Thursday, October 28, 2010

Three Countries in One Day and Mission Memories

From Luzern, we went to Dornbirn, Austria. It wasn't in our original plan, but road took us through Liechtenstein, so we decided to stop in the capital city of Vaduz to check things out.
The first thing we noticed about the city was the pervasiveness of public art. It was quite wonderful. We also found out that stamps are a big deal there. Apparently, a lot of people come to the city only to get the stamps. I also found out that people really like to put those stamps on postcards and send them from Vaduz so they have the stamps with the Liechtenstein post mark on them. If I were a philatelist, I would have done that. But I'm not.We walked around and found a spot for lunch. I had the wurst, but apparently Bop and Beep had the worst -- worst hamburgers that is. I'm glad I didn't go for the hamburger. We all got a kick out of the menu though. One of the burgers was called the "BURG Burger" and was described as being a "beefburger mc burg." We're not entirely sure what that means, but we weren't sold on it.We enjoyed walking around town a little more and saw the parliament building. It had a cool modern feel.We also walked to a church in the middle of town, but it was closed for renovations.From Vaduz, we went on to Dornbirn. I didn't actually live in Dornbirn on my mission. I lived in Bregenz, just a bit North of Dornbirn, but we attended the ward in Dornbirn. While I served in that area, there were two women who were baptized. I really wanted to find out if they were still there. I was so happy to be back in Austria. I think if I lived in a foreign country, it would be Austria.We arrived in Dornbirn in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel. This was a great hotel with a wonderful design aesthetic. I thought the beds were even extra comfy. Once we were settled in the hotel, we went to explore the city. We walked to the walking zone in the middle of town and found that they were having a pumpkin festival. The coolest part of that was that there was a jack-o-lantern parade with kids lighting their pumpkins and pulling them around in wagons. It was so fun to see.We also had one of my favorite dinners at a super old restaurant called Das Rotes Haus. The house was amazing (and very old) and the dinner was wonderful in every way.The next morning, we got up and went to church at the Dornbirn ward. There was no one there that I knew, but I was able to find out where a few people were. I was disappointed to learn that one woman had quit coming to church, the the other woman's husband and two of her three children also joined the church and they were still active and living in a different town now.After church, we checked out of the hotel in Dornbirn and looked around town just a bit more before heading out. We also stopped in at a Rolls-Royce Museum just outside of town. Word on the street was that it was the largest collection of Rolls-Royce cars in the world. It was pretty cool.Then we drove back into Germany and went to Neuschwanstein castle. We parked the car and bought our tickets and had almost two hours before our tour would start. We looked in all the shops and at lunch before climbing up the hill to the castle. While we hiked and waited, the skies were completely overcast and it was a bit dreary looking outside.
We went on the tour and learned quite a bit about crazy King Ludwig II. He was an interesting character and built an amazing castle.When we came out of the castle, the clouds had completely lifted and the view of the castle was amazing. As we hiked back down to town, we saw the view of the castle on the hill and it was just wonderful. We had a great time visiting the castle and enjoying the scenery.
After leaving the castle, we headed to Fuessen, Germany and checked into our next hotel. It was a small guest house in a small suburb of a small town. The adjoining restaurant was our only choice for a dinner destination, so we tried it out. We all had to laugh when they asked us if we had a reservation when we showed up. It was just funny in such a small town like that. The dinner was fantastic though and we all enjoyed our evening.

1 comment:

LizzyP said...

What a great adventure! You guys look so great, Noelle.