Blumer Family

Welcome to the Blumer family web site. this site is dedicated to items of interests to the Blumer family beginning with Fred and Mildred Blumer of St. Clair, Michigan. If you have questions or information requests, please contact the administrator, Todd Blumer. Personal pages are still available (i.e. http://aric.blumer.org, http://adam.blumer.org, http://aaron.blumer.org, http://todd.blumer.org).

View of Engi, Switzerland from part way up the mountain behind the town.

Friday, May 13, 2005 -- Another fine day in Europe. We left Germany for French-speaking (or "kind of" French-speaking) Luxembourg. What a neat city! The city is built on cliffs, as you can see from the picture. We enjoyed our day here the most so far. Before we got to the city, we first visited the US WWII Memorial Cemetery where over 5,000 US soldiers are buried, including General Patton. Down the road is the German cemetery. What a contrast! The German cemetery is stark, with over 10,000 buried, with 4 soldiers per grave marker (one per marker in the US cemetery). We toured the Notre Dame of Luxembourg. Again, beautiful stained glass, towering pillars and fabulous paintings. The Casemates are tunnels bored in the cliffs to defend the city. We really had a great time walking around there. It was clean and well-maintained, and especially enjoyable place to visit. Our return trip took us through scenic valleys, including the "Valley of Seven Castles." We only saw 3, and those not so big compared to others, but it was a nice drive nonetheless.

Thursday, May 12, 2005 -- We drove to Cologne, Germany. The Lord gave us another beautiful day to enjoy the sites of the city, especially the Dom. It was fabulously ornate: stained glass, tapestries, treasures carved wood and more. We climbed the tower circular staircase, all 500+ steps. What a hike! We saw the treasury, as well. The Cardinals didn't dress like Monks! The walk down the Rhine to the Chocolate Factory was nice. Did I say Chocolate Factory? Yum. We just had to spend some money there. We also visited some other shops and churches.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - Today we went out on our own to experience Germany. The driving was a little disconcerting because the signs are all in German and so many signs exist. We did find our way to Trier. The day was beautiful, but a cool 50 degrees. We started our tour at the Dom (Cathedral). Beautiful and amazing architecture and art! The nearby market square was quaint with its shops and old half timber buildings. Down the street was the Porta Nigra -- the oldest city gates north of the Alps, built around A.D. 180. We also saw the Basillica of Constantine, other remains of the city wall, Roman baths, Kurfurstl Palais (the pink palace), Cathedral of St. Paulus and other churches.

We left our house around 12:45pm to make our flight to Detroit. From Detroit, we were on our way to Frankfurt. We flew in an Airbus 330, a beautiful plane. We shared the flight with a group of seniors from Faith Baptist Church in Davison, MI, near where Todd grew up. (Todd's brother Steve took the same senior trip 25 years ago this year.) The plane also had a group from Cedarville University, who were going on a mission trip. Small world. The plane ride was thankfully uneventful and we arrived a bit early. Greg met us at the airport for a two hour drive to Speicher, Germany, near Bitburg.

Picture from Airbus 330 near Frankfurt. Rapeseed fields in view.

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