Germany: Week 1 through 3

LOTS OF PICTURES!

 The first week here I had a lot to do.  I had a lot of miscellaneous things that needed to be done and I was glad that kept me busy.  I was also able to go to the temple that first week.  I got all the passport info turned in, got my gas card from customs which allows me to pay half the Europe price for gas, got my haircut, went to a couple movies (that was fun), watched my very first 3D movie (another fun thing), went to my OB appointment, went to my opthomology appointment, went grocery shopping, checked out the Library, and other little things to keep me busy.  When I was in my room, I kept either music on or the TV on for background noise because I wasn't used to the quiet.

A pregnancy shot at 36 weeks in the kithcen of my TLF.

After a week, my friend from San Antonio, TX (Meghan Roberts) came to be with me for a week!  I was soooo glad to have company.  Thanks again Meghan for coming-that week flew by!

She flew in at about 10pm, but we waited to help another storknester pick up her family and take them to Ramstein AFB.  She couldn't fit her whole family in her car so we drove her oldest daughter.  Because we had to wait quite a while, we didn't get to our TLF (temporary lodging facility) at Landstuhl until 3am!  

 Meghan and I saw a lot of things while she was here.  We went to Trier: Founded by the Romans in 15 BC, this is the oldest town in Germany and some say the oldest north of the Alps.   The Porta Nigra, "Black Gate" is the dominant landmark of the city, dating to the 2nd century when it was the northern entrance into the town.

Porta Nigra:

 This was our lunch, a pretty good sandwich with amazing bread.

 In front of Porta Nigra (it looks like a fake background :)  ).

 This man was making cool objects out of wires.

 Meghan in front of a part of Porta Nigra.

 More Porta Nigra

 The marketplace is in the center of town.  It is beautiful and has a lot of fun shops.

 We walked the tour.  First we headed to St. Peter's Cathedral (Dom)- the oldest Christian church in Germany.

 The Cathedral.

 I'm not sure if they are both part of St. Peter's Cathedral or if the one on the right is the cathedral.  I should've blogged right after Meghan left so I could remember everything.

 Inside St. Peter's Cathedral

 The cemetery in the outside space in the middle of the cathedral.

 Absolutely amazing!

 Then we walked to the Roman Imperial Palace/Basilica built in 310AD.  It was very pink and very beautiful.

 The yard or gardens outside the Palace.

The Palace

 We stopped for a little snack.  I had something like this in the Azores and loved it so we tried it.  This wasn't as good as the kind I had in the Azores, but it was still a refreshing treat.

 We headed to the Roman Baths next.  We didn't go in because there was a small fee, we were tired,  it was just ruins and we could see it from the fence.  We did come across this foot.  It was part of a statue of some female (like I said, I should have posted sooner  so I could remember).

 The Roman Baths.

 I really liked this wooden bench.  I wouldn't mind owning one.

 This is a fountain thing I thought was cool.

 A pretty church.

 Karl Marx home.  It was hard to find this one on our self-guided walking tour. 

 HA!  This car was awesome! And little.  It reminded me of a car on the movie "Cars"

 Just to show how little it really is. 

 We went to dinner at a nice little restaurant in the square.  This is my orange Fanta (a very popular European drink) in a cool glass with the name of the restaurant.

 This was a spread for the bread. It was tasty.

 Delicious, fresh bread.  This is making me hungry.  Soooo good!

 I got the schnitzel and spaetzle.  It was very good.

 Meghan got the dumplings.  They were really good too.  We each had a salad too, which was very fresh and good.  One thing the Azores don't have is really good salads so it was nice to get one.

 The yellow building was the restaurant we went to.  We ate at about 5:30pm, a normal dinner time for Americans and the only people in there were old people.  The people here don't eat until later.

 Pictures from the market square.   Very quaint buildings.

 We drove back to Ramstein-village to partake in some delicious ice cream.  I had Kiwi Eis and Meghan had spaghetti-Eis.  The ice cream here is soooooo good.  It's a good thing I don't live here.  The cones are only one Euro and so good, I would eat it often. 

 On another day we ventured to Pirmasens to the chocolate factory.  The day started off rainy and cold so it was a perfect day to do indoor things.  It was fun to see all the chocolate and the prices were amazing.  We bought a good amount of goodness.  We also went into the basement to where the chocolate was made.  We saw people painting the molds for the chocolate.

 Outside the factory was this cherry tree.

 A German street in Pirmasens.

 For lunch we went to a little restaurant for a Doner Kebab sandwich.  So good and so messy!  I was dripping cabbage and sauce all over the place.  It was very hard to eat because it was so big.  I LOVE these.

 We drove about 20 kilometers to the basket  outlet, Korbwarenfabrik Hermann Frank in the town of Dahn.  They had very beautiful, inexpensive baskets and seasonal decorations.  If I lived here, I would definitely purchase some amazing basket decorations.

The surrounding area.  Check out the tall, skinny trees.

 We then headed to Heidelberg:  Situated on the banks of the Nektar River, Heidelberg is home to one of the world's oldest universities and has an impressive castle. 

 Heidelberg Castle

 A view of the city from the castle.

 I loved the look of this bridge over the river.

 We missed the last guided tour so we didn't get to go inside the rooms of the castle, but it was still a pretty sight from the areas we could venture.

Some of our spoils from the chocolate factory.  These marshmallow filled chocolates were actually very good.  The marshmallow was more like a marshmallow cream. 

 This is edible paper I got for the kids.  It didn't have any flavor, but they will think it's fun to eat paper :)

 This is puffed rice covered in chocolate.  I thought it was pretty amazing.  I really like puffed rice cereal and then add chocolate...  5 lbs for 5 Euro!  That's a lot of chocolate.

 Puffed wheat cereal covered in chocolate.  Also very delicious.

 Little crunchy balls of chocolate.  It tastes like a crunch bar, kind of.  I really like this too.

We went to the castles on the Rhine River and to Drasselgasse.  Unfortunately, there was a big Harley Davidson convention while we were there and TONS of bikes and bikers.   It was crowded, smoky and loud, with Harley engines constantly roaring.

 The ferry we took across the river.

 Burg Rheinstein:

 Check out the size of that leaf!

 A view from the castle.

 Then we went to Burg Reichenstein:

 After touring the castles, we went to the shopping area  where the famous Drosselgasse street is located.

This cute train was driving along the streets.

 We had to have a pretzel in Germany!

 This was currywurst.  Really kind of gross.  We were super hungry, but this just didn't work for either of us.  I also accidentally got water with gas.  Oops, I'm not a fan of carbonated water.

 Currywurst in a brotchen (roll) was okay because the bread helped calm down the flavor.

 This gives you a small glimpse of the bikes lining the streets.  Farther down it was crazier.

 This pregnant lady has to go to the toiletten a lot and this one costs money :).  It was an underground bathroom and really stunk.  You think for a toilet that costs money, it would be nicer. 

 We went to the famous Christmas store and got some souvenirs (Ornaments) for our families.

 Our restaurant for dinner. 

 2 delicious pizzas.

 A shot trying to show that I went almost 200 kilometers on the autobahn.  It was blurry, but very hard to get a good shot.

 We tried these 2 desserts.

 The next day we went to 2 more castles.  This one is Reichsburg Cochem.  It was beautiful on the outside and inside.  The decor was gorgeous and castle worthy.

 Construction and history:  Cochem's castle, the landmark of the town of Cochem and the beautiful Moselle Valley.  Medieval castles were built on high hills for the purpose of defence.  On three sides the enemy had to climb the steep slope and the surrounding wall while on the fourth there were four different gates to get through.  Last refuge for the inhabitants was the square tower in the middle, of which the lower part stretches back to the year 1000AD when the castle was built by the Franconian Palatine counts.  In 1151 the German Emperor seized the castle until in 1294 another German King pawned the castle.  In 1689 the castle was totally destroyed by French soldiers under King Louis XIV of France.  A ruin for the next 200 years, the castle was reconstructed according to old plans by Mr. Louis Ravene, a rich merchant from Berlin.  So you will not find a medieval castle inside but and inhabitable nineteenth century chateau.  In 1942 the descendants of Mr. Ravene were forced to sell the castle to the Reich.  Since 1978 it has belonged to the town of Cochem. 

 A view from the castle.

 We went on the guided tour, but it was in German.  We were given a paper in English to read about each room as we went inside. 

 The Dining Hall:  The rich oak-carvings on the walls, doors and furniture show that Mr. Ravene had a special liking for wood-carving, which here mainly consists of scenes from the Holy bible.  The ceiling is made of wood as well, decorated with poker-work which means that the patterns are burnt in and then painted.  The magnificent buffet on the back wall with the fine Delft chinaware is complemented by the fireplace, which has a wooden superstructure to maintain the Renaissance sense of balance between the walls.  The fake door on the right hand side of the buffet was also inserted to maintain this impression of symmetry.  The paintings on the walls are 18th century Italian.

Gothic Room or Caminata:  This room is named after the ceiling, with its pointed Gothic arches.  The room is also called Caminata, meaning a chamber reserved for the ladies, because the room was heated by a fireplace.  The furniture consists of originals from the 17th and 18th centuries; most of it is decorated with inlaid woodwork, called marquetry. 

3 Korean vases

Romanesque Room:  In this room the name is derived from the construction of the ceiling, the Romanesque crossed arch and the barrelvaulting above the doors being representative of this style of architecture. 

Hunters room:  The boar head had a living weight of more than 400 pounds. 

These big tankards on the table contain the amount of wine one monk was allowed to drink per day, which was 5 liters (1 1/4 gallons).

Knight's Hall:  This is the largest room in the whole castle. 

After Cochem Castle we headed toward Burg Eltz.  We didn't know how to get there and got lost.  While lost, we took some pictures of the beautiful fields.

Here we're showing how tall the grass was.

We eventually stopped and asked some people where Burg Eltz was.  They showed us by having us follow them, which was super nice because we never would have found it without them.

We hiked down to Burg Eltz.  I think it was a 1.2 km hike. 

Once we rounded the corner, we were greeted with this awesome view of this beautiful castle.   It was hidden from enemies and the only castle you ever hike down to.  This castle has been owned by the same family (Eltz family) for over 800 years.  It was never destroyed.  It was lived in by 3 different families and each family had their own separate 'house'.

I call this the Cinderella Castle.

We took the tour, but weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle. 

After this castle we were tired and rode this shuttle back to the parking lot instead of hiking back up. 

We had a good time touring parts of Germany.  Thanks Meghan for coming! 

The next week I went to a couple movies with a friend from the ward.  I saw my first 3D movie in an amazing, beautiful theater.  I also went to a ladies night dinner with some women from the ward.  I also went to the ice cream party for the kids on the last day of school and talked to the other moms.  I really like the ward here. It's been nice to have instant family through the church.  I've met many people and made good friends with some of them.