Here I am with Jenny in Bordeaux, France. It is 36C hot outside, but in my son’s home it is a comfortable 27C. The weather in France has been merciless. When we first landed in Bordeaux, the heat was like being inside an oven. I think it was 40C. The consolation was that it was not humid. Thus when we were driven around in the afternoon to places an hour or two away it was hot but not oppressive. I could still breathe and climb the Dune of Pilat, near the beach. And when we travelled 2-3 hours to Lourdes in the south east, the cool weather was comfortable. Maybe its because it is located nearer to the Pyrenees national park.

After a week, we travelled by train to Darmstadt, Germany to visit my younger sister, who is a nun with the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. The weather there was sunny and mostly cool. Six days later, and we are now back in Bordeaux.

It was a joy to be with family. We have not seen our grand children for a good one and a half years. They have suddenly shot up in height and maturity. We were hosted very well by Matthew and our daughter in law Hannah Juyoung. We brought a lot of stuff like assessment books and Prima Taste curry and chicken rice paste, ginger powder and other Singaporean products.

Although the children are in international school, the worry is whether they will be able to cope with the education system when they return to Singapore. They were happy to see the books and toys we brought but probably not the assessment books.

We made trips out to nearby UNESCO heritage sites like the Bordeaux old city, the medieval town of St Emilion, Lourdes and the Dune of Pilat. You can see this in the photo montage below:

We experienced travel on the French subway and trains. The subways in Paris are decent. They were packed with people and I could see how cosmopolitan Paris is. The train journey from Paris to Frankfurt was a good four hours, so we brought books, iPads, Rummikub and a deck of cards. Time passed quickly when because we could play with the kids in the train.

From Frankfurt, my son rented and drove a large comfortable 8 seater the size of a van to the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt, Germany. There my sister Beryl welcomed us and we received the famous hospitality of the Sisterhood. We met beaming and joyful sisters as my sister introduced us to the other sisters in the community.We

We had fine, lovely sunny weather in the Sisterhood and we drove to various places like Heidelberg, Wald Michelbach, and Worms. Here is a video I did of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary.

Worms was the famous town where Martin Luther was on trial by an imperial assembly called by Emperor Charles V and conducted on 17 April 1521. Luther was asked if the books, whose titles had been read aloud by the council were his and whether he would stand by their contents – some of which was considered heretical and a threat to the Church’s authority – or recant. If he chose to recant and repent of the works, he could be welcomed back into the Church; if he refused, he would be branded a heretic and could be burned at the stake. Instead of renouncing his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church, Luther refused to recant, and the Edict of Worms was issued. Luther was condemned as a “notorious heretic”. What courage! Here are the final lines of his direct answer to the imperial council and the Emperor:

“Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

This led to the Reformation, and the formation of the Protestant stream of Christianity.

Here is a video of the few outings we had of cities and towns around Darmstadt:

I liked my time in Germany. They were able to speak English, and communication was not an issue, unlike in France. The Germans were orderly, organized and seem to be better off economically.