April 2014

We decided before we leave we need to play tourist one more time so we signed up for a historic tour of Hof by the "night watchman".   We stayed for about half the tour then walked home.  The problem was neither of us could understand his accent so we were missing more than half the sense of the tour.  The weather that evening was beautiful so we wandered about town for a bit.

The members in our little branch here have been meeting in rented hotel rooms and have been trying for over three years to find an acceptable place in Hof for the church to meet.  We have looked at several possibilities as have some of the members.  They had a contract once while we were here but that had to be recinded as it was too costly to install a fire escape.  Finally they have found another place, one they looked at in the beginning three years ago.  It is in the city center on Sonnenplatz 2 where the yellow banner is on the building.

On April 14th Brother Schiebold from Freiberg, Brother Merkel, the electrician, and the rental agent met to discuss several items about the renovation.  It should be completed by the end of this summer but, unfortunately, we will not see it.

Later that same day, Dave and I drove to Bayreuth so he could have surgery to fix a torn tendon in his right elbow.  He tried to arm wrestle one of the young adults in Institute about 5 weeks ago and they both heard a 'POP'.  It took several weeks to get an appointment for an MRI but the surgeon was quite quick to make a date for surgery.  While I waited for him I had the chance to enjoy the lovely gardens in one of the palaces in this Baroque town well known for its music.  There is an intact opera house dating from 1744 currently undergoing restoration.  Below is the new palace.

We didn't get home from Bayreuth until about 10 and early the next morning we went to see the doctor again.  The special arm sling allows some movement as the injury heals.  He should have it off about the time we get home.  Next week he will begin physical therapy to regain mobility and strength.

Later that day we enjoyed a pleasant visit from Arnika and Hebert Kaulfersch who we had previously visited in Nördlingen.  Sadly, the weather and the surgery made it impossible to do anything outside as we had planned.