Germany Installment #4 - Eltz Castle, Worms

The weekend after the second English camp, we traveled around Germany for a couple days, visiting some beautiful cities and other places. The very first place we went was Eltz Castle, a pretty little castle in a valley that served as the home of three noble families who shared ownership. One of the families has since taken over the whole castle and still lives in part of the castle. The other part is a tourist attraction very well-worth seeing. In this video you can see the castle as we walked down the hill toward it, and also some of the inside - the treasure chamber and the courtyard. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
After visiting Eltz castle, we went to Worms, where Martin Luther defended his 95 Theses. Our friend Marius lives there and we walked around the town with him and a friend who gave us a tour. We visited the cathedral of St. Peter where the Diet of Worms was held (rebuilt since being bombed out in WWII), wandered through a Jewish cemetery, and had some Italian ice. Back at the church where we were staying, Joella and James raced little karts around the halls. I got to race too, but Joella won. She must be built for this kind of thing! =) Joella, you missed your true calling...

Germany Installment #3 - Cologne

The weekend after the first English camp, we had a free afternoon, so the folks at Neues Leben took us on a day trip to Cologne (on German maps it is Köln). It was lots of fun. We toured the cathedral, which is one of the oldest in Europe, climbed to the top and had time to wander around on our own. Bex wandered around with me and we managed to fit in part of a mass at St. Mary's which was really beautiful. Other highlights were hanging out in the plaza listening to musicians (one guy brought a piano and was playing it for tips) and being accosted by bachelor/bachelorette parties selling trinkets for money so they could go and get drunk.
After dinner of Duerner (Turkish kebab, known as a schwarma in Spain), which was very tasty, we wandered to a store in the Turkish part of town, through a gate and generally around the city. It was fun relaxing and fooling around - here we have Bex and James enjoying themselves in a grocery store, and Dave imagining himself as Samson. Then back by the train station and cathedral we watched the guy with the maracas going to town. Here he gesticulates to a Beatle's tune - can you guess which one?
All in all, a good day.  

English Camp

I'm still in Germany, and haven't been updating much, because, well... I'm pretty busy. I'm actually writing this instead of working out a lesson plan for tomorrow's English class, so this is going to be short.
Camp here at Neues Lieben has been lots of fun and very tiring. The first week I basically hung out and got to know the situation and helped out where I could. This week I'm in charge of teaching 12 highschoolers advanced English for an hour and a half every morning, playing guitar on the worship team, organizing American sports (football, baseball), teaching a worship band workshop and hanging out with the teens. So it's fun but busy. I have some great video from the first week, but unfortunately the internet connection isn't that great, so I haven't been able to upload any video, even the shortest clip. Maybe my friends Dave and Evelyn (they left at the end of last week) will upload something and I can attach it here. Otherwise you'll have to wait until I get back.
So that's pretty much it. I'll try to update again before I get back, and you can expect a more comprehensive blog upon my return.