April 21, 1971 #2

 Dear Mom & Dad
Well here are 10 more pictures all taken in the Illishiem area.

Here are two views of my car that you haven't seen before.  The first one is the inside as you can see.  It takes a little acrobatics to get in but once you get the hang of it, it is no problem.  It has a surprising amount of leg room, and is very comfortable.  As you can see I don't have a radio yet, but plan to get one soon.

This is the front compartment, which has a small luggage space and spare tire.

Here is an interesting shot of a helicopter about to land at the air strip in Illishiem.

In the small town of Bad Windsheim, 3 KM's from Illishiem, I took this picture of this very large statue near the Rathaus (City-Hall)

In Germany there is a very popular sport which you seldom see in the states and that is glider flying.  People who are interested in this sport form clubs, and pool their money and buy two or three gliders for the use of all the members.  Every Sunday afternoon the local glider club would bring their planes to a field near Storck Barracks and practice their sport.  They take any one who wants to go up for rides gladly, for 10 Marks.  ($3.00)  I never got up enough nerve to go up, but they say it is a lot of fun.  It was fun enough for me, just to watch.  This picture is of a glider just as it is taking off.  The plane is attached to a cable which is connected to a wench way down at the other end of the field.  The wench starts up and pulls the glider toward it until the plane has enough speed to gain a high altitude.  It's kind of like running with a kite, until it begins to fly.  When the glider is high enough the cable is disconnected and the glider is then on its own with nothing but the wind to keep it up.

Here is one of them just as it is about to land.  I think this picture came out pretty well.

 Here some people are moving this one out of the way to make room for another glider about to land.

Here is a closer view of a couple of them.  Two people can fit in the cockpit.

Another shot of one about to land.

I think this last picture is my favorite so far.  This is really not too common of a sight any more in Germany.  Tractors do most of the farm work, but if you go far enough out in the country you can still see things like this every now and then.
That's all for now....

April 21, 71

Dear Mom and Dad,

Here are some more pictures for you.  As you know I have been reassigned to another larger Officer's Club in Bamburg, but these pictures are the last ones I took around the Illishiem area before I left.

One weekend I took a short drive out into the country, no more than about 10 miles from Illishiem and came across this castle.  It was really off the beaten path, and somewhat hard to get to.  I had to go down a very small dirt road to get this picture, but I think it was worth it, because I think it turned out very well.

This was taken in the very small village right beside the castle in the other picture.  I can't remember what the name of this place was but it doesn't matter too much, because one of these tiny villages is pretty much like all the rest of them.  The tractor and trailer are a very common sight on the rural German roads. Notice my car in the background, with a friend who was with me.

This is a closer view of the castle.  I tried to go inside, but it was closed up.  I've been calling this a castle but I really don't know if that's what it really was.  It might have been a monastery or something like that.  Notice the water in the moat.

This picture was taken from the hill with the castle on it looking down into the area from where I took the first picture in this group.

Here is another common sight along country roads.  this cross was standing all by it's self on the side of a field.  You also see a lot of religious statues of various types and sizes.

This is a small cemetery on the side of the hill that the castle was on.

This picture of a church in another small village, close to Illishiem didn't really turn out like I had intended it to, but in a way it has an interesting look to it.

One Sunday afternoon I was again driving around in the countryside and came across this local soccer game which I watched part of.  In this picture one of the gollies team mates is congratulating him after successfully blocking an attempted goal by the other team.
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Again at the soccer game.  Here is the goalie after someone kicked him instead of the ball.  He recovered quickly though and went back to the game.  Soccer, as you probably know is very popular in Germany and if you drive around anyplace on the weekend you're bound to see one or two games going on.  It seems to  have no season and is played year round.

I have one more envelope of pictures to get out to you so I will stop now on this one.