The Herbst Family: A Trip to Visit My Parents

Riding the S-Bahn. We took a 45-min train ride from the Munich, Germany Airport to the main train station called the Hauptbahnhof to catch an express train (U-Bahn) to Vienna.

My parents have been talking about going on a mission for several years. As my dad drew closer to retirment from Zions Bank, it was on top of their list as one of the first things they wanted to do. He retired in August 2011, and 3 months later they had their mission call. I hate to say I had mixed feelings, mostly good, but was a little sad to see them go, worried about them, how my kids and I knew I was going to miss them terribly. My family is very close and I have been blessed to live only 10 min from their home for the last 8 years. I look up to them so much, value their opinon, enjoy spending time with them and admire everything they do. Anyway, one thing that helped me cope with this decision is the fact that Senior Couples can have visitors! Mike and I made the decision that no matter where they were called, we were going to go visit them on their mission...even if they got called to Oklahoma. When they opened thier mission call on November 17, 2011 and found out they were heading to the Alpine German Speaking Mission (Austria), we were thrilled for them and knew we needed a little longer to save our money.

One of the arrival and departure boards at the Hauptbahnof Train Station in Munich, Germany.

Trains and people everywhere!

We booked our tickets in March and started making preperations. My parents have already had a few visitors and they knew exactly what to do, where to stay and the best days to go. I was not worried about a thing, once we got there. The hardest part was that our plane tickets were "stand-by" and to say the least, it was very stressful! To get there and the way home. But, with many prayers from my family and hundreds in our hearts, two miracles happened to get us there and we were very blessed to make it on both flights...on time!

After we jumped on our express train in Munich...it took us 5 1/2 hours to ride through the beautiful country to our destination of Vienna, Austira, where my parents were waiting. This is how I spent most of my time on the train. I had been awake and traveling nearly 28 hours and have a hard time sleeping on the plane. With the 8 hour time change and at this point, I was exhausted!