Detmold, Germany

Packsize gave me a car to drive around while I have been here.  That has made it very nice for seeing things over the weekend.  The car is equip with GPS so I found the church making only one or two wrong turns.  This is my friend, Olaf, that I met at church today.  I only went to Sacrament Meeting but during the intermediate hymn he noticed I did not have a hymn book so he came to share his with me.  I explained to him that the reason I didn't have a hymn book is because I can't read German.  I later found out he served a mission is Wisconsin so his English is very good.  He was able to translate the last speaker for me.

   

 I felt the spirit so strong during the sacrament.  I am so grateful that I did not have to miss the sacrament this week.  What strong member they have there.  The speakers spoke of the Temple and Family (those were the only word I recognized in the first talk).  The high counsel man spoke a lot about General Conference.  I am glad I was able to have that translated for me.

This is the church.  Very small.  The Chapel is very small with only about 150 chairs set up for the congregation.  I would say the parking lot holds no more than 40 cars.  I have been very impressed with how the men dress.  Everywhere I look there are men in suits.  At church today all the youngmen/men involved in the passing of the sacrament were all in suits too.

After church, Kerstin, from the Packsize office was kind enough to come pick me up and take me to this castle about a half hour away.  It is beautiful!  I learned that this is actually a palace.  Royalty still live here.

We were able to tour two wings of the Castle.  It was beautiful inside, but they would not let me take pictures because they want to preserve the paintings and tapestries inside.  While inside we had to wear slippers on the hard wood floors.  The flooring is 300 years old and a lot of the pretty things inside are even order.  This is something I would defiantly come back to.  I wish I could show you what I saw.  My favorite was the red room.  The walls were covered in red silk.

Old shops/houses.  They all have the year they were build somewhere on the front and some have a scripture from the bible written across it like this one.  A lot of these buildings are from the 1700's.

More cool buildings.  Notice all the small cars behind me.  I have also noticed a lot of fast cars here.  Germans have a need for speed. 

Inside the courtyard.  You can see three wings here and the forth is behind me.  Check out the slanted windows.  How cool!