Hohenzollern

This is the Castle Hohenzollern from the road.  It is a very magnificent sight to see.  There is just little towns around.  It is south of Stuttgart, Germany.  The castle sits atop a hill which it makes it great from the stand point of defending.  Which when you visit places like that with a military guy you get that kind of information.

This is a view from the front as we drove up the hill to the entrance.  You had to stop at a parking lot and either walk or take a bus to the top.  It was a very steep walk to the top.

We could not take pictures of the inside of the castle, but let me assure you it was amazing.  We had to wear slippers over our shoes to walk on the floor.

The castle is the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family.  The family became the German Emperors.  The history is that of Prussia rulers that took over during the 1800.  It is has many historical artifacts at the castle.  It has ties to England.  One of the Kings married a princess from England.  Not long after the King died.  They had a child and he also died at an early age.  She continued to live there.  She was a very good artist and painted pictures of her son before he died.

The castle is still privately owned.  If you are ever in Germany I highly recommend visiting this castle.

If you get a chance look it up on the internet.  They have lots of pictures and information about the castle.  If you homeschool it might even make a great lesson on prussia, swabian and german rulers.

Come back next week for a trip to another castle in Germany.

Auf Weidersehen,

Melanie

New Computer

So I now have a new computer.  I have been posting form my iPad, and that is not the easiest.  I hope to do more posting since I now have a computer.  I have much to tell everyone.  I hope to post about our vacation in Germany and how the rest of the summer went and the first month of school and fall.
Please check back to see how things have gone for us over the past few months.

Giveaway

  Go to faith, family and Fridays to view th giveaway.  It is a really neat idea of scripture verses on post it note style paper.

Enter her giveaway and you might win a set.

Giveaway

  Go to faith, family and Fridays to view th giveaway.  It is a really neat idea of scripture verses on post it note style paper.

Enter her giveaway and you might win a set.

Giveaway

  Go to faith, family and Fridays to view th giveaway.  It is a really neat idea of scripture verses on post it note style paper.

Enter her giveaway and you might win a set.

Germany Part 1

  This is a picture of the girls from the windows of the apartment we stayed in at Oberammergau.  We love Bavaria.  It is just filled with wonderful people and great traditions.  The food wasn't bad either.  The apartment had a kitchen, but only a two burner stove.  I cooked most every night with just two burners.  It was a very interesting time trying to plan meals.

This is the living room and you can see just a part of the kitchen.  The popel of Bavaria are very religious.  There were many statues in the house of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.  Also crucifixes were everywhere you looked in town.  We had to explain why they were everywhere.  So on top of learning about history in some of the places that we visited, they received some insight into the catholic faith.

The first place we stopped was Stuttgart.  The LTC had a meeting there.  While he was meeting I was shopping.  Everyone needed shoes and I needed clothes since all of mine are too big.  By the end we spent lots of money on clothes for everyone.  The day we were there at the PX, they had an extra 25% off the clearance merchandise.  For the items that we got I would have spent at least twice or three times as much getting them in Norway.

After that we went to the Black Forest for a few days on our way to Oberammergau for LTC to attend a course.  We walked around town Friday night and ate some very good German food.  Saturday we visited the Hollernzoren castle. I will tell all about that next time with some pictures as well.  Auf Weidersehen!

Melanie

Gymnastics Camp in Norway

This a picture of the girls at camp.  Three clubs from Norway came to camp.

We had a guest coach from Russia who now lives in Norway.  The girls have learned many new skills and perfected old ones.  They have three more days of camp and they are loving it.  They are socializing with the girls and working on speaking norweigian. I am socializing with the parents and practicing my norwegian.  

The girls working on skills.  Not the best pictures, but the are working hard and can't always get good pictures.

We get the afternoon off today and I think we are going swimming.  This has been a great experience for the girls and for me.  I think the parents are more open to me since coming here.  

Melanie