INTERRESANTE GEDANKEN

We live across the street from the main cemetery in Frankfurt. There are some really interesting things to be found there. They work hard to maintain graves all year round and there are at least 5 floral shops spaced around the cemetery. They maintain graves even in the cold weather (which it has been the last few days) and even when it snows (which we got the first taste on Saturday). Here's some of the things we found there which might give all of us something to think about. The marker to the left says this section of the cemetery has been dedicated to those who gave their lives as scientific experiments. It says this is to be a reminder to those that conducted this unnecessary scientific work of their responsibility for what they have done. The picture below is the grave markers for those experiments. Sometimes it is interesting to see things from both sides of history. I think it's remarkable they have this section of the cemetery. There are some other grave markers that are interesting but I think I won't add a bunch of them at this point. The picture below is an area dedicated to those who died in World Wars I and II. As we've wandered through various parts of Frankfurt we've also found some other fun metal and bronze sculptures in various locations throughout areas in Frankfurt. Since space is at a premium here, the parks are well kept and are places for people to walk through on a good day(actually any day) and enjoy. They like to go for walks here so they get a chance to wander through areas set aside as green space. The sculpture here is of a court jester and is one of many found in the park one day. They have statues of poets, heroes, political figures and lots of other things. They have a few years of history on us so they have lots of things that date back over 1000 to 1200 years ago. This statue is a fun one that is dedicated to various fairy tales and is found in the center of town. You can miss a lot of these kind of things as you walk around because there are no signs to light them up. They are there for all to see and enjoy or just walk by and not think about. The crest below is found on the wall of the oldest church in Frankfurt. This is a large church today but it started out as about 1ooo square feet in size and was where they held both political and church meetings. This crest is a Frankfurt crest and is political in nature. It was placed there when the head of the church was also the political leader (or was that vice versa). There are lots of fun things that give you some interesting things to think about when nothing else is going on in your head. Nice to visit with all of you. We love it here and find the work to be very rewarding. Some days are long but then where there's action, there can be fun and games as well as some spiritually rewarding happenings. It's great to be involved with the missionaries and share their many experiences, both the good ones and the not so good ones.

Beautiful Fall

It's coming to the end of a beautiful Fall day here. We wish we were in Austin at Dean's blessing. Sorry, we hope he didn't scream through the whole thing like some of his forebears.

We have officially arrived in our apartment. You know this is true because we have three locks on our door (one is a chain kind), a peephole in our door and we have a "kaufwagen" to go to the store and get groceries. Hopefully a picture of Ginny will appear and you can see this wonderful apparatus. Actually we are now part of those of our same age. It can hold enough to fill your refrigerator and then some. The refrigerators here aren't very big so you get to go shopping at least twice a week. We were carrying our groceries home from the store in our hands and arms but they got heavy so we resorted to doing it the way most of the people here do. Saves the back and arms.

We've also attached a picture of the method for drying our sheet. The washing machine works great (takes about 2 hours to wash the sheets and pillow cases and that's all that can go in the machine) but with no dryer and the temperatures outside, the posters on the bed work great to dry our sheet so we can use it that night. Where there's a will, there must be a way. Yesterday was a busy day (that means we were on the move the whole day. A new couple arrived early Saturday morning and they will be going to Heidelberg to work in the Institute program there. They needed to be oriented to the mission before they got on their way to Heidelberg so the office staff met them at President Ninow's home where she had prepared breadfast for all. Yes, the Ninow's are very busy to say the least.

In the afternoon we had the chance to just wander around in the old city of Frankfurt and see what's there. This was our first chance to do that so I'll try and put a few pictures for you to see what some of Frankfurt looks like. I think if you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see more if you like. These pictures are of Roemer Platz (Roman Place) because the Romans where here for quite a while and had quite an influence on this city, its politics and religion.









There were a lot of things going on at the square and because the weather was pretty good a lot of people were out going for walks and just wandering around, (like us). I'll try and get a couple more pictures here just for practice.











We found a really fun antique and new Steif teddy bear store. Ginny can be seen with her new best friend. Pretty amazing stuff there. On the right is Charlemagne. He had quite an influence here on bringing together a lot of political and church delegations. I wish I had listened better in those history classes but it was hard to relate about stuff so long ago. I guess when we get to meet them we'll do a lot better listening.