25 October 2008 - Another Saturday Walk

This little scene began our adventure in finding the Schlosspark that we had heard so much about. After doing a little shopping yesterday (Saturday), we continued up a street that we had glimpsed the other day while showing another missionary couple where a bookstore was. This was the glimpse we had and was the lure to get us back! Isn't it fun?

These pictures turned out to be in a crazy order. I have to learn how they go, and this first picture is one I didn't even know was there. I guess Dad took it, so have a great look at my rear end. This tunnel goes through a tower which is on a bridge, and the tower was built sometime in the 14th century. It must have led to the castle which is fairly close by and which you will see down below. I love the ivy on it, and you will see a better picture of the ivy down below.


I can't believe this is the next picture. It's actually one wall of the castle, which was also an accidental find on our walk. We had heard about a Schlosspark (castle park) and wanted to go find it sometime, but we finished a little shopping on Saturday afternoon and just kept walking. And, lo and behold, we came upon the bridge. A hotel by the bridge had a sign that read, "___(name) am Schlosspark." Or in other words, Hotel on the castle park. We looked around and finally realized that part of what we were seeing was the schloss wall. The picture below is one wall of the "castle. It was built like the old forts in the Wild West, where everything was on the outside and a large "plaza" in the middle. The original castle was built around the 14th century as well, but they modernized it in the 1700s and are doing even more now, as you can see.


Once inside the wall, there is a huge tower that I guess was used as a look-out for the enemy. It made me think of the Book of Mormon towers. If it's not too late in the season, we will be allowed to walk up to the top and have a look-see. We didn't have time yesterday, 'cause we had to get to an evening stake conference meeting, but we fully intend to go back and explore the park. The schloss is apparently surrounded by much beauty. It's not as large as the Kurpark, but we're excited to visit soon. This is only half the tower. It was too big to fit in a picture, and the window you see on the "bottom" is really only halfway up. We will have to be in good shape to make all those stairs!

I was just taking a picture of the beautiful leaves when I realized that the buildings in the background were really the schloss, and the woman in the picture was walking toward the park itself. We soon followed...

This is another view of the tower on the bridge, and across the street is what looks like a guard house or something. It's equally old and charming.

My favorite red roofs and skyline.

More charm, with just a hint of moderninity (sp) in the far background.

Just a great old building with great architecture.

Close up of the tower, bridge, etc.

Dad gazing into the dorf below. I'm not sure what the bridge used to cross, but it wasn't water! There are houses down there.

More leaves!

More houses! Aren't you glad I've run out of pictures?

Love to you all. Just want you to know that our hearts are happy and the Gospel is true. We're very grateful for our walks, as our days are filled with sitting in front of a computer. We're grateful for our good health.

Kurpark, Bad Homburg, 18 October 2008

On our walk a week ago, Hank and I accidentally ran onto a HUGMONGOUS park called the Kurpark, which in a round-about way means "Cure Park." It was created to honor Kaiser Wilhelm after World War II (I think), and countries from all over Europe sent statuary or built churches or "temples" in this park. It is amazing, and sooooo huge. We walked for a solid hour and barely came to the other end of it; 'course that was meandering, but the park is several miles long and wide. This building below is another "Bad" or bath where people come to be cured of their ailments. I guess that's why there are so many cities around here that begin with the word "Bad," like Bad Homberg, Bad Elster, etc. One of these days I'm going to dare go in one and see what's inside, but in the meantime, I plan to stay healthy!

Here's Hank standing by one of the statues. I forget which country, but reminded me of the Jefferson Memorial in D.C., just 'cause of the pillars. There are inscriptions and memorials to the Kaiser.

This picture just tickles me to death! These two old men were deeply engrossed in their chess game. The park has various benches and tables made just for this. The table is a piece of marble with the chess board inlaid into it. The table down the walk had two even older gentlemen going at it. That's the German way!

This is a Thai temple (sorry I put it in twice. I haven't learned how to delete a picture!) located in a remote area of the park. It's sooo ornate and beautifully done. It just shone in the sunlight, with lots of gold and silver and glass.

Oops!

I tried a close-up. Still learning how to shoot pictures!

This is a Russian church. There was someone inside worshipping when we walked by, or I would have taken a picture inside. It was a remarkable building. In fact, it was the shine from the "spire" that caught our attention and drew us to the park in the first place. We had no idea that our walk would turn out so very interesting. I've been on the Internet today trying to understand who Kaiser Wilhelm was and what he did. If I ever learn, I'll let you know.

So, that's just a taste of our fun P-day. I don't think we'll ever run out of things to see in Bad Homburg. Have feet, will explore!

We love you all!

More wohnung

This picture is my favorite thing in the house--the gerbil cage. I took one picture of it with a butter knife on top to give you an accurate image of how narrow it is, but I put this one in accidentally instead. Dad says it's about 18 inches across on the outside, and the gerbil cage itself (where the clothes are put) is 12 inches. It reminds me of when Matt used to talk about their "blenders" in Japan--their version of a washing machine.
This is our monster fridge. It's about as big as it looks. It's a challenge to shop once a week, 'cause there's just no room for things, but it's fun.


This chandelier is in our bedroom, and I just fell in love with it. It wasn't until I took the picture that I realized how dusty it was, but you can all breathe easier, 'cause I washed all the glass and ceramic stuff this weekend, and it's shiny and beautiful. Our bedroom is large, has room for a king bed (two twins put together), a large dresser (which we don't use) and a full wall of closets (which we do use)!
You can see our lovely windows and tree-filled back yard, as well as her wall hangings, one tapestry and one sort of a silk-screen.

And this is Hank all settled down for a sandwich for lunch.



You can see why I love our little home. It's a treasure of European flavor and art and coziness. Thanks for letting us share it with you!

That's all for now. Our class starts in 3 minutes!

Inside our castle--it's really fun!

I don't know what I did, but the pictures are scrinched up together. The far left is our entry. Doesn't show too well, but it's large and open with faux marble flooring. You can see directly into our little dining area from the entry, complete with antiques and tapestries and lots of flavor. I'm learning more about our little former landlady, and I'll fill you in when I'm smarter. She was quite a lady, and a member to boot. She loved antiques, and she has quite a few.

This is our cute little kitchen. The dishwasher is to the far left, but we use it for storing dishes and cookware instead of washing dishes. It's a big help.

I haven't dared use the oven yet, but I'm gradually adding supplies to make cookies, and one of these days I'll wake up fearless and bake a batch! I finally found baking soda, so I think we're on our way to a batch of oatmeal/raisin cookies this weekend!

Well, I've lost two more pictures of the kitchen. I'll go download them again (or upload, whichever it is), and then I'll finish it on the next post! What did you say about being a techy, Mandy?

Our Little Wohnung

Nope, the one above isn't ours!! It's our neighbors across the street, but we get to look out and see their beautiful little abode. Kind of like looking across the street at the Olsen's on Main Street in Providence!

Yup, that's Hank waving from our 3rd floor window. I put the pictures in the wrong order, so you have to look at the bottom to see the whole building. Anyhow, that window is in our little eating room, so it's nice and light on sunny days!

You're gradually getting a view of the whole building...

Front door with a happy Hank!

Sort of an overall look at the front.

I'll post pictures of the inside next. By the way, you generally won't see that many leaves on the ground. Several times a week a guy comes by with a leaf blower and blows as much as he can into the street. Then a big street cleaner comes along and eats them up. That only happens on main streets (which our is). But the other streets are cleared by the people themselves. We're always seeing people out raking and sweeping their walks.

Scenery on the way to work

Each morning we enjoy a lovely 15-minute ride (either by bus or car, depending on whether there is a car available) to Ober-Erlenbach. A bus ride costs $4.50 one way for us, so we're anxious to get a car on a more permanent basis. They're working on it, they say! Anyhow, we get off the highway and go up a narrow (of course, all streets are narrow here!) street called Steinmuhl Strasse. All beauty ends as we turn onto Steinmuhl, as it contains only industrial-type businesses. The church has rented part of one building for the family history support missionaries and some finance men and computer support people. I'll send a picture of the building soon. It's behind and built onto a machinist's shop, and in the back where our entrance is, there are big barrels of metal shavings and leftovers from their "machining."

Then, just up the street about a half mile is the European Distribution Center. I don't know all that goes on there, but it's a huge compound, and part of the Europe Area offices are housed there as well.

Anyhow, back to the point at hand...I just wanted you to see what we get to see each morning and evening as we travel to and from work. It's very beautiful in any weather, and it more than makes up for the very industrial street on which we live!!

Trip to Bad Elstern

(This lake was the view from our room on our trip)

Well, we've been here two whole weeks. It sometimes seems like minutes and other times like years!! I just realized that I have taken pictures of the house across the street from us, our backyard trees, and many other houses, but not one of our own. I'll make that a priority tomorrow.

I just need to tell you a bit about our trip to Bad Elstern this past weekend. We traveled with another FH (family history) missionary couple in a crazy "van," and my introduction to the autobahn was pretty wild. We were never going past 80 mph, but we were being passed constantly by people going at least 120 or more. Once 40 years ago I was in a Porsche that went way faster--I think he hit 150--but I'll never do that again! Our van was shaped like a UPS truck only much smaller. I need to take a picture of that, too. I have much to learn about memories.

Anyhow, the other couple are Elder and Sister Howlett from Columbus, Ohio. They are wonderful. We have much in common, and the trip was delightful. They also work in the office with us, along with Elder and Sister Call (cousins to Katie's mom).

The reason for the trip was to attend a genealogical "conference" put on by the German Genealogical Society. It was primarily a selling point for companies who had hardware and software to sell that deals with genealogy, but it was interesting. Like I said in an email to someone, our job was to just observe and learn. The conference was held at a fancy "spa-type" place. They had various buildings vying for the sickly to come and use their pools and eat their food. Quite a luxurious place.

The area around the spa

It's nearly time for our class, and I need to study for awhile. Life is good. Elder Oaks executive secretary, Elder Adams, said just what Pres. Cook said in my setting apart, that we will have to be dragged from here when our time is up, so it must be true!!!

This is an experiment. Half of our blog is written in German, and we don't have a "new post" in the top right corner. I hope this is what I do to post. Let me know....