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 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.
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