Affenberg-Salem

I was supposed to be making this trip with my girlfriend (who has lived in Germany almost 10 years and speaks and understands the language almost fluently). My original idea was to hop aboard a USO trip out here, paying someone else to drive, lead, read, speak, and help. My friend's idea was to bag the USO trip, do it ourselves, tack on a hotel night stay and head to the nearby island of Mainau the following day. WHAT a great idea! So she planned it all.

And her daughter had the nerve to catch Alex's illness and ear infection. First we postponed one day and then determined that they wouldn't make it at all. Ugh. Alllriiighht. I guess I'll just have to do this myself! (Where are we going again??)

So we headed out on a road trip, sans husband and sans German-speaking girlfriend, only me, the troop leader, and the trusted (lifesaving, awesome) GPS. After spending the first 15 minutes in almost constant worry (not really sure where we were going, didn't have an address, just heading to the town hoping for signs) I actually found the place easily.

In the little town of Salem near Lake Constance (the Bodensee) - the largest lake in Europe- is a preserve for Barbary Macaques. We walked the trail feeding the monkeys from our hands everybody's favorite treat: popcorn. This was pretty cool.





And Alex pointed out: "Remember that game Nana sent us called 'The Stork's Nest'?" Here there were many storks who had built their nests perched on the top of the roof.

Afterward, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the ever-present Spielplatz (playplace) while I read my book-you-can't-put-down-except-that-it-weighs-80lbs, Pillars of the Earth. Not so bad to go sans husband or friend... I got read in the sun for about 2 hours while the kids played. This trip was starting to look up.