Thursday 28 July 2011

A fun-filled week

The last few days have been busy, busy, busy!
On Sunday we all went to church. The ward here is about the size of Wyndham stake! SO. MANY. AMERICANS. It was an interesting experience. People were very nice, but I did feel lost in the crowd. That evening some friends came to visit for dinner and then we drove back to the chapel for Allie's baptism. Another little girl was baptised then as well. Allie was so excited.

Monday afternoon we made a quick trip to Heidelberg. First and last stop, H&M. I refrained from
buying anything...but Jana and Abbey came out carrying half the store! They had a good time. We visited some other friends, the Allreds. They live in a village just outside of Heidelberg. It was really beautiful. We had a very American dinner. Baked potatoes with chilli con carne, orange cheese, sour cream etc. We went on a walk where they live, through the vineyards and around the hills. I'm posting some pictures from there. There was a shrine to Holy Mary and an old lady taking care of it on the hill and right up the top was an old German bunker...still with swastikas on. Allie liked to run through it... When we came home we had brownies and ice-cream and then listened to the concert that the others ie. the musicians had been preparing. That night we stayed on the American military base in Heidelberg. To get onto the base involved showing the appropriate cards and even climbing out of the car so they could do an extreme security check.

The following day we went to the Black Forrest in Southern Germany. It was so beautiful and we visited the cutest town, called Triberg. Triberg is the home of the cuckoo clock. Yes, it was invented there. The pastel colours of the buildings were gorgeous. We climbed up the waterfall.
We had dinner at another town on the way to Rust. Best Italian food I've ever had. We then moved onto Rust. Rust is right at the French border and home to........ Europa Park. The BIGGEST knock off of Disneyland ever. All of the rides are exactly the same. They have: Pirates of Batavia, Piccolo Mondo and even Koffie Koppies (tea cups) ! Because I'm not so enthused about the wild rides, I took things a bit easier than the others, but had a great time all the same. We even had a bit of sun! The weather hasn't been very nice so this was exciting. I went on that log ride where you go up a steep hill in a roller-coaster type thing and then splash into water. We got a little bit wet. It was a good day. We left at 8.30 pm and everyone (except Brian, who was driving slept in the car). We got home very late...

Today is a quiet day and Brian and Susan leave for their cruise tomorrow. I will be posting another update soon. I hope all is well and that your weather is improving a bit.

Lots of love, Alice.

PS. Black Forrest cake comes from the Black Forrest. Who knew!

The photos are as follows:

1. Allie's Baptism

2. Family after Allie's baptism

3. View of Heidelberg

4. Abbey, me and Susan after some shopping

5. View of the village where the Allreds live

6. Vineyards

7. Alice, Allie, Abbey

8. The old German bunker

9. Allie found it a lot of fun!

10. Walking down at dusk

11. View of the Black Forrest

12. Our EMBARRASSING brother!

13. Us kids at the waterfall

14. View of Triberg

15. Europa Park

16. Biggest roller-coaster in Europe

17. Allie loves fairy floss (cotton candy) !





















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