Heidelberg, Wurzburg, and Mespelbrunn

To think that I actually visited this grand castle over 50 years ago!!!  And Jim served here for two months while on his mission in Germany...even more than 50 years ago.  Dare I say nothing

 has changed?  Actually, this time was more enjoyable because rather than being surrounded by a bunch of BYU classmates or a companion, we were actually with family members--

Derek, Renee, and Josten!

This amazing castle was originally constructed over 500 years ago and looked more like this.  However, the Thirty Years War did serious damage and was followed by other successful attacks, leaving the castle mostly in ruins by the late 1600s.  Further damage was inflicted by a lightning strike in 1764, pretty much sealing its fate.

This drawing shows the huge gardens installed by King Frederick V in 1613 in an effort to please his new bride, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of the king of England.

As we waited for our tour to begin, the first thing to catch our attention on the site was the
powder turret, destroyed by an explosion. 

  

Our guess was as good as any that perhaps this was King Neptune,
reclining at the bottom of the sea.

 Inside the courtyard, it was very impressive.

Our guide showed what the castle looked like when originally constructed. 

And then he compared it to what now remains.

The various composites of brick and stone made the exterior very interesting.

Numerous statues of past leading residents lined an exterior wall.

Behind this wall had been a palace addition to the castle.

 I was impressed with the ornate finishing of the exterior walls.

The 500-year-old sun dial was still doing its thing.  It told the times of the zodiac as well,

although it was beyond me!

 

We were impressed with the rooms which had been restored and furnished with period furniture.

I loved with woodwork over the doorway!

And this one was even more impressive!

Residents of the past... 

Amazing detail work in the ceiling!

Our guide pointed out the ceramic "furnaces," 

placed in the interior rooms that did not have fireplaces.

I really liked the detail on this cabinet.

The guided tour ended in the castle's beautiful chapel.

One highlight of the visit to the castle was to see the largest wine barrel in the world.  

It holds 220,000 liters of wine!

We walked up one side, across the top, and down.  On the next floor above that, we saw the hole in the floor through which the the local citizens paid their taxes by pouring wine

into a spout, which drained down to the barrel two floors below.

Locals having a good time entertaining the tourists.

Heidelberg Castle will rank among our favorite castles for a long time to come! 

Then on New Years Day we drove to Wurzburg.  

But instead of ending up at the famed fancy Baroque Residence below, 

we mistakenly went to the castle/fortress, Festung Marienberg.  We drove the 1.5-hour drive in complete fog only to find the castle closed!  Oh well, we did the best we could with what little vision we had.  It was supposed to look like this:

But this is what we were able to glimpse through the fog!

Since this closed castle was a fair disappointment, we tried to end on a good note by taking Derek and family to one of our favorites, Mespelbrunn, the castle that sits on a lake.  Three strikes and you're out, right?  Let's see, (1) crummy fog, (2) closed castle, and (3) another closed

  castle!!!  Oh well, at least we were able to get this photo, thanks to Renee's Selfie Stick!

After our grand tour of Heidelberg and not getting to see much of the next two castles--inside as well as outside--Heidelberg remains a front-runner for sure!

Christmas in Germany 2015

The first thing we did was attend the Christmas party sponsored by our little Offenbach Branch.  The entire Primary of eight childre did an amazing job of acting out the nativity story.

 

Branch President Merkel was the emcee.  Four of his five children were in the nativity scene!

Some of the treats included Sister Walker's chocolate Santa-topped cupcakes

as well as my orange-frosted pumpkin cupcakes.

Sister Obst, RS President, is with her grandson, Ethan (#5 of the Branch President's children).  He is my only attendee in the Nursery.  And so far, he's not excited to be in there with
a strange old lady who doesn't speak his language!

Next, we attended not one, but two Christmas sacrament meeting programs--our own little branch, and the large American Wiesbaden Ward, which follows our meeting.  It was great for me to actually listen to a program in English, rather than having it translated for me.

We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with the Merkel family together with our friends, the Walkers.  Despite being 8.6 months pregnant and wife of the Branch President, Rebecca did a wonderful job of decorating and serving a typical German meal of pork, Knödel, and Rotkohl.  

Although the children do not speak English, 

President and Sister Merkel speak it very well, for which Carlene and I are very grateful.

Each family member gave a little talk, and then the children sang a Christmas carol.

Ethan insisted on a unique pose for the family photo.

But we did get a good shot of the five Merkel children here--

Melody, Vincent, Jessica, Sam, and Ethan.

Christmas day then found us at the Gehrig home for dinner.  Hans, Nora, and their son Lukas speak excellent English, too, so it was easy to visit and enjoy everyone's conversation.  Lukas had recently returned from having served a mission in Korea.  We had the most interesting meal called raclette.  Hans gave Nora this kitchen appliance over 25 years ago for Christmas,
and it has been their Christmas day tradition ever since.

The table was full of all kinds of small dishes filled with meat and vegetables, slices of raclette cheese, and steaming hot potatoes.  Each person sprinkled a layer of food onto their little "shovel," topped it with cheese, and then placed it under the heating element to melt the cheese.  Once melted, you then scraped it off onto your hot potato or a piece of bread toasted on the top of the appliance.  Being the "cheese freak" that I am, this had to be one of my favorite meals ever!  I must have prepared at least 5 or 6 different concoctions, each one better than the last!  This is definitely something I will buy when we get home.  Christmas raclette sounds like the perfect tradition for us, too!

The finale to our Christmas in Germany was for us to be able to Skype with our grandchildren back home.  I was  pleased to see that Rhett and Ollie  liked their Christmas outfits we had sent.

It was great to be able to visit with each of the grand children and feel their genuine excitement.




This totally reminds me of the Christmas when Erin and/or Emily were given dolls--
actually, dolls from Germany, if I'm not mistaken.

Even though Renee and Josten were in the air flying to Germany on Christmas day, Derek had actually already arrived.  We were blessed to have him with us Christmas day, and the rest of his family for the next few days following that.  On December 27 we went to Rudesheim and had a great time showing off a typically quaint German town.

So even though we weren't home with all our family, we had great visits with everyone (in one form or another) and very memorable visits with our new German friends close by.