Today was the best day of the trip so far. Valerie finally arrived! After a mess with flights that got her and my mom here a full day late, we finally get to enjoy Europe together. I’m really glad to see my mom too. It’s been fun to connect with so many family members in one trip, all on another continent.
Everyday life
We got to spend the morning hanging out with my cousins, Liz and Isaac. Isaac is a youth pastor on the Army Post (base) near here in Wiesbaden. He took Grandpa Vogt and me onto the base for a quick tour this morning. We learned a lot about how military life is organized, what goes on on an army post, and a bit about the history of the location. Apparently, it used to be a Wehrmacht (German army) base in WWII that Hitler frequented. That guy sure got around. There was even an old eagle statue that once had a swastika on the front.
Once we picked up Valerie and Mom from the airport, we headed back to the house to drop off the bags. We loaded up in the van to head to Heidelberg, but first got a surprise visit from the watering truck that goes around town to water the plants!
Heidelberg
We took an hour-long drive to Heidelberg to check out the castle there. On the way, we got to experience what driving on the autobahn is like. It feels just like a normal highway lol. I think most everyone stuck to about 75 mph, so it’s not the free-for-all racetrack that they always make it sound like back home.
The castle was super cool! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time there. I wasn’t able to pick up on any history in the time that we had, so that’ll have to come later. It sure was beautiful though.
Within the castle, there was an Apotheken (pharmacies) museum. Kind of random, but it was really interesting! They had all kinds of information about the history of pharmaceuticals over the last 2000 years, along with plenty of samples of the plants that were used to make medicine. Again, didn’t have time to read much. There was a lot of interesting history there though! The old dioramas gave me Harry Potter vibes again. I’m curious how much we have at home that could be used to make a magical, fantastical world that people would be interested in.
Next up
We’re heading to Zurich, Switzerland tomorrow morning. We should have plenty of time to walk around the city and scope things out before the Anabaptism @500 conference on Thursday. I’m super excited. I hear the city is gorgeous, so hopefully it won’t be too crowded yet.