1. The next day we decided to explore the southern part of the metropolis. We began by driving to the southeast, through some residential areas.
2. There were some new apartments being constructed.
3. There was quite a lot of this.
4. And a lot of this, too.
5. We drove past some more farms.
6. And still more residential areas. The southern parts of the city were dominated by lower-density residential areas.
7. But there were some commercial and industrial areas, too.
8. We had brunch at a deli here.
9. And then drove past some offices.
10. Another cute little neighborhood center, bordering some fields. There was a place here we wish we had stopped and ate brunch at instead of the place we actually did eat at. Oh well.
11. We drove north, passing through still more residential suburbs.
12. And a modernistic office development.
13. Another new housing development was going up here, with a very formal layout.
14. As we drove north, we got a bit closer to the center of the city again, and hit some interesting neighborhoods. Here was a cute church nestled amid some houses and apartments.
15. But not everything was cute.
16. We passed some people playing tennis. In the cities here in Germany, I noticed how prevalent clay courts were compared to the green asphalt ones which dominated in America.
17. We took a left and drove past some more apartments. At this point we were just driving around sightseeing, with no particular destination in mind.
18. Close in to the city center, we passed some *really* drab apartment blocks.
19. But eventually arrived in some nicer neighborhoods again.
20. This appeared to be a school of some sort. I think.
21. We drove south along a major road, passing by some woods on our left. We saw deer, bears, lynx and moose in the woods. At one point, an elf stopped us at a traffic light, asking for directions.
The elf looked similar to this:
22. After driving for a bit after giving the elf some directions, we encountered this little village center here, and stopped for some coffee. It was too quaint for words.
"I feel like I'm in a ski village," I said to Hans and Franz as I sipped a cappucino. They laughed. It
did look like a ski village here, they admitted. So did several other village centers we passed through.
23. After stopping for about a half-hour, we crossed over the freeway and drove north again, passing more low-density residential areas.
24. We continued north, passing this school (or whatever it was) here. Fields interrupted the built-up areas, as usual.
25. More residential areas.
26. And another cute church nestled amid some houses and apartments.
27. We took a right on a certan road, and passed by a soccer ball atop a sports bar.
28. And some more apartments.
29. And still more apartments. This part of town is pretty boring, Frans remarked. We all agreed.
30. Nevertheless we continued on.
31. Here and there we saw more solar panels atop people's roofs.
32. More apartments.
33. And more houses and duplexes. It was interesting to see in these German cities how much duplexes and quadroplexes were mixed in with the single-family houses.
34. It was so boring here that Hans started going insane and jumped out of the car while we were going 80kph. He broke several bones, but fortunately we were right near a hospital.
35. While Hans was in the hospital getting his broken bones set, me and Hans drove around some more. We passed yet more apartments.
36. And some industry.
37. Another village center had the vague feeling of a ski town. The Alpine-style of some of the buildings gave it that look.
38. There was a small castle surrounded by a small moat.
39. And nearby was a more modern town center.
40. After circling through a rural road, we turned around and passed through another woods. It was time to pick up Hans in the hospital. Here we nearly ran over a moose which was being ridden by two elves. The elves cursed at us furiously. We shot back. After all, it wasn't our fault.
"Control your damn moose!" screamed Franz.
41. On the way back to the hospital we passed through still another town center.
42. And drove north on the freeway, back to the hospital to pick up Hans. He was bandaged, but OK.
43. So we got back on the freeway and headed back to our hotel. We had originally planned to stay one more day, but with Hans' injury we decided to go early. By now we had pretty much seen everything anyway.
The next day it time to head on. Nuremburg, here we come!
