Stephen and Elaine Biddulph

28 Juni - 4 Juli 2015 Schwarzwald Reise

Sister and Elder Biddulph at Titisee (Schwarzwald)

On Tuesday, 30 June we had another Senior Missionary temple night. The Frankfurt temple closes on 7 September for two years of renovation. Lots of missionary calls between Monday and Thursday because we left on Friday for a 2-day trip to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) with a group of 18 senior missionaries. The Mathesons (Ken and Marlene) rode with us. Thank goodness for GPS or we never would have negotiated all the little backroad country roads and turns. It took us about 3 hours and 20 minutes to drive there. The Autobahn (freeway) follows the Rhein River most of the way past Heidelberg and Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe. Beautiful country. Average speed was 120 km/hour, and there were cars flying past us at almost double our speed!

Senior Missionaries at Triberg Wasserfall

We drove from Frankfurt to Triberg, which is not too far west from Munich and close to Lake Constance on the Swiss border, and also Freiberg. Our first stop was to hike up to the Triberg Waterfall (Wasserfall)-the highest in Germany. Pretty but nothing comparable to Yellowstone Falls. It was exceptionally warm (100 F) and we did plenty of sweating.
Just outside of Triberg we found the Cuckoo Clock Factory and the World's largest Cuckoo Clock. It was the front of a house with a large face of a clock, a door at the top where

World's Largest Cuckoo Clock - Triberg

a huge wooden cuckoo bird comes out each hour, a pendulum and heavy cones. Inside are the huge wooden mechanics that make the clock tick. Quite amazing. The factory had hundreds of grandfather clocks of all sizes and types. Many of them cost in excess of 3,000 Euros. It also had many beautiful small cuckoo clocks that were magnificent in their detail. Some of these cost over 1,000 Euros.
We left Triberg in afternoon and drove several miles over beautiful Black Forest countryside and arrived at Titisee, which is a beautiful mountain lake resort. It was filled with tourists who were enjoying the water, boats, swimming, etc. Some of the missionaries took a boat ride around the lake. Our hotel that we stayed in was only about 3 km over a wooded hill from the lake. We drove over there to the town of Saig (Lenzkirch) and

Titisee - Schwarzwald

checked in. Saig is a wonderful country village--very tiny--but in spectacular wooded and meadowed countryside. The hotel was great and the proprietors very nice. We ate supper together there, goofed around for awhile, and then got some sleep. It was so very hot and no air conditioning. However, by leaving our windows open, we got sufficient breeze and the air cooled enough that we were able to sleep.
I got up early and took a nice hike above the village along the edge of the forest. We, then, had breakfast and went our separate ways. Three of our cars went to Schlussee to visit a model train museum. I've always been fascinated with model trains. It was a

Hotel Hochfirst - Saig (Schwarzwald)

wonderful layout of mountains, forests, countryside, and towns just like the Schwarzwald. The owner said he and his son worked on it together every day for over 1 year. He said just the scenery and landscape alone for the layout was over 50 square meters--each meter costing over 3,000 Euros (1 Euro is roughly equivalent to a U.S. dollar). Then, with the added costs of tracks, trains, buildings and such, the total cost had to be over $200,000.
We drove then to the little village of Gutach and visited the living cultural museum of the Black Forest. They have assembled several old barns, buildings, etc from 1500 and 1600s to

Model Train Museum

display the lifestyle of the Germans back in those days. The bottom is typically the work area and also where animals are kept (cooler), the middle level is typically the living quarters for the family, and the upper level is storage of farm implements, hay, and other things.
It took us about 3 1/2 hours to drive from Gutach back up to Frankfurt. Our apartment was very hot with no AC, but we got the window open and eventually things cooled off and we were able to sleep. We had a good Sabbath at our Offenbach branch. I was asked to give a 3-minute talk to the children in Primary (PV-Primarvereinigung) on the subject: Jesus was always obedient to his Father (Jesus Christus war der Vater immer

Black Forest Cultural Living Museum - Gutach

gehorscham). We spoke with some of our children on Sunday evening, including: Blake, Melanie, Ken, and Ryan. Greg has been busy with a family reunion and Jeff we seldom are able to speak with.