Amberg’s Magnificent St. Georg Church

The magnificent rococo church of St. Georg is one of the oldest churches in Bavarian Amberg, Germany. It was built as a Gothic church in 1359. Later, it was taken over by the Jesuits and then in the 18th century, redecorated in the rococo style with the bright colors and stucco work of Johann Baptist […]

The Black Forest Goes Solar

Farms all through the low mountains of the Black Forest in southwestern Germany are installing solar panels to help cut down on their energy costs. The average homeowner gets about 30% of the cost back from the government. After seven years, the average homeowner has paid for the rest of the system and then can […]

Weitersweiler Secrets Revealed, Why Bury Our Dead In Dreisen?

Gini and Bill Packwood had a question for the mayor of Standenbuehl when we sat down with him in his dining room one sunny day recently. It’s sort of an odd question, but it would make perfect sense to a family historian. “Mr. Mayor. Our ancestors lived in Standenbuehl. They went to church in Weitersweiler, […]

Eppingen, Germany is a Half-timbered Town with "Pfiff!"

We spent a couple of nights in Paula’s ancestral town of Eppingen, not far from Heilbronn and Sinsheim in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Eppingen is well-known in this area for its wealth of beautifully-preserved half-timbered houses. Some are huge, such as the “Baummisches Haus,” dating from 1562 and now a lovely small hotel and cellar restaurant with extensive […]