Frankfurt Temple

The family I visited in Frankfurt, Germany, only lived about 20 minutes away from the Frankfurt LDS Temple. One day we drove over to visit the temple, and it was definitely different than others I have been too. It was literally right in off some street with a lot of shops and apartments, and was pretty small. However, it was still extremely beautiful. I was definitely glad to see another temple--there are all unique in some way.

Moroni

Missionaries on the temple grounds!

Leslie and I by the main entrance

Landon was pretty content hanging out in the stroller as we admired the temple!

The temple is small, and kind of oddly shaped, so it was really hard to get a picture of the whole thing at once. Also, Moroni is separate from the temple, which was interesting.

Temple: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Another side of the temple

Every temple always has beautiful landscaping. The temple in general is just a really beautiful and peaceful place.

All of the Shields' kids. Aubrey (the oldest) has actually gone to do baptisms with the youth in Frankfurt, which is really neat!

Back at home I live about an hour and a half away from the Washington D.C. temple, which is beautiful. As part of our church's General Conference every year, leaders announce new temples, and there are new ones being built all over the world. Hopefully I'll be able to see a few more of them throughout my life.

Deutsche Bundesbank

Right around the corner from Leslie's house is the Money Museum. We went last week with the kids for something fun to do and to see a little bit more of Frankfurt and Germany, and it was actually really interesting. The museum shows how money has changed all around Europe. I saw common bartering materials from the BC centuries, the first coins, the first paper money, etc. Thankfully, they had an exhibit on the Euro, too, because before I saw it I was a little bit confused!

The entrance to the museum

Just a few of the things that were on display: The first two pictures are cute little coin banks, the third (really small) picture is a salt bar that was used to barter with, and the fifth picture are also items used to barter with. The tray is made of coins, and there were also necklaces, boxes, and more to show off wealth. Lastly, Andrew is standing next to a piece of stone money--imagine lugging that to your next trade.

A cute strip from a comic about why countries should trade with one another... brought back memories of my economics classes senior year :)

Leslie and her little guys at the museum

Jocelyn looking through a magnifying glass at the money

Paper money from around the world... France, the Euro, the German Mark (before the Euro), and a paper bill from the Philippines (my cousin is serving his mission there, so it was only fitting I snap a picture :).

Me, Andrew, and Jocelyn by a big cow

Now on the way out of the money museum, Jocelyn got stuck in the big revolving door, one of those doors that you have to push through and it does around and around. It took off a nice chunk of her skin on her ankle, so she piggy-backed it home! She had fun up until that point! I feel like even if I stayed in that museum all day, I would still be confused... there was so much information it was crazy.

Ein Sonntag in Deutschland

Sunday was pretty relaxing. After our long trip to France and the Black Forest on Saturday, most everyone slept in pretty late on Sunday morning. Once everyone woke up, we all ate some breakfast, and looked at the clock, realizing it was already 10:20. Leslie's church ward starts at 11, so we had just a little bit of time to get ready and out the door to be there on time. We decided for just the girls to go, and the boys hung home with Dad.

It was neat to see the church building and how the ward worked. Leslie's family goes to an international ward, and they have the service in English. However, people come from all over, and so there are many with accents and many that speak multiple languages. Every first Sunday of the month our church has a fast and testimony meeting, and I was really glad that I was here for church on Fast Sunday. It was neat to hear the testimonies of so many people, with so many different experiences. There was definitely a strong spirit in the room Sunday morning.

Aubrey, Me, and Jocelyn outside of the chapel building

The German Chapel--it was actually the ward's last Sunday meeting at this building. Starting this Sunday, the new building will be walking distance from the house :)

After we got home from church, we relaxed a little bit before heading out for a walk. I met a few of the other families living here, and then we headed to a little pond close by the house. The amount of parks in Germany, and I hear all over Europe, is crazy. There are so many walking paths and trails to enjoy, and the playgrounds are pretty neat, too. Along one of the trails we were walking on is a pond with ducks, and we stopped with the kids for a little bit. Instant entertainment :)

Ducks swimming in the pond

Andrew by the pond

Leslie and all of her kiddos over the bridge

This creepy looking bird sitting by the water

Aubrey is such a good big sister to those little guys.

Fountains in the park

This tower is right outside the windows at home, and you can see it from all around. It glows pink at night, too. We saw it on the way home from the park.

After we got home from walking around the park, we had a typical German dinner. We had Bratwurst, Brot, Salat, und Kartoffeln (some of the little bit of German I remember from high school... unfortunately it has slipped a little bit). It was so good, and I love spicy mustard and bratwurst, so I was perfectly happy :)

Sundays are usually a good one :)

Schwarzwald--The Black Forest

Saturday on our way home from France, we made a little detour and stopped by The Black Forest. The drive up was so pretty, and when we got out at one of the lookout sites you could see so much of the countryside.

There were these orchard/farms all over the hills. It looked really neat from above.

Some street signs of random German things.

When we parked and got out of the car, we were by a little gift shop and a hotel and restaurant. The shops were all closed, but there was a really nice wooden playground that the kids had a blast on. There was even a seesaw... hadn't been on one of those in a long time, but it was really fun. The playgrounds over here--and there are tons of them--seem to be really nice. Nice, smooth wood, at least the ones I've seen so far. It's really cool. Also there was a big lake that was really pretty. After hearing so much about The Black Forest, I'm really glad I got to see it while I was here. Definitely had a good time there.

Andrew on one of the motorcycles by the playground.

Jocelyn climbing up the slide

Some paddle boaters enjoying the lake

Neat trees of the Black Forest

There are so many flowers--everywhere! They really make everything so pretty.

Landon, Me, and Leslie

The kids and I by some Mummelsee Cow.

Strasbourg, France

I know I have barely touched this thing all summer, and I'll go back and make a few posts about summer happenings just for my own memory, but right now I figured I would go ahead and post about being in Germany! I still can't believe I got the opportunity to come all of the way to Europe. Not really something I had planned on doing this young, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Thursday night I flew out of Dulles International Airport and landed in Germany around one in the afternoon on Friday. After I found the Shields in the airport, we looked for about an hour to find the car. The Frankfurt Airport is definitely a tad bit confusing, especially for someone who is as horrible with directions as I am :)

Saturday morning we went to Strasbourg, France. So in the course of a few days, I have now been to four countries: USA, London (just the airport, but we'll count it), Germany, and France. I'm pretty pleased with that list, and hopefully it will grow throughout my life. Anyways, we drove about two hours to Strasbourg, and the drive alone was beautiful. Frankfurt, where the Shield's live, is a big city and they are really close to downtown. During the drive, I started to see more of the green, rolling hills, which I loved.

Some of the scenery from the car window driving along the highway. We passed a few fields where you could see groups of farmers and workers. Also, it was exciting to start and see road signs for Strasbourg and other areas of France. We also passed an Ikea--apparently they started somewhere over here in Europe. They are everywhere.

When we got to Strasbourg, we parked the car and started walking around. For a city, it was extremely clean and it was so pretty.

There were tons of little houses and buildings like these lining the river and streets everywhere.

One of the bridges crossing over the river. Flowers are a big thing over here, and so you see flowers everywhere, especially lining the sidewalks and hanging on people's window sills. It makes everything look so pretty.

Aubrey in front of a miniature door. I guess people were a tad bit shorter way back when :)

Just a view of some of the buildings in Strasbourg.

For lunch we decided to grab some pizza in one of the many restaurants. We walked in and the owners and workers didn't speak one ounce of English. We managed to sit down and point to pictures well enough to order a cheese pizza, an everything pizza, and a Hawaiian pizza for everyone to share. When we tried to ask for extra plates, however, we got nowhere, so everyone just gathered around and ate off of the serving plates. And we got about 2 paper towels for 7 people as napkins :) It must be frustrating not being able to communicate very well with people on a regular basis. The pizza was really good, and as we were walking out, the guy just started saying goodbye in every language he knew.

Yummy lunch!

After lunch we kept walking around and taking pictures of everything we saw. So many neat things to look at and beautiful things to try and capture.

I would love to just live in one of those little apartments above the water, with people all around and the river running below me. So pretty and calming.

Being in France, we had to take a few pictures of some French Pastries through the windows of some of the restaurants and bakeries. Yum!

A train/bus. Some sort of public transportation :)

We walked by this old and ridiculously ornate building. It was such a pretty church and the detail on it was crazy. Can't imagine how long it would take to build that.

Some of the little details around the city. A door handle, an "access forbidden" sign (in French and German), street signs, an old lamp post with a cross on it, a creepy looking dog, old Kodak film thing, and a trashcan that reminded me of a fire hydrant.

The post office

Me in France :)

I'm not really sure why I took a picture of people collecting trash and cleaning up, but I saw them a few times, and their outfits were just so bright that they deserved a picture. Keeping the city clean in style.

I guess if all else fails in the United States I can transfer my job over to Frankfurt. It's funny seeing McDonald's and Burger King all over the world, and it's funny to see all of the changes in their menus. Different from the United States.

This man had some homemade looking saxophone instrument, but when he blew in it, it didn't make any noise. So he just walked around Strasbourg with that held up to his mouth and he hummed. Whatever works.

John pulled Jocelyn and Andrew along in the wagon, and it was crazy how many people would stare at it and even take pictures of it. I suppose wagons are not very common over here in Europe, and not many people had seen them before. Not sure, but that's what it seemed like.

After we walked around, and had a little trouble finding the parking lot again, we headed on home. It was so neat to see yet another area of the world, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to travel out here.

Andrew and Jocelyn outside of the parking garage

The parking garage was right next to an art museum, so by the entrance was this little statue. Weird, but interesting looking. So I snapped one more picture, we loaded up, and we were off. Back to Germany.