Heidelberg, Germany

Last week we took a short trip to Germany, and visited Ramstein Air Force Base, and took a short drive to the beautiful city of Heidelberg.  

 

 

Heidelberg is nestled between hills and a river.

 

 

Heidelberg is the oldest university town in Germany.

We wandered around some beautiful streets made our way towards Heidelberg castle which sits high above the city.

 

This is the Heidelberg University Library, what a beautiful building, words can't describe.

In this picture you can see the castle in the back.

Seriously, can you imagine living here? And waking up to a view like this every day.

Heidelberg Castle is a half-ruined castle, created with  a combination of buildings clustered around a courtyard. Each building has a different style of German architecture but somehow it all works.  

 

This is the entrance into the courtyard

 

 

 

There was large beautiful veranda in the back of the castle, that overlooked the river and gave us a great view of the whole city.

 

That large building with the steeple is the Holy Spirit Church and it dates back to late 1300's.

 

This is the largest wine barrel in the world! It can hold 51 gallons of wine and it's located at Heidelberg Castle.

 

 

 

There is also a pharmacy museum located here.  What I wouldn't give for one of these cabinets.

To get to the castle you can climb or you can take the funicular train up to the castle and for a little extra money you can upgrade and go all the way to the top to the highest point in Heidelberg.

We decided to go to the top

Once we made it back down, we had dinner and walked around old town.
Everyone was getting ready for the Christmas Markets which were starting in a couple days.

 

As we headed back to our car, we passed some pretty nice streets and shops.

 

It's so hard for me to walk by flowers and not want to buy some.

Poppies at the Tower

This year marked the 100th anniversary since the British entered the first World War. So between July 7th and November 11th, ceramic poppies were placed at the Tower of London, there was a total of 888,246 placed and each poppy represents a fatality. We finally made it out the weekend before they were to be removed. Each poppy was sold for charity for about £25 each and they were all sold.  

 

It was such a beautiful display leading up to Remembrance day.

We could not have asked for better weather on this November morning.

 

This is one of my most favorite spots to visit in London, this bridge is so pretty and the view is amazing.

We arrived in the early morning but after about 2 hours it started to get really crowed so we headed for home and spent the rest of the day at the mall.

Brody was a little disappointed because he thought we coming to see puppies.

 

This installation of poppies was called "Red Swept Lands and Seas of Red and I think it was such a beautiful way to commemorate  all the fallen. It's just a number when you think over 888,000 people lost their lives but to actually see it in a physical form, that really puts it in prospective.

 

October 2014

October flew by this month, mainly because I started working again. I was lucky enough to get a job that sent me to Germany for a 5 days of training. And even though I wasn't feeling my best, I made the most of it and finally felt better towards the end of the week.

 

On Thursday night my class and I took a cab to Weisbaden, Germany for a nice dinner and drinks.

 

I had to take a picture of this Who Dat sign that I found in one of the shops.

 

 

The worst part about going was that we were in class every day until 5pm and that didn't give much time or daylight to do anything. But I did manage to get a couple photos of the area before the sun went down.

 

 

 

 

 

I met some really sweet women and we got along so well. A few rounds of Margaritas was we took the party to the streets ( literally)

 

Here's a photo of our awesome hotel.

Really couldn't make out what the theme the hotel was going for because every room was different. Here's a shot of the elevator, we swam with the fishes.

Our company paid for transportation, food, and hotel. It was great to be away for a bit and not worry about anybody but myself.

 

Soon after getting back it was Halloween, Brody was a ninja turtle this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month I also hosted a couple of parties for our friends, John came over and made his famous pizza. He had a help from Bob, I think they must have about 15 pizzas in all different sizes and with different toppings. Everyone from our church group made it out unfortunately, it was last day with  Jon and his wife Deb, they were filling in for our missionaries that were back in the states. I can't wait to see them again.

 

Earlier in the month, I hosted a game night and cooked Jon's favorite banana bread.

 

I also made rice to go with...

 

 

Gumbo!

 

I love opening up our home to our friends and can't wait to do it again.