May 30, 2014-Thale in the Harz Mountains and 16 Years of Marriage

This is the Wagner family. They are friends we met at church in Göttingen.  They invited us for a day trip to the mountains.  They have been so kind to us this year.  Leoni who is wearing the pink shirt is coming to America to stay with us for 5 weeks after we return home.  We are so excited for her to come!

We never imagined we would be in Germany celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary.

This was a sophisticated toboggan ride down the side of the mountain. All of the kids wanted to go as fast as possible!

The toboggan track wound its way through these woods.

We had the opportunity to ride two different cable cars up and then down the mountain.  The weather was perfect for this adventure.  The view was impressive.

May 24, 2014-Hardenburg Klassika

We took a 7 minute train ride to Nörten Hardenburg to watch this international horse tournament. Since it was an international tournament there were riders from the U.S. too.   You can see the castle ruins on the hill behind Joshua.

This was a horse that a young boy rides and usually wins.

May 17, 2014-Marburg, Germany

A few weeks ago on our way to Bonn we noticed a castle out the train window.  It was in Marburg, so we decided to take a day trip today to have another adventure.  First stop, lunch.  

There was a river going through the city and there was this bus snack shop with a fun sand area.  We decided to eat lunch here.

The Elizabeth Church

A view along a city street.

The Marburg Schloss was first built in the 1200's and has been added to over time. We played shadow tag the entire steep climb to the Schloss-so fun!

A picture of a postcard of the city.

Postcard of Elizabeth Church

Beautiful!

This is the view from our apartment balcony this time of year!  It really is a very pretty country.

May 13, 2014-Frau and Herr Schmidt

This is Herr and Frau Schmidt ( Mr.and Mrs. Schmidt).  They live in our apartment building  They first started talking to the kids last Fall when they were outside playing and the Schmidts were going on their afternoon walk in the forest.  They would always tell them how happy they were to see children playing outside of the apartment.  There are no other children playing outside of the apartment.

Now anytime I see her, I hug her and ask how she is and we try to communicate a bit with my very, very little German and her English.  We decided to invite them over for chocolate chip cookies...a taste of America.  They came bearing gifts which were souvenirs from Göttingen.  Thankfully Brooke and Seth can understand and speak German.  I think they enjoyed their afternoon with us as much as we enjoyed having them.

May 1-5, 2014-Bonn and Cologne, Germany

These pretty yellow fields will produce canola oil.  This time of year they are beautiful.

Another reason why riding the train is fun...more space to play!

This is the Bibelseminar Bonn.  The property used to be a hunting lodge and then belonged to a government party.  

This is the main building of the seminary that houses the administrative offices as well as classrooms.

The Bibelseminar has a close relationship with SWBTS.

This is Dr. Friedhelm Jung who works with Southwestern and the Bibelseminar.  This is one of the classrooms.

Dr. Jung took us to Bonn.

Bonn, Germany is the birthplace of Beethoven.

A painting of Ludwig van Beethoven on the side of a building.

The birthplace of Beethoven.

A piece of the old city wall.

The Bonn Rathaus where many political leaders have visited including President Nixon and Carter.

Dr. Jung showed us The University of Bonn.

Dr. Jung is such a kind man. We all really enjoyed his company.

We had lunch with his family in their home.  He has another daughter who is currently in Fort Worth attending SWBTS.  

On Saturday we spent the afternoon with Dietmar and Deseree.  They are from Germany but lived in Ft. Worth while Dietmar taught at Southwestern.  Joshua was sad when they left SWBTS.  He had enjoyed reading German with him.  This is the famous Köln Dome.  It is a huge church.

Deseree entertained Luke with candy and stories of aliens. So, so fun to spend time with Dietmar and Deseree.  

In the past people did not learn to read so they used pictures to tell the stories from the Bible.  There were several stained glass windows in the dome.

Then they took us to the Chocolate Museum.  The kids are watching how some small chocolate bars are made.

This is a huge chocolate fountain.  It is filled with Lindt chocolate and they give out small wafers dipped in the chocolate.  This entire room that overlooked the Rhine River smelled like chocolate.

Seth and some impressive chocolate made out of various molds.

Lindt truffles and how they are made.

You could get your own Lindt candy bar made.  You chose dark, milk or white chocolate and 4 toppings.  This happy lady is making Joshua's chocolate bar.

Joshua and Dietmar with their made to order chocolate.  It was really good!

Sunday, Joshua preached at a local church.  He did his introduction in German and preached the rest of the sermon with a translator.  After the service we met a young German couple who will be moving to Fort Worth in August for the husband to attend SWBTS!  It was very exciting to meet them.

Sunday afternoon we drove a short distance to Brühl to see the Augustusburg Castle.  

There was a pretty garden and forest area surrounding the castle.

Chapel Monday morning

It was an encouraging weekend for all of us.  At one point Seth asked me why they were so nice to us.  My answer was they were Christians acting like Christians.  It was a great testimony to our children.