Week ending Monday, April 20th

Hi Folks!

Save for downpours all day on Saturday, we've had just about the most beautiful weather over the last three weeks that I've ever seen. Don't know what caused everything to bloom so fast and so magnificently after 5+ months of drab, grey and gloomy winter. I feel like I have literally walked into paradise!

Not a lot new to report. Went on a terrific tour of Neroberg and the Russian Chapel last Friday. Took a cute little tourist train (glorified car) up the mountain but found the chapel to be closed. They are closed Wed.-Fri. for services. Strange that it is not Sat. or Sun.. oh well. Then we walked up the Neroberg to the lookout and had lunch at a wonderful placed called "Wagner." Not sure if there's a relation but did hear Wagner's "Wedding March" from "Lohengrin" being played over their sound system as we finished lunch.

After lunch we skipped the return train trip and strolled back through very glamorous Beverly Hills style neighborhoods. Very wealthy section of town. Brahms composed his 3rd Symphony while visiting here. One movement of it entitled "Wiesbaden." Speaking of composers - I hear that Wagner composed "Die Meistersinger" here in Wiesbaden.

Afternoon ended as usual - shopped our way home. I was good and only bought a bag of gummi's (terrific strawberry/rhubarb flavored with pieces of actual fruit in them) and a book of German decorations in German but the pictures were all you needed. Everyone boought copies of this book since they were half price.

By now it's 5pm and I was close enough to the Arms Hotel for Lew to pick me up rather than taking the bus home. He did and we got a drink at the Pub before heading to the Commissary to buy some groceries. Can't find natural peanut butter over here, among other things, so the stop was in order. He needed to get gas at the PX.

Saturday was kind of a wash (literally with all the downpour). Visited a huge bike store for some accessories. Across the street was a wonderful little food kiosk where we dined on bratwurst, gulasch suppe, apfelshorle (sparkling cider) and pils. Very surreal sitting at a little cafe in an industrial area.

Saturday night we watched this great little film we checked out from the library called "Motorcycle Diaries." It wasn't until the end that I realized the central character was Che Guevera!

Sunday we went to our first church service in Germany. Wonderful little Anglican church downtown called "St Augustine's." They have an english service at 10am. Met several folks with mutual friends.

Sunday afternoon I dragged Lewis back downtown to take the little tourist train back to Neroberg. Only this time we sprang for the combo ticket and stayed on for the second tour to Biebrich. We wasted about 2 hours of an incredibly gorgeous afternoon on this little train trying to decipher an english translation of the tour that was being broadcasted in German. Translation was pretty bad and therefore entertainment in itself.

Sunday night we watched a video of Norway. We are getting very excited about our trip to Norway in June!

It's Tuesday morning of another beautiful spring day in Germany. I am finishing my coffee and thinking of all my dear friends and family in the States. We miss and love you all very much!

Jaime and Lew