Europeen Vacation pt. 3

After taking the ferry back to Kiel, we tried to visit an old castle that had been bombed. It was on the map, so we figured we would go take a look. We had trouble finding it, until we realized that we were standing right in the middle of it. By name, it was the same place, but it had been rebuild and didn't look like a castle at all. It now housed a fancy restaurant and some other stuff. The castle gardens had been left as a public park though, and we went down the hill to see them. I asked Jeff who the statue was of, and he told me as much as he knew about German history around the time of the kings leading into WW1. It was very interesting. I often forget that he is a Germany WW2 historian (all historians have an emphasis), and that some stuff he only has a sketchy idea about. I tend to make fun of him when he doesn't know something history related. His history of the guy on the horse was fascinating nonetheless.




We did unfortunately discover that all of Kiel closes at 6 pm, and even earlier on Saturdays. They are closed all Sunday. Boy were we surprised when we tried to find something to eat. The first day, we had arrived after that magic hour, and we pretty much went hungry. We are used to eating late at home, or whenever we want, so there was a sharp learning curve.
The day after the Laboe festival was Sunday. Jeff got up earlier than Ariana and I and he went down to the desk to inquire about the advertised internet. We had asked about it the day before and had been told that there was none. The second time Jeff went down he must have worded his question differently, because a different person at the desk told him there was internet available to the customers at their sister hotel down the street. Jeff went and checked email, telling our parents that we had arrived safely. He also located where the nearest church building was and what time their ward was meeting. We knew it would be a long walk, about 45 minutes, so we packed Ariana in the stroller, put on our best clothes and started walking.
When we stepped outside our hotel, it seemed like the entire city had converged on the usually quiet area in front of our hotel. It was like a bazaar, with people everywhere bringing garage sale stuff and setting up a little display. I knew we wanted some German children's books and other paraphernalia to take home and I was sad to have to walk away from what I thought would be our best chance to get it, but I wasn't going to shop on Sunday, even in Germany.


Our best clothes happened to be just our cleanest shorts and tee-shirt, so I felt rather foolish when we walked into the church building filled with well groomed Germans in their Sunday best. We were also late. We stuck out worse than a sore thumb and we just stood there in the foyer looking dumb. Finally someone came up and talked to us. First we got ushered into the Sunday school class. A lady was going to sit behind us and translate for us. Then we got moved to the young single adults' sunday school because our translator had to go deal with her children. There was already a sister missionary translating for another sister there. It was a really good lesson on Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Because of the translation and slight differences in the connotations of the words, the teacher had some very interesting insights into the story. He emphasized their roles as the princes and their importance in the Nephite community during their period of rebelliousness. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Jeff went off to priesthood where he fared fine without a translator. I stayed with the sister missionaries. One was an older lady from the States. She had relatives in Oregon I think. We talked about Germany and about the Frankfurt temple. She told me about how beautiful it was, and how there was a small hotel run by the church there for attenders. I told her we had already booked all of our lodgings but that it sounded ideal and I wish I had know about it before.
After class, the teacher came up to me and introduced herself. She hurried off to talk to her husband and then came back to invite Jeff and I over for dinner.
We rode in their huge van over to their house. They are young and in school just like us. He was in school getting a degree to teach PE and English, and she had spent a year at BYU. I think their names were Sabien and Maria. They had a five-year-old daughter, a two-year-old son, and a three week old baby. I couldn't beleive she had the energy to teach the RS lesson and have us over! We chatted with them for a long time while the meal was being prepared. They were apologetic about their last minute dish, but after several days strait of fast food already, we thought it was the most wonderful thing. We had multivitamin juice with diner, a juice made up of 10 or so different fruit that is an orange color. They also gave us some strawberry ice treats that Jeff fell in love with and kept searching for the remainder of our trip.
It was very interesting to get to hear about their life and about Germany, and it was a little bit of a relief to have a culture break and be able to hear fluent English. They told us about how military service in Germany is mandatory, how school is pretty much free, and how the government gives people money to put their young children into preschool and up until they are 18. We asked them what some good German children's books were. They suggested Rainbow fish in German.
After dinner, they offered to let us use their internet and phone. We didn't know what a gift this was until later in our trip, when we would sometimes pay 6 euros an hour just to write home. As they gave us a ride home, Sabien told us about how they had converted their van to run on petrol. It had a 150 liter tank on the back, or something like that, and got exceptional mileage. Gas is expensive even there. The rest of the day we hung out at the hotel. I washed some of our laundry in the sink with bar soap so that it would be at least a little cleaner. It didn't dry by morning fully, and we had to pack it up damp. We also packed up for our travel to Berlin the next day.