Matt's Wedding

Matthew and Keshia's wedding was a normal and cultural affair by all the different family's on Keshia's side. Her mother is from Torres Strait island and her father is from Tokelau (western Samoa).
this is out side the church after the service, much singing, beating of drums and dancing.

The music and dancing this is the T.I side of the family,

The signing of the registry.

A full house Nealy church holds 600,

the bridal party,

Keshia's mum and dad.

and Matts

All the inlaws and outlaws. brothers sisters mums and dads.

a lot more T.I dancing as a greeting for the bridal party arrival it started in the car park.

i took awhile before you sit.

The Uncles and cousins from the Tokelau sing a welcome and best wishes song.

more dancing

the band

The dancing from Tokelau

The Aunties from T.I.

There was tradition food for 300 odd guests , it was a cultural experience to behold for us on matt's side of the family.

home and around the city

Annette and her horse, things you see out on these small farm track, cars are banned from a lot of these small farm roads. the village is just over the hill the church spire is on her right shoulder,this is about 30 ks out of Koln towards Bonn, where she keeps her horse, it is very pretty out here and the tracks to ride thru the forest are vast,

this is how to buy fresh eggs. small village style.

Cologne, or koln. (ke-rn) 15 min train ride from home to the city centre , is Germany's main tourist town, they come to the Dom. one of the small streets in the old part of the city, the church spire is the black one in the photo below this, there is 5 churches in the city centre all Catholic,

the dom.on the river Rhine.

no shortage of bruhaus (beer houses)

this is how you buy smokes, every (nearly everybody) body smokes it is a 3rd world country with smoke laws.

the train bridge over the Rhine.

the dom. and Ludwig museum.

The Dom, UNESCO world heritage site. started in 1248 and with a few interruption finished in 1880, 144.5 mts long 86.5 wide and 157 tower height. 1880 - 1884 tallest structure in the world (Washington Monument) It is one of the largest churches in the world, and the largest Gothic church in north Europe. survived the war,

Not as much decorations inside as some we have seen, but other things were big,

Gig Glass windows

the cemetery out the back.

Thousand of statues they are all being cleaned some look very saintly amongst the dirty sinners.

the statues in marble inside are great.

the Mosaic floors are just fine small pieces of tiles that everybody walks on

its very hard to get it in your photos,

the black forest

We went to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) area to the old town of Triberg. This is where the "kuckuck" cuckoo clock comes from and also one of the only areas i haven't been too. And they have big clocks to this is 10ks before Triberg.

We went on a toboggan spin down the mountain side this is on the way up.

and this is looking back down the valley and the forest all around. this is snow country, we were so lucky with the weather ,

Another big clock right in the main street of Triberg.

out of the bedroom window the brown brick building was built in 1655.

The Triberg waterfall, it is the second highest in Germany. and they charge you 3 eruo about $5 to look at it, there is not many free sites in Germany, but it was a very pretty walk for a hour around the park and it was with the hotel room price,

looking down to Triberg from the top of the waterfall.

inside the pilgrim church built early 1600s very lavish buy aussie standards and in a tiny town to,

flower boxes are very big business in this end of the country, houses, bridges just every where.

This is a typical black forest house design, we went to a museum of houses built in the 1600s and it take 400 trees to build one of the old houses, logging and plantation timers make up the black forest, we could not find natural forest.

The biggest Kuchuck clock in the world,

a much older black forest house, flower boxes.

it reminds me of Bright being in the mountains.

we bought a kuckuck from the wood carvers in Triberg, it is a tourist town 7 coaches pulled up as we were leaving the main street on sunday morning.

The Atuobarn is a strange place 40 mill cars in Germany. no speed limit in parts or 130, 120 but it take you longer to travel the same distance than in Aussie, in the 16 weeks ive seen 6 police cars on the Autobarns, most people ingorne the speed signs by 10-20ks, then they have traffic jams measured in ks, which will be the off ramps to another road. or road works, they are paid by the hour, no truck on sundays on any roads except food trucks,

a sunday vist to Mungster Bridge

On Sunday we went to visit and have dinner with some friends of Annette's, we walked to the highest steel bridge in Germany, 107 mts to the river Wupper, this bridge was built with the help of Mr Eiffel as the were building the Eiffel tower at the same time.

the very pretty Wupper river.

After a 5 ks walk down the river you come to Burg an der Wupper, most houses built around 1700s

Our tour guide (Annette's friend) was the grandson of a very respected artist these are a 2 pictures inside the castle, before and after. He was also president of the castle society so you go where others don't ,

(Wiki to much for me)

The architect Gerhard August Fischer from Barmen proposed in 1882 the reconstruction and submitted drawings and plans based on old documents, primarily using the castle’s appearance in the 16th century. Since 1890 the castle reconstruction committee led the restoration of the castle during the next 24 years. Painters from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf participated. With the erection of the Battery Tower in 1914 the work seemed completed.
In the night of November 26, 1920 a large fire destroyed much of the castle. Subsequently visitors had to pay entry fees and the money was used to restore and rebuild the castle again. Reconstruction lasted from 1922 to 1925. In 1929 the Engelbert monument by the sculptor Paul Wynand was dedicated to honor the builder and archbishop.

the small town of Burg an der Wupper ( Burg on the Wupper. (Vup-pa)

the family home the river is behind and the castle on the hill behind. house was built in 1789 and been in the family still, there was really 3 houses on this very large block.

they way up, to the castle. very large tourist attraction.

when we walked down these small houses built right on the edge of the road and in the hill fit the shape well.

the after painting,

inside the castle yard

from wiki

stay tuned of to the black forest this weekend for a final look around.