Patience....

Patience is the word for the week....well in some cases for the last 5 months!   
I am surely being tested and I think I am about to break.  I really don't know how much longer I can hold on without being able to call my family and friends back home.  It's a long story and I don't want to bore anyone, but the short version is that we have been waiting to have high speed cable installed so that we can use our video phone. 
I hope my family and friends understand how much I miss talking to them and how hard this lesson in patience has been for me.  I try not to complain or be depressing when I blog, but I am just about to my limit.  If we hit six months without a phone and internet, I think I will go bonkers.

On another, lighter note for the week.  Karma and I decided to try taking the train to Trier on our own to visit the Easter Market being held there over the weekend.   I love taking the train and wasn't too worried about getting there and back.  However we did have a few little mixups, nothing that a little more experience wouldn't have fixed.  We only spent about 10 minutes and 10 different tries to buy our tickets from the ticket machine in Landstuhl.  So far, so good!  We knew we had to change trains in Saarbrücken and so we got off of the train and looked at the posted schedules to make sure we knew what time and which platform to be on to catch the next train to Trier.  No problem.  Next we decided we'd check out the return schedule and make sure there was a connection to Landstuhl for our return trip.  We saw "Landstuhl" posted several times and so we were good.  Off to Trier!!  We had to change trains in Saarbrücken and so we got off our train and looked at the first schedule we saw to see when to catch a train to Trier. It said it was about 30 minutes unitl the next train, but when we got inside, we saw a reader board that said a train was leaving in like one minute, so we ran up the stairs and way down the platform we could see our train... and just as we got close, it left the station!!  Well we just had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.  Reading train schedules is obviously more complicated than it seems.   I will continue the train saga a bit later.  But now we know!!    

                                                              
                                                Landstuhl Train Station

                                      Another cute train station (Bahnhof) in Serrig.






I know I have posted about Trier before, but I love this city!  It has just some of the most beautiful buildings and amazing history!   We made the short walk from the train station to the Porta Nigra.  There are pictures of the Porta Nigra back in the "Christmas Markets with Casey" blog.  Then from there we walked up to the Marktplatz. 
  The weather was a bit cold and gray, but not too bad if you kept moving. We had hoped to see and purchase some hand decorated easter eggs, but found out this was just an Oster Market (Easter Market) and not an Easter Egg Market. Apparently there IS a difference. But there were about 15 stalls with some Easter decorations, flowers and food. We wandered around and did a little shopping. I bought the cutest carved wooden, jointed bunny. Travis says he's creepy, but I like him!

  

Of course, by now my stomach was growling so we went in to a cute modern version of the Pancake House.  In Germany it is called Mein Pfannkuchen Haus.  I had a yummy bowl of Kartoffeln Suppe and 3 Pfannkuchen on the side with an Apfelschörle to drink.  I also took a picture of a sign on the table about the restaurant.  

With our tummies full, we went to explore the beautiful cathedral (Dom).  This is the oldest Christian church in Germany.  In 326 A.D., Constatine began construction on two churches to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his reign.  St. Peter's in Rome and this one in Trier, also called St. Peter's.  Of course not much of the original exists, but some of it does.  It was added on to for over a millennium and a half in many architectural styles. Notice how small the people in the picture are compared to the building itself. It's so big!  The church right next to the Dom is another church called the Liebfrau church.  It is connected to the Dom by a beautiful little cloister or enclosed courtyard.

*Reminder-you can click on any picture and make it bigger!

Karma and I wandered about  a little more.  We found the entrance to the yellow and white towered Church of St. Gangolf , the medieval townspeoples church built in 1507. 
We also walked through an arch and down the "Judengasse" (Jew's Alley) that led a gated ghetto where they Jewish people lived.  They were expelled from Trier in 1418 by the prince.

Enough history for today boys and girls...


Time for the train trip home.  We looked at the schedules and hmmmm!  No mention of a connection to Landstuhl in Saarbrücken.  All the trains seem to bypass it and go straight on to Kaiserslautern.  No problem, we saw the connections on several schedules posted in Saar., so we jump on our train and off we go!   When we arrive in Saar., we look at the schedule and WHAT!??  No stops in Landstuhl??   But that's where my car's parked!  We looked on all the posted schedules we could find.  Finally we had to accept that we were confused tourists and go to information and ask.  We found out that you just have to KNOW that the train makes a stop in Landstuhl.  It doesn't say it on the schedule (although we both SAW it with our own eyes earlier in the day).  To add insult to injury, we found out we should have just stayed on the train we were on.  Oh well, no problem....time for some hot chocolate and a nut pastry!!   It wasn't too long before the next train to K-town came through and we were on our last leg home.  Sure enough, it stopped in Landstuhl.  I guess somethings you just have to "know". We had a blast!!   I can't wait to do it again!! 


Weather report:  This week's forecast calls for rain and yes...you guessed it...snow!  But the high temperatures are in forties and the sun does peek out now and again.  There are bulbs poking up everywhere and the neighbors flowering weeping tree is starting to have some flowers pop out.  I can tell spring is just trying so hard to bust out all over and it won't be long now!!!   I hear the Germans love to garden and have beautiful flowers in every nook and cranny.  I am so anxious to see Germany in bloom!  


Travis is registered for the EFY program in Nottingham, England.  That is a week long church program for the youth.  He attended one at BYU last summer and loved it.  But, what an opportunity to go to one with kids from all around Europe!


That's it for now!   I hope to add more pictures soon, so check back.
love and miss you all,
-corri

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”

Victor Hugo quotes (French romantic Poet, Novelist and Dramatist, 1802-1885)