Adventures Elsewhere - Leipzig

In Leipzig, we first drove by the train station that took Newel to Dessau.  One thing I learned from him was that the missionaries almost always took the train when they were transferred to different areas.

After driving around a little bit, we found this AWESOME parking spot right by everything we wanted to see.  This was a big deal because it seemed like there were no places to park but then we found this perfect spot.  We were living the charmed life.

Some other things we saw in Leipzig:

Nikolaikirche - This church became famous in 1989 when it became a center of peaceful revolt against communist rule. 

open to all

Thomaskirche

This church is famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a Kapellmeister.  He's also buried there but we couldn't find a grave site. We looked everywhere in and outside the church.  Oh well.

Market Square

Völkerschlachtdenkmal - Monument to the Battle of the Nations

What I want to remember:

1) Discussing the fact that most Germans do not have a belief or faith in God, but their ancestors had so much - you can tell they did because there are beautiful, old churches EVERYWHERE

2) Laughing at our GPS's pronunciation of German street names

3) Laughing at my attempts to pronounce German street names, sites, and various German phrases ('kirche' was especially hard and I tried to say it a lot in Leipzig)

What Newel wants to forget:

1) The super flat pillows and how it was really hot in our hotel room that night - he's still complaining about it. :)

Adventures Elsewhere - Dessau

After Berlin, we drove to Dessau, the first area Newel served in when he was a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It's a smaller town in Germany.  The best part about Dessau for me, and maybe for both of us, was seeing Newel see his first apartment again.  He just couldn't believe he was actually seeing it again and that nothing about it had changed (except missionaries weren't living there anymore).

 

Friedrich-Schneider-Straße 68

After seeing the apartment, we walked down the street (the same street Newel walked down everyday when he was in Dessau) and went to the grocery store to get some flavored milk (also something he did a lot when he served there).  It was fun having Newel take me on a tour of the grocery store.  Their groceries are similar but different compared to what we have here in the U.S.  They obviously had their own brands of milk, cereal, candy, etc. (except I did see that Pringles, Oreos, and M&M's had infiltrated the stores shelves - just say NO, Germany!), but they also had less of everything since Germans (and I think most Europeans) go to the grocery store almost everyday to get the food they need for that day.

We then walked a few blocks and saw the McDonalds Newel regularly ate at (again, just say NO, Germany!), the main square he taught his first discussion/lesson, and gave his first Book of Mormon.  Here we are in the main square.

After that we went to the Bauhaus School which was something I wanted to see after studying the Bauhaus movement when I took art history in high school 10 YEARS AGO.  Wow, don't get me started. :)

We also saw the train station that brought Newel to Dessau and where he & his companion took the train to church on Sundays since the building was that far away.

What I want to remember:

1) Talking with Newel about his experiences in Dessau - him seeing everything triggered so many memories that he hadn't shared with me before

2) Seeing Newel's happiness and awe to see Dessau exactly 15 years later

3) Everyone riding bikes (really EVERYONE - old people, young people, either going to/coming from work, leisurely riding, etc.)

Adventures Elsewhere - Berlin

Last month, Newel and I went on a really, really, REALLY great trip to Europe.  When we were there, we took A LOT of photos (1302 to be exact) and I kept a journal (really just notes I wrote on the backs of hotel reservations and maps/directions to places we were going in case the GPS wasn't working).  My next few posts will be about the vacation which will really just be pictures and notes I took.  Hope y'all enjoy. :)

We first landed in Frankfurt, had a short layover, then flew to Berlin.  Here we are in the Frankfurt Airport about 9:30 AM their time, 2:30AM our time. Can you tell how tired we were? :)

At the airport, I kept thinking, this is the first step I've take in Europe, this is the first toilet I've used in Europe, etc.  I just wanted to take everything in, and I couldn't believe we were finally there.  I had my first European breakfast sandwich and it was incredible.  Maybe I was just really hungry but everything about it was perfect.  The freshly baked bread, the cheese, the meat, tomato and cucumber; so YUM.  Okay, enough about the food.  I think I'll write a separate post about the food.  Then I won't get distracted from what we actually did which was way more interesting.

Once we got to Berlin, we rented a car and drove to our hotel which was close to everything we wanted to see.  Newel did a really great job with researching the location of all the hotels we booked so we didn't have to do much driving/parking around the city.  Anyway, the first thing we did was walk over to the Reichstag - a historical building that housed the Imperial Diet of the German Empire from 1894-1933.

Then we went to the Brandenburg Gate which is a former city gate turned Neoclassical triumphal arch and probably Berlin's most famous landmark.

Then we walked through the Tiergarten which I would compare to Central Park in Manhattan.  It was a really big and beautiful park filled with green trees, people walking, running, riding bikes, and/or hanging out with friends/family.  No people are in this picture but look how pretty it is!

Then we climbed to the top of the Siegessäule which is the Berlin Victory Column commemorating the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War.  At the top, you get a really amazing view of all of Berlin.

From the top looking down the street.

After doing all of this, and having not rested from the flight, we were so beat and headed back to our hotel to sleep.  The next morning we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial which ended up being one of our favorite parts of Berlin.  It was really cool to see parts of the old wall and to think about what it meant for/how it affected the German people.  The Berlin Wall ran just along a street right through the city, separating friends and family, dividing the country from 1961 to 1989.

Bernauer Straße 

What I want to remember: 

1) How excited I was to be there

2) My first European breakfast (more on that in the food post)

3) Appreciating what people went through being divided by the Wall