vpbroman - Network

The Financial Center

Frankfurt is the financial hub of Germany, containing the lion's share of all the skyscrapers in Germany with the Federal bank, the European Central Bank, etc.

Saturday we took a walk downtown around the linear park that replaced Frankfurt's city walls when artillery made them useless.

Here is the bull and the bear on display in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, raised in the 1960's to honor the 400th anniversary of the Exchange. New kid DJIA, meet the DAX.
Farther down the park way, near the new Opera House, we found a monument to a local deity.

OK, I admit, it wasn't the only monument for admiration there. Next time, I'll share about another kind.

RootsTech about to start

RootsTech is the giant Family History technology and methods conference held yearly in Salt Lake City, this year March 6-8, which is this weekend. Since FamilySearch is among the principal sponsors of the event our colleagues have been mighty busy lately, with several traveling to Utah to assist in person, others virtually as meeting hosts etc. In-person participation at the Salt Palace costs, but virtual participation online is free and popular. Sister Broman and I will listen to a lot of sessions on the less expert level. Most presentations are recorded and will be publicly available later on for review. Check it out at rootstech.org.

Visit to Ronneburg castle

Ilene and I went Saturday out to a hilltop overlooking the Main valley and toured the Ronneburg castle. My favorite part was the extended tower here.

You can climb a stone spiral staircase up and up the older tower, then continue up wooden straight stairs in the newer tower to the tip top balcony with a 360 degree view. Here is a panorama from one side.

There were lots of hands-on displays, old-ish things you could touch. One fun one was the enormously deep well with a human hamster wheel to raise and lower the bucket.

We are likely to return sometime to see occasional re-enactors doing knightly tournaments, viking swordplay and falconry.

Mainz excursion

On a Saturday in January we senior missionaries had one of our semiannual group excursions, this one a trip to Mainz, a historic city an hour west of here, where the Main flows into the Rhine. We toured three famous churches and then visited the Gutenberg Museum, where we got to see old printed and handwritten books, plus a demo of how Gutenberg invented movable type to be able to print a German Bible and launch a media revolution.

The downtown cathedral church we saw first was fine enough, but not a lot to say about it. I was really drawn to the St. Stephen's Church and its stained glass windows by Marc Chagall.

Part of its rarity is that Chagall was a Byelorussian Jew, and living in France after the war he had plenty of reasons to hate both Germans and their Churches. This Mainz church tried to commission him to replace their stained glass windows, and he thought long and hard about it. Finally he decided to go ahead as a gesture of good will and reconciliation. The pictures of course are scenes from the Hebrew Bible, although one gracious picture, of Isaiah's Suffering Servant, shows a crucifixion. All are a glowing, beautiful blue.

I also appreciated a lot the Augustinerkirche, which is rich and rococo in style. I never saw more cherubs in one place in my life.

There is a lot to see beyond the scenes of Ausustine's life. I was struck by multiple representations of the crucifixion, including the main crucifix up front, which show not the suffering Christ awaiting death but rather the deposition, the removal of Christ's body from the cross after death.

Nidda River

We had a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and not too cold, just enough to get Ilene and me out on our bikes trying out a longer jaunt than we have tried yet. It was actually part of a dry run to see whether we have what it takes to bike in to the University library downtown, where I can look up some Swedish that poetry my Dad translated.

The bike route southwards winds around some narrow streets, then goes a long stretch along the Nidda River, seen above, with a green belt and park paths all along. The Nidda is a substantial tributary of the Main, into which it empties in town. This being an uncommonly nice day, the paths were crowded with joggers, bikers, dog walkers, etc. We went underneath a couple of freeway overpasses, but otherwise we felt like we were out in the wild.

We saw along the river bank blooming snow drops and a Nutria, the varmint above, which is also called a swamp beaver or Coypu.

Hurrying somewhat to get back before dark, we had a challenging uphill climb, but we felt invigorated after we got back.

Changing of the Guard

With 30+ missionary couple in our zone, serving here 1-2 years each, there are always people arriving and departing. Ilene and I are now in the more senior half of the zone.

We were sorry to see some Records Preservation colleagues of ours going home to St. George in December, especially because they were hard-working and their tasks now fell on us, the other two RP couples. They did get partially replaced by a new couple from Florida arriving in January, whose duties are overlapping ours, but not the same. They are quick on the uptake and enthusiastic. Good to train them on what all we do here.

I am quite sorry to see our Zone Leaders, John and Ann Lewis, heading home to Utah this month after several missions, the most recent one before coming here presiding over a mission in Yakima Washington, close to our home towns. While the Seventy presiding over us here supervises from the 30000 foot level, the Lewises were the ones we dealt with all the time day to day, and they seemed to me a lot like our mission leaders. Ave atque vale.

Getting out in some unexpected sun

After loads of short, gray, dark days, with temperatures hovering around the freezing point, it was nice to see some bright sunshine today, Sunday. After church and lunch, we dressed somewhat warmly, dusted off the bicycles, and went out for chilly fresh air and partial sun.

When we go out pedaling among the farmers' fields nearby, this is one pleasant path, going next to a Roman era old ditch, the Taunusgraben, crossed by old stone bridges. The ditch still drains the same old agricultural area, going from the Taunus uplands down to the modern freeway, where there had been old vineyards. Now it's strawberries, sugar beets, and various grains, some already sprouting.

Indoor touring in Frankfurts Goethe Haus

Hesitant to drive far in winter, we decided on Saturday afternoon to tour the original house in Frankfurt of the great writer, Goethe. The actual house was destroyed during World War 2 bombing, but the contents had been stored away elsewhere when the war started, and the house was reconstructed and filled with the original furnishings to be a museum again. It is a rich family's abode from the 18th century.

Above is Johan Wolfgang Goethe's writing room, where a lot of his work was done, with stand up desk and sitting desk, enhanced with some Laocoon for inspiration, silhouettes of family, etc.

One of the rooms, seen below, served as a family art gallery, situated next to the extensive library in the room beyond.

Four floors of restored 18th century house and garden were fascinating, but we also visited next door the Deutsche Romantik Museum, which would of course cover Goethe himself as a Romantic. It was mainly a painting gallery with memorabilia from the people and period. Here is a portrait of JWG himself, which I have often seen over the years.

Christmas Day with those that might be more homesick

On Christmas day in the morning the senior missionaries hosted a brunch for the young Frankfurt missionaries working in the Turkish zone. They teach people in the Turkish language, or sometimes Persian, mostly remotely. They aren't allowed to do more in Turkey itself than short visits. We figured that nobody in Ankara was going to invite them over on Christmas Eve or anything. So we arranged for festive food, socializing, and gifty bags with things missionaries could use.

Here they all sang Silent Night to us in Turkish.

Decor at home

Missionary life trims everything down to simpler terms. We found a small tree at a pop-up christmas tree lot nearby, which had no stand. So we picked up a flower poit and put in the tree anchored with gravel from outside our patio. Add tiny LED lights and some ornaments gifted by generous colleagues. Just right to make our coffee table festive as Christmas approaches.

The Sunday after Christmas we were invited over to eat at a ward member's house.They had, perhaps for the kids and grandkids, a larger tree lit the old-fashioned way with candles, along with sparklers for some splendid moments.