At this point, most people in my situation would have probably quit. But I must confess I like these kinds of challenges. Would I find more pieces to the puzzle to lead me forward or was this a dead end road?

I did a Google search on the tower owner’s name and was lucky enough to find more information about him under his work address. After some trial and error, I figured out an email address that worked. To my amazement, not only did the tower owner respond to my message, but he also showed a continued interest in a home exchange with my family. It is then, when he told me that he had removed his listing from the home exchange site because of excessive requests.

From here on, our email conversation took a typical course. We planned our home exchange vacation in detail and clarified open questions. There was one particular question on my mind. Had he studied our listing well and had he looked at the pictures of our home? I wrote to him: “Our apartment is beautiful and the location – situated just outside of Munich on a beautiful lake with the Bavarian Alps as a back drop - is fantastic, but it is NOT A TOWER!” He responded: “Your apartment looks very attractive to me.” That’s when I decided to take this home exchange opportunity seriously.