoyed views of several castles along the hillside, about one each mile. We also noticed these very large enclosed towers a few miles over. They appeared to span the countryside at a distance of about two miles apart. We believe they were twentieth century structures, possibly constructed during or post WWII.

Well, it only took about forty-five minutes to get to the major metropolitan of Frankfurt. We stopped at the town square and had hot tea in a very nice café there. After we finished our drinks we walked the square and about two miles of the surrounding area. Wet and tired we returned to our car and drove for what seamed like several hours around the city of Frankfurt looking at the sites and for a hotel. We finally found a room around ten thirty, enjoyed a good Thai meal next door and crashed for the night.

Early Sunday we rolled out and proceeded to the International Air Port where we picked up Joanna after a two-hour flight delay. Pretty common lately, it seams like since September almost all the flights we’ve heard of were either delayed, cancelled, or both. No biggie though, Jen and I just hung out at a coffee shop by gate E1 and overloaded on sugar and caffeine. Once Jo’s plane arrived we all loaded up and headed west for Sembach AB. Another short weekend, filled with long memories!