Horses of special quality and Water of Emperors

So I guess this time, I, the great letter F (or at least that is what I am referred to in this blog, and besides, being one mighty thing is better, I think, than an amalgamation of many somewhat power-imbued symbols) will proceed to tell of tale of "Krasses Pferd" travels (I guess only the German(s) in the room will get that. In short form, there is a German Western-Comedy where a group of Indians barely escape being run over by a train and one of the Indians says "whoa, Krasses Pferd" (which translates roughly to "rad horse") and then go to the next town's station and ask the station master "how much for your "Krasses Pferd").

We left Kiel on our Rad Horse on Mon April 1. In Frankfurt, we got on a less rad horse up to Friedrichsdorf (where the temple is). We checked into the Temple Hostel, which is seperate from the Gästehaus (guest house) that more like a simple hotel. We got a two-bed room, but bunkroom! And not those boring metal or wood maybe 2 meter bunkbeds, we're talking bolted into the wall at 2.5 meters with detachable ladder.

You'll notice that the room is very narrow. So much so, that it is impossible to even put two beds together, even throwing out such considerations like moving through or breathing (OK, maybe that one is an exaggeration). 

It was a lot of fun though, as we had the whole place, including the kitchen downstairs, to ourselves. That week was temple week for Dortmund and I guess noone wanted to stay in the hostel, since Dortmund is so close to Frankfurt. All the better for us.

On Monday evening we visited Schwester (Sister) Vollath, a dandy old lady S. often visited on her mission. While missionaries are generally only supposed to take an hour for lunch or dinner at a member's, Sister Vollath is one of those where you rarely get out after 2 hours. But this time neither S. nor her companion were missionaries, so we could take all the time we liked.

We spent a good 4 hours, fixing a computer problem she had, talking about us, about her family, drinking tea, talking, eating dinner, her telling stories of her experiences in Austria during WWII, more talking and in the end praying together. I could tell that she enjoyed having S. over, being able to see a dear friend from the mission again, married and with time to spend. 

On Tuesday we went to the temple and in the evening we visited the Klein Family (not at all related) for dinner. Their son married one of S's mission companions and S. got to know them while on her Mission. A funny anecdote on the daughter-in-law. Apparently, she enjoys telling people "Ich mag Klein sein, aber S. ist Kleiner" (I may be small, but S. is smaller), this of course referring to their new last names. 

On Wednesday we did we baptisms with a youth group from Dortmund. It was funny to see that youth behave about the same around the world. It was also nice for S. since she had served around the temple for months and done tons of sessions, but had never done a baptismal session. It was also nice for me, since I hadn't been in the Frankfurt Temple at all since I came with the Darmstadt youth temple trip probably back in 2000 or 2001. 

A quick funny note, our rad horse's trail passed through a city called Ludwigshafen. 

For those of you who don't know, S's nickname in the German House at BYU was Ludwig (My sister still calls her Ludwig 95% of the time) She got this nickname because she can do the intense eyebrows of Beethoven, seen here in a painting of him and a picture of her. S. also plays the violin and is generally a musical person. So because of all of this, we were going through Ludwig's Port, or rather S's Port.  

In the afternoon we took two different rad horses to Kaiserslautern (known as K-Town by many an American soldier. The city is next to the massive Ramstein US Airbase), my mom's hometown and where her older brother and his family still lives. I had only ever fleetingly known that side of the family (I knew my GMa well, since we visited her several times) but my GPa had died before I was born and my mom's brother lived outside of the city and probably a bunch of other factors made it that this was actually the first time I would get to know my uncle, aunt, and cousin (female cousin) who is often called Frosch (frog). 

Because of this unknown-factor I was a bit cautious as we first started talking with everyone, as I also didn't yet know the type of humor that family had or what type of stories were considered appropriate. But I am happy to announce that everything went extremely well. At least twice my aunt said: "I never expected to ever meet you, since your family is in Canada, but it is so nice to get to know you." And I have to say the feeling is mutual. 

S. got to laugh a lot because she noticed that my uncle (who is the brother of my mom) uses similar gestures and facial expressions as my mother. He also poses in similar ways while telling a story or explaining something. I didn't notice it as much since it's my mom, and you know your own family member so intimately that any comparison is just "no, that's not similar". But I guess with Forsyth and Thompson its the other way around. There I notice things that S. doesn't. 

H and E were great hosts and (among other things) took us to visit Castle Nanstein (Just as a sidenote, the castle was commissioned by Emperor Barbarossa to protect that region of Germany. He is also the reason the city he called Kaisers-lautern, where Kaiser means Emperor and Lauter is an old German word for clean and proper referring to the river that flows through the city)

What I probably enjoyed the most was talking with my cousin Frosch. Many times I had the feeling of "family, and family that gets me" and I detected similar flashes or excitement in her eyes at several points. One was when I told her my mom is also a logical and rational person. Frosch, who considers herself a rational person, finds it annoying where an extroverted woman is automatically seen as emotional. In her eyes was the sense of "a family member that is like me, so I am not just weird". We also had a great time getting to know some of Frosch's friends and just enjoyed meeting family that we could talk and relate to.

Frosch also gave S. a care package of plants, since Frosch's apartment was a bit overrun by green, and because S. is a druid at heart. We have started naming them and have now officially adopted Roberto, the funky Aloe plant, Lisa, the spider-plant, and Chuck, the rubber-tree. The others will be named bit by bit. 

Since It was General Conference Weekend, we listed to 2 sessions while on the way back to the Great now-pretty-much-green-but frustratingly-still-here-and-there-white German North. All on the Krasses Pferd.