Day 2: Jama Masjid Temple Cont.

Ben and I had a wonderful day in Delhi. We grocery shopped at Spencers Retail Store this morning and then headed out on our first sight seeing excursion. Our driver Arun took us to Jama Masjid, a very large Muslim Temple close to downtown Delhi and Connaught Place. It is an area filled with several bazaars, which are essentially outdoor flea markets selling everything you need. Clothes, nasty bananas, fresh cut pineapple, shoes, etc. We stayed away from the fly infested bazaars and headed to the Jama Masjid temple. It is nice in India because if you give a local 200 rupees they will tour you around and show you everything you need to see. So we met our tour man at Gate 2 when he just kind of started talking and then said "follow me...I show you." So I got a scarf to cover up and then we went into the main gate. They wrapped me in a blue sunflower wrap to cover up everything and then we trusted a local to watch our shoes. You can't wear shoes inside. So we paid a man 10 rupees (5 cents) to watch them. The stone was hot on the feet, but I imagine it would be much worse in the dead of summer. It is a brist 92 today. We got in just before 5 pm prayer time. We again met up with a new tour guide. He didn't speak english, but he took Ben and I to every spot that provided a good picture. He pointed to the spot and then grabbed the camera from Ben to take a picture of us. Nice guy! He wasn't the only one taking our picture. There were numerous times that I busted locals snapping photos of us. A little girl asked to shake my hand and said hello. They are friendly folks! Today was not only our first Temple visit, our first Bindi (red dot on forehead), but also our first encounter with hard core beggers. This morning when we finished grocery shopping a woman with a baby and a small child followed us across the parking lot and tapped at us for money. Finally the driver rescued us even though they were tapping on the windows. That was sad as they really looked like they needed food. However, we have been informed by several people that it is best not to give them money or they will never leave you alone. The second begger experience was near the temple with an older man that was pestering Ben. Finally after he followed us 50 feet Ben had to raise his voice and say "NO!" The man left us alone. It is absolutely unbelievable how some of the locals even survive. We wrapped up our day watching the Bucket List on HBO. Good Night from Delhi!

Day 2: Jama Masjid Temple

Thursday Flying

Thursday September 24th at 9:25 am we are set to fly to Delhi. It is really happening!

12 Mile Hike

I read two emails from good friends this morning that talked about their current workouts. I decided to use the emails as motivation and go for a nice run. The hotel is near the forest and has several nature trails. So, I set out at 10:15 am on trail number 2. I was running along and really feeling great about the fact that I was actually running and enjoying the beautiful view. About 40 minutes into the run I realized that I hadn't seen a #2 placard in quite some time, but I figured I would just stick to the trail I was on and go from there. Sure enough, I must have missed the turn because I ended up in the town of Damme, where Ben was working, about 6 km from the hotel. Not a problem as we were there last night and I knew how to get back to the hotel via the main road. I walked 5.4 km from Damme towards Steinfeld before turning onto the road to our hotel. Two and half hours later I was back at the hotel with approximentally 8 miles of running/walking under my belt. It wasn't more than 2 hours later when I realized how hungry I was and how I had nothing to eat in the room. So, I decided since I have already went 8 miles today why not walk 3 km/2 miles to Steinfeld for food? 30 minutes later I was in the small town of Steinfeld where I was able to locate a hamburger and pommes. MMM! I walked home and proceeded to lay down for 30 minutes to recooperate from my 3 hour workout. I didn't get any online research done, no reading, and no swim in today, but I really saw the countryside! Thank you to the farmer who was spreading liquid manure next to the walking path, I really enjoyed the smell!

Jodi's First Kid's Bear Ice Cream!

A weekend full of city festivals and geocaching. Saturday was the big St. Goar on the Rhein Wine Festival with a VERY impressive show of firewords. They shot the fireworks off from 3 different castles along the Rhein. Breathtaking! Today we hit two smaller festivals Schmiedel (Boy's Town Omaha Concept where they were raising money for school) and the Burgerfest in Kastellaun. Fun had by all! In Kastellaun I was a big winner. You buy a ticket for 1.50 and either there is a number on it of the prize that you won or you lose. Well, Ben had two losing tickets and I had two winning tickets. I was hoping for #391 which was a live 65 lb. feeder pig, but instead I won a free kids ice cream and a cool kids elephant water bottle. See pictures! My thought if I won the pig is that my inlaws could keep him in the backyard until Christmas and we could have fresh pork loin. No such luck! We are officially moving out of the Stabe Simmern Residency Suites tomorrow as we go to northern Germany for Ben to work a few days before we hopefull fly out on Thursday. No flight plans booked as of yet=)