Köln (Cologne), Rhine Valley, and Frankfurt

This weekend we took one of our bigger Deutschland exploration trips. Matthew took Friday off, so we had a three day weekend and we made the most of it! Friday morning, we took the 8:30 train from Munich to Köln. It took a little over four hours to get there. We were a little nervous about the train ride with the boys, but they did really well! Hugh slept for about an hour and a half, and Jay was very intrigued by what was going on outside and in the car. We traveled in the family section which we had to ourselves for the first 45 minutes. We loved that! The boys jumped between seats, walked around, and the doors closed off the family section from the other areas which made it feel a little more cozy and helped us not worry so much about the noise. During the last hour of our trip, we ate our packed lunches and got ready to explore!

Pretty cool, they even have the family section marked on the outside of the train

Jay and Matthew basking in the newness of the train

Hugh loved having his own seat!

Jay focused very hard to stack all of his flashcards, it was very cute

Jay loved his new train car

Choo choo!

Sleeping Hugh

Hugh was excited to get his own car when he woke up

When we arrived in Köln, we went and picked up our rental car. It was an awesome blue color, and if you carefully arranged the stroller in the trunk at the right angle, it would just barely close. The car did have a pretty strong smoking smell, but we didn't want to pay extra for a different car so we probably smelled like smoke most of our trip. Once we got the car, we loaded it with our stuff and left it in the lot while we went to the Kölner Dom/Cologne Cathedral. It was magnificent. The detail was incredible, so articulate in every way. The stained glass throughout the cathedral was beautiful, but I think my favorite was the window depicting scenes from the Savior's life, including miracles He did. The acoustics are always amazing, and Jay really enjoys hearing himself. Luckily, there were a lot more people in this one, so we weren't the only ones with a loud kid or making noise. We walked across the way to a little souvenir shop, and waited out a big rain storm. Luckily it passed fairly quickly and we finished walking back to our rental car. 

A pretty building in Köln

The side of the cathedral, and the boys

Some of the stained glass windows

This is looking down the center of the main part of the Cathedral, they suspended the organ pipes from the ceiling

Jay and M trying out the benches

We think these are tombs of the apostles bones (so they claim)

Even the tile on the floor was impressive!

Here's the big window of many scenes from Jesus's life and ministry

The boys and I in front

Just a view to the top

Starting our journey! First time driving in Europe!

We made it out of town and to our next stop, Eltz Castle or Burg Eltz. As we pulled up, you could see it peaking through the mountains! It was so much like a fairytale castle! We took a bus up to the castle and then walked across the stone bridge to reach it. Jay was eager to explore, so I had him knock on every door that we could find. Some were big, and some were small, and he did a good job just getting excited about knocking. We walked through the treasury and saw amazing and old artifacts from this family who owned the castle. Many were from the 1500s and some more recent. The guns they used were all carved out of beautiful wood and they had some fun jewelry on display too. We were there late enough in the day that we got to take a tour of the inside of the castle by ourselves. The tour guide was kind enough to let us move quickly through rooms so we could see them, and we even passed the group in front of us so we could go faster and Jay wouldn't lose his mind quite as much. He wasn't a fan of not being able to touch anything and with little sleep it made things worse. We had a fun visit and enjoyed our trip from there to our hotel in Boppard, Germany. 

Just driving along, and boom, there it was!

Jay thought this guy was Santa!

Guns

Armor from the 1500s

Jay thought these keys were very cool

This turquoise reminded me of Arizona

Santa and Satan in a carriage, I had to snap a picture because of Papa's talk in Sacrament meeting long ago that lives on.

Knock, knock

Who's there?

Knock, knock, this one is the smallest

Knock, Knock

This is where they'd shoot off their cannons

You can see three different houses here, they lived separately in their houses but since have added connecting doors. 

The only picture of the inside, pretty cool

Our family and Burg Eltz

We could see castles all along our drive, you'll have to zoom in!

The drive to Boppard was beautiful and we got to drive through several small towns. Matthew did great driving along the roads. There are many "two" lane roads that are obviously only one lane, so we just hoped we didn't have anyone coming the other direction, especially when we were on windy mountain roads. In the towns, there would often just be a car parked, in a designated parking spot, right on the road. You have to slow down, look around the car, and if no one was coming, go into that lane and drive around the parked car. Dinner that night we ate at a burger joint nearby. The boys were starving, it was close to 7:30, so we ordered them nachos thinking that would be a shoe-in option. They didn't even touch them. Matthew had already looked at drinks before we got there and found a yummy peach one and I asked for water...without bubbles. Matthew's drink actually turned out to be tea! And, my drink was what they call "still mineral water." It's basically flat, kind bubbly, bitter water, so gross. When you eat burgers, you need a lot of water, so that was a bummer. Matthew felt bad about his tea, so he tried to dump it in a plant when no one was watching and he was chasing Jay. Just as Matthew dumped a little out, a guy walked out of the restaurant and gave a very confused look! The boys were beyond repari by the time the food came, so we shoveled it in and the burgers were delicious! Apparently Germans like their meat raw because the outside of the burger was brown but that was it. We stopped quickly at a grocery store to buy water, chocolate, and some ice cream treats for an evening treat. Luckily the boys fell asleep quickly, as it was almost 10 when we got back to our hotel. 

Big Burger and the nasty water

Jay woke up bright and early Saturday morning, and we were not prepared. I think he went back to sleep for a little bit, but sleeping from 10-5 is not sufficient for anyone, let alone a toddler who had a short nap the day before and needed to be on good behavior. So, we started our morning early and went to a local bakery for breakfast. Jay kept pointing at the "donut up there" and the lady offered a free one to him and to Hugh. Very kind, and Jay was so excited! We had a delicious cherry filled donut, pretzels, and this super good sweet bread. We also had a pecan bread, but it was not that delicious. We walked over to see some Roman ruins after we ate. Jay loved running through the tunnel and being able to explore! We had a great time letting the boys run around and enjoy. 

Hugh loved this cubby at the hotel

Our walk along the Rhine River

Jay of course wanted to pull the suitcase

In the town of Boppard

At the Bakery, can you see Jay eying those donuts!

Hugh especially loved them

The best part of Jay's day

Our next stop was Rheinfels Castle, or Burg Rheinfels. This castle was once huge! From the drawings it was very large, but now it is mostly ruins. We were able to explore and look at everything on our own. Jay enjoyed being able to run free, although we still stayed very close to him because there aren't many safety precautions at the edges of cliffs or random drop offs. It was really neat to look at the artifacts from the castle times and enjoy being outside. We weren't able to do the tour of the tunnels or the lower grounds because Jay was having such a hard time, but we got to see enough. 

Just another castle along our route

More views of the drive and the castle

It was a cloudy, but bright day!

Jay thought this little cubby was cool

This was the cellar, we believe it was originally the mote of the castle and you can see where the water would have ran through

Jay over looking the walls

Do you see the farms on the hills, they're everywhere. We think they are vineyards.

Super Dad carried both boys for a little bit

So fun to drive through these small German towns, the sights were amazing

From there we did a quick visit to Rheinstein Castle, aka Burg Rheinstein. This castle was super cool from the draw bridge gate that we saw. As we pulled up to the castle, Jay said, "No more castles." We did walk up to the castle to take a picture and look, but we couldn't go any closer without paying and we knew the boys were hungry and not up for a big adventure of things they couldn't get their hands on. I am still a little bummed we couldn't go explore more, but I realize this is a season of life and we get to do what we can and save the rest for another time. 

The view of the castle on our walk up to it

Super cool draw bridge!

The clan on our way down

We drove to the Frankfurt temple and enjoyed the peaceful grounds. We saw some amazing things on our trip, but the Spirit that fills temple grounds is unmatched by anywhere else. It's truly holy ground and we could feel it. Being there brought me peace and strength, and truly felt like home away from home. The boys loved the water fountains and enjoyed looking at the Christus statue. We stopped at a little place we could walk to for lunch. The food was super yummy, but the boys were both falling apart. We cleared out the dining hall fairly quickly. We made a quick stop at an ice cream joint and then hit the road to return our rental car. 

The Frankfurt, Germany Temple

This may have been the only time Jay sat still all day

I'm not sure if this was a mower, or a leaf vacuum, but it was a robot and super cool

Families are Forever, thanks to the temple and our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Once we dropped off our car, we walked through downtown Frankfurt to go to the train station. So far, I am very grateful we live in Munich. It's much cleaner, feels way less like a city/inner-city, and doesn't stink as much as the other cities. Downtown Frankfurt had some old buildings, but mostly new skyscrapers along the main strip. We almost got caught in the middle of a fight as we approached the train station, it was scary and we moved as quickly as we could away from the scene. There was also a rally of some sort going on about Palestine nearby, which made us a little uneasy as well. We were grateful to find our train platform and get on board. Our train returning wasn't quite as nice and the boys didn't sleep at all, so we were all very tired when we got home at 10 pm. There was a kind gentleman sitting across from us on the train and Jay was fascinated by everything he did. When we were getting off, the guy made sure we were able to get all of our stuff and the boys and that we were good to go before we left. It was very kind. 

It was rainy most of our walk through Frankfurt and home that evening

Cool fountain and view of the streets in Frankfurt

See the old buildings, statues, and skyscrapers, all in one

On the way home!

Happy Hugh

New trains, new fun

Sunday was an interesting day! We were told our English ward here in Munich will be dissolving. There is a meeting with all Munich wards next week to discuss the changes, but they wanted to get ahead of the grapevine and let us know. It's been super nice to attend church in English. It's one day a week I can have a full conversation with someone other than Matthew. I am excited to hear what the changes are, and there are many sad people in the ward. This English ward has existed for over 50 years and it's home to any nationality and is where people come to speak English as a common language instead of German. I can't imagine what it would feel like if we were here for longer than three months, I think I would be very sad. We're still trying to figure out our Sunday routines and how to get to church on time, and this week we made it! We got a good side bench in the chapel and we survived even with the lack of sleep from our busy trip. We saw this house on our way to church, and now I have new dreams for a personal slide. The slide in our basement is a good start, but this would be so fun too!