Idar Oberstein

After touring the gemstone mine, we came into town. We were told by other missionaries not to shop at all the gem stores along the main shopping street until after going to the Outlet Store “on the other side of the bridge.” It took a little doing to find it, but we did. It was mostly jewelry, not a place to buy stones. I was hoping to get some stones for the grandkids and I found a bag of gemstones for 6 Euro, so I got one of those.

There were 2 walls like this showing all the different kinds of stones. Most of what’s sold here comes from other parts of the world, now that this is a famous gemstone place.

Then we went into town to wander and shop and eat.

You can see up ahead the famous church (Felsenkirche) built into the rock mountainside.

Good luck stones, 1 Euro:

There were lots of shops selling gemstones of all shapes, colors and sizes.

There’s an interesting relationship here between Germany and Brazil because of the miners that left here to find better work there. When we got to the heart of the town, there was a special festival going on (one weekend each year) and the food being served was Brazilian grilled pork roasts. They had several big rolled pork roasts on spits over a beechwood fire. For about 5 Euro, we each got 2 slab cuts of the pork with a roll or potato salad. It was a fun meal.