Hamburg 2

Thursday August 7th

Today is another full day in Hamburg! It was so fun to wake up at the Backs house, just a great place. Russ still has pink eye, but says it doesn't hurt quite as bad & luckily my eyes aren't showing any signs of it (fingers crossed). We're also coughing less and less! And even with all my weird food issues my stomach has been fine :)

Today we had breakfast with Bruder Back, Gordon and Selene. Another meal with great bread, meats and cheeses, hummus & other spreads, fruit and great juice. I love hearing this family speak German and just interact. So fun. 

After breakfast we were off to see more of Hamburg. 

I have to ask the Thompsons & Andrew Bangerter if they recognize our first stop of the day:

It's the old mission home! What a beautiful home and amazing yard! It is in a nice neighborhood. The Back family, especially Ann Christine talked so much about how they loved this house. She grew up in that neighborhood and ward so she was always friends with the mission presidents' children and spent lots of time there. I'm told it has a basketball hoop, soccer goals, beautiful gardens and a really fun swing. Unfortunately we weren't able to see much. Russ was called to the Hamburg mission, but right at the end of Russ' mission the Hamburg Mission was absorbed into the Berlin mission. So President & Sister Thompson had to sell this amazing place as they ended their mission :( 

Here's Russ just wishing he could go inside

Even if we couldn't go in it was fun to see the place I've heard so much about. It's definitely much bigger than my mission home that's for sure! 

Our next stop also had a lot to do with the Hamburg Mission; the Alter Schwede Rock! 

It's this giant rock that somehow got down to Hamburg from Sweden or Norway with an iceberg or something...there's kind of a legend with it, I don't really know the details. But it's on the beach of the river now and when the Hamburg Mission got new missionaries they would bring them here and have a little object lesson about getting any rocks of your river that will slow you down as a missionary (and other lessons I'm sure) and then they take a picture with the Thompsons there. A cool tradition I think. So I first saw the picture of Russ and the Thompsons there  5 years ago so it was about time I saw it in person! I had no idea that it was on such a fun beach. It was kind of cloudy and drizzly today so it especially had an Oregon Coast feel. Really fun area.

As we made our way back through the U-Bahn we walked through this elementary school playground. It had such an awesome tree that I just had to climb it! They really have great trees here :)

Also as we were on that walk we were on a street with big houses that had cool design. Russ pointed to one saying how it was neat, I agreed and really thought it was amazing...then he said "what's that sign in front of it?" ....Me: "no way!" Haha it was one of the LDS ward houses here! Russ never served in that ward but it was definitely worth seeing! 

By now it was time for lunch and we headed back to Innenstadt (downtown area that is just for walking, no cars). We had our first Duner there! (It's not really spelled that way but that's how you say it!) I've been hearing about this food for years as well. Everyone says it's perfect for a missionary, delicious, fast, cheap and lots of food. There are lots of different versions but the ones we had are in a bread that's kind of a mix between a tortilla and flat bread, filled with special sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion etc and meat. They take thinly sliced beef (or other meats) and then they stack those thin slices together on a spit in a big column, then they shave meat of the edges of that big column. That probably

Doesn't make sense, but oh well. It was way good!! 

Messy. But Schmect lecker

After lunch we did some shopping, trying to find a Germany soccer jersey with 4 stars showing that they jut won the World Cup...couldn't find anything! Weird. 

We went down this really skinny street, it was cute.

Then we did what has been one of my favorite buildings so far! Saint Michaelis. This thing is awesome. From the outside it looks cool; it has a big tall tower,

a statue of Martin Luther, which Bruder Back told us a story that once he was driving Elder Ballard to the airport and they were kind of short on time. But when they went by St. Michaelis Elder Ballard had to have a picture by this statue of Martin Luther even though they might be late! Kind of a fun story and shows you how important Martin Luther's work was.

(Oops, quick picture turned out too quick)

On the front of the church there is this awesome statue of Michael the Arc Angel slaying the devil...awesome! 

The inside of this church was also

Gorgeous! 

This picture is confusing but it's showing the ceiling kind of:

There was some gorgeous wood carvings, again with Michael:

But we haven't even gotten started with St. Michaelis! You can go up to the top!! There is an elevator...but instead of waiting in line for that we climbed the stairs for 9 minutes straight! It was worth the view though! 

This was the perfect place to have as one of our last stops in Hamburg. It was so fun to look out on the city and see all the different places we have gone. We really walked all over so much of this city, it has been a blast. I would love to come back here one day. It's especially fun & special to have Russ share a place that he loves so much with me.

For dinner we went to another members home, Jens & Anja Zickler. They have 3 young sons, 5,4&2. Those boys are bursting with energy and there is never a dull moment! It made me think of my parents with 3 boys those exact same ages...wow. Haha lots of work! They were such a cute family. They grilled some meat & had a really good salad & watermelon for dinner. So so nice of them. Haha Russ even helped with the grilling:

Unfortunately our other pictures with them are on a different camera, but they were great. (And of course also say hi to you Elder Bangerter & Corey!)

We didn't have much time with the Zickler family because we had tickets to "Das Phantom Der Oper" ...aka The Phantom of the Opera ;)

It was awesome! Neither of us had seen this show live before, and even though it was all in German I really really enjoyed it! The theatre was a really cool building, we had good seats & the quality of the performance was incredible! (Plus I was the first person into the bathroom at intermission, what a bonus haha)

The woman who played Christine was especially good, but for me what stole the show was the orchestra. They were phenomenal!!! Maybe since the words were in German that made me focus in on the music more. It was great. Sappy alert...but while they were singing "all I ask of you" I just had this thought of how lucky we are, how blessed. Here I am sitting next to the love of my life, holding his hand, watching a great production at a major theatre in Germany. Is this real life? Pinch me. 

We ended the night talking & visiting with familia Back again. Man they are great! I definitely felt very much at home with them. We feel very grateful for their examples. Tonight is our last night here wih them, tomorrow we're off to Elmshorn! Schlaf gut!