Germany and Portugal Trip

Warning: This is probably my longest post ever, which is saying a lot... but I'm OCD about writing everything down and this is two weeks worth of adventures.  Enjoy... in segments maybe :)

Cute and awake! (for now)

So my favorite part as well as the part I spend way too much time on for blogging is titling my post.  While thinking of what to title this one, it dawned on me that a trip as ridiculously cool as this one, does not require a uniquely catchy phrase or song lyric.  Just the fact that we got to go on this trip should be a catchy enough title :) So without further adieu... our trip to Germany and Portugal.

This is what Cam chose as his reading
material for the flight :)

Tues- After having spent a way fun night with my brother eating all the last of our produce out of the fridge and watching a highly intriguing film called, "The Last Three Days", Cam and I attempted to stay up all night.  There was a reason behind this madness and the idea was that we would stay up all night and for our first two flights so that when we were on our third flight it would be Germany's night and thus solving the jet lag dilemma.  Well, if anyone knows me, they know I love my sleep and if you come between me and my sleep... it's not a pretty situation.  So, needless to say, I lasted for about an hour and then weighed my mood against trying to catch up with Germany's time and konked out.

Landing on the tarmac in Portugal

I was sooo excited to go to the airport, not just to leave for Germany, but more importantly, to finally have a legitimate excuse to get the elusive Egg McMuffin! Alas, to my great disappointment, there is no McDonald's at SLI past security.  Poo.  We took four stops total to get to Germany--- SLC to Chicago to Newark to Lisbon to Frankfurt.  Its the way to go versus a 10 hour flight because it gives you time to stretch your legs and go bathroom without 150 people watching and wondering why this is the 8th time you're getting up.

The Nursery we all stayed in

Wed(ish)- Somehow Tues became Wednesday without me sleeping but we eventually arrived in Frankfurt. After meeting up with the excited Dumas family (we were picking up our brother who's been serving an LDS mission in Germany later that night, and we haven't seen him for two years) we drove to where we'd be staying the night at the Temple.  It's pretty sweet, they have really cheap (but nice) housing for those who come from far away to visit the temple.  While mom went in to get our rooms, the rest of us wandered around the temple grounds.  It's a beautiful temple and the grounds were very well kept.  As we meandered up the steps to the main area, we noticed some missionaries coming out of the temple.  Julie smiled and remarked that they probably knew Carsen.  We went up to talk to them when we  noticed one in particular was just staring at us.  That's when dad ran up the rest of the steps and into the arms of his son, Carsen.  It was a funny, awkward, but awesome way to see our brother again.  So we smiled, cried and hugged and let him leave with his mission group to take pictures.

Capturing the special moment

Then mom came out.  Ummm... yah, she saw the looks on our faces and knew she had missed something big.  Needless to say, after dad broke the news that after two years of waiting, she had just missed seeing her son with us, she wasn't too happy. We went back to the car and tried to distract her from thinking too much about it, when we saw his group passing again.  This time we tried to turn her away because if she saw him, we weren't sure if her kung fu-love-hug would ever let Carsen go again.  She's all sorts of emotions by this time, and we all feel sad to see them leave again, but it was for the best.  Suddenly, a lone figure comes running back with a big silly grin on his face as he embraces his mom.  I guess the mission president said he'd be an idiot not to go hug his mom.  There's a special feeling there, watching a mother and her son reunited.  You can never duplicate the tears or embraces that exist there, and they were so special here.

We met again and for "real" this time at his stake building where they held a beautiful testimony meeting for all the missionaries who would be leaving as well.  It was truly an awesome spirit there, but I was going cross-eyed from the jet lag I wasn't supposed to have.  We got to meet his companions and take pics and finally have him released to us.  We stayed up late that night (somehow) and talked and caught up on life.

Us on the River Tour

The Castle we stayed in... pretty
awesome huh?

Thurs-  We went a temple session early that morning, but again the jet lag was realllllly bad (you're pretty much half a day behind so you're tired when you're eating and eating when you should be sleeping) They let me do Grandma Sophie's work which was really special, I've never done anyone I've known before.  We drove to Bacharach to stay the night in a castle turned hostile.  There's a really cool boat tour we took down the Rhine river to see the many (I mean MANY) castles and Roman ruins along the river.  Haha, we all learned how to better communicate our first day together too.  Isn't that how all vacations go :)

One of the mannny beautiful castles

Fri- We ran that morning with David along the Rhine River, which was stellar except for the sewage plant which reminded me way too much of the documentary I had watched about the Black Plague and how the Rhine was a big aide in spreading it... Anyways, we went to Koln via train and discovered the coolest cathedral ever.  Mental note to self: don't go in holy churches with finger toes on, the Priests don't like that.  Koln, is also a huge shopping district that loves American culture.  They have Claire's, New Yorker and even a Subway store combined with a Dunkin' Donuts... which I guess isn't an oxymoron to them.

Koln Catherdral

Koln Catherdral stained glass

See! He's EVERYWHERE!!!

Cameron and I discovered eis, aka Ice Cream.  If there was one thing we learned to do in german, it was to order our own ice cream.  They have every flavor known to man, and its so rich and creamy.  That night, we got to have dinner with the Rimmels who had taken care of Carsen when he had an episode due to his myocarditis.  They were some of the sweetest people ever and apparently we looked starved because they wouldn't stop feeding us.

It was awesome to finally talk to some German kids our age and find out what life is like for them.  Sounds like its pretty much the same... school, college, work except for two things.  All their media is American which means unless you know English really well, you'll have to get the dubbed version of it.  Apparently there are set voices for actors and actresses, so somewhere out there there's a voice for Tom Hanks and Jack Black.  I'm really curious who they'd get for Arnold Schwarzenegger or Frank Oz or Sean Connery... Julie made a special friend there who even when we left, chased after us (with mom's purse, but that's just a side note;) and chatted with us.  Turns out later that night he found a store open past midnight (unheard of in Germany) and bought some Raffelos that I guess they had been discussing.  Haha, way to go Julie! ;)

Apparently Beethoven used to live here,
and unknown to everyone but me
was blind too (yes... it was a blonde moment
unfortunately caught on camera)

Currywurst's the BEST!

Chillaxing on the lawn

Oh yes... EIS!!!

Sat- After our stay in the smoky hotel (actually all of Europe smells of smoke because EVERYONE smokes- plegh!) we drove to Bonn and saw Beethoven's house, another pretty cathedral and relax on the college's big lawn to watch some guys play criquet. On our way to Mike and Sarah Hanes house in Leverkusen we drove on part of the Autobahn at 205 km/hr... doing the math, we hit around 125 mph.  Yah.  We're cool.  Mike's in the US Military and is stationed over in Germany, and they've got it pretty good. It's just the two of them living in a four bedroom four bathroom house in a beautiful neighborhood and yard.  I told Cam he should join the military but I think what we see on the outside is the incentive to join... where the reality lies in four years of service plus going to Afghanistan.

Hmmm.  There's a tasty Italian place that we went to for dinner called Bella Italia where the food may take forever to get to you, but mannnn it's delish.  It's cool, one of the guys Carsen helped to teach and baptize on the base is randomly getting transferred to a base about half an hour away from Carsen in the states.

We pretty much had Eis with everything...

DOONERS!!! It's a wonder I didn't gain like 50 lbs here...

Us by the LDS Germany Chapel

Sun- Here we got to spend Sunday at church which was in English and reminded me a lot of what it's like in America because everyone on the base speaks English.  That was kinda nice... We had lunch with another of Carsen's family friends who made us homemade Cafe Rio... ch'yumm! Afterwards we drove to another country, Luxembourg, to go see the US WWII Memorial which is where General Patton is buried.  It's just like Arlington, but not in Arlington which is cooler.  That night we had an am-mazing BBQ with the military bros (something about Dill seasoning, still haven't figured it out).  We played some street football which is foreign to Germans there so they liked to watch.  I got to skype my Mom all the way in the states for Mother's Day.  It was great to hear from all them and record a message for Jon (my brother serving a mission in Guatemala who would be calling my parents there soon).  

Mom finally got her "field family picture"

        

Mom... we're woozy (the rest stop)

Mon- This was the day we went to see Burg Eltz which is a beautiful BIG functioning castle in which the "royal" family still lives.  There was scaffolding on the castle but it was still awesome.  On our way to Rottendam, David wasn't feeling very good to his stomach.  Luckily he had saved the bags from groceries (you have to pay for them there so he had kept them :).  He started to throw up and Cam and I are in the front just gagging when the Dumas family (in another car) just happened to pull off into a rest stop.  It was perfect timing, and we couldn't get out of the car fast enough.  Apparently Carsen had gotten drowsy and they were switching drivers.  Thank goodness! In Rothenburg there's a hilarious and educational tour called "The Watchman's Tours".  He was a good spinner-of-tales you could say, where he talked about Rothenburg's lesser glorious moments and history and tour de wall around the city.  Needless to say though, after all that, we had an early night's rest.

DT Rothenburg

Rothernburg

The trees and path in front of where the
bunkers used to stand

Tues- Cam and I took pretty much the coolest jog ever.  We went on top of Rothenburg's walls and were able to run (and duck, they're pretty short).  Tues after this was pretty somber because we got to go to Nuremburg and Dachau.  Not going to lie, it was awkward taking pics because you don't feel right smiling in the midst of Nazism and their horrible acts.  In Nuremberg, we learned about the history of Hitler and Nazism and after just finishing the book "Mockinjay" (Hunger Games Book 3 by Suzanne Collins, completely recommend them!) I couldn't help but notice how crazy and smart they were.  Truly, Hitler saw the opportunity when Germany got the short stick from WWI which pushed them into a depression.  History continues to repeat itself and Hitler saw his calling and created a "superior race" and ideals to motivate the Germans out of their depression.  However, his lust for power turned these ideals into horrible sentiments about Jews and other sects abused by Nazis.  He created videos and architecture where he seemed like a big, untouchable god while everyone else was a small group, nameless, identiless but part of an apparently big movement lead by the Furher. All the horrible acts they would be asked to do would be for the Fatherland, for the better of their family and against nameless and dangerous "vermin".  I can't fathom it, but I can understand how he brainwashed the Nazis to completely believe in him.  Scary.  

On the perimeter of where one of the bunkers used to stand

I've only been to one other Holocaust Museum, and that was Yad Vashim in Jerusalem.  Now that one was hard because they told so many stories conglomerated from the Jews experiences in the Holocaust.  However, Dachau was a different story.  When you walk around, you realize the dirt you walk on was the dirt they walked on, the air was the air they breathed, even the trees were there too.  As I looked at where the bunkers used to stand, it wasn't hard to imagine the people who used to walk those pathways.  You can feel them around you and you wish you could reach out to them back them and give them comfort, food... anything.  Cam and I wandered into a building hidden behind the trees.  Not knowing what it was, we were really confused to see what looked like elongated brick ovens.  It wasn't until acknowledgement hit that gasped out loud. Cameron reached for his camera, but it just didn't feel right to take pictures in there.  Walking through the rest of the rooms you could feel this thick sadness.  We couldn't figure out what those were either (we had entered the exit on accident) until we came to the beginning and realized those were the showers they poured the Zyklon B in for "The Final Solution".  The emotions brought on by Dachau were hard but definitely worth it because you're paying your respects to the 6 million people killed by the Holocaust.  

The main house used for hard labor for the prisioners

On a lighter note, upon going to Burger King later we discovered that they did not speak English or take Visa... who knew? Then at the grocery store we bought like 20 lbs of chocolate (Lindt, Ritter Sport, Cadbury) and Haribro gummy bears for our friends and family back at home.  Our last night together was spent in Munich who by far has the worst parking ever, but the best Indian Food (mango curry!)

My complimentary hot
chocolate, they know me
too well :)

Portugal's finest nectars

 Wed- It was finally time for Cam and I to head off on our own to Portugal (where he had served his mission).  Unfortunately, it was a little hectic finding the cars and getting out, so it was a quick goodbye out the car window and we were off.  After getting lost to go to the airport, we found out we were at the wrong terminal (the other one was mile away), then I forgot about the "no liquids" through security (there goes that water bottle).  But finally we were on our way, and before we left we had to grab one last eis and complimentary hot chocolate.  Oh yes, life couldn't get better :) Later we took the train into Porto and slept very soundly in our own room.

Cam and his fransesinha

Me with the bridge Eiffel designed

Thurs- Cam and I took a fun (and hilly) jog through Porto.  We got to explore the city and shop at Zara, C&A, Lefties etc... Then we took the train into Espinho, a beach city Cam served in.  There we ate at Cristo Reis and I discovered just how obsessed Portuguese are with putting eggs on EVERYTHING (soups, salads, sandwiches, steaks, burgers, fries, pastas... and more).  We got to see Cam's old apartment and hear the stories again but actually see where they all took place.  Then we got to play and chillax on the beach in 85 degree weather. Later, we took a boat tour on the Porto River to see Porto's six bridges, one designed by Eiffel himself! Cam was so excited to take me to Cafe Santiago where they had the best fransesinhas in Porto.  Fransesinhas are a sandwich where the sauce is a lot of beer and  whiskey boiled for days to get all the alcohol out but still pack a kick.  The sandwich itself is hamburger layered with sausage layered with ham and more bacon.  Then cheese is melted on top, sauce is poured over it, and then in true Portuguese fashion... topped with an egg.  

River view of Porto

Cam and I overlooking Porto River

Me on our bike ride through the alleys

Cam with his pastry called
"Ratinho"

Fri- Phew, I'm getting tired already... two weeks was a long time to travel.  This day we traveled all around different parts on Porto on our bikes.  I gotta tell ya, that's the way to get around because we got to see Porto but also be a part of it which is what's lacking when you drive.  We biked on the boardwalk and discovered cool views and the random Cheese Castle (I guess it looks like cheese?) We also got to break at the Crystal Palace which used to be all glass but is now just a dome for events but with a beautiful park.  Cam kept stopping at like every pastry shop for bollos (cakes) and other doughnuts.  They're not like America's, they're much thicker and less sugary but much better! My favorite was finding Indian food, nectar and ketchup chips, yum!

Krystal's Crystal Palace

Check out this McD's

 Sat- We finally found a McDonald's in Porto, but unfortunately they didn't serve Egg McMuffins (I thought for sure because of the eggs factor... but no).  But the McD's itself was beautiful, no kid, it had chandeliers, stained glass and two floors with couches and TVs.  Afterwards we went to the giant mall and discovered their WalMart-like store which was fun to explore.  They also had an awesome book store with swirly intertwining staircases.  By this time we were dead tired so we decided to call it an early night and picked up some dinner at the grocery store beneath our hotel and tried to relax.  Little did we know, but the night before we had lost our itinerary at the Indian Food restaurant.  It had all our todos on it for the rest of the week and had spent forever working on it.  But since Cam's amazing, he had read over it so many times, he was able to recreate 3/4 of it and we were on our way.  

View of Porto's terra cotta roofs

Back on the train again...

Italian dinner under the moonlight :)

Church in Porto

 Sun- We got to go to a foreign church again, but this time it was all in Portuguese.  Cam hooked up with an old friend of his, Hugo, with whom he used to teach with and it was crazy hearing all their stories.  Apparently one of the girls Cam taught who had been so anti that she would literally walk out of the room whenever they'd come in to teach the rest of the family, is now on a mission in England, go figure :) For lunch we went to a churresceira where they cook a ton of whole chickens on a BBQ. So we got our own chicken cut up for us and it tasted really good until Cameron offered me its kidneys. Then we were on our way to Lisbon, so we grabbed our luggage and headed back onto the train.  Once there, we got to see the night life of Lisbon which was gorgeous.  Its much more tourist oriented than Porto, but we still enjoyed really good pasta on the tiled alleys.

Cam and I in aquarium

Mon- Cam wants me to put in that we had a little disagreement this morning, so that people realize we're human I guess... but it was soon solved and I was right, kinda :) Haha, annnyways... we took the train to the aquarium where they had it split off into four sections: Pacific, Antartic, Indian and Atlantic. They all "met" (they didn't touch because of the glass) in this center area so as you walked through the different sections you could see the big middle section as a melting pot of fish.  My favorite was the sun fish because it was flat and had fins on the top and bottom instead of the sides and Cam loved the Manta Ray because of how it seemingly flew through the water.  We ate at McD's again... no Egg McMuffins still and explored the malls.

The "Melting Pot"

Point of Departure

Pasteis de Belem

Torre de Belem

Tues-  This was our last day abroad so we tried to spend every last minute of it doing things we wanted to do.  We took a very crowded and stinky BO bus to Torre de Belem.  It's a beautiful tower that used to be a customs post for those coming in via sea.  Then we walked over to the Point of Departure where they have a giant building-statue-thing erected to commemorate all the explorers from Portugal (Columbus, Vasco de Gama etc...) Then as we walked through an underground tunnel to get into the Jeronimos Monastery, we saw a guy painting pictures with watercolor.  They were the brightest and most accurate we had seen thus far so we got some from Angello (that's his name) for us and my brother who loves foreign artwork.

Cool architecture in Jeronimos Monastery

Overlooking Lisbon

After seeing where Vasco de Gama's buried in the Jeronimos Monastery, he hopped over to the best pastry place in all of Portugal: Pasteis de Belem.  They make them warm and suuuuper creamy.  Cameron accidentally found a shwarma place (yummy Israeli sandwich which I've been craving for fooooorever!)  We later took Tram 28 through all the historic parts of Lisbon then to a flea market.  Cam got some beautiful and not too expensive shoes at Guimaries and I got some headbands and a ring :)  Soon it was time to head back for the hotel to drop stuff off, but as soon as we got back, we realized Cam had two different shoes.  We took a "shortcut" through the really hilly backroads of Lisbon all the way back to the shoe store (which was closed) but through much begging and pleading the realized our plight and we couldn't just "come back later"... haha, umm, we're leaving this country tomorrow.  I ate at my last Indian Restaurant that night and we didn't lose anything there this time.  Success.

Taking a ride on Tram 28

Guess what, your flight's
cancelled!

Figuring out how to get to our hotel
is much harder than it looks...

Wed- For as unstressful as our trip was getting abroad, it was polarly (I think I'm making up words here) the opposite on the way home.  First off, we didn't set an alarm that morning for some reason and the only reason we got off on time was because a little voice in my head that I finally stopped ignoring told me to check my watch.  Phew! Our 24 hour bus ticket conveniently continued working just long enough for us to take it back to the airport.  And funny thing, it hasn't rained for the two weeks that we've been on vacation and ironically, the day we leave, it rains.  I guess our vacation is sad to leave :) Okay, corny I know.  So at the airport the first problem we ran into was the bagging system which is normally done by computers is broken, so they must check on all our bags manually which means, we're standing in line for an hour... which isn't good when you're pressed for time.  But it did give me time to look for my elusive Egg McMuffin... to no avail, again.

Sooo excited to spend the night in the Airport

Our 3rd or 4th sleeping quarters

Then the airport did a weird thing, not only did we go through security to get into the airport, but they had it again at our gate.  Was there a threat for our flight or something? We'll never know... anyways, when we finally made it to Newark we had to go grab our bags because they could only check them for one flight (thanks to the computer outage).  While we tried to check them back on the lines were oddly long.  Apparently, everyone trying to check onto our connecting flight was finding out that it had been cancelled.  Bad news.  I guess the fog in Newark made it hard to land.  So after another hour of trying to get a different flight, talking with Jose (our travel guy) and a nice commercial pilot guy we were sitting next to who apparently was also cancelled (cool side note, his last passenger was Sandra Bullock and I finally got to ask all my weird airplane Qs like do airplanes have window wipers and if so, how do they work if the plane's going so fast?)

Finally... my Egg McMuffins...

So anyways, we found a connecting flight but it wasn't til the next morning.  We booked a hotel but after trying to get a taxi which cost just as much to get to our hotel as it would be to stay there, then a bus whose system is completely moot, and hearing from a guy who apparently works at a homeless shelter by this hotel and says it garbage... we decided to try our hands at staying the night in the airport.  It would've been nicer if the seats didn't ALL have armrests. That gives you a hint onto how much we slept that night.  Finally, after already spending 26 hours in transit (15 hours of it in Newark) it was time for our flight, and we couldn't have been more excited to leave Newark.

Our next flight was to Chicago where I finally found my Egg McMuffin. And life was good.  Next we went to SLC but our flight was delayed with us on it for an hour, but what's an hour when you've spent 15 in the Newark Airport... no problem.  Joe and Cassie were there to pick us up in SLC, and they dropped us off at home where we slept for the next 14 hours.