August 16th
Today was mainly a driving day (Connie say's they are all driving days). However, this was a 4½ hour drive to be close to the France/Germany border. Our destination was another free Aire in Pfaffenhoffen, France. This free Aire is provided by the town and was great, with free water and dumping, and cheap electricity. We got 12 hours of electric for €6 ($7.20 US), but was more than we needed. 4 hours would have been plenty for €2 ($2.40 US). We mainly need electricity to charge the computer. We stopped at Aldi for some grocery shopping. Our rental motorhome doesn't have a microwave, or even an oven. Connie did bring with her the "Omnia", which she bought almost two years ago. An Omnia works like a stove top oven. However, our main supplies have been wine, cheese, baguettes, and salami. She's been making some wonderful meals with few ingredients in a small kitchen.
August 17th
The reason to go to Pfaffenhoffen, France was to be near the "Ouvrage du Four-à-Chaux". This is a large reinforced gun emplacement, which was part of the historical Maginot Line in France. Four-à-Chaux was bombarded by the invading Germans in late June 1940 during the Battle of France with both aerial attacks and artillery bombardments. Four-à-Chaux survived to surrender at the end of the month. We took the guided walking tour of the ouvrage, which was about 1.1 miles long and lasted for 90 minutes. The cost was €8 each ($9.60 US). They weren't offering an English speaking tour that day, so we took the German tour. We can understand more German than French. Luckily, they also provided us with written descriptions in English. Being a "military" historic tour, Connie was "OK" with it, but I found the tour intriguing. I'll eventually have a video out of this tour.
After the tour, we made our way across the border to Germany. We're now in Wiesbaden, Germany to visit the parents of a friend we worked with a couple years ago. When Jake learned we were going to visit his home country, he suggested we visit his parents. Why not? Guess we'll see how this goes in the next Blog!