Dusseldorf Day Two

Day Two was lovely!  Tiffany and I slept late and then ordered room service for breakfast.  I accidentally ordered two of everything so we now have breakfast for the next three days.  Oops! :)

This is only half of the food.  We couldn't fit it all on the bed.  10 points if you can figure out which movie we were watching!

We took the train into Dusseldorf and after standing in a couple of information lines, we were handed maps and left to our own devices.  Deciding to save money, we opted to walk everywhere the first day.  We stayed in old town.  It was a gorgeous day!  Temperatures were in the high 40s/low 50s and the sun was shining!  I'd love to give you details of all of the different places we went, but I can't pronounce most of the names. :)

We decided first to go to Königsallee which is a length of street with shop after shop after expensive shop.  But in the middle is a small river (a creek?) with bridges and fountains and a walking/bike path.

Within a 2 block area there were 4 different H&Ms

This fountain reminded me of Percy Jackson...it is what it is

It's her name!!!!

We also toured a couple of churches and basilicas.  They were beautiful!

I was flirting with the statue guy

Outside of the Basilica

We found a small door - I wasn't sure Tiff would be able to fit through it!

She looks like she's praying, but really she's playing on her phone

All the churches had really pretty nativity scene setups

 And then we spent some time outdoors.  It was a beautiful night with a gorgeous sunset!

Dusseldorf Day One

Dusseldorf Day One

Today was a stressful day for me.  There’s no real explanation as to why today was more stressful than yesterday except that yesterday when I didn’t know what I was doing I still had more time.  Today when I woke up, I had approximately 5 hours until the taxi picked Tiffany and me up to go to the airport to fly to Germany.

I scoured the internet and eventually figured most of the trains we needed to be on.  The flight was only 2 hours but because we flew a cheap airline, we flew into an airport about an hour outside of Dusseldorf so we had to catch a bus to the train station and then a train into Dusseldorf.  Well, then our hotel is on the very edge of Dusseldorf so we took a taxi there.  There is a train that drops off very near to our hotel, but it was dark and I was ready to be in our room.

Thanks to my friend Hannah’s recommendation, we are staying in a very nice hotel for a really low price and while we might be making up the difference in train tickets into town every day, our hotel room is very comfortable.

There’s a really good hotel restaurant downstairs that we ate at.  One of the things that I love about eating out in Europe is that you don’t get rushed out of the restaurant when you’re finished.  The server brings you your food and then leaves you alone until you ask for the check.  And while it is a problem if you’re in a hurry to get somewhere, it’s wonderful if you just want to sit back and enjoy a nice, long chat with someone.  Which is precisely what Tiffany and I did.  We must have sat down there for 2 hours.

Also, I’m always reminded what a luxury it is to be able to communicate with people when I travel to countries where a lot of people speak English.  It was easy for us to figure out where we needed to go because everyone we asked could understand us and we could understand them.

Tiffany kept asking me why I was so stressed all day and I really didn’t have a good answer for her.  It felt like the culmination of a lot of little things on top of the typically high stress level I’m already at.  It’s difficult to explain but all day I was filled with anxiety and the only cure for it was when I was reading my Bible.  And so, it isn’t fun.  I’m not a typically anxious person so this is very unwelcome for me, but if it drives me to the Word, then I’ll embrace it until it’s gone.

Made it to the train station from the airport! Waiting to board!

On the train - sigh of relief!

Stress is going

De-stressing at the yummy restaurant

My Sister is Here!!!

My sister is here for Christmas and I could not have had a better Christmas gift (unless of course all of my family came up here)!

It has been a fun filled week!  She arrived last Tuesday and got to spend Wed-Fri with my class.  They loved her (of course) and had a blast wishing Merry Christmas to both Miss Nelsons and calling us Miss Nelson 1 and Miss Nelson 2.  She loved her (again...of course!  They are wonderful) and now how a better understanding of just how much I love my job!  She got to come to our Christmas concert on Thursday (I was so proud of my kiddos! They did fantastic!) and came to our Christmas party on Friday.

We've spent our evenings in the city enjoying the freezing weather, the beautiful Christmas markets, and regular life things like going grocery shopping and trying to figure out just which bus/tram to take to get to different places.

So far we have visited the Christmas market on Vaci (the biggest shopping street), going to the massive malls, walking down the lit up Andrassy, Heroes' Square, St. Istvan's basilica, Matthias church, Castle Hill, Buda Castle, and the Hospital in the Rock.

Most fun of all...it snowed yesterday!  I'm so glad that she got to see some snow!  It wasn't the huge snowflakes that we had a few weeks ago but it snowed all morning.  Probably a good 2 inches.  And then it rained all afternoon which didn't melt it but turned it into huge blocks of ice.  We also had the fun experience of climbing over the gate when it froze shut at 10:30 last night! :)  And we saw The Hobbit in one of Budapest's English theaters. (soooo good!)

Today is Hungarian Christmas and most things are shut down but we are going to have Christmas with some of my favorite people in Hungary: the Hollowells and my friend, Hannah.  I have attempted to make Buttermilk Pie but I have no idea if it is any good.  Maybe I'll take some of the mounds of chocolate that I got for Christmas as a back up.

Tomorrow, we are planning on spending some time with the Mullets for Christmas.  Their daughter, Kelsey, took over my job as Wesley's nanny and is back for Christmas while her parents prepare to return to America.  We laughed about what we're going to do together tomorrow.  She's going to sit there crying because she wants to stay and I'll sit there crying because I want to leave. :)  All kidding aside, I'm looking forward to hanging out with her and her family.

We leave for Germany in a few days!  I will post more about that when we get back. 

In the meantime, Merry Christmas (Boldog Karácsonyt), I love you, and I miss you!