Home Sweet Home

We left our hotel at 5:15am, turned in our rental and got to the check-in with some time to spare. We checked our bags but didn't think we'd make the flight. As we quickly went to the next terminal we found a huge line to the gates. So we stood in line and thought we're going to miss this one for sure, a gate agent came through the dividers and said, "You all can come with me." and took us to the front of the line. It was a tad embarrassing because others were wondering why we were chosen but we were too! It might have been because we had two kids, or we looked so raggedy and disheveled they felt sorry for us, or we won a contest with the gate agents behind the scenes... I don't know but this kind act made us get to our gate on time!! We talked to the gate agent and he said we probably wouldn't make it or just a couple of us would. So we divided up bags and made plans to who would take who and they started closing the flight. I was so sad, we were so close! Then the gate agent yelled to us that we had made it and to hurry and board. Miracle #2! It was a bit frantic then and we just grabbed bags and kids and ran on the plane like crazy people. Chris and Naomi sat in front of me and Fiona and a nice gentleman.

This flight was perfect as a sunny, summer day. The gentleman guy was so nice and understanding. Fiona was mostly happy and slept easily when she was tired. Naomi played with toys and watched hours of Frozen. Chris and I tag-teamed and we landed with tired-smiles :) We had landed in Michigan and went straight to Chipotle. Ahhh, Mexican food! We didn't make the next flight to Salt Lake so we were preparing to stay a night after trying the next flight. It didn't look great either but then the gate agent called our names and we ran on again! Miracle #3! We all sat together this time and it was a smooth-ish flight. Only because we were so jet-lagged and tired of flying.

 

We got off in Salt Lake and was greeted by Mia and Scott. It was so nice to be able to speak English to everyone and to hear English spoken by everyone. We had been in a little 'language bubble' for so long.

After being home a few days, Chris and I drove to Oregon to interview with a doctor in Washington. It was a great interview and we'll see what happens with it. We stopped off and stayed with the Goodfellows and saw their house and saw some sights near them. We had a really fun time! The next day there were huge fires in Oregon and Washington and it took a few hours longer to get to Cour De-Alene, Idaho to see our friends the Chariton's. It was so nice to visit them and chat like old times! Cour de Alene was beautiful!

When we got back to Utah we visited family and friends and had a blast! Family time is the best time!

We left the next day, bright and early at 5 am to head to Miami, Oklahoma to start 2nd rotations.

Amsterdam: We Came Full Circle

We arrived at our hotel in Amsterdam, got food and ate lunch under the shade of a windmill! Then we went to a flea market and enjoyed all the knick-knacks of the Netherlanders. We wanted to go see Anne Frank's house but there were so many tourists we couldn't really get close. We didn't get tickets ahead of time so we couldn't go on a tour and I truly wished we could have. Amsterdam was very different in August than it was in May. There were a million tourists everywhere. We ducked into a cheese museum to get some relief from the tourists and it was really great! They had samples of every type of Gouda imaginable and we happily tasted them all with little toothpicks.

We found an awesome drawing of a windmill. It is a sketch that says, "Molen, Amstel" on the bottom. It was so neat to find it because Amstel is where we stayed when we first came to the Netherlands.

Glorious cheese!

A delicious calzone biger than Naomi's head! Chris and the gang in front of the Anne Frank house, also being blinded by the sun's reflection off a trash can. 

Chris and Naomi playing a game in the grocery store. Also, notice the eggs on the shelf to the right. They aren't in the refrigerated section. No eggs were put in a fridge, that we saw. And these eggs are soooo good! They are so creamy and cheesy that it took a minute to get used to them but they are definitely more tasty than the ones in America.

After touring the city for a bit we wanted to go to Haarlem and see Corrie Tin Boom's house. I put the address in the GPS and it took us 45 min in the opposite direction. By the time we got to wherever it was we were, it was too late to drive back to Haarlem and get in a tour. We were pretty upset but it couldn't be helped. So we grabbed dinner near our hotel. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to try and pack our bags smaller and get rid of unneccesary weight. One funny story: when we arrived at our hotel the room had trash on the desk and the beds weren't made like a maid had done it and towels were on the floor in the bathroom. When we were heading out to get food we mentioned this to the front desk and they said, "Oh, ok." When we got back the room was all clean and perfect. It was funny because, in America they would have been very apologetic and may have given us a free stay or something. Europeans aren't too big on customer service we noticed. Just differences in culture :)

Kettwig, Essen and Friends

Our home for the night was incredible! We arrived and Christianne showed us the house and left us to ourselves. She was so nice and hospitable and we saw her husband and their children playing in their yard when we pulled up. Cute family!

We changed and freshened up from our long drive and drove in to Essen to meet Akayleia Frehner (Potter) and her two boys Presley and Milo. Since we got in to town late we missed seeing the manor house that Akayleia recommended so we just met up and went to dinner. Naomi and Presley played and chatted like old pals and we had a great time catching up with Akayleia. And we wished she would have been with us for the last 3 months, she spoke perfect German! It was so easy to order with her as our translator. Dinner was delicious Italian and for dessert we had ice cream. It was getting late so we had to say good bye, but it was so much fun to see her and her family!

 

Akayleia, Milo, Presley, Me, Fiona and Naomi. Naomi had just spilled raspberry sorbet on her shirt for the 2nd time within 2 minutes of the first spill. I thought this shirt was a gonner but we got the stain out no problem thanks to fels-naptha soap. Actually, we sorta forgot about the wet shirt with soap on it, wadded in a plastic baggie until a day or two after being home. I opened the bag and the stain was gone!

Crazy, cute kids! Presley was hilarious! I wished we lived by them the whole time we were in Germany.

As we drove through Essen we thought we should've planned to stay there longer because it was the most peaceful, tree-lined town with tons of shady paths to walk. If we ever get back to Germany we'll have to go to Essen for longer than a few hours.


The next morning we headed out to Amsterdam for our final destination before heading back home.

Burg Eltz

We separated our journey home into two days. We drove the first stretch from Stuttgart to Kettwig and saw Burg Eltz on the way.

Eltz Castle (German: Burg Eltz) is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier,Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the same family (the Eltz family) that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. Bürresheim Castle (Schloss Bürresheim), Eltz Castle and Lissingen Castle are the only castles on the left bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed.

This castle was incredible. It was our favorite medieval castle because all the furnishings, paintings, artifacts were original. Most castles have rooms that are exhibits of someone or something unrelated to the castle or they have furniture that doesn't match the period of the castle or the other furniture pieces. That's why we really liked Burg Eltz! The interior was so rustic and built for harsh weather and candle light only. You really felt you were in a proper castle. There was a tour of the castle and I felt we were able to see a lot of rooms and wander through the castle at our own pace.

"The Rübenach Upper Hall with its murals by a Burgundy artist, the dainty Gothic chapel oriel and its colourful windows is also referred to as the Bed Chamber because of the large carved four-poster bed in this room."

The wall murals are incredible! They have been freshened up over the years but it is the same artwork. The mural is of flowers from the seasons except winter because there are no flowers and because they didn't want to remember the harshness of winter because it was a really hard time. The bed is built up to get as much heat from the "rising heat"as possible and the curtains are for added warmth. The chapel is in the bedroom because they were very religious back then and it was said that no one is above God and they couldn't put the chapel anywhere else so they put it at the top floor, in the bed chamber. 

"This small chamber is referred to as Countess’ Room or Children’s Room because of the paintings of children and young members of the House of Eltz or their relatives of the 17th and 18th century. Here you can also see the probably oldest surviving painted Renaissance bed in Germany, which was made around 1520."

This room was really interesting! There were other children's toys on display here and those skinny stairs in the back were for the nanny/governess. There were portraits of children and the tour guide pointed out that the proportions were off because usually the painter had already painted the body and just added the head when he was with the subject.

"This late medieval hall of the early 16th century was used for festivals and negotiations by all three branches of the family on Eltz Castle. Remarkable are the original heavy oak ceiling and the heraldic frieze as well as some beautiful suits of armor."

This was a fun room because there was a face of a court jester when you entered the room to symbolize you could say and talk about any topic without fear. However, there's a rose at the top of that red door on the right to symbolize a "rose of silence" and nothing that was said in this room left the room.

"The 15th century Rodendorf Kitchen is one of originally four kitchens in Eltz Castle. The objects displayed here date from the 15th to the 19th century."

What an incredible kitchen! I can't even imagine cooking for large groups in here. That big wooden tree stump in the right of the picture was a chopping block used for hundreds of years! Incredible! I gave it a loving pat as I walked by, what stories it could tell. Can you imagine the smoke and heat that would have filled this room? That would have been great in the winter but suffocating in the summer.

 "This was the living room of the Eltz-Rübenach family. It was built in 1311 and houses the famous painting "Madonna with Child and Grapes", a masterpiece by Lucas Cranach the Elder."

The picture-perfect medieval room. All furnishings and tapestries are original. Furniture was hard to get and expensive so they had limited furnishings. The trunk in between the two tapestries doubled as a table back in the day. What functional folks! The light coming in from the left was from two large windows that had cement benches underneath the windows. The family could sit and read, knit, chat, etc. as there was really great light. The fireplace at the back was an open fireplace which would have been hazardous but necessary for such cold winters.

We toured the castle and had lunch and decided to walk back instead of take the bus. About a minute later we regretted our decision because it was so baking hot! However, we did get this amazing view of the castle and so it was very much worth the heat. 

   

Driving through the towns near Burg Eltz we noticed a lot of the buildings were made out of lava rock and stone which was very different from half-timbered or brick in other towns. After the castle we headed to our home for the night in Kettwig. Our Airbnb was in a half-timbered home and we were so excited to see the inside of one!

Goodbye to Stuttgart: Our last week

On Sunday we ate with Darren, Amy and Carson Bingham, Chris' attending doctor and his family. They drove us to their house from church and it was such a fun evening! Naomi and Carson were best pals and couldn't stop playing together. We toured their house and their basement was huge! They even had a sauna! They didn't use the basement either, crazy!

Monday we had pizza, enjoyed the evening on the balcony and got a little more packed.

Tuesday we ate with the Shaun, Tanya, Ethan, Chloe and Hans Jakob Black. Tanya Black was a sister to my good friend from Forest Grove, Susy Vega, who's husband was a year ahead of us in optometry school. Small world! The dinner was delicious Norweigen meal and the kids played for a few house and Naomi was in heaven. She really has missed playmates. And we've missed speaking English with Americans because we chatted for a few house too :)

Tanya Black with Hans Jakob Black, Me and Fiona

On Wednesday Chris had to go to Katterbach clinic with Major Bingham and it was 2 hrs away. When he got home, Major Bingham took me to a restaurant about 15 min away to meet his wife Amy for a baby shower for one of the girls in the ward. It was a blast to be the ladies and chat the night away! Man, I have missed that! My meal was delicious too!

Thursday Chris finished up his rotation with Major Bingham and we had a dinner with the clinic near base that night. We got to meet all of Chris' co-workers and enjoy a delicious German meal, with a few bees thrown in for excitement.

I can't find my actual photo from the day but luckily I have this!

Friday we left for Kettwig. As we drove away from Konni's for the last time it was so sad! We were leaving our lovely home and lovely Germany. It was bittersweet because we missed family and the little things that were familiar to us but we'd grown to love the Germans, their way of living and our European adventure.

The things we noticed and loved:

• Their houses are really functional. Everything has a place and a lot of their vertical space is used.
• We loved their open air windows! Our windows were open or tilted at the top to allow air all day and all night. It kept the house feeling fresh. And I realized that not a lot of homes had an odor to them because they kept the windows airing. We'd been in a lot of homes with Airbnb and none of them had a smell.
• At the pool there were no lifeguards, no "pool rules" signs, no painted signs with "no runnning". There were pool staff who walked around every so often and even took a squirt gun away from some unruly kids but that was all I saw of any discipline. Every person who went into the pool set their shoes, sandals, flip flops at the stairs that lead into the water so there were a ton of shoes sitting there but no one cared. 
• They seemed to be very laid back about body image at the pool. Everyone was more interested in having a great time with family and friends and not about looking pretty. 
• Food: Their cheeses were delicious and so yummy! A huge wedge of Brie was only 1 Euro! At home its about $4 or $5, and maybe even $6 if it's a certain brand. They had delicious milk and different flavors like banana. The yoghurt was delicious and so many flavors too, banana, apple, maracuja...etc. The juice was delicious too with great flavors; lime/watermelon, blood orange, etc.We loved their butter pretzels, which were just a thin pretzel sliced with butter in the middle, YUM! Their mustard was delicious to slather on bratwurst. And Spezi was delicious drink to complete a mustard/bratwurst/fries meal. Not very healthy but soooo good!
• I loved bringing my own bag to the store and loading groceries. I usually only brought one big bag and hung it off the stroller then loaded the heavy stuff in bottom and lighter on top. Anything that didn't fit Naomi would hold or we'd put under the stroller. I really couldn't get any more than the big bag full because our fridge was so tiny. We had to bag our own and the cashiers would just zip your stuff to the side and sometimes your stuff would mix in with others in front of you but it was no biggie. I got stressed about it at first but you just pick out your stuff and move on :) At one store I noticed a man holding a little box he brought and putting groceries in it! 
• The corner bakeries are divine. Its not typical in America (maybe in NY or something) to find such heavenly and affordable goodness just in a mall or on every corner. And we discovered we could get just about anything and it would be our new favorite. Ritter sports are so addicting. It was hard not to eat a whole package by yourself. The Eggs were so delicious, buttery and creamy. It took a bit to get used to it but the U.S. eggs are a little gross compared to German.
• The lingo: "Ciao!" - Goodbye! "Tschus!" - See you later friend! "Bitte" - Sorry. Please sit. Come again? "Guten Apetit" - Enjoy your meal!  
• Beds were two twin beds pushed together in a frame so you could forget and go to lean in the middle of the bed and have your elbow sink down. Some frames werent too tight and you could fit half your body in the crevice. They also had separate duvets for each bed and no sheets, just a duvet. It was easy to make a bed! This was the case with most beds but we did have a few beds/bedding like in the U.S. and some with sheets. 
• No building codes. This was really fun to see the cool ways things were set up. 
• I finally figured out why some words in German are capitalized. They capitalize the nouns :)
• I loved their way of recycling! They separate their Bio, clean paper, packaging (plastic, cardboard, tin cans...), glass (separate that into green, white, brown), and everything else.
• Lastly, we LOVED the German people. They went out of their way to help us with the girls, or me and the girls when Chris wasn't there, they carried my bags, held doors, lifted our stroller, gave candy and toys to the girls, gave up seats, gave us flowers, spoke English to us, offered rides, kind words, a smile and so much more. They are such amazing and loving people and we were so glad to have learned more of the German culture.

Some things that were a little difficult to get used to:

•  No supermarkets close by that were a one-stop-shop. There were some farther from us but we never got to go to one.
• Everyone smokes, a lot.
• No Air Conditioning anywhere but a few select stores. 
• Two-hour wash cycle. Back in Forest Grove I could have 5 loads of laundry done in an hour and a half. This was a hard transition. The hang dry was no big deal to me.
• Small fridges. We had one Airbnb that had a huge fridge with a freezer under neath that had an ICE TRAY! What a luxury!
• Church was a 6 hour ordeal. We usually packed food for the train rides. Fast Sundays were hard because it was so long without food. Some of us may have got cranky because of this :)
•  Separate pharmacy from stores and you have to ask for what you need.
• You have to take your glass to the recycle bins at certain locations on the street or at grocery stores.

Schloss Solitude and "Birkenkopf" or Rubble Hill

Just near our house in Stuttgart, a small bus ride away, we went on a little hike up to Schlöss Solitude. It is a quiet and peaceful area for a picnic dinner! We ate and walked around and saw the horses. The peaceful solitude was broken with Fiona's tired screeches. Naomi wanted to help her be happy and pointed at the horses, made a big sigh and said, a little harshly, "Look at the horses, sweet HEART!!" Fiona did look at the horses but they didn't really make her happy. We walked up to the Schloss to look around and there was a men's choir warming up for an event behind the Schloss and it sounded amazing! We couldn't go in but it was fun to walk around.

Rubble Hill is the next bus stop down and then a little hike up the hill. Chris comes here when he goes running and wanted to bring us here. The views are really amazing! You can see the whole city of Stuttgart and the surrounding area. The Birkenkopf is an artificial hill created from the rubble of the city after World War II.

From Wikipedia:

During the war, 53 Allied bombing missions destroyed over 45% of Stuttgart, and nearly the entire city center. Between 1953 and 1957, 1.5 million cubic meters^[1] of rubble were cleared and moved to the hill, which resulted in an increase in height of around 40 meters. At the summit there are many recognizable facades from ruined buildings. The locals colloquially call the Birkenkopf "Monte Scherbelino", which roughly translates as "Mount Shards" but in an expression alluding to Italian. One of the pieces of rubble has a plaque attached to it, which says: Dieser Berg nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg aufgetürmt aus den Trümmern der Stadt steht den Opfern zum Gedächtnis den Lebenden zur Mahnung. This translates roughly as: This mountain piled up after World War II from the rubble of the city stands as a memorial to the victims and a warning to the living.

There were lots of people enjoying the view or on a date with a little picnic dinner. We walked back down the hill and stopped off at REWE for a few groceries to end the adventure.

 

Our apartment, Konni's house, was near the white towers.