Nurnberg Day 3

I like the castle (with flags) and church steeples in the background of this picture. We will go see the castle when we get back to Nurnberg next week.

This is the inside of Lorenzkirche. It is the tallest and most ornate of the churches in the old town. This window and most of this end of the church were left standing, damamged, but did not have to be completely rebuilt. The other half of the church was demolished.

This is the part of the church that had to be rebuilt. Mark is standing there so you have some idea of the size of this huge church.

Here we have some nice scenery. I keep thinking, "This would be a great place for Nickell to do bridals!".

A little coffee shop with a tower. Pretty cool. And that is Mark walking in front of me.

This is The Church of Our Lady, and is just about the most gaudy church I have ever seen. There are statues above the front door on the outside that I think are going to dance around like our cuckoo clock did. I just haven't seen it yet.

This is the entry area to the Church of Our Lady.

The streets in the old town are mostly cobblestone, and there are cool old buildings everywhere. Most of them had to be rebuilt after the war, so a lot of the buildings are newer with pieces of older buildings next to them.

This one is for Tara. She likes cute bathroom signs.

And, yes we went to McDonalds. We did it for Andrew who think McDs in Europe is the best in the world. It tasted exactly the same to me. By the way, KFC in Germany isn't much different, either. Somehow I have to get Mark to enjoy some local culture.

Nurnberg Day 2

This first part is still day 1, but I didn't get it until late last night, so we'll put it on day 2. Last night Mark and I walked around the old city a bit and he wanted to show me the cool old restaurant he ate in last time he was here. The door reaches his belly button. That's about how tall it is. So we opened up the door to the restaurant, bent over and went down a very steep staircase to this restaurant. Mark wanted a picture of the suit of armor behind me. I was just in the way. Anyhow, the building was built in the early 1300s and was not damaged much in the bombings in 1945. It's original use was a tenement house for the nobility, and the basement was converted into a restaurant just over 100 years ago. The food was spectacular!
Today I went around with a guide. His name is Robert and he was a German instructor at BYU Idaho for many years. He recently retired, so he came to Nurnberg with his son who works with Mark. He is very knowledgeable and it was a real treat to be able to walk around with him. We took the bus to the Nazi Documentation Station (Dokumentationzentrum Reichsparteitagsgelande with the dots over the a). It was Hitlers intention to make Nurnberg the hub of the Reich, and in the 30s construction began on a huge amount of buildings, most of which were never finished. There was to be a parade ground, which you may have seen in footage of Hitler speaking. The podium and seating for officials was finished, and the grounds were cleared for the parades, but the plans included so much more. He also planned for a zeppelin field and numerous other buildings that were all started but construction halted when the war began.

The documentation center was supposed to be a covered stadium with seating for 50,000, I believe, and the outside structures were built, but the ceiling was never completed. The final section of the museum was a number of interviews with citizens of Nurnberg who were alive as Hitler was rising to power, through and after the war. They shared their feelings and ideas about Hitler, why they followed him and what that whole experience meant to them personally. One of these interviews was with a Jewish man, there were 2 women who were teenagers at the time, and another man who was part of the Hitler Youth organization. The teenage girls were very interesting to me. One thing that was said that really hit home with me was they kind of competed to see who could see Hitler more often. They counted the times in each year that they got to see him. Much like our youth today count the times they see their favorite movie, or favorite sports figure.

Hitler was mad. If he were alive today he would have been the kid who took out a gun and opened up in his high school. Or run for president. I cannot express enough how obvious it is to me that history is repeating itself again. And this little visit has increased my anxiety over what is going on in our world. The cycle does not seem to go away with time. All the little governmental changes that resulted in this lunatic being able to take total control of the government are happening again. I just hope that there are more people in the world now that understand and will stand up for our individual rights and each person's right to be an individual. That we will take responsibility to know and understand what is going on in our world and that we will be our brother's keeper. The teenage girls said their neighbors went away but they thought they were sent to Israel or something, and that they were all together in one community where they belonged. They had no idea (or didn't want to know) that these good, hard working people were being sent to their death. We talked to an older couple on the bus. The man was 17 when the war broke out, and spent 5 years in a Russian prison camp. He expressed that he had no idea why they all got so easily caught up in the madness, but everyone was caught up in it. Kinda sounds like everyone was so busy trying to make their side (aka the Nazi party) be right, and better than the other party (aka the rest of the world) that they didn't really pay attention to the basic ideals of either party. Hmmm.

Enough of that. On to the rest of my day.

Once we finished with the station, we went to downtown old town again and wandered a bit. We went to many different churches but I only got a picture of this one. It's the St. Giles' Church, and it is amazing on the outside, and the only baroque church in the old town, but has been sufficiently modernized on the inside, so it wasn't very impressive. But the outside is beautiful. When we were going in to these churches, Robert commented, "It's no wonder not very many people go to church anymore". It was super cold outside, and the temperature didn't change much when we went inside. I guess they don't even try to heat those old giant buildings!

Germany - Day 1

Really, all you have to do is see the pictures to know I had a great day yesterday.

These old buildings were mostly restored after WWII since the old part of Nurnberg was mostly flattened.

But some of the original structures still exist.

and are super cool.

I had a hard time even getting myself in a picture, so when I finally did, I didn't much care what I looked like. But here's proof that I'm in Germany.

FINALLY!

Look what Tara finally got!

YAY!

Ice Castles! (Remember that movie? This has nothing to do with it.)

Get ready for some awesome pictures!

These are the Ice Castles in Midway Utah.

For Family Night last Wednesday, Mark, Tara, her friend Jake and I went to Midway to see the Castles.

There is a guy there that builds them every winter with PVC pipe and sprinkler heads.

He just keeps growing them through the end of February,

And it's a pretty cool (and very cold) thing.

Icicles hanging everywhere, around lights, and forming big castle like structures.

Or just looking like skulls with knives sticking out of them.

Nickell, Holly or anyone Utah-ish, if you want to go, let me know and I'll go with you. I thought it was pretty neat.

And this (below) is my favorite picture of all!

Vancouver Temple

We waited for a long time for this temple, and it was finally dedicated this past year. For Christmas I got Mark a trip to Canada so we could go visit the Vancouver, Canada temple.

It was a cold, cloudy day (just what I expected) and we really enjoyed it! Mark did work for Uncle Geroge Niven, and I for Mark's great grandmother, Anne Jessiman. The temple is very small and just beautiful, and it felt like going home. Many of the workers had been in our ward all those years ago when we lived in Burnaby and it was wonderful to see them all.

Mark's mom met us for a session after we had finished with the baptisms, and brought a lot of names with her to be sealed. I have never done work for anyone all the way through, and it was such a great experience! And we finally got Uncle George done! He was so good to Mark and Me always, and it felt great to be able to give this back to him.

I know I complain a lot about the time we spent in Vancouver. It was a very hard thing for me. But it also taught me so much, and I just love the people we knew. They helped me grow up and increased my testimony in so many ways, and I know Heavenly Father sent us up there for good reasons. Those seven years were the best learning experience I could possibly have had. I am so happy those great people now have a temple near by. In my opinion they are the most deserving of this blessing in all the world!

Mark's Skating Rink

Well, despite all my teasing, it worked mostly. Mark says it's too small and the ice level drops a bit every day even with him adding water every day, but here is Mark skating on his rink. He likes it!