----- Original Message ----- From: <7iron@gmx.de> To: <CAENH@aol.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 8:31 PM Subject: Re: Travel in Hesse Darmstadt Yes, Carol-Anne, I'm a native of the city of Darmstadt. Talking about the weather in Germany is a bit like playing Bingo or Russian Roulette. I should not be forgotten that this country is situated somewhere in the middle of Europe, with strong influences from the sea as well. Normally the summer months, that is from June to September, are quite fine, but there's never a guarantee that on a 2 weeks trip it will be fine in any case. If you had mostly rain on your trip two years ago, it was just bad luck. This year you would have had extremely fine weather at this time. Most people would consider the weather in the months from November to February as awful, although some people, for example me, like this time of the year, when it is mostly grey, rainy, with some chances of snow. No, you don't have to avoid the summer tourist season. Only those places which every American or Japanese know by name, i.e. Heidelberg or Munich, are crowded then. If you intent to visit the places where your ancestors lived, you will be fine during the summer months. Alsfeld in summer, for example, is well worth a trip. Nice little city, with a lot of old buildings, not touched in WWII. Hope this helps, Heinz