Worms

We've done a little exploring of Wiesbaden, but I'm going to post about that a little later.  First, I want to post about my first day-trip, to Worms!

Our ward/church doesn't have an official facebook page here, but there is one that some ladies started called "Out and About", where people will post things/places that they are going to do, and invite others to join in.  This makes me VERY happy, and reminds me of my beloved Seoul Searchers :) Someone posted about a trip to Worms, which is about an hour away, and I jumped at the chance.  I went with two other ladies, while the kids were at school and Joe was at work. 

It was so much fun wondering the streets of this place!  The first thing we noticed, driving around trying to find a parking place, were all these dragons in random places.

It reminded me of all the sheep in San Angelo, or all the horses in Ogden.  I love it when cities have a theme ;)  Once we parked, the first thing we spotted was this fountain.

It is of Siegfried the dragonslayer, which is the hero of an epic poem in Middle High German called "Nibelungenlied".  Most of the action in this poem takes place in Worms, hence all the dragons there.  They have a Nibelungen Museum, which we didn't go to, that tries to bring the myth to life, including Siegfried's tomb.

Worms also had one of the most famous Jewish communities in the world, and has the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe (the oldest gravestone/tomb is from 1058).  The Jewish quarter is still there, with many restored buildings along "Jews' Alley" and other streets.

 We were able to go into the synagogue.

 

 The older and larger synagogue was bombed in 1945, and never rebuilt.  There is a museum next door, in which I wasn't supposed to take any pictures, but I took a couple before I saw the sign and stopped.  These are the remains of some items found after the bombing.

 The Torah

 

 A copy of an old painting of Worms (notice the dragon in front)

  One interesting, and kind of sad thing I learned about are these stones/plaques. 

They are called Stolperstein, or "stumbling blocks, and they are throughout Germany. They are engraved with names and stories of individuals who perished at the hands of the Nazis.  Each begins with the words "Here lived...", and they are embedded in the sidewalks outside of the last known residences of individuals, usually grouped together like above, showing a family.

Worms is also the place where, in 1521, Martin Luther was brought before the Diet of Worms, and basically tried for heresy (he had already been excommunicated).  But he refused to recant his writings, including the 95 Theses.  A warrant was put out for his arrest (although he escaped), and it was made a crime for anyone in Germany to give him food or shelter, and if anyone murdered him, they would not face any consequences.

Luther Memorial

 "Here I stand.  I can do no other.  May God help me.  Amen"

Other points of interest included the city wall, begun in 900 - many part of which are still standing.

Some of the buildings, especially in the Jewish quarter, are built right into the wall.

Ludwig Square

 Wheel of Fortune

 Heylshof Museum

 The museum was actually closed when we were there, but I was diggin' this gate.

 Trinity Church

 But my favorite thing in Worms, by far, was St. Peter's Cathedral (built in 1125/1130-1181).

 

 Proof that I'm here - can you believe it?!  Neither can I.

 

 Can I just interrupt the pictures for a second, and say how spectacular it is to be in a building that's almost 1,000 years old?!  Seriously cool.

 

 

  

 Burial vault with the sarcophagi of five generations of Salian dukes (10th-11th centuries)

 One of the ladies who was with us was raised catholic, and she told us that you can tell if a church pre-dates the Black Plague because the baptismal font will be big enough for a person to get in.  Apparently the used to do baptisms by immersion up until then.  I just thought that was an interesting little tidbit.

 Anyway, that was my first grand adventure.  I can't wait for the next one....and the next one, and the next one....

We Arrived, and We're Staying

So here we are, in Wiesbaden Germany!

 It's funny, I keep comparing everything to Korea (man, I miss that place!), but of course, they're two entirely different places.  So far we are loving it.  A lot.  First of all, the house we just moved from in CA was a tiny, old, run-down (should have been torn down years ago) hole.  In comparison, our house here is a mansion.  I love it.

(disclaimer - this first picture is actually my neighbors house,

but I loved the flowers she has on her balcony)

my house - before I put anything up on the walls

 

 

 

No bedroom pictures.  We're still working on those ;)

View from our balcony 

Our "yard"

We have several parks in the neighborhood, but this one is right next to our house.

There are a LOT of kids around here.  My kids have made friends quickly.  The schools are great.  The ward is great.  The area is beautiful.  Life is good.

I don't have an actual yard, just a communal one, so I can't let my dog out by herself to do her business.  I actually have to take her on walks! *gasp*  The good thing about this, other then that it gets me off my lazy butt, is that it's so green and pretty around here.  I love the moss on all the trees and in the cracks of the cobblestone sidewalks.

And I am completely obsessed with all the mushrooms around here.  Obsessed!  I take way too many pictures of mushrooms, but there's so many different kinds

 

 And they even grow on the trees - how cute is that?!

 

 

 

 Okay, I'll stop with the mushrooms.....for now ;)

The only problem we ran into here was the first couple of weeks, dealing with car issues.  Getting around here is a LOT harder than it was in Korea - everything is more spread out, public transportation is more costly, etc. - so not having a car was a huge inconvenience.  Right away we started looking for a cheap used car.  We didn't have a whole lot of money to buy one (moving here cost a lot!), but we had a little.  We found one, bought it, and immediately started having problems.  The guy we bought it from - "Brian" - said it had recently passed a courtesy inspection, but that was obviously a lie.  It failed the inspection we got.  Of course, Germans are really strict about car inspections, so a lot of cars fail the first go-around anyway, so we weren't too worried at first.  However, we had the list of things that needed to be fixed, and on the bottom of the list it said, "transmission is slipping".  Come to find out, it needed a new transmission, and German mechanics don't want to work on/replace transmissions of automatic Audi's.  Like, nobody.  No Body. The car would have to be junked.  We called "Brian", and....wow, what a piece of work....over the past month or so he has given us a lot of excuses.  First he said he was going on a trip to Jamaica to visit his sick grandmother.  Then he said he was in the hospital with some unknown disease, and it was a life or death situation, and he was being quarantined, and even his wife and kids couldn't see him (even though he had told us before that he didn't have any kids).  He was extremely offended when we called him a liar and said we were going to report him.  We finally gave up.

What we were most upset about with all of this, our BIGGEST mistake, was that we had not involved God in this decision.  We had not prayed about it before we bought that car.  AND we had not listen to the Spirit when we both, separately, felt slightly uneasy when we first met "Brian".  I almost felt like we deserved to get scammed!  Anyway, with humble hearts, we prayed together and asked the Lord to forgive us, and to help us.  We still needed a car, but didn't have any more money to buy one.  We were thinking we would have to borrow from our kids' savings accounts. 

One day we were driving past the "lemon lot" and I saw a van that I'm sure many people had passed up (later, one of Joe's co-workers told him that he wanted to buy it, but his wife said no way).  In fact, Joe knew it was there, but had not brought it up because he thought I would think it was ugly.  But it just jumped out at me, and I said, "We need to buy that van".  We called the owner, and Joe set up a test drive with him for the next day after work.  Alejandro, the owner, is from Mexico, so he and Joe hit it off right away, speaking Spanish the whole time.  It felt right this time, and Joe told him we wanted to purchase the car.  May the Lord forever bless Alejandro and his family, because Alejandro said that he and his wife talked about it and agreed to just GIVE us the car.  Free.  Joe protested at first, but Alejandro said that he had been thinking about donating the car anyway, and he was just happy that it would be going to a good home.  Happy tears were shed for sure.  I still can't believe it.  Sometimes we'll Alejandro around base, and I feel like I'm seeing a celebrity, or the pope, or my bff that I haven't seen for years - I just get so excited and happy to see him :)  It really restores my hope in humanity.....which I had lost because of "Brian".

Here's our new van. We love it.

So here we are, in Wiesbaden Germany, starting this new phase of our lives and ready for adventure!

Cross Country

We were booked on a flight from BWI (Baltimore Washington International) to Ramstein Air force Base.  We could have flown from Salt Lake to Baltimore, but we didn't for ONE reason - our stupid dog.  I knew that the long flight to Germany was going to be rough on her, and I couldn't imagine doing that to her twice in a row.  My dog is stupid, and most of the time I wish we didn't have her, but dang it, I do love her ;)

Anyway, once again, Joe's mom was there for me in every way.  She offered to drive with me.  Joe had to go from TX, back to CA, and we didn't have enough days of leave for him to drive all the way across the country with us.  So we planned to meet him in Ohio, where we were going to stay with his brother Bert's family.

What a different it makes to drive long distance when you're not pulling a trailer behind you!

Right away we were having adventures when my children, one after the other, got a 24 hour bug and started throwing up.  Poor kids.  We had rain a good share of the way too - buckets!

 We stayed in a couple of obscure little towns along the way, marveled at the endless fields of corn and beans, and just enjoyed the beautiful drive and each other's company.

We weren't intending to stop for any sight-seeing, but when we saw a sign for the boyhood home of Mark Twain, we couldn't resist? 

Hannibal Missouri

 Along the  banks of the Mississippi River

 Main Street

 Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

 Mark Twain's house

We didn't spend a ton of time there, and Cora was still feeling like crap, but it was fun too see.

The rest of the trip went as planned, and before we knew it, we had said our goodbyes and were on a plane headed for Germany.