When I was 11 my schoolmates and I went to a school camp in Schaippach an der Sinn with our teacher. In the mornings, we had regular school. But school started at 9 AM and ended at noon. and in the afternoon, we hiked several miles to learn more about regional history and geography. There was still plenty of time to hang around the building or sit in the story area and write a letter or postcard for the family at home. We had also responsibilities like taking care of the dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make our beds and go to bed on time. Sleeping was another story when being in a room with nine other girls. After five or six days, we rode the bus back home, where our parents, in my case grandparents, were waiting in front of the school to pick us up. At home, we had a lot of stories to tell about that week at camp.

On one hike we went from Schaippach to Gemünden. Our teacher was always talking about the merging of the rivers Sinn and Saale into the River Main (pronounced: mine). A river merging with another river into a larger river means “münden” in German. Therefore the town at the three rivers is named Gemünden. So, we students wanted to see it and hiked to the exact place, where the merging of the rivers can be viewed from that spot.

Gemünden is about 25 miles (40 km) NNE down the river from my hometown Würzburg and located in the region of Main-Spessart in Lower Franconia, Northern Bavaria Germany.