Oops, I forget to mention this little town. It is the oldest town in Germany. Just caught it passing through.

Unfortunately, you can't see it but the sign above the guy's head says Germex (like our Texmex). Had to go to Germany to find Mexican food.

Wow!!! I was so impressed to be able to see a young man I coached in baseball when he was 8 years old as a professional actor/dancer/singer in the West Side Story in Germany. Since I was in Trojanaires (an award winning show choir), in high school, I have always looked for the strongest and weakest performers but here there were none. The orchestra was awesome as well. They truly were professional and I was especially amazed at my young friend’s talent. He was a talented magician also and helped draw people to our Samaritan Business Builders booth when he was about 12. I saw him perform in a staring roll in St. George, Utah years ago, which amazed me then but now to see him as a professional, I was gobsmacked. What a wonderful evening spent in the Coliseum Theatre in Essen Germany. I don’t want to sound condescending or patronizing in any way so please accept my humility and love when I say, I am very proud of him!!!

There wasn’t much different in Essen Germany than I’ve seen in other cities so I didn’t take any pictures but I did spend a few days there because I had such a nice place to camp in the city and I was able to plug in my computer at McDonald’s and get internet access at Starbucks so I was able to stay online and write more of my book. I would say I am close to a third done now because I had so much time to work on it.

This picture is missing his two beautiful daughters.

I finally got in touch with my missionary companion from back in 1984, Peter Schneider. He picked me up and I spent the weekend at his house with his family. What a wonderful family he has and they are very musically talented as well. His son Damien played me in football and Mario Brothers but I was no match for him. At their church they had an activity for the men playing games. They played Taboo XXL and I struggled not understanding German but I played and our team won (no thanks to me lol). There was a chess master there who killed me in chess as well. One thing this trip is doing for me is teaching me how to lose J. They have me at such a disadvantage in so many things having never played their sports or games. It’s okay, I still need to learn humility. Although I have nothing anymore (other than what fits in my backpack), and though I don’t know when I will make money again or when I will ever win a game again, I can’t help it… I am still full of pride for some dumb reason. I don’t feel homeless, poor, inadequate, unable to win or that I’m lacking anything. I am the happiest I have been in many years, if not ever. I love what I am doing and the people I am meeting because I run into the best people on the planet and they just make me feel loved and appreciated even though I do little for them.

Speaking of which, at the beginning of my pilgrimage, in Barcelona, the first guy that had me stay with him was Kai. He just chatted with me tonight on FB. Most people I’ve known for years never try to chat with me but here a stranger who I spent two days with is still interested in chatting with me every now and again. He wants to hang out again sometime and will stay in contact in case we are ever in the same proximity again.

Peter’s family have been so nice and kind to me, I keep telling him he is lucky to have such a family and I think he knows it. Although I am a guest and he is spending time with me, he was concerned about his wife and wanted to leave soon after church. He also told me that tomorrow, he will help put me on the path to Essen, Germany where I need to go to see Rhett Guter in West Side Story on Tuesday night. But before he does that he said he needs to spend some time with his wife in the morning and last night we started talking a bit then he said, why don’t we talk about this later because his son needs a little attention before he goes to bed. That is a good father who knows how to keep a proper perspective of what is most important in life.

My tent is dead so I have been searching for one but it is out of season now so there are none in the sports stores so Peter gave me their two man tent. It has a rain cover and is a bit bigger so should be more comfortable. Like I said, I get to meet the most wonderful people in the world on this trip. Something else that has been totally awesome for me (in speaking with Peter) although I love reading and learning from scriptures, prophets and apostles, many of the most inspiring lessons I’ve learned in life have come from direct revelation and inspiration. Many of these lessons I don’t share with people because they are not ready for them or they will understand them better when they receive the same revelation. Peter has received many of the same and we were able to discuss gospel principles I have never been able to share with others and it was so exciting for me. This has been such an inspiring stop for me. He also took me to the serviceman ward where the American servicemen go to church and it was the first time I have heard lessons and sang hymns in English in 4 months so it was really a nice gesture. Thank God for good people.

Peter also bought my train ticket to Essen because he didn’t think I would make it to Essen by Tuesday night auto stopping. He also gave me a sweater as he dropped me off at the train station since I left my rain jacket in Bordeaux. The thing is, he hasn’t gained any weight since I met him when he was 19 years old on our mission. I didn’t think his sweater would fit me but it did. I have become very skinny. I can’t thank Peter, his wife and kids enough for a very nice time and such excellent hospitality. He did also show me that food is much cheaper in Germany than most places in Europe because they only pay half the tax on food. The prices were similar to England so I did fill up my food bag and will make sure I do again before I get to Switzerland, which I hear is the most expensive country.

Here in Germany you can get painted Easter eggs all year long.

I arrived in Frankfurt around 8:00pm and that is when everything closes down so there wasn’t much to do. I was told about the fake old town city they built to attract tourists but the town was totally destroyed during the war and rebuilt with modern buildings and skyscrapers. In the morning I was able to see the old town better so here are the pictures.

Something else that struck me in the morning; every day for the last four months in Europe I hear bells ringing throughout every city. It started the same here but after the other churches rang there bells, suddenly there was one church with a deeper and louder sound than all the others and it reverberated the walls around me. It was quite fun listening to it and I wish that had that in the tunnel in the Louvre where the saxophone player was showing off the acoustics.  That would be awesome.

I wondered into the city center and found this little market and a stage where a band was about to play. I was surprised they only played for about an hour then were told to close down because of noise ordinances in Frankfurt so after 10:00pm they had to stop. Most stores close at 8:00pm. After the mini concert I ended up talking to the guest singer who was talking to this 19 year old pretty Russian girl. After a few minutes he left so I continued talking to her. We ended up talking until about 3:00am… okay I say we but it was mostly her speaking and me listening. She did start saying she is attracted to men in their 40’s and her last boyfriend was 47. I told her I would consider myself a pedophile if I dated a woman that was 35 years old. I also told her I was Mormon and I don’t drink, smoke or have sex outside marriage. I thought that would be enough of a turn off but she stayed talking until 3:00am. I told her thanks for the conversation then put my hand out to shake hers then she reached up and gave me a big hug instead. I called a taxi for her and she was on her way.

I went to sleep late so I didn't notice until I woke up in the morning that I was sleeping below this statue that looked like the guy was peeing on me lol. That is my backpack on the ground where I was sleeping.

Going back to Germany I had to take the route back from Kiel to Lubeck to stop at one of those lakeside towns. The person I was traveling with suggested Plon so I stopped there and camped for the night. However, it started raining again and I knew I was about to be soaked to I huddled in my tent until I saw the water start coming through then I packed up and left to find somewhere dry. I stayed there a couple hours thinking this would be another bust when it finally stopped raining. I looked around the city and I was not disappointed. What a beautiful little city. It had all the charm of old style Germany but cleaned up as if it were modern. The city was very clean and the people quite nice. The only thing that struck me as odd was their castle. It didn’t look like a castle at all but more like a mansion. The views of the lake from there were spectacular. I would love to live in a city like that.

Plon Castle.

Check out the weathering of the bricks in this church entryway. I don't know what was the difference between these and the rest of the building but in all the entries it was the same wear.

This was part of the beautiful little city center. Many very cool buildings.

My tent is the little speck of orange just right of the center of the picture.

Hamburg was a bust. It rained constantly the entire time I was there. I still walked around but it is not much of a tourist town. The highlight was that I stayed in a tent city with the Occupy group. They are the last one in Germany. They had tents set up in the city center and one was a big black tent with a hole in the top so they had a fire and everyone sat around the fire at night and chatted. They had to move their city about 100 yards/meters away because next week they will be setting up for a Christmas display.

I found out my waterproofing only lasts about 2 hours and then my tent started to rain again. Everything was soaked by the time I left.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

This is taken from the other side of the church that was blown up during the war and is left as a memorial to those who died in WWII

Here is the bottom of the church. What you are seeing is the view from what used to be the inside of the church.

This is what the church used to look like before it was blown up.

Outside of St. Micheal's Cathedral.

The inside of St. Micheal's Cathedral which I believe is a Lutheran church because of the statue of Martin Luther outside. It was very beautiful inside but I couldn't capture the sides which were very cool actually. 

This was the end of all I took from Hamburg.

From Lubeck to Kiel Germany, there are several little lakeshore towns that were so picturesque that I wanted to stop at all of them but couldn’t. That is the life I want except with mountains around. If I found the people nice and could speak English, it wouldn’t be hard for them to convince me to live there when I was done with my pilgrimage.