Let me start off by saying my husband is awesome. Originally when we made plans to come to Germany T said that we could use her car (horray!) so that we could travel to the nearby villages and towns to take in some German culture.

When we arrived in Germany and got in her car at the airport I immediately noticed that it was manual. This was not surprising as most europeans drive manual cars but we hadn't really thought about it and truth be told neither of us had much experience with driving manual cars. When I say 'not much experience' I mean I had never driven a manual in my life and Collin had about a couple of hours driving experience about 8 or 9 years ago.

Once we got to the house Collin told me not to worry and that he would get a few refresher lessons from T before she left for her holiday. So, exactly two days before she was set to leave Collin tells her that he needs some lessons on driving a manual car. T is as gracious as always and says no worry and we hop in the car (Collin in the driver's seat) to have his first lesson.

T took Collin and I to some empty roads for him to practice. Let me also give you the picture of very winding and steep roads where we are. That means...hill starts. Which after about 30 minutes of practice Collin had it down pat. Again, he's awesome.

A few days ago we decided to hop in the car and drive to Michelstadt, one of the oldest settlements in the inner Odenwald. We arrived, thanks to Collin's fantastic driving skills, found a parking spot, and walked past the outer walls of the village to the town square.

A map at the entrance to the village told us where to find the tourism office but Collin and I both read the map wrong and headed in the wrong direction. No matter! We spotted another map and promptly turned around. We were in no hurry.

We got a map, pamphlet on each historic building, and headed out to see the sites. At each historic building we snapped a few pictures and read out loud the few tidbits written about each spot.

We walked over to the historical Town Hall which is an open air construction built in 1484. The ground floor accommodated the local court and the upper story housed the Town Council. We were only able to stay on the ground level but the building was architecturally amazing. Big, beautiful, wooden beams surround the lower level and has remained unchanged for more than 500 years.

Many of you know we are huge Top Gear UK fans. They always talk about how the Chevy Corvette has no real place in Europe because the streets are so small. And lo and behold what do we spot...

My face says it all.

We then found our own secret garden entrance and had to see where it lead.

A playground!

Watched over by the towering Town Church spire. Construction on the church lasted from 1461 to 1537 and was dedicated to the Archangel Michael and Saint Killian.

I joined Collin on the merry-go-round type contraption but got a bit nauseous if I'm honest. My mom said that's when you know you are getting older.

After that eventful playtime we spotted a cafe and decided to warm up with coffee and cake.

Once we walked in it was a little hard to decide what we wanted. But it got a bit easier when we remembered we don't speak German so we pointed to the dessert that most looked like chocolate cake. Can't go wrong with chocolate.