More Germany

One of the highlights of our Germany experience was finding the little village that Stephen's family heritage had its beginnings - Potsbach, outside of Kaiserslautern. We certainly could understand why the Beutler's settled in Lancaster Pennsylvania, the two areas looked very similar. We found the Beutler name in the city records and were very surprised that John Beutler (1732) fathered a child when he was over 70 years of age named Peter, which is the Beutler that migrated to America.

Germany

Last week we thought that Switzerland was our favorite memory, this week we would say that Germany was our favorite.... Just can't make up our mind as to what is the most impressive...castles? Medieval cities? the Alps? Hummmm.... hard decision. Check out this picture of Heidelburg - can you see the castle in the background.

We saw so many castles, I won't name them all for you, but here is another castle that was absolutely stunning - Ludwig's Castle, which is the castle that Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's castle after. I would say that this castle was indeed a "fairy tale" castle.

Another fabulous castle is the Hohenschwangau castle on the Austrian border in the Swiss Alps. This castle was decorated from the "dark ages" with knights in shining armor -- you could almost see the "damsels in distress".

We took a Rhine River Cruise and saw about 25 castles along the river bank. Some of these castles are still lived in today.

Switzerland

Switzerland was absolutely breathtaking. The scenery, the cities, the friendliness of the people has been very delightful. Our favorite memory was the trip to the Jungfrau mountain - to the top of Europe!

This is a picture of the Jungfrau mountain that took us 2 hours to get to the top. the ride there was incredible. cold, but incredible.

Huemoz Switzerland is where Stephen studied philosophy during his graduate studies under the great philosopher Frances Schaefer. The school is called L'Abri. Dr. Oz Guinness and Dr. Rokmacher (from the Netherlands Dept. of National Art) were also professors at that time.

We arrived at the around 10:00 a.m. at the chalets (see picture) that are used for the study of philosophy of religion in the little Alpine village. Lectures are still being offered by resident teachers and every Wednesday a lecture was given by a guest philosopher/theologian. There were many tapes of various philosophy scholars available for independent study as well. It is a wonderful place for thought, theological reflection, and biblical study. After this experience however, Jayna decided to leave the philosophy and theology to Steve, she would concentrate on her grandchildren and gardening!