GutenTag! Sprechen sie Englisch? (Two phrases we now know how to say)

The four of us set out on our fairy tale adventure in the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 9th. We drove to Minneapolis and boarded a flight to Charlotte NC. Once landed, we then hopped on the BIG plane that took us to Frankfurt Germany. Flight was nice and smooth but none of us got very much sleep! Once we landed, we picked up our rental car and tried to find our way to Hanau, the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm. Kudos to Jenna for being an amazing driver and Kyla for being a great navigator! Road signs in Germany are very different from the US as Jenna learned the hard way. Words of advice: don't follow a truck that doesn't know where it is going! In Hanau, we saw the famed statue of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It wasn't quite what we expected as it had tarnished to green similiar to Statue of Liberty color and they had a few pigeons roosting on their heads. Interestingly, the statue is in a town square that has a permanent farmer's market. We saw many beautiful flowers, fruits (strawberries are plentiful over here) and even a butcher cutting meat for sale in a truck! By this time we were starving but were a little worried about trying to read a menu in a different language so... luckily, we saw the Golden Arches! Yes, they have McDonalds in Hanau, Germany. It was an interesting experience trying to order in English with a German speaking cashier. Lots of pantomiming and pointing! Sure made us empathize with our ELL families! Next we went to Schloss Philippsruhe which is a museum that has a small collection of Brothers Grimm artifacts. One thing we learned is that Jacob and Wilhelm had a younger brother, Ludvig, who was a painter, illustrator and an engraver. We saw some of his drawings and caricatures. Jacob and Wilhelm's father died when they were teenagers and then they were responsible for taking care of 8 year old Ludvig. Last exciting fact that we found out is that Wilhelm Grimm and Holly's youngest son, Patrick, share the same birthday! Tomorrow we head to Neuschwanstein Castle, then a drive up through wine country and maybe a stop in Heidelberg.