 |
| Copy of Hell's gates- and site of a geocache We saw the original in Paris but couldn't take a picture. |
 |
| Found the cache |
 |
| Zurich |
 |
| Looking toward Zurich |
 |
| On the site where Churchill spoke |
Königsbach Stein. It is a tiny place on the map, close to Karlsruhe, Germany. I'd never heard of it either, but we drove there on THursday, only got lost once, and found the local church on the hill. After a little searching, we found Gasslers buried there. We took pictures, tried all the doors, and headed back down the hill. We stopped at a small store for a souvenir and asked about the family name. She looked up Gassler in the phonebook and wrote down some addresses for us. Then we got ice-cream at the local shop (about a dollar for a single dip- and it was very good!) and started to walk to the closest address. After 10 blocks, we realized it was really far, so we walked back. As we were getting into the car, a man walked up and said, "Are you Americans? Where are you from?"
 |
| Checking town hall. Closed after 1200 |
 |
| The church |
 |
| Old tombstones - rare - most tombstones are removed after 30 years. Hard to find old relatives.... |
 |
| The back of the church |
 |
| skyline Königsbach |
 |
| The oldest home in Königsbach |
Dane Hanson is his name and it turns out he and his wife Mirjam are missionaries with OM, and live in his wife's home town. He is a supervisor for an eastern European area and travels or works from home. They also work with the local refugee population. We were invited (and accepted) to go to their home for coffee, kids with kids to play with, and eventually stayed for dinner. Megan went with Miriam to check up on a new born refugee and her mother.
 |
| Our new friends |
 |
| Our new friend's home- |
Chance meeting? I don't think so. It is good to be 'lost' a bit- why blame the ap for bad directions? Know that God's hand is in everything, even in the timing of the ice cream where Mirjam heard us speaking and knew we were Americans and told her husband to meet us.
How very blessed we are!
p.s. For those who know the planned route, we opted not to go to Normandy today. We went straight to Paris. More soon! Maybe the folks we 'happened' to meet at a cafe in Paris today?
So very great! Absolutely amazing; the whole thing. The trip is beautiful, you found Gasslers, you made friends AND you had ice cream. Could it get any better?
ReplyDelete