Day 60 - 2 months and counting

Today we are back with A and E (My Aunt and Uncle), touring the Saurland. It is very green, as a result of the rain, rain, rain. Today though is bright and sunny with a nice breeze and only cotton-puff clouds scudding across the sky. We visit many picturesque villages, unfortunqtely I am terrible with names, so cannot tell you exactly WHICH villages. One of them featured a church made of green sandstone and nearly constantly pealing bells. I believe the bishop got a new kitten who was trying to climb the bell-ropes, or maybe there was an over-zealous bell-ringer on his first day. I like bells, but it was pretty funny...sometimes they would appear to be stopping, but then...ding, ding, dong...and away they'd go again.

The town got its wealth through milling and agriculture. E pointed out how different the architecture here is to that of Muenster. Muenster was a winter home to minor royalty and a merchants' town. There, the buildings are large and built of brick and/or sandstone. Here they are somewhat smaller, and of half-timber construction. They are more what I imagine when I picture German villages, but both styles are very pretty.

We ate lunch at a nice restaurant with a terrace near a large lake formed by an equally large dam. Both the dam and the lake were very beautiful, and we enjoyed watching the sailboats as we ate. E even taught us something about how modern sailboat design allows them to travel in almost any direction in relation to the wind.

After our meal, we walked out on the dam. The recent heavy rain had caused it to overflow yesterday, and today the water was still blasting out of the spillways. It was a dramatic sight, and an even more dramatic sound as the water roared and frothed out of its containing pipes and channels.

We were going to sightsee some more in the afternoon, but we were pretty tired, so home again for another dose of relaxing in civilization. With a view this time! When we arrived rain and fog completely obscured everything from the edge of the patio on. Today, a ring of hills, gardens, and general green-ness shone in the sun.