Now the part of the trip begins when we visit the "living" relatives. We left Ingolstadt and arrived in Frankfurt 3 1/2 hours later, just in time for dinner at the home of Liesel and Gerda, cousins of Dad. Elizabeth was already there, having flown into Frankfurt earlier in the morning. We had a very nice visit which also included the traditional Kaffee und Kuchen at 4:00. We were joined in this by their nephew Juergen and also Liesel's son, Peter. Elizabeth was p...

First thing this morning we went back to the Petruskirche. It was locked, so it's a good thing we got to see the inside last night. We went to the cemetery again and talked to a fellow there who confirmed that there weren't any really old (pre 1800) gravestones. There was one very old one however, very close to the church, with the name Weidle, which appears in our family tree. When we went to the Stadt Museum, we were disappointed that it was closed, however J...

This morning we said goodbye to our wives at the Montpellier airport, which is about an hour drive from Avignon. Little did we know that we would see each other again sooner than expected! About half way into our drive north to Strasbourg, I received a text from Sherry saying they had missed their connecting flight in Paris and would be spending the night at an airport hotel there. After confirming that they had two rooms, Jim and I reset the GPS for Paris, thin...

Today we visited the Pont du Gard, the 2000 year old aqueduct built by the Romans. It was an incredible feat of engineering. I remember learning about it in my architectural history class way back. It's roughly equivalent in height and length to the high level bridge, built entirely of stone without any mortar. Seeing it up close was a great experience -- definitely a highlight of the trip so far. Next on the agenda was Arles, where we planned to have lunch, b...

We spent the day today in Avignon, which has some incredibly well preserved structures dating from the middle ages. First was the Pont St-Benezet, the bridge of the famous song. It was built in the 12th century, but largely destroyed by floods in later centuries. You can walk on the part that still goes part way across the Rhone river (see pic) which we did. Next was the Palais des Papes (Pope's Palace) where several Popes resided in the 1300s. I didn't know that...