Schwetzingen & Wine Tasting in Bad Durkheim

Today we visited the beautiful town of Schwetzingen.  Wally, Julia and I used to visit here often when we lived in Mannheim in 2004/05.

Shopping in the market


This area is famous for its' spargel (white asparagus) at a certain time of year.  This statue celebrating spargel is in the town centrum.


Schwetzingen castle gardens





We brought a picnic lunch...

...hunted for snails...

 ...took some family photos...







...and took care of business! ;)


Can you tell it was very hot?!


Then we drove over to Bad Durkheim and stopped by our favorite winery, Darting Weingut.  As always, both the wine and the service were amazing!

One of these holds 5000 bottles of wine!





Julia trying grape juice :)

Another great day in the books! So happy to have our family here visiting! :)

Mannheim

We showed everyone around Mannheim, including our favorite park, Luisenpark.





We played at the cool playgrounds in the park...the zip line is their favorite!
 



Maybe my favorite picture ever...


We were so happy everyone loved the park as much as we do!








We even went on a boat ride :)






We finished the day in Ladenburg at our favorite resaturant, Die Kartoffel (the potato), where you cook your food on a hot stone!










The kids by the fountain in Ladenburg.


Next leg of the trip: Paris!

Day 1: Heidelberg

My parents, Erik and Kayla arrived in Frankfurt today! We took them to Heidelberg first and had a great afternoon showing them the city.






These two needed a nap in the middle of the day :)




These girls missed each other!



And I missed my brother :)








The castle...love this gorgeous city!





















Cousins playing Ring Around the Rosie





Lexie wasn't quite ready to hold Bubby's hand yet...



Daddy snuggling with his babies



It was a great first day! We're missing Uncle Karl, but know he's having fun at home with the whole place to himself! Tomorrow we're taking them to Mannheim to show them a few more of our favorite places!