Germany: Architecture and such...

I don't know that this post will motivate any comments (especially since the last one only rendered one), but this was part of our trip, so I'm going to show you.

Europe definitely has a different way of doing things when it comes to building. Mostly, they build things to last for an expansive amount of time. If you go there, you'll see lots of buildings that have been there for centuries. However, it seemed like they weren't satisfied with what they already had. We constantly saw big cranes like this all over the place.

In Tuttlingen there is a huge company that makes medical supplies. Their building takes up about 2 or 3 blocks all to itself!In many of the towns we were in and passed by, we would see a lot of this...

Buildings, crammed together on a hill slope. I expect this is because the Germans love their countryside and so they fit as many homes as possible close together in one town. This way they can still look at the other hills around them. I don't envy their parking, or lack of backyards.

This still makes me laugh. A lot of the homes and buildings are very traditional German houses and then you see this..

I'm sorry, but a stainless steel staircase???? It was so incredibly out of place. Especially the color. However, more and more the younger generation is taking over what is accepted and cool. The modern look is breaking through the typical European genre of housing.

While in Triberg, we saw quite a few murals on the sides of buildings. This particular picture is of the Triberg Waterfall for which the town is so well known for.

This is in Switzerland, in a town called Stein am Rhein. Which translates (roughly) to mean Town by the Rhein (river). This particular area was kind of a maze. Don't you love the clock tower?

Some of the things we saw in the town.....
Okay, now this is just a weird German thing. They like to hang their Santas outside the windows and decorate them differently. Some were kind of morbid, as you can imagine. I love that this one has the American flags. Yay!
At one of the restaurants we ate at they had these little treasures on the wall and by the tables.
The castle Schloss Sigmaringen was amazing to look at. All the different and wonderful pieces.
This one just makes me laugh. I wonder if the royals would freak out if they saw this on their castle.Inside the church right next to the castle.
Okay, this doens't have anything to do with architecture or buildings, but it's just funny. This guy's job was apparently to keep the sidewalks clean.Yes. He is sweeping the sidewalk. And he's such a cute little man.
Alright, one last post of pictures and I can't wait for this one....

Germay: How we kept entertained...

We were in Germany for two weeks and we had a few little kiddies to haul around and keep occupied. Not an easy task, let me tell you! Here's most of what we did on our trip.....

Thankfully, Ty brought his computer and along with it some of his games. He, of course, started playing Warcraft 3. To pleasure of the parents the boys rallied around it like it was the coolest thing since regular milk (ours wasn't all that amazing). They each took turns and Ty taught them the ropes. Here's a picture of my nephew Troy. He's like a Video Game Prodigy or something.

Ty can't believe the kids just beat his score. Lol. Either that or they broke his computer.

This is the little toaster/convectional oven we had in the apartment. This was the only way to heat things up other than the stove. There's two little lasagnas in there. It was kinda rough not having at least a microwave, but we made due.

We played lots of games while we were there. Lots and lots of games. :)

After awhile, in the apartment, things started to get a little weird.

We decided to head over to Triberg ("Treeberg"), to see the lights and the Waterfall show.

This video isn't all that great, but you can see a man holding and tossing around "fire sticks". I wish my camera would have worked better for this because it really was pretty cool.

You can see the waterfall, at one point when the light flashes on it. Oh yeah, and the guy holding the sticks with fire is standing on a bridge over the waterfall and is totally bare on top. We were bundled as well as could possibly be, but were completely freezing. I hope that fire kept him plenty warm. If you would like to see a better video of this guy's show, check out this link. Incidentally, Triberg's waterfall is the largest in all of Germany.

There were so many things we didn't see that night, since we got there kinda late. So we decided to go back for a day and see what else there was to offer.

My Dad was really excited to see the Brett Family Singers. If you watch BYU-TV then you might have seen them before. My parents actually met them when they went to church. The church there is still small and growing, so they only have one ward for a very big area. They were both very surprised to meet other Americans there. Papa Brett went on his mission to Hamburg and spoke very good German.
Mama Brett had gotten very sick and was in the hospital the day before (Sunday) this performance and didn't want to risk being outside in the cold. VERY understandable.

After their "outdoor show", we cuddled up next to the fire they had just down from the amphitheater.

Where we ran into the missionaries. Haha, this picture says so much about each personality.
After a bit of walking around, and window shopping, we went to the Brett Family's indoor show. It was interesting to see how popular they were there. Just FYI, yes Briahna has a brace and cast on her leg. I believe she actually injured it while on this trip.
If you would like to see more of what we saw, go to this link. This is actually a professional video, but it's crazy to see those things and think I could have been in the video because we were so close to those things that were going on. Here's a link to the Brett Family's site if you'd like to take a gander.


Moving right along on the excursion. My grandparents took us (i.e. showed us the way) to Switzerland, where my brother and dad almost got their fingers bit off by the birds.

On New Year's, we went crazy with fireworks.

Next we saw, probably the hugest, Advent Calendar in the world.

Which was right next to the castle, Schloss Sigmaringen.
This was the closest we got to taking pictures inside.
Okay, so I was still outside. Ty was actually "inside" the castle in his picture.

We were not aloud to take flash photography because it ruins the the paintings they have inside.

So many things to do and yet so little time....but there are definitely more pictures to show you.....

Germany: Family and Temporary Dwellings

The best part of going to Germany was that we got to see and visit with family. We got to meet my uncle's girlfriend/partner in crime/sorta wife person (it's complicated can you tell) and "their" daughters. Most of the time we spent ALL together was in the house that we were renting from and elderly couple who live there as well.

These are some pictures that my Opa took of the place we stayed when they first went to look at it:

This is only the side of the house, but really this is the side we saw the most, since we were coming and going so much.

This is the little cottage behind the house where my uncle's family stayed while they came to visit us.

View looking over from the cottage.

This is the lady that we were renting from. She and her husband live in left half of the second floor. Sweetest woman alive! When Ty and I first got there, her family was there having their Christmas dinner and they all welcomed us in and invited us to stay and drink with them. They looked at us like we were crazy when we told them we don't drink alcohol. Haha, it was good fun.

The inside of the house wasn't enormous, but quite comfortable. As you can see by the pictures below there was quite a few of us gathered together. My "Aunt" Petra looked like she swallowed a football as she said, "This is such a big family." And we're only getting started. Not quite enough seating, but plenty of people to keep us preoccupied.

This is the little kids room.

You see these small beds? Ty and I had two that we pushed together so we could sleep next to each other. Honestly, not the best sleep I've ever had. Funny story about the blankets. Some of you might know about this already, but in Europe they have this thing about blankets. While visiting a friend, she gave us a tour of their very modern and newly built home. When we came to the bedroom we notice the same pattern of separate blankets that had been creeping around everywhere we went. We told her in the states we just have one big blanket that we share. She looked at us shocked and disgusted and replied, "Oh! I'll share everything, but NOT MY BLANKET!!" Hahahahahaha. I'm not really biased towards them. It's not very condusive to cuddling.

This is my mom and her baby brother Werner (after my Opa). He is such a sweet guy and pretty funny. He's constantly thinking of others. He gave each of us (nephews, niece, and sister) 50 Euros for Christmas. I love my German family and I will miss them dearly.

These are my Omi and Opa. Aren't they such a cute couple!? Can you believe my Omi will be 85 this year? I know, I'm in shock! I love having European heritage....means I have great skin. My Omi even said so. :)

Holy lots of pictures BATMAN!!! And more to come.....