OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 27, 2017 FREIBERG, GERMANY

OUR FIRST SNOWFALL

     Winter has arrived in Freiberg.  We have only had one snowfall, but the trees have lost almost all of their leaves, we have a lot of rainy days, and I am finding it more difficult to go on my walks because it gets dark by 4:15 PM.


  We don't get home from the temple much before three, so we have such a short window of daylight.  I can't wait until December 21st so the days can start getting longer. 


     Christmas preparations are in the works.  Out on the temple lawn a manger has been set up. So far nothing has been put inside the manger, but I am excited to see it.

PYRAMIDES & SCHWIBBOGENS IN SEIFFEN

    Bill and I spent a couple of weeks buying and wrapping and packing Christmas gifts to send to our children and grandchildren.  We wanted to send them something authentically German, as a memory of our time on this mission.  We ended up having seven boxes to send.  We hope they arrive in good shape, with nothing broken.  We purchased 98% of these gifts in Seiffen, the town where they are made.  It is a super place to visit and shop!  The boxes were all in the mail by November 13th.  It felt so good to get them on their way!

   


    Bill's brother, Neil, died on November 10, 2017.  He was 74 years old, way too young to die!  Neil lived in Boise, Idaho and was walking back to his car following an event.  He tripped over a speed bump in the road and fell, bumping his head severely.

NEIL AND LIBBY MOSS

  This caused him to get a subdural hematoma in his brain.  He was in the hospital for several weeks, and was unable to recover from the physical complications that resulted in his body.  His funeral was held November 16th in Boise.

     Bill flew home to attend Neil's funeral, and was gone from Freiberg for one week.  He was so sorry to lose his brother, but felt peace about going to be with his family members as they celebrated Neil's life.  I was very happy to get him back in Germany again!


     The past three weeks in the temple were super busy with people from Hungary, Poland and the Czec Republic.  The people from each of these countries stay 4-5 days and attend the temple throughout all those days.  We are able to get to know them much more personally than if it was just a one day visit.  That's the joy of it!  They stay in the Herrberger, or patron housing, and many of them bring their children, and take turns tending for each other so they can serve in the temple.

BILL & ANN WITH CHRISTOPER SOUTHWICK

   


We had a wonderful experience meeting the Stake President from the only Stake in the country of Hungary.  His name is Christopher Southwick, and he is from SUGAR CITY, IDAHO!  Chris is the son of Neil and Marilyn Southwick.  He served a mission in Hungary, and married a girl, Nora, from Hungary.  They have three young boys.  Chris teaches in an international school in Budapest.

He came to our apartment and visited with us for an hour.  It was so enjoyable to talk about things from home, and people we knew in common.  Actually, Bill's sister, Joy, taught Christopher when he was in Elementary School.  Neal Southwick, his father, has passed away, but his mother is still alive, and lives in Meredian, Idaho with one of Chris's sisters.

ANGELA & VOLKER DIENER

     Temple workers come and go, and we have recently lost five of the workers we have served with for the past six months.  Volker and Angela Diener, from Hamburg, finished their service and returned home.  They were such enjoyable people to work with, even though they knew little English and I knew little German.  We were still able to communicate quite well.

ANN & KARIN SPIZZIRRI

   











Karin Spizzirri, from Italy, also returned home.
  Karin had been here for six months.  She is a native German, but married a man from Italy, and moved there to live and raise a family.  She joined the church after the death of her husband, and only she and her daughter are members of the church.  It was so fun to serve with her.  She taught me a few German words, and we enjoyed saying "Ciao" to each other.  David taught me that "Ciao" is the word for good bye in Italian.

     Our Assistant Temple Recorder, Robert Saitz, and his wife, Edith Saitz, our Temple Office Secretary, completed their assignment at the end of October.  We miss them. 

ROBERT & EDITH SAITZ

They were so effective doing their work, and so far we have no one to replace them.  The temple presidency and their wives, plus our permanent temple recorder, Peter Schonherr, are trying to handle all the work.



     Thanksgiving Day in America this year was Thursday, November 23rd.  Germany doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving Day, so we worked in the temple just as we do every Thursday.  We American Temple Missionaries, decided to cook a genuine American Thanksgiving dinner for our German and Austrian fellow temple workers.

ANN'S HOMEMADE ROLLS

We divided up the menu, and Bill and I ended up cooking a turkey, making homemade rolls,  making gravy, providing ice cream for the pies, serving jellied and berry cranberry sauce that Bill found in our pantry in Rexburg when he went home for Neil's funeral.  We spent most of that P-day Monday, November 27th ,cooking.

TABLE DECORATIONS

    It really did seem like Thanksgiving Day, because we spent most of it cooking.  We all told of something we were thankful for, we listened to Thanksgiving jokes, told by Larry Bonner.

ENJOYING THE FEAST

At one point I was able to tell a few of the people the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians, because the Germans and Austrians had no idea why we celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was a very enjoyable night, and the guests told us that they enjoyed the dinner very much.

     The weather is cold, every one's thoughts have turned to Christmas, but I feel that I have so much to be thankful for.  I'm so thankful to be serving this mission here in the Freiberg Temple.  I am so thankful for my missionary companion (Bill).  How blessed we are to have our wonderful family, and to have three grandchildren in the mission field.  Life is Wunderbar! 

OCTOBER 6 - OCTOBER 22, 2017 FREIBERG, GERMANY

     The beautiful Fall Season is almost over.  Over half of the leaves are on the ground, and we have many rainy days.

TEMPLE FLOWER BEDS OF HEATHER

Fortunately, some days the sun breaks through and for part of the day we will see only partly cloudy skies.  The last time I posted, the temple gardeners had pulled up all the Summer flowers, even though they hadn't been frosted at all.  Last week they filled the beds with flowers that are hardy enough to withstand colder weather.  The flower beds are now filled with a variety of Heather.  I didn't realize that Heather came in several colors.  It is pretty in its' own way!
 

     A member of our Temple Presidency gave us a thirty  page history relating the story of how the Freiberg Temple came to be here.  It is titled, "The Freiberg Temple:  An Unexpected Legacy of a Communist State and a Faithful People."  It is a research paper written by Raymond M. Kuehne, a man born of German immigrant parents, who served a mission in Germany.  He majored in history at the University of Utah, and studied on a Fulbright Fellowship at Marburg University, Germany, for a year.  After retirement, and a mission call to serve in the Freiberg Temple, he again had an opportunity to pursue history and

PRESIDENT MONSON REDEDICATION SITE

worked to compile a history of the LDS Church in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-90.  It is a very interesting story. 


     A few days ago, after our Temple shift ended, four of us missionary couples drove to a site between Dresden and Meissen, about 45 minutes away from Freiberg.  Here we found the place  where President Thomas S. Monson, then an Apostle,  dedicated and rededicated the land of Germany for the preaching of the gospel.  It was April 27, 1975. That day was  rainy and wet at the place, which overlooks the Elbe River, as well as the cities of Dresden and Meissen.  As they prepared to say the prayer, suddenly the sun broke through the clouds, a rooster crowed, and birds sang.  President Monson said this was the heralding of a new day for the the Church in this nation. 
     We missionaries were a little disappointed when we

BILL & ANN AT DEDICATION SITE

arrived, because the whole area was covered with a haze caused by the lack of wind for several days.  On a clear day, you can see the beautiful countryside, as well as Dresden and Meissen,  and the beautiful Elbe River.  Perhaps we can visit again on a beautiful clear day next Spring or Summer.  The story of the Church in this area really is faith promoting and miraculous!


 

HAZY DAY AT DEDICATION SITE WITH FRIENDS

 We had a great fireside last Sunday evening in the Gemeinde ( our ward meeting house.)  It was a concert presented by an opera singer, and a concert pianist.  This fireside was conducted by our Branch President, Dario Dzierzon!  One of his counselors, David Lehmann, was acquainted with the opera singer, who is not a member of the Church, but was a high school classmate of Bruder Lehmann.  The concert pianist, was Elder Blackham, a 19 or 20 year old LDS missionary from Chicago, serving in the Berlin Mission, in the city of Forst.  Elder Blackham played about five concert pieces from memory.  He was amazing!  He will return to BYU after his mission and is majoring in piano performance.  The opera singer sang about eight songs.  Most were in German, but I did love hearing her sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."  To close the fireside, she sang "The Holy City."  It was in German, but I knew it well enough that I could understand and enjoy it.  She had a beautiful voice!


     A week ago, Brother Gottfried Schmidt, and his wife, Ursula, invited all of the temple presidency and temple missionaries to come to Leipzig, and have a guided tour.

GOTTFRIED & URSULA SCHMIDT

Brother and Sister Schmidt are temple workers, and live in Leipzig.  Gottfried has been a bishop and stake president there, and presently serves as the stake patriarch.  He used to be called "the king of the Mormons," by the non member people in Leipzig. 
     The first place we visited was the monument of The Battle of The Nations.  This monument was built as a memorial to the biggest field battle in history up until October 1813, and took place around Leipzig.  At this battle, the allied armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden defeated the army of Napoleon and his allies.  This famous landmark is located close to Napoleon's former command post in the center of the battlefield of the Battle of the Nations.  Something like 500,000 people died in this battle.  It is huge, and still, to this day, has sentrys patroling around the upper parts of the monument every day. 

     Leipzig is also know as the (City of Heroes.)  This is because if its leading role in the 1989 Peaceful Revolution its residents organized protesting again the communist regime in May of that year.

BATTLE OF THE NATIONS MONUMENT

  By October thousands were taking to the streets placing candles on the step of Stasi headquarters and attending peace services at the Nikolaikirche.

BACH STATUE AT THOMASKIRCHE

     We visited the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church.)  Johann Sebastian Bach worked in this church as a cantor from 1723 until his death in 1750, and his remains lie buried beneath a bronze epitaph near the altar.
     Marin Luther also taught in the Thomaskirche. 

CHRISTMAS AT KOHLER KUNSTHANDWERK

          The city of Erzgebirge, Germany is famous for the Koehler Kunsthandwerk.  This company crafts handmade Christmas nativity sets and other Christmas articles..  The Kohler Kunsthandwerk business began  in 1989 when Bjorn Kohler started the company.  His unique style has become famous and now provides a life-size version of the Nativity for the Streizelmarkt in Dresden. 
In addition to the Christmas articles there are lines like the EggHeads or the Little Green Men that are charming.
     This company is in competition with Seiffen, but they have created their own style, which has become very well known in Germany.



    The final special event I'd like to comment on, is that our Grandson, Eli Moss, is now in the MTC in Provo, Utah, preparing to serve in the Milan Italy Mission.

NATIVITY SETS- COST SEVERAL HUNDRED EUROS

 Eli now joins his cousins, Jakob in Salt Lake City East (Spanish Speaking,) and Rachel, in Provo, Utah (Spanish Speaking.)  I assume Eli will be in the MTC for about 6 weeks.

ELI AND REBEKAH AT PROVO MTC!

     Our prayers are with Neil and Libby Moss and their family, in Boise, Idaho.  Neil fell and has had brain surgery.  We are praying for his recovery.

     Otherwise life is Wundebar!  Serving in the temple is a great privilege and blessing!
   
   

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 3, 2017 - FREIBERG, GERMANY

     Fall has come to Freiberg.  The trees are turning their beautiful colors.  The temple grounds trees are looking more beautiful each day.

WALKING IN THE FREIBERG WALD (FOREST)

WITH MISSIONARY FRIENDS, BONNERS
 AND FILLMORES

  I was a little disappointed when I saw the temple gardeners pulling up all the flowers around the temple, even though they had not been hit by frost at all.  They still looked beautiful.  They did this October 1st, regardless.
     I especially enjoy walking in the Freiberger Stattwald ( that means city forest.)  The leaves are starting to turn there, also, and it is so refreshing to wander down the paths.
   
     Last week, Bill and I joined the Freeman's in going to Seiffen, Germany.  Seiffen is located close to the Czec border, and got its' start as a tin mining town.  After many years the tin mine gave out, and the people had to find new avenues of employment.

IN THE WORKSHOP MAKING PYRAMIDS AND NUTCRACKERS

The one thing they had in abundance was wood from all the forest trees nearby.  Different families started making different toys and Christmas items.  A family would become skilled in making a certain item, such as nutcrackers, others would specialize in Pyramids, others in Schwibboggen's, others toy soldiers, etc.  The whole town specializes in selling these item throughout the year, and this place is visited by many tourists.

     Our group visited the workshop, where we saw people cutting, painting, and putting together different nutcrackers.

MAN-SIZED NUTCRACKER, A SCHWIBBOGGEN & A PYRAMID

The public is allowed to visit and watch these people at work.  We then went to the museum and saw the history of toy making in Seiffen.

     The town is full of shops that sell the items made in this town.  They are beautiful, and quite expensive.  My friend, Marlis, is German born, and she wanted to take home to Utah an advent wreath, like she had grown up with in her parents home.  She found one, and was so happy with her purchase.  Many, many different Christmas decorations and toys are found here.  It reminded me of Santa's workshop.

     Marlis told us that at Christmas time almost every German home has a Schwibboggen shining in their window.

VARIETY OF ITEM SOLD IN SHOPS

     The Schwibboggen is in the shape of a rainbow, and has candles shining on top.
The German people love Christmas, and celebrating Advent.

     Many towns have Christmas Markets which are open the four weeks before Christmas in the town square.  Bill and I are excited to visit the Freiberg Christmas Market this year.


         On October Second, our P-Day, our missionary friends, Ellen and Larry Bonner, invited us to go to Dresden and find the sites worth seeing there, because they had friends coming from Utah who have never been to Europe, and they were going to show them around.

      Dresden is a beautiful and interesting city to visit because it was almost totally destroyed by the Allies in World War II.  The Allies bombed it so badly because it was a place where the Germans made munitions.

     We purchased tickets on a sight seeing bus,and took a 1 1/2 hour tour around the city.  It made 22 stops and you could get on and off any place you wanted to visit and then and get back on, throughout the day.  We saw places of interest, and history,  and  different kinds of architecture.

DRESDEN SIGHTSEEING BUS

     We ate lunch in the most amazing restaurant.  It was called PulverTurm, and was located just off the main town square.  The amazing thing about this restaurant is that it was built and decorated on some of the ruins of the bombing, and these ruins were inside the restaurant and the restaurant had been built around them.  The decor was very period oriented, and the food was delicious.  The restaurant itself had been built underground, like in a basement.  It is located by the Frauenkirche, which is the most famous church in Dresden.

     President Uchtdorf talked about this Frauenkirche church in one of his General Conference talks.  It was totally bombed out during the War.  Sixty years after it was destroyed, and eleven years after reconstruction began, it was reconsecrated in 2005.  It cost 180 million Euros, financed mostly by donations.

OLD CITY RUINS INSIDE RESTAURANT

The new cross on the spire was crafted by English silversmith, Alan Smith, whose father had flown one of the planes during the bombing of the city.  The black bricks seen on the building are some of the original bricks before the church was destroyed.


     We enjoyed walking around the Royal Palace, where the Princes of Saxony lived in Dresden.  Also of interest, was The Swinger ( or outer ward.)  It was planned as a royal festival arena.   We walked  around the upper wall of the whole square, and just loved looking at the beautiful lawn sculptures, and enjoyed hearing the Glockenspiel chime every fifteen minutes.  All in all, our day in Dresden was informative and interesting.

DESTRUCTION OF DRESDEN - WW II

   We hurried home around 5 o'clock P.M. to see if we could arrive in time to see the Saturday morning session of General Conference.  I watched the Women's Session earlier in the week on the computer in our apartment.  We made it in time, and just loved hearing the speakers.  It is sad that President Monson was unable to attend, also Elder Hales.

     On Sunday morning, Bill went to the church and heard the priesthood meeting at 11 AM.  The Saturday afternoon session we saw at 2 PM Sunday afternoon, and the Sunday morning session we saw at 6 PM Sunday night.  We will see the Sunday afternoon session next Sunday at 10 AM as part of our three hour block of meetings.

     The sessions I have seen were so wonderful.  They always inspire and strengthen me.  I love our church leaders!  I was sorry to learn of Elder Hales passing, but I think he was so ready, and he has lived a wonderful life.  I know the Lord will comfort his family.  We will miss him!

 

BOMBED OUT FRAUENKIRCHE CHURCH - 1945

REBUILT FRAUCHKIRCHE CHURCH - 2005

Temple wise, starting in October, Bill and I are initiatory coordinators.  We will have his assignment for two months.  Today was our first day, and things went well.  Our special visitors to the temple this week are from Hungary.  Some of them speak English, but some don't.  We also had youth baptisms from Bremen Ward.  Eleven new missionaries arrived in Dresden and came to the temple.  They came straight from the MTC in Provo.  After doing baptisms, and having dinner, they were ready to crash in their beds.  They had probably been awake for about 24 hours.  They looked so young, and tired, and excited all at the same time.  It's always good to welcome them to Germany.  It is great to be doing temple work again.

WE CELEBRATE HARVEST BLESSINGS & TEMPLE BLESSINGS!

   It is a privilege and a blessing to help the Lord with this work!!

FALL TEMPLE CLOSURE - SEPTEMBER 11 - 25. 2017 - THE NETHERLANDS, FRANCE & GERMANY

THE NETHERLANDS

     The Freiberg Temple closed for cleaning purposes September 11 - 25, 2017.  Bill and I decided to use the time visiting places in Europe that interested us. We started our trip by driving to The Hague, Netherlands.  Much to my sorrow, I knew that tulips wouldn't be blooming, but I wanted to visit The Hague Temple, Delft,  and Amsterdam.

THE GFELLER'S  HOME IN THE HAGUE

 We booked housing with a young family, last name Gfeller.  They own a new house that has a small parents suite attatched which includes a kitchen, sitting room, bedroom and bathroom.  We paid 50 Euros per night, and had a wonderful stay there for three nights. The Gfellers were so kind, and answered questions, and helped us get oriented. Our first activity was a visit to the Temple.    The Hague Temple is one of the church's smaller temples, but is situated on beautiful temple grounds.  The plants and flowers are simply gorgeous.  You walk over a water moat to get to the front door.  The temple president is from Highland, Utah, but speaks good Dutch.  His last name is Van Dam, so I think he has Dutch ancestry.

THE HAGUE TEMPLE

 He and his wife were so welcoming and kind to us.  We enjoyed our visit to the temple very much.  
     Delft, Holland is a beautiful small town, sometimes referred to as a mini-Amsterdam, even though it has a population of 100,000.  All of the sites to visit are located close together, so we enjoyed just walking around.  The important thing of Delft that I wanted to see was the process of making the porcelain that they are so famous for.  We stopped in a shop that sold Delft ware, but was also a place where a potter works, and a woman who painted the patterns on the pottery.  We were able to see, to a small degree, how the process works, and buy a few small pieces ( a spoon rest, and two Christmas ornaments.)  It is pretty expensive.

THE DELFTWARE SHOP.  IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

     We also took a canal cruise around town.  The water in the canals is very tranquil.  For this reason it is hard to keep algae from growing on the water.  Many of the canals were green with Algae.  We visited the gate to the old city of Delft in the 1400's.  The Golden Age of Delft was in the 1600's.  The artist, Vermeer, is a native son of Delft, and many of his paintings reflect scenes from Delft's everyday life.  William of Orange, a Dutch ruler,  is also a famous person buried in Delft, and his tomb is in the New Church there.  Every town in Europe has it's church, and they are mostly very old.  This New Church began construction in 1393.  1981 marked its 600th birthday.

DELFT CANAL ALGAE

     Amsterdam is a huge city.  Our goals were to visit the Anne Frank house, a canal cruise, and a visit to the Rijksmuseum, Holland's National Museum.
     We all know the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl, who, with her family, hid in the back of the business where her father worked, for two years before being discovered by the German soldiers and sent to a concentration camp, where she died of Typhus.  Anne had a Mother, Father, and a sister, Margot.  She faithfully kept a journal of her life in hiding, and her goals for the future. We walked through the rooms where her Dad worked, and where they hid for so long, being helped by non Jewish friends who brought them food and supplies.  Only her father survived the concentration camp, and He it was who published her diary, which is now printed in 41 different languages.  It was very sobering to visit.

ANNE FRANK HOUSE IN AMSTERDAM

ANNE FRANK

 

  The canal cruise around Amsterdam was great.  Amsterdam has many, many canals running through it.  The Amstel River is the water source.  We took an hour cruise, enjoyed Amsterdam's Harbor, and saw many interesting houses.                          

AMSTEL RIVER CANAL CRUISE

RICH MAN-MANY WINDOW PANES

   People in Holland pay taxes based on how many windows are in the front of the house. 

   If people wanted to show that they were rich, they put in many small window panes, and that was one sign of their wealth.  The water in Amsterdam flows quite swiftly, so they did not have the problem of algae that Delft has.  

THE RIJKSMUSEUM ENTRANCE

     The Rijksmuseum is wunderbar!  I especially loved the Dutch Master Painters, like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Franz Hals and Jan Steen.  The 1600's was the Golden Age in art, and these artists flourished.  Their works are shown in the Gallery of Honor, and I enjoyed them most of all.  The Rijksmuseum is huge (four story's high.)  It is a beautiful building, and very worth visiting.  It is visitor friendly.
   


      One thing I must mention about Amsterdam and Delft.  The people park their cars right on the edge of the canal.

CARS ON BRINK OF CANAL

  With a mistep you could end up in the canal.  Bill came pretty close when he tried to get out and in the drivers side of our car.  We heard the story of a police car chasing a criiminal, and he ended up with his car in the canal.  We walked ourselves to exhaustion in Amsterdam, but it was a great day.







PARIS, FRANCE

     A five hour drive from The Hague  took us to Paris,France.   We checked into the patron housing at the Paris Temple, which is really located in Le Chesnay, France, a suburb of Paris.

BACK OF TEMPLE WITH GARDENS

 The temple complex is large.  It includes the temple, an underground garage, temple missionary housing, patron housing, a visitors center, very large kitchen cafeteria area, and sunken gardens.  The Angel Moroni is not on top of the temple because of zoning restrictions.  I missed not seeing Moroni there.  The temple has very small grounds in the front, they are all in the back.  The front door is really located quite close to a road.  The patron housing has  rooms for women and rooms for men.  I had five women roommates the first night, and Bill had two roommates.  His roommates names were Peter and John.  They were disappointed that Bill's name wasn't James.  Our second night, Bill's roommates left the temple, so I was able to move into his room.  Interestingly enough, they don't charge anything to stay in their patron housing.  In Freiberg they charge $9.00 a night!  We did two endowment sessions in the temple.  It is VERY beautiful inside and out.

     The Eiffel Tower immediately drew our attention because it is so large and towers above  everything else.

EIFFEL TOWER

 We walked to it, and all around it.  Lots of people were waiting to ride an elevator up part way to the top.  They won't allow anyone up to the top these days.  Security police with guns were noticed around the area.  When Bill was here 56 years ago, after his mission, he climbed the stairs clear to the top of the Tower.


     We walked all over Paris.  Strolling along the Seine, we made our way to the L'arc de triomphe.  I have wanted to see this every since I saw pictures of Dwight Eisenhower riding in his jeep through the Arch after freeing Paris from the Germans at the close of World War Two.

WE WALKED AT THE TOP
OF THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE

 This site, too, had security police around.  We rode the elevator to the top and had a birds eye view of Paris.  We spent about thirty minutes up top, bought a few souvenirs in the gift shop, and went back down.

      Surprisingly to us, as we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, we passed a huge memorial called the "Flame of Liberty."  All around the base of this monument were  pictures of Princess Diana.  The underground street right below us was the tunnel where she died in a car accident in August 1997.  It has been twenty years since this happened.

PRINCESS DIANA MEMORIAL

 
   Cruising the River Seine was wonderful for us, because we were so exhausted from walking all over Paris, that to cruise past Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Louve was a real treat.  We would never have had the energy to walk that far.  We cruised up and down the Seine for an hour.  Our guide told us that the Louve has ten miles worth of hallways if you visit the whole place.

 I guess I'll have to see the Mona Lisa another day.  If we had had another day to visit, I would have loved to go into Notre Dame and La basilique du Sacre-Coeur.  We could see the Sacre-Coeur sitting majestically upon a hill of Paris.
 I decided I was glad I did not live in Paris.  There are so many people there, and so many apartment buildings, that are so close together.  I did enjoy eating my baguette sandwich from Josephine's Backerei, and my strawberry whipped cream crepe from a street vendor.

EATING MY CREPE

SITES OF PARIS - BOTTOM RIGHT THE SACRE COEUR

   









Motorcyclists almost rule the road in Paris.  They buzz in and out and around and between lanes of traffic.  If you get in their way, they pound the side of your car with their gloved hand.  We got pounded several times.  They don't like to be hampered, or slowed down by commuter traffic.

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

   Looking forward to a reunion with our son, Todd, we drove the 5 1/2 hours toward Heidelberg, Germany.  Todd flew into Frankfurt from Syracuse, New York, where he teaches, and met us in Heidelberg.  Heidelberg is very picturesque.

VIEW FROM THE CASTLE

 I have wanted to see it for many years after seeing the movie musical, "The Student Prince."  As I grew up, the songs from this movie were played and sung in our home by many members of my family.  One of the songs is "When It's Summertime In
Heidelberg."

     Heidelberg is a university town, it also has a schloss, or castle.  Surrounded by the Neckar River, this town is a picture postcard city.  We walked around the University, and took a cable railroad car up to the top of the mountain to the Schloss.

THE SCHLOSS HEIDELBERG

  This castle was used by Palatinate princes, stampeding Swedes, and Protestant reformers.  It has seen raging fires, and lightning bolts, but still is Heidelberg's heart stealer.

 

  We attended Sunday Sacrament Meeting in Heidelberg.  They have a beautiful Stake Center and two wards.  Six missionaries greeted us, and helped me enjoy the meeting by interpreting what the German speakers said.  The missionaries said that they have good success finding people to teach in Heidelberg.  The students there seem to be willing to listen.

WITH TODD IN THE CASTLE

LANDSTUHL/RAMSTEIN, GERMANY
     We traved 1 1/2 hours from Heidelberg to Landstuhl/Ramstein, Germany.  Todd was scheduled to teach classes for two days at the United States Air Base at Ramstein.  Fifty thousand Americans are stationed at Ramstein.

THE PROFESSOR PREPARING FOR CLASS

Todd is a professor at Syracuse University, and teaches classes at the base about how to start a business when you get out of the military, or how to get a job when you get out of the military.   He has been to Germany and other countries with this teaching assignment.
   
       We checked into our hotel, called 'The Schloss Hotel."  It was situated half way up a mountain, and close to the Schloss of Landstuhl.  The setting was beautiful.  We stayed here for three nights, and enjoyed walking to the Schloss, and exploring the area around Landstuhl and Ramstein.

OUR HOTEL IN LANDSTUHL

While Todd was teaching, we drove to the city of TRIER.  Trier is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to Germany's finest Roman monuments.   Trier was the northern capital of the Holy Roman Empire.   We were interested in seeing the Porta Nigra, a 2nd century city gate that has been blackened by time. Trier was founded in the 1st century BC.  It is Germany's oldest city.  Also of interest were an amphitheater and the thermal baths.

SITES OF TRIER - NOTE ROMAN RUINS

    We arrived in Trier full of hopes for a great day, and found to our sorrow, that all the museums were closed on Mondays.  We took a site seeing ride around town, but really missed seeing the most meaningful parts of Trier.  One interesting item on our guided tour was seeing the house where Karl Marx lived.  You will remember, Karl Marx wrote the book, "Mein Kampf."  


     Full of fond memories of beautiful temples, and historical sites, on September 20th we drove home to Freiberg and settled back into our super one room apartment ready to rest,  recuperate and get back to temple work on September 25th.  It was a  WUNDERBAR vacation!