These are all shots of Ely Cathedral. Some of you have seen it in person. I hope it brings back good memories. These large cathedrals were laid out in the shape of the cross and are beautiful buildings.

Any one want to buy a piece of history?

These Shots are of the chapel in Fairford where they buried the stain glass windows during WWII to portect them and the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales

These are pictures of Amanda's first school and the places we lived in Thetford and RAF Feltwell.

England was fun, after a fashion. I drove around 800 miles in a little blue Vauxhall Astra. Vauxhall’s are an English make and the Astra is a pretty cheap car, it was uncomfortable and noisy, but it got me where I was going. I figured I would be okay driving on the opposite side of the road since I did it for three years, but it was still quite an adjustment. Imagine driving in heavy traffic, shifting with your left hand instead of your right, fighting your instinct to drive in the other lane and trying to find the right on-ramp to the motorway. Yes I did take a wrong turn initially, but I got it corrected and going back the right direction. I must have jumped in the left door of my car and wondered what happened to the steering wheel a dozen times the first couple days. I never quite got past the desire to get in the left hand side of the car, but at least I could stop myself before I did. I looked like fool more than once in a crowded parking lot jumping the left door and then getting out and getting in on the right.
Since I was there to work I didn’t do much in the way of site seeing. I was able to got take pictures of the houses we lived in at Thetford and Feltwell and the two schools Amanda attended there. Our favorite fish and chip shop in Feltwell is now a Chinese take-out so that was a disappointment and no I didn’t try the Chinese. I did get some good fish and chips my first night there. They were delicious, but I can still feel the oil in my arteries.
My big tourist stop was a visit the Ely Cathedral. You can’t really appreciate from the pictures but it is the best I can do. Lyn and Amanda I visited the Cathedral several times when lived there so I really wanted to see it again. Things I couldn’t take pictures of include the river “Don” I dearly wanted a picture of that sign, but trying to take while doing 80 mph on the motor way didn’t seem worth the risk. I also drove past Sherwood Forest in Nottingham. They even have an airport named Robin Hood. It was funny because one the British newspapers I read had a short excerpt on some recently discovered manuscripts from Robin Hood’s time that brand him as a common thief robbing everyone including the poor.
Geographically I visited these regions. East Anglia, The Cotswold, and the Yorkshire Dales. All are beautiful. I really likes the dales with the rolling green hills and stone fences dividing the fields. The Cotswold’s is more of hilly, mountains near Wales. It is also very pretty. I was doing a site visit as RAF Fairford. Fairford village isn’t very large, but I guess a lot of celebrities have homes there. I could see why. One piece of history I found interesting is during world war II they buried the churches stained glass windows to protect them from German bombing raids. They survived the war and were put back in the church. I couldn’t get inside to get good pictures of the windows, but I did get some pictures of the churches exterior.
Yesterday I went to the Frankfurt Temple. I followed a couple from the ward so I made it. Of course I forgot the camera so pictures of the temple will have to wait. I love the feeling of peace at the temple and the assurance that we’ll be with mom and dad again, and our own families as well.
I’ve been late posting this and now after barely catching my breath I’m off to Turkey in the morning. We’ll see what tales I have to tell from that adventure.
Don

Quiet Weekend

I thought I would write a little about daily life in Germany this week and some of the things that are a little different here. First off I have a German washer and dryer which means I can’t read the labels for making sure I have the correct settings for the laundry, but I seem to have figured out the ones I need. One thing that makes it easy is the washer only has a cold water hookup, it heats its’ water so I know that if I set it at 30 Celsius it will be a warm water wash and I put the whites in at 60 Celsius. The dryer is really interesting, at least to me. It is a condensing dryer. What this means is there is no exhaust hose on the dryer venting it to the outside. It has a reservoir that collects the water removed from your clothes when they dry. I empty it about every two loads. You’d be amazed how much water is removed from your clothing during the drying process. I figure it is basically distilled water at this point so I recycle it in my Iron.
Speaking of recycling the Germans are serious about it. I have three different garbage cans and yellow bags. The garbage bins hold either paper and cardboard, compost type material and pretty much useless trash. The yellow bags are for plastics, metals and things like milk cartons. They do not pick up each type each week, there is a rotating schedule. I just wait until the neighbors put theirs out so I know what is being picked up the next day.
Homes in Germany can develop mold problems so I have to open several windows everyday to ventilate the house properly. No matter what the weather. The window a really well designed and I can either swing them fully open or if I rotate the handle 180 degrees the bottom of the window locks in place and hinges so the top tips inwards opening the window for ventilation without letting rain into the house.
I hope this is not a boring blog entry. I meant to get out on a hike Saturday, but it was just cold enough and muddy enough from two previous straight days of rain to keep me off the trails. My big adventure was buying a lamp. Which is pictured, along with a few photos of the house with the boxes and loaner furniture gone. I also snapped some pictures of the church.
Monday I fly to England to visit the fuel accounts I audit there. Expect pictures of that trip next weekend.
Don