June 26-30, 2017: Europe trip--Karlsruhe, Germany

June 26th: When we arrived in Karlsruhe, we checked into the Achat Plaza Hotel and had just enough time to enjoy an Asian dinner and to check out the local market across the street from our hotel--it was awesome. The fresh meat display was expansive and the pretty! We were also close to market with fresh flowers, fruits, and vegetable. The downtown area was huge, with shops going in all four directions. And the food! We could eat Thai and Chinese food every day--it's that good.

June 27th: What surprised us was that just around the corner from our hotel, people left piles of garbage on the side of the streets for other people to rummage through! We later discovered that small garbage trucks come and haul whatever's left away. Another strange thing was how the city water was piped; instead of being underground, it was above the streets downtown.

June 28th-30th: Mike attended a conference in Karlsruhe, presented a paper, and enjoyed listening to the other presentations. There wasn't much for me to do while he was gone except walk downtown and take pictures. We went to the same Thai place three times. They had an outdoor patio with gorgeous potted flowers and old stone walls. We also got to ride on a train to Amsterdam with a comfortable and spacey cabin inside .