Photos for June and a confession...

I completed my month of photos without any problems in June but since then, I have FAILED!!!! I have not taken any photos all week (although I took some on the 1st because I was home for my Isabella's christening) and have not even decided on a theme for July - BAD GIRL!

But as a starting point, here are my Recklinghausen photos for 25th to 30th June:

Monday 25th June

The market square again. We often have small town festivals and this weekend was a wine festival. I love that our town does this - really helps to produce a community feeling and it is always fun to go down and have a crepe or some bratwurst!

Tuesday 26th June

This is our building. We live on the very top floor - those little windows at the top are our flat! I think it is so amusing that we live over a hobby shop. They have recently started to stock a few scrapbooking supplies (it's quite new here in Germany) and Ralph always laughs that I have WAY more stock that they do! But it's quite useful for glue or peripheral products such as mod podge etc. I had not discovered scrapbooking when we first moved into the flat so I think it is quite funny now when I think about how this hobby has taken over my life and there I am living over a hobby shop!

Wednesday 27th June

This is the Engelsburg hotel around the corner from us. It was built in 1701 and isn't it beautiful?

Thursday 28th June

And this is also the Engelsburg - it is built around a central courtyard. However, it is really great that they have incorporated one of the two remaining town wall watchtowers into the building - you can see the round roof here. They have since turned it into a great hotel suite with a bathroom on one floor, a bedroom on the next and then a sitting room on the next all connected by a fantastic old spiral staircase and wooden beams etc. The rooms are of course, all round and the small, narrow windows show that the depth of the walls are really thick - we stayed there one night and it was such a fun experience!

Friday 29th June

Ok, so this photo was not actually taken in June (hence the leafless tree!) but I wanted to include this photo of the medieval tower from the old town wall mentioned in my previous day's photo.

Saturday 30th June

This is the Gastkirche (Visitor's church) which is really just around the corner from us - on a Sunday morning during the summer, we can hear them singing through their open window. It began life as a poor house(until 1366) back in the 14th Century and is just such a pretty, small church. I imagine it must be very beautiful inside.