Sorry for the long blog - we have had a life changing week and a lot to tell. Read at your own risk!
Moving Day has arrived. The car is all packed and the items on the table and our overnight bag is all that is left to fit into the car. We had to play Tetris with the car and a few things will have to stay behind - like all of the food that I had packed. We had to exchange cars today with a missionary couple who moved from Austria to a city about an hour from us. They got the good end of the deal. We had a new really nice car with navigator, blue tooth, back up camera, nice seats and a lot of power - we exchanged for a smaller car with NO navi, blue tooth, back up camera, etc and a lot less power. We have actually been very spoiled as the car was nicer than any we were driving at home before we came on our mission. We had just gotten really used to the nice features. We have been reminded the the mission speed limit is 130 so I have to remember that I am a missionary and life moves at a whole new speed. I am grateful to have a car, so really no complaints - just trying to fit everything in is a challenge. The car is packed to the roof and we hope there is room for us to fit in!
The Elder's are ready to move in and already have brought a few things over. Out with the "old", In with the New.
This has been a whirlwind week getting everything done. The Bishop hosted a bar-b-q at his home on Saturday night. Unfortunately it rained so we had to move it indoors, but it was a nice evening with a few of the Ward members.
Sunday was a memorable day that we will remember. We were asked to speak in Church along with Elder Letort who is going home. I have been working on a farewell talk for several weeks - even before they asked - so I would be prepared just in case they asked, and they did.
I would study it in English and then German so that I could understand what I was saying and it really helped. When I realized I was doing OK, I got a little emotional and that was not good because I needed to be able to read my notes. Russ did really good and it was emotional for him as well as we are telling these wonderful people good-bye. At the end of the meeting, we were getting ready to leave the podium where we were sitting and the whole congregation stood and sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again". I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation. It was very touching and a real surprise.
In Relief Society, they had asked the week before when I was out of town for all of the Sisters to write a note to us. They presented the notes in a really nice folder and then we took this picture. Several Sisters came and told me they were going to miss us, but they were more upset that I never was able to teach the bread making class. I was asked to teach it in February but had to go to the USA for my father's funeral and we had not rescheduled it. I would have had them over to my home if I would have known they wanted to learn.
Elder Letort invited his grandparents who live an hour away in Strasbourg France to come and hear his farewell talk on Sunday. He asked if I would have them for lunch after Church. We had a lovely visit with them and really enjoyed having them in our home. He is really ready to be going home this week. So, I tried to use up food for the dinner and came up with this Berry Cream Torte to serve for dessert. It is a yellow cake split in half, chocolate cream cheese layer, then a berry layer, then cream and topped with the second cake half in a springform pan. Sliced, I topped it with more berries and cream.
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| Berry cream Torte |
I just have to cook for District Council on Monday and I am done cooking until we arrive in Vienna.
This is our final District picture for the District. It was a really nice meeting and a little different because we have Elder Carroll and Elder Letort going home and us transferring to Vienna. So we each bore our testimonies and wrote in each others missionary books. They have been a great group of missionaries to work with. We will really miss being a part of a District. The Sloppy Joes were a hit - they ate the whole pot full and we ended with homemade granola bars.
We received a call early Monday morning before we left for Singen from a Ward member. They really wanted us to visit them before we left. We told them we just really did not have time as they live deep in the Black Forest. Then we told her we would be driving home from District Council in the afternoon and would be coming in the area of their home and could stop by to say good-bye. She was elated and said they wanted to show us something and it would only take 1 hour. So we left Singen and drove to their home and the Adventure began!
The last time we visited their home was during a snow storm. They are wonderful people and they were so excited that we came to see them. She then told us that she had made dinner and wanted us to stay for dinner and also to go see this special place. We asked how long it would take and they said about 30 minutes. So we followed them in their car and thought we were just going down the road a ways. It was a 30 minute drive to get to the first place on their list!
He is a hunter in the forest and their home is filled with stuffed animals - his trophies.
We had no idea where we were going and just knew we were going further into the forest and we were committed at this point. It did not disappoint. Out in the middle of nowhere, we came upon this little village and in the middle of it is this huge square with
DOM ST. BLASIEN built in the 1770's . It burned in the 1870's and was rebuilt and most recently renovated in 1980's.
It is one of the largest dome churches in Europe. It was beautiful. It is amazing to me how they built these - and where they built them. Today it is the Church and also a large school.
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| Inside Dome |
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| Organ |
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| Russ by marble pillar |
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| Bridge crossing to Dome |
The inside was pure marble. It was massive and very beautiful. We also got to hear an organist practicing for a concert on Tuesday.
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| River around city center |
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We were so glad they wanted to show us this beautiful place. We were a little concerned about the time and said we needed to get back on the road. They said the next stop was on the way back to their home. We said we really did not have time for dinner and she said, but I have it all ready for when we get back. So on we went.
We drove another 30 minutes in a different direction, but who really knows when you are in the middle of the Black Forest and driving up and down mountains and don't really know where you are. Again, we were worried about how long it was taking and we had so much to do. Once again, it was a charming place and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
This was the entrance to a park and small zoo with amazing woodcarvings from trees. I had never seen anything like it. The wood carver is a good friend of these people and they love showing the area to people. We were amazed at what we were seeing. At this point the Elder's had to call and cancel an appointment they had and they said, it is OK, we are on another adventure with The Grimmett's!
These characters (not us) were some of my favorites. The owls were so interesting. I had not seen so many owl up close. The way they turn their heads is fascinating. Again, it was a treat to see all that they were showing us. It was a large fish hatchery and we also got to see a lot of fish. They have a restaurant and hotel there and specialize in their fresh fish.
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| Friendly Goats |
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| Owl aviary |
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| Beautiful white owl |
Elder Brown getting a little close with the Goats. It is fun that they let you in to just roam with the goats. He had a captive audience - if only he could get the people on the street to listen to him like the goats did!
So we returned to their home and now it had been about three hours and so she just put her homemade spring rolls and other food in a dish and sent it home with us to eat. It was a wonderful day, but we lost the whole afternoon to pack and take care of things.
Tuesday afternoon we said good-bye to our Frenchman, Elder Letort. We grew to love him and his French humor. We have a new appreciation for the French.
We left the train station and headed to Lahr to welcome the new Senior couple and give them the keys to their apartment. They had flown all night from the USA and then drove from Munich and were very tired. We only stayed a minute so they could get some rest and we would come back on Wednesday to exchange cars and orient them. On the drive home - another detour but beautiful drive - we came upon this huge herd of deer. The deer here are very small.
Wednesday, the day for final good-byes to places that have become very dear to us. We had one last picture at the Institute - A great Experience that we will always cherish. We met and served with wonderful Young Adults.
The Garden at Robert Bosch College was our next stop. We wanted to just stop and see how it was growing. A pleasant surprise was that they were having a special day for visitors that they do once a month on a Wednesday and Jana was there so we were able to say good-bye. A tender mercy. We really enjoyed getting to know her and working with her. She is a volunteer director of the Garden.
The potatoes are growing and we hope producing a lot of potatoes. They will harvest in the Fall. They do not irrigate this part of the garden and just rely on the rainfall. We have had a lot of rain this year and so the garden is doing well.
Have you ever seen a blue tomato? Yes, they are almost purple black and they say they are really good. We could not pick as they use the first ones for seeds and then they let volunteers come in and pick. They also grown tomatillos, not grown in other areas and not available in stores. I am sorry I will not be here to harvest and make fresh tomatillo dressing for a Cafe Rio Salad.
This has been a happy place for us and we have really enjoyed the people and the service that we have given. They were very appreciative of the work that we did.
We then went to dinner at a restaurant that we have been trying to go to since May. They specialize in Schnitzel and it is always booked. We were able to get in today and it was some of the best we have had. The Texas Chicken Fried Steak is good, but I would have to say this is a step above - they have mastered the breading and the potatoes they serve tops it off. It was a good day amid all of the packing and cleaning.
We hurried home just in time to drop me off and Russ headed to the train station to pick up our Elder's. We have a new Elder from Lindon Utah. This is his first day in the mission and we gave him a warm welcome with Dinner at the corner Kabap Shop that we had them bring to our apartment and eat and then they finished off the berry cream torte from Sunday. They helped us load the car and they were off to home as it was past 9:00 PM. So - a long day and a whole lot accomplished.
Vienna here we come!
This song is playing in my mind -
"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go . . .
Don't know when I'll be back again,
Oh babe, I hate to go"
So, the journey begins. It did not take us long to really miss our other car. Google maps said it was an 8 hour drive to Vienna. We thought we were only driving about 5 hours the first day and the other 3 hours on Friday. It took us 5 hours to get to Munich because of construction detours and traffic.
Last pictures in Freiburg. We are finding that we already miss our apartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Our new apartment is 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. No parking garage and a lot more walking. We decided we started in Zion and now we are experiencing the real mission life.
This was just down the street from our apartment and at the entrance to the highway. It was always the marker to know we were almost home. We loved living by the Dreisam River and especially this year with water in it all summer.
I will always love this view as you start into the Black Forest. We never tired of the drive and the beauty that was found there in every season.
We arrived in Munich at 3:00 and that was our first stop after leaving.
We had to pick up paperwork for our new Visa's and car. We got back on
the road, just in time for rush hour traffic. It took us over an hour
to get out of Munich. We are always just driving through and have never had time to stop and see some of the nice places in Munich. We would have liked to visit the BMW museum and also Olympic Park that is just across the street. We thought we only had three hours to Vienna but it was 3 hours to Passau where we had a reservation to spend the night.
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| Passau on the Danube River |
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| Markers in sidewalk of home of Jews |
We arrived in Passau about 7:00 pm and met our friends, Elder and Sister Meacham who are serving their mission there. We went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the River and the city and then walked through the city at night. It was a beautiful city. It is where the Danube, Inn and Ilz Rivers come together. Known as the Three Rivers City, it is overlooked by the Veste Oberhaus, a 13th-century hilltop fortress. It is home to St. Stephen's Cathedral, featuring distinctive onion-domed towers and one of the largest pipe organs in the world with 17,974 pipes. We were not able to go in and see it as it was too late.
It is Holiday time in Germany and Austria until the middle of September. I tried to find a Hotel and they were all booked until October. I finally found an AirBnB in this wonderful castle about 10 miles outside of Passau. It was a golden nugget. It was truly a fairy tale. We stayed at Die Neuburg am Inn. It began in December 1676 with the marriage of Eleonara von Pfalz-Neuburg and Kaiser Leopold I.
It has been restored and has two hotels a museum, University college for Tourism and marketing, Restaurant, Reception Center, etc. and further renovations are in process.
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| wood beams in foyer |
This was the landing leading to our room. We were in the building that was probably the servants quarters. The view of the gardens from our room was wonderful.
The gardens had the Callot-Figuren (1592-1635) statues in it. This is the same artist who has figures in Salzburg that I posted back in September last year. They were placed in this garden in 1990 by Karl Mader.
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| Building we stayed in |
This is the Church and is currently being renovated. Part of it is used for receptions and other gatherings. This is part of the main castle buildings.
Outer Wall of Main buildings. It sits on a large hilltop overlooking the river that served as a natural mote. It is a very steep drop-off on both sides.
We arrived late and could not see anything until morning. We spent a little while walking the grounds and enjoying the wonderful morning. It was well worth the 15 minute drive out of the city. We continue to have wonderful adventures as we travel.
The drive to Vienna is beautiful. Lots of farm land and hills. Lots of green, but not the pine trees of the Black Forest. You come out of the hills into the city and it is actually very nice. Austria has traffic cameras on most of the autobahn. The speed limit is 130 km for most of the way. It is not like it was 40 years ago when we were here and there was no speed limit and NO Cameras. We arrived at Noon and that gave us 1 hr. to get to the city building and register and try to get a parking pass for the car. We made it just in time to get registered in the city - you are given 3 days to register in a city and that has to be done before you can do anything else - including a parking pass, mail service, internet, tram passes, etc. We then tried to get a parking pass and did not have the correct paperwork from the mission office. We had to find a parking garage that was available weekly and park until we can get it worked out.
This is our apartment building. We are located on the 5th floor in the 3 windows on the left. Bedroom, living room and kitchen windows.
We spent all day Saturday getting settled. We found 3 grocery stores within walking distance and others a bus ride and walking. We have walked and walked today. This is a very big city and I thought we walked a lot in Freiburg! It is an adjustment going from a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment to a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment. We got everything unpacked and the kitchen set up so I am ready to go.
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| Elevator |
We are so grateful for the Elevator. We have decided we will walk down the stairs everyday and ride the elevator up. It is about 70 stairs and we went down them about 4 times today. They are in a circle and you get a little dizzy walking down them. We were grateful to have 4 Elder's come and help us unload the car. It only took two trips and we were all unloaded.
Russ, christening the door!
We found it is going to be more expensive for food and especially meat - good thing we don't eat meat every day! It will take us a little time to find the best places and get back into a routine with shopping. I will not be cooking as much here and that should help.
We went into the city center for dinner tonight. We went to a restaurant that was one of our favorites 40 years ago and they still had their famous chicken and fried potatoes on the menu. Yes, that is what we both ordered. Comfort food. It was a nice way to end the first full day here.
This is the Weiner Mozart Konzerte haus. It is a big tourist area and the city was filled with tourists. We met a family who was visiting from Miami Florida.
So, not a lot of missionary work this week and yet we did a lot with the missionaries and supporting their efforts. We are looking forward to meeting all of the missionaries in the next few days. We start at the Institute on Monday and things don't seem to be slowing down any.
I am grateful for all of the experiences I have had in my life that have prepared me and continue to bless me in all that I do. I feel at peace here and I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life. I know the Lord will continue to bless us. In my morning Scripture study I was studying in Acts 22-28, Paul's experiences are an inspiring reminder that when the Lord's servants accept His call to "go...and teach all nations, He will fulfill His promise to them. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." I know this to be true. He has blessed us so much as we serve and teach. Pres. Thomas S. Monson said, "When we are on the Lord's errand we are entitled to the Lord's help." I am grateful for this knowledge and know that He has sent us here for a wise purpose that we do not yet fully understand, but we are ready and willing to serve and do the work. I hope you will enjoy the adventure with us for the next 9 months.
Viel Liebe,
The Grimmett's
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