Wednesday, 13 August 1952:

All of us had breakfast on the house this morning. The hotel had made this offer for all of us. Our breakfast consisted of cold milk, rolls, and jam. Then we were off at 8 a.m. but we didn’t get too far. The bus was sick with a gasket or something of the sort. American Express came to our aid and we’re back in Heidelberg. We had to report back at 9 a.m. to get the good word on how long the repairs will take.

L.O. and I dashed through the quaint streets of Heidelberg looking for Haus zum Ritter which was the oldest mansion. After help from several of the natives we found it right across the street from the Holy Ghost Church. We curiously ventured to the church to see how it had been divided. We walked down to the river and then wandered back through several other churches. There was a big red sandstone building past the library known as St. Peter’s Church or Peterskirche, which had cloisters. Then we went off window shopping until 9:00 a.m.

American Express gave us news that the bus would hopefully be ready at 2 p.m. I decided to make an excursion to the top of Konigstuhl, the highest point on the mountain. We stopped at a shoe shop on the way. Alice’s purse and my sandals received a nice polish. We wandered all over searching for the funicular.

Then we climbed the dark stairs to the top of a tower. Too bad it was a hazy day. On the way down we stopped at the castle to look for Helen’s lost glasses. And we talked to a cute German guide and learned the German word for cloister which was oterskirke. We also met some Spanish women.
We stopped in the university bibliotek reading room where there were a collection of manuscripts, original charter and registration, Luther’s manuscript, Goethe writings, and papyrus. There were manuscripts from Persia, India, Greek and Arabic as well. The founder of the university was Heinrich. We caught sight of a chimney sweep on our way back. Then we had dinner at a snack bar with the rest of the mob. There was a bearded man from the day before that was here again. He doesn’t look like an American to me.

Finally, we where back at the bus at 2 p.m. and it was ready and waiting. Yea! We were finally off to Frankfurt. Kids, who were late, were charged for being late today. They were burned up cause they didn’t charge yesterday for being late.

Still we made good time to Frankfurt and arrived about 3:30 p.m. We stopped at American Express and I received a letter from Mom and a letter from Twila. Mom sent me a clipping of President McKay’s European tour report.

Next we reached Hotel Eden Am Zoo which was a new hotel built by the Marshall Plan near the zoo. My room 204 sat behind the main hotel in a separate building. It was comfortable and we each had a little card with a map of the city inside.

Alice called her cousin who then invited Alice, Betty Lou, and me out for dinner and a bath. We caught a special cab which cost 90 cents or $1 in script. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Jonas and family had a beautiful apartment and a German maid. What a delicious dinner and wonderful bath! We just got finished in time to walk over to a church through a big park and Forben buildings that had been taken over by the U.S. Forces. They hadn’t been bombed in World War II. The maid accompanied us on our walk. When I looked ahead there was a nice chapel and a big crowd waiting for us to give our program.

During our program our septet got started on the wrong foot. We didn’t get our pitch, but we pulled through okay. Several numbers seemed to have a little difficulty, but all in all it turned out okay, I guess. We had to change it from the night before because there was no room on the stage for the dances. So we left them out. An extra talk by Henry was added and the Italy deal was changed to a poem instead of a song. There was a big visiting fest afterwards.

Later we visited the mission home and it was the biggest and nicest we had seen. Mrs. Cannon took us on a tour and everything was spotless. I took a quick look at the guest room where President McKay had stayed. Then we ate some homemade candy and President Cannon took us down to see the mailing room plus some other rooms. We arrived at home about midnight or thereabouts. And I couldn’t decide which bed to sleep in.