Happy Birthday Brooke!

Bakker Bash 2011

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

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!

Bielefeld, Germany

I  spent the day today walking around this little town.  I came across this fountain early in my trip.  It looks a little lopsided don't you think?  I'm not completely convinced it was built this way even though there are drains for where the water is outside the fountain.

Germany's side walks.  My feet are so sore from walking on cobblestone all day.

I think this is the old city hall.  I had finally found my way by this point.  I decided they make maps backwards here, either that or I have a bad sense of direction.  I probably walked the wrong way for a mile then decided to turn around.

Lots of beautiful buildings.

Their interpretation of Elvis.

This was a fun little square.  There was lots of shopping and old buildings (well they all look old to me even this is called their "old town")  The flowers they were selling were beautiful!  I wish I could take some home.

The Old Town is behind me.

I just thought this was a cool street with the curving buildings.

This is for my nephew

Don't know what this is but it has cools stained glass and I walked under that walkway behind me.

Sparrenburg Castle.  This was pretty cool.  I got to climb to the top of that tower.

View from the top-You can see old part of the Castle that used to be there.

It is SO green here!

And Windy and Chilly!

Inside of the tower climbing down

Now that looks more like a Castle- There used to be a lot more towers it looks like.  Where the two round things are on either end, there are a bunch of fallen bricks or whatever inside.

Good day!  Only four more to go!  I can handle that.

Dinner for One Please



This was displayed on my TV when I got to my hotel room.  I'm not sure what it says but this is definitely my room!



View from my room.  This is the Bielefeld Train Station.  It's noisy out there at night.

The waitress was so sweet, when I told her I was alone she said "well, I will be here too".  I think she was a little offended when I didn't eat hardly any of my main dish.  It was not very good, I think I will stick to Subway and McDonald's for the rest of the week.  I put down my ice dream though, that was good!

More pictures tomorrow- I will be seeing more of the town.

A Few Random Pictures

Driving to work one mornig.  I thought the sunrise was beautiful against the clouds.

My Shot Glass collection proudly displayed at the Ward Party.

Circus with the Perkins.  The clown was hitting on Natalie :)

We has excellent seats!  Thanks Larry and Treasa!!!

What a gret time we had!  Thanks again!

Cody and I had all four little girls on our lap at one time... and you wonder why we want girls... they love us ;)

Sweden Catch Up

I finally have a little time to catch up on my blogging!  This is my last Sweden picture.  This is Lisa and I in her small office.


Things I learned about Sweden

• Only Children eat with one hand (I will be working on using my knife while I am here is Germany)
• They do not have Air Conditioning
• Can't use blow dryers from the U.S.  I thought mine was going to blow up!
• They do not use sheets on their beds!

These things are mostly for Europe in general but I learned them while I was in Sweden.

I was so happy to get home!  I was even telling people I enjoyed my experience there but don't need to go back for a while... well I spoke too soon... two munths later I am back on the other side of the world.

Miss you all!