Deutschland im Frühjahr!

An alle unsere Freunde und Familie...

I'm going to post some of our best photos with only a brief heading, I might even venture into posting a video:) But let me put this challenge into perspective, I've taken nearly 1,000 photos and many of them have turned out! Neither you or I really have time to see them all here, but then again I hope you could see many of them at some point.

So scroll down and enjoy. As for a brief update life has been a whirl! We've visited a number of places through Germany, most recently Allison and I returned from Bern, Switzerland through France, and Heidelberg, Germany late on Monday night. I attended classes and study groups all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday night Allison had arranged for Scott and Elly Fryer to watch Adele and Alexander, and so we took off in a rental car to Bad Harzburg, a beautiful town in the Harzs mountains. **Scott and Elly are saints! Allison and I had a wonderful time, we did something we haven't done for several years, we hiked around 26-28km or around 16+ miles round trip to the top of a mountain called Brocken. By the time we returned we were both, shall we say a little tender, but we couldn't waste any of this precious date time so we drove 45km to Quedlinburg, to have dinner and to see a 10th century kirche / castle. It would take me more time than I'm devoting at this point to pen words that describe the visit, and really not just this visit but everywhere we've been from Switzerland to Celle, Germany and everywhere in between. As for dinner in Quedlinburg, it was more than interesting. The only recognizable dish on the menu was Fisch. So Allison ordered it, and I went out on a limb and ordered something else, for me a surprise. Well my plate was a nice cooked piece of roast with a tasty salad, Allison on the other hand was served two raw fish fillets that stretched from one side of her plate to the other and had a white sauce, and potatoes on the side. The fish was cold enough that it could have been plucked out of the creek next door for all we know:) We were in a very nice restaurant and after attempting to order it was clear that my (Ich spreche sehr wenig Deutsch) was an under statement. Every one was watching us at that point and since our mothers taught us to eat every thing on our plates, and we echo the same message every night at dinner to our two little ones, we did just that. Allison took half my roast, and and I took one of the fillets! Yep, and guess what it tasted just like fish! Except it was cold and mushy....it took us about 4hrs of concentration to not remember the texture in our mouths, but it really tasted good. I admit I was afraid between one of us we might have lost our dinner in not a pleasant way!

We returned Friday morning and I had class / study groups all day. I know this is only glimpse of everything we've done. Our trip to Bern was most spectacular, there really never is anything quite like family and friends, Adele and Alex loved being with Brett and Kaylee's kids, and were in heaven the whole trip! Allison and I likewise had a wonderful time.

Now the pictures....I will start with the newest and move down to the older pictures...

The leaves are starting to grow and many trees are in bloom.

Spring is here - Flowers, leaves, blooms....

Quedlinburg - Brauhaus

Quedlinburg

I think if you click on the picture you can see the words a little better. You'll note in the Kopfnischen Grab plaque that some of the activities surrounding these building dated back to 919-936 AD.

Bad Harzburg - Hike to Brocken

Some of the signs looked older, many however were quite nice. We purchased a nice map, with all the trails and elevations. We also cheated a little with GPS on my blackberry. We didn't think getting lost in the Harz mountains would be the best idea.

You can also see a reservoir. It was so calm when we passed that the reflections were unbelievable. From the signs we got the jist that the water was used for drinking water, interesting! There was an older looking facility that must have been the water cleaning site.

We found hundreds of Frog eggs, if you look close you can see the little dark colored dot in the center of the eggs. In one spot there were clusters of these eggs all over.

Bad Harzburg - At Brocken

The last mile or so of the hike was on these cement planks. It appeared that they may have been in place since the early 1900's. At times the road went straight up the mountain towards the top, it was quick but on the way down it was rough on our ankles, knees, and hips.

Hannover Rathaus - (City Hall)

A few more from Switzerland

Looking out the Bells front window. The clouds were covering the Alps, on a clear day you could see them in the back ground.

They get there milk from the Dairy you see. One of the pictures is of Jethro at the milk dispenser.

The cars are the Crockett/Bell caravan.

I'll try to post more later. The pictures say it all. Unbelievably beautiful!

Weekend in Switzerland

Okay, I know this is a total cop-out. But those of you who know me at all have probably guessed by now that I'm all about cop-outs. So if you want to know about our weekend in Switzerland (at least day 1), bunny-hop on over to our cousins' blog, www.somethingsclever.blogspot.com. She is a far better, more diligent blogger than I am, she takes far better pictures than I do, she's extremely intelligent, and beautiful to boot. Did I mention that she's an amazing cook? And has the cutest kids? You'll be able to see all this yourself if you head to her blog to check out pics of Switzerland.

Thanks, Bells! You're the best! (Kayli- please don't feel any pressure that I'm sending a bunch of people your way, because I'm pretty sure there are only about three diligent readers of our blog).