More castles and a Medieval Parade

Welcome again to our adventures in Europe. It's Sunday morning and raining--again! We have had a few nice days, but have been overall surprised by how often it has been cloudy and/or raining. It hasn't "rained on our parade" however as you can tell from the pictures that follow.

So many castles and so little time! This is an impressive one about half hour from our home. We didn't stop to tour the inside of this castle in Braunfels; but these impressive, centuries-old structures dot the land here. The town square buts up against the castle walls and gates and is a charming place to have lunch. (or shop?)

This is the small market square, Braunfels. Gary is smiling because he is anticipating a lunch of fresh white asparagus (called Spargle), potatoes, and snitzel for lunch. No, we are not losing weight, but we walk so much we aren't gaining that much either.


This is looking over Speyer, Germany--another town with roots to Roman times and with a medieval history.

As you can see, not every thing in Speyer is medieval. This is a pretty cool shot of a 747 taking off, but it's not really taking off. It's a full size static model which is part of an air, locomotive, and car museum in Speyer.


More of Speyer as seen from a rather old tower over the old medieval gate to the city. All of the old cities were surrounded by a wall for protection with guard towers. This one in Speyer is pretty tall and good views!

On the way back from Speyer we stopped in Lorsch, Germany. You can see that there are still some holdovers from the middle ages in this town. These are locals preparing for a parade through this little town. (Reminded us of the Oakley parade - for those of you familiar with that--at least in the sense of a local, home grown affair) Falconry was big in the middle ages.

Here we have the serfs getting ready to start the parade. They are near one of the towns old wall an impressive gate and watchtower. It is among the oldest in Europe still standing.

Notice the medieval maiden (??) next to the serf. Yes, Mel has this need to mingle with the natives where-ever we go:) This was the staging ground for the parade.


We moved to a better viewing location to see the pageantry. This is a shot of the actual parade: serfs, maidens, knights, princesses, monks and the pope? Sorry, this photo doesn't show the horses and dragon already mentioned.

And here we have the local drum and fife corps. Not exactly the US Marine marching band, but they added nicely to the festivities. Mel finally got one of them to smile! They were taking it way too seriously:)

Our next blog entry will cover our recent trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. We love you all and miss you!

Tip toe thru the Tulips...and beyond

Gary takes time to "smell the roses" - only they are fragrant hyacinth

at Kuekenhof Gardens in Lisse, Nederlands. (Holland)

We start this edition of our blog in Nurnburg, Germany. The city was largely destroyed during the war, but has been rebuilt in an interesting mix of old and new. This is where the Nazi war crime trials were held and where General Eisenhower had his headquarters for a time. The cathedral above was just a shell after the war. We saw movies of tanks coming out of the side of the church when it was a rubble pile, and of bull dozers scraping the debri from the inside. They redid the shell and completed the inside to replicate it's original style and configuration.

Believe it or not, this home is still in use and it was originally built around 1300 AD. Homes like this survived the war and stand immediately next to new construction.

We also toured Luxemburg on our way home from Holland. The US has a beautiful cemetary and memorial there which includes the grave of General Patton. His grave stands at the head of the thousands of others in the cemetary, but it's notable that his marker is exactly like all the others. No immense statue or crypt, which we think fits the American way of looking at things.

The Germans, and all Europeans in genereal are very big into recycling. We struggle to divide our rubbish into all the assorted requirements. Mel's struggling to figure out things like where the dryer lint goes. The other day we stopped for a soda which came in a bottle. We had to drink it there or pay and extra 20 cents to take the bottle. Grandma takes all of our used bottles back to the store for a refund. If you can read the German, this recycling box has divisions for 3 colors - white, brown and green glass. They get kind of technical, don't you think?

We had a bit of a challenge finding availability at any of the motels on our way home from Holland & Belgium. Big Biking event created "no room at the inns". But it was worth this stop just for the sign in their lot. We often see parking reserved for woman or woman with children. Old folks like us are also sometimes treated to a preferred parking as well.

Speaking of parking, you might not be able to make it out, but this is a multilevel parking garage in Amsterdam for bicycles. We never saw so many bikes in our lives. Wonder how they ever find their own bikein this huge pile.

This is another shot taken from a boat on the canal. The garage had four levels and it was completely filled to the max with bikes. We parked at a Park n ride outside Amsterdam. It worked out great. For 6 Euro we parked for a whole day, recieved train tickets for the 4 of us into the city and had the option of recieving bikes. Not 6 per person - 6 euro for all of us!

Can't go to Holland without visiting windmills at the Kinderdijks. They were originally used to control water levels and as grinding mills. Not in use any more except as a picture platform for tourists. You might notice one of those in this picture.

Speaking of unusual signs. We've seen plenty of graphics with the slash through indicating no pooping of your dog. Seems that this IS a place where dogs ARE allowed to do what comes natural. Might be why the grass doesn't look so good.

This is a fairly typical Dutch house in the country. Like this one, many of the roofs were (still are) thatched. The Dutch are very clean. Each yard was neatly landscapped and no trash or weeds that we could see anywhere. We travelled with our friends the Whiddens. Arendje Whidden was born in Holland and lived there first 8 years and even wore wooden shoes as a child. It added to our trip to go to her birthplace and hometown. Her grandparents home was now the local firestation.

Did we mention that there were a lot of bikes in Holland? This is pretty typical. Lots of folks riding in business suits and mothers with kids on board. It's common to see a windshield on a bike like the one on the right.

This picture is from an area just outside of Rotterdam. (Kinderdijk) There were twenty or so windmills along the waterway. They are pretty much like they have been for centuries in this one place.

The Keukenhof Gardens hosts a world famous tulip festival for two months every year. Thankfully, we got there early in the day, because as we left we passed (literally) a 6 mile lineup of cars and buses waiting to get in. There are 85 acres of perfectly manicured gardens with tulips, grass, lakes, and statues. There are also several buildings with prize tulips in every style, color and configuration imaginable. We took a lot of pictures but none do justice to the beauty (and sweet smell) of the place.

The theme for the festival this year was "From Russia with Love". Some flower beds made designs such as the cathedral you see here, others were just amazing in their abundance of colors, and size.

Here we have two blooming idiots amid all the other blooming wonders.

Again, pictures don't really do the scene justice. The colors were very vibrant (and did we mention the sweet smell?)

There is a unique architecture found in Amsterdam. This picture was taken from our boat trip down one of the many canals in Amsterdam. You can see the top of a house boat, thousands of which line each side of the canals; then the apartment building just beyond. Most of these builings were orignially warehouses along the canals that have been turned into apartments. Notice the hoists up high - for bringing large items to the top floors. The stairwells are usuallly quite narrow. Pretty smart!

We heard that everyone in Holland has two or three bicycles. Could be. Seemed like more bikes than cars.

We hope all of our family and friends are doing well. We love you all and miss you. We are seeing some interesting things and visiting fun places when we can. But nothing compares to family and friends. Until next time.

Bernkastle, Germany & St. Katherine's Krankenhaus

We recently visited Bernkastle, another beautiful German city about 2 hours drive from Frankfurt.

Notice that the coats are off! This was one of the nicest weekends yet. Hopefully many more are to come as Spring and Summer arrive.

Outdoor eating, pedestrian only shopping, and artwork, including some pretty cool fountains, are found in almost every place we visit.

This is a view from a castle at the top of the hill overlooking the Mosel River. We can be king and queen of this castle without worrying about the Huns attacking at any moment.

In fact we could sit down and have a nice peacful meal if we wished. There is an operating restaurant inside the ruins of this castle. Quite a climb to get up here, but worth it. The hills in the background are covered with grape vines which have not yet leafed out. They are each artistically shaped into hearts. Not bad now, but this would be a spectacular view in Summer and especially in the Fall when the vineyard leaves turn color.

Mel looking down on the city from where arrows might have been shot in a former day.

This is the St. Katherine house for the sick--one of several local hospitals. Mel had a fast growing tumor appear on her side. We are awaiting an official report, but all indications are that it is benign and no longer a worry. The tumor was about the size of the doctors fist and growing in the network of muscles on the side. It was removed on an outpatient basis, but required general anethsesia and a very sore side for a few days.

Our LDS docs were very happy that Herr Professor Doktor Ulrich Finke did the surgery. He is not a member but has helped missionaries in the past and speaks good English. He is the head of surgery at St. Katherin's.

Opps, sorry. Probably one of the grandkids could fix this photo for us, but a little too technically challenging for grandpa at the moment. This is Melody pre-operation. Someone told her German hospitals didn't have gowns. She was a bit concerned how that would be. We had to be at the hospital about 6:45am but the actual surgery didn't happen until 3:00 in the afternoon. We got home about 8:30 making it a pretty long day.

She feels (and looks) like she's been kicked in the ribs by a large horse ...but is healing fine.