Still finishing up Würzburg and Rimpar!!!

Before we took off for Wien, we had a final district meeting in Schweinfurt, so I took a couple pictures while Hank took the elders to the train station. This is the old wall of the city. At one time it completely surrounded the city. Now there are just a few sections here and there. It's really massive and beautiful. More wall.

More wall.

More wall. Do you think I ought to take up writing as a profession???

And guess what else I found!?!? Another pig! This is Tuxedo Pig, and he was right by the wall. In talking to an elder there, I asked him how many pigs he thought there were in Schweinfurt, and he said he didn't have any idea but that one elder had taken pictures of 105 different ones! I guess our 2 weeks living there just wasn't enough--I only have 12 or 13!

Now moving on to Würzburg: Like I said before, I didn't take many pictures because I thought I had a whole year to get acquainted. Oh, well... This is just a typical street in Würzburg with a typical elderly woman with her backpack and purse and cane.

Germany must have it's financial structure founded on selling paint, because the entire country is just one mass of graffiti. There are some plots like this where "talented" graffiti artists paint, but the majority is just horrible. I don't think there's a building anywhere that isn't marred by someone's can of paint.

Close-up.

This was our last Sunday in Würzburg, and we just wandered down along the River Main for awhile. It's a beautiful area. This is a picture of the Alte Mainbrücke (Old River Main Bridge), as are the ones below:

More...

More...

Looking into Würzburg from the Alte Brücke, showing the clock tower of the Rathaus (courthouse) in the background and Handsome Hank in the foreground.

It is a common practice to mark flood levels over the years, and as we walked down this sidewalk, we found one for 1947--a great year!!

Smilin' Hank!

Isn't it beautiful?

This is a church-looking building that I think is a convent. Who knows?

And here is the Würzburg Schloss (castle) on a hill above the River Main.

Different angle...

Same...

Aren't those vineyards fun?

The week before we left, we received word from Ulrike that her son had a ski jump competition only an hour from Würzburg, and we knew it would be our only opportunity to see her, as the mission doesn't allow any travel outside its bounds, so we took advantage of meeting her there and meeting her two wonderful kids. For those of you who don't know, Ulrike was an exchange student 15 years ago at our high school, and she lived in our ward. Here she is with Luis (age 9) ...

...and Zoe, age 5.

This is the course. It's really interesting to watch how they set things up. Ulrike says she takes her kids around practically every weekend for either a skiing competition or in-line skating competition. Usually her husband goes along, but he had to work that weekend. They travel and sleep in a Volkswagen Vanagon and have a lot of fun as a family. They also rock climb, camp, etc.

This is Luis jumping.

Ulrike and one of the other mothers chatting with Hank.

And a close-up of Zoe--isn't she a doll?

Now to our last weekend in Rimpar...really sad for us. It was such a lovely place to live. These are just typical stacks of wood that are all over the place. Needless to say, trees aren't a limited commodity over here! It's getting cold enough now that a few people are burning wood some nights.

Earlier I blogged a picture of a hunter's blind. We found more on our last walk...

Here's Hank trying one on for size.

And here's one just sitting in the middle of a field.

And this is the memory I will take with me of Rimpar--looking out over our friendly little dorf.

Love you all! We've been Wien for a week now. I'll try to catch up someday!