After a sleep in today, we got up and got ready before Nina came over to pick us up. We got in her car and went for a drive together to Nina and Pancho's hometown, Lüdenschein. On the way into town we stopped at Pancho's work to go in and surprise him! Pancho works at a company that provides work for handicapped and disabled people, as a carpenter and supervisor. His team were on their lunch break when we went in, so we got to say hi to everyone! Pancho was so surprised and happy to see us!! We didn't stay for very long, but had a quick chat with a few people on the team, including one guy, Timo, who came up to give Darren a hug, and tried to talk to us about Australia, and listened to what we were saying, even though he couldn't speak or understand any English! So funny but awesome. It seems like he has a really nice group of people to work with. After we said goodbye to everyone there, we headed down one level and went to another room to pick up Nina's brother, Raphael, who has Down syndrome, and was working in another section of the company. He was excited to see Nina but seemed a bit unsure of us as we walked back to the car! Nina had to stop off at the doctors for him quickly and we stayed in the car with Raph while she ran in. Darren went to get in the front seat to talk with him, but as it was a two door car, he had to fold down the front seat to get out. As he was doing that, Raph kept pushing it back to keep him in the back! So Darren made it a game and Raph was laughing every time he pushed the seat back! So funny! Eventually Darren got in the front then we made some music with Raph, by clapping, clicking and slapping our knees. It was a bit of fun and I think it helped him to relax a bit with us. He had such good rhythm too! It was funny because he kept tapping his head, which is the symbol for when you call someone stupid. He thought we were so dumb because we couldn't speak German! When Nina came back, we drove out to her parents place and went in to meet them. We sat outside in the sun at the table and her mum served us up some apple pancakes with jam, and some fried Mexican style finger food too which were so yummy! When we were done there, we got back in the car with Raph and Nina drove us up to a forest where we parked the car (after some difficulty with the hand brake) and went for a nice walk through the trees. It was nice to see Nina and Raph playing around like brothers and sisters do, and Raph showed off some of his new skills he'd gotten from his exercise classes by walking over these large pieces of wood set out in rows, kind of like a train track. Apparently last time they were there together he couldn't do that! We got up to the top of a hill where the forest turned to paddocks and sat on a bench there while we waited for Pancho who was coming to meet us. When he got there, Raph was excited to see him and we all had a bit of a chat and took some photos. At one stage a lady came up on her bike and started having a chat with us. She looked about 60-65, but she told us she was 75!! She was so fit too, riding her bike (although it had a motor!) all over the hills! She invited us to her house for coffee if we were ever in the area too, she was such a sweetie! As we were leaving she said she'd always wanted a kiss from an Australian man, so Darren gave her a kiss on the cheek!! So funny! We said goodbye, then walked down a track past some cows and their calves in the paddock (maybe they were more like oxen, they had huge horns!) then walked back through the forest. Nina had a quick look for mushrooms but all the ones we found were poisonous ones, so we didn't get any! There was one tree that had heaps of mushrooms growing up its trunk which looked cool. We made it back to the car, said goodbye to Raph, as Nina was taking him home, then drove with Pancho into the Lüdenschein city centre. We had a beer and some dinner in Das Brauhaus, which is a beer hall type of restaurant, who brew their own beer. After a while Nina and Raph came to meet us. Apparently Raph had been so upset that we (especially Darren) had left that he wouldn't be left behind, and wanted to come hang out with us! So we all had a chat and a few drinks then after a while Nina went to try take Raph home again, as her parents were out the front to pick him up! He didn't want to go with Nina and wouldn't get out of the chair until Darren took his hand and went out with them. He had to trick him into thinking he was coming with him! So once Raph had gone, and it was starting to get dark, we went out for a walk around the town, as they had a light exhibition kind of thing set up in different parts of town! So we walked around to find some of the installations. The first one we saw was a projected image onto a big building, which looked pretty cool. We walked around through the old town centre which was very pretty, and saw a few more installations, including one that may have been playing up, because we could see the computer screen projected while they were doing something, before it turned off! Funny. We saw a pretty one done with green lasers and smoke machines, then we went into a little cafe for a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up a bit! It was so cold! We walked down by the train station where a building had a very colorful projected image which kept changing every few minutes, then went down into a warehouse type of place where the installation was more arty. They had big circles of what might have been aluminium foil and light which reflected off them as well as creating shadows behind them, creating almost solar eclipse effects on the wall, while a slide guitar player sat in the corner playing some atmospheric music to a loop track. We walked down the road a bit further to a real creepy looking abandoned barn type place, where you walked through lights that were reflecting onto little pieces of moving materials, which gave the impression of little flying bugs or something, while massive circles swirled hypnotically on the walls. As we walked around the other side in a different room, the lights were projected onto little pieces of various materials, creating big images of them on the walls. As we walked out of this one, we ran into Nina's family again, and Raph was so happy to see us! He quickly grabbed onto Pancho's hand and we all walked down the street together. The next installation we came to was one that Nina's dad had helped install, so they'd already seen it and took the opportunity for us to slip away without Raph noticing. This one was really cool, it had string type things which light was projected onto, and somehow it would sense when people walked past and the strings of light would move with them! Crazy. I went to take a photo of Darren in front of it, when some guy came to tell him not to touch the strings. Pancho and Nina thought it was hilarious, because he was speaking German so Darren didn't understand him and just kept smiling for the picture! The next one we saw was a building projected onto a building which kept moving around like a ghost was in it or something. It was kind of creepy and cool! After this one we walked around a little longer then stopped at a dönner kebab place where Darren got a kebab, then kept walking. We stopped at a kiosk for lollies and beer then headed back to the car and drove home to Dortmund and went to bed.