We continued to drive... the kids were holding up remarkably well, the rotating Nintendo DS helped A LOT. At the last gas station, we paid 101 Euros ( approx $125!!!) to fill up our rented Ford minivan. That's a small fortune. And that's for diesel (1,60 Euro per liter) which is much cheaper than unleaded. These prices coupled with the severe lack of adequate parking spots makes riding your bike or taking public transportation very attractive. So we'd take advantage of rest stops and Emma, our nature lover never ceased to find frogs, salamanders and slugs. The ones in the North are enormous - kind of like a slimy Twix bar.
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| The European flavor was evident in the dessert options |
Despite the wonderful variety of local restaurants you'd find in a town, along the Autobahn your choices are more limited and since we didn't want to stray too far we ended up eating at McDonald's one night. (I know! I'm not proud of it either...) The kids all got their Happy Meals (pronouced Heppy) which included a choice of organic apples, organic side salad or fries. They could have either strawberry or chocolate milk. You get a bottle of milk (organic of course! Biomilch) and then a straw with little flavor pebbles. As you drink, the milk passes through the pebbles and takes on the flavor. Ingenious! Now if only you didn't have to pay extra for your condiments...
We visited Affenwald in Staussberg which did not disappoint. Free roaming Berber monkeys and lemurs from Madagascar and Morocco were clearly used to contact with humans. Although signs forbade feeding them, we saw two people giving them grapes and the monkeys literally crawled in their pockets to get more. There were unfortunately no rangers or attendants to enforce this policy (it would have been helpful to have someone there to answer questions as well). The kids loved having them crawl and cuddle and for some strange reason, the "lickers" were mostly drawn to Declan and Andrew. 
herr herr
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