Bavarian Winter

Here's a few photos from our time visiting our friend Felix in Northern Bavaria. He took us on a few tours around the area. We explored the city of Bamberg. Then we went up on a hike Staffelberg where we could see for miles.

Bamberg

Old Bamberg Town Hall

Our view from Staffelberg

You can watch the video Jordan put together about our time visiting Felix here.

If you also want to watch a video of our New Years when we visited our friend Nelia in Augustfehn, you can watch it here.

Ireland

A few weeks ago school ended for us in Germany and we began a series of many adventures in different countries. We said goodbye to many great new friends and headed out to see some more of this beautiful world.

Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland. We were able to travel with our awesome friend, Max. We stayed in a hostel in the Temple Bar area of Dublin and we traveled down to Belfast for a few days to see the coast of Northern Ireland.

We took a tour for a day to see the coast and visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Giant's Causeway, along with other spectacular places along the coast of Northern Ireland.

The scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed adventuring through the coastal hills and cliffs. What a spectacular place!

The Giant's Causeway is a volcanic rock formation with hundreds of unique basalt rock columns. There is an old legend about how the Causeway was formed, where Finn the giant builds a Causeway over to Scotland only to discover that an even bigger giant lives there. When the giant from Scotland comes across the Causeway to see who was trying to steal his kingdom, Finn tricks him by dressing up as a baby. The Scottish giant is afraid believing that a full grown giant must be even bigger than the giant baby, and he runs back across the Causeway, ripping it up as he goes. The stones you see is all that's left of the Causeway.

Jordan and Max were setting the pace. I was just trying to keep up with them.

My favourite part about the whole experience was the gorgeous setting. We loved the grassy cliffs and hills next to the misty ocean water.

We have been traveling all over the place and have many more photos and stories to share. Now we find ourselves in England visiting our dear friends Tanis and Josh. Soon enough we will be back at home with all of our travel adventures behind us. But we are looking forward to it. Even with all the great things we've been able to do and places we've been able to see, it will be nice to finally be home again.

Jennifer and Jordan

Stockholm and Copenhagen

Hey friends and family! We have been keeping busy with travel and assignments. This week we just got back from a trip to Portugal. Right now we are lying in the sun in our room overlooking the lake and enjoying reading and writing in the warmth.

We also spent some of our Christmas break traveling to Sweden and Denmark.

From Berlin we flew to Stockholm Sweden where we spent a few days leading up to Christmas. We stayed in a beautiful apartment in the city with a spiral staircase and a bookshelf with a ladder. It felt luxurious. We explored the city and walked around taking in the sights. We got a lot of exercise over these few days. We also enjoyed buying groceries and being able to cook for ourselves in the kitchen at the apartment. We ate a lot of fresh bread dipped in oil and vinegar. We also got to treat ourselves at the local Indian restaurant below our apartment one evening.

After our time in Stockholm, we took a train across Sweden into Denmark. We switched trains in Malmö and continued over the long bridge into Copenhagen. There are many windmills in European countries, and as we crossed the ocean we saw a field of many windmills in the water to catch the wind. We spent Christmas in Copenhagen and we enjoyed exploring, eating, and Skyping with our families back at home as they opened their gifts. For our Christmas dinner I (Jennifer) burnt our bread from the inside out in the microwave, which I thought was an oven, so we had to suffice with only a kale salad for dinner. Healthiest Christmas dinner I’ve ever eaten!

On Boxing Day (December 26^th) we took a train back to Malmö, Sweden, to watch team Canada play in the World Juniors hockey tournament. We found ourselves at the wrong arena and had to miss the first period as we took a bus to the right arena. We met up with our friend Matt at the game, and we made some new friends - Canadians and Americans. There were so many Canadians in the arena that it felt like home. We also stayed to watch USA play against the Czech Republic. 

Jordan put together some great videos of our travels. There is one for each of these places we visited, just click on the name for each video: Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Malmö. Hope you enjoy watching them and that you get a better idea of our travels and the places we got to see.

Lots of love, J&J.

Christmas in Germany

Christmas Market in Stuttgart

Hey everyone! We have been busy traveling all over Europe these last few weeks. We have many stories and photos to share.

To end off our last semester we had two assignments to hand in as well as many Christmas events and outreaches. We got to travel north to the German town of Detmold to hang out with people from a church there. We got to participate in putting on a Christmas event for all the British soldiers and their families who live on the army base there. We were fed so well and the families we got to meet were so hospitable.

Driving back from Detmold

Back at school we put on a Christmas concert event for the community. We went caroling around our neighborhood and handed out cookies and invitations to the concert. Among a few friends we did a secret-santa gift exchange. We got to host the unwrapping party at our teeny apartment; we had a lot of fun drinking tea, eating cookies and enjoying the gifts and company. We went on a day trip in our last week to visit the Stuttgart Christmas Market. We spent the whole day walking around and admiring the different booths, and we had a mug of glühwein to drink. On December 13^th we packed up all of our stuff and started our Christmas adventure.

For the first five days of our vacation we got to explore Berlin. We rented a room in an apartment there and walked around the city each day, taking in the sights. We were also able to enjoy visiting our friend Stefan, and he took us to the best döner place in Berlin and cooked us a lovely dinner in his apartment.

 Jordan has also been busy working on putting together videos from our trips. Click here to see our secret-santa gift exchange and click here to watch our adventures in Berlin.

We went to Austria!

Another beautiful autumn day on the Bodensee.

I still have some catching up to do! There is just so much going on. We just got back from a great weekend in Austria! I’ll share some more towards the end.

Jordan got to run a 10 K race a few weeks ago through lovely forests, vineyards, orchards, and all in view of the great Alps. He came in under one hour and had a blast running with a bunch of other Bible school students, some dressed up in costumes like Batman and Spiderman. 

I went on a trip to Meersburg a few weeks ago. Meersburg is a neighbouring town that hosts the oldest castle in all of Germany. It wasn’t bombed during the war because it was too small and unimportant, but it’s still lovely especially since it’s right on the lake. It was also a beautiful day, and I got to stop at a café and do a bit of window-shopping with some friends. That same day I continued on the bus back to Freidrichshafen with a friend, Nelia, and we went shopping in town. We just missed the bus before dinner and we had to stop for some delicious döner kebaps. Bummer.

Two weeks ago I was able to go to the biggest theme park in Germany – Europa Park. The park was themed according to the different countries of Europe. I could almost say I’ve visited all of Europe now… We got to go on many roller-coasters and other rides and we had a blast. The park is near the French border, and German, French, and English were all being spoken. It was so warm I was able to walk around in a t-shirt all day, but I had to stuff my jacket and scarf in my backpack since I didn’t need them. If you are friends with me (Jennifer) on Facebook, you can watch a video here!

We are eating a lot of chocolate here in Germany.

A week ago we hosted a big outreach event at the school and everyone was involved. Jordan was doing sound and students gave dramas, led worship, and shared testimonies. Many people from the community came out, and there was also a group that came all the way from Wangen, where the 10 K was hosted. They were interested in seeing what the school was all about and why people dressed up as Batman etc.

We found this little guy in our kitchen.

 

The majority of the male population at Bodenseehof is participating in ‘no-shave-November’, which is exactly what it sounds like. Jordan had been getting a head start by not shaving his ‘mustache’ since the end of September, but in the end he decided to start fresh for the month of November. I was not sad.

This past weekend we got to travel to a cabin in Austria. It was pretty spectacular. It was tempting to stay inside all bundled up and watch movies, but the view was irresistible. We got outside for a few walks, and we took a whole bunch of photos. On Friday I (Jennifer) walked, with a group, across the side of the mountain we were on and to a neighbouring town. It was a beautiful and sunny day. I think I may have even got a suntan.

The next day it was snowing, and we walked up the mountain to the snowline and watched the sunset. It was incredible! We did also watch a bunch of movies, eat lots of food, and get little sleep. We were able to enjoy the hot tub and sauna, play card games, and share many stories. 

We are returning a bit exhausted, but we are excited about living where we do and getting back to our schoolwork. We have still yet to plan our Christmas vacation. Maybe visiting friends to the North or exploring France and Spain..?

All our love,

Jennifer and Jordan

Neuschwanstein Trip

Hey friends and family,

Lately we have been busy with reading, assignments, lectures, and some more adventuring. This week already we have our first travel weekend. It also marks the end of our first term. On Thursday we leave to go spend the weekend in a cabin in the Austrian Alps.

I have about a month to catch up on, and I want to share with you some photos of our trip to Neuschwanstein. 

 

Way back in October, Jordan had his 24^th birthday. We still had lectures that day, but we were able to enjoy a nice coffee date with our friend Jon. Jordan was also treated with a beautiful evening sunset over the Alps across the lake.

We have also begun working in different outreach teams. I (Jennifer) have been meeting weekly with a bunch of high school girls for English tutoring. I enjoy practicing English (them, not me) by playing games and talking about the world and social justice. I’m excited to get to know these girls more and more. This is also an awesome outreach as the students are coming to the bible school and are able to experience the difference in culture here. I would appreciate prayer for these girls and that we would be able to build relationships and share with them the joy found in Jesus. Jordan has been involved in a music team and is often practicing songs in preparation for visiting schools and youth groups around Germany. He has also been in charge of sound for all the lectures and services.

We visited the Neuschwanstein castle a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful day and I found the whole area to be enchanting. It had just snowed, but the sun came out and was shining on the castles and us as we enjoyed the day. We hiked up to the castle and then to a viewpoint on a bridge over a waterfall. On our way down we visited the base of the waterfall and hiked down beside the river. By the time we got into town we were beginning to get a bit chilly and we stopped in at a restaurant below for some coffee, cake, and hot chocolate. I ordered beinenstich. The restaurant we visited was established in 1308.

After our visit to Neuschwanstein, we visited a nearby adventure park and went for a ride on the sommerrodelbahn. It’s essentially a small bobsled on wheels that makes its way down the side of the mountain very quickly on a metal tube resembling a bobsled track. We flew down the hill and may have feared for our lives once or twice… We also enjoyed the zipline which sent many students flying off the end and into a large puddle.

We also have been able to enjoy many fun events with our k-group (community group). We had a bonfire on the beach and roasted dough over the fire to make stuckbrot (stick bread), which you then fill with goodies like nutella or jam. We also had a fun games night where we made baked apples and played ‘four on a couch’. This last week our group was able to enjoy the company of our lecturer Johan and his wife Linda and they joined in our game of ‘four on a couch’. Then Johan shared stories about when he was a hippie in the Sinai desert and how he got put in jail in Egypt for handing out bibles and testimonies. Our group has also been working on putting together a few shoe boxes for Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child.

We have also enjoyed many evening walks to the lake or through the orchards as well as many coffee dates. I hope you are all having a great autumn as well and not missing us too much.

Sending our love,

Jennifer and Jordan.