Augustfehn & Hamburg

Tuesday August 5th

We think that we maybe finally set our internal clocks to the time zone here. We went to bed last night around 10:30 or so, hoping to sleep through the night (I sound like a newborn) and woke up at 9:00!! We were planninn to leave for the lake at 9. Russ & I both thought that we would naturally wake up pretty early so we didn't set alarms. But Mika was knocking on our door at 9:10 waking us up! I had been planning on a morning run in this cute little town, but finally getting some sleep was a good trade haha. (The only downside of the night was the 20 minute coughing attack I had in the middle of the night. We've both had little colds/sore throats since last week. But this coughing was awful, I think it woke Russ up before I woke myself up! I thought I might cough up a lung but luckily I'm fine haha eventually it stopped & we slept a long time)

Within 5 minutes we were off to the lake with Christian & Mika. Unfortunately all pictures from that are on our camera, not a phone. But it is a cute little lake. A main beach section is just for swimming, they have a little waterslide into it and a little island about 50 yards in. We went early so I thought the water would be freezing. It was slightly chilly at first but actually really nice! Not icey like our mountain lakes in Utah. We swam for like 40 minutes and I could have stayed longer. Turns out that how they got the lake was they needed dirt/sand for building the Autobahn and they took a lot from there. It must have been an Aquafor or something because the water naturally comes up through the ground! So it's sort of man made, sort of not. It had very soft sand, virtually no rocks, and was actually pretty clear. Mika goes Nordic walking for an hour every morning and then goes for a swim in the lake to cool off. How fun right?! 

After getting showered and having breakfast (with some yummy herbal tea & honey that felt awesome on our thoats) we went on one last little outing. They took us to a forest just a few minutes away. First we went to where we could catch baby frogs.

I mean really really baby tiny. Haha they looked like tiny gummy frogs or something.

There were also tadpoles all over. 

This was at a different little lake than where we had gone swimming. 

Then in that same forest they showed us an ancient monastery site. It was there roughly between 1100-1500 A.D. and at the time this area apparently had no trees! Hard to imagine since now there a good sized trees all over the place. 

With this monastery the foundation/remains etc were found in the last few years and what they've done is plant hedges in the outline of where walls used to be! I thought that was pretty cool. Apparently hundreds of people were also buried there. 

This shows a vague view of all if it: 

This map shows the whole thing. They had markers explaining different areas etc.

This view is just the chapel. The rock down at the end represents where the stand/altar was.

So in the 1500's (I believe) when Germany's religion changed from Catholic to Lutheran this monastery was destroyed. And now it's just represented by these hedges in the middle of the woods. Like buried treasure eh? 

I just loved being in these beautiful trees. It felt a lot like Oregon. In this particular area, Mika was telling me there is a kindergarten (which here is like a pre-school) also kinda funny kindergarten means kid-garden in German and that's why we use that word in the U.S.! But there is one that has a building right by these woods but they basically do everything outside and spend a lot of times in this area:

There was a little fort/shelter around one tree you could tell had been made for a game. They do it 3 days a week for 3 hours a day, even in the winter! How great?! Now that is my kind of school! 

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to the Finke family and head for Hamburg. It was sad to leave; they were so kind, welcoming, accommodating and fun! We really loved spending time with them. Hopefully we'll get to see them again one day! 

Headed For Hamburg

Getting to Hamburg was just a train ride, most of which gets spent like this:

but I have to say I was so impressed with a bathroom in the train station! (Sounds ridiculous but hear me out) It cost me 1 euro to use (most cost just 50 cents) but it atleast had some extra perks. First of all a special stall for moms with kids, so smart! It had a normal toilet and a smaller one for kids:

And yes, I took a picture in there haha.

But that's not all! (There's more...if you call in the next 4 minutes we'll include...haha) The normal toilet was no normal toilet. It flushed and then this center piece popped out and the actual seat started turning! I was like "what in the world?!" It cleaned the whole toilet seat! 

Normal:

Cleaning mode:

Now all you germaphobes out there tell me that's not awesome! 

In general I'm still impressed with the level of cleanliness so far.

 

Hamburg

We made it to Hamburg,

Russ spent a good chunk of his mission here & absolutely loves the city. I've been hearing about it for years so it's awesome to finally be here!

After getting settled at our Air B&B place (which is very nice) we headed over to the church to meet up with a member and his wife. On the way we stopped to walk around a cathedral, St. Gertrude

As usual pictures don't do it justice. 

The LDS chapel is just around the corner from this. We ran into a family Russ knows, as well the current missionaries. Eventually Pascal & his wife Julia got there, they are like 28 & 24. He is from Hamburg and she is from Austria. They speak pretty good English and we had so much fun with them! We played fusball & pool at the young single adults center that is part of that same church building in Hamburg. Then we went to dinner at this Hamburger place, you've got to get a hamburger in HAMBURG right? Haha I actually had this yummy chicken salad, but everything there was great! 

Last of all we went to this beautiful park with Pascal & Julia (I want to go back in daylight to see the rose garden...wow) for a music/fountain/light show. Kind of like the fountains in front of the Billagio but it's in a park and tons of people show up to watch it.

It was like half an hour with a few different  classical pieces, some Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninoff mostly. It was great!

It's definitely fun to hear Russ speak a lot of German. I just listen, try to pick out the few words I know or all the cognates and guess what's going on haha it's like a game! More and more I find myself thinking in Spanish. I even accidentally said "hola" to someone today! Oops. 

It's great to see Russ enjoying being back in his mission and with people, missions are such a special time. Being here also makes me excited to go back to Argentina. 

Overall this trip is just a dream and I can't wait for tomorrow's adventure! 

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!