Today, Sunday, we slept in (no more jet-lag), and got up for the second service at 10:00 AM. The church service was great; the worship was lively and the Bible lesson was really inspiring. Nick (the pastor) preaches in English, with a translator, so the service has a certain cadence, sort of like a traditional African-American church service where the audience is expected to regularly respond to each point.
After service, we visited the book store and then went out to lunch with Dave, Inga-Lill, Nick and his wife Sue. Before we knew it, it was 4:00 PM. Nick had to dash off for the evening service. Kathy, Inga-Lill and I went over for the worship portion of the service, and then went home to get packed, (and catch up on this blog), while Dave stayed behind to do some video-taping.
Tomorrow morning we take off for the Rhine.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Day 4: Heidelberg
Today, Saturday, we went on a field trip with the Bible College students to visit Heidelberg. Heidelberg is about three hours south of Siegen. The Bible College chartered a 50-person bus for the trip, which was completely filled. We followed along in a van.
Our first stop was at Calvary Chapel Heidelberg where we picked up our guide, Matthias. Next we made our way to the Heiligenberg, or "Mountain of Saints" overlooking the city from the North. This fifth-century BC Celtic fortress of refuge and place of worship on the is one of the oldest identifiable settlements in this area. The picture shown here is a 56-meter-deep pit that dates from that era.
In 863 the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress. Here's a picture of the tower built in approximately 1094, from that monastery that overlooks the valley.
Also on the Heiligenberg is an unusual Nazi edifice - a "Thingstätte." In early Nazi quasi-religious Völkisch ceremony and Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology, a "Thing" was an open-air gathering of the people, harking back to old Germanic pagan gatherings. Some 1200 "Thing" sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the Nazi hierarchy lost interest in the "Thing" movement in 1936.
Here's a picture of Kathy and I looking down into the ampitheater, and, on the right, is a picture of the same ampitheater on the day it opened in 1935.
There are more complete monastery ruins above the Thingstätte. Here are some of the students exploring and taking a break.
After lunch, Kathy went for a Starbucks, Dave and I got a gelato, and a student (Ben S.) went to see a golden mime perform.
Once everyone was refreshed, we headed on up the hill to Heidelberg castle. This was a pretty steep climb, and we're still a little sore a couple of days later. Here's a picture of one of the facades, and the view over the valley.
Finally, we finished off by taking a ride on the River Neckar, which was very refreshing. The picture on the right was taken up in the castle.
Then, it was time for the ride home. We spent the evening watching a movie about Lonnie Frisbee (a little biased, I thought), and eating baguette pizzas. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
Our first stop was at Calvary Chapel Heidelberg where we picked up our guide, Matthias. Next we made our way to the Heiligenberg, or "Mountain of Saints" overlooking the city from the North. This fifth-century BC Celtic fortress of refuge and place of worship on the is one of the oldest identifiable settlements in this area. The picture shown here is a 56-meter-deep pit that dates from that era.In 863 the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress. Here's a picture of the tower built in approximately 1094, from that monastery that overlooks the valley.
Also on the Heiligenberg is an unusual Nazi edifice - a "Thingstätte." In early Nazi quasi-religious Völkisch ceremony and Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology, a "Thing" was an open-air gathering of the people, harking back to old Germanic pagan gatherings. Some 1200 "Thing" sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the Nazi hierarchy lost interest in the "Thing" movement in 1936.Here's a picture of Kathy and I looking down into the ampitheater, and, on the right, is a picture of the same ampitheater on the day it opened in 1935.
There are more complete monastery ruins above the Thingstätte. Here are some of the students exploring and taking a break.
Modern Heidelberg
After our hike, we drove down to the city and let everyone explore for a few hours. The main street of the old town was crowded with tourists. We found a Lebanese cafe and had schwarma, falafel, and humus for lunch.After lunch, Kathy went for a Starbucks, Dave and I got a gelato, and a student (Ben S.) went to see a golden mime perform.
Once everyone was refreshed, we headed on up the hill to Heidelberg castle. This was a pretty steep climb, and we're still a little sore a couple of days later. Here's a picture of one of the facades, and the view over the valley.
Finally, we finished off by taking a ride on the River Neckar, which was very refreshing. The picture on the right was taken up in the castle.
Then, it was time for the ride home. We spent the evening watching a movie about Lonnie Frisbee (a little biased, I thought), and eating baguette pizzas. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
Day 3: Breakfast, Bible and Biking
When daylight showed up on Friday for real, it was a beautiful sunny day. Both of the Guziks' grown children are now back in California and they graciously made up one of their rooms for us. Here's the view from out of our window.
They also made us a wonderful breakfast before Inga-Lill took us over to Calvary Chapel Siegen to visit with the pastor there, Nick Long.
Nick is a musician (Chet Atkins' nephew) who came to Germany twenty years ago from Seattle Washington to begin a ministry aimed at young people. His church, Calvary Chapel Siegen, has a beautiful new sanctuary and a large building, with offices and classrooms where the Bible College holds its class meetings. The classrooms are in the white building on the left.
The church also has a bookstore and coffee-bar next door. (That's Ben Vizcarra, who picked us up from the airport, out in front). The whole congregation can meet for food and fellowship after the worship services. Because so many folks stay around between the multiple services, the parking lot has to be especially big.
Next door to the church, CC Siegen has purchased a huge warehouse that they want to use for various outreach purposes. The long-term plan is to create an indoor skate park, since Siegen is really rainy which makes the outdoor city skate park across from the church less than idea. (We couldn't tell about the rainy part from our stay; it's been beautiful every day).
Rather than starting with the skate park, though, the church began with a huge second-hand store, called the @Home Factory. Germany doesn't have many other large second-hand stores (like Goodwill or Salvation Army in the States), and Nick saw a real opportunity. Here are a few pictures:
You can find more photos on my Flickr Siegen page.
When we got back, David and Inga-Lill drove us out to a traditional historic German village named Freudenberg about 15 minutes from Siegen. Here are a few pictures of that outing as well:
Another wonderful day. (I still woke up at 1:00 AM, but this time I went back to sleep on my own instead of waking Kathy up to discuss it.)
They also made us a wonderful breakfast before Inga-Lill took us over to Calvary Chapel Siegen to visit with the pastor there, Nick Long.
Nick is a musician (Chet Atkins' nephew) who came to Germany twenty years ago from Seattle Washington to begin a ministry aimed at young people. His church, Calvary Chapel Siegen, has a beautiful new sanctuary and a large building, with offices and classrooms where the Bible College holds its class meetings. The classrooms are in the white building on the left.The church also has a bookstore and coffee-bar next door. (That's Ben Vizcarra, who picked us up from the airport, out in front). The whole congregation can meet for food and fellowship after the worship services. Because so many folks stay around between the multiple services, the parking lot has to be especially big.The @Home Factory
Next door to the church, CC Siegen has purchased a huge warehouse that they want to use for various outreach purposes. The long-term plan is to create an indoor skate park, since Siegen is really rainy which makes the outdoor city skate park across from the church less than idea. (We couldn't tell about the rainy part from our stay; it's been beautiful every day).Rather than starting with the skate park, though, the church began with a huge second-hand store, called the @Home Factory. Germany doesn't have many other large second-hand stores (like Goodwill or Salvation Army in the States), and Nick saw a real opportunity. Here are a few pictures:
You can find more photos on my Flickr Siegen page.
Biking and Freudenberg
After lunch, Kathy and I went biking. (Yeah!). We rode down the bike trail along the Sieg river (after a short attempt to bike up a vertical hiking trail.) Here are a couple of photos:When we got back, David and Inga-Lill drove us out to a traditional historic German village named Freudenberg about 15 minutes from Siegen. Here are a few pictures of that outing as well:
Another wonderful day. (I still woke up at 1:00 AM, but this time I went back to sleep on my own instead of waking Kathy up to discuss it.)
Day 2: Arriving Hopefully
We woke up pretty early on the morning of the 13th. Actually, very, very early. After sleeping for a short four hours, it was already the next day (since we were travelling "against the sun"). Unfortunately, all the rest of the plane was filled with folks who felt like they needed a few more hours of sleep, rather than being all bright-eyed and ready to get started.
At around noon (3 AM our time), the lights came on, the rest of the passengers woke up, breakfast was quickly served and eaten, and we prepared to land at Frankfurt am Main. At 2:30 PM local time, (5:30 AM according to our bodies and the clocks back in California), we walked down the gangway to Germany.
Before we left, David Guzik, the director of the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Siegen Germany offered to put us up at his house, and to send someone to pick us up at the airport. We were to meet at the airport "Tufftpunkt" or meeting place. Unbeknownst to all of us, the Frankfurt airport actually has two meeting points, one for those with checked luggage, and another for those, like us, who carried our luggage on board.
After a bit, when we didn't immediately find our ride, Kathy went and purchased a phone card and called the Bible College. It turns out that Ben Vizcarra, who was meeting us, had spent the last hour just a few meters away, anxiously examining each arriving passenger. Once we got connected, we hopped in the car and set out for Siegen, about an hour and a half north-west from Frankfurt.
Traffic was light and we made good time on the Autobahn. We arrived in time to get a quick tour of the "Villa" where most of the fifty-five CCBC students live. David Guzik's wife, Inga-Lill, met us and showed us around.
Inga-Lill is from Sweden, but she spent a few years of her childhood in San Clemente, where her family was introduced to Calvary Chapel. Later, as a young adult, she attended the first Calvary Chapel Bible School at Twin Peaks. There she met another Bible School student, David Guzik.
David and Inga-Lill eventually married and went on to found and pastor both Calvary Chapel Oxnard and Calvary Chapel Simi Valley. Four years ago, they felt called to leave Southern California and take over the new Calvary Chapel Bible College extension campus in Siegen Germany.
The CCBC student Villa is located immediately below the Autobahn bridge near Siegen. I'm told that this one of the largest single-pillar bridges in Europe. Here are a couple pictures of the facility from two different angles.
The Villa has three stories of dorm-like rooms. (At least that's what I've been told; men aren't allowed on the top floor where the women students are housed.) The guy's rooms all have bunks for four to six students, kind of like a very high-class, very clean youth hostel. (Or, I guess, like a college dorm.)
On the ground floor there are common rooms, game and meeting rooms, and offices. Here's a photo showing the student computer room. There is no dining room in the Villa, though. Instead, the Bible College converted a bar next door into a coffee bar cafe-bistro type student dinning. (The students all eat at the same time, though; they can't just stop by and order whatever they want.)
As you can see from the pictures here, the ambiance is quite a bit different than your typical student cafeteria.
After the tour, we met up with Ben for our first dinner at the "Black Sheep" Schnitzel house, where we had a huge, (and delicious) meal. I originally planned to photograph everything I ate, but it was so good, I couldn't wait.
By 10:00 PM we were both back at the Guziks', and sound asleep. At 1:00 AM I found myself completely wide awake. I found this so novel, that I thought I should wake up Kathy to discuss it. She prayed with me, and, after a bit, I fell back asleep 'til morning.
At around noon (3 AM our time), the lights came on, the rest of the passengers woke up, breakfast was quickly served and eaten, and we prepared to land at Frankfurt am Main. At 2:30 PM local time, (5:30 AM according to our bodies and the clocks back in California), we walked down the gangway to Germany.
Before we left, David Guzik, the director of the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Siegen Germany offered to put us up at his house, and to send someone to pick us up at the airport. We were to meet at the airport "Tufftpunkt" or meeting place. Unbeknownst to all of us, the Frankfurt airport actually has two meeting points, one for those with checked luggage, and another for those, like us, who carried our luggage on board.After a bit, when we didn't immediately find our ride, Kathy went and purchased a phone card and called the Bible College. It turns out that Ben Vizcarra, who was meeting us, had spent the last hour just a few meters away, anxiously examining each arriving passenger. Once we got connected, we hopped in the car and set out for Siegen, about an hour and a half north-west from Frankfurt.Traffic was light and we made good time on the Autobahn. We arrived in time to get a quick tour of the "Villa" where most of the fifty-five CCBC students live. David Guzik's wife, Inga-Lill, met us and showed us around.
The CCBC Villa
Inga-Lill is from Sweden, but she spent a few years of her childhood in San Clemente, where her family was introduced to Calvary Chapel. Later, as a young adult, she attended the first Calvary Chapel Bible School at Twin Peaks. There she met another Bible School student, David Guzik.David and Inga-Lill eventually married and went on to found and pastor both Calvary Chapel Oxnard and Calvary Chapel Simi Valley. Four years ago, they felt called to leave Southern California and take over the new Calvary Chapel Bible College extension campus in Siegen Germany.
The CCBC student Villa is located immediately below the Autobahn bridge near Siegen. I'm told that this one of the largest single-pillar bridges in Europe. Here are a couple pictures of the facility from two different angles.
The Villa has three stories of dorm-like rooms. (At least that's what I've been told; men aren't allowed on the top floor where the women students are housed.) The guy's rooms all have bunks for four to six students, kind of like a very high-class, very clean youth hostel. (Or, I guess, like a college dorm.)
On the ground floor there are common rooms, game and meeting rooms, and offices. Here's a photo showing the student computer room. There is no dining room in the Villa, though. Instead, the Bible College converted a bar next door into a coffee bar cafe-bistro type student dinning. (The students all eat at the same time, though; they can't just stop by and order whatever they want.)As you can see from the pictures here, the ambiance is quite a bit different than your typical student cafeteria.
Siegen and Schnitzel
After our visit to the Villa, David and Inga-Lill took Kathy and I on a drive up to the Siegen castle in the center (and, at the top of) of the old part of town. We walked through the gardens, talked to a nice Siegen lady who originally though that we were British, and asked about the earthquakes when she found we were from California. We then got to look out over the city.After the tour, we met up with Ben for our first dinner at the "Black Sheep" Schnitzel house, where we had a huge, (and delicious) meal. I originally planned to photograph everything I ate, but it was so good, I couldn't wait.
By 10:00 PM we were both back at the Guziks', and sound asleep. At 1:00 AM I found myself completely wide awake. I found this so novel, that I thought I should wake up Kathy to discuss it. She prayed with me, and, after a bit, I fell back asleep 'til morning.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Day 1 - Getting there is half the fun
Today is the day we leave. (I've written this on September 12th, but haven't been able to get to a computer until now.) I rode my bike to drop off one last book at the library and to check to make sure we wouldn't return to a two-month fine for any books we'd forgotten. On my way home, I stopped to say goodbye to my folks, and then swung by the PO box to pick up any last minute bills. We just recently set up our Visa with auto-pay for the trip, and, when I checked the statement it looked like the payment dates had been entered incorrectly.
That meant a quick trip to the credit union to check (it was OK after all; that's just the way that auto-pay works), and to make sure that all of our European credit-card and ATM ducks were still neatly lined up and ready to go. (We'll find out when we go to get money, I guess.)
Kathy spent the morning packing, cleaning and double-checking, and, as 2:00 PM approached, I had a chance to print out some last-minute local train schedules (such as the different connections between Venice and Montebelluna, for instance). I also tried, unsuccessfully, to enable you all to comment on our blog, which I almost deleted in the process. (I just figured out how to make them active, so they should work now.)
Right on time at 2:00 PM, Mari-Kristin (our daughter-in-law) showed up at our door, all dressed up fresh from an interview in Irvine, we piled into Kathy's car, and headed up to LAX.
We got to the LAX Bradley International Terminal a little after 3:00 and found a half-dozen people already lined up for Flight 136, Air India, from LAX to Delhi, with one stop (ours) in Frankfurt Germany. The ticket counter wasn't open yet, and another two dozen folks lined up behind us before the staff arrived about 45 minutes later.
The first thing that the staff did was to pass out a little flyer to every one standing in line:
The problem, though, was the weight. No matter how lightly we packed, there was no way we could get everything below 15 pounds each; fully loaded, each of our packs weight about twice that. Even worse, though, was that Kathy was also bringing another tote-style bag of textbooks for students at the CC Bible School in Siegen, which was our first stop. I was pretty completely freaked out, but Kathy calmly took our packs apart while we were standing in line, and found places for all of the textbooks.
When we got to the ticket line, Kathy just asked the lady, "Can we bring these on board?". She had us stick them both on the scale, and then simply said, "Sure!". I started to point out that the flyer that they gave us said we couldn't have more than 15 lbs each, when Kathy shot me a look, and I realized what I was doing and just shut up.
We got our boarding passes, took off our shoes, emptied our pockets, removed our money-belts, were X-Rayed, wanded and scanned, and passed into the terminal where I'd spend the next three hours still worried about our overweight luggage being intercepted at the gate, getting bumped from the flight, or inexplicably at the last moment finding ourselves on the TSA no-fly list.
Of course none of those things happened. Kathy noticed my fretting and prayed with me. The TSA folk decided (on September 12th) that maybe a flight to India might be some kind of special risk, and so they proceeded to re-XRay and re-wand everyone in the waiting room (with in incidents that I could see). By 6:30 we filed uneventfully onto the half-filled plane.
Flying Air India is certainly different than any other airline we've flown before. It was the least expensive flight we could find, at $ 326.00 each, one-way. This was less than 1/4 the cost of most of the other fares we looked at. It was also one of the nicest airlines we've flown; it wasn't a cut-rate operation by any means.
We were seated just forward of the airplane entrance in row 15 (about 5 rows behind the first-class section). Next two us was a young LA bicyclist name Liz who was going on a biking tour of Croatia with a group of five or six others from LA and Orange counties. The all were lined up behind us with their bikes in large cardboard containers to be checked. Apparently checking the bikes as luggage was completely free on Air India. Liz had some interesting stories about different bike trips she'd taken in Europe which got me really excited (Kathy maybe not so much.)
When we first took off, there was a spectacular sunset, which was really vivid. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. It was really overwhelming in person. That's Malibu and the Santa Monica bay you can see through the window.
The in-flight movies were both American and Indian; you could use your headsets to listen to the soundtrack in several different languages.
The food and the snacks were also quite a bit different than on American or European airlines that we've flown before. Instead of peanuts or pretzels, the snack was a spicy sesame-flour muchie that looked kind of like a crinkle-cut french fry, with a texture like a very dense Cheetos. Of course we had our choice of beverage as well: coffee, tea, coke or Johnny Walker Red whiskey. Straight.
Dinner gave us our first taste of international food: spicy lamb, rice and vegetables, along with a side of yogurt and a very thin, hot, cracker-like flat bread. The meal finished off with a delicious desert: Vermicelli Kheer with Pistachios; and ended with both of us falling fast asleep.
That meant a quick trip to the credit union to check (it was OK after all; that's just the way that auto-pay works), and to make sure that all of our European credit-card and ATM ducks were still neatly lined up and ready to go. (We'll find out when we go to get money, I guess.)
Kathy spent the morning packing, cleaning and double-checking, and, as 2:00 PM approached, I had a chance to print out some last-minute local train schedules (such as the different connections between Venice and Montebelluna, for instance). I also tried, unsuccessfully, to enable you all to comment on our blog, which I almost deleted in the process. (I just figured out how to make them active, so they should work now.)
Right on time at 2:00 PM, Mari-Kristin (our daughter-in-law) showed up at our door, all dressed up fresh from an interview in Irvine, we piled into Kathy's car, and headed up to LAX.
Waiting for Air India
We got to the LAX Bradley International Terminal a little after 3:00 and found a half-dozen people already lined up for Flight 136, Air India, from LAX to Delhi, with one stop (ours) in Frankfurt Germany. The ticket counter wasn't open yet, and another two dozen folks lined up behind us before the staff arrived about 45 minutes later.The first thing that the staff did was to pass out a little flyer to every one standing in line:
For our trip, Kathy bought two "High Sierra" bags. These are standard carry-on-sized wheeled bags that are convertible to a backpack. In addition, they have a smaller, zip-on-and-off day pack that you can carry separately or attached. So, if worse came to worst, we could zip everything together into a single carry-on with no dimension larger than 45 inches, since we were determined not to check any bags.Welcome Aboard: For your safety and comfort, AIR INDIA wishes to remind you that tariff regulations limit you to only ONE HANDCARRY baggage per person. This baggage should not exceed a total dimension of 45 inches and weight of 15 lbs (7 kg) and must fit in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you.
Passengers NOT complying with this regulation will have their hand-carry baggage intercepted, checked at the gate and assessed the EXCESS BAGGAGE CHARGE of $133.00.
In case hand carry baggage is intercepted, passenger must remove the following items: money, jewelry, electronic devices, medications, important documents, and other valuable items.
The problem, though, was the weight. No matter how lightly we packed, there was no way we could get everything below 15 pounds each; fully loaded, each of our packs weight about twice that. Even worse, though, was that Kathy was also bringing another tote-style bag of textbooks for students at the CC Bible School in Siegen, which was our first stop. I was pretty completely freaked out, but Kathy calmly took our packs apart while we were standing in line, and found places for all of the textbooks.
When we got to the ticket line, Kathy just asked the lady, "Can we bring these on board?". She had us stick them both on the scale, and then simply said, "Sure!". I started to point out that the flyer that they gave us said we couldn't have more than 15 lbs each, when Kathy shot me a look, and I realized what I was doing and just shut up.
We got our boarding passes, took off our shoes, emptied our pockets, removed our money-belts, were X-Rayed, wanded and scanned, and passed into the terminal where I'd spend the next three hours still worried about our overweight luggage being intercepted at the gate, getting bumped from the flight, or inexplicably at the last moment finding ourselves on the TSA no-fly list.
Of course none of those things happened. Kathy noticed my fretting and prayed with me. The TSA folk decided (on September 12th) that maybe a flight to India might be some kind of special risk, and so they proceeded to re-XRay and re-wand everyone in the waiting room (with in incidents that I could see). By 6:30 we filed uneventfully onto the half-filled plane.
Flying AI
Flying Air India is certainly different than any other airline we've flown before. It was the least expensive flight we could find, at $ 326.00 each, one-way. This was less than 1/4 the cost of most of the other fares we looked at. It was also one of the nicest airlines we've flown; it wasn't a cut-rate operation by any means.We were seated just forward of the airplane entrance in row 15 (about 5 rows behind the first-class section). Next two us was a young LA bicyclist name Liz who was going on a biking tour of Croatia with a group of five or six others from LA and Orange counties. The all were lined up behind us with their bikes in large cardboard containers to be checked. Apparently checking the bikes as luggage was completely free on Air India. Liz had some interesting stories about different bike trips she'd taken in Europe which got me really excited (Kathy maybe not so much.)
When we first took off, there was a spectacular sunset, which was really vivid. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. It was really overwhelming in person. That's Malibu and the Santa Monica bay you can see through the window.The in-flight movies were both American and Indian; you could use your headsets to listen to the soundtrack in several different languages.
The food and the snacks were also quite a bit different than on American or European airlines that we've flown before. Instead of peanuts or pretzels, the snack was a spicy sesame-flour muchie that looked kind of like a crinkle-cut french fry, with a texture like a very dense Cheetos. Of course we had our choice of beverage as well: coffee, tea, coke or Johnny Walker Red whiskey. Straight.Dinner gave us our first taste of international food: spicy lamb, rice and vegetables, along with a side of yogurt and a very thin, hot, cracker-like flat bread. The meal finished off with a delicious desert: Vermicelli Kheer with Pistachios; and ended with both of us falling fast asleep.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Day 0 - Packing Etc.
Just want to make a last post before I turn off the computer for two months. Kathy and I both spent the morning taking care of odds and ends and packing our "lean and mean" bags just a little bit fuller. Our daughter-in-law (Mari-kristin) will be picking us up in a half hour and we'll be off. Just hope we haven't forgotten anything.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
This is just a sample.
Here's a picture to show Kathy what it will look like when we post pictures on our blog.
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