Good-bye to Poffertjes

We started and finished our weekly activities with late arrivals (after midnight) at Vienna, Austria and returning home from the Netherlands to Frankfurt.  In between we had a wonderful week of experiences during day time hours, including a beautiful P-Day in Vienna.  Our visit to  the Netherlands was our last, and included some positive Self-Reliance progress and tender farewells.

Visiting the sighs in Vienna with a personal guide and transportation

When we traveled to Hungary (see last blog entry) we found it much less costly to fly into Vienna, Austria and take a train to Gyor, Hungary.  This allowed us to delay our return by one day and enjoy a P-Day in the beautiful city of Vienna on Monday.  Our arrival by train was at 11:23 pm on Sunday evening.  By the time we got to our hotel, it was early Monday morning.

Our hotel in Vienna was across the street from the Schönbrunn Palace gardens.  The photo below shows the majesty and architecture of the hotel.

Sister Rueckert in front of the Parkhotel Schönbrunn

We spent our morning walking through the Palace Gardens and to the Palace.  We then took a tour of the 1,441-room Baroque palace, which was amazing.  No photos were allowed inside the Palace, but we found the audio tour very informative and the decor exotic. FromWikipedia:

  "The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was built and remodeled during the 1740–50s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa^[3] who received the estate as a wedding gift. Franz I commissioned the redecoration of the palace exterior in the neoclassical style as it appears today.
Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of the newly-founded Austrian Republic and was preserved as a museum."

Sister Rueckert at the back side of the Palace

Looking out from the back of the Palace at some of the Gardens and the  "Gloriette"

The front of the Palace

From the entrance to the Palace grounds

We then took the metro to the old town part of Vienna, beginning at the St. Stephens Cathedral.  As we got out of the metro, we were convinced to buy some tickets to a classical concert that evening.  That left us the afternoon to see all that we could.  We found part of our answer in the form of a charming bicycle transport.  He took us through much of the downtown area in just over a half hour.  He was also a knowledgeable tour guide, answering questions and taking photos for us.  In the end we paid him his fee with a tip and a pass along card. 

St.. Stephens Cathedral

Our Transport and Guide with a monument and the outline of the Rathausbehind

Some of the photos form our little tour, which give an idea of the amazing architecture everywhere:

In front of the Hofburg, 

Another view of the Hofburg, closer up

Museums Quartier

Palais Herberstein

View of the Rathaus

Opera House

Parliament Building

Motzart Memorial

Can't remember the name of the building, but it looks cool

We then took time to explore by foot, including walking down the amazing pedestrian streets.  Vienna is known for their coffee houses and cafes where individuals can stop and get a coffee or a drink and spend hours relaxing and in conversation.  This is Vienna!

Sidewalk cafes near the Albertini Art Museum

Sidewalk cafes on the walking streets

World famous chocolate cake from the Sacher Hotel.  It was really good!

Walking down the pedestrian streets

During this visit I finally understood the name of Wiener Schnitzel.  It apparently was created in Vienna, which is Wien (in German).  Hence Wiener Schnitzel is schnitzel from Vienna.  

We had to taste the Wiener Schnitzel which was very tasty

Finally we finished up our day at the House of Music, attending a concert with music from Motzart, Strauss and others, reminiscent of the music played in Vienna at that time.

We had front row seats, up front and very personal

Performance included 4 different opera singers and a dancer

This was the end of a perfect day in a beautiful part of this world.  The next morning I was able to go jogging in the Schonbrunn gardens before we checked out.  The gardens are immense and the atmosphere invigorating.  I was able to run and explore most parts of the gardens:

The obelisk fountain on the eastern portion of the gardens

A selfie  amongst the beautiful garden trails

A special location for pigeons to roost in the center of  one of the gardens

Photo of the Palace taken from the gardens

A view of our hotel from inside the gardens

We then went to the airport and returned to Frankfurt in time to spend the afternoon in the office, getting caught up on work.  That evening we had the privilege to meet up with Jeff Braithwaite and his wife, who were visiting from SLC.  Jeff is the controller of the Self-Reliance Department and replaced me in that role.  He is also a good friend from many years.

We went to get ice cream with the Braithwaites and President and Sister Johnson, our Area President.  We were then able to visit in the Johnson home, where the Braithwaites were staying.  We were pleased to learn that our request for additional budget funds for our expanded missionary force was accepted in SLC.  This was a wonderful visit and an opportunity to get to know President Johnson and his wife better.

The next morning (Wednesday) we were able to resume our German class which had taken a summer break.  This has proven to be very helpful in our progress to understand the German language.  The photo below is of our German class meeting in Sister Keyser's apartment:

That night we met again with our recently returned missionary sisters for lesson 3 of our My Plan for Returned Missionary classes.  They are always a delight to be with.

On Thursday morning we finished up our work in the office and our preparations for our last visit to the Netherlands.  On Thursday afternoon we drove to the Netherlands, arriving at our hotel in Zoetermeer.

The next morning we were able to hold a video conference with our missionary couple in Spain and then attend the temple.  We were only able to do initiatory work for a few and then we were able to participate in an endowment session.  We were proxy for Sister Rueckert's 7th great grandparents Jeremias Hopher and Martha Catariina Eisenhardt.  They are now ready to be sealed together.

After the temple session, we went to our scheduled Self-Reliance activities in the Rotterdam stake.  There we were able to participate in the training of ward self-reliance specialists that was organized by Martha, the stake self-reliance specialist.  All of the specialists were there!

Training of ward Self-Reliance specialists in the Rotterdam Stake

Martha has worked very hard to get the self-reliance initiative started in her stake and her efforts are bearing fruit.  The training session went very well.  After the training we had a meeting with the Stake Self-Reliance Committee.  President Bijkerk told us that the Self-Reliance initiative was emphasized in his recent meeting with the Coordinating Council.  This meeting also went very well, the new "agent" bishop had been in the previous meeting and was very supportive.  We left the meeting feeling like this stake is finally getting moving.  A devotional was held a few months ago and new SR groups are starting.  Unfortunately, Martha has moved to the Antwerp stake and will need to be replaced.  President Bijkerk told us that the new specialist should be sustained next month in their stake conference.

President Bijkerk and Martha, the stake specialist during the Stake Committee meeting

Martha, Stake Relief Society President and
"Agent" Bishop

On Saturday we went back to the Temple for one more endowment session.  This time, Sister Rueckert was proxy for Anna Jckelsheimer, who is my 8th great grandmother.  I had a very special experience when doing the proxy work for her husband in The Hague temple the last time that we were there.  Sister Rueckert also had a very special experience with Anna.  We feel that they are certainly waiting for their work to be done.  These are the moments that make our family history efforts even more rewarding.  I was also able to be proxy for a Johann Adam Rueckert, who is a distant relative.  This is the same name as my grandfather.  He was born in the same region as my grandfather 15 years later.  That made it a very special temple session for each of us.

The Hague Temple with beautiful gardens on a day that the son began to shine again

After the temple session we visited the city of Ghouda, which is nearby.  That is where the famous Ghouda cheese comes from.  We eat it all of the time in Germany.  There we visited an amazing Cheese store with many different flavors of cheese available.

In the 't Kaaswinkeltje Cheese store in Ghouda, Netherlands

With an incredible variety of cheeses.  We were able to taste sample of many different flavors.

Many flavors and colors of cheese

More cheese for sale

We also found out that poffertjes, one of our favorite Dutch foods, were first invented in Ghouda.  So we decided to have a meal while in the vicinity.  As we walked to the poffertjes restaurant, we were told that we had to cross the canal.  We then discovered a delightful bridge over the canal being moved up so a boat could go by.  The bridge was manually moved.  We found it a delightful example of many things Dutch:

Canals in the streets, bicyclists waiting to cross and going down the street, bridge elevated

Manually lowering the bridge

Finally we made it to the restaurant.  There we had a ham, bacon, cheese, onion and mushroom pancake which we found to be enormous and delicious.  We then had poffertjes for dessert.

Stuffed Pancake

Poffertjes

Finally we went to the Apeldoorn Stake Self-Reliance training.  The meeting was conducted by the stake self-reliance chairman and had representatives from most of the wards.  If there was no ward specialist, they had members of the ward council, either the relief society president or a priesthood quorum leader.  We felt that President Kempenaers did a wonderful job of exercising the priesthood keys.  Devotionals had been held in each of the wards, but no groups had begun for lack of organization and facilitators.  In this meeting we trained members about the role of the SR group facilitator and challenged them to ponder and let the Holy Ghost identify at least one person in their ward who can facilitate a SR group.  As the meeting ended, they appeared ready to take the self-reliance initiative one step further throughout the stake.

President Kempenaer instructing the ward leadership in the doctrine of self-reliance

Some of the participants in the training.

Mor participants in the training

Once again we left enthused about the future for Self-Reliance in this stake.  We weren't sure what we would experience on this trip, but it far exceeded our expectations.  We have been working wth these stakes for the past 18 months and the progress has been slow, but it is now starting to accelerate.   We left the meeting at 9:00 pm and made the drive back to Frankfurt, arriving a little before 1:00 am.

This was most likely our last visit to the Netherlands on our mission.  We have learned to love the priesthood leaders and the members in these stakes.  We have had incredible experiences in The Hague temple.  This has been our second home in Europe as we have visited here each quarter for the past 18 months.  We have said our goodbyes, including to the poffertjes, windmills, tulips and cheese.  We will miss them!