Scenic Rail Journey on Day 4

On Monday we checked out of our hotel early and headed for the train station.  We didn't even eat breakfast before leaving, planning on picking something up at the station.  We arrived at the platform a little later than we planned, but we made the train to Mainz, and with some very yummy pastries, I might add.

The plan for Monday was to take a train from Mainz to Koblenz, stop somewhere to catch a river boat (which our train pass allowed us to get on), ride the boat for a while and then get off in Braubach to tour the Marksburg castle.

Well it so happened that we got onto the wrong train in Frankfurt.  The train we got on turned to go to Wiesbaden right before Mainz. So we got off on the last stop before the train crossed the river to Wiesbaden, hoping to catch the right train which would take us to Mainz.  We had to wait for 20-30 minutes in the cold.  It was just a small stop, and so there wasn't a station to go into.  We ran up and down the platform and Big E and I jumped up and down.

We did finally make it to Mainz where we stored our luggage again.  We took only two backpacks with over night things with us the rest of the trip up the Rhein.

Because of our little mishap, we missed the train we planned to take up to Koblenz.  But they run frequently, so we just had to wait.  We let Miss A and Big E run around a little inside the station while we waited. And then we started our scenic journey.  At first I thought we got on the wrong train again because I was expecting to see the river and we couldn't.  But eventually the train moved closer to the river and we could see both sides. And then came the castles.  They dotted the hillsides which were covered in vineyards. It was beautiful.  I can only imagine what it would look like in the summer when things are greener. It was a bit difficult to take pictures on the train as it moved too quickly to take great pictures and the windows were really dirty. But we still took pictures, because when's the last time I've ever seen a castle? Never before in real life.  So it was fun to see so many.











We planned to get off the train at  Bacharach and then take the boat to Braubach.  But since we got on a later train we missed the boat in Bacharach and would have to wait an hour before the next one came.  So we decided to stay on the train and watch for the boat.  If we passed it, we'd get off on the next stop that showed a stop for the boat as well.  We did pass the boat and so we got off the train in St. Goar.

I loved the short walk from the train stop to the boat dock. It was quintessentially German.  It was too early for many shops to be open, but it was so lovely.  It was first time I really felt, "Hey, I'm in Germany!" Frankfurt was nice, but it's quite modern.  There's a lot of new mixed with old there and so it didn't give me the same feeling. There is a castle there that I had wanted to see as well as Marksburg.  It's the Rheinfels fortress, but with small children, we couldn't do as much as Steve and I might have done had we been alone.  So we went to Marksburg.

Big E loved going on the boat.


There was a small playpark up on the top, but it was outside and though Big E wanted to try to play, he didn't last long.


The boat was fun because it was much slower than the train and we had a chance to get a good look at some of the castles.








This is the Marksburg Castle. We had to walk up that hill to see it.


In Braubach, we got off the boat and tried to figure out how to get to the castle.
But before doing that we took some pictures of this cool tower.

We found a tourist information spot that had a map, but it didnt' really have a "you are here".  So I couldn't figure out where we were.  Steve came and figured it out and got us to the beginning of the train, which happened to not be stroller friendly.  Lots of stairs to get up.

After much debating, do we leave the stroller and hope no one takes it?  do we see if someone would let us tuck it into their yard?, we decided to ask a shop owner if we could put it in their shop.  A very nice lady who ran a cafe at the end of the hill we just walked up agreed to let us keep it there while we went up to the castle. And then came the walk.

Steve carried Miss A, who fell asleep,


 and I walked behind with Big E.

 It was quite a treck up the trail, but Big E did great.  We made it to the Castle to find out that there were only 2 tours in English that day.  We missed the first, but the next one wasn't for another 2 1/2 hours.  I wasn't about wait for the next English tour.  There wasn't anywhere warm to wait, plus 2 1/2 hours is way to long.  So I bought tickets for the next tour in German.  For a deposit I could rent a guide book in English.  So that's what we did.

Walking into a castle for the first time.

The Marksburg castle is the only hilltop castle on the middle Rhein that has never been destroyed.  So there has only been upkeep and maintenance done to it, not rebuilding.


Here's what the guidebook says about these stairs.  I was going to do this with each room so we could go back an read it, but then the battery light started flashing, so I didn't.

As soon as we entered the dark wine cellar, which was the basically the second stop on the tour, Miss A started screaming.  Nothing would calm her. We took her out of the room and tried changing her diaper, but it didn't make her any happier.  The guide let us go one room behind them so we could see things, but not disturb everyone.  Steve thought to show Miss A a movie on his phone, which he had put there for the plane ride or any other time.  It worked for a while, but wasn't perfect.

Steve was very annoyed and wanted to leave.  I didn't want to waste the money we spent on tickets to get in.  We stayed and suffered through it.  Needless to say, it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped.

After the episode in the castle, we were pretty much done.  We we walked to the train station to catch the next train to Koblenz and then we straight to our hotel.  The kids watched a movie on TV, in German, for a bit.  Then I put on a movie on the iPad while Steve went out to find some food, preferably German food.  He came back with Schnitzel a la Miar, a plain Schnitzel, and Bratwurst. I'd say that qualifies.  It was very good.

It was an exhausting day.  During the whole week, Steve and I would go to bed as soon as the kids went to sleep, which was usually later than normal because it took longer for Miss A to settle/calm down than at home.

We saw these crocuses on our way to the hotel in Koblenz.  So pretty, though it was odd to see them on April 1.  In Missouri they'd come up at the end of February and be gone long before April 1.

Dumpy Doha Days

Today is a "I can't stand how they do things here!" day.  To be honest, I said, "I hate". Steve suggested that it's an "I love America" day.  I'm in such a mood, that I say it's an "I really love America" day.

I'll explain.  When we got back from Germany I couldn't remember my pin for my debit card when I went to the grocery store.  I remembered the numbers, just not the pattern.  When I tried to put it in at the check out line, it was declined for incorrect pin.  A second attempt did not come up with better results.  So I used my Chase Credit Card, which does work here, but I then have to pay a foreign transaction fee.  But I didn't have enough cash on hand and I was standing in the check out line.  What else could I do?  I guess I could leave the food, but we didn't have anything in the fridge, so we wouldn't have had much fresh fruit or veggies to eat.

After coming home, I thought about it for a while and remembered my pin.  I didn't go to the store for another few days.  Thursday came along and I went to Carrefour to buy some bins for recycling.  Before leaving I made sure I had enough cash in my wallet to pay for it, just in case my card was declined again.  It's a good thing I did, because it was.  I know it was the right pin.

So I called the number on the back of the card and talked to a guy who spoke very good english.  (I was worried that I'd get someone who spoke english, but with such an accent that I wouldn't be able to understand them, which has happened.) He said my card was locked, so he unlocked it and said I could try to use it after 5-10 min.  But if I wanted/needed to change the pin, I'd have to go to the branch where my card is associated.  Meaning, I can't go to just any branch.  I have to go to the Qatar Foundation branch which is near where Steve works.  Now, it's not that far, but there's one right across the street! But I can't go there to change a pin because my account isn't associated with that branch.

On Saturday we ran out of eggs and I was planning on making pancakes for this week's breakfast for Big E.  So I went to the store.  Again, my card was denied.

So the only option I can come up with is that the pin was changed, or the unlock didn't work. I know what you're going to say.  You just don't remember the pin. But I know I have the right pin in the right order.  It's a pattern.

Today I went to the QF branch to get a new pin.  Come to find out, I can only request a new pin there, but it'll be 3 days before I get a new one.  No I can't change there.  I could drive all the way to West Bay at get it.  But that could take more time than I have to spare.  But when the pin comes, I have to go back to the branch to pick it up.  Grr.

In order to the grocery shopping I planned on doing today, I had to withdraw cash with a teller.  But because I wanted less than QR 1000 (which is only $274) there was a charge of QR10.

By the time I left the bank I was so frustrated I could have cried.  At home I could go to any Chase branch in the country and they could help me.  I could have reset my pin right there, choosing the one I want from the beginning, not having to wait for a new pin and then change it at the ATM.  Their system is no logical, not convenient, not user friendly.

I'm tired of going to the store not knowing if I'll find the things I want.  Why is it so hard to stock baking soda? Black beans? I'm tired of knowing that I can go to store x and I know I'll find item 1 on my list, but probably won't find item 2. But if I go to store y I'll find item 2, but not item 1.  And if I do find them, chances are they aren't in the same spot they were the last time I bought them.

Oh, America with your  orderly stores and logical layout, your banks with good customer service, how I miss you.  Only 81 more days.

Okay, rant done. Back to most happy posts about Germany...

Some Photos of the Dom

As I mentioned in my last post, my Mother and Father-in-law are in Frankfurt right now serving a mission.  They went to the Dom yesterday and shared some photos with us if we wanted to use on our blogs.  It looks just as grey outside, but they captured some great photos.  

 I loved this corner. There's more green in Germany at the end of winter than in Qatar.

 Isn't this ceiling amazing?  You hardly needed a microphone, though they did use one for the Sunday service.

On Sunday they had tea candles lit (the kind you buy there and light for whatever reason, an extra prayer maybe?) in red candle holders just below this statue and to the left.

I was quite excited about this picture.  This is the busker that I told you about, the one we heard while waiting for the bells to ring on Saturday. It's the same guy! I'm glad they got to hear him.  He's good and it's a different sound but not strange. I liked it. 

Easter Sunday in a Christian Country

Easter was very different this year.  We didn't dye any eggs, though we did paint some molding dough eggs I made and baked (that's another post). We had a small egg hunt in our house the day we left, and we talked with Big E about the meaning of Easter.  We talked about what the eggs and such can represent.  And of course we talked about Christ.

Being in a Muslim country means that Christian holidays are a bit different.  You celebrate as best you can. But we weren't in a Muslim country on Easter; we were in Germany!  And of course, we were even more limited on what we could do.  We went to the english ward (congregation), which is the same ward my in-laws are now going to while they are in Germany serving their mission.  Big E was thrilled about our train ride to the church building.  As he would say, "We got on the train underground, and then it came up out of the ground and onto the street!!" We'd seen the light rails as we walked around some areas of town, but we assume that was not covered by our pass, as our rail pass did not cover busses.  But it turns out that the light rail is part of the train system.  Big E loved that it!  He talked about it almost non-stop.  He'd tell anyone who'd listen.

It snowed while we were in church.  There were tall windows in the Chapel were Relief Society (the women's organization) was held. So I watched it snow during the lesson, savoring that feeling that comes when you watch snow fall while you're warm inside, but dreading that cold walk in a skirt to the train stop.

We made it without freezing back to our hotel and had lunch and rested.  My youngest sister was just about to leave the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Ut to prepare to serve a mission in Kobe, Japan. So we skyped with her one last time before she entered the MTC the following Wednesday.

Steve found the times for services in the Dom (the main cathedral in Frankfurt), and so we decided to attend one, even though it was in German and neither of us know German.  We thought it would be a neat experience to see how it's done and to hear the organ play and to see it all done on a spot of ground that has had people worshiping on for hundreds of years.  Even though the building was pretty much destroyed in WWII, they rebuilt on the same spot. Miss A fell asleep on the walk over and thankfully slept through the service.  Can you imagine a crying child in a cathedral during a service? That would have been awful.  Big E sat patiently.  He does seem to know when he should whisper without being told to.
Here's another pretty church across the river from the Dom. This was taken as were were walking to the Dom.


We then walked back to our hotel and rested.  Even though we were on vacation, we wanted to still do our best to keep the sabbath holy.  We spent a while in our room, which was tiny (our bed was two single beds pushed together that we shared with Big E as there wasn't anywhere else for him).  It didn't really feel like Easter.  We couldn't have an Easter dinner, even though we could have ham.  We weren't in a place to have normal traditions.  Our church service wasn't even about Easter.  It was fast and testimony meeting (were any member of the congregation can go up to the pulpit and share his or her testimony). So there were no talks about Easter, which I was disappointed about. But, the store windows were all decorated with eggs and bunny and such, though, and that was nice to see.

Frankfurt day 2

I'm not going to take the time to come up with creative titles.  So you get numbering again because it's easier.
On Saturday we had a lazy morning. We woke up only when the kids did.  Breakfast in our hotels was expensive.  14 euros per person at the one in Frankfurt (That's $18.31).  No thank you! So Steve walked to the grocery store, which was now open, to get us some food for the day.  And he only spent 14 euros for food for breakfast, lunch, and another meal, and enough peanut butter and jam to last the entire week for all 4 of us. That's so much better.
Here's the spread.



Our first outing of the day was to Senckenberg, which is a natural history museum.  Going to a natural history museum isn't exactly a touristy thing to do, but Doha doesn't have many museums. So we went.  On the way to the train station, we stopped at a little shop across the street from the station to buy a hat for me and a pair of gloves and 2 scarves. They didn't have any kids gloves (why is it so hard to find things for Big E? We found a coat and some mittens for Miss A in Doha, but noting for Big E. Poor little guy.  We layered him and we brought his blanket and wrapped him up.  It was the best we could do.  He survived with all fingers and toes still in good shape, so he apparently didn't get toooo cold.) The hat and scarf made a lot of difference.  It was still cold, but I lasted longer. I gave one scarf to Big E.


According to the English pamphlet we picked up, Senckenberg is one of the largest natural history museums in Europe.  They had stuffed animals of all kinds, birds that's I've never seen before, and of course dinosaur bones. Big E enjoyed it.  We spent the whole morning there.

Miss A surprisingly didn't fuss about the cold.  She just sat in the stroller and watched, not really moving much.

The T-Rex on the left is a copy of the one in the NYC Museum of Natural History.  The one just to the left of the stairs is a copy from one at BYU.





We headed back to our hotel room for lunch and quiet time, which didn't end up being very quiet as Miss A took naps in her stroller, and Big E was just too excited to rest.

Bundled to go out again.


Steve read that morning that at 4:30pm all the church bells would ring for 30 minutes for Easter.  Apparently they only do this twice a year, for Easter and for Christmas.  The best place to hear them, Steve read, was in the Romer, the old town square. So we decided to be there for it.

We left early to go to an archeology museum, which was neat, but nothing is in English, so we had to guess as to whether the artifacts were from before Christ or after.  The only way in was up some stairs.  We found that throughout Germany, we had trouble getting places with the stroller.  Lots of stairs and few elevators. And sometimes we'd find an elevator, but it would be broken.  Many times we went up or down the escalators with the stroller.  At smaller train stations there'd only be stairs.  So Big E would have to get out and walk up and Steve and I would carry the stroller up the stairs with Miss A still in it. Not exactly a wheel chair or stroller friendly country.

Anyway, the museum wasn't very big and so didn't take much time to go through.  I think the guard was a bit nervous to have us in there with two small children. Not everything was behind glass.

The museum wasn't far from Romer, so we got there almost an hour before the bell ringing would start.  So we peaked into Old Nikolai Church that was originally built in the 12th century (of course it was bombed in WWII and so has been rebuilt as it was).


We looked around at some of the tourist shops and other things.  There was a dog owners convention of sorts in the square when we arrived, so it was a bit crowded with people and dogs.  We let the kids run around a bit and took pictures.







Big E got to enjoy his first KinderJoy Egg.



We also walked to Pauls' Church, which is just outside the square.  It's no longer a church, but a place for meetings.  Downstairs is a history of the area and some photos of what the area looked like after the bombing of the allied forces.  It was awful.  Just shells of buildings left.

View of Dom from Paul's Church. Romer is just to the right if you were to walk between the cars.


We walked back to the square to wait for the bells and listened to a street performer play some steel like drums.  They weren't steel drums, though sounded kinda like them.  They looked like large tortoise shells made of metal, with two on top of each other to form a ball-ish thing.  (like that description? we didn't take any pictures of this so I can't show you. Sorry. and I don't know what they're called to look them up...Ok, I think they're these. Here's another photo of them.)

We almost gave up hearing the bells because of the cold.  I worried about the kids getting too cold. And Big E was asking to go.  But we stuck it out just a few more minutes and then they started.  It was neat to hear real church bells, and a lot of them ringing.
The view from where we stood waiting for the bells.


We then went back to our hotel to warm up and then get some dinner.  There was a German restaurant just down the street from our hotel which we wanted to try.  But it was closed for the Easter weekend.  Boo.  So we went to a Persian restaurant across the street from our hotel instead.  It was good food, but Big E wouldn't eat anything and just wanted to play with his fork and spoon.  Miss A picked at her food. Oh well.

We went home and got ready for church the next day.  I walked to the store to get some more food for Sunday and some diapers for Miss A.  it was nice to actually have the sabbath on Sunday.

We Finally left Qatar!

Just a heads up, there will be a series of posts about our trip, but I want to remember as much as I can.  So you dont' have to read all of it if you don't want to.  There will be lots of pictures, though.

Thursday March 28 was Steve's last day of work.  I spent the day packing, attending a cooking group, and that evening we went to a farewell of a family in the ward who will be moving to South Korea. The plan was that the kids would fall asleep in the car, stay asleep as we put them in bed.  Then Steve and I would do some last minute packing, shower, and sleep a little bit before a taxi would come at 11:45pm to take us to the airport.

That did not happen. The kids fell asleep in the car and Big E was successfully transfered to his bed asleep.  Miss A, on the other hand, woke up shortly after the transfer and then refused to go back to sleep.  She didn't fall back asleep until 10:45ish.  Steve had to sit with her on the couch with the TV on before she fell asleep again.  I tried to sleep, but couldn't.

It seems that there are no flights leaving Doha at a reasonable hour.  Our non-stop flight to Frankfurt left at 2:15am.  And do you know what was amazing?  The airport was full!  It was actually crowded at midnight in the Doha airport.  Yuck!  It also seems that Doha is expert at making people wait in lines. We waited for the gate to open (which is normal, I know) but then when it was time to board, we waited in line (again normal), but then we walked down some stairs and had to wait for someone to unlock the door so we could get on a bus to go to the plane. I personally think having to take a bus to board a plane is ridiculous. And it's a longish bus ride for what it is.

Anyway.  The kids did remarkably well at such an awful hour.  Big E was so excited to watch the buses go under the airport to pick people up.  "Look! Another bus!!" Miss A, though did not make a fuss, was not happy to be awake.  (she woke up once we got to the airport.)

We arrived in Frankfurt at 7am local time, which was only 2 hours behind Doha. After making it through customs we headed for the trains. (In case anyone is wondering, we didn't need any visa b/c we have an American passport and were staying less than 30 days.  That's true for any EU country, we also don't need an international driver's license, if we had rented a car, which we didn't).

We bought a 6 day use the trains as much as you want pass for two adults.  Children under 6 are free.  So that made buying it worth it.  And Big E was super excited to ride trains.  That's all he would talk about prior to leaving. "We're going to ride trains and a boat!" he'd tell everyone who'd listen. Here we are riding from the airport to the main station.

Parking is not free anywhere, not even in the hotel parking lots.  You have to pay so much per night.  Parking is also a nightmare it seemed.  The old towns were just not built for parked cars.  Their solution? Park halfway onto the curb.  Notice the blue sign.


After we arrived at the Frankfurt main train station, we stowed our luggage in a locker and then tried to figure out how to get places.  Don't mind me getting some coins out of the money belt, which I failed to put in my pocket when I put the belt on.

Here's the ground floor of the station.  There are two more level below this one.

We had trouble finding a map, but the nice man in the 1st class lounge gave us one, and even let us come in an warm up, even though we didn't buy 1st class tickets, "because you have babies," he said.  Those babies were sound asleep, but we were grateful to sit somewhere warm while we looked at the map.



We decided to head to the Kindermuseum first.  It had a few exhibits and a play area for the kids.  We let Big E and Miss A run around and play for an hour or two before eating lunch. They really enjoyed it.  There were two other english speaking kids there and Big E played with them and built forts out of cushions.



We ate lunch at KFC because it was close and we were quite hungry.  It was probably a good thing we decided to eat there.  I'm not sure we would have found much else open.  It happened that we arrived on Good Friday and almsot everything was closed, even the grocery stores.  That's more than you can say in the states.  A funny thing happened in the KFC.  I went to go change Miss A's diaper but the janitor, who had been sitting on a chair near the restrooms the entire time we were eating, stopped me and said I couldn't change her diaper in there.  "I can flush the stinky stuff and it won't be stinky," I said. He said that unless I could take it with me, I couldn't change it in there.  He couldn't even tell me where to find another trash can.  Not exactly child friendly that store.  I wouldn't go there ever again,  besides the fact that it's KFC and not really good food.

After lunch we walked down the street to the Eschenheimer Turm, which is an old guard tower that was part of the city old city wall.  The wall was torn down a long time ago, but they left the towers standing.  A money belt with 4 passports and three layers of clothing and a poor camera angle isn't very flattering, but this is the only picture we have of the tower. 

Then we turned around and walked to see the Dom and Museum.  The Dom is the Frankfurt Cathedral, also known as St. Bartholomew's. It's the main church in Frankfurt and was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundations of an older church.  It was were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected and later crowned in this church.  












Sadly, all of Frankfurt's old town was bombed by allied forces in WWII. So it's not exactly original.  It was restored in the 1950's to what it looked like though. 

Then we rode a train to the main station again, picked up our luggage, and walked the short distance to our hotel.  It was only about 3pm, but we were exhausted.  Steven and I didn't sleep much on the flight and we were cold as it snowed off and on that day, though no snow was on the ground. We skyped with my mom and dad and sister, let the kids watch a movie, ate dinner, which Steve went to the train station for as we couldn't buy something from the grocery store and went to bed by 8.  

 Here is a view from our 6th floor window.

Is Coloring on the Wall a Milestone?

Miss A, who will rarely sit and color on a piece of paper, preferring to hold colored pencils in her hands and look at them, got a hold of a purple colored pencil today while I was helping one of the boys I watch fold a paper airplane.  She then processed to decorate the wall.

I am happy that I've been a parent for 3 1/2 years and this is the first time I've had to deal with wall coloring.  Big E never did that.  But I wasn't watching 9 kids on Tuesdays and doing activities and letting the kids color when Big E was small.  So I kept a really close eye on the whereabouts of colored pencils and crayons.  Our rule here is that as soon as something falls to the ground, stop and pick it up.  But that only works when the kids are paying attention to what's around them.  And it didn't work today as Miss A demonstrated.

The downside is that I'm positive that if I try to wash the walls (which they do need since there are scuff marks on them and now purple pencil) I'll wash off the paint. I tried to wash off another mark from the AC unit and rubbed paint off.  My only other option is to try an eraser.  Hopefully that'll get it off.

p.s. I'm working on posts on our trip to Germany, so stay tuned.