Michelstadt, One of Our Favorites!!

We've talked often of Brother and Sister Frost from Michelstadt (about 1-1/2 hours from our house), and we were lucky enough to visit them again on April 22. They are our German Script teachers, and I dearly love them. They are humble, brilliant, stimulating, interesting beyond words, and just fun. Anyhow, after we did our study time, we insisted they let us take them to lunch, as they have always fed us wonderful meals at their home in the past. So, before our lunch, they gave us a tour of the Altstadt or "Old City." What fun!

This is their Rathaus (city hall), and it is small and ornate, with a date of 1484 on the front. Michelstadt was not bombed during the war, so it's treasures pretty much still exist.

Same Rathaus, just showing the easy-going style of the city folk on an afternoon... This doesn't look like a castle, but it is one of the four walls of an ancient castle which surrounds a center court, sort of like the castle in Bad Homburg. This type just doesn't carry the same "fairyland" quality that a normal castle does, but it was fun in its own way.

This is the outside of said castle wall. You can see the remains of the old moat, and the last tower is the "Thieves' Tower," where the villains were thrown for safekeeping.

Sis. Frost is standing in one of the many little alley-ways that weave between the buildings. They certainly add a little charm!

And this was just a hoot. The people had no great love for the Pope during this era, and someone created this "Fox" statue of him. If you look closely, he looks pious and sedate with his Bible, but on the side is a small bag with a chicken's head poking out, meaning that the Pope appears to be one thing but is actually a fox and steals from you. He's standing right in front of the Thieves' Tower. I don't know if that was intentional, but that's where he is.

And our Maitre 'd at the restaurant was the highlight of our day! When we first saw him from the front, he looked like he was wearing a piece of dark silk stuck to his head, but up close, we could see that it was, indeed, his hair. He just parted it way down the back of his head, brought it forward, slicked it down across his forehead, did a swirl, and brought it back down on the other side. I didn't dare try to get a picture of the other side--I was lucky to sneak this one in!

He was one great dude, and we thoroughly enjoyed him, especially the hair!

And this is lunch! It was a wonderful old restaurant right in the old city, with big wooden beams (original) and great decorations. Our favorite restaurant thus far!

I wish you could see the little sign above Bro. Frost's head. It's a picture of a small child pulling on his Dad's hand and pointing to the restroom! The sign reads "Father, there!"

Well, that ended our day in Michelstadt. It's a wonderful drive to get there, traveling through mountains and enjoying little villages nestled in the mountains as we went. It wasn't fun last November on our first trip when it was snowing, but this trip was perfect, thanks to the weather and the Frosts!

Love from the Bad Homburgers!

Walking Tour in Frankfurt

The senior missionaries went on a "walking tour" of Frankfurt one Saturday morning, and even though it was a downpour in the beginning, it was lots of fun. It lasted about three hours, and the rain had stopped by the time we were through.

Anyhow, a wonderful sister (who is actually Austrian) was our guide. She works in the Area Office and has lived in Frankfurt for 30 years. I took way too many pictures, and I realize you're going to be really bored by the end of two years, because I don't vary my shots much. Oh, well....

This very pink building is a bank, but I thought the architecture was rather interesting, to say the least! I don't know who the lucky men were who posed for this sculpture, but I bet their backs ached by the time they were through!

This is the Wertheim Haus. It was the only timber-framed building in the old part of the city to survive the war. So, it's the real thing, refurbished I'm sure, but the building itself is not rebuilt. It is original.

We walked to the "Wall Street" of Frankfurt, and we were hosted by their bull and bear. Several tourists were climbing on top and having their pictures taken, but we actually retained some decorum and just "leaned." Frankfurt is the money capital of Germany, even though Berlin is the actual government capital. The pink trees in the background were beautiful, and they were dropping their blossoms really fast, such that it resembled a snowstorm of pink!

This is Goethe's house, with an attached museum to the right. We saw the church he was baptized in, as well as a monument in his honor just down the street. We didn't go inside, so we weren't very educated from just walking by... I thought this combination of architecture was kind of interesting, from gingerbread to circular to ancient church in the background.

This is the Rathaus, or city hall. Weddings also take place there on some days, and you can just barely see a wedding party coming out in this picture. This particular area is famous for it's Weinachtsmarkt, or Christmas market. The whole square and surrounding area is glowing with Christmas lights, the plaza covered with booths for food, decorations, gifts, and anything and everything. We didn't go last year, but they say it gets so crowded that it's shoulder to shoulder the whole time. The sisters were advised to leave their purses home, and cameras were discouraged, cause there's so much pickpocketing, etc. We'll have pictures next year if I can talk Hank into a late night!

Well, that's all for this little blurb. I think I took around 50 pictures during the tour, so you're lucky I have some restraint!

April Showers & Flowers!!

When we first arrived in Bad Homburg, I sent a picture of the lovely house across the street from our apartment, and it has turned even more beautiful with the coming of spring. Pictures can't possibly capture the beauty of the wisteria, but it is breathtaking!! The rest of their yard has many blooms as well. One of these days I'm going to take them some cookies and thank them for the beauty! This little tree is just outside our apartment, and we love it! We call it a "tulip" tree, but a lot of people call it a magnolia. These trees are sooooo exquisite, and some grow to be huge and just a mass of color. There are light pink to dark purple/maroon, and it makes spring a wonder.

This is a single blossom. One at a time or a whole tree--they're really something!

This is Louisenstrasse in the spring. It turns into the "walking" street just about 3 blocks up, so it's doubly fun to go up. No cars allowed for many blocks. Our street (Frankfurter Landstrasse) turns into Louisenstrasse just one block west of our apartment.

A fun discovery on one of our walks--just a tunnel under a train track--beautiful stream, joggers, walkers, and warm spring weather.

I promised a picture of an Easter egg tree. Wow, are they ever prolific here! Every available bush, tree, sometimes even fences became Easter egg "trees," and it is colorful and fun.

If you've traveled through Idaho, you've seen the miles and miles of fields with these plants. They make oil out of them, and they are just beautiful! The only difference here is that the yellow fields are a little smaller and interspersed with green fields, and the combination can't be beat!!! This doesn't do them justice, but I'll keep trying to catch a good picture before they are harvested. You should see the fields right after a rain--they're almost fluorescent!

We spent one Saturday afternoon with Wes and Sandra Theurer, and that was sure fun. We first enjoyed a temple session with them, then drove to Frankfurt to see if we could find a park that was supposedly having a pottery sale. Well, the pottery turned out to be mediocre, but the park was really fun. There were Lagoon-type rides and tons of booths selling food and trinkets and such, but when we saw this enormous "spit," Wes really wanted me to take a picture of it to send to his dad, Scott, who is one of the BBQ kings of the world. I think even Scott has yet to try a whole cow!

And this was a real kick--when the Germans say "No Parking," they mean NO PARKING! There were three cars parked beyond the sign, and each one was individually harnessed, picked up, and transported off to the lock-up! I pity the persons who came out to find they had no way home! There's no such thing as being ticketed--the cars are literally taken away. These companies must really make a haul on a holiday or Saturday, because parking is pretty rare. I believe we had to walk at least a mile to the festivities after we finally found a parking place down the road. I wouldn't think that would bother a German, who seems to be born walking, but I guess the tendency is in all of us to park as close as we can to a place! Anyhow, we were pretty relieved when we got back to the car and found out that we really had parked in a legal place, 'cause these parking "police" were everywhere, just cruising up and down the streets looking for violators.

And, last but not least, this is the very apartment that Hank lived in 40 years ago in Bensheim when he served there. After we visited Sis. Seidenadder one day, we drove a little off the beaten path (Autobahn) and found his old city, set the GPS for the address (which he still had), and lo, and behold, there it was! A little nostalgia.

That's all for now. But I'm going to do some more tomorrow and try to catch up with some of our activities! Love to you all.

This belongs to the next blog, wouldn't you know? This was during the Indexing part of the seminar, where Hank was giving a little blurb. Time to help the people get on line, find out how to get to indexing, and teach them a couple basics of indexing.

A lovely end-of-the day dinner with the Howletts (left front), Reinhold and Ursula Schlotz (back, a wonderful couple from near Berlin who are "service missionaries" and donate nearly their whole lives to family history--they are the real pros), the Lunds, and the Calls (front right).

The end! But actually the beginning. Aghhh.

The real reason for the visit to Berlin!!

Here's the Berlin Stake Center. It sits on the edge of "The Tiergarten," of which you will learn more down below. Be patient!!! I am totally backwards as usual! We went to Berlin to present a family history/newFamilySearch/Indexing seminar--it lasted from 9:30 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m., and I'm just throwing in pictures of a few of the people (about 60 in attendance). People...

Sis. Howlett and a member learning to index.

On the right is one of the members of the stake presidency. Great leadership.

"Snack" time. They fed us a wonderful meal, including a homemade German soup which I hope I can learn to make!

Luxury at its finest!!! Our hotel room. If you ever need a place to stay in Berlin, I'll send you the name. Unbelievable!

Just open areas available for chatting. It was hard to choose where to be, our lovely rooms or the chat space.

Beautiful antiques.

More.

More.

As usual, I'm totally backwards...This was our last day in Berlin!

Talk about random...these pictures haven't been edited, they were taken mostly from a moving car as we left Berlin, 'cause we didn't have time to sight see after our family history seminar, so what you see is what you get...

This was a bouquet I received from the Berlin Stake for participating in the seminar/conference we presented, but I included it so you could see how they use branches in everything they do. Their flower arrangements are incredible. Note this tree--really weird. See those balls or bunches sitting in the trees? I thought they were old bird nests, but they are just leaves that never fall. We have lots of these trees by our office, and they're just fun to see.

This statue represents John the Beloved, and this church bears his name. It has been bombed out at least twice and rebuilt, ... the door of the building is really creepy, with sculpture representing people in Hell, a snake curling up the middle, and just anything but an invitation to enter!! Wrong order again. The door is down below a ways.

These were just random shots taken in the same block as the church...

The door!

This church below is famous for having been bombed during the war (at least once). It's on the East German side, and I visited it 40 years ago when I was here. They have since built the fancy octagonal glass church around it, but I'm glad they didn't remove what was left of the original.

Same church.

Yup, same church...

Government building...

Random church...

Modern, pointy architecture...I think a guy could get a pretty close shave on that one!

Building, river, profile of Hank!

They like domes.

That's all, folks.