Tuesday - Road trip through Saxony and Bavaria

Today was completely different than yesterday.  We spent a total of 8 hours driving, but about every hour we had a major stop to go and look at something in a city.

Here is our little vw Golf car with an amazing GPS system!  We had to get up at 5:30 to get packed, ready and do some research for our road trip.   We were tired from the moment we woke up, but there is too much to see and do to rest!


First stop: Schwarzenberg - Dave's mission city.  We were able to find the church.  It was a beautiful building.  We stopped by the little city's castle and church.  Then without and address we found where Dave lived when he was there.  I really loved this little city out in the sticks.  With the fog settling over the land and the morning sun streaming in, it had a mystical, beautiful small city feel.

 

Plauen: We found the church and where Dave lived.  We also walked through the city center and listened to a political speech happening here.  this was where Dave did street meetings.
We were able to talk alot about mission memories and experiences.  This was very fun for me since sometimes Dave mission seems much further away from his memories than my mission memories.

Nuremburg - we looked at 2 churches and walked the city center here.  I tried another kind of bratwurst.  I was slightly unimpressed with this city after some of the amazing things I've seen.  We didn't spend long here.

Rothenburg - This is a city that has preserved the medieval feeling.  the entire village is still surrounded by a wall with entrance gates, lookout towers and a walkway around the city.  The old-time feel of the city is incredible.  Cobblestone streets, small churches, houses, buildings and a park make up this quaint little town.  Today was a European holiday, so all the shops were closed, but we were there to look and see rather than shop so we didn't mind.  It was so neat to get a little feel of what a city may have been like hundreds of years ago.

Ulm - we made a quick stop to the city center in Ulm.  i wasn't sure I wanted to stop, but we were NOT disappointed!  This cathedral is the tallest in all of Germany (Europe?) and it was probably twice as tall as any cathedral we've seen.  I was shocked at how tall the cathedrals are in Germany (much taller than American cathedrals) and this was SOOOO much taller.  In this photo I am standing at the front gate with a black jacket on.  Can you even find me?

We did a little of this on the AutoBahn. 

220 km converts to about 136 miles per hour!! Scary!  But after this anything under 100 mph is so slow!

We found our hotel near the Neuschwanstein Castle.


Links to the rest of the trip:  Getting there  Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday     Home

Monday- Dresden and Saxon Switzerland

Wow!  What an incredible day we had.  We fit more in than any tourist ever has J

First we had to go trade our car in for a new car at the airport.  We decided to drive to Munich instead of fly (even though driving is more expensive) because Dave wanted to see a few more mission cities and I wanted to see Nuremberg and Rothenburg . .  . but that is our plan for tomorrow.  Today was Dresden!  Our plan to see part of Dresden last Friday didn’t work out (remember the autoban for 4 hours?) so we had to fit a lot in today.  We started in Dresden at the Opera house.

Then wandered around the Zwinger (a festival gathering place).

We saw a block long mural of the history of the house of Wettin (margraves, dukes, princes, and kings).

We went into several churches all with completely different looks and feels including the Frauenkirche which was destroyed in the war and only restored in 2004 (When Dave was here last it was a pile of rubble).  The reverence in this church left much to be desired, so it wasn’t as impressive as it could have been.  The basement crypt was very cool (literally and figuratively). 

I had my first real bratwurst in a market square in the city.   I was surprised at the itty bitty bun and the long wurst!  The mustard was a bit spicy and the wurst was too hot for my liking, but Dave was in heaven.  We also sampled a crepe and some Italian ice. 

We ended the city part of our tour on the Bruhl’s terrace overlooking the Elbe river.  The view over the river was pretty, but turning around and seeing the many, many buildings, churches and palaces was incredible.  So much history!

There was so much to see in such a small space.  The feeling here was very different from Prague.  Everything has had to be restored since the entire town was leveled during the war.  The buildings seemed dirtier, but a lot more of the renaissance era of statues and palaces.  There was a mixed of the older buildings and newer stores.  The river running through the city was very beautiful.   

We then went to find the Saxon Switzerland national park.  On the way we found a palace we had seen in our brochure and decided to stop in.  Since our time was short we thought we would just take a peek, but it ended up being so nice we stayed for 1 ½ hours.  The palace was large and beautiful, but the gardens were fantastic!  There were hedges (like a maze) with different themes in small courtyards (a gondola, different kinds of pine trees, tulips, etc).  There were 4 different greenhouses growing non-native plants.  The palm green house didn’t seem so exotic to us, but we realized it probably was for Germans.  The palace opened up and had stairs going right down into the river.  This was such a peaceful beautiful place to walk around.  We enjoyed the sunshine gleaming through the trees, the birds chirping peacefully and the many green plants.  

We got back on the road and found the National park – namely a part called the Bastei.  We looked over some fantastic overlooks in to the valley and also into the park of enormous boulders.  We walked around what use to be a medieval fortress with houses and staircases built into the amazing structures of the land. 

Despite not having any time left, we decided we couldn’t be all the way to this beautiful place and not take one more hike that Dave’s sister recommended.  So we ran all the way to the trailhead (10 mins) for the Sweedish Holes.  Turns out that the ‘trail’ is 843 steps down (with a bit of hiking between some steps) and 843 steps back up (yes, we counted them).    We were trying to do it so quickly and still take time to enjoy the beauties of nature there.  I hope this counts as a work out since I haven’t run for nearly a week and have a race coming up soon!   The sunlight streaming through the trees, grand overlook vistas and the narrow canyon we hiked into created a beautiful and amazing scene. 

And we stopped to get MORE photos of the rapps (These are canola plants and make canola oil for us J) this is Dave trying to run to me before the timer went off (he didn't make it)

After an hour drive home (you guessed it, I took another nap), we went out to eat with Dave’s parents.  It was a great little German restaurant situated on a lake in Freiburg.  I ate white asparagus (with Hollandaise sauce) and vienerschitzel (thin, fried chicken with a great mushroom sauce on it) and Dave ate Saurenbraten (sour fried beef) and Klosse (fried potato balls).  It was incredible!  I haven’t eaten something I enjoyed that much in a long time!  I savored every bite!  And to top it off we had warm apple struedel and a sort of cheesecake torte.  Amazing!  I am still tasting this amazing meal. 

We tried to walk off all the food in Freiburgs pedestrian zone and town square.  We saw another church, palace, and the city hall.  It was different to view them at night and they were much smaller than the bigger city buildings.  I find it amazing that you can find a church and palace and city center/pedestrian zone in every city or town.  

I had a full and fulfilling day.  I was so happy to fit it all in and more.  We have another FULL day tomorrow, although there will be a lot more driving and a lot less walking, running and seeing.



Links to the rest of the trip:  Getting there  Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday     Home

Sunday - Halle & Leipzig

Freiburg temple where Dave's parent's are serving.

We drove to a city that Dave served in to attend church.  Dave recognized a few members.  We had a chance to see the confirmation of an entire family of 5 African people.  Then a missionary attempted to translate the meeting for me.  It was nice to have a small idea of what was going on, but I didn’t get most of the meeting.  I felt like a new missionary all over again.

After the meeting, many members came up to say hello to Dave.  One family in particular remembered Dave.  Dave had played basketball with their 3 young boys (who are now return missionaries themselves).  One said he remembered Dave being one of the best missionaries to ever serve in Halle.  This kind family invited all four of us to dinner with them.  I loved being able to experience a real German home and meal.  I also loved to be in a Mormon home listening to the love of the gospel and the love of family (even if it was in a language I didn’t fully understand).  I was surprised how much I could figure out based on body language and hearing just a few words that were close enough to English I could recognize.   We had so many German dishes (sourkraut, rotkohl, knodel, asparagus (it is white in Germany),  pork, mixed vegis, gravy, plus desserts of jello, cookies, pudding and fruit and crème.)

After such a wonderful meal and experience in their home, we drove around the communist housing blocks that Dave had tracted in.  So many apartments with absolutely no style or interesting things to look at.  What a crazy communist world!

We headed to Leipzig.   We saw a large train station with a mall built in underneath.  

We found the Volkerschlachtdenkmal (Monument to the Battle of the Nations).  This was an amazing, massive memorial to those who lost their lives fighting against Napoleon.  We hiked the 500 stairs to the tip top of the memorial for a fantastic view of the skyline of the city of Leipzig.  The statues in the memorial were symbolic of all the sacrifices made to make the people strong.  It was a very different and impressive memorial. 

Driving home view from the back seat.

We headed home to eat with the Harper’s and planned more of our trip (since we didn’t plan much before we got here, we have to plan more now that we are here.)  I think I am still getting over jet lag since I took 2 or 3 naps in the car as we drove and I am still tired and it is only 8:00 p.m.  We have some VERY busy days planned for the next 3 days in a row (with lots of driving) so we need to get lots of sleep now.


Links to the rest of the trip:  Getting there  Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday     Home