7 Aug 2010 Off to St Goar and Koln

This morning was a planned by Elder Walter's Day, but all our day outings are planned by the better half. He always has his map and guide books ready to schedule the must see's for us. I kind of like it that way, except that he forgets I am a semi disabled person. What does semi disabled mean? It is when you are unable to scale a wall of a castle and crawl under tunnels. That's what he expects me to do and luckily I do it only out of sheer determination. I have to tell you a preface to my story about the beginnings of our day, we were told in the Mission assignment that we were to always wear our badges, but when we came to the area mission they said you should not wear your badges if you were not dressed like a missionary so what do you do? I opted to wear my badge and Gene said, I don't think I will. So we get in the car and we drive around for 30 min attempting to get on the road when Gene announces, "this car will not go out of third gear and it sounds very strange." He says he feels the Holy Ghost is telling us we should not go. So back home we go. He decides it could be because he didn't put his badge on so we decided to have prayer. We asked Heavenly Father to help the car run correctly if we were to go but if we were not suppose to go, then let it continue to run badly. We got in the car and drove it for a short while before Gene announces, "The Holy Ghost has spoken, we are going to Koln, which by the way is about 250 km away. The car never gave us another problem. Strange hugh? but then I started to think about it. Maybe if we had gone at the first time we started out we may have been in an accident but because we went later we missed being in one. It could have been a tender mercy.

Well on to the events of the day, we started out for Sankt Goar to take a look at all the clocks again. We are looking for one for Kim's birthday this time. There were so many to choose from. We'll go back again in Sept and make a choice. While we were in St. Goar something occured that gave us thought. I was coming out of the rest room when a man said, "Missionaries" with a big grin. I turned around to ask him where he was from and he said Utah. He said he was there to be with his fiance before she left for Afghanistan. He was also in the Military stationed in Ramstein. He said he was so glad to see missionaries around there. He said we don't see very many in Germany. He gave us a reassuring smile like pray for us. I think that is another reason Gene put his badge on, just so this young man could feel the presence of the church there. Maybe he was inactive we don't know I just know it was another tender mercy for us.

We decided to take the Rhein River drive to Koln and so we saw a few castles that we didn't see on the Rhine River cruise from Rudesheim to Sankt Goar. We side tracked into a few little towns mainly Bingen, and Bobbard until we got to Koln. It was a beautiful drive. I have to tell you that the hay rolls are a thing of beauty. They roll them oh so neatly. I know how you feed your animals hay when it comes in a square and it is able to be picked up and torn off but I don't see how one person can handle that big roll. Anyone know the answer to that question? On to Koln, it is the 3rd largest Dom in the world, and definitely the largest in Germany. It is called the Cathedral (DOM) of St. Peter und Marien. 6 million people visit this church a year. It is in the Gothic style started in 1248. It was not fully completed, but in 1560 construction was suspended. Construction resumed in 1842 when German Romantics considered Gothic a pure German style even though the original commission for it clearly called for a church in the French style. In 1880 the Dom was finally consecrated. The presence of the egocentric Protestant Emperor Wilhelm I led to accusations that God had to occupy second place during the ceremony and the archbishop stayed away in protest.

The twin towers are 515 ft high. It was the tallest building in the world during the 13th century. It has the worlds largest swinging bell weighing 24 tons and called the Petersglocke. It only rings on major religious holidays. The stained glass windows altogether are larger than a football field. Some of them are original to 1265. While we were there a mass was being held, so we were not able to do a tour but we did get to hear the pipe organ play. The bass pedals were so loud that they just rocked that cathedral. For being a Mass there sure weren't very many people there. Everyone goes in with their shorts and flip flops on. I guess that isn't any worse than on lookers taking pictures of their chapel while there is a ceremony going on (me included). After taking pictures inside and out I was drawn to an artist that was covered in black chalk and eating an ice cream during her break. The chalk rendering was fabulous, I took a picture of it. Seemed to be Salome the step daughter of King Herod that danced for the head of John the Baptist. It was beautifully done in reds I am sure to signify sin and blood. I'm so glad I got that picture because no less than 10 minutes later it began to rain. Everyone in the Market place scattered for shelter, except for the protesters from Iran. That was really something. They had a woman dressed in her Muslim attire sitting on the ground with fake rocks around her body and blood oozing out everywhere. I guess you already can figure out what they are protesting. They are trying to get the world to stop the stoning of that girl from Iran who supposedly committed Adultry. Anyway they also had pictures of people being hanged and decapitated. A very ominous site. While running I spotted a Louis Vuitton store, so you guessed it, pictures. After getting soaked we found our car and were back on the road for a 3 hour trip to home. It was another great adventure. TSCHUSS