A WELCOME HOME

During the next few weeks all the soldiers from Grafenwoehr that have bee in Iraq  this past year will be coming home.  They arrive home in shifts and started coming this past week.  When we were at the gym this morning, I noticed they were getting ready for a welcome home ceremony and thought that it would be nice to attend.  We have seven men from our ward who will be coming home.   This was a small group of about 30 returning.  This picture shows some of the family waiting for the soldiers to arrive. They have been gone for one year.

Marching in

A smart salute and then dismissed.

Families reunited.  It was nice to be there.  I hope we can come when some of the bigger groups come home.

OUR BIG WEEKEND

NURNBERG

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Enjoy a few more pictures of Nurnberg. 

I can't get enough of the timbered buildings.

Cute, don't you think?

When we were in Nurnberg before my camera died and I didn't get pictures of the castle.  It is quite an impressive structure.  Inside the walls are many buildings, gardens, etc.

They were having some kind of a dog contest.  Some were in halloween costumes.

Coming soon to a theatre near you.  Yes, even to Nurnberg.

The dining room of the hotel we stayed in.  They served a very nice breakfast.

Have you ever seen an elevator for one?

Our hotel in Nurnberg.

BAMBERG, GERMANY

It is always hard to select which pictures to put on the blog.  I took lots.  But hopefully this will give you a bit of idea of this beautiful city.  This city was lucky in that it sustained virtually no damage during the war.  We were told that when the bombing was going on around the area that there was always a fog or heavy clouds over the area.  They claim angels we watching over the city.  I'm glad they were.

The river Regnitz around the old Town Hall built in 1440.

Beautiful paintings on the old Town Hall.

This is called Little Venice.  I really liked the colorful houses you can see along the shore.

Of course, a massive cathedral.  The present structure was finished in 1442.  How did they build such things back then?

Not too any roses left in the garden.  The one standing here looks a little like one of those wilted roses in the background!

I'm not sure what this is up on the hill.  We didn't go up, but it is very impressive.  We will still have plenty to see next time  There are several castles we missed.  Always more to see.

LAST WEEK

I have told you, I believe that we live a block from the Catholic church and the cemetery is next door.  They have funerals frequently.  First, the church bells ring furiously.  Then everyone gathers at the church for the service.  Then the procession moves from the church to the cemetery complete with a little band playing along.  This is picture taken from our bedroom window.

A week ago we went to a bazaar held on Post.  They had many vendors, but here are just a few of the goods on display.

These were really expensive.  The one I liked was $800.00

I was quite proud of myself for passing on everything.  Next year will probably be more of a temptation.  I will have a year to look around and see what I really have to bring home.

SUPRISE!

YES, THAT IS SNOW ON MY FLOWERS!  WINTER IS COMING EARLY HERE.

ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG

October 10th was Elder Aubrey's birthday so we had a little celebration.  We bought him a few of his favorite American treats.

Of course, we had to have a birthday cake--not a very fancy one.

But it had twenty-one candles, and he blew them all out.  However, I don't think his wish came true.  I don't know for sure what his wish was, but he wanted to stay here very badly so I thought that might have been his wish.  He will be transferred on Wednesday.  It will be hard to see him leave.  We have grown close to these Elders.  I hope they send us another good one.

WATCHING AND EATING

Tuesday was our District Meeting with the Elders.  After our meeting at the church we came to our place for lunch.  (Shannon I fixed your recipe for the Alfredo Lasagna, and it was a big hit.)  I had stayed up Sunday night to watch conference and was so impressed with Elder Holland's talk.  The Elders were anxious to see it so we watched conference and ate Shannon's Lasagna.

His talk on the Book of Mormon was so powerful.  We were all very touched by it.  Maybe it is because we are all missionaries.  I hope you all heard it.

Two P-day Adventures

A week ago Brian and I went back to Bayreuth (pronounced Bi-roit).  We saw the gardens a week earlier, but didn't get into the city so decided to check it out.  It isn't the most beautiful or most quaint of cities, but still very nice.  I guess we get spoiled with all the wonderful towns and cities around here.  This is the city plaza.

The area around the plaza is the opera district.  This fountain was across from the Opera House pictured below.  They have an opera festival here every year and tickets are very sought after.  I understand they are very expensive and very hard to get with long waiting lists.  I guess that won't be one of the things on our "to do" list.

This is the opera house.  Bayreuth is famous because Wagner lived here for 10 years.  He is "the" famous German opera composer.  This is not his opera house, however.  He did build an opera house here but we didn't see it.  This is the beautiful one.  Evidentally, his is very plain both inside and out.  It would have been nice to see it, but we didn't know where it was.  Sometimes not speaking the language can be a pain.   We can't even read the signs!

We did go into the opera house as I really wanted to see the inside  As you can see it is very ornate.  I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong by taking pictures so I just took this one.  They had a film presentation, but we didn't get much out of it as it was in German.

They have a lovely park just behind the Wagner museum.

This was Wagner's home and is now a museum.  We went in and it was nice to see, but again, everything was in German.  Franz Lizt also had a home in the area.

Today, October 4th, another P-day.  We went with the four elders in our district to Parkstein, which is just down the road from us.  Elders Aubrey and Harrison had tracted in the area and found this lovely little town built on a hill with a church at the very top.  

That's the church up there on that rock.

Another view of the church as we were climbing up to the top.

We were reward with a great view of the whole area.  It didn't seem so misty when we were up there, but the photo seems to show it.

Here we are.  Aren't we lucky!

Our "boys" as we like to call them.  They are so nice to invite us to tag along with them.

What grand creations Heavenly Father has created for us to enjoy.  It was very peaceful up to the top.  There were benches to sit on and just enjoy the view.

Brian and I had our first meal at a sit-down German restaurant.  The meal was very good so we will definitely go back.  It was a nice afternoon spent with the best of company.