France
One of the reasons we wanted to go to France was to visit the Ranck Castle, built in the 1600 or 1700's by some of our cousins Ancestors (or was it descendants? ). Unfortunately, we received a rather cold reception...and so we didn't get to see more then the outside. But it wasn't a wasted day... On the way back to our "house", we drove through this cool, old, medieval type village. There was only one street in the town...and it was so short, we drove through it twice, just for the fun of it.
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| "Medieval village" |
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| "In a crusader's fort" |
A Day in Arles, France
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| "Vineyards in southern France" |
We happened to be in Arles, France over the Easter weekend, which is a big holiday. And the whole city was having a festival. Marching bands on every other street corner, and people everywhere. But we also got to do, and see things that otherwise would not have been possible.
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| "An old Roman Colosseum, built in 90 AD" |
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| "Inside the Arena" |
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| "ruins of the old amphitheater" |
We got to see a lot of exciting things, and even participated in some cultural traditions.
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| "The famous white horses" |
The most exciting part of the day, was watching the Bull fights.
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| The "high school" bull fight |
It was quite exciting... and this is just a taste, the real thing was quite a bit more exciting!
Back to Germany
Konzentrationslager Natzweiler-Struthof, the only concentration camp in France. Most of the people kept in this camp were French Resistance fighters.
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| "The French Flag" |
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| "The gate into the camp" |
The Rhine River Valley
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| "The Rhine River, with vineyards in the foreground" |
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| "One of the many castles we saw along the way" |
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| "The Rheinstein Castle" |
An old Mennonite church in the town of Weierhof...
The pipe organ inside the church... I even got to play it!
Then Tuesday morning, after we dropped Linford off at his school, the rest of us headed to the airport. After an adventure trying to find fuel for the rental vehicle, and getting it back in time. We were on our way home. With only one more adventure awaiting us. I'll put it this way, I think the Philadelphia International Airport will have a beautiful bed of tulips, imported from Holland...
This trip has been an absolute trip of a life time... I've never had so many adventures, and exciting things happen all in the same trip. It was a blast traveling with the "cousin gang", and on the way home, we were making plans for more trips. One to Italy, and Israel, and then one to Australia... We are currently accepting applications for others that would want to join us for these trips, and are also looking for sponsors :).
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| "Lilac's! And yes they smelled just like the ones we have here" |
Thanks again to each of you that prayed for this trip! God Bless you ~ Jordan
The more pics you show us, the more I'm convinced that you had a lot of fun! Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'll want to go on an overseas trip someday too, but I think Israel's about at the top of my list; got any applications for that already? And I don't know about the sponsoring thing...I'll probably have to sponsor myself. :)
P.S. Sorry to hear about your tulips...Mom & Dad had the same thing happen to them :(
It was the most amazing trip I've ever gone on...does that tell you anything?:) Your the first one to ask about an application...first come, first served! Thanks for commenting!
DeleteI've loved all of the photos you've been posting from your trip, but these especially brought back memories, we had taken a 2 1/2 hour Rhine River cruise. The vineyards and castles, so familiar... I would definitely be applying for trips to Italy and Australia. Dream destinations of mine...
ReplyDelete