Day 31

Today was sunday, so I got up around 9, and after breakfast me and Mrs Kirste headed off to the Baptist church again. It was another cool service, although this time I couldnt understand as much of the sermon as the guy used more complicated words, and none of the songs were familiar to me.. but hey.. It was still cool! Also found out there was an english speakers service on that evening too so that was cool!

After the service we came home and I made a hamburger for lunch, and then soon after we we off and on an excursion. Me, Arnulf and Mr and Mrs Kirste piled into the car and headed to an eara about an hours drive away. First up we went to some awesome ruins at Reussenstein Castle. We parked then walked a couple of hundred meters along a path (next to which was a beautiful field, and along the side of the path were lotsa tiny flowers, and equally tiny butterflies landing on them and doing their butterfly thing). Before reaching the ruins there was a place where you could look out towards them. This areas was full of vertical rock faces and was a rock-climbers paradise! There were rings and stuff anchored into the rockface everywhere, and while there I saw 5 people climbing in different areas. The castle overlooked a lovely valley and was built above a cliff face of its own. The ruins were awesome to walk around and stuff, lotsa walls were still intact, and I really enjoyed it (I love ruins.. dunno why..). There were also lots of faces where you could do a bit of bouldering which was fun.. altho my shoes were a bit big a clunky for it really. There was a big main courtyard, and also on a lower level was an old cellar and lookouts. It seemed someone had camped the night there aswell which woulda been pretty cool! There are walking trails all over the place in this part of the country, and the scenery and forests are gorgeous!! I so wanna come back one day and also do alot of tramping. Itd be soo cool walking in these forests up n down hills and stuff and every now and then coming to an old castle or ruins.. and great views.. AHH! :) AWESOME!.

Anyway, after we had had a good nosey around we went back to the car and had some drink then carried on to our next destination. On the way however we stopped for a drink and cake at a place, and ajacent to it (up a hill) was this thing called the Bobbahn. It was like the luge but you were on rollercoaster type rails, and you controlled your speed on it. This thing was great fun! Altho it made slightly worrying scraping noises when you rounded tight corners (I went maximum speed the whole way :D). We rode it once, then decided it was so fun we would do it once more, and this time down I made a video (hopefully will be able to post videos somewhere sometime!!). After this me and Arnulf enjoyed a white magnum (cant get them in NZ anymore..) (oh and they call 'streets' 'langnese' here in Germany..), and then we carried on to the Castle Teck.

This was up on a hill and you had to walk a fair bit of the way to get there. Down at the carpark were lots big open grassy fields, and there were tons of family groups there playing games, and having a barbeque. Some of the setups were classic too. One family had a mini doner-kebab thing (you know.. that rotating vertical hunk of meat that they shave bits off). Anyway, it was all quite cool. The walk up was a nice rpad through forest which reminded me of home and gave me strong urges to take shortvuts through bush and run down the steep, root-ridden slopes really fast (I love doing that!). Me and Arnulf took a few shortcuts at bend in the road. And near the end we took what looked like a long shurtcut.. but it actually led to a path under the castle that kinda looped around under the main wall (and the cliff it was on). On the way we saw a cool Skink-like lizard, and a totally sweet cave directly under the castle. there were some stairs up to it, and inside was like an arch-entrance (natural?) and it went way back into the darkness. I went in until it got a little too small, then we harded back ou and rounded our way to tghe entrance of the castle and met Mrs Kirste in there. We all drank some cold mineral water (mmmm) and then I went around a bit looking out at the view and stuff, and we headed back down to Mr Kirste waiting in the car.

We drove home, and soon after arriving me and Mrs Kirste went to the church for the English service. It started at 7 and we arrived a few minutes before but nobody was there and the church was closed. I walked around the back of the building and saw someone sitting there with a guitar, so picked up some courage and asked if there was an english service being held here tonight (in German). He said yep, so I called over Mrs Kirste, and soon another guy arrived with a key and we went into the church. The guy sitting on the step that I met was called Michael, he was reasonably young and was completing an apprenticeship. He was german, but liked to practise his English, the other guy was originally from Britain, but had been in Germany for like 30 years, and he was a teacher. Soon a couple turned up with their little son, and after waiting a bit for some other guy who was ment to be there we just flaged and started singing. I knew all the songs which was cool! Michael played the guitar, and the couple's (from Cameroon) little son played bongo drums (well bashed them while we sung.. but it sounded fine, and he started and stopped when the songs did.. very cool :D). After singing 'here I am to worship' Michael gave a devotion from Ephesians 6, which tied in really well with chapter 2;1-12 that id just been reading. the chapter 2 stuff kinda gave great hope and stuff to it, and a reason for what was instructed in Chapter 6. So it was cool to be able to share that. After another song or two the guy showed up and asked if someone would share a Psalm, so we read out Psalm 63, then had some time of prayer which was also really cool! We finished up with a few songs (an hour or so all together) and then after tidying up, and a couple of photos we headed home. The guy who came late is an expert on cameras, and complimented me on mine, and wanted to know where I bought it, so that was cool!! :D.

Anyways.. I returned home and had a light dinner, then went to bed and listened to a semron on the iPod (I have set up some computer speakers in my room.. I dont like earphones very much ay.. and I can also bring it outside to pump happy summer music whenever Im out swimming or playing with people in he backyard.), soon after it was time for sleep :)