Making it to The Temple- The Whole Reason for Going to Germany

On Thursday we had a very nice breakfast at the hotel, as it was only 6 euros a person, and they didn't charge for the kids since they didn't really eat much.  They were so kind in this hotel.
Here's the breakfast room in our hotel.




We didn't need to be in Friedrichsdorf for the temple until around 4 or 5 pm.  Well we had to be there at the temple housing no latter than 5 as that was when the office closed.  So we decided to walk around Heidelberg and see the old town.  The streets were cobble stone and the houses half-timbered.  It was lovely.  The shops were just opening or getting ready to open, with bakeries all over offering very tempting goods.

We stopped at the church in the town square.  I loved how all the ones we saw were all so different and yet all so beautiful.


There was an old hotel across the square from the church.  Have I told you, or have you guessed, that I love old thins?  I love how decorative the architects were.  And how detailed.  Heidelberg was by far our favorite city.  I'd go back again (when it's warmer) it just wander the streets, or to sit outside at one of the cafe and savor the city.


We then walked along the river and stopped to see an old bridge that had dates on it from before the 1700s.

Here's Steve with the beginning of the bridge behind him.  One interesting thing was that on the bridge people had left pad locks locked to metal things on the railing.  If you look closely at the picture below, to the right of Steve on the corner of the railing is a lump.  That is a bunch of locks.  I think they're love locks, where your engrave your initials and the initials of your sweetheart and lock it on something and then throw the key in the water.  But we didn't inspect them.



That is the castle below from the bridge.  But it wasn't a clear morning, so unfortunately we didn't get a nice touristy picture of the castle from the bridge.

We had told Big E the night before that we could get some pastries for dessert if we could find a place that had them on the way to our hotel from the restaurant. There weren't any shops open, as I expected, so on our way back to the hotel to check out, we stopped in one and let Big E choose what he wanted.  He saw chocolate donuts and was in heaven.

 Steve and I tried some other kids of pastries that were both very good.  Miss A also enjoyed a chocolate donut.



For some reason, when we bought our train pass, we only bought 6 days worth.  I'm not sure what we were thinking, but that left us with trips that we had to pay for.  After buying the tickets to go to Friedrichsdorf, we waited for only about 15 min or so inside the station before heading out to the platform.  But when we got there, the sign said that the train was about 35 minutes delayed.  Almost all the announcements were in German, of course, so we couldn't understand.  We didn't want to miss the train and we since we couldn't understand the announcements on the PA system, we decided to stay there on the platform and wait.  We tried to find the least windy spot and eat our lunch.  And sure enough the train was 35 minutes delayed.  I was a little worried as to when there would be another train from the main station in Frankfurt to Friedrichsdorf. And whether we'd make it to the temple in time. But we made it to Friedrichsdorf with enough time to walk to the temple.

It was a bit of a walk as it was up hill most of the way. Steve pulled the suitcase and I pushed the kids in the stroller.  What a workout!  There was no need for a hat or scarf.

We met up with people from our ward.  Big E was soooo excited to see them!  He could hardly contain his excitement. "Sister M! Come see our room!" or "Sister M!..." and he'd tell her something from our trip.  Sister M (M is an abbreviation) is a sister in our ward that is probably around my Mom's age.  She has young grandkids and Big E seems to gravitate to a few of the grandma figures in our ward.  Sister M is one of them.  Or he'd run to the young women's room (they did a little switching and so all the young women got to share a room) and talk to them.

The housing at the temple is set up like a youth hostel.  Our room had three bunk beds with six cubbies.   Because of the rules of the temple housing, each family had their own room.

There were, of course, shared bathrooms.  But it all worked out fine. Our ward stayed on the same floor.  It was actually really nice.  We shared the bathrooms with people we knew, and there was a kitchen area downstairs for us to use with a fridge and cabinet space.

Thursday evening we all went to dinner together at an Italian place.  They knew a large group (27 people) were coming.  We filled almost the entire seating area. The food was really good, but it was much slower in coming than other restaurants we'd gone to in Germany.  To help pass the time Big E and another little girl from our ward, B, amused themselves by sitting on the floor and pouring salt into their hands and licking it.  Only a 3 and 5 year old would find that amusing.

And unfortunately, even though we were one of the first to order our food, we were one of the last to get it. So it wasn't until at least 7:30 before we got our food and the kids were past hungry.  They were cranky and starving and tired.  Big E wanted pizza, but when he saw my pasta, he wanted that instead, but in the end wouldn't eat either of them.  We hurried to eat and pay and then walked the short distance back to the housing.  Needless to say it wasn't the best eating out experience we've ever had. But we had good company. 

Little Houses

On Thursday, I posted a picture of some little huts that I didn't really know what they were, but we saw them alot around Frankfurt.


My Mother-in-law sent an email to me later and explained what they are.  I'm glad they have a few more people to ask about things than we did.  I thought I'd share what she said (with permission), as I found it interesting.

"In your blog you had a photo of really little houses. Those are called datschas from the Russian word Dacha. They are little garden cottages which families own to have a garden and a yard to go to from their apartment in the city. They say that in Russia, HALF of the people own a dacha that they go to on weekends and holidays in the spring summer and fall. They are all over in Germany as well, commonly on the outer ring of a city, but here in Frankfurt they are scattered all over the city, little alleys with 8 small gardens (maybe 30' x 50-80') with a tiny cottage. The cottages usually have a sleeping/eating/cooking room and a small bathroom and that is all. Many have tables outside. Some are really meticulously kept up with every square foot trimmed and planted, dwarf fruit trees, rows of tulips around a vegetable plot, etc. On weekends, it is where everybody goes if they can. Friends go to each others' and they eat and drink and visit and the kids play together."

It sounds lovely to go to a dacha and garden and relax with friends.  I'd love to be able to do it and it would be worth the 85 euros a month to rent. But then, I'd love to just see more green.  :) 

Heidelberg Castle

On Wednesday we went to Heidelberg, which is about a 1 1/2 hour train ride south of Frankfurt. Heidelberg was our favorite town of the whole trip.  The old town was much bigger than in the others, and new wasn't mixed with old.  There was a distinct, yet invisible, line where the old town ended and the newer things began.

I found a hotel called Elite Hotel, that was in an old row house.  The price was the cheapest in town that I could find, and it wasn't too far from the old town. So we stayed there, and I loved it.  Our room was across the street in "Haus Bunsen".
On the way from the train station to the hotel.

Waiting to check in.


Haus Bunsen our room was on the left with the balcony.



Miss A loved walking around on the balcony.




The Heidelberg Castle was the first thing we went to see after giving the kids a snack in our room.  We picked up a map while we were at the train station and also looked online.  So started out on our hike.  The Castle, like most, is on a hill. The first part of the walk wasn't bad, but once we started going up the hill, it was tough to get up.  Steve pushed both kids, who fell asleep on the way, up the hill. I took a few small turns, but he did the lion's share.  I think he didn't want to walk as slowly as I was while I pushed :).  It was hard work.  I was hot and wanted to take off my scarf and hat and gloves by the time we got to the top.




When we got to these stairs, we weren't sure which way to proceed. (up obviously, but whether to follow the road, or go up the stairs) If there were only a few stairs we could do that. I went up to investigate, and found that it was a lot of stairs.  Not something we could have managed with the stroller. So up the street we went. The last little bit was on cobble stone, which is not easy to push a stroller on.


We bought tickets to go inside the courtyard and I bought a ticket to go on the last tour of the day, which thankfully was in english. After our experience in the Marksburg Castle, Steve didn't want to take the kids in and not be able to get out and have Miss A scream the whole time again.  He told me to go.  I really wanted to go inside, so I was glad I got to go.  I took more pictures than I normally would have so that I could show Steve and hopefully remember what the guide said.



The part behind me and to the left some was the part the was restored in the late 1800s




While I was on the tour, Steve took the kids through the Pharmacy Museum, where they had a kids area where the kids could follow recipes and make herbal concoctions like they used to do. Big E made one for me.



They also saw the massive wine barrel and looked around the balcony.





I liked that the castle is mostly in ruins and that they are keeping it that way.  They only do maintenance work, nothing to restore it. The part that is restored was restored in the 1800s in the Renaissance style.

These are medieval bathrooms. We were standing on what used to be the moat.


This is a pump that was connected to a massive wine barrel (it's about 23 ft high, and 27.9 ft wide, and holds 58,124 gallons of wine.) It is located just off a banquet hall.  They filled the massive barrel from a whole in the floor.

The massive wine barrel. That is an adult man at the bottom and adults at the top.

The not quite as massive wine barrel.

This is the upstairs hall in the restored palace.

These little doors let the servants keep the furnaces hot.  The guide said it got so cold in there, even with the furnaces burning, that they would have to drink their wine quickly before it froze over.

The furnace doors aove and the statue below (there were others, but I only took one picture) are original to the castle.

All the stair cases were round and went clockwise going up.  They did this as a defense mechanism.

After seeing the inside, we walked around the outside. The ammunition and gun powder were kept in here.






When we bought the tickets to go in, we found out that there was a funicular to take you up and down. Had I known about that, we wouldn't have trekked the whole way up.  The lady at the counter, when she asked if we took the funicular or drove and I told her we walked, said "that's sporty." Really, that's just not reading the map carefully enough as it was even marked on the map we got from the train station. But it was good exercise.  Needless to say, we took the funicular down.

We then walked through a bit of the old town to find the restaurant I read about. We had dinner in the oldest restaurant in Heidelberg, Essighaus.




On the way home, Big E wanted to see the "big fountain", which we had passed on the way to the Heidelberg Castle.

After we got back to our room, we pretty much crashed.

Two Cities Seen - Day 5

On April 2 we had another lazy morning.  What else do you do on vacation, right? Certainly none of the 5 am wake up calls that we have in Doha. Steve was once again a hero and walked to a nearby grocery store to get some food for breakfast and lunch (we had ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch frequently - had to eat ham while we could).  Breakfast at this hotel was $22.42 (17 Euros) per person.  I can't believe people spend that much on breakfast.  I'm certainly not spending $88 for my family to eat breakfast. I must be cheap.  :)
Miss A enjoying her food in a box in a attempt to control the crumbs.

A view from our hotel window.


After checking out of the hotel, we walked around seeing the old town.

St. Kastor Basilica.  A sign on the side said it was built in 817-836, but rebuilt in 1948-1955.

Inside the basilica.



And we saw Festung Ehrenbreitstein, which is an old fortress.  It was huge, and we didn't see all of it.  They turned it into different types of museums, some where were pertinent to the fortress, like weapons and soldiers quarters and uniforms, and others were not so much.  Anyone for a display on different kitchen settings?  It looked kinda like Ikea, to be honest.  I was a bit disappointed.  I'm more into the history of things and we didn't see much of what the fortress was like when it was built.  They did have a museum on ancient artifacts from the area, which was cool.








Big E loved the ride to and from the fortress.  Festung Ehrenbreitstein is on the opposite bank of the river than most of Koblenz and where our hotel was. So we rode a cable car over the river and up to the fortress.  It gave us a good look of the city and of Deutsches Eck, which is a monument where the rivers Mosel and Rhein meet. I don't know what it's for, really, but it's huge.


Koblenz was not my favorite city.  I liked the ride up there, but had we not had children who were done with the day when we got to Koblenz (and I planned on that), I think I would have returned to Mainz the day before and gotten in a bit late.  But Big E loved the ride across the river and that makes it all worth it.  :)

From Koblenz we rode the train back to Mainz.  We didn't stop anywhere and ate lunch on the train.  I should have prepared lunch before leaving our hotel.  Making sandwiches on a train isn't easy.

We passed these shacks going in and out of Frankfurt.  It's such a stark difference to the wealthy who live in old castles.


In Mainz we attempted to find the Dom and the Gutenberg Museum, which is conveniently very close to the Dom, but the streets in Germany twist and turn and it's not always easy to find a street sign. We saw a church tower and thought that was the Dom, but it turned out to be St. Stephen's church.  It's about 500 m southwest of the Dom.  But we took pictures anyway since it's "Stephen's church".


We made it to the Dom, which strangely had shops built along the side so that you couldn't see the building from the market square. But the church is beautiful.

This is the square that the entrance is on.

 In side there were some stairs that had a lion on the end of the banister. Big E said, "Look!  It's the library lion!" (The Library Lion is a book we have that he likes to read about a lion that wants to go to the library.)

It's amazing how each church can be so grand and so different.  This one had little areas on the sides of the main area for small groups to gather and I assume listen to someone speak or to ponder.  There were shrines and such and tomb like areas.  I dont' know if they were the actual tombs of saints, or just there as a memorial.  Most signs in museums and such throughout our trip were in German, so we didn't know what they said.

Is this creepy to anyone else?  A skeleton with wings is not something I'd want to have in my church.






We wanted a picture with the Dom, but didn't want to wait for the sun to move and when it's cold and you have two cold children, you make do. :)


The Gutenberg museum has a little place called Drukladen.  I read online that you could go there and use a press.  But what it didn't say (even on it's website) was that it was by appointment and that the child had to be at least 6 years old.  I just went to look around again, and no where does it say that.  So we didn't get to use it ourselves, but we did get to watch some other kids doing it.  Big E handled the disappointment remarkably well.  Steve convinced him that we could take a picture of the one he wanted to do and he would figure out a way to let Big E color it. So Steve took a picture of a plate with Curious George on it. He's good at finding solutions to problems.







After the museum, we were hungry and tried to figure out where to eat.  I had read, in one of my many hours of nap time research, about a restaurant called Heiliggeist (it translates to Holy Spirit) in Mainz that was in an old hospital. From what I can understand from the poor automatic google translate of the restaurant's website, it was started in the 1200s.  It became a multipurpose hospital of the Renaissance time.  The website says that it was less of a hospital like what we have today.  Homeless people, poor, pilgrams and the old lived there.  The sick represented a small percent of the population. It was a bit more expensive than I would have normally spent.  But it was nice inside.  It wasn't outrageous, but it wasn't a place I'd go to frequently just because of the cost.  But it was cool to eat there and I'd say it was worth it.







Then we tried to find the place we were renting.  I had heard of Airbnd on NPR long before we moved over here.  So I thought we'd give it a try.  It also happened to be the cheapest place I could find our whole trip.  The flat was very conveniently located to the Dom.  Seriously a block and a half.  The building wasn't old or anything, but the flat itself was cozy.  I had arranged with the owner of the flat to meet around 5 or 6 and she was okay with that.  But something came up and she wasn't able to meet at that time.  She sent us a message through aribnb, but we hadn't had access to the internet all day.  Our hotel in Koblenz had it, but we had trouble connecting and then we were out and about all day.  Not knowing that she had sent a message, we decided to use our phones and pay the extra costs, to try to call her.  But she didnt' answer.  I printed out each of our reservations.  The Airbnb also had an emergency contact number we could call.  So we called that, which was probably in the US.  They got all the info needed and then tried to contact the lady.  Per policy, they had to give the renter 2 hours to respond.  They read the message to us, which said, "I can't stay until 5 today.  I've left the key at the kiosk shop across from the flat."  But when we looked there wasn't a kiosk shop.  There was a sports shop, a hair salon, and a few shops which were closed.  After walking up and down that block we finally got ahold of the owner.  The shop wasn't exactly directly across, it was across the street and down a ways.  We did eventually get in and settled down for the night, except Steve had to walk back to the station to get our stored luggage.  (Isn't he amazing?  I offered to go, but he didn't think that would work well for safety or strength.  And secretly I agreed. I'm also afraid of getting lost when I'm by myself. I do okay when I'm with other people.)

Here's one of the rooms in the flat.

This wasn't outside the window, but was a square we passed on the way to the flat.

It was quite a fun, exhausting day. Well, every day was like that.  But we did see two cities this day.