The morning started slightly later with breakfast at the hotel between 8 to 9a.m., and us leaving Leiderdrop, The Netherlands, at 9a.m. Cees, the bus driver who accompanied us and very kindly drove us everywhere within Belgium and The Netherlands, had to end his tour with us in The Netherlands yesterday. We were sad, but wished him well and said our goodbyes. Today, everyone greeted our new driver, Peter, with enthusiasm, as he take Cees' place in driving us all around Germany in the next six days.

With Peter mentioning there was free WIFI on the bus within The Netherlands, we saw several students whip out their computers and smartphones to search for the signal, while others who were not attracted by the offer grabbed the time for some chat or nap. It was a rather long three-hour ride to Germany, but a definite upside was that we got to drive on and see the world-famous unlimited speed Autobahn! TThis is an expressway in Germany that does not have a speed limit for vehicles. We all secretly wished we had something similar in Illinois, or at least in the U.S.

About twenty minutes into Germany, we arrived at Bubenheimer Spieleland, an Agricultural Diversification Farm. The reality of the farm was the furthest thing from what we thought "agricultural diversification" would look like. We envisioned row crops, perhaps animals that we could pet and interact with, food and fiber retail, and large agricultural machinery. When we arrived, however, our expectations were defied. This farm was not a traditional working farm at all. Rather, it was an extremely large playground for children with a barnyard theme. How exciting! Everybody simply wanted to be kids all over again. We entered the play farm and were greeted by Professor Ralf Nolten, one of the day-to-day managers of the "play farm", and gave us a very brief introduction to the farm. Since it started pouring rain for the first time since we have been in Europe, we did not have the opportunity to meet with the owner of the farm for another two and a half hours. Having some free time, we did what anybody would do - we played like we were kids again! But firstly, we grabbed a quick and delicious lunch of traditional German foods, such as bratwurst, bockwurst, currywurst and spietzel, at one of the farm's many cafes. We then ran to the trampolines, soccer and basketball courts, a pedal-cart course, a huge obstacle course (which was three stories tall!), bowling lanes, ping pong and fooseball tables, and one of the largest (and fastest) slides we have ever seen!

Even though it seemed to go by in a flash, our two hours of play were up and we were introduced to the owner of the play farm, Klaus. He then gave us the history of the farm and answered our many unending questions. The farm had been passed down to Klaus in 1991 from his parents. A rather small 100-hectare farm, making a good living was hard work. Insipred by his daughter (who was four at the time), Klaus and his wife came up with the idea to turn the farm into a fun getaway destination for families. Each year since then, the play farm has expanded and added attractions one by one, and they have no intention of slowing their growth. We are also grateful for Professor Ralf Nolten and Klaus' daughter for helping with the translation. Unfortunately, our time at the play farm came to an end and we had to leave for our next appointment. So, we thanked our hosts for a most enjoyable afternoon, and got back on our bus for a quick 45 minute drive to Bonn, Germany. This idea of a "play farm" is new to many of us, thus an insightful experience. Besides, we were all able to return to our childhood moments for a few hours, which we were very grateful for.

Once in Bonn, Germany, we checked into our hotel, The Hotel Europa. We barely had enough time to get settled as we were invited to a barbeque by several graduate students studying Food and Resource Economics at the city's university. Equipped with a GPS and making our way to the location by foot, we got to preview the city of Bonn. We arrived after a short 20-minute walk, and all of us scrambled to greet and meet these students. They were from extremely diverse cultures - Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Russia, Bangladesh, and several who are native Germans. The boys were instructed to get down to work and start barbequing as we all worked the crowd. We even learnt a new traditional German game! The players got competitive and were very into the game. It was definitely an experience playing with these international students. Several groups also received some good consumer interviews for our projects! All of us really appreciate the spontaneity and friendliness of these students, and sincerely wish them well in their studies as well as their future endeavors. Several of them were even kind enough to walk with us back to our hotel, and finally said our goodbyes. We hope to meet them again in the future - perhaps in the U.S. when they come to visit! Overall, it was a fun and interesting way to spend our Sunday in a new city.