Acropolis and Corinth Tour

Saturday, November 8, on our Athens Adventure, we loaded onto a private tour bus at 8am for a full day of touring!

Let me back up a moment to say we thoroughly enjoyed our breakfasts at the hotel, and I really miss that daily spread...coffee, amazing Greek yogurt (kind of the consistency of Cool Whip but much better tasting), feta cheese, olives, breads, meats cheeses, boiled eggs...I skipped the mini hot-dogs, but everything else I had was amazing. Mmmm.

Our tour took us first to the Acropolis before the crowds hit. First stop, Mars Hill! So incredible to stand on the place where the Apostle Paul spoke to the Athenians about the "Unknown God." We read that portion of Acts 17 while looking over the city. Chill-inducing!

Next up, the Acropolis, where our tour guide gave us more info about the structure itself, the myths behind the temples, and some insight into the culture of the Golden Age of Greece. I'm so excited that our whole family will return here before we move away from Italy, as we have planned a cruise in the future!

On what would have been the ramp entryway for animals to be led up for sacrifice.

The Parthenon! I'm actually here! And yes, it was raining at this point!

To the left, in the clump of trees, is the stadium where the marathon ended.
Lower right are the remains of the temple of Zeus.

Shauna and I

Temple of Poseidon, also located in the Acropolis area

After a lovely time exploring the Acropolis, we began the drive to Corinth, stopping partway for a snack and potty break and the opportunity to see the canal.

On to Ancient Corinth! More chill-inducing moments as we saw the Bema area where Paul was dragged when the Jews were angry with him for stirring up trouble, as usual, ha! We read 2 Corinthians 4 out loud there, having seen one of the latter verses carved on a stone. So. Incredible.

You can see the difference between this temple and the structures at the Acropolis, which were built from marble hauled from a mountain we could see in the distance.

I loved the pottery!

Samples of columns. Test: Can you identify the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns?!

Standing on the Bema

We ended this beautiful day with another wonderful restaurant experience. We all ended up sampling each other's food, and I can't remember everything we tried, but it was all fabulous. Tirzah and I especially enjoyed our iced coffees!

Next blog entry: RACE DAY!! This day of touring ended with us going back to the hotel and attempting to get some sleep...after such a huge and late lunch, none of us felt like eating much for dinner, so we snacked a bit and tried to settle in for some rest. (HA!)

Road Trip--From Hungary to Home

[Arg--months after the fact--but I must finish what I started!]

After enjoying our time in Poland, we spent a L-O-N-G day driving to Hungary. Slovakia is beautiful, but with winding, two-lane roads most of the distance, it made for some slow going. We were thankful to finally arrive at Jozsef and Zsuzsi's house and to meet their 3 children. Last we had seen Jozsef and Zsuzsi in person was at their wedding in 2006! Jozsef had been one of my English students when I was there the summer of 1999. Having accepted Jesus the summer before at the English program, Jozsef was ripe for discipleship, and we spent many hours discussing God's Word and the Christian life. They are a special family, and we were delighted that they wanted to host us during our stay in Kecskemet.

Their family left for a reunion the day after we arrived, which worked well for us to stay in their house but left us with less time to spend together. We spent the first day puttering around Budapest, where I got to show the kids some of my favorite places.

In the evening we got to enjoy a wonderful Hungarian dinner in the home of "Mama Magdi" and "Papa Erwin," who hosted many English teacher teams! I lived with them for two summers (1996 and 1999), and they are dear, dear people. It was a pleasure also to see two of their daughters and one of their grandchildren!

Ted took the kids the next morning to downtown Kecskemet so I could do some work on the Commission Bible study. Jozsef and his family returned later that afternoon, so we walked to get ice cream and enjoyed visiting some more. The next morning we attended church together, where Jozsef translated for us, and after one last lunch together, we left for the city of Vezsprem, where Ted was to teach a course for the military folks there. They hosted our family in their military guest house, which was huge and very exciting for the kids to have so much space to run around in! This was a good thing, because after a wonderful first day in which we were treated to a visit to the local zoo, we spent the next couple of days housebound while I dealt with a stomach issue. Ugh. At least we got out and about and enjoyed the beautiful city sights and restaurants the first day!

Ted did a wonderful job with teaching despite some stomach issues of his own, and we were relieved to get back on the road again headed for home. We drove to Rimini, Italy, and stayed in a hotel near the beach. After a lovely walk along the beach that evening, we enjoyed gelato before turning in one last time before reaching home.

The next day we took time to go to San Marino, where Ted and all the kids except Tobin took a cable car to the highest point. Tobin wasn't feeling well, so he and I hung out in the Suburban. A bit disappointing, but what can you do? We have pictures somewhere, but I can't seem to find them right now...

We were so happy to reach our home again! The only bad thing was that the power had gone out in one of our circuits, so our deep freezer smelled horribly of spoiled items. Other than that...things looked good! What a blessing to experience so many things in 3 long but short week!

Road Trip--Poland

[Arg! I'm falling farther and farther behind!! Now I have even MORE to blog about, but I haven't even finished our spring road trip update!]

We reluctantly said goodbye to the Czech Republic after our too-short stay and made our way to Krakow, Poland, where we had an apartment in the city for 3 nights. Our first night consisted of figuring out how to get ourselves parked by the apartment building and ordering pizza from their hotel restaurant to devour in our rooms.

As our apartment was really a collection of bedrooms--no kitchen or furniture other than beds--we decided to eat at their restaurant for breakfast the next morning. It was a bit more pricey than we would have liked, but we weren't in any position to argue...when you're hungry, you're hungry! Our agenda for this day: the famous ancient salt mines in Wieliczka. The tour was long (nearly 3 hours) but very interesting. Particularly astonishing is the huge underground chapel carved out of the salt! The mine never used slave laborers (to clear up a common misconception!) and brought in considerable wealth to the area. We scarfed down an amazing lunch at a tavern right outside the exit of our tour...we were so glad to sit down and enjoy our food after such a long time down in the mines!

Tobin, Kenna, and Lucan rest on the carved salt floor while listening to our tour guide tell us about the cathedral.

The reliefs really were quite amazing!

Resting after our tour finished

Mmmmm! Lunch was YUMMY! (OK, yes, some of the kids chose familiar pizza, but Lucan loved his Polish pancakes, and Charis, Ted, and I thoroughly enjoyed whatever ethnic dishes we got--I have since forgotten the name of what I ordered. Sigh.)

After resting in the apartment during the afternoon, we decided to head out to explore the Old Towne square. It was a beautiful evening, and the square was lovely. Sadly, [some of] the children clamored for familiar food, so we stopped at Burger King to soothe young palates. Charis and I enjoyed a yummy [and quite late] dinner at our hotel restaurant, sharing a Greek salad and potato pancakes.

Day 2 in Poland had us investigating some WWII history. In the morning we went to Schindler's Factory, which may have been a bit "boring" to the younger kids, anyway, but Charis, Tobin, and Arden were definitely old enough to get quite a bit out of the tour. We watched a film at the beginning that was maybe a half hour long and gave a great overview of who Oskar Schindler was and the role he played in helping so many Jews have a decent working environment and protection during a very precarious time. Walking through the museum was a poignant and thoughtful experience. As we approached the end, however, my heart began hammering when a museum official indicated that I needed to follow her. She spoke no English, but it was clear I was to go with her, so, pushing Seanin in the stroller and calling out for Charis to tell Ted that I had to go, we scrambled to keep up with the woman who led Charis and me to an elevator. As it turns out, she was "kindly" helping us to avoid the stairs that the others ended up taking to get to the end of the exhibit...I wish she would have been able to tell us that, because I felt rather gypped at not being able to finish the end of the tour! Ah, well.

Schindler's desk and office area

In the afternoon, Ted and I settled the kids in the apartment, where the younger boys napped and the older kids watched DVDs on the laptop so that Ted and I could slip away and drive to Auschwitz (taking Seanin with us to make things a bit easier). It took us about an hour just to get TO the infamous concentration camp, so we felt rather pressed for time...even though we normally wouldn't hesitate to depend on Charis for babysitting services, being in a foreign country is an altogether different situation! She had one of our cell phones so we could text each other the whole time, but still...it was unsettling in more ways than one...

Our DIY tour involved purchasing a guide book before joining the throngs of people heading into the camp area for the post 3pm self-guided tour opportunity. (From 10am - 3pm you can only go in with tour guides.) It was sobering to actually walk in such a place. Appropriately, it rained during part of the time we were there. One can only imagine how dreadful life was in those times, particularly during harsh weather. I can't even put into words how I feel about the capability humans have to inflict unspeakable cruelty on others...

After an emotionally exhausting day, we decided that pizza in the apartment would be a great option. Ted did take the older kids out for ice cream since they had gamely stayed cooped up for the afternoon, but we were ready to turn in fairly early since the next day was a travel day.

Thinking that it would be a fairly easy jaunt to get to Hungary, our next destination, the next morning we opted to pack everything up and leave it in the apartment, ready to pack into the Suburban upon our return, then head to Old Town square one more time since we felt we didn't get enough time to enjoy the downtown area...plus we wanted to shop a bit!

We found some delightful hand-carved games and treasures at this stand.

Ted with all 7 of the kids!

Beautiful green belt in the city

I love traveling with my family!!

What a great way to end our time in Poland! Three days probably wasn't nearly enough, but we are so grateful for the opportunity to spend even that amount of time here...with our big family, we didn't think we'd even be able to make it this far from southern Italy. God is good!

Road Trip--Czech Republic

We thought we were staying in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic as a launching point for exploring Prague, a city that everyone here raves about. But when we drove around the outskirts of this fairy-tale like city, we fell in love immediately! It looks like something out of a storybook! We got settled into our hotel rooms and then went walking downtown in search of dinner. It was about a 20-minute walk from our hotel to the city center and so picturesque. The restaurant we ended up choosing served us some of the best food we had on our whole trip.

We all agreed to skip Prague altogether. I'm sure it would have been fantastic to see, but we were only staying in country for two nights, and it would have been a 2+ hour drive one way. Given our time constraints, we chose to explore Cesky Krumlov, and we are all so glad that we did. From wandering through a mirror labyrinth to seeing bears in the moat of the castle (a tradition that dates back to the 1200s), from climbing the highest tower in the city to throwing rocks in the river, we took in as much of the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this beautiful city.

Road Trip--Germany!!

I am so, so, so, SO far behind in blogging! Before I let myself blog about the adventures we're having with our Colorado family who are in Italy now, I want to at least briefly give an overview of our big road trip from April and May so that when I scrapbook the year 2014 (probably a couple of decades hence), I will have a clue what all these pictures are about! I'll break the posts down into our main locations. Thus, I give to you our adventures in GERMANY.

Saturday, April 19
Today was the longest day of driving we had planned: from Napoli, Italia, to Edelweiss Resort in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The kids did a great job, but we were so very glad to arrive and find our deluxe loft suite ready for us. We were also extremely hungry and devoured the pizzas from the hotel restaurant before crashing.

Sunday, April 20 (Easter)
While it would have been amazing to attend the sunrise service for Easter, it wasn't possible with our late night and tired/draggy kids. Still, we did what we could to focus on the meaning of the day. I had packed the Resurrection eggs from Family Life, and the kids enjoyed hiding those and remembering the parts of the story. The kids also went to the hotel lawn for a giant egg hunt. By the time Ted got down there with our kiddos, most of the eggs were gone. Zaden batted his big, sad eyes at one of the hotel clerks and managed to procure plenty of extra eggs though!

Once Seanin was up from his nap, we had our ducks in a row and piled in the Suburban for our first adventure: getting to the top of Germany's highest peak, Zugspitze. We waited in line for close to an hour to ride the cable car up the mountain, but time went faster once I began chatting with a deaf couple whom I had seen signing in line behind us. They weren't from America, but they knew ASL well enough, and we had a lovely conversation. I'm so thankful I got brave enough to sign them a few questions! They were so sweet, and I was thrilled to find that I remembered so much sign language from our time in Las Vegas, when I learned quite a bit from my friend Sarah and her family and got to practice at least once a month when I met with a dear group of older deaf ladies to teach stamping classes.

Anyway, we got to the top of the mountain and enjoyed wandering around seeing the views for quite some time before getting in line to take a smaller cable car down to the train that would take us the rest of the way down the mountain. This part of the journey was very slow, and we were more than ready to get back to the hotel and rest.

Monday, April 21
Today's excursion took us to Salzburg, Austria, which we attempted to explore on our own for the morning and early afternoon. We managed to find a few of the locations where scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed (the official tour was too expensive for our whole crew). Then we drove a short ways out of the city to a wonderful place--Hellbrunn--where we took a fun tour of the trick gardens around a palace and got nice and wet in the process! There was a beautiful playground and garden area (where the Sound of Music gazebo is set up!) right there, so we relaxed and let the kids play awhile before starting back. Aside from the fact that massive amounts of traffic doubled our time getting back to the hotel...it was a great day.

Tuesday, April 22
We took it easy today. I took the older kids swimming while Ted kept the little boys for naps in the hotel room. We had a tour with Jake from "All Things Garmisch" scheduled for 4-6pm, so we let that be our main event for the day. Jake was awesome. He told us all kinds of great stories about the town of Partenkirchen, where we did our walking tour. We learned a lot about local culture as well as some general tidbits about German life that we didn't know about. The tour included a stop at a playground, where the kids played while Ted and I hiked up to see an abbey. We saw some unique buildings in the town, heard stories about the beautiful paintings on some of the buildings, sat in a theater where a challenge from The Amazing Race was filmed, and ended the tour at a restaurant where we had an absolutely fantastic German meal. YUM! The kids loved Jake and learned a lot (I think the candy incentives were helpful there...), and to this day they still light up when we mention Jake the tour guide. Well worth our time and the cost!

Wednesday, April 23
This was a full day! We slept in as much as possible, then headed out for lunch and the afternoon. We ate at a "magic restaurant" in Oberammergau, where the proprietor came out and did various magic tricks at the tables, up nice and close so the kids could see. They loved that, and the food was great, too! Then on to the alpine slide, which was H-U-G-E, way bigger than we expected. The younger kids were too little to go at all, so Ted went with Kenna, Charis and Tobin shared a car, and Arden went by himself. I stayed at the bottom of the mountain with the little boys, who were troopers in waiting for at least half an hour before we could go anywhere: it started to rain, and I didn't have the keys to get back into our car! So we huddled under a roof overhang until we finally saw the rest of the family cruising to the end of the track.

Next up was Linderhof Palace, the summer home of King Ludwig II. Since we had seen Neuschwanstein Castle last summer, it was great for the kids to have a reference point. We all especially enjoyed the room of mirrors, but the whole tour was nice--not too long so that our littles didn't get distressed! Walking around the garden and courtyard area was cool, too. Very beautiful and peaceful. On our drive back to the hotel, we took a different route so we could see Lake Plansee (in Austria), and the kids had a blast throwing rocks into the water. It's the little things.

Thursday, April 24
We reserved this morning for a leisurely stroll through the town near the resort to do a bit of shopping and playing. Charis was in heaven when she found a yarn store, and the boys were thrilled to go back to the playground we had discovered on Jake's tour. We had a fast-food type of lunch, but the food was good (schnitzel is just good wherever you get it, I think!). In the afternoon, after we got little boys settled for a nap, the older kids watched a movie while Ted and I slipped out for a date hiking the Partnach Gorge, which is located close to the ski jumping stadium where the Olympic competition was held some years ago (can't remember which games). The walk through the gorge was beautiful! And definitely something we would not have wanted to take all the kids to! We enjoyed our time together and capped it off with a coffee on our way back...but we agreed that it didn't come close to Italian espresso. I think we're getting spoiled.

Friday morning, April 25
Our last bit of sightseeing in Germany took us to Ettal, a little town close to Garmisch where there is a monastery that apparently is famous for the cheese it makes and the beer it brews. We spent some time gawking at the beautiful cathedral before grabbing some bottles of beer to bring home (Ted wanted to have some to share when his brother came to visit) and then settling in for the traveling portion of our day--through Munich and on to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic!