Location: Koln (Cologne), Germany

Mmk, so upon some encouragement by a dear aunt of mine I will update, life has been hectic so I'm sorry this is a little old, about a week now. So here it goes, another adventure.

Say Hello to Cologne! Bad picture, it was cold and raining, so I only took one, buuuut, this is the amazing Gothic Cathedral in Cologne. Suppose to be the biggest in the world, but I could be wrong. So here's the story, Stephani and I had plans to go to Koln and I invited two friends, Eric (a friend of about 7 months now), and Kevin (a brand new RM, got released like 2 hours before we left). So the four of us went up there, and holy heck, this thing was breathtaking! Truly, but this is only the outside!

So this first picture is by far my favorite. This is a gargoyle located on a speyer. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the whole speyer but it used to be placed on top of the cathedral but some reason it is no longer there. Too bad... but it gave me a great pic! So inside the cathedral it was dark and cold, but there were still some good photo ops, including one containing the "three kings". Of course this is all just speculated, but oh well. Sorry for the bars in the way, but the church owners wouldn't let me go inside the bars to get my picture. But I still believe it's an ok picture.

So then as Stephani and I were walking around taking pictures of this she looked up and saw something on the ceiling. The Cathedral being dark didn't make it possible for us to read it without taking a picture, so I did... If anyone knows Old Latin and would like to help me, here is the pic... kinda funny it being on the ROOF!!

Most cathedrals have the bishops buried in the cathedral, most yes are in the basement in a *forgot the word for it* but cemetary like thing, but here in the Koln they were buried on the ground level and had some cool coffins. Check this one out. I am not too sure as to which bishop this is, but heck, if he can be buried in a box that resembles a castle wall, I figure he must be important. I have also decided if anyone ever decides to throw me into a cement box as my coffin I want a cool lookin one like this too!

More images around the cathedral, we spent a lot of time there and I'm not even half through with the pix! So a bird of some sort, but we are unsure as to what it is of importance or what he has in his talons.

But it doesn't matter, After we took a turn about the cathedral Stephani and I decided to climb the 509 stairs to the top of the cathedral. Now this is where it gets fun! I am a little skeptical of heights, but I think it's more when my family is around and the railing is low. So anyhow, the two guys decided they did not want to join us. Leave it to the two chicks to go truckin up to the top. About 300 stairs up there is a break and you can go in and see the bells. Here is the main bell right in the center. So as we walked around to see the rest the walk ways were not big at all. If you know my sister she is still about the same height and size. Well check this out! She is so little and yet she was half the size of the way. And then of course we had to take one with me in the walkway hehe!

So then we get around to the side where you can see the bell the best, and man, it is HUGE! You can put like a Euro in a machine and the bells will gong and some little punk kids decided to do this like 5 times as Steph and I were up there. OUCH! I came out with a headache. Not really, but man, they were loud!

So after walking around this area Steph and I continued to trudge up the stairs. At what you thought was the top there were more stairs, but we finally made it. If you were to look up as we did, you could see the inside of the speyer and that it went on for a bit. We were definately a good 50 feet from the tippy top, but it was still a ways up there!

So here are some pictures of other speyers around the cathedral. And the first one is of a cool cross of some sort, but I like the starburst on the top.

Then my sister was messing around with the camera and came up with a really cool almost abstract picture of a speyer in the background of a cut out in the walls.

Now that I really look at this next picture I see that it is probably one of my favorites. I took it just goofing off to see if we could get some more good pictures of how much taller the cathedral is than of where we were, but I ended up liking it.

And then of course we had to get one more picture of the sister. She surely is cute and def will continue to be cute, but in the background is just another speyer and if the sky had been clear you could see the Rhein better, but you can somewhat see it. Just another good picture of the cloudy skies and the city.

After we were done looking around we began our descent down, Stephani and I decided to count the number of stairs. Ha! The Cathedral says there are 509 but coming down we only counted some 470 something! But as we were coming down the spiralling staircase had occasional windows so I snapped some pictures, but again, the favorite is one with Stephani in it. She actually got down and in the window that for some reason was down on the stairs.

More pictures of the speyers and some really cool ones. So without explaining them I will just post them.

So now I get to the fun part. Cologne is famous for CHOCOLATE! YUM! So here in Cologne is a museum of the chocolate. Oh it was fun to try and find. Nobody with us knew where it was, we had no idea, and so I had to use what Eric likes to call my "feminine whiles" and persuade a guy to tell us where it is. So I did, and we began walking, it took us a bit to find it but we found it.

Ever wonder how they make the hollowed out chocolate? Well, they hook it up on these cool little twisty turny things and they spin the small ammount of chocolate that is put in there and so the chocolate rolls around the molds and forms the yummy chocolate. Don't believe me, well you should come and see it!

So then we continued to walk around and it was like Willy Wonka's factory. They even had a Chocolate tree with a pond of chocolate at the bottom, though this picture was taken from the top the people who work there take waffers and dip them in the chocolate and give them to anyone who takes them. It was soooooooo goood, Steph and I got like 3!

The machines to make the chocolate was ever so cool, but I did not get pictures of all of them. too many! But that was definately a cool thing to go and see. They have HUGE Chocolate Coins, in Europe the 1 Euro and 2 Euro are coins. So they had Euros made of chocolate. The Germans have outdone us on this one! But ah oh well!

Once again my tale has turned into a novel, but no worries, it is finished! But I do know that I will have another one for you soon, Heidelberg is on the list for Monday! Truly hoping to get to this one! It's been on the list for quite some time now! Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know!

Location: Speyer, Germany

Ok, so today, I went to Speyer, Germany. It's a quaint little village that has Europe's largest Romanesque Cathedral. Interesting artwork it has, with it, I learned something new today. Did you know that in the earlier centries a lot of times sculptors would depict religious people with horns on their heads? Of course a lot of them have been filed down and off of their heads, but it started because of mistranslation. Aura was translated to horns instead. So yes, it was somewhat amusing to see Moses with horns on his head, but it was definately different.

So Speyer is one of those cities that you see once, and it's ok! But unfortunately I did not take my camera with me, I really need to work on this; but maybe I can steal some pictures from the people who went with.

After the Cathedral we went to a "Technik Museum" which houses a lot of airplanes, and cars, and such. Best part: Outside of this museum are some big 737s, F16 and F18s. Not to mention a huge submarine and a big ole Carousell and a few trains. This one particular 737 was up above the ground about 100 feet. When you get up there there is a platform and then you can climb another 20 feet or so up to the plane part to go and check it out. Well instead of going the last 20 feet we took a slide down! This huge enclosed tunnel made from metal was attached to the platform where you could take a mat and slide down the slide. The first time I went I was a little skeptical. I was the 3rd from our group and the first guy who went fell off his mat a couple of times on the way down. So funny to hear him skid and slide, then get on, and then skid and slide some more. So hilarious! So as I went down for some reason I kept pickin up speed. This slide was a funnel style and it just twisted but oh so fun! As I came out I thought I was going to shoot right off the end and go skidding onto the concrete and into the snow! But no worries, I didn't.

After going down the second time we decided to go and find the second slide. This was a smaller version, but this did not matter. With this one we had to climb through a plane and Germans being smart had the plane tilted which made it ever so much harder to climb through the plane and into the slide. I decided to go first this time and down and out I went. I banged my knee up against the side of the end and shot out a warning to the two guys who were to follow me. I told them to watch for the ending because it slams you against the edge. Now the guy who skidded down most of the first slide came down and figured it would be much easier than the first. He did manage to stay on his mat, but at the end he got slammed harder than me and ended up on his side and sliding to a halt. Now the second guy came down he was doing good, but as he exitted the tunnel we saw him on his stomach. We thought he was just being silly and came down on his stomach... Trust me, if you knew this kid, you would have thought the same thing. So as we sat there and laughed at this kid. I asked him as to what had happened. At the end of the tunnel the last turn he was thrown too high to one side and got tossed to his stomach. Oh what a good laugh!

But today I have huge bruises on my knees. OUCH! Oh well, though I have no pictures from this wonderful trip it was still fun, and I truly hope you find this as much fun as I experienced first hand!
Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know!

Location: K-town, Germany

What a week! This past week has definately been one worth mentioning. Last Thursday we had a HUGE, HUGE windstorm of winds up to 60 MPH! It was soooo big! They cancelled my night's class, and while driving to work the following morning I saw a TREE! A HUGE TREE, it had been blown over by the wind, but what's more amazing is that the root was under a sidewalk causing for the sidewalk to buckle and come up too! I'm working on a picture for that one before they haul the tree away.
Germany, the part I'm in, has yet to see a decent snow fall. But as I sit here now I look out the window and it's snowing. But not a great deal. It's just cold, freezing cold! In Germany a WORKING radiator is needed. Unfortunately the tower of the house I live in does not have a working radiator. Just 3 broken ones, this will not do. If anyone knows me, they KNOW I do not do the cold, and unfortunately for my whole family I have been sleeping in the family room. Thank heavens for a BIG house. Again, I'll get a pic of that up soon too.
Trip on Saturday is being planned to the city of Speyer, it houses a big dom and is suppose to be magnifico! Come the Second of February I will be running off to Koln, aka Cologne, holding one of the BIGGEST cathedrals and a chocolate factory. Don't tell my sister yet, but I'm stealing here to take with me. She needs a break. I'm just hoping it's not freezing or snowing, then it will get cancelled, maybe we'll go to Heidelberg instead.
Anyhow, I'm suppose to be conferencing with my espanol teacher here soon so I should run and make sure I know how to say what I'm suppose to know hehe!
Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know!

Location: K-town, Germany

So first blog, it's hard to think of what I should really blog about. So I've come to the conclusion that since this is a journal titled, "Where in the World is Sara D. Ray?" I should update on locations and such.

In December of 2005 I went "home" to Egypt to live with my parents for six months and save some money. I did a lot of travelling while I was there hitting up Luxor, Aswan, the Valley of the Kings, etc. Hopefully I can get some pictures up here. Ok, trying, ahh, here we go.

I worked while there too, do not get me wrong, I was not a full moocher. Work, social life, school, it all happened, but it was probably well worth it.

Well I thought I was going to be returning to Arizona after I finished my adventures in Egypt to finish out my schooling , or as much as I could before preparing to leave on my mission. But just as life is full of surprises for EVERYONE it is no different for me. My parents got orders to move to Germany and upon much thought and prayer I decided it was the right place for me as well. I took a quick trip home to Arizona to spend time with friends and family where I probably had more fun than was needed. And yes, there is no right way to do a wrong thing, even when stealing a dog. ;)

I then ran off to Germany, yes, to some they would say I ran. I got to Germany and found out my father did not have a job. He had not be discharged, but hea had just been told he had a job, but in all actuality they promised this job to two different people. So upon arriving and getting our stuff and unpacking we were informed we may actually be moving again to more southern of Germany. Oh goodness! But before all this happened I was invited to go to Austria for a week long trip with the Young Single Adult group here. It was scary at first, Cody had not yet returned to AZ and yet he was not coming, I was afraid I was going to be the "odd one out". The picture to the right is the church in Salzberg, Austria, that was the place of Mozart's baptism I guess is what they call it. After I returned I was informed of Cody moving back to the states and I was sad, let us not lie to ourselves.

I then took a day trip to France to the city of Strasbourg. Nice quaint little city that houses one of the organs that Mozart actually played on. Along with one of the most impressive cathedrals I've seen! Why? It's tucked away behind a walkplatz, but you can't see it when walking that direction because the buildings keep it pretty well hidden, the picture does little to show off the amzingness of this dom, but we can only try.

Shortly after my careless running over 3 countries my family caught word on the day that my brother flew out that my father would be leaving as well. No worries though, it was just a month long and is now home safely.

Just prior to my college classes starting with University of Maryland University College (What a name huh?) I decided once again to go galavanting to Trier, one of the oldest cities in Germany once ruled by the Romans. I know, I know, what at one time or another WAS NOT ruled by the Romans? Anyhow, the city was nice, and I recently returned for another trip. Definately worth it. I see new and more things everytime.

I've been to Mainz, I've been to the Rhine river and seen close to 30 castles all while sailing the river on a wonderful boat. Oh Germany has so much to offer.

Now that I have gotten to see some things I think I will be held over for the next couple of months or so. I have been working towards my AA in Spanish language and Culture and I will have that completed by July, mid-August at the latest. In March I have plans to go to Spain for a class and then England in May and Norway in July/August. Oh what a wonderful life. Now that this blog has turned into a novel I will just have to finish this now so that I am not boring everyone.

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know.