Hey who is that good looking couple?
We drove back to Wuerzburg on Sat. with 20 other senior missionaries. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the Residence and the Fortress. I don't know what the computer is doing, but I'm going to try and finish this blog, poor tho it may be. I wanted to wrap the text around the pictures, but the computer won't cooperate. so I'll just do things how the computer wants. This is the side garden of the residence which is still beautiful this far into the summer. The next two picture are of the same garden but from a different perspective.
The next picture is of the Rose garden in the back of the palace. I was amazed at how nice the roses still were. Their normal blooming time is in June, but there is still a nice numbers of flowers left to enjoy.
If you look at the back wall you will see where on the next pictures was taken. The palace (Residnce) was built in the 1400 when the prince bishop decided he wanted a more beautiful place to live in and in which to receive royal visitors. The Prince Bishop had all the power; He was the secular leader as a prince, and as the bishop he was the ecclesiastical leader. The residence has 320 rooms and for a period of time also housed the governmental offices. The insides have been restored costing millions of Euros, and they are beautiful. The center portion of the building withstood the bombs of WWII, but the north and south side wings had wood roofs and were pretty badly destroyed, but oh how nicely they are now. The ceiling in the center portion are all fresco's, and a fresco's is painted while the plaster is still wet so that the color goes deep into the plaster. The colors and painting are still very bright and vivid today 5-600 years later. If you make it to Germany while we are here and desire to see what I can't adequately discribe we will try and bring you to Wuerzburg.
The next series of picture were taken of the Fortress, which was built in the early 1300, and was never conquered except by the Swedes in the 1600's.
The fortress was built in stages which was typical of most fortresses in those days. Each succeeding ruler wanted to make his fortress even more secure so he kept expanding and adding another protective wall and moot. Most fortresses have 2 or 3 protective wall and 1 or 2 moots. The moots were not filled with water, but it made breaching the walls very difficult and costly in life's. The first picture shows the oldest gate of the fortress.
In the inner court you see this tall tower with 3 meters thick walls. The height of the tower was 42.5 meters high. From the top of the tower you can see for miles in all direction. In addition positioned on top of hill added to the visibility and security of the structure. The big challenge to life in a fortress like this was water. Without water the livestock and food scources could not be maintained. These people dug a well 2.5 times deeper that the height of the tower, which is quite an engineering feat.
Because the prince like to travel he was gone most of the time, while in Italy he enjoyed the gardens and the sea. So when he came back he had a garden put on the top of some of the building (much like the conference center in SLC). If you look you can see the form of a ship. This picture was taken from the stern looking toward the bow of a ship.
There is one more picture I want to show the kids. In the next picture find the residence on the left center of the picture. Take you gaze up the picture in about a 1 o'clock direction. You will see a beige building with a red roof. Right behind that building you will see the hopsital where I worked, and if you can look up and a little to the right and you will see Leighten Barracks where we lived. From the Fortress seeing this all is quite easy (I hope you can enlarge the picture enough so you can see it also). This blog turned out completely different that I planned, but atleast there was something. From now on I want to write more about the spiritual things that we are experiencing.
We love you all, and always pray for you,
Oma und Opa
and the Forttress again
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