Leer & Augustfehn

Monday August 4th

Today we got up at 5 am to get to our train at 6. 

Quick breakfast from the bakery,

This is a happy boy:

I had this sandwich on delicious seedy bread.

After about 3 hours of trains we got to Leer. This is a smaller city by the Dutch border, it was Russ' last city he served in on his mission. Once again guys, it's adorable. This city is also right on the river. 

We walked through the town for a while, sitting by the water, playing in a park and seeing Russ' old apartment building 

Then we found a place where we could rent bikes for way cheap, perfect! We rode our bikes out to a castle! Just the bike ride there was so much fun, I love how everyone bikes here and the roads & sidewalks are set up for it. Everything is marked so well and everyone follows the rules. It's the best. 

Eventually we got to the castle grounds but couldn't see the castle yet, cute Russ made me close my eyes while we walked around a corner to it so my first look would be the perfect view. Here's what I saw:

Schloss Evenburg complete with moat! 

This and all the grounds were simply enchanting. Loved it. 

There were gorgeous ponds and especially TREES!

Did I mention how I was enchanted? 

I felt like I had been transported into Pride & Prejudice or something, waiting for Elizabeth & Mr. Darcy to come join us on our stroll. Just enjoying the general splendor.

We jumped back on our bikes and within 5 minutes it started to pour! We of course didn't have jackets. It was really coming down, we stopped at a little cafe for some juice while we waited it out. After about 20 minutes and way too much second hand smoke (though the juice was zer gut ) we figured to just go ahead and get soaked because it didn't look like it would be stopping anytime soon. We were drenched, and also kind of cold. Back story to all of this...when we were packing I didn't really have a good rain jacket, with Russ' help we decided that if I really needed one we'd just buy it here. Well yesterday it drizzled during the day & poured during the night. In the morning we though we would get soaked on our way to the train but it luckily stopped. So we decided in Leer we would find a jacket, as we made our rounds through the city the first time we saw a couple stores that we would come back to after we saw everything. But then we randomly rented those bikes & took off for the castle...change of plans. When we were riding through that thick rain I yelled to Russ jokingly "I'm sure glad we bought that jacket!" Haha it was atleast fun. In the rain we went straight to a shop to look for a jacket, & of course right as we got there the rain calmed down. Figures. We found a cute jacket that I really like...& now that we did I'm convinced that we won't see another drop of rain this whole trip! 

Here's a sample of the rain:

Here's the weather 5 minutes after I bought a rain jacket:

Typical.

Off to August Fehn

I want to do this blog so I remember the little things; here's a prime example of that. We took a quick train ride to an even smaller town outside of Leer called August Fehn, we're staying with a member family here tonight. As we were hurrying to make the train we had to go down stairs to cross tracks and then go right back up. Near the bottom of the stair was a lady with a huge suitcase struggling to pull it down the stairs. Russ of course asked her if she wanted help, she said no. (She clearly needed help and wouldn't be fast enough to make the train) 3 seconds later he had asked her again, grabbed her suitcase and was headed up the stairs. What a guy right? Not out of the ordinary for him :) 

We got to this little town and within a few minutes Christian Finke & his son Joshua picked us up. This family is awesome! They have four kids, the first 3 have served missions, Russia, Florida & England & their youngest just got called to Scottland/Ireland. The mom served in Switzerland, the dad in Canada. They all speak very good English. So today has been a really fun day for me being able to talk to people! 

One cool thing they shared were interactions with Elder Nelson. The dad (Christian) was almost finishing his mission when Elder Nelson came for zone conference. That very morning Christian had decided that he was going to come back to America to live after the mission. Then as Elder Nelson was shaking each persons hand he specifically asked where Christian was from, hearing the Hamburg stake he said oh yes I've visited it is very nice etc then Christian said Elder Nelson looked him square in the eyes and said "your people need you there". Needless to say he has been living in Germany ever since.

Mika (the mom) also had a great story. As a 19 year old young convert she had a testimony of the prophet but had doubts about whether the apostles were really apostles. Well then Elder Nelson was coming to Germany for a conference. She was there, the building was packed. As he spoke she kept thinking that surely if he were truly an apostle he would show her somehow! She didn't know what she was wanting exactly. But then at the end of the conference Elder Nelson was shaking peoples hands, when he came to her he looked at her and said in German "alles gutt schwester" and gave her a hug. She said she hadn't seen him hug anyone else, just her. And that was her amazing answer to prayer. Isn't that awesome! She had always wanted to tell him that but it wasn't until Russ was serving here that she actually wrote Grandfather to tell him and he responded with a letter. I just loved those stories! 

These people have an amazing house, the oldest in the city, over 100 years old and they just keep continually renovating and remodeling. Most of the houses here (and apparently a Lot in northern Germany) have very low roofs. Not that they're not tall but the roof just keeps coming down until it's just a few feet from the ground. So Christian was telling us that people in Southern Germany will joke about Northeners that they drink out of the gutter there. Kinda funny. 

It has a very cabiny/Midway type feel. Honestly if you like Midway you would love it here. Cute little green country side. It is so charming! I especially love the yard and garden. Mika loves her garden and took time to show me each part. To me it's the perfect size, not too big or too small. Ahhh one day that dream will come true for me. 

We spent the rest of the day just talking and laughing, we ate a delicious soup & salad lunch.

The elders came over for a while (their p-day) one was brand new in the country, both from Utah. It was especially fun to see Russ talk with them about old cities etc. We also went for a little walk with bruder & schwester Finke & their dogs...where I learned that Christian proposed to Mika after one day of dating! Crazy! He said

 "I don't think in going to America for school....I think I'll get married" 

she said "to who?" 

"Well to you. Will you marry me?"

And how did she respond?!

"When?"

How bout that?! 

We ate delicious chocolate, I went to the grocery store/little market with Christian & Joshua just to see what it's like, it's been a great day. We had something new for dinner haha "tofu nuggets" aka pieces of tofu boiled in a curry broth, then coated in cornstarch and deep fried. Different but actually pretty good! 

It is just so cool to get to know other cultures. What is especially amazing to me is to see the similarities among members of the LDS church across the world. Each culture is really distinct, but there are deep similarities and similar spirits, it's amazing & I love it! 

Another full day, so fun. Can't wait for tomorrow! 

Frankfurt, Bonn & Köln

Sunday August 3rd 

Guys. Germany is amazing! We landed in Frankfurt on Sunday morning & first thing we took a train into the downtown area to check things out. We just started walking & exploring, it was my very first taste of Germany and I have been loving it ever since! In the first few minutes we ran into what looked like a bike race. Turns out it was actually an Olympic Distance Triathlon!

I love triathlons so it was fun to see a big crowd right downtown at the finish line. Definitely adding to to my bucketlist to do a Tri in Europe some day! 

There's the finish line right in downtown. A good amount of Frankfurt was destroyed in World War 2 so a lot of it has been rebuilt in a modern style. But we got to go into one part of downtown that has a "classic" German feel (haha like I know what I'm talking about after being here for 12 hours). It was so great!

Old shook architecture, German food, live music, fun times. I love how their are big open plazas everywhere here.

We were also able to go into a cool church before we left Frankfurt. We took a 2 hour train to a city called Bonn. The ride was gorgeous (or so I'm told...I was actually totally passed out, one tired girl)

It's a smaller city that was just adorable! We originally went there to go to a castle, Drachenburg that is a little outside of the city. But we only had 2 hours until our train left so we wouldn't have time :( bummer. So we just explored the little city of Bonn. Seriously Germany is awesome.

Cobblestone, tons of Gelato shops, restaurants with all outdoor seating, another cool cathedral.

We ate lunch in Bonn at this restaurant where you're sitting outside in the plaza, great food and there was even a random guy playing the accordion!

I thought I was in a movie. First real meal in Germany and it was delicious! Russ had curry-wurst and I had this turkey, curry sauce dish. So yum.

 Afterwards we jumped on a train to head to Cologne. That's where we are staying tonight. The cathedral here is out of this world. The Cologne Dome. Check this thing out!

Pictures just can't do it justice. 

The further we got walking around the outside the more it amazed us. Definitely the coolest building so far. Inside was also beautiful, the domed ceilings are just so high!

Once again I just love all of the open plazas in every city. The place we are staying is a little outside of downtown, we walked through a lot of the city towards the right train stop to go to our place. Along the way we saw The Chocolate Museum, (I'm salivating)

Have I ever mentioned that I love chocolate? 

There were also some amazing new buildings, Russ was really impressed by he engineering. 

Overall I was just loving the overall atmosphere here, so many bikes and pedestrians, the architecture is great, I love the little shops and restaurants and especially I love that this city is right on the Rhine River! There are cool bridges and great paths by the river.

This shows the tradition where people who are in love put a lock on a bridge and throw the key in the water. There were a ton of locks! Fun to see some of this in person! 

Seriously, locks for days.

After walking/exploring for an hour we made it to our train and a few minutes later to the house where we are staying. (Most of our trip we are staying at places we found on Air BnB, it's basically like people rent out there apartment or one room of their house to people like it was a bed and breakfast.) Our first one tonight is with a lady name Elena who speaks great English (bonus for me!) when we got to the house though there was no answer, then she didn't answer her phone...we waited. It had only been a few minutes & I was just starting to think "what would we do if this doesn't work out?" Haha luckily she soon answered the door, she was vacuuming so she didn't hear the bell or phone but had a feeling all of the sudden "I bet someone is calling me" glad to know someone is watching out for us. She showed us her whole house and it is awesome! There are tons of little/steep stairways and we are up in the top/third floor. It's a big bedroom with a bathroom and shower, perfect!

This is the view from our room.

That open window up at the top is our room. Really fun, nice and cheap! 

She was so nice, showing and offering the kitchen, patio and terrace, the bar haha seriously she offered alcohol like 5 times. I'm kind of bummed we'll only be here one night! 

After dropping our bags off at Elena's we went down to the Rhine, it's like a 10 minute walk, down by the river was so pretty. We walked, put our feet in a little bit, sat on a bench and watched the sunset. 

(Val you would love these weeping willows!)

Not too shabby. Oh also there was a ping pong table right off the path. There were 2 paddles and a ball on it so I said "lets play!" After about 5 minutes this guy came up from the beach and started talking to me in German...I just look at Russ and he responds! Turns out the paddles were his but he was nice enough to let us use them! 

We leave early tomorrow morning for Leer. But so far I really love this place! 

First Impressions:

Overall really clean

Nice cars (seriously so many Audi's...aaah)

Too many smokers...bleh

Bakeries and Ice cream shops on every corner

I don't speak German but I love to listen to it.

Public transit is efficient and clean

Lots of people speak English.

Now I'm tired and it's time to sleep. As a bonus it just started raining and it is making the best sounds on the roof. My favorite! 

Yup, it's official, so far Germany rocks. 

We're Off

Saturday August 2nd

Safe Travels 

We've been looking forward to today for a while! We stayed at the Larsens in Murray last night, attempted to stay up late hoping that we would then sleep on our flights and get a jump start getting rid of jet lag. But since both of us have these sore throats and are coughing a ton we decided to go to bed. Luckily our flight wasn't until like 11:15 so we got up around 7, I did some yoga, we had breakfast, did some last minute shopping/prep and we were off! 

Which can we talk for a second about how the Salt Lake airport has really stepped it up in the restaurant category? They have Cafe Rio, Market Street Grill and Smash Burger just to name a few. Who knew? 

We had a layover in New York that ended up being longer than expected, but soon enough we were on our all night flight.

It was fun to already be around so many people speaking German. Russ was loving it and I was finding myself only thinking in Spanish because I was hearing something other than English. With a few hours of sleep and an all night flight we landed in Frankfurt on Sunday morning! Finally here!

Adventure Time

The majority of summer has now gone by. I can hardly believe it. We've had a crazy summer, absolutely amazing! So many stories to tell. That will have to wait though, because we're busy getting ready to leave on our biggest adventure...

EUROPE!!! 

Saturday morning we fly out for a 3 week trip in Northern Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. We cannot wait!!

Almost a year ago our good friends Liz & Logan Jorgensen said "we're going to Germany next summer, you need to

Come." After thinking it over a little bit we just knew we couldn't pass it up! It's been quite the process doing all of the planning, but now ready or not we are out of here in less than 48 hours. 

The goal is to write a post for each day of our 22 day adventure. So stay tuned! 

Truth be told I haven't actually packed yet, but when you're only taking a backpack it can't take too long right? 

Wish us luck! 

Good Summer times continue June 16th-21st

I never blog current events because I'm always playing catch up wanting to blog about things that happened forever ago . . . today I start to kick that habit by documenting what we've been up to the last week!

Monday

Monday I didn't have to work most of the day so I felt like I could do anything, I love that feeling! It was great to get a lot of little things done like cleaning our car (let's not even talk about the last time it had really been cleaned). I also was lucky enough to get to go to lunch with one of my wonderful companions, my trainer actually, Jenny (Elsey) Peterson. She actually moved down to St. George just a few days afterwards so I was lucky to catch her! It's always good to catch up with old friends, especially from the mission.

That night we got to go to the Nelson Family Party! We love these monthly get togethers. You can always count on fun people, delicious food, adorable kiddos and lots of laughing. Family time is the best, we are so lucky to have lots of family close by.

We celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries for the month, so this was our month!

Tuesday 

The main thing I can remember doing on Tuesday was sewing. For graduation my parents gave me a ton of sewing supplies and my Grandma Mitton's sewing machine, such a great gift! My mom is a wizard (no exaggeration) with a sewing machine. Growing up I've done a few projects here and there, but nothing major. I've always wanted to get into it more though. So to now have my own machine and everything it is really fun! Even though I have to constantly call my mom with questions about the best way to do something or how to fix my mistakes it has been really fun so far! Currently I've been working on a quilt that I am so excited about!

Since when does it snow in JUNE?! At least it made the mountains even more beautiful than usual.

Wednesday

Today's highlight was definitely going to lunch with the one and only Christie Beck Boswell! She has got to be one of the most terrific people I have ever known and I am seriously lucky to call her a lifelong friend. We went to Cafe Fresh (my fave) and sat and talked for hours. It was so good to catch up on so many things, especially since her and Michael are moving to Milwaukee for med school next month! :( 

There is always laughter when Christie is around and one of my favorite things today was there was this little family eating a couple of tables away from us. As they left their little girl was pushing an old school style baby carriage...as it turned so we could see inside the baby carriage we expected to see a little baby...well there was a little baby, it just wasn't a human. Haha the cutest puppy was sitting in there! Not exactly expected, but adorable and hilarious!

Also that night Russ and I went over to the park by our house to hit wiffle balls (the golf ball kind). I've never really golfed, but we went to the driving range a couple weeks ago and I think I could get into it!

Always fun to just do something fun with Russ :)

Thursday

Thursday is our night that we get to be ordinance workers in the Provo temple. All day at work I was excited to go to the temple. When it came time to go I had already gotten dressed, made dinner and we were even ready to walk out the door a little bit early. I went to grab my recommend out of my bag and . . . you can guess the story. No where to be found! We searched everywhere, prayed about, searched some more. Nothing. As we were looking I started to randomly have my Grandma Mitton on my mind a ton. She lives here in Provo and just had a major surgery a couple weeks ago. I kept thinking that I needed to go and see her/check on her. So eventually we decided that we'd better get Russ to the temple for his shift on time and that I would go to my grandma's after dropping him off.

As we were driving to the temple I love the conversation we were having. I had been so excited to go to the temple that day, but even though I couldn't find my recommend and wouldn't be able to go I was still in a really good mood. So as we were driving I was saying how I'd been so excited to go to our shift that day and what a bummer that I couldn't go etc etc and then Russ says "atleast . . .well don't take this the wrong way . . .but at least you're not crying or anything, normally you might be!" All we could do was laugh because I completely agreed!

I dropped Russ off and then went up to my Grandma's house. Here I was thinking I was following a prompting to go check on her and visit . . . but then guess what happens? They weren't even home!

It's funny how that happens sometimes with promptings, but I really think that sometimes the Lord just want to check that you are listening, so that when it's really important he can trust you to obey right away.

Instead of seeing my Grandma I took our car through the car wash (wish is always so fun to me haha) 

Then I went to the driving range. 

Yup. All by my onesie and went and hit a big bucket of balls. It was so fun! I could really give this a golf thing a try.

 I spent the rest of my night working on my sewing project which I FINISHED! That was exciting :) 

Pictures to come I promise.

Friday

Every good summer needs a nice trip to the rodeo! We went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove with Rob and Angie and it was so fun! Anytime we spend with Rob and Ang is a blast, there is always something to laugh about, and I love talking to Angie. 

I felt really patriotic at this rodeo, and it was also raising money for cancer awareness so that was a bonus.

Some of my favorite events were the "mutton bustin'" where little kids hang on for dear life trying to stay on sheep, it is always the cutest! There were some tough little kids that's for sure. 

They also did "Wild Cow Milking" which we had never seen before but it was hilarious! There were about 5 teams of three people and they had to catch their cow that was just running loose, hold it in one spot and get enough milk to fill a coke bottle. It was so funny! Guys were chasing cows and holding on to their ropes and being drug behind them through the mud. No other rodeo I've been to has had that and I was loving it! Otherwise I have to say that those rodeo cowboys are some of the bravest (crazy?) people ever, just watching them makes my back hurt!

Saturday

Sheesh Saturday was a big day! Robbie, Angie, Russ and I had signed up to do the Huntsman 140 bike race, which also raises money for cancer research. The 4 of us went to sleep over at the compound in Murray (that's what we call Russ' parents house haha) because we had to get an early start in the morning. The race began at the Huntsman Cancer Institute up at the U. We got up there around 8 or so after getting our bikes loaded and ready to go and then started our ride just before 9:00. 

We even got to write at the starting line who we were riding in honor of on this special Cancer Fundraiser ride, we had said we were riding for Emily Wittwer. She is Russ' amazing aunt who passed away from breast cancer roughly 20 years ago. I never knew her, but I've known her sons for a long time and now the rest of her family and I am genuinely amazed by how much everyone admires her and the good influence she still has on so many today. Also as we passed the finish line at the end they announced our names and also "riding for Emily Wittwer".

This was such a blast! A majority of the ride heading south was on Wasatch Blvd and went along the entire east bench down to Draper where we eventually came back north on 7th East. The course was gorgeous! I wish I had taken some pictures. Russ and I stayed together for the whole 50 miles and it is just so fun and special to have things like that which we love to do together. Russ is faster than me so I have to really push to keep up with him, which is actually really fun for me. 

I told you it takes work for me to keep up

This course along Wasatch had a lot of big hills, which were a killer to go up...but a BLAST to come down! One of my favorite things was after climbing a huge hill I started the downhill, was really gathering some speed and then Russ comes cruising past me on the left with a huge smile on his face and yelling to me "I love this!" . . . It was awesome :)

Didn't mind this for 50 miles

A big thanks goes to Angie for getting all of us into this race for free because she works for Qualtrics and they were the main sponsor. We even got free awesome jerseys! 

Let's be honest...I'm addicted to races, something about it is just so fun!

Instead of taking it easy for the rest of the day we joined the rest of the Irion clan to get some major yard and house work done at the compound in preparation for Rich and Gloria to come home from their mission (hurray!) Russ and I actually really love doing this kind of work, especially in groups and especially with family. So it really was a fun day, and we got a lot done!

Somehow around 8:30 we decided we still had some energy left so we'd head to the drive-in for a double feature with Liz and Logan. Long story short is that we borrowed my dad's giant truck, and the boys even strapped a mattress and box spring to the back! It looked hilarious. But turns out after waiting in line for 45 minutes at the drive in the movies we wanted to see were sold out! Who knew the drive in sold out?! Oh well, we had fun being with Liz and Logan anyway.

Sunday

Today was our pizza extravaganza with the Irion clan. We all have family dinner together at the compound every other sunday. This time Russ and I volunteered to be in charge of the main course. Naturally we went with Russ' famous homemade pizza...seriously his pizza is SO good.

We got straight to work making the dough before we headed to murray, and then we did the rest at the compound. All in all we had 3 ovens/pizza stones heated up and we cranked out 8 different pizzas like an assembly line. Russ is in charge of the dough and the baking, I do the sauce and the toppings. Just to get you salivating here's a sampling of what we made

Cheese

Pepperoni

Garlic Pesto Chicken

Hawaiian

Meatlovers

Supreme

BBQ Chicken.

Yea, it was even better than it sounds. I wish we would have taken pictures, I seem to be saying that a lot!

That is my long winded review of our week. All of you are probably bored out of your mind (if you even made it this far) but I am glad that now I won't forget!