Sunday with Oma, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dachau

    Sunday we woke up and had another amazing breakfast, then we got ready for church and went on our way. We went to sacrament meeting and it was fast meeting, which was so cool to see all of the German people share their testimonies. Blake ended his mission in that ward so a ton of the members were happy to see him again. Blake whispered the translations in my ear so I knew what was going on.  At the end he bore his testimony in German.  It was so cool to hear him speak such great German.  He did a wonderful job and I know it meant a lot to the members to hear from him.  We were swarmed by people after because everyone wanted to say hi to “Bruder Miller”.  We took some more pictures with ward members and then made our way back to Volker’s house for lunch.

Look how tiny sweet little Oma is!

Ida, one of the Germans that I've met before because she has come to Utah a few times.  We adore her!

Volker is amazing and does everything! He does the grocery shopping, cooks, cleans, and everything else you can think of.  After lunch we went to Speyer to see the 900-year-old cathedral; it was incredible to see how big this church was.

We also went down into the burial ground beneath the church, and it is crazy to see tombs of kings and queens from the 1400s. Afterward we drove to Schwetingen to have the best Italian Gelato, the latest craze is “Spaghetti Ice” and it is so funny. They put a scoop of cool whip and a scoop of vanilla on the bottom and then squeeze more vanilla ice cream through a noodle maker and cover that in Strawberry sauce, all topped off with white chocolate flakes. It really does look like spaghetti!

I was devastated because they were all out of the sugar free flavor.  We were able to go to the ‘castle park’ after and that is exactly what it is. We walked through this castle to the back garden area and all you can see is flowers, green grass, fountains, trees, and pathways everywhere.  If you were to walk every path it totaled 21 miles. It was BEAUTIFUL and you cannot believe how amazing it was. 

Look at this awesome fountain we found haha!

We spent about an hour in there and we could have spent 6 more. Once it got dark we decided to head back and say our goodbyes to Oma. We went over and of course everyone was there to say goodbye, we had some more home-made ice cream and watermelon. We had a nice discussion about politics and it was hilarious to see the different opinions of Obama and Romney. I guess no matter what country I go to I can’t escape the politic conversations.  Oma loves the missionaries and loves Blake so much, she still has a birthday card he gave her 4 years ago on her table when you walk in the door. She also has our wedding invitation picture in a frame.  How cute is she?!?!

Blake speaks German sooooo well and they all just love him to pieces!!!

Blake just hugged and hugged sweet little Oma and didn’t want to let her go, and she was the same way. She is the sweetest lady in the whole world!!!

It was so sad to say goodbye and we made her promise she’ll come visit us in Utah!  We went home, packed our bags and got ready to take off early the next morning.

  

    Monday we woke up early to pick up Christian.  Of course before we woke up Volker (who took the entire day off for us) had already walked to the bakery because he wouldn’t serve us day old bread!  He remembered everyone’s favorites and had them placed on the plate where they sat.  He is the sweetest man you will EVER meet!!! After goodbyes we hit the road to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. You would not believe this city, it has a huge wall completely surrounding the city and this is the headquarters for Kaethe Wohlfahrt Christmas stores, don’t worry there are 7 different shops within the city walls. I finally was able to buy my Coo Coo clock! 

It is so cute and the sound even turns off in the nighttime so it won’t keep us awake! We spent a lot of time going from shop to shop comparing all the different designs and prices. Blake is so nice and just smiles, and then hands out money for me; I love that boy!!! 

All the streets are so dang cute!

On our way back we walk up to the top of the wall surrounding the city.  It was so cool to see a view of the whole city and know that they used to sit on this very walkway to protect their city!

We then stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat and then had to hit the road so we could make it to Dachau, the first concentration camp during WWII.  On our way there we had to take a small detour due to construction.  We ended up going past a random field of massive yellow flowers (which is a miracle because they usually only grow in May and so they are not in season right now).  Back when Pres was on his mission he sent home a picture of him in a field of these flowers.  While Blake was on his mission Blake sent home an identical picture (and he’d never seen his dad’s…..what are the odds!!!)  Sandy framed the matching picures in their house.  I wanted a picture of them together now in these flowers but knew it wasn’t likely because it was the wrong season…..thanks to the lovely detour we got my perfect picture! 

When we got to Dachau they were closing so we decided to find a hotel in town and go back the next day to really get a good understanding of what really happened there. I’ve read so many holocaust books and so it was something I really wanted to spend some time visiting.  We went to a few hotels and eventually found a bed and breakfast that was super cute. Blake was able to talk their price down, love having someone fluent in German! It has the old keys with the key holes, a swimming pool, sauna, and steam room. We then headed into Munich so we could go to the famous restaurant down town called the ‘Hof BraeuHause’. It is food from Bayern (Bavarian food) and it was surprisingly really good. This is the party zone for Oktoberfest and it was so crazy in there. 

 I felt like I was up at Snowbird at the Oktoberfest, now I know where all that goodness comes from!  The beer mugs were huge and the famous dish is a pig hoof…. Yeah we didn’t try it. 

Once dinner was finished we drove back to our hotel to get in the sauna and the pool, it felt good to get so hot and then cool down in the pool. 

 The keys at all the hotels are big old fashioned keys and are sooo awesome!

We were all so tired from 3 straight days of going to bed at 1 and waking up at 7 everyday so we slept really well!