BIKE RIDING February, 2014
The weather this winter has been mild.  No snow.  Now it is getting up into the mid 50's in the daytime, flowers are starting to sprout up and we have had some SUN!  Not a lot of sun but for a few hours there was very nice sun.  Then it turned to rain again so the dirt paths in the park will be muddy again for a while.  We rode to Kafertal Park a couple of times and we rode home from our church conference that was held in Heidelberg.

We were surprised to see 15 baby piglets at this time of year in the park!

The Bison

Mom feeding her piglets.  They make really cute sounds.

Our nice bike ride home from church in Heidelberg

Looking East towards the local hills, riding home from church.

Bike path in Kafertal Wald.

I saw this nice part of the park that I had not seen before that had a small pool for health.  It was empty for the winter but I'll go aback in the summer to see if it has water in it.  There is a nice picnic area here too.

I like the benches here made from fallen trees.  And see how God is shining his light down on me here?

These deer are the only ones who liked the celery

Nice bike paths

Our Ward building in Mannheim.

RETURNING MISSIONARIES FOR A VISIT
Lauren Moon and Jessie Linford got free plane tickets to fly to Germany in February.  So we had the pleasure of having them stay the night and have dinner with us and the other current missionaries here in Mannheim.  What wonderful people and spirit they bring.

Sister Allison Shipton, Lauren Moon, Sister Chloe Lehman

Elder Brady Craft,  Elder Jesse Nelson, Steve, Lauren Moon, Sister Shipton, Sister Lehman, me

Lauren Moon & Jessie Linford

BAPTISM FOR JASIRA
Jasira was baptized on February 15th.  What a wonderful occasion this was.  So many people came and joyfully celebrated.

Steve and baby Ivy. 

Lots of great food.

Sister Shipton, Sister Lehman, Jennifer
Jasira

Sister Shipton, Sister Lehman, Jennifer

As an extra special treat, Sister Nufer and Sister Smith got to come back to Mannheim for this special Baptism.

Sweeping the floor is afterwards is even fun if you dance while you do it.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY
We had a nice dinner at our place for Valentines Day.  Steve brought home another beautiful orchid.  The white one is from last years Valentines Day, the purple one is from this Valentines.  I made red velvet brownies cut out in hearts for desert.  The two smaller candles are ones that Christina made by hand.

BIKE PATHS
I really love the bike paths in Germany.  I don't know if all of Germany has as many or if they are connected to each other as well as this area but as far as I can ride, they are wonderful.  It is obvious that the thought of bicyclists and pedestrians are thought of from the start before roads are built.  It would be so much better in the U.S. if they would take this approach to any new construction and not even attempt to build a new road unless the bike path is included in the planning.  Here are a few examples around this area.

This is a pedestrian and bike tunnel under railroad tracks.  There is a channel on each side of the stairs to put the bike tires into to easily push the bikes up & down the stairs.

Another example of the channels and stairs underpasses.

A large majority of city streets have very wide sidewalks that have an area for pedestrians and an area for bikes.  The red paving stones are usually the area for bikes.  This is commonly done on BOTH sides of  the streets. 

Signs are all over indicating that one side of the path is for bikes and the other for pedestrians. 

Here is another example of an underpass for bikes and pedestrians for a busy street or freeway.  This kind of thing is also found only as bridges over busy roads or railways.

This is a busy round about that has separate bike paths concentric to the traffic circle indicated with paving stones and signs. 

Same traffic circle without the cars.

This is a dedicated bike path going under a busy road.

Here is another example of bike paths going under busy roads. 

Here is a path going up to cross over a freeway that has stairs but both sides of the path have filled in areas that make it possible to ride the bike up and down.  It is a bit of a wild ride if you are going a little fast as it is not completely level but it is easy to do.

Our apartment building has 3 rooms in the basement (keller) that are locked with our building key where we can store our bikes.  This is my bike with the basket with the colorful bag in the back and the pouch I made to carry my map and camera.  Right now it has a piece of celery in it that I am taking to feed the deer in the park.  Most bikes have baskets, big seats, low cross bars, headlights, and a bell.

You will notice that almost all the bikes are more of a commuter type with low cross bars and big full comfy seats and baskets to carry stuff.

As you can see from this bike path, it is about the same width as the width of the road that the cars go on.  There is a path this wide on both sides of this road which really isn't that busy of a road.  This path goes for miles and a lot of it is along a river so it can be really quite a nice ride.