Saturday, August 26th

Chris woke up just before 7:00 and kissed me goodbye before he left to take the cars and the girls up to the Frankfurt Airport. They returned the rental cars and then made it on to their 11:45am flight back to Salt Lake City. Meanwhile the boys and I slept another hour and then got up, ate breakfast, started on homework.

River Neckar Park

Our first Heidelberg excursion was to walk over to the River Neckar Park - which took us 25 minutes or so. The tree-lined pathways along the river are just beautiful.

While the boys played I journaled a few things…

“I don’t ever remember seeing the park so full. I guess it’s just a perfect Saturday afternoon to enjoy a breezy sunny 70 degree weather. Little boys have a pick up soccer game going on, a group of ladies are playing a casual game of badminton, beach volleyball games are going on, countless blankets have been set up for picnics and bbq’s and so many kids are playing on the playground equipment. It’s just amazing how many people are outside and NOT looking at their phones. I love it here.”

On our way back to the Old Town the boys decided they wanted to run the mile back so I got a head start and started walking and then they caught up to me.

We ate dinner back at the apartment. The boys watched a show and I worked on editing pictures. To bed by 11:00pm.

Sunday, August 27th

Sunday morning we walked down the hauptstrasse and bought tickets for the #5 train over to our Heidelberg church building.

After getting settled on our pew I wrote… “I’m sitting in our Heidelberg chapel right now feeling so nostalgic. I wish all our friends were sitting in their pews and Bishop Tillett was up on the stand with his cute bow tie on. And I wish I could just get in my van and drive home to my Sankt Leon house with Ryan asking me questions all the way home and my noisy kids in the back - and then make dinner in my kitchen. So much of our experience here revolved around our ward, our service and our friends. It’s a little surreal and sad to be back.” We were in a German ward but it looks like there are several English speaking people here working or going to the University. Our speakers are speaking in English as they say goodbye to the ward for the last two years. They are emotional, feeling grateful for their time here and say that wherever they go, this will always be home. The boys looked over at me right then and said, ‘just like us.’

Since there weren’t a lot of youth, the boys were asked to help pass the Sacrament — which was great. We love having church experiences all over Europe.

After church we took the train back to the Bismarcklplatz and walked on the Haubtstrasse back to our neighborhood. Once we got to the Church of the Holy Spirit and went in to look around.

Monday, August 28th

An Early Morning Walk

It was an overcast Monday morning but I grabbed my camera and headed out across the bridge, and for the first time ever, headed east along the river instead of west. I walked down the stairs to the cobblestone pail level with the water and picked up the pace for a good 30 minutes before turning around and coming back.

I’m sure I’ll take several pictures of the castle in the next two weeks - but this is what it looked like today. So happy to be here - overcast skies and all.

The Boys First Online Photography Assignment

… make sure your photograph has a subject and use several different camera modes.

It was so fun to walk around with the boys. I could see plenty of things to photograph but I patiently let them see things and then gave them tips and reminded them of my camera’s settings, which we had already gone over during one of their previous online classes. They took them and edited them by themselves.

They were pretty excited to be taking hold of the camera. “This is so fun!” I especially love Matt’s picture of the arrow on the cobblestone.

We used the Shutter speed mode and I taught them how to take bursts to get Matt frozen up in the air.

Tuesday, August 29th

School, editing pics and a walk up to the castle.

Wednesday, August 30th

I had talked up the Monastery ruins on the top of the Heiligenberg Mountain, so the boys were excited. It ended up taking us just over an hour to walk from our apartment, across the bridge, up through the cobbled stairs and pathway to the Philosphenweg and then up through the forest trails to the top of the mountain. The boys could have gone faster but we just hiked slow and steady up the steep zig zag trail and it was great.

We came first to the Heiligenberganlage Thingstatte - or Hitler’s Amphitheater as we like to call it. Immediately the boys recognized it from our home videos. “Is this the place where we raced up the stairs and where Ryan and Katie did a swing dance on the stage?” Why yes it is. Luke took off the backpack and made a run for the front stairs. It really is an impressive arena.

Google History: A Thingspiel was a kind of multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre performance which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Nazi Germany during the 1930s. A Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor amphitheatre built for such performances. About 400 were planned, but only about 40 were built between 1933 and 1939. The idea of the Thingspiel movement was that the people would gather for meetings and for theatre and propaganda presentations. The objective was "a drama that intensifies historical events to create a mythical, universal, unambiguous reality beyond reality. The dramas characteristically interwove audience and action, especially through the choruses, and sought to have the audience identify with the National Socialist revolution depicted. Thingspiele were as much ritual as drama, and the theatres were often referred to as "cult places". The Thingstatte was built to be very large to accommodate mass audiences and multimedia performances involving "entire battalions" of Hilter’s Youth or the SA (literally "Storm Division" or Storm Troopers -the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party). When the Thingspiel movement waned, the sites became festival sites and were used for performances of conventional plays and folk festivals.

The boys loved running around Monastery of St. Michael ruins. As soon as we walked up into the courtyard Luke exclaimed, “This is my kind of place.” No one to tell them not to sit on the ruins or touch the walls. They were free to climb, run and jump from wall to wall - and they LOVED it. I wandered and took some pictures and we ended up staying there longer than we’ve ever stayed. It was fun.

We visited the tower as well and then headed back down the forest trails to the Philosphenweg. We walked along the paved walkway to the garden courtyard and took a tun up another pathway hoping to discover our favorite German swings and we found the location, but the swings have been taken down. The boys were so sad.

We were back at the apartment by 3:00 - tired, thirsty and dirty. We showered, and rested for awhile and then went back in to the main square to eat chocolate strawberry crepes for dinner. Before bed we watched the second half of Mission Impossible 4.

Thursday, August 31st

It was a nice relaxing day. We slept in, showered, enjoyed the apartment, did homework, edited our hike pictures, called Dad, played 5 crowns... We stayed in the apartment for most of the day until 5:00 when I went window shopping on the Haubstrasse by myself. I sure wish I could order a few things and have them sent back home but I am limited by my luggage. I guess that’s good. When I got home the boys and I shared a RitterSport Mint chocolate bar and watched Mission Impossible 5 together in the boys room.

Friday, September 1st

When I opened the windows to look outside this morning it was rainy and the fog hovered over the church steeple. I woke up the boys and had them get ready quickly, grab their rain coats and join me on a walk to the bridge. Almost no one else was out so it was fun to have the bridge all to ourselves. Glad the boys are always up for a little exploring. Luke headed back to the apartment and Matt and I decided to head down the Haupstrasse in search of a pastry or something for breakfast. Instead of a bakery, we walked into the grocery store and picked up a few things - donuts, pretzel rolls, nutella, fanta and blueberries. It continued to be an overcast day. The boys worked on homework for a few hours and then enjoyed some free time. I finished posting some Varenna pics on Instagram and ordered a few things on Amazon that Chris will bring back for me. I got stuck reading some old blog posts of different times we’ve been in Heidelberg and Rothenburg. Such fun memories.

At 6:00 we got ready and headed out to the main square. Luke and I decided to enjoy a German dinner at the restaurant we love. Matt opted for a crepe so he ordered one from the stand and then took it back to the apartment while Luke and I headed to the restaurant. We ate inside and enjoyed a pear Flamkuken which is SO GOOD and a spatezla with mushroom sauce. We shared both and it was great. Luke is such a big fan of German food. ‘Is there a German restaurant in St. George? There should be. Why isn’t there more German restaurants? It’s the best food in the world.’ Love his enthusiasm. So fun to have dinner just the two of us.

Talked to Chris for an hour. I miss him.

Saturday, September 2nd

It’s just so nice to have the flexibility to do whatever we want. We had a lazy morning. The boys continue to do some of their assignments on Saturdays and Sundays to keep up the pace and do a little bit every day. They are ahead in every subject and it’s great.

At 4:00 we enjoyed our first excursion of the day. We headed out to the Heiliggeistkirche - the big church in the Heidelberger Marktplatz - our main monumental, cafe-lined market square. The tower is open only on Saturdays from 12:00 - 5:00 so we paid our 4 euro and climbed the 200 steps to the top. Fun to find our street and look down in every direction. After climbing the tower, we walked down to the Tegut to buy a few more pretzel rolls and then stopped to get gelato after our climb - oreo for the boys and amarena for me.

The Heidelberg Castle Lighting

We hung out for a while at home, ate sandwiches for dinner and then packed our bags for our second excursion — to see the lighting of the castle and fireworks from the Old Bridge. The bridge closed to pedestrians at 4:00pm for the firework set up so we walked 35 minutes up to the further Theodor Heuss Bridge and then down to the River Neckar park and along the river back to the base of the Old Bridge. By 7:45pm the small steep grassy area was almost packed — at least we thought so. We managed to find a spot to lay out our turkish towels - which have been so handy this trip - and sit down. The steep slope made it rather uncomfortable so we tried different positions and took turns standing and walking around. We played 5 Crowns and then read while the people continued to pour into to every available grassy spot. By the time the castle lights turned off in anticipation of the glowing red lights to appear, additional groups had crowded in to the side, front and back of us. It made us laugh.

Our location was amazing though and it was fun to experience the Castle lighting with so many people. The Castle first glowed red, then fireworks shot from the two ends of the castle ruins and then it went dark as the fireworks from the Old Bridge commenced. It was one of the best firework shows I think I’ve ever seen. Our proximity and the loud booming that reverberated off of the mountain walls was incredible. After the first loud boom we all looked at each other in shock. What a cool event. So glad we happened to be here for this event. Definitely memorable.