Veltheimer Mark

We left Denmark on Thursday, and it took 7 hours to get to Antonia's home in Bad Oeynhausen. There was a traffic jam in Hamburg that took a little more than 2 hours. When we finally arrived, they had made pasta for us for a late dinner. It was so nice to visit. Antonia's boyfriend, Daniel, came to meet us. I'm glad we had the chance to meet. He seems like a very nice man. Lara, Antonia's sister, was also there. We haven't seen her since she came with Antonia to go to Prom in 2018! And it was such a great moment to finally meet Suzanne, Antonia's mom. We stayed up late visiting and catching up.

On Friday, we got up and went to the park not far from Antonia's home. It is where the health spa is. It was absolutely beautiful and relaxing. The water is special because it has salt and minerals in it that promotes healing. The minerals and salt were discovered by a pig farmer in the 1700's. His pigs were rolling in the muddy water and when the water dried, the pigs had salt on their backs. Pretty neat. The town was then named after the farmer, Oeynhausen! "Bad" in front of Oeynhausen, means medical. So this part of the town of Oeynhausen specializes in health. I thought that was really neat when Suzanne was telling me about it.

We walked through down town and stopped at the park for the kids to play. The park was really fantastic! No plastic or metal, all wooden! Most of the parks we found focused on sensory and motor skills, ALL the parks were surrounded by trees, creating a nice shaded area, and promoted nature. I think Europe's playgrounds have a few steps up from the play grounds in America.

Before we left, Suzanne was so kind to tape my back to help me with my remaining travels, as well as put acupuncture needles to keep in my ear.Read more