A Trip to East Germany

The one thing that we just had to do while Oma was here was attend the temple.  Our closest temple is 3 hours away and childcare is usually the biggest obstacle we face when trying to go to the temple, so of course it was wonderful that Oma offered to watch our boys for us while we went.  Attending the Freiberg temple with Oma is especially nice because Oma grew up in Freiberg and we got the chance to see her house and learn a few stories from her childhood.

We started our journey on Thursday, April 28th.

Oma in front of her childhood home.  Her family of 9 lived in the upstairs apartment on the far right of the building.

This door into the hillside is across the street from Oma's house.  When the sirens went off, signaling an air raid, her family would run across the street and hide in this cave.  Her mom was alone during the war, her husband had been drafted into the Army, and so she would have to get her 7 little children out of the house and into hiding.  I am amazed by the courage and faith of Oma and her family.

Oma and Hyrum relaxing on a bench.  They have the same smile, don't you think?

The mineral museum in Freiberg had a special exhibit while we were there.  They took a collection of about 100 insects and matched them to rocks and minerals using color or texture.  It was a really cool exhibit and the boys really loved seeing all the bugs.

There is a free animal park in Freiberg.  The boys loved giving the goats and sheep dandelions and grass to eat.

Friday, April 29th.  We left Freiberg and headed North towards Görlitz.  On our way we made a quick stop in Dresden.

Hyrum and Oma in front of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.  Oma remembers the night, in 1945, when Dresden was fire bombed by the Allies.  Even though Freiberg is 30 miles from Dresden she remembers seeing the sky turn red and orange from the fires in Dresden.

Emerson, Julian and Townsend in Dresden.

 Görlitz is a beautiful city.  It's also the furthest East you can go in Germany, Poland is just a short walk across the river.

One of the reasons we wanted to go to Görlitz was so that Oma could meet up with an old mission companion, Karin Sommers.  She served her mission in 1959 and has kept in touch with this companion and friend all these years.

Walking around the town of Görlitz.  It's quite an interesting city.  It was never bombed during the war so you get to see the town as it has been for hundreds of years.  

The Church of St. Peter

Here we are in Poland.  It was a stark contrast when you walk across the river to Poland.  They are trying to renovate their buildings but they are so far behind Germany when it comes to reconstruction.

One of the main attractions for Görlitz is the reconstruction of the Holy Sepulcher.  A wealthy German man commissioned this site to be built after making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the late 1400's.  This is the only complete and relatively accurate replica of the garden of Gethsemane and the holy places in Jerusalem, as they appeared in the 15th century.  

A statue of an angel beckons you to come and see the Empty Tomb.

The other big site in Görlitz is the Sun Organ inside the Church of St. Peter.  We were very lucky to stop by while the organist was rehearsing for a concert.  This organ was simply beautiful and the music was wonderful.

Once again, we had great weather while we traveled and the boys enjoyed the fun parks in Görlitz.

We stayed the night in Görlitz and headed for home on Saturday, April 30th.  It was a great trip and so fun to see Freiberg with Oma.

Beautiful Salzburg

The drive from Venice to our home is 8 hours.  Salzburg is conveniently located at the 4 hour mark.  We drove up from Venice on Thursday, April 21st, and arrived at our little guest house right at bedtime.  The next day we woke up, enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at our hotel, and drove into Salzburg to see the sights.

Our first stop was to ride the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress.  You can see the massive Fortress situated on top of the hill in this photo.  

Townsend and Emerson listening to the audio guide of the Fortress.  They were interested for about 5 minutes, unfortunately the tour lasts 45 minutes!

The tour takes you to the top of one of the guard towers.  Julian was a real trooper being stuck in the backpack the whole time.  From the top of this tower you can see all of Salzburg plus the surrounding countryside and mountains.

Instead of riding the funicular back down the mountain we decided to take the Mönchsberg Walk from the Fortress back into the city.  It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for a hike down the mountain.

We enjoyed some time in the Mirabell Gardens.  They have fountains and paths through trees to explore but best of all they have a great playground!

Julian throwing rocks into the Salzach River that runs through Salzburg.  Say "cheeeeese" Julian.

Family photo with Salzburg in the background.

Saturday, April 23rd.  We knew we had to head home but we just didn't want to give up our vacation quite yet.  Just outside of Salzburg is an "open air" museum with old houses that have been brought from different parts of Austria and reconstructed on site.  It was another sunny day so we figured we had one more stop to make before we headed home.

A small train takes you around to the different "villages" within the museum.  Julian loves trains and was so excited to watch the world go by from the train window.

You can explore inside all the old homes.  The boys loved just running all around the house, up the stairs, down into the cellars, around the gardens.  It was a great opportunity to get some energy out before the long car ride home.

Julian loved all the water troughs.

There was a pond with millions of tadpoles swimming around.  They must have all hatched about the same time, there were so many.  The boys just had to dip their hands in the water and they could catch a tadpole.

Mountains, old farmhouse, green meadow with flowers...what more do you want in a photo?

We ate some yummy Austrian food and then it was time to officially call our vacation "finished" and hit the road for home.  What a fantastic trip!

Leaving Venice

Thursday, April 21st.  It was hard to say goodbye to our little apartment in Venice.  You really feel as though you have experienced something different by going to Venice and I was reluctant to head back home to the everyday routine of life.  The boys convinced us that we needed to make one more stop in St. Mark's square to feed the pigeons, so that's where we headed first thing in the morning.

Townsend

Emerson

What the...?  I bent down to give the boys a few more crackers to give the birds and this cheeky pigeon flew onto my shoulder!

We had bought the boys some cheap little balls to kick around in the squares.  It was so cute to see them kicking the ball back and forth.  I just love it when small things can keep them entertained happily for an hour.

Goodbye Venice, I'm not sure if we will see you again but you gave us a fantastic Spring Break, thanks!

Adventures in Venice Continue

Wednesday, April 20th.  Another beautiful, sunny day greeted us as we left our apartment Wednesday morning.  There are not many "big" sights to see in Venice, we had done both of the main sights the day before, so Wednesday we decided to enjoy walking around and discovering new parts of Venice, away from St. Mark's square.  Our trusty old guide (Rick Steves) suggested we hit the fish market early in the morning.  Most restaurants in Venice serve seafood and this market is where they come each morning to purchase their fish for the day.  The boys found it very interesting.  We saw eels, squid, octopus, salmon, giant tuna, and lots of shrimp and crab.  I'm not a huge seafood lover but it really was neat to see the fresh catch of the day laid out.

Taking the vaporetto over to the fish market.

The boys wanted to ride on a gondola but we had to say no for two reasons.  One, they are really pricey.  Two, I couldn't imagine Julian sitting for 45 minutes in a boat that might tip over if the boys got too wild.

At the fish market.

The boys enjoying fresh strawberries from the market.

After the market we headed over to the Frari Church.  This Franciscan church is the home to many beautiful Renaissance paintings by Titian.  The most dramatic being the painting behind the high altar, The Assumption of Mary.

Titian's The Assumption of Mary.

We explored around a bit more and found yummy gelato for our hot and tired boys.  Here the twins are taking a rest from all the walking.

After lunch we decided it was such a nice day we should head over to the beach again.  The boys were very excited to head back over to the ocean.  We tried a different beach this time, a lot more crowded but with better sand.  The boys built a sand castle, Julian collected and then threw back into the water all the seaweed he found, Oma's purse got stolen...wait a second, that's terrible!  So our trip to Venice wasn't all sunshine and gelato.  Oma put her purse inside Hyrum's backpack and someone came by and swiped the backpack while we were playing in the waves.  Luckily she didn't loose her passport or credit cards, which she had left at the apartment.  Still a bummer, but it could have been much worse!

Townsend getting warm on the sand.

Julian loving the waves.

Emerson by the sandcastle that he, Townsend and Daddy built.  Emerson collected all the seashells and placed them to decorate the castle.

On our way home from the beach, all tired and ready for bed.

For our last night in Venice Hyrum and I decided to take a walk over to St. Mark's square.  There are cafes on the square that have musicians playing classical music outside.  It was interesting to stand in the middle of the square and hear multiple concerts coming from different sides of the square.

Adventures in Venice

Tuesday, April 19th.  We could not have wished for better weather.  We began our adventure in Venice by trying to find our way to St. Mark's square through the back alleys of Venice.  Wow!  You really can't explain the uniqueness of this city.  It is so neat to walk along a narrow alley and find yourself, at the end, in a piazza surrounded by canals and multiple lanes going in different directions.  It's easy to get lost among the maze of small alleys and bridges.  Luckily for us there were signs along our route directing us to St. Mark's square, probably placed there for lost tourists.  Once you can orient yourself in St. Mark's square you can find your way around to other sights.

Venice is hard to do with a stroller.  All the bridges have stairs.  We got pretty good at lifting Julian up and over all those stairs.  Here we are lost among the alleys and canals on our way to St. Mark's square.

St. Mark's Basilica.  Venice was an important city on the trade route from the East.  You can tell from the architecture of this church that Venice was influenced by the Byzantine Empire.

Every inch of the interior of St. Mark's is covered in tiny little stones to make beautiful mosaic pictures.  It is hard to comprehend all the time it took for them to cover the entire ceiling with chips of stone no bigger than a fingernail.

The winged lion is the symbol of Venice.  The boys had fun spotting winged lions all throughout the city, on buildings, in paintings and sculptures.

Townsend feeding the pigeons in St. Mark's square.  Probably the highlight of the trip for the boys.  The pigeons would fly right onto their arms to eat the food our of their hands!

 Emerson with a pigeon on his hand.  The pigeons were really aggressive.  I can see why there is a law against feeding the birds!

The other main sight in Venice, besides St. Mark's, is the Doge's Palace.  This was the seat of Venetian government for 400 years.  We took the tour of the inside.  There were lots of winged lions in murals on the ceiling and walls.  Most of the rooms are pretty sparsely furnished but it was still impressive to see the elaborate carvings and paintings.  The best part was the palace prison.  Prisoners were led over the "bridge of sighs" to the prison.  The cells were interesting because many of them had carved initials from the inmates.  

After a hot morning of seeing the sights the boys were worn out and ready for a break.  We caught the ferry over to Lido island and enjoyed the afternoon at the beach.  The beach we found was full of sea shells and the twins collected a whole bag full of shells.  Julian loved the water and splashing in the waves.  

Julian and Oma at the beach.

Brothers enjoying the sunny day.

Can you tell he liked the beach?

After a few hours at the beach it was time to head home for bed.  Each night after we got the kids in bed Oma spoiled us by letting Hyrum and I go for a walk by ourselves.  It was so great to walk around Venice in the evening, after all the big tour groups had gone.  Thanks Oma!

Emerson and Townsend being very silly in their jacuzzi tub.

The Rialto Bridge lit up at night.