29 Aug 2010 Beautiful Braunfels

Slept in


Had Wonderful time with the Senior Missionary couples at the temple last night and then went to Mei Kings for dinner. It is the best Chinese Restaurant I have been to. Gene and I shared a huge feast of combination fried duck and pork with lots of veggies and of course sticky rice. We shared a table with one of the Church's legal council for the European Area. He told us he was flying to Salt Lake City to attend the Conference on World Religious Freedom. Gene asked him if he thought the Arab countries would ever participate and he replied that they have already shown an interest. We predict that this council will be the beginning of the church being allowed to proselyte in those countries. He is a paid employee of the Church and he is here for three years. They left 9 children at home, their youngest going into the MTC in a few months. One of their daughters and her husband were there visiting. I guess the deal they made with their children was, that they would pay the way for each family (husband & wife only) to come to Germany once during those three years. This particular daughter and her husband flew to France and then they came to Germany for two weeks. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

After wards we sat with the new couple who just came here on their mission from Burley, Idaho. He reminded me so much of my Dad, his mannerisms and the way he talked. He is also a farmer. He and his wife are so much fun to be around, I can tell we will be doing a lot of things together.

Well, on to the day. I made breakfast, which doesn't happen very often, and we packed our backpack for a day in Braunfels. This city is about 1 hour North West of our home. We decided, or our GPS decided, that we would take the back roads instead of the autobahn and we are so glad that we did. We went through Unsigen, Dietenhausen and Unleitung all small Dorfs. They were mainly farming communities with huge forests in between. Hope you like the pictures of that. Gene said it looked like a patchwork quilt. I think he has an artistic eye. As we approached Braunfels we saw the Berg which is really beautiful. It is very magical, had a Disneyland sort of look.

I have to tell you about the town of Braunfelds before I get into the Berg. It is famous for its spa gardens, which of course we could not afford but it sounds good anyway. It is the most prominent place of touristic interest. It is part of a Lahn Valley Holiday route tour. It is a city of cultural activities, concerts, theatre, festivals, markets, hiking and of course the Castle which is still being used as a home by the original family.

Braunfels Castle is situated on the top of a mountain of basalt rock. It has been family owned for 800 years. It is a cultural monument filled with exceptional art and furnishings of the original family. We got in on a tour but it was in German so we sort of had to find out about the family for ourselves. We did see the inside, but were not allowed to take pictures. The tour started with a room full of Suits of Armour and weapons from the Medieval period. The next room took us through the 14 & 15th century with paintings of the original land lords as well as other valuable works of art. Artists such as the Dutch- Van Eyck, the German- Tischben and a few hunting paintings by Johannes Deiker. The third room took us through the Renaissance and finally the 18th & 19th Centuries. Most of what we saw were original paintings with some hand made clothes from some of those periods. The stitches were so small and fine. There were also lace pieces. We really enjoyed the tour but we want to come back again to hear it in English.

We went home by way of Limberg, one of my favorite villages. We enjoy eating at a place called Tonne's and we always get the Rumpsteak with fried potatoes. I wanted to look in the all German clothing shop but it had already closed so no luck with that. We got home at 8:00 which is a miracle for us. Need our rest for sunday. Tschuss