FLASHBACK: Tuesday, October 5

We decided to hang out close to home and do some more touring of our little town in Beilstein, Germany. We visited an old castle and a beautiful church. It is so hard to believe that these buildings have been around for at least twice as long as the USA has been a country! In fact, the little B & B we stayed at (which we recommend with unbridled enthusiasm) has been in their family since 1795. Here are some pictures of our day around town.

First we headed up to the castle:

Then we decided to take a walk up the hill to a winery and Jewish Cemetery. As I had mentioned in a previous post, the community used to have a large Jewish population. With Hitler's devastation, the town no longer has even one Jewish family in its midst. I did think it was neat that in the cemetery, there were old headstones that you could barely read done in Hebrew and some stones that were obviously replacements for original stones. Many of these dates back to the 1800's. There were, however, some more recent stones from people who chose to be buried near family members. There were also rocks on the top of the markers (similar to what you saw at the end of the movie Schindler's List.)

After our tour of the cemetery (we walked around it but not into the gate. We were worried the boys may move some of the stones on the markers), we hiked back downhill and to a beautiful Catholic church.

I have figured out where to put two boys' coats when they don't want to wear them anymore. Look closely and you'll see them stuck into my two back pockets.

I love this photo. We told Elijah not to stand on the church pews so he kneeled and then when we told him they were used to pray, folded his hands to pray. So sweet!

Elijah wanted to climb on the kneeling bench. We explained they were for praying. So he kneeled and folded his hands. How sweet is this? I can't wait to print a copy of this for my "sister" Kelsey.