The hills were alive with the sound of rain.

The first best side trip we went on was a friend road trip to Salzburg, Austria; Frankfurt, Germany, and Heidelberg, Germany. Salzburg was rainy, but filled with lovely lights and even lovelier, surprising castles. Frankfurt had a temple and a nice outdoor market. Heidelberg had pretty buildings everywhere. And pretty water. And little boxes of gummi bears on the hotel pillows, instead of mints. One of the best moments was visiting an amazing Cathedral pre-Mormon church. I loved watching the procession, and hearing the angelic voices reaching up to heaven. They sang "All Creatures of Our God and King" in a non-English tongue. It was enough just to recognize it. More than enough, really. But my very favorite part of the trip was the company we had, in our new friends Katherine and Eric. They moved to Vienna two weeks before us, and left almost exactly two weeks before we would leave.

That trip also marked the first significant amount of time I would spend in a car, post accident, awake. I was very scared at first (which fear may or may not have been heightened by being on Germany's autobahn), but it slowly dissipated, and Eric was a competent and trustworthy driver. It was particularly important for Spence and I to go on this trip, because we were picking up our shipped belongings from his very kind cousin, Janelle, who so willingly helped us. This in itself is what allowed us to cycle Europe for two weeks before rolling into Vienna at 1:30 in the morning with nothing more than biking clothes and camping gear. Needless to say, it was wonderful to have more clothing options. Especially warmer clothing options, as it was already starting to feel winter-like at that time, or at least late-fall time. One sad thing was, that every box arrived safely, but the box we sent very first, from LA, with our winter coats, boots, scarves, gloves, and so forth. It also carried five months of contact lenses, and my favorite dress and favorite tights. I was bummed, but grateful for every package that did come through. Thanks K and E for accompanying us on our journey! Thanks Janelle, for hosting our packages!

Just two guys, making brunch in a Salzburg park.

Spencer's new coat and my ten euro jeans to get us through
 that weekend. Notice the castle on the hill.

Frankfurt, Germany LDS Temple.

K and E Perrson. We like them. A lot.