Rome (part 1)

We flew to Rome on Tuesday morning. Beck took his first walking steps while we were waiting to board the flight in Paris.

We got to our apartment rental around the middle of the afternoon. Our place was located about a quarter of a mile south of St. Peter's square. It just so happened that we were also just a few blocks from where Melanie lived when she came to Rome for her study abroad during college. That was a pleasant, unplanned surprised. She recognized the neighborhood and knew how to get around places, which was helpful because Rome is not laid out in an orderly way. It is an ancient city, constantly being added upon, rebuilt, etc... And it wasn't built around a grid or any discernable order. I constantly felt disoriented.

This was a beautiful city and the weather and air felt comfortable the entire time. We got some delicious pizzas and bruschetta that evening, walked around Mel's neighborhood where she stayed for two months in college, and then went to bed.



The next morning, a Wednesday, we walked to the Vatican and through St. Peter's Square to get to the Vatican Museum entrance. But the Pope was in town and he makes a public appearance in St. Peter's Square on Wednesdays. So the Square was crowded with thousands of people. There are a lot of Catholics out there.



We walked along the walls of Vatican City to get to the museum:



We toured the Vatican Museum, which is massive. It contains ancient artifacts of Rome, Christian relics, sculpture, and a lot of works of art. The highlight was the Sistine Chapel, which we were not permitted to photograph. It was surreal to look at. Many of the fresco paintings appear three dimensional. I was surprised at how well you could see details and how much human genius and ability can accomplish.







Old tiles on the floor of a living quarters of an ancient Pope:





We walked towards the river that runs through Rome and to this castle, St. Angelo that is outside of the Vatican, but connected via underground tunnels in case papal leadership ever needed to escape attack (like in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons):

That night we grabbed a meal near our place. All the food we had there was very good.

Paris

We made our way back to Paris by car with Melanie's parents. The traffic getting into the city was horrible even on a Sunday. But we eventually got to our apartment rental in the evening. We had a nice view out the window:



We woke up on Monday and took the metro to the base of Montmarte and hiked up the steps to the highest point in Paris. We toured Sacre Coeur, the church pictured below.



And here's us up at the top of Montmarte with Paris in the background:



We then took the metro to Arc d'Triumph

Then grabbed some food as it rained. It didn't stop raining so we went back through the Orangerie museum that Melanie and I had been through a few days before but were more than happy to see again. We went back to our apartment rental and Melanie's parents watched Beck for the evening as Melanie and I went out, went to a cool fondue restaurant in the Montmarte area, went to the Eifel Tower, and then walked the Champs Elyses.

Paris was pretty incredible. The next morning we flew to Rome.

France

We woke up early in Heidelberg to catch a train to Paris for a day trip and then, after our day tour of the center of Paris, we would catch a train to Cherbourg, where Melanie's parents are currently living and serving as missionaries.

As we were dropping our rental car off, I got stung by a bee/wasp for the first time in my life. All my life I had feared being stung by a bee, but I was disappointed in how little it hurt. Luckily, I am not allergic. It remains a mystery of what bit/stung me (or what I ate) and caused my upper lip to swell up while we were at the Oregon coast after Jason and Julie's wedding.

The train from Heidelberg to Paris was fast and smooth. It would've taken five hours plus tolls in a car and then the hassle of parking, but it only took three hours and no tolls by train. We arrived at Paris East train station, locked up our luggage and then got around using the subway system.

We got out at one end of the Tuilleries Garden (too lazy to look up spellings) and went to the l'Orangerie Museum to view Monet's Water Lilies exhibit. We weren't permitted to take pictures of it, but it was beautiful. The canvases are long and seemingly continuous and wrap around the walls in a figure eight shape. It was very peaceful and settling to observe and sit. On the lower floor, there is a large collection of impressionist and modernist painters that we enjoyed viewing.

Then we walked through the long garden Tuilleries towards the Louvre

From there we made our way to the left bank via Pont Neuf...



To check out Notre Dame.



That was our day tour of the main part of Paris. We got back to the station and caught a train to Cherbourg where we would stay with Melanie's parents for a couple of days.

Cherbourg is a port town on the English Channel. It was a major sight for the allied invaders during WWII and is not far from many of the D-Day landings. It is a small town with a lot of fresh ocean air. That Friday, we woke up and took a drive along the coast to a small town called Bar Fleur to get tour and get some good sea food. I got a big bowl of steamed mussels. They were meaty and tender. Very delicious. Melanie ordered fish and they sat the whole thing in front of her.

And then we walked around the small town for a little. We got back to Cherbourg and took it easy for the rest of the day, which was nice.

The following day, we went into the center of Cherbourg and toured around the market, picked up some baked items (in my view were the best baked items we had in our entire stay).







In the afternoon, we went to the Cherbourg Aqua Museum, which had an aquarium that Beck loved and a nuclear submarine to tour:





The next day we attended the LDS Branch in Cherbourg and then packed up the car for a drive back to Paris with Melanie's parents.



Along the way, we stopped at some WWII sights. Cherbourg is in the French state of Normandy where much of the D-Day invasion occurred. Driving east back to Paris, you pass by and through towns that you read about in WWII history books. I have always wanted to visit this region. It is green pasture land as far as the eye can see. Parachuters dropped into the fields and marshes throughout the region amid heavy German fire. And troops stormed beaches by the thousands, pressing the Germans into retreat and submission. Here is a picture of Omaha beach:

And some of the monuments and cemetery located on the bluff above the beach.

These were incredible sights. We made our way back to Paris to an apartment rental we would stay in. We'd tour some other parts of Paris with Melanie's parents the next day, then fly to Rome the following morning.

Heidelberg

We spent the next day touring the city we were staying in - Heidelberg. This is a beautiful, old city. In the morning, we went up the side of the mountain and toured the castle that overlooks the city:

There were a lot of tourists up at the castle, viewing the remnants of a one-time stronghold of a now fallen empire, a major artifact and landmark laden with history and culture. But when these Asian tourists saw Beck, all they wanted to do was follow him around and wait for him to do something cute.

In the afternoon, we toured through Heidelberg's long pedestrian zone and old town, grabbed some Gelato and then a meal at the Schnitzelhaus, that was delicious German food.

Frankfurt and Neustadt

We left St. Goar and made our way to Frankfurt to our mutual former companion and we got there around 5:00 p.m.

We walked through old town Frankfurt, which looks like this:

And then we got together for dinner and had a good time catching up and laughing about experiences from our mission. (from left to right, Ben, me, Jan)



Jan stayed with Ben and we took off for Heidelberg where we would stay for the next couple of nights. And we got to our place around 9:00 p.m.

We woke up on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and drove about 45 minutes west to the first town I served in - Kaiserslautern. We drove through it and saw some familiar sights. A lot of memories come back as you see places around town, apartment houses, streets, or buildings where you had experiences. I remembered this city fondly as it is where I was first exposed to Germany, was taken in by a friendly ward, had great mission experiences and struggled to learn the language.

We then drove about a half hour east through a forest valley to the next city I served in, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Neustadt is a hidden gem of a city. It doesn't have a lot of tourism except possibly among Germans who know it as a wine retreat town. It sits at the entrance of a green valley and its old town is well-maintained and quiet.



 



We hiked up a path along the mountain-side vineyard terraces and we looked out over the city.



We met this family I had taught while I was serving there. They never joined the Church, but we've stayed in touch over the years and we remain good friends. The Book of Mormon we gave them sits on their bookshelf. We took this picture on the corner where I contacted Herr Pletsch for the first time as a missionary. They enjoyed meeting Melanie and Beck and having Beck play with their grandson who is close to Beck's age (pictured below).



We really enjoyed walking around the peaceful and well-kept town. And I was glad to be back. Here is  Neustadt an der Weinstrasse city square at dusk:



We drove back that evening to Heidelberg where our apartment rental was and where we would tour the next day.