Frankfurt Germany Temple Open House

This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about my experience of going to the Frankfurt Germany Temple Open House. Since the open house was after school, we had to bring church clothes with us to school. After school was over, instead of going on the bus, we hopped into a friends car. We drove to the library and changed into church clothes. Then we drove to the drop-off point. We usually always go to a drop off point before a church activity so we can arrange people into the cars to make sure everybody gets there and to make sure everyone knows where to go. We all got situated and drove off. I was not in the same car as Big Sis so I don't know what she did on the drive. I was with some of my friends on the drive. We had fun talking and playing games in the car. We drove about 1 hour and got to the temple. It was a marvel. It was so beautiful!!!!! We all got out of the car and walked up to the temple entrance. The structure was so pretty and amazing. After everybody was accounted for, we went to the visitors center. The temple manager was there and he talked to us. After  that, we went into the temple! We all went in groups with a guide. This was my first time going through the whole temple because I had never been to an open house before. It was amazing! I felt the spirit so much there. We walked through it all and I wanted to go through again because I loved it so much. We all waited and marveled at the temple while we waited for everybody. We all got accounted for and with one last glance at the temple, we drove home. We all drove and went to the drop-off place again. Our parents picked us up and we went home. I will never forget my experience at the temple ever.

Since the Youth had a special Temple Open House night, Kevin and I took Little A and Monster to the temple to walk through a few days later.  We wanted them to have the opportunity to walk through the temple before it was dedicated.  This is the first time that both Little A and Monster had been inside a temple.  They both did so amazing in the temple and showed respect to the House of the Lord.

After we went through the temple, we took some time to walk around the beautiful grounds and enjoy the temple from the outside.

We stopped in the visitor centre and enjoyed the art work and the statue of Christ.  After leaving the visitor centre, we took a walk down the road from the temple and found a little German restaurant to eat dinner.  We enjoyed some heavy foods filled with meat and potatoes.  We enjoyed the atmosphere and the food, then made our way back home.

Date Afternoon at Bernkastel-Kues

It's been a while since Kevin and I went out on a date, so we decided to take the afternoon and go explore the castle of Bernkastel-Kues since we didn't get a chance during the rained out firework show.  We went with Les and Rachel Ambrus and made it a double date. We made great timing and got to the castle in about an hour and a half.

As we were walking around the castle, Kevin had someone come up behind him and say hi.  We whipped around and saw Mason McMullin, our friend and kids' pediatrician from South Korea.  We couldn't believe it and hugs were shared all around.  We ended up catching up for a while before we both had to go on our way.  We were standing over a lookout point and Mason said he could take a picture for us, so we stood and he snapped a picture.  After he left we saw that he also snapped a selfie, that was a fun surprise.

The views from the castle were pretty amazing.  It was also a super gorgeous day, so we took our time and walked all the way around the castle seeing all the views from every angle.

We went in the castle and walked all around the inside.  We decided to pay the 2 Euro each and climb the tower to the very top.  The stairs were the old scary skinny spiral staircases that just went on and on and on.  At the very top we just talked and enjoyed the view.

We had dinner reservations at a restaurant at 6:00, so we said good bye to the castle and took the beautiful walk to the other side of the river to the restaurant.  We were just a little early for our reservation but there were open tables outside, so they let us sit and get some drinks.  We brought cards, so we sat and played cards for a while while sipping on our cokes and cherry juice.  The crazy thing about the restaurant is that they closed the kitchen for about an hour and a half.  So we had to sit for about two hours before we could order some food.  I was so hangry and getting more moody by the second.  There was nothing we could do, because when the kitchen closed we couldn't even get drink refills.  It didn't make any sense to us, since we weren't that early for our reservation, but I guess Germans take their time to eat and just like to chat. I was just glad we had games to pass the time.  But, I must admit and Kevin will attest, that I was so hungry that even games couldn't get me in a good mood. We ended up being in the restaurant for over four hours.  Needless to say we got home so extremely late, but all in all, it was a great date.

Heidelberg, Germany

After finally getting settled into our home, we took the first the opportunity to travel to a unique place in Germany, Heidelberg. To be honest we wanted to go to the area because of the beautiful Heidelberg Castle, but little did we know that we were embarking into an amazing area of tremendous history. We invited the Dahlins to come with us on this trip, as they were a family that Heather got to know in Korea, and ended up settling in the same ward (church congregation) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Dahlins have become wonderful friends to our family, and it all started here. 

Heidelberg is an amazing city as it brought a dose of German architecture that was a beauty to behold. After realizing that our X5 still had our Thule bike rack on the top and that we couldn't fit in our original planned location, we had to find an alternative place to park which unfortunately was really far away from the Heidelberg castle, our first stop. What it did do was force us to actually see some of the amazing architecture along the walk back to the castle, which now we are super grateful for.  

See the church down at the end of the street? I had to go see it! Come to find out it was the Heiliggesitkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit). It was originally started in 1398, and it took over 150 years to complete. Its crazy when you see churches like this because the time the took to create is always littered in a period of tragedy. For this church for instance, it was set on fire by the French in 1709 during the war of the Palestinian Succession, but then was rebuilt with the new spire you can see here. It was huge and very very peaceful, but we had to meet the Dahlin's up at the castle so we didn't go inside. 

We made our way after a nearly 30 minute walk up to the Heidelberg Castle. Similar to our Korean experiences we needed to ride a trolley of sorts up to the castle that is actually called a funicular railway, which has been running for over 100 years and base at the Kornmarkt up to the summit of the Konigstuhl. Kids loved the 45 degree ascent up to the top of the mountain where the Castle and views were breathtaking. You can see from the river level how high up the castle is and just how breathtaking it is. 

When we got to Heidelberg Palace, its hard to appreciate that it really is a series of buildings, added on by this person or the next as it changed hands throughout different ruling parties. It dates back to 1214, expanded to two castles in 1294, but like I mentioned before there is always a period of tragedy, and this place is no exception. 1537 brought a lightening bolt and which ended up destroying one of the castles entirely. 

What was cool was to learn that this is called the castle of the counts. Its residents were the counts of palatine, passed from one to another, and even had Martin Luther visit it once. 

The palace became more of a fortress over time, as you can see from the above picture. 

You can see the different architecture styles that emanate from the different buildings. They were beautifully ornate.

We did a self guided tour, and spent the first portion just walking around the grounds and the outside. The magnitude of the castle palace is truly breathtaking. 

We then made our way through the internal portions of some of the areas that still intact. The rooms were incredible, but to see areas where they had large rooms in which they fashioned external toilets to a chair that gave you the ability to drop your deposits from 30 feet in the air into your moat or just a walk way was a novel idea to mock now, but was revolutionary then. Still just imagine being the one that got nailed as you were passing by; do you think they laughed if that happened?

 We also saw areas in which huge fireplaces were made which fashioned external vents for the smoke, which had never been done before. The wood work though was the most impressive to me, just nothing short of a masterpiece. 

We then turned inward further to some of the grand hallways, rooms, and stained glass work which I have come to love in Germany, and this castle was just as impressive (especially the nut-shields). 

We then made it around to the back of the castle where the view was nothing short of a memory I will cherish forever. Not only was the weather 75 degrees and clear, but the view was worth every moment to behold. You can see the Church of the Holy Spirit dominating the center of the town square. 

We then turned our attention to some of the fun, only in this place can you see this kind of thing. For instance, this is the Heidelberg Tun, or the world's largest wine barrel. It was built in 1751 by Prince Elector Karl Theodor to house the wine paid as taxes by the wine growers of The Palatine, and yes, holds 58,124 gallons of wine. The best part is that the Prince Elector Carl Philip appointed a court jester who watched over it, and was known for be so drunk all the time that legend has it he died when he finally drank a glass of water. 

Next was the Apothecary Museum. This gives a background in the pharmacy they had there, their laboratories, and still contains today over a 1000 raw drugs that were used from 1700-1900. This was the most state of the art pharmacy of the day. 

We then stopped for lunch with the Dahlins and found some amazing Italian food!

We completed our time here and then went back down the furnicular to the actual city. The history of this city during WWII is humbling. The Cornmarkt is where we started and the buildings are incredible! 

This feel is what we have come to love about this country. What really humbled me though was something I wasn't prepared for. I noticed as we were walking down the road of the main square that there were multiple areas in which gold plaques were on the ground. It was only until I looked down at them that I realized that they were fabricated to remember the Jewish families that were taken from the very homes that I was standing at, even their front doors. It made me cry to know that I was standing in an exact place where people were taken from their homes to never return. Enmordet means murdered.

After gaining my composure, we finished the day going all the way to the end of the main square where the Tower of the Old Bridge is found, perhaps the most well known structure in Heidelberg. The view of the castle, and area from here was amazing.

We ended the day seeing the famous "Heidelberg Bridge Monkey" which dates back to the 15th century. It was a stone statue sitting in the tower of the Old Bridge. The purpose of the tower was to instill fear and respect in anyone arriving in the town, while the monkey represented mockery. Touching his bare backside, the monkey showed the Electoral Palatinate Greeting to passers-by. His backside was pointed towards the town of Mainz, which was situated opposite the river bank, and thus, the greeting was addressed to the Bishops of Mainz, since the people of Heidelberg wanted to demonstrate that the Bishops in Mainz held no power over the Electors of the Palatinate. The intention of the mirror in the monkey’s hand was to encourage people to engage in critical self-reflection, and if you touch it, it means you will return back to Heidelberg. So we have another trip planned I guess. It was a great way to end the day, and in this case, little monster had an epic meltdown because we wouldn't buy him a car at the souvenir shop. 
-Kevin