Konigstein

April 30, 2011

Once in a while we are able to meet with several senior missionaries that are serving various callings in the Area Office.

We attended a barbeque and ate real American barbeque food--it was yummy.

This picture was taken of Don and I in the annex to the temple.


Lest anyone forgets the real reason that we are in Germany, we are including a picture of the temple.
We work in the temple five days a week; one week the early shift which starts at 6:30 am and goes until 1:30 pm, the next week we work the late shift which starts at 1:00 pm and goes until 7:00 pm, except on Fridays and then it goes until about 10:00. We meet many people from many different countries. Some of the countries that people come to the temple regularly from are: Crotia, Serbia, Albania, France, Holland, Germany, America (lots of visitors) Italy, Slovania, some Russians, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Makes for interesting conversations in all kinds of languages. It is challenging, but we love it.


This is where we live. There are five apartments in this building--it is called The Villa.
It is located right on the temple grounds. We moved here in January.
Our apartment is located on the ground floor (just behind the flowering trees in the picture).
The two counselors and their wives have apartments on the top floor, the Temple President and his wife's apartment is on the second floor, and our and one other apartment is on the ground floor.


May 2, 2011

Konigstein

We visited a little town not far from Frankfurt. Konigstein is a small picturesque town with two castles in it.

This is the city wall. We couldn't decide what the hole was for--someone suggested that it was for guns (when the city needed defending)--Karen thought it looks like a giant key hole. There were two of these several feet apart.

In the background is one of the castles. This is one of the more modern castles in Germany. It was built as a Chateau for the Frankfurt banker Albert Andrease in 1891. In 1957 it was used as a boarding school until it becamse private property in 1987. Since 1997 this building serves as a company headquarters.

Don wants Bergen (Melinda's daughter) to know that we found her boots that she left when she visited Germany a couple of years ago--they are hanging on the side of a wall in Konigstein.

Actually, I don't think that Bergen left her boots here--but maybe.........The Fortress of Konigsten

The founding of the castle and city is based on a legend told in which the Franconian king Chlodwig (who governed 481-511) supposedly built the castle on the hill. The first mention of Konigstein in the historical records datges back to the year 1215--so it is assumed that the castle/fortress was built sometime around then.

Looking out into the park that surround the castle

The castle served both as a national fortress and as a state prison. At the end of the 18th century followers of the French revolution were also keep in custody there. In 1792 a large part of the city burned down, when the fortification was bombarded and then again the castle was dynamited by French troops in 1796. All that remains of the castle is ruins.

We had a great time exploring the ruins.

Looking down on the city from the Castle courtyard

Karen and Carol Frost

Don visiting with the Guard at the Gate!

Okay, sometimes Karen just has to clown around!

Hope you enjoyed our trip to Konigstein

Traveling More of Germany

In April Karen's Niece, Annalea Cannon and her Son, Seth visited us. We spent some time with them and had a lot of fun. It was so good to see them!

Seth and Annalea at Saalburg, a Roman Fort close to Friedsrichdorf

Seth, Annalea, Karen and Don at Saalburg
Thanks for coming to visit--we had a wonderful time with you!

On April 26th we went with Ron and Carol Frost and took a long ride along the Rhein River and then over the mountain and along the Mosel River. The following pictures are of that trip.

This is on the Mosel River

This picture is of the Mosel River, but I think Don just wanted a picture of the red sports car.

This is going over the mountain between the two rivers. The yellow field is a field of Rapps. These yellow fields dot Germany during the agriculture season. Canola oil is made out of this crop.

There are many castles along the Rhein Rivers. We took these pictures from the car. There was a castle every few miles. It also amazes us how the people so long ago could build such huge buildings all of stone on the top of the mountains.

Several of the castles have towns below them.

And some of the castles have been turned into hotels.

In almost all of the cities in Germany there is property set aside for garden plots that the cities rent to their citizens. The plots cost about 90 Euro a year to rent which is about $130.00. The people build little houses on the property, they can put in barbeque pits, they can grow vegetables, flowers, fruit trees; whatever they want to grow. They use these places to go for relaxation.

We visit the one in Friedsrichdorf often to see the growing progress.

Lilacs are a favorite in Germany

We were surprised to see two colors of lilacs on the same bush. The man that rents this particular property was standing there and so Don asked him about the two colors. He said that he grafted in one of the colors. Since then we have noticed that many lilacs bushes have two colors on them--they are beautiful.

Pathway through gardens

On April 18th we visited Wuerzburg. This castle is one of the biggest we have seen. We were able to take a tour of several rooms in the castle and they are elaborate and beatiful. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside the castle.

The shell was built from 1720 to 1744. The interior was finished in 1780. It has been restored as close to the original as possible. The gardens are fantastic.

Interior of Cathederal at Wuerzburg

March 21st found us visiting Heidelberg.

This is one of our favorite cities. The castle ruins on the hill overlooking the city is magnificant.

Karen and Don in front of the castle

The castle is huge. Restoration is an ongoing process.

Heidelberg from the castle courtyard.

Karen and Don

In the Castle Courtyard

Notice the cat sunning itself.

March 14th we visited a little city name Gelnhausen.

We love this house--notice how straight the floors seem!!!!

One of the picturesque streets in the city

The city was holding a Middlealters Festival. This is where they show how things were done in the early times. It was very interesting.

This is a bakery!

Selling period clothing

These placques are placed in the sidewalks of many cities.
They are in remembrance of Jewish people that were arrested in the cities and that lost their lives in concentration camps.

Bad Vibel

This is the only castle ruin that we have seen where the moat still has water in it.

Michelstadt - February 28th

Don standing in the entrance to the wall of the city.

Budingen - February 14th.

This little city is very intersting. The castle is closed on Mondays but we called and they had a guide come in just for us. She spoke English and instead of the one hour tour, we got a 2 1/2 hour tour. It was great.

Inside the courtyard of the castle.

Guess who this is????

On many of the buildings in the city there are frogs such as the one in this picture and the next picture:

There is a story surrounding the frogs.

A Duke lived in the castle and he went to a distant city and married a princess. When they returned to the castle to live the Princess was very upset after the first night because she couldn't sleep. The frogs in the moat were too noisy and they kept her awake. She told her husband that she was going to return to her father's house. The Duke loved his princess and didn't want her to leave so he called the town's people together and told them what the problems was. The townspeople gathered nets, baskets, buckets, whatever they could find and went to work catching the frogs.

They caught thousands and put them in a cage in the middle of town--the frogs were so noisy that the townspeople couldn't sleep, so they called a meeting to see what they should do about the frogs. They decided to drown them in the river. (What, drown a frog?) They dumped the frogs into the river and many of them were swept away to the sea.

The Princess decided to stay and she went on to have 13 children!

This frog decorates the wall of the castle.

Karen and Don in Budingen

Thank you for letting us share some of our fun with you!