Bloggin' with pictures

Too tired. Sugar wearing off.... only posting pictures.

B at the Pumpkin walk

CJ squishing his head for a picture


The boys in their costumes

Daddy is a party pooper

Trick or Treating with cousins

My pretty new couch!

Happy Second Birthday Christopher!

The BASEMENT!!

So the reason I haven't posted in three weeks is that we have been working on the basement non-stop. I had the crazy notion to get it all done in time to have a family party for Christopher's second birthday party. We returned home from our trip to a basement in the drywall stage. In the past two weeks, we have put up trim and baseboards, cleaned out dirt and tools, primed, painted, and painted some more. Put in cabinets, light fixtures, moved furniture and cleaned. In order to get some paint in before the carpet came, I had to stay up overnight to get it done. On Wednesday I started painting my bathroom at 8:00 p.m., and didn't finish until 5:00 a.m. Then on Thursday I started painting my family room at 8:30 p.m., with help from my friend Sheena, and didn't finish until 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I lay in my bed for one hour until the carpet installer came at 8:00. I am totally nuts!

I also need to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Cansas, Alisha, and Sheena. My dear friends and neighbors, who have watched my boys all day long so I could work on getting the basement done. You guys are amazing, and generous! I wouldn't have made it through the week without you!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Take a look at how things have turned out so far:

The fireplace

The living room


The Bathroom

The guest room

Bonus/Craft room

Last day of our trip

Friday was the last day of our trip. Ben only had to work until noon, so we decided to take a drive into France. The town of Strausbourg was only about 2 hours away just across the border between Germany and France. The drive was absolutely beautiful! We took the autobahn down the German border. The roads were lined on both sides with thick woods. All the trees were red, yellow, orange and green. Once we got to France, we parked in a parking garage so we could go out and sightsee. The garage was nuts! The ramp in the lot was only big enough for one car at a time, and each level only had 5 or 6 spaces to park. Each space seemed to face a different direction! Crazy!

We headed out into the town center to find the Cathedral. For hundreds of years, it was the tallest cathedral in the world, and is currently the 4th tallest in the world. When we walked through the streets of Strausbourg, we came to an open plaza with a beautiful two level carousel. There were people setting up tents for a wine and cheese tasting. We kept walking and as we came around the corner, the Cathedral immediately appeared, towering above us. I have to say it was an incredible structure. Every square inch was covered with statues, carvings, and ornate stained glass windows. The building was amazing to tour.

After the Cathedral, I spent almost 4 hours going through all the tourist shops in the town square. It was fun for me, and poor Ben just sat in the chairs in front of the Cafe's . It started to get dark, so we chose a place to eat. There were very few places with menus in English, so we decided to play it safe and try an Italian place. The menu was written in French and German, so picking out food was kind of tough. I knew "fromage" meant cheese, so I picked a 3 cheese pasta. When my food came out, it looked great, but smelled kind of weird. I took a bite and almost gagged! The pasta tasted like a chunk of mold! The 3 cheeses in the sauce were definately nothing I had ever tried before. They sure like stinky cheese in Europe! I couldn't take another bite. I just ate the crust from Ben's pizza.

When leaving the city, we passed a gourmet cookie parlour. We walked inside and the sales lady offered us a sample. The cookie was so good, we decided to get some. All the types were out in big barrels that you could hand pick and put in a bag, or decorative tin. I though the tin was pretty, so we picked one and began to fill it to the top with cookies. We took it up to the register to pay, and the clerk told us the total was 24 euros (about 38 dollars) We just died! We couldn't return the cookies, since we had already touched them. So we said, oh well, and got them anyway. Even though they cost a fortune, it was still fun to have a sweet reminder of our time in France.

It was getting dark, so we decided to head back to Germany. As we were driving along, we had a hard time figuring out if we had crossed the border or not. While we were speculating, we suddenly heard a "fhoom, fhoom" sound with two quick bursts of light. We looked at each other for a minute wondering what just happened. I soon realized that we had just gotten a speeding ticket from an automatic speed detector! I thought this was pretty funny, and kept laughing at what our picture must look like on the ticket.

After driving for an hour, we saw that our tank was almost empty. We drove to one stop, only to find out it was already closed. We turned around to find another station, and got really nervous that we wouldn't find any gas. The needle was dropping fast, and soon we were below empty. We pulled into another station just in time. While Ben was pumping gas, I headed into the station to find something to eat, since I didn't really have dinner. I saw a package with a picture of a marble swirl poundcake dipped in chocolate. We got the cake and some treats and I headed to the car. I opened the package, expecting to find slices of cake. I was wrong. It was a solid poundcake as long and my forearm and as thick as a brick. I was so hungry that I just bit into it. I must have looked pretty funny sitting in a car, biting chunks of cake!

We got back to Germany and started packing our bags. The next day we got up early to get to the airport two hours early. We spent 9 hours on the flight from Germany to Cincinatti, then another 4 hours to get to Salt Lake. We then had to drive back home to Logan. With the time difference, and all our travel, we had been awake for 22 hours by the time we walked into our house! We were tired, but happy to be home. I will always treasure my trip to Europe, it was the best!!

Slideshow of France

Back to Heidelburg

So enough already of lounging around! I decided that I loved Heidelburg so much that I had to go and see it again. Ben left for work in the morning and I got ready to leave. I asked the receptionist which tram would take me to Heidelburg. She told me I could take the number 5, but it would take an hour. If I took the train, it would be only 30 minutes. That sounded good, so I got directions and headed off.

First I caught the number 6 tram to the street closest to the main train station. I walked to the station via an underground walkway. When I got closer to the station, I realized just how huge it was! With all the throngs of people, I couldn't see over anyone's head to find some instructions. I was so confused as to what to do. Seconds later I spotted a familiar sight: two young men in black suits with backpacks and little black name tags on. Missionaries!! I quickly walked over to them and asked if they spoke English. They said yes, and I told them I was from Utah. They both had smiles on their faces as they told me they were from West Jordan and Syracuse. We chatted for a while and then I asked them if they could help me find the train to Heidelburg. They walked me over to a part of the building where I could buy a ticket, and then they pointed me down a hallway and told me to get on platform number 9. I thanked them profusely and headed on my way, since the train was due in about 5 minutes. When I got to platform 9, not many people were there, and as I looked at signs, there was no mention of Heidelburg. Platform number 10 behind me was full of people, and as I rounded the corner I saw the word Heidelburg on the sign. I stood in the line hoping that I was making the right choice. I had only been there for about 2 minutes when the same two elders came running up the stairs to find me and tell me they were wrong! How sweet these two boys were to come back and make sure I got on the right train. Their mothers should be so proud of them! We talked again for a while and I wished them good luck as I boarded the train. Hooray for Mormons in Germany!!

It took about 20 minutes to reach the Heidelburg train station. When we got there, I followed the masses off the train and realized that I had no idea where I was. I decided to walk outside to see if I could get my bearings. I looked around and didn't recognize a single building or sign. I walked a little farther and suddenly saw a building that said "Tourist Information." That's english! I walked into the building and asked a woman how to get to the shopping area by the castle. She pulled out a map and I realized I was pretty far away. I took yet another bus to get to the area I wanted. I think the whole trip took about 50 minutes. So much for "faster than the tram." Yeah, maybe if you are German and know what you are doing. I was pretty much a fumbling tourist who would have been utterly lost without help from another American!

When I got to the market, I found a little coffee shop to stop and eat. I looked at all the delicious pastried behind the glass and the only one I could translate was something called buttercake. I pointed to it, and the lady pulled a huge square out from the case. I thought that she was going to cut a piece off for me. Nope, I got the whole thing! I went to sit in the cafe, and she brought me a plate and dessert fork. The cake didn't even fit on the plate! It was like the WHOLE cake! It was delicious though. It was a sweet pastry type bread, with a buttery top covered in drizzled icing and slivered almonds. It was sooo good, but I only got through about half of it.

I started to go through the little shops, and I came to a big Christmas store. Christmas is HUGE in Germany. I started to go through the shop, looking at the hundreds of ornaments and decorations. I headed up a tiny staircase to the upper shop to look at more decorations. When I finished, I headed back down the stairs. I was so involved with looking at all the stuff in the store, that I didn't notice that there was a small landing at the bottom of the stairs with a little lip. I caught my heel on the ledge and WHAM-went flying towards the ground. I landed on my knee and my hands, but not without totally twisting my ankle. I quickly got up and hobbled out of the shop. I limped along until I found a park bench to sit on. I pulled off my shoe and sock. Yup. A big blue puffy spot was forming just below my ankle. I was officialy a bad tourist.

I waited for Ben to arrive, and after he parked the car, we went back down into the square to visit one more shop that had the perfect souvenirs. I might be injured, but that is no reason to stop shopping! After the shop, I hobbled down the street with Ben looking for a restaurant to eat at. We ended up choosing a bavarian place. The food was really good. We both had steaks topped with thin strips of fried onions and fried potato slices. Meat and potatoes; my kind of place.

We left the restaurant and traveled by car back to Mannheim to our hotel. When we got to our room, I couldn't stop laughing at what a joke I was. I was a fumbling American tourist with two injured feet. One with a blister, and one with a sprained ankle. Ben had little sympathy for my shopping injuries. I guess that's the price I must pay to get the exact items I want. Oh, well. I am still totally amazed just to be here.

Heidelburg Revisited

More of Germany

So I have been a little bit of a traveling wuss the last two days. I haven't ventured very far, because I am still so tired. I didn't think the time change would affect me this much, but I can't seem to get adjusted yet.

On Wednesday I went back into downtown Mannheim for the day. I really wanted to do some shopping, but I know that Ben doesn't have that on his agenda, so better to do it without him. A funny story about my adventure...

I asked the hotel receptionist which tram line to take downtown, and how much it would cost. She told me, and I headed to the platform to wait for the tram. When it arrived, I walked on board, and looked for somewhere to put my coins. I looked around for a minute, and couldn't find a sign or anything. I tried to ask a passenger where to pay, but noone near me spoke English. Just then the doors closed and the tram started to move, so I hurried to take a seat. At the next stop, some passengers boarded and inserted tickets into a slot by the door. Apparently you are supposed to pay at a machine at the tram station before you board. OOOPS! I bet the other passengers on board were thinking "Stupid American touris." Oh, well. I got a free ride.

When I got downtown I shopped for quite a while. I found a cute boutique with lots of jewelry and got some cute necklaces. I also went into a large deparment store to look at clothes. I found a couple of things I wanted to try on, but I didn't know where to go. I wandered around and watched the women for a while until I found the dressing room. The clothes were nice, but I decided they were too much like the stuff I could buy back home. After some more wandering, I found an area of the shopping district that had some more discount stores. I went into a shoe store and saw rows and rows of shoes....in european sizes. I didn't know my size, and couldn't find anyone to help me, so I moved on to the next store. I finally found what I really wanted. At the last store I purchased a beautiful Italian wool peacoat. It is black, knee length, and double breasted. It is a gorgeous coat, and it was only 32 euros!

To cap off the night, Ben met me downtown and we went to a traditional Bavarian restaurant. I ordered "roasted pig knuckle with potato dumplings and gravy." Don't worry, it wasn't really a pig knuckle. It was actually a huge hunk of roasted pork. The potato dumplings were kinda weird though. They were potato balls with the texture of gelatin. Not my favorite!

Tonight we went out with Ben's work group. First we headed over to the Mannheim Museam of Technology. We got a guided tour of displays that ranged from medical tools of the 1800's, to a working replica of a textile mill. It was interesting to see how people lived when this city was first established.

We then took a walk for a few blocks to the Fermeldsturn. This is a large communications tower at one end of the Luisenpark. There is a big rotating restaurant at the top. We took an elevator up and were seated at our table. Even though the restaurant moves very slowly, it was really weird to sit and see the walls moving past us! It took about one hour for the restaurant to make one full rotation, so it wasn't fast by any means, but still it's an unusual sensation. The food was really good. I had a soup that consisted of beef broth with onions and sliced german pancakes (crepes) It was really good. For my meal I ate Spatzel, which are thick german noodles with a creamy sauce. My dessert was a chocolate cake with a crunch crust, berry filling, and a hard chocolate top. It was all so yummy, so it was good to have a long walk back to the hotel. Here are some pictures of the Fermeldsturn and the view from the restaurant.

Day three at Luisenpark

So the hotel we are staying in is called the Park Inn because it is just across the street from Luisenpark. I decided that for my first day alone, I would stay close and not get lost, so I headed to the park.

When I got to the entrance, I found a lady in a booth selling tickets. I was surprised to find out it cost 5 Euro (about 6 dollars) just to go in. I paid, and when I entered I could see why. This park is not just a park, it is an oasis from the city. I would compare it to Central Park in New York. The place was massively huge, and absolute pristine. Not a single piece of garbage anywhere!

As I entered, I began to enjoy the beautifully manicured botanical gardens. Soon I came to a large cage, and realized that I was in the Aviary. I walked through and enjoyed all the beautiful birds on display. I kept walking further through cobblestone paths and rolling hills of flowers and trees. Soon I came to an area where I heard soft classical music. In the grounds ahead, I could see rows of loungechairs set beneath the huge trees for visitors to sit and enjoy the music. Further down the road I came to the rosegardens and the irisgardens. They were beautiful! After yet some more walking, I came upon the tranquility garden. This garden is set as a large circle, with each inner ring getting smaller and smaller until you reach the fountain in the middle.

After that I passed more playgrounds and gardens until I had reached one side of the park where the Feldstern is located. This is a large communications tower that has an observation deck and rotating restaurant at the top. Since we are going to eat there on Wednesday, I skipped by and kept walking.

At this point, I reached the port where I could board the gondolas. They have these gondola boats that operate on an underwater pulley system. I paid two Euros for a one way ticket. The gondola ride was smooth and peaceful along the river that runs through the park. I passed many fish and birds, and my gondola almost ran over a pink pelican! I sat back and enjoyed the scenery for the 30 minute ride. It was so peaceful and beautiful that I almost fell asleep.

After I got off the exit, I walked past the aviary to the sculpture garden. Many famous German artists have donated sculptures to Luisenpark. I must have passed at least 20. After that I walked to the manicured herb gardens. Most of the plants had lost their blooms and leaves because of the cold weather, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

After two hours of walking I headed back to the hotel restaurant for lunch, and then went to the room to read until Ben got back from work. All that walking must have worn me out, because I fell asleep reading. I hope to visit the park again this week.

Day at Luisenpark

Day two at Heidelburg

I am absolutely in love with Heidelburg! It is such a gorgeous city! We made the 10 minute drive from Mannheim on the autobahn. It's cool not to have a speed limit, but you should always watch your rear-view mirror. When somebody comes, you move! A porche went flying past us, and we were doing about 160km (85 mph?) When we got to the city, we parked in a public parking garage right next to the Funicular Railway. This is an old railcar system that takes you straight up the mountain. And I mean straight up! The grade on the slope is about 40% (super steep) The first stop on the rail car was the Heidelburg Schloss (Castle)

We got out and started towards the grounds. All the streets in Heidelburg are cobblestone streets. So I am a total idiot for not packing any flat shoes. (Fashion before practicality, right?) I kept getting my heels stuck between the stones. We slowly made our way through the beautiful castle grounds. The Castle is located on top of a hill, so we had a terrific view of the whole city beneath us. Also in the Castle was an Apothecary Museum, dedicated to the ancient medicine used during the time of the Castle. Ben really like the room with all of the old instruments. We made our way through the grounds some more until we got to the "World's Largest Wine Keg." The picture on my slide show is not that keg. We thought is was that one, until we turned the corner and saw one twice it's size! We looked through some shops and got some postcards before returning to the railcar.

The Funicular took us further up the mountain, to it's tallest point. After getting out at the top, we could see the whole valley below, past Heidelburg, as far as the eye could see. It was an amazing sight, but very cold at the top, so we jumped back on the railcar before it began to descend and rode it back to the parking lot.

After exiting the lot, we walked the streets of Heidelburg to the Kornmarkt. This is a big open plaza where merchants set up thier booths. We made it just before closing time to snag some souvenirs for loved ones back home. We also found a booth selling crepes. We couldn't resist getting some hot, fresh crepes wrapped with Nutella spread. Oh yea, it was good! To finish our day in Heidelburg we went to an Italian restaurant in the plaza. I had tortellini aus panna (tortelling in white creme sauce and diced proscutto) and Ben had the veal parmigiana. Good thing we spent all day walking to burn off those calories!

We are planning to come back here on Friday, since Ben will be done with work at noon. It's so beautiful here!!

Day two at Heidelburg

Germany day one

So we actually made it here! The flight was really long, and was overnight, so we tried to sleep as best we could. We bought some of those neck pillows, and they are lifesavers!

After arriving, we got our rental car, a Mercedes! It seemed really cool at the time, until I realized that most of the cars over here are either a BMW or Mercedes, so it's really like having a Ford rental car. It has a navigations system built into the dashboard, but it really sucks. It took us forever to figure out how to enter a location that we wanted to find. We wanted to do some sightseeing in Frankfurt, but we didn't know where to go. I though the GPS system would have tourist info programmed into it, but it mainly just asks us what road we want. So after some aimless wandering, we decided to check into the hotel.

When we entered our room, it seemed so small! That is a recurring theme over here. Small. The cars are tiny, and the roads are very narrow. We found that our room had two twin beds, so Ben went to the front desk to ask for a king size bed. Yup, even the beds here are small because they don't have a room with anything bigger than a full size bed. We kept our room and just pushed the two beds together. They also don't use sheets here. Just a mattress cover and a duvet. It's weird not to sleep between sheets!

After a much needed jet-lag recovery nap, we decided to go and get some dinner. We went to the Marketplatz. It is an area with lots of shops, restaurants and businesses. Mostly it is just for foot traffic only. We found an Argentine steak house that looked and smelled good. It was interesting to try to talk to the waitress, who spoke just a little english. I am getting really good at the phrase: "Sprechen zie English." Most people do speak enought to be helpful. Everyone we have encountered was very helpful. Hopefully day two turns out just as well.

First Day in Germany