Reunion

I haven't been able to attend any of my high school reunions, so there are friends from high school that I haven't seen for almost 24 years. I reconnected with a few of them on facebook, which is great, because I obviously wasn't staying connected through snail mail. It's nice to see what they're up to.

I had the opportunity recently to meet up with one of my high school friends, Dana, and have our own little reunion. She was over here with her husband, who was here for work for a little while. Since he was working, she had free time. It was weird to see her after all this time, but it wasn't weird at all because it was just Dana, my friend from high school. We had so much fun together the first day that we decided to make it two days. I showed her around Mainz and Rudesheim, 2 cities I am very familiar with, but in both cases we were able to do/see things that I haven't done/seen before, so that was pretty exciting.

Mainz

One thing that I've wanted to see in Mainz for some time are the Chagall stained glass windows in the St. Stephen's church.

 

 

It's only open at certain times, and I always seem to be in Mainz at the wrong time, but this time I made sure we were there during opening hours. They were beautiful!

There are nine windows (done in 3 sets I think) that Chagall did between 1978 and 1985. The last ones were finished right before he died, and hung afterwards. These windows are particularly significant because they are his only windows in Germany, and were part of the Jewish-German reconciliation (Chagall, who is a Russian Jewish artist, fled from France under the Nazi occupation).

This set of windows (below) depict scenes from the Old Testament that demonstrate the commonalities across Christian and Jewish traditions.

These were my favorite (below)

Rudesheim

I've taken the tram here up the mountain, but I haven't hiked across the mountain and gone down the other side, which is something I always wanted to do. Luckily, Dana was all game. It's a really beautiful hike...

...with ruins along the way...

...and great views of the Rhein River

We went 30-45 minutes and came to another lift, this time going down.

This is the tiny little town of Assmannhausen. Yep, you read that right. We may have liked that name a little too much ;)

 It turns out that Assmannhausen is about 99% hotels, which all have Italian restaurants in them.  Not much to offer, but super cute.

Then we took the ferry back to Rudesheim, enjoying the views of the castles along the way.
It was a great couple of days, and a great visit with an old friend.  And now you're famous Dana, hahaha ;)

Lost Track

I've lost track of how many time Joe's brother John has come to visit us. That's a good thing. We always have fun with John and whoever he brings with him. This time it was Sam.  We wish he could bring the whole family every time - we miss them! We miss all of our family.

We re-visited some places I've been before (Burg Eltz, Worms, Heidelberg, and downtown Wiesbaden), but it's always nice to discover new things in places you've already been, even if it's just a tiny detail. Plus I love playing the tour guide. I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself :)

I let my kids each have a day off to hang out with us, and Joe even took off one day.  Even Bo got to come with us one day, which is rare, because she's a total spaz.  One of the days John and Sam went to Phantasialand and Koln by themselves while we stayed home and worked on science fair projects.  My favorite thing. Ever.

Here are a few pics of our adventures.

Rainbow over Wiesbaden

 Lamp inside the Worms Synagogue 

 Twisted tree in Worms

 Jewish memorial wall in Wiesbaden

 Flowers if front of the Marin Luther memorial in Worms

 Outside the Worms Synagogue 

 The grounds below Burg Eltz

  Walking with Bo outside Burg Eltz

 With Joe in Heidelberg

 View from the Heidelberg Castle

 My favorite part of the Heidelberg Castle

 Rapeseed field in Wiesbaden

Come again John.  You've only got  3 1/2 months left with us here :(

England Again, Part 4

Last day of Spring Break. It sounds so sad.

It was a Sunday, so we started off by attending church, and then we headed to Charletcote Park, which is a 16th century country house, about 4 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Queen Elizabeth I stayed here one night, and William Shakespeare was alleged to have poached rabbits and deer from the property when he was a young man.  There is a lot of wildlife on the park, and we saw a huge herd of deer right when we first got there.

The Property is now owned by the National Trust.  Everyone who works there is in period costumes, and there are shops, restaurants, demonstrations, tours of the house and garden, and a number of other things to keep one entertained.

 The Victorian kitchen, still working.

 They were making some delicious raisin biscuits that we got to taste.

 An old cookbook.

 Madelyn learned how to fold a napkin into a rose.

 The bells that rang the servants.

 The laundry.

 One of the many, many carriages in the carriage house.

 They were selling herbs and flowers.

Inside the main house.

 The dining room.

  The library.

 The bedroom.

 Walking out on the grounds.

How quickly it all comes to an end, including our time here in Germany. What a fantastic Spring Break it was though! I want to go back right now, please and thank you.