An overnight trip to York

Ed's sister Hilda and her husband, Wes came to London to visit for six days. On the second day we decided on the spur of the moment to pack a bag for overnight and drive up to York. We had heard that York is nice and has this old wall around the city.
On the way we saw a tall cathedral coming from a small village. The town is Lincoln and has the beautiful cathedral in it.

This is the inside of the cathedral.
Here is the wall surrounding most of the city of York. Of course York has grown so there is city on both sides of the wall.
Another view of the wall.

Looking at parts of the city of York and it's large cathedral.

Peace Garden in Bitche & Bodensee lake

The Monday after family day, we went to see the Citadel and Peace garden in a village by the name of Bitche which sounds like Beach when the French say it. But sounds like it is spelled when you don't use the French accent.
I don't know what this garden was called. The peace garden was a series of separate gardens, each with a theme. On this one, the walking path was made up of broken blue glass. The edges were not sharp and it was about three different shades of blue. So it was like I was walking on water. The blue glass things above my head had at times some mist coming out of the tubes to represent either clouds or fog? It was cool.
Then we took a three hour drive to southern Germany to Bodensee lake with another cousin and his wife. This is B&B we stayed in.
And this is what we saw when we came out of our B&B. It was a beautiful lake.

Another view of one of the harbours.

Winery Tour & Family Day

The day after Erica's 80th bday party we had a tour of a local winery. Here we are getting ready to see the introductory film.
This is our tour guide showing us some of the storage and processes.

And at the end of the tour is the tasting!
Ed's nieces, Sophie and Laura (Sylvia's daughters) were able to make it to the weekend for Erica's birthday party and Family Day. Family day used to be an annual (now every two years) reunion of Ed's mothers siblings and kids and now their kids. It's always held on the family farm in France. This is the first one I have been able to be at.

With that many people there is plenty for a football (Soccer) game.

Ed's mother came from a family of 16! There were nearly 200 people at the event.

Esther Misrahi

Esther Misrahi was a 20 year old member of the Wood Green Mennonite Church. She had a recurrence of cancer that originated when she was 4 years old. Her father died around five years ago from the same type of cancer.

These are pictures that were taken near the end of April 2008 after she had gone through nearly a year of chemo and radiation. Kathy, the wife of the director of the LMC put together a quilt of blocks that people who knew Esther gave to Kathy and it was made into a comforter.
Here Esther is holding the book that tells who each block is from and a little writing from them to her. She was having difficulty talking both because the radiation had made her throat and vocal chords sore and because she was a bit overcome.
Easter died on July 11, 2008 and she will be greatly missed by her family and friends. Please keep her mother Lesley and her brother Adam in your prayers.

More France pictures

Here's another castle we saw on the Rhine during our cruise.

Ed's mother celebrated her 80th birthday with her siblings and a few of her children & spouses. There are 11 siblings out of 16 remaining and they were all there. It was a wonderful meal.
Here is an old church on the Rhine valley.

This is Ed's brother Philip and Phil's daughter Nichole.

A week with family in France & Germany

This picture somehow got deleted when I was uploading. It should have followed the boat picture.


After working until 11pm at least one night, Ed and I finished one of our semi annual mailings so that we could go on a week's vacation. Ed's mom turned 80 in May and she was having her celebration with her siblings and some of her children in France where she grew up.

Ed and I flew to Baden Baden and were picked up by his sister Hilda and her husband Wes then we drove to Wissembourg, France and checked into a quaint B&B. After a nice breakfast of breads, cheeses, meats, juice, coffee, & fruit, we met up with Frank & Erica (Ed's parents), and Phil, Renee, Tyler and Nichole (Ed's brother and family) at the family farm in the Alsace. We drove about 2 1/2hrs north to a place on the Rhine where we boarded this boat and took a cruise on the river where there are a lot of castles along the Rhine.
The villages were all very quaint and there were many castles along the way. We cruised about 2 hours or so, stopped and got off the boat and had a nice lunch outside.
After lunch we got back on the boat and traveled back but it took more like 4 hours going back. The weather was great. Not too hot but nice and warm and sunny.

Some of us had some ice cream afterwards.

I have many more pictures to show but I'll go slow and do a day or two of our trip at a time!

Next up will be Erica's 80th bday dinner celebration......a tour of a local winery....and family day activities!

Eating after a day of cool stuff

This picture should actually have gone after the others but I didn't get it in the right order. After the day of all the things I described below, we ate at Wagamama's........good food!

More Tower of London

On Tuesday, we took off for a tour of Lloyd's of London. This was set up by Phil who works for Goodville Mennonite Mutual and Lloyd's re insures Goodville. It's complicated but we got a free tour of their building. I wasn't able to go but the rest did and they said it was really fantastic. Much better than they thought it was going to be. You'll have to ask them about it.

After the tour they got a free lunch which over looked the Tower of London then I met them at the Tower and they gave us free tickets to the Tower of London. Here's the group after going through the main tour, seeing the crown jewels, and having gone through a couple of the other towers.
This is the group after seeing the torture tower!
Kevin, Nichole's bear got to see everything for free.
Dorothy and Kelly weren't close to London Bridge but decided to sing it anyway.
This is one of the beefeaters. They start the tours and give a lot of information about the tower.

Visits from some Shirks

Life at the LMC has been hectic recently. With summer comes tourists and other kinds of travelers such as pastors on sabbatical. This keeps the guest rooms (which are few) full. So it seems I am constantly cleaning a room, doing the laundry, making sure there is enough food for their breakfast, etc. The latest couple from the states were Dave and Mary Miller from State College, PA. They attended East Goshen Mennonite when we were there back in the late 70's, early 80's. We did some catching up and had a good time visiting with them. He is traveling and studying on a Lilly Grant and has been taking in all things anabaptist. He was able to get in on a quarterly Root and Branch meeting as well as the monthly Highgate Churches together meeting which also had Dr. Chris Hewer who was the Administrator of Interfaith Relations to the Bishop of Birmingham. He spoke on ISLAM: IF I CARE, I WILL TRY TO UNDERSTAND.
The other fun thing happening here is that two of Ed's sibs have come to visit with their families. Phil, his youngest brother from Lititz, PA and their kids Tyler and Nichole arrived on Thursday, then Dorothy, the youngest sister, came on Saturday with her two girls, Lynn and Kelly. We enjoyed a nice meal together which started with appetizers in the garden.....
then the main in the kitchen.
Topped off with some card playing before bedtime.

Camden, Camden Canal, & Regents Park

Last Sunday we took a walk which started in Camden Town. Camden is known for it's bizarre stores. The next few pictures are of some of the stores and their marques.
I'm not sure what they sell here.
After going through Camden Lock market, we descended to the canal and walked along the canal path to get to Regents Park.

This was a restaurant along the canal.
This is what is called a narrow boat as they are used to travel up and down the canals of England. Some people have their own but there are a lot of companies that rent them out by the day, week, or longer. They are fully furnished with beds, kitchens, etc.
After walking along the canal for awhile, we took a path up to Regents park. In the middle of the park is Queen Mary's Garden which has over 400 variety of roses along with many other flowers and plants.
Enjoying the scenery and smells of the roses.
Central London's Muslim Mosque is on the edge of Regents park.

We walked outside of the park and along the canal again and this is an example of the types of homes along the park. The American Ambassadors home, which was designed by Mrs. Cary Grant, is in this park.

Greenwich & an international Festival

On most of our outings we take the tube as it is quicker than the bus.
We got off at the Cutty Sark stop. The Cutty Sark is a tea clipper which used to zip back from Australia in less than 80 days. Last summer there was a big fire on the Cutty Sark and we couldn't see it as it is under cover for renovations. Outside of the Visitors centre is this statue of Sir Walter Raleigh.
We walked on to the Royal Maritime College where there is a room called The Painted Hall. I think this guy is trying to grab me from behind!
This is the painted hall. Every inch of the walls and ceilings are painted. The ceilings alone took 19 years to finish.
This is the chapel directly across from the painted hall.