Nov 2007

We found our way to St. Moritz Evangelical Church in Coburg – Martin Luther preached there on Easter Sunday 1530 and stayed in the Coburg Veste, or fortress, for six months.
The Town Square in Coburg – we’ve got rainy, cool weather – we definitely left Spring in Australia – but rain can’t change the beauty of these Medieval buildings!
We are staying for 3 nights in Rödental, just down the street from the Goebel Porcelain factory! So of course we had to take a tour and see how Hummels are made – lots and lots of hands-on work.

Our flight to Germany left Sydney 6pm Monday night and arrived in London 6am Tuesday morning! Weird! That was 21 hours of flying time (about 11,000 miles) – we must have gone back in time.
We are now in the Thuringian area of Germany, the land of Luther, staying at a Brewery Gasthaus. It is Martin Luther’s birthday on Saturday (born: Nov. 10, 1483), and this “Luthertrunk” bier is made in this brewery to honor his birthday.
Ah – another inspiration for Chef Ed for a Men’s Club meat platter.

Fruit bats, or “Flying Foxes”, are destroying trees in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Creepy.
The Ibis, graceful and fun to watch. Because of them, Sydney trash cans had to be redesigned so the birds can’t get at the garbage with their long beaks!

St. James Anglican Church – the oldest church in Sydney at 183 years. We attended an early morning All Saints Day service and remembered the Saints of Bethel in prayer.
Another angle of the Opera House (there are so many) …and look what snuck in during the early morning – the Statendam!
Sydney Harbor is amazingly busy with boats of every shape and size. People take ferries just like we take buses. We took a ferry to Manley Beach in the suburbs – volleyball, anyone?
An appropriate final dinner in Australia for Ed – you guessed it, mate – it’s kangaroo (not an endangered species).

Sydneysiders love to shop. Here in a major department store, David Jones, all is ready for Spring (see hats) and Christmas (see tree)!
Who knew Sydney has a monorail? We took it to do some bargain shopping (of course) at Paddy’s Market (that’s the big brick building in the background).
The QVB, the Queen Victoria Building, full of high end stores, wealthy shoppers and gawking tourists.
We splurged on High Tea atop the QVB – Hästa ate it all!