Amberg and Nurnberg

Yesterday, we were able to attend my mom's branch. It was cool for a couple of reasons. One, the building the members meet in was the old stomping ground of Elvis Presley. He played in the bar that was once in this building while he was stationed in Germany. Two, it was so neat form the kids to attend a service in a foreign country and see that the church is the same. The branch was on the same lesson the kids would have received had they been at our home ward, and they were practicing the same songs. It was so cute, because during sacrament, the kids sand "I'm so glad when Daddy Comes Home" for Father's Day, just as our home ward did. Noleigh and Hiram were to shy to sing, but that is okay. They enjoyed their sharing time and I went to Relief Society for the first time in . . .???, its been a while. I was also able to attend Sunday School. I'm looking forward to our meeting in Salzburg next Sunday- I hope they don't speak English!

After our church meeting we headed out to walk around the small town of Amberg, which is just a few miles from my mom's home. It was beautiful! It was fun too, as there was a festival going on and Elvis songs were being sung by German performers. I got a kick out of that.

I thought this villa was so beautiful!

As we were walking along the outer walls of the city, the kids spotted this watchman.


The towers entering the old part of Amberg

Bay windows are movable in Germany. If you move from apartment

to apartment you can take yours with you!

The view of the small river that runs through the town.


After a good nights rest, we headed to Nurnberg today. We took the train into town, which was great because we were able to look out the window and talk as we travelled. I am more and more becoming a proponent of train travel! Nurnberg was amazing. While there we toured the Kaiserberg, a castle built maybe around 1100. We took a tour of the castle and looked around the museum, which had armor and weapons from long ago. Hiram thought the weapons were so cool. Walking around, we saw some familiar things, some other amazing things, and some, well, very bizarre things!

The Train

The old village of Nurnberg

A Catholic Cathedral, so big I couldn't get it all in one shot. If you look closely, you see netting and wiring around the different features of the building, to prevent birds from nesting.

A beautiful fountain outside the cathedral. . . .

or maybe bizarre?

This building served as a hospital during different wars, and is now a restaurant

On the rocks at the bottom of the castle

Inside the castle walls

We climbed the tower in the background. There were 160 wooden, spiral steps to get to the top. The kids were so worried with how rickety it was inside, but only the kids, ha ha

The Kaiser's quarters in the castle. I have pictures of the inside, but it was too amazing to put them all on.

Outside the castle's walls