Dear All,
We are sorry that we haven't written in a while, but the truth is we have been gone and very busy. Dick and Lucille cam for a visit which was wonderful for us and a partial walk back into their history for them. These visited German with their son Shaun back in 1983. We had a great time with them,but were very busy trying to be with them and also fulfill our responsibilities as missionaries. Many late hours for us and being good sports for them. I've given just a brief glimpse of some of the things we saw during their visit for a more through account you'll have to talk with Dick and Lucille. We were able to attend Church in both Munich and Berlin with them, and enjoy the Spirit each Sunday they were here. We afraid we wore them out, but as I said they were good sports. We were able to visit the southern German villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen which are very beautiful . German's highest mountain the Zugspitz which has year around glacial skiing is there. The next weekend we were in Berlin which is an amazing city. You can spend weeks in Berlin and never go to the same place twice. On the way we slept in a Kloster ( a convent) never did that before!, and visited a castle where Martin Luther translated part of the Bible hiding there.
Following are a few pictures of some the places we visited.
Only 20-30 Kilometers from Frankfurt is the Roman ruins of Saalburg which was a Roman Citadel on the route from Rome to Cologne. It has been rebuilt, but the foundations of many building are still visible. This Citadel was built and inhabited about the time of Christ. Makes our 150-200 year old buildings seem pretty contemporary.
In the Mosel Valley is a beautiful castle (Burg Eltz) that has been inhabited for over 750 years, and owned by the same family for 850 years. Burg means fortress and Eltz is the name of the family that owns the castle. Part of the family still lives in the castle, I wonder what their electricity and heating bill is? and another question - who has to shovel the driveway?
Beautiful, well preserved visitors and castle.
The name of this church is Wieskirche which means church in the meadow, and that is exactly what it is. It is in the Village of Fuesson in the state of Bavaria. The story of this church and the crucifix in the church are very interesting, but too long for this brief blog. We were able to enjoy the beautiful music of a mass here.
As you see the interior is absolutely gorgeous and even though the church is out of the way it is visited by over a million visitors a year. If you have ever seen a picture book of Germany you have seen a picture of this church
This is the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria in the area of Garmisch-Partenkirche which so influenced Walt Disney and which the Disneyland Castle is patterned after. In this castle is a mural in which we see a very similar scene in his film Bambi.
We tried to make the most of every day that Dick and Lucille were here in Germany.
The Pergamon is a museum in Berlin of antiquities and is amazing. This is an ancient Roman gate which was brought to this museum and reassembled. This whole museum was filled with such amazing things to see. This whole museum was dissembled during the war and hidden in a safe place otherwise it would have been destroyed, because Berlin was almost completely leveled in the war
Here is one of the gates to the city of Babylon which was dissembled brought to Berlin and reassembled in this museum.
Few Americans can visit Berlin without going to see Check Point Charlie. We were there before the wall came down, and passed through here with Dick,Lucille, and their son Shaun. This is basically all that remains of Check Point Charlie. There is a museum close by with a pictorial and written history of the check point
This bust of her mother in law was done by Vickie the wife of Frederick IV. As you can see she was a very talented artist. The paintings of her 9 children are fantastic. Vickie is the daughter of the famous Queen Victoria of England. This bust is in the following Palace.
This is the Palace of San Souci built be The Prussian Emperor Frederick the IV. It is in Potsdam about 30-45 Kilometers from Berlin. For whatever reason the Russians did not destroy it in the war. San Souci is french and means "without a care" This castle was built outside the city in a lovely rural setting. In the next picture you will get a better idea of the size of this place. The interior is as grandiose as the exterior is impressive. Royalty lived luxuriously and in a fairy land environment
AT the Palace of San Souci the back garden has 6 terraces each of vineyard leading down to a beautiful fountain. This picture was taken from the 2nd terrace. There are 4 more terraces of the same size as this below this terrace. That's a lot of grapes i.e. wine.
We enjoyed Dick's and Lucille's visit very much and showing theme what we could in 2 weeks and still working part time. We hope you are doing well and enjoying each day, once it is gone - it is gone and tomorrow is a new day and fresh start regardless of the day before.
We hope you are doing well ( and minding your P's and Q's),
Love,
John and Susan (Opa and Oma)
This old house help give this city it's name. The name of the city is Seligenstadt. Seligen is the German word for "to Bless". Above the 2nd floor window is written in old German the sentence Blessed is this city, my daughter was lost and I found her here. Hence the name "blessed city"
This Rose bush was in full bloom, with many pedals gently lying on the street in front of the house. The street was about 10 feet wide, but when the only traffic was foot or an occasional horse cart the size was sufficient.
I wanted to let you see the beautiful reflection of the building behind me in the window. This effect is possible because the glass is bubble shaped creating this kaleidoscope picture.
On the path to Burg Eltz castle. This castle has 80 Rooms with 40 Fireplaces, and is still inhabited by the family that owns it..
Burg Eltz is a lovely family owned and occupied castle for 750 years.
