LEAVING IN ONE WEEK - LAST BIKE RIDES

The apartment is getting really empty.  The boxes left last Monday.  The bed will go tonight to a friend and we will sleep on the twin beds that came with the apartment.  It seems strange that almost everything I do now I say to myself, this is the last time I'll do this or that in Germany.  Go to the store, the vet, ride the bike here, visit this person or that person etc.  We had the Sister missionaries over for dinner last Thursday.  Our oven is broken now so we had to do dinner in the microwave and I have very little to work with in the kitchen for cooking or serving and no spices.  On Saturday Steve and I took our last bike ride together to Heidelberg.  It rained on us going there and back but not too much and it wasn't too cold.  Yesterday I had my very last bike ride in Germany.  I took the missionaries on a ride to Waid See.  We had a nice time.  The weather was a little cool and we had some sprinkles but we didn't get too wet.  We stopped at the zip line in the park, went through the Vogel Park, took the roads throught the fields, went to Waid See, the dairy, the circus was in town so we saw some camels and some zebras.  The bikes are now washed (as best we can do with a bucket of water) and will be packed tonight or tomorrow for air freight to L.A.

Sister Lahra Dawn Sherwood and Sister Chloe Lehman.
Before dinner we walked to the lake to see the swans.

The baby swans are almost full grown.  The grey ones are just starting to get a white feather or two now.

Steve and I rode to Heidelberg on Saturday.  The weather was cool and a little rainy but not bad.  The park on the opposite side of the river from the main part of town is very nice.

Last bike ride in Germany.  The 4 missionaries and Christian Siebert who will be leaving on his mission to the U.S. very soon.  We are so blessed to have this "P" day for a ride.

Sister Sherwood, Sister Lehman, me, Elder Stout, Elder Fitzgerald.

with Christian

 They all take turns on the zip line.  The zip lines are pretty popular and common in playgrounds in Germany.

 At Vogel Park.

Missionaries in the cage?

In the frog lookout.  I like how the heavens shine the light down on the missionaries.

These two donkeys where having a fight, maybe sibling rivalry. 

Our stop at Waid See

Inside the dairy barn with the cows

With camels

All 3 of them have the same expression!

Of course Zebras!

Milk and Cookies at Waid See

Milk Staches

BABY HAWKS
A few days ago, 4 baby hawks that must have had a nest nearby in one of the trees, took their first flight!  I really enjoyed seeing them try out their wings.  One landed right in front of me on our window sill for a few seconds before taking off again.  They were almost white on the belly with brown speckled feathers.  They tried to balance on the antennas on top of the other buildings and sat on several window sills while catching their breath.  They would fly around and around the building just at our 11th floor level and just below and just above.  The ravens came to bother them, so I do hope they all survived OK and got off on their own journey from here.  I could only get one photo of one on a window sill on the building to the south of us.  This one stayed there for a long time, it must have been very tired or afraid for awhile.

BIKE RIDE to LADENBURG
August 11th, I went for a nice bike ride.  The weather wasn't raining like the days before and after that so I was lucky to get out.  On the way I saw a bird in the road, just sitting there and not moving as I approached.   I thought, "that isn't good".  So I stopped and waited by it so no car would run it over.  Since it still didn't move, I picked it up with my bike sleeves and held it and talked to it.  It liked that.  After a while I set it down in a nice safe shady spot and it recovered and hopped away.  I hope it did OK.  Then I rode to the library downtown and rented a few DVD's.  Downtown isn't much fun to ride in and I had to walk in the most pedestrian crowded areas but after that I rode out to Ladenburg which is always a nice place to ride.   I took the small ferry for the first time, that was fun.

Many farmers plant various flowers in a patch next to the crops to attract bees I think.
This one had a patch of pretty sunflowers.

Here is one of the storks we see all over here in the fields.  I will miss these birds.

I saw this bird in the road.  I think it must have hit a mirror nearby and was stunned.

I picked it up and talked very nice and quiet to it.
Telling it that I would not hurt it and would help it.
I think it liked me.

I sat by it for a while in the shade and it seemed to recover.

I couldn't see any injuries but I will never know if it was totally OK.
It did hop off into the brush.

I think the bird flew into this mirror that was close to where the bird was sitting in the street.
What a shock that must have been for it, as it does look like you could fly through that.

I took the small ferry across the Neckar for .50 cents with a bike. 

The ferry can hold 6 cars.

Not a hard job.
Cars drive onto the ferry, another guy collects the money and this guy pushes the button and goes back to sleep.

The ferry runs on a chain that is submerged in the water.

This time there was a big flock of mallards in Ladenburg Park.

TIME WITH FRIENDS
Our good friends, the Siebert's, invited us to go see a few of the sites in the country near where Werner grew up, a castle, lake, some pretty towns and have a picnic with them.  What a fun day we had with them.

The wine area along the Bad-Durkheim area is a rolling hills landscape filled with various beautiful vineyards and small towns that make their living growing grapes and making wine.

It was a really quiet day on this main street in this pretty little vineyard town.
Usually it is a bit more busy with tourists.

Many of the homes in this town are set up with a courtyard right next to the main entrance that is a garden or a place where there are tables for people to sit and enjoy time eating and drinking and visiting with friends.
These courtyards used to be where the animals where kept.

Beyond the grape vines, up on the hill is Schloss Villa Ludwigshohe's summer home.

Martin and Debbie.
You can walk or ride bikes all through the beautiful vineyards.

Werner knows many interesting things about the area so he shared history, stories and sights all day and made everything so fun for us.

The picturesque scenes kept coming up on every curve and hill.

There are many picnic spots along the roads.  This is where we stopped for our picnic.

We had a wonderful tour of one of the many castles.  The Burg Berwartstein castle was built on top of a really huge rock. The rock was carved out on the interior to form much of the castle then much more of the castle was built on top with the sand stones.

Inside the castle was a deep well, 2 meters wide (6 feet) and 104 meters (341.2 feet) down to the water.
This way the people in the castle could survive when it was under attack.

Yikes, they had torture rooms.

On the terraces, the tour guide explains some of the history and stories of this castle.

The earliest mention of the castle is in 1152.  It is now privately owned and was rebuilt after a long time being abandoned and burned by a lightning strike.

Do you see the CAT on the roof?

How did this cat get way up there on the roof?

This is part of the rock that is natural.  Inside it has been hand carved out with tunnels and rooms.

 This used to be the only entrance into the castle.  A vertical shaft that a rope ladder was dropped down so men could enter and pull up the ladder when enemies came.   Hot oil would be poured onto the enemies from the top of the shaft.   It is said that when a man in the castle wanted a bride a woman who had never met the man would be lifted up the tunnel in a basket.  If the man saw that she didn't meet his expectations, his hands would become slippery, and she would be dropped.

Looking straight up the entrance chimney shaft.
It is about 45 meters (147 feet) high.

Beautiful hydrangea flowers do very well up here.

When we first arrived, this  nice courtyard area had about 6 fine horses in it waiting to take someone for a ride through the forest.

The crow and the golden ring.  There is a story about a king who had put his rings onto the window ledge and left the room for awhile.  When he returned, the rings where gone.  Since no one except a member of the staff was in the castle, the servant was accused and sentenced to death.  Later the rings where found in a ravens nest on the roof.  So in shame and sorrow, the castle symbol became the raven and ring.  Two ravens where imprisoned and forever kept.

Friederun showed us this cool plant that had seed pods that would EXPLODE when you lightly touched them.
I could have done this all day, it was so interesting how they could do that!

We then went to a small town in France, Wissembourg.  This chapel tower is where Werner first kissed Friederun.  The tower isn't open to go up in very often, so it was just meant to be that when they went there it was open and they went up.  FIRST KISS is pretty special.

The pastries in France are way to pretty to eat, they are works of art.
We had the best chocolate eclairs that I have ever had.