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!

First Full Day in Hamburg

Wednesday August 6th 

We woke up in Hamburg to quite a surprise...Russ has pink eye! Bleh! After waking up with a goopy eye he ran to the pharmacy real quick for some medicine. Hopefully that clears up quick and I don't get it! Pray for that. 

Here is him with the bad eye closed. And even more so - please notice the gem behind him on the left. This lady has her hair cut like a full on Jedi Padawan, complete with braid! 

Our first stop was Familie Back (pronounced like Bach) which is the family we are staying with the next 2 nights. They are an amazing family. 4 kids, (girls 20,18&14; son 12) the dad (Oliver) was in the Stake Presidency while Russ was a missionary and now he is the Bishop. Once again they speak great English. 

When we got there in the morning to drop off our bags a guy in his young 20's answered the door speaking perfect English. I was like who is this? But right away Russ said "Gordon!?" He was in a neighboring Hamburg ward and for a young men's activity was paired up with Russ for a missionary day so they had done missionary work together and were both excited to see each other again. The only other person home at the time was Selene, the 18 year old daughter. Wow what a sweetheart. She immediately started to get us something for breakfast, so we ate with Gordon and Selene in the beautiful garden! 

After visiting with them for a while we headed out to explore Hamburg! 

We got off the U-Bahn (subway) right by part of the Harbor.

Our first stop was a big statue; Bismark:

Next we went straight to Rathaus, which is like the city hall or state Capitol building. It is amazing! Very ornate. It's one of Russ' favorite buildings in Hamburg and I've been excited to see it. I was not disappointed! 

Pictures really don't suffice, but trust us on this one, it's awesome!

Inside is also great 

I loved this lion statue, it looks really awesome with te Hamburg Shield underneath. Plus check out that model! Are you seeing the definition on those calf muscles?! ... Wow. :) 

There's more. Rathaus also has a great courtyard in the middle.

There are a lot of cathedrals in Hamburg that make the skyline really interesting. Even the "little"ones are pretty sweet. This picture shows how close together they are sometimes, that steeple on te right is a totally different building just on the next block. 

We went to go see the cathedral called Saint Nikoli. Which is more of gothic style and has kind of a scary look. This one is really big, Russ has been excited to see it. We got to it and what do we find? 

It's covered in scaffolding! Russ was pretty torn up about it as you can see ;)

Around 2:00 we headed over to a members house; Folly. He is originally from Ghana/Togo but has been living in Germany for 15 years. When Russ was a missionary Folly was inactive so they would visit him often. At the time he was single, but now he is married and they have a 2&1/2 year old son. 

His wife Stella was so nice and has an amazing story, may I even say it's stellar?  ...too much? Haha really though it's impressive. She and Folly met in Ghana when he was visiting family. They started dating long distance and eventually got married. She was not a member & had never even been to the LDS church. When their son was 3 months old, she was still living in Ghana with their son and Folly was in Hamburg. All on her own she decided to go to church, didn't say anything to Folly. Then about a month later she got baptized...still hadn't told Folly! So she had already been baptized by the time she told him she had even gone to church or learned about it at all! How awesome is that?! Now she has been living in Hamburg for almost 2 years, they are active in the ward with callings and have even been sealed in the temple! It is so special and fun to see their progress! Absolutely amazing.

They were nice enough to make a meal for us, a real authentic African dish; FuFu. 

We ate with our hands and everything, no silverware required! FuFu is made from potato flakes/powder heated up and mixed with water and milk. At first it looks like mashed potatoes,

but then it gets stirred and stirred a special way until it turns into a dense but kind of squishy blob. It looks like raw bread dough. Then they pour a peppery meat soup over it, like this:

You grab some of the FuFu with your first two fingers and thumb, then you dip it in the soup and eat it.

Our soup was spicy wih chicken & turkey in it. Haha there are stories of some people getting tongue or other interesting things served to them with their FuFu at Folly's house! Ours was good and so so nice of them to prepare a meal for us. 

Their son Jarom was super cute (Stella made sure to tell us his name was Jarom, like in the Book of Mormon) he was quite shy at first but eventually he warmed up to us.

The rest of the afternoon/early evening we went out to explore more of Hamburg. First we went to Hafen City, this is an area with newer developments, & the Philharmonie, it was really cool. 

I ran up this giant flight of stairs faster than the escalator (even with a stomach full of FuFu) so that was an accomplishment haha 

We went by this awesome park, playgrounds are so cool here! I would've died and gone to heaven if I played at this playground as a kid. Water features, sand, treehouse feeling, "forest shelter" type things...hard to explain but it was awesome! 

Plus if you want to get your exercise on they even have an elliptical!

There is a fun board walk type of area right on the harbor there with restaurants, shops and buildings with cool architecture. We even got to play a little basketball haha at one point I made a few threes in a row and all I heard from these German guys sitting behind me was "oh Scottie Pippen" in a thick accent haha so funny. 

The main reason we went to Hafen City was to see the new building where the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra will play, it's still under construction but looks amazing. It is right on the harbor and is designed to look like a ship! 

We got to see it from the street and by boat. Part of the excellent public transportation system here includes boat taxis, so we got on one thinking we could go pretty far up the city haha turns out that particular boat just goes one stop up and then comes right backs! Oops. We went there and back to where we started from on accident! But it was a fun windy ride anyway.

Next stop was the Alster Lake. Hamburg is built next to this lake, and also right on a river...pretty cool. For years I've heard Russ say that he's got this favorite spot in Hamburg and he always thought that if he had the chance that would be the spot where he would want to propose. Well we were a couple years late for that, but we finally made it here. I have to say the view definitely didn't disappoint! It is on the "inner Alster"

It was all sorts of romantical :) "this guy, he makes me melt like a popsicle on the Fourth of July"

We started to make our way back to the Back's house, by way of "Planten & Bloomen" which reminds me of Central Park in New York. This is the park where we saw the fountain show and the rose garden, which was gorgeous in daylight! Once again, enchanting.

The park is also right next to this giant tower. I have no idea what it is but i've always liked it. 

So here's a fun fact (and no surprise if you know me) I have to go to the bathroom all the time, what can I say, I'm well hydrated and just have a really small tank! Anyway, we should have figured that into our budget since it costs 50 cents almost everywhere haha and usually there is an attendant there to take money and she is saying things in German and I just stare at here while he gets frustrated and I'm just like "I've gotta go!" ...no accidents yet hahaha 

Also 2 times today I came out of the bathroom and there's Russ just siting there with an icecream cone. I go to the bathroom, he gets icecream...so that really makes going to the bathroom expensive! 

Yucky subway story. The U-Bahn is actually really clean here. But tonight on the train there were these young teenage girls sitting by us....with a rat. It was nasty. If Justing Bieber and Miley Cyrus had a child it would look like this girl, plus a rat on the shoulder. A big rat. With a tumor looking thing. So gross. 

This blurry picture is the one I got...but I will probably never forget that rat. For me all rodents are a no go as pets. Ugh.

The rest of the night we spent at the Backs house really just talking and visiting with them. So much fun. For quite a while just the mom, Ann Christine, was home. I really enjoyed getting to know her. Talking about missions, her family, Germany, Russ' mission. Anything and everything. If you happen to be reading this, she wants us to send a special hello to Andrew Bangerter and his wife, as well as President and Sister Thompson. She got so excited to hear that we see you all often, she definitely loves you! 

I also finally got to meet Bruder Back that night (Oliver). What an amazing man. Russ has told me about him before...basically describing him as one of his heros because he is someone who makes it all work. Successful career, wonderful family, his kids adore him and he is so dedicated to his calling and puts The Lord first. Plus this family is just fun to be with! We laugh a lot with them :) 

One last thing for today....the chocolate is so good.