Chic Shopping & Students for Christ!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Last night we had yummy spaghetti Kristen made & we played with the noodles making fun mustaches. Then today...After a yummy frustruck (breakfast) and a leisurely start to the day we took the train to Kurfersterdam (sp?) which is the chic shopping district in Berlin. We passed a cool sand castle building competition while on the train. Berlin has so much going on, all the time! We were on a hunt for some Swiss chocolate that the lady in Switzerland promised us was in Berlin. We wandered the street to no avail. So we went to visit the Memorial Hall in the Emperor Wilhem Memorial Church almost completely destroyed in WWII. Only a portion of the tower & hall remain. It has been purposely left like this to serve as a reminder that "This site is both an admonition against war and destruction, and a call to reconciliation in Jesus Christ." Now that's powerful. The church hall had amazing mosaics on the floors & celings. I really liked the nail cross desplayed. I just reminded me of all that a couple of nails (just comon elements) can remind me of and the overwhelming gratefulness at how undeserving I am of God's grace. There is a new scantuary & chapel built on the site and all the stained glass windows are made from fragements of glass recovered from the old church. So amazing! The sanctuary is kind of ugly from the outside but the color from the inside is amazing! It caused me to think of how the Lord looks at the heart not the physical apperance and that James 2 passage about the least & the greatest being the same in God's eyes. We sat inside the sanctuary and listened to the organist play while looking at the beautiful windows!!! Well we went down to Alexanderplatz to go to the Kaufhof Galleria department store to buy me a new purse!!! :) and to see if the chocolate was there. NO it wasn't but my purse is super cool! So we asked someone there if they knew where this super duper special chocolate was and they said in KaDeWe (ULTRA CHIC SHOPPING, think Sak's 5th Ave) So we eventually found KaDeWe in Wittenberg Platz (even the U-Bahn station was super beautiful)! We bought LOTS of chocolate and other fun little things to bring home. We didn't even tempt ourselves by looking at clothes we couldn't afford! Back to J & K's to get the car & K drove us out to Tegel Airport to pickup John's sister, who we had breakfast with in Efurt, Stephanie, returning from CA. The traffic is crazy & the taxis are insane!!! Kristen totally kept her cool, I was yelling at other drivers from the back seat but Kristen was totally cool. We headed out to the Students for Christ meeting, John & Kristen's weekly meeting with their students. It was soooooo cool! We got to eat a light dinner, spend time worshiping in song & then J & K's pastor Paul preached to the group and another John helped translate. It was so amazing to meet some of the girls that Kristen does Bible study with and great to see the group worshiping and so committed to the Lord. How exciting! One of the girls (who helps Kristen lead Bible Study), Rike, was making Kristen translate everything back & forth into German & English for practice even though she speaks perfect English. Kristen's a rock star at her German, I'm so proud of her! We were laughing because Amy had her hair in pigtials and Rike said, "Like Pipi long-stockings" How could she know that we love Pip? Awesome! Also she was cracking us up because the reasons we are "Not Normal" Americans are tri-fold, 1) We have traveled abroad a lot, 2) We are 27/28 and not married. (According to her, normal for Germans, NOT Americans. She said she'll be in Ohio in December & shel'll round up some German husbands for us by then, he he. I told her I was doing okay with my man. She gave me a skeptical look) 3) we are thin (Oh...bless her heart!!!!) Love that girl! Hopefuly when she moves to Louisiana next year she'll come visit Amy & me! Yesterday we went North to the Baltic Sea town of Stralsund. More on that later.

Things I've Learned in Europe Part Zwei!

• I heart Washington State smoking laws!!!



• The French are different than the Germans



• I love being an omnivore.



• Night trains are like meat lockers for people. The only difference is they are warmer.



• If you take a picture of nothing (or something) 7 other tourists will whip out their cameras and take a picture too.



• Gardens are wonderful.



• Cars are overrated



• Composting is cool



• Water with bubbles is better (it makes my nose tickle)



• I love to hear Kristen sing, Her life IS "DAS MUSICAL"!



• Backpackers who don't shower, when one is readily available, don't prove how tough they are. They just stink.



• Laundry can be exciting! (I heart dryers!)



• I love being with John & Kristen.



• Beer is an appropriate breakfast beverage (in Switzerland).



• I love Wenatchee!



• I think cows with cowbells are great!

The Joy of Worship in Community!

Sunday, June 15, 2008 (Father's Day)
Walking along Lake Geneva to stroll among the perfectly pruned rose gardens of the Parc de laGrange. Yellows, pinks, reds, peach, and verigated roses lifted up their heads to worship the Lord this morning with their beauty, each leafy green stem lifting it high, dew poised on each petal as ifto weep with joy at the begining of a new day. Statues & fountains contribute to the serene scene. Downing a late we walked the winding cobblestone streets to Calvin Auditory to go to the Scottish Presbyterian church. This is what heaven will be like! Color. That's what struck me first. Asian, Indian, African, American, European maybe even South American peoples were all represented in the pews. A beautiful older African woman sat two pews in front of us and she had the most gorgeous ebony skin, wise eyes behind green pearlized glasses, a pink, yellow and green head scarf and matching traditional dress. She carried herself like royalty, but not arrogant or haughty, more like an assurance of her worth in the Father. Two couples were baptizing their boys and one couple the dad was from Switzerland & the mom from Sri Lanka, their son Naim; the other, dad from France & the mom from Nigeria, their son Ivon. Man, sooooooooooooo beautiful! I get teary at almost every baptism! I loved that before the baptism the pastor in his Scottish brogue talked about the children and then brought them around to the congregation so that we all could see the babies before they were baptized and the church promised to help bring them up in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ! So great that the pastor took the time to show the importance of these children to the Church. I just got to meet, hopefully, two new members of the body of Christ. Wow! The prayer the pastor gave was for our world-wide community. For peace, for the United Nations, for diligence in each of our jobs to do the work Christ has called us to. Amazing. There was a guest speaker this morning, Rev. Dr. S. Wesley Ariarajah, who was actually the grandfather of Niam. He spoke on Matthew 9:35-10:8 about Jesus speaking to the crowd and upon seeing them he had compassion. Pastor Wesley asserted that this wasn't the first time Jesus saw this crowd but he saw them in a new light and had compassion on them. He had an 'ah-ha' moment. Not that he wasn't aware of their suffering or how they were 'like sheep without a shepherd' but it appears like this was a deep ache in Jesus' heart when he looked upon these people. Dr. Ariarajah is a professor of Theology in New Jersey and every year takes students to Southern India to orphanages and outcast communities and many of the students have never been outside the US. And the moment that they grasp that there is a lot to our world and a lot of that includeds suffering and those in desperate need they have a moment of life changing compassion. Pastor Wesley likened it to this moment Jesus had for these people, a new love of them and a newly broken heart for them. Wow! I loved worshiping in my language this morning. It gave me a new appreciation for what the reformers did for our faith. Instead of hearing mass in Latin, for the first time, Luther brought the people the Word of God in their own language! I love being able to understand and to join in worship actively! It also makes me miss church at home. Being away you can feel the distance from those you usually worship with. I never understood this so acutely. After church we went to a very French restaurant that only served 'le menu de jour' salad, bread, steak, and french fries (ironic huh). Such yummy steak! They keep bringing around more steak & fries too till your full. Ernie...this is your kinda place! We were packed in with ALL the locals, which made it much more fun, and we enjoyed the food, atmosphere & the FOOD! The French do the food well! After lunch we rolled out the door to the Museum of the Reformation...winner of the 2007 Museum of the Year for Europe. It's a tiny little thing and kind of new. They have interactive displays and videos to watch. It's more about the cultural and political ramifications of the reformation than about the theological side of the reformation itself. We attempted to find Calvin College & get Amy's picture in front of the school that was her alma mater's predecessor but when we finally found it, it was undergoing MAJOR reconstruction and you couldn't even really see around the barricade to keep people away from the construction. Amy climbed a little wall and leaned over to get a picture of the net shrouded building. We walked back through the Parc des Bastions to get to our hotel & put on the packs again (oof!) and took the tram back to the station to catch our train to Biel/Beinne then another to Basel and in Basel we caught the night train to Berlin. The train to Berlin was 15 min. late and then we sat at the platform for another 15-20 min. The Swiss may make watches but I don't think they're very good at using them, at least as far as the trains go. We found our sleeper compartment "couchette" six tiny bunks crammed into a 6.5'x6' cubicle. Fortunately we only had 2 other roommates, a couple a little younger than us from Bern. They only had tiny over night backpacks so they let us shove our HUGE packs under the beds, otherwise we would have had to shove them above the 3rd row bunks in a small luggage compartment. Our beds were too close together to sit on the bunks so it was stand in the hall (with barely enough room for a person to pass when you are pressed flat against the wall) or lie on your bunk. Amy & I didn't get dinner and bought snacks int Basel so we went to the dinning car to eat and journal. We couldn't see in the dining car because of the 'mood lighting' and there were no seats at all except this weird long bar- bar stool thing with no table. We opted not to buy overpriced sodas and sit in the bike car on the astroturf and eat. We got some weird looks from people but we were enjoying ourselves and could actually hear ourselves talk. Very nice. We decided since there was nothing else to do, change in the nasty train bathroom, brush our teeth in the non-potable water and go to sleep in our 6.5'x2' beds. I was terrified, because we were on the second level that I would fall off the bunk if the train lurched or I rolled over. It had a side rail that came up about an inch above the bed but I figured it would be more like a speed bump if I was rolling off. With the aid of my sleeping mask & Tylenol PM I slept though the night and didn't even fall off the bunk!
Monday, June 16, 2008
We woke up to the trains' PA system saying "cock-a-doodle-doo" kinda cute. And it was like college, roll out of bed and see everyone in the hall with their jammies & bed head racing to get to the 3 bathrooms on our car. We arrived in Berlin 30 min. late but our dear, sweet Kristen meet us at the tracks! It was like being a local having someone greet us!!! Coming back to John & Kristen's is like being home or at least home away from home! Kristen certainly has the gift of hospitality (and so does John). We're going to the grocery store here soon & I'll let you know more as our days in Berlin unfold! Be home in 5.5 days. Wow!

Viva Espana in Geneva & trying to recall my French!

Saturday, June 14, 2008
To Geneva! We got yummy cappuccinos and nutella croissants for our train journey to Geneva. I got my Spain t-shirt so I can proudly root my boys on to victory over the Swedes! As we sat at the station waiting on our train, we noticed the George Bush ad on the bilboard across from us was decorated the night before by some of the crazy Holland fans with an orange hair do & an awesome walrus mustache. Who knew G.W. was a Netherland's fan?!?! On the train we met a sweet old French Swiss man who spoke only 3 words in English “Hello” “Sweetheart” and something else. He must have been at least 85 and he helped me get my HUGE backpack on. We were admiring his sweet dog (Lucy) who sat like an angel the whole way from Interlaken to Bern. Even when he had to go to the restroom she sat staring down the aisle waiting for him to return. We knew he was on his way back because her tail started wagging like none other! I’m sure PJ would be that good on a train. (Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!) Scary thought! We jumped on a train from Bern to Geneva and saw a view of Lake Geneva all along the Western shore. Beautiful lake with very French homes and vineyards! So odd to have such distinct groups of people living in the same country since the 1200s! In the German sector it’s GERMAN and in the French it is only FRENCH!!! So I’m attempting to use the little I learned from Madame Baker in one year of French class. I can read & translate WAY more than I can understand and speak. We finally found our hotel via tram and asking several people at info desks. We took a walk to find Jean (or John) Calvin’s grave. Very unassuming, unlike many of the other graves in the cemetery. Then onto the Promenade des Bastions in the Parc des Bastions outside the University. Huge chess sets were in use by tourists, old men in caps, and college students alike! We visited the reformation wall depicting the reformation and various events (over 150 years worth) that were shaped by the reformation in a variety of different countries. Prominently featured are the four main reformers (according to Geneva) Guillaume Farel, first to preach the reformation in Geneva; Jean Calvin, the ‘pope’ of the reformers; Theodore de Beze, the first rector of the Academy and John Knox, the founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland. On to the Calvin Auditory, where Calvin began to preach the reformation to all refugees fleeing their countries because of persecution. Here they met for prayer and instruction in the Word! From this little church came the Dutch & Italian Christian Reformed traditions & the Presbyterian (in Scotland and beyond!). We’ll go to the Scottish Presbyterian service here tomorrow at 11am! I’m excited! They have some awesome windows and a glass monument to the reformation (see my pictures for more info). Taking a stroll down the twisty turny coblestone ‘roads’ in Geneva we made it to the English Gardens and the Flower Clock. Done up in the colors of all the teams playing locally, the clock is made to look like a red and white soccer ball. (Again, see pictures.) We also got to see the huge fountain Jet de Eau (Water Jet) in the harbor. Ate dinner and watched the game, after checking out my fellow Espana fans in the FanZone, at a little French café with good food and the game on a big screen. Everyone in there was rooting for Spain too so it made it fun! It was a tight game with both Spain & Sweden scoring in the first 20 min. or so of the game. In the end, my hero, David Villa pulled out all the stops and scored to win the game 2 to 1! Few! Back to the room to send all this stuff out and let our adoring public see what we’ve been up to! Be home in less than a week! See you then!

Cow Bells, Clouds and other Alpine Adventures

Interlaken, Switzerland
Wednesday, June 11 - Saturday, June 14, 2008
Well, another day, another town, another group of crazed footballers. This time instead of the Swedes descending, it’s Amy’s people….The Dutch! Hup, Holland, Hup! Is the cheer heard all over Interlaken! I LOVE watching football! What a fun culture! I still have to be doing something else while watching but I love it. The camaraderie and passion! It’s great! So we rolled into Interlaken after ALL day on the train from Salzberg, through the northern border of Lichtenstein, to Zurich, to Bern and then to Interlaken. Over 6 hours on a train. We called our pension (think B&B) because we couldn’t figure out where to go and she said she’d come pick us up at the station. About 5 min. later Frau Claus (pronounced Klaus not like Santa Claus) came strolling up to the lost Americans with the HUGE packs and led us the 2 blocks to the pension. It’s a great little place, all remodeled and we’ve got a cute double room with a kitchenette and bathroom! Awesome! We asked where an ATM was so we could pay her (it’s a cash only business) and she said don’t worry, just get it to her before we go. Who runs business like that anymore? No one in the states! For our reservation she only took my first name. I think we’re the only ones staying here and it’s Sfr 80 a night. A heck of a deal compared to other hotels and hostels we were looking at. So we dropped our bags and found an ATM & then went on a hunt for some Swiss Fondue! We found a place that offered fondue about a block from our place & we decided we were so tired we’d go for it. First of all there was only one guy who looked like he could have been Swiss, the rest of the employees were selected to work there merely because they may speak an Asian dialect that the various clientele may need to converse in. Our gal was not a native English or German speaker. We managed to order cheese fondue to split & chocolate fondue for dessert and split a 3dl of wine (it’s like sharing a bottle of coke, I think she was laughing at us like we were light weights.) One of the waiters (the one who spoke Korean, “Anyong”, was leading a cheer in Korean with the bus load of South Koreans in the corner. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the uniforms where t-shirts with the restaurant’s logo on the front and cow print waist down. The ladies wore like a velour cow print mini-skirt and the guys velour pants reminiscent of MC Hammer’s wardrobe in the late 1980s. The guy running the place or the manager, I’m not sure which, was quite enthusiastic about everyone in the restaurant finishing their meal and kept coming around encouraging everyone to keep eating. He reminded me a lot of Rex of Rex Kwondo from Napoleon Dynamite! He sadly had no Starla & for some reason Amy wasn’t jumping at the chance!
Chocolate fondue with marshmallows, apples, bananas, & fresh strawberries! Yummers! Then off to sleepy land.
7:15AM, Thursday. The two places next door are under construction to build condos so I woke up to hammering and men yelling about last night’s game (I think, I don’t know, I think I already said I don’t speak German). Amy somehow miraculously slept though it but I was up! We were debating to go up to Grindlewald & see the Alps & do some hiking or stay in town. It was gorgeous down in town but when we looked at the weather up on the mountain it didn’t look too good, all socked in. We thought we’d go get breakfast (@ McDonalds, don’t judge) and then see if the clouds had moved out or if the wind had picked up at all. An hour later it had not. So I said “Let’s do it tomorrow” Amy said “Ok, rain or shine” “Agreed” Perfect! We made train reservations for our couchette from Basel to Berlin overnight. Wanted to make sure we got on that one! We tooled around town looking in some of the really cute shops! And then took a stroll out toward Interlaken Ost (East) along the Aare river and walked the promenade to BrienzerSee lake. It was a beautiful walk and we stood in the aqua colored alpine lake…oh so chilly! Not a lot out on the lake till you get really far around and our tummies were yelling for lunch so we made it back into town and ate at a little Italian Café run by a sweet Italian Swiss man. We had salads, (woo hoo for veggies!) and a Hawaiian pizza for 2! Perfect! (Not very Italian but that’s okay). The Dutch are out in their Orange today! Amy’s been sporting her Hup, Holland, Hup, orange sunglasses and either we’ve been getting hit on a lot or there’s a lot of team pride. I’m going to go with the latter. We shopped some more and made a stop in a heavenly Chocolatier’s Shop! Oh the wonders! We indulged in some real Swiss chocolate delights. Amy the dark varieties and me the milk & white! Hallelujah! We got Amy’s computer and headed back to McDonald’s only because when we were there for breakfast we noticed a free internet sign. Apparently that’s only for 30 min. So we made our Yotel reservation for London and checked our e-mail, time’s up! We cruised around town looking for wireless internet for less than SFr18/hr. and couldn’t find anything only P.C.s for the afore mentioned price. Bummer. So, back to McD’s and we paid the Sfr 30 for 24 hours. And then we sat e-mailing and posting blogs, pictures, etc. until they closed at midnight. On a positive note, Ernie called!!! We watched Austria & Poland tie and also we watched Germany loose to the Croatia.
Today we headed to the Alps. Oh boy! I’m thinking Heidi and goats and cows and the MOUNTAINS!!! How exciting. One of the things on my bucket list, hike in the Alps, about to be checked off! We rode a beautiful scenic train up to the little community of Grindlewald, passing pens of goats & cows. Rocky cliffs stretching high above with waterfalls cascading down into the valleys forming turquoise streams flowing into rivers. Wildflowers in bloom, laundry drying in front of Alpine homes! It is picturesque and beautiful. Older women out tending their garden patches and elderly men waving at the train passing by. We walked down a small path to Grund to catch the gondola up into the Alps to the Mannlichen trail head. We zoomed off the platform up the longest gondola ride in the world (supposedly) seeing veiled mountains in the distant foothills surrounding Grindlewald. Cows moo and clang their bells below us and green hills are all around. What an amazing opportunity. As we reach the Mannlichen summit we exit ready to begin our hike in the Alps! We look around at our surroundings and see………………………………................................................NOTHING!!!! Grey clouds everywhere! My camera wouldn’t even focus to take a picture of the monotone palate of color or lack of color until I widened the angle to include some grass or a hut. It’s snowing and Amy didn’t bring a hat so she bought this weird yet cool hat, scarf, pirate thingy. See the pictures I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a tube of fabric. So she figured that out and as we were being snowed on we began our hike in the Alps. We’re not sure but I choose to believe that there really ARE mountains there! Our hike was a 7K from Mannlichen to Alpiglen and then we caught a train from Alp glen to Grindlewald. It was a perfect hike and after we got down into the tree line very beautiful with all the wildflowers and rolling green hills. I didn’t expect the rolling green hills. It’s weird that in such a beautiful serene area there are roads and homes and cattle grazing. Man touches everything! As we began hiking I stepped in the snow and went all the way thru into mud so my left shoe is stinkin muddy!!! Yucky! But being the tough chick I am I muddled through. J We stopped for lunch at a hiking shelter and as we ate a perfect lunch of salami and Swiss cheese sandwiches, carrots, rosemary bruchetta crisps and Swiss chocolate we could hear the birds sing and the gentle jingle of cow’s bells! I love it! We took a little train down the rest of the mountain enjoying more views of cows and pastoral alpine life! Tired & cold we grabbed a cappuccino at a little restaurant where it was silent. I mean no music, no talking (there were only 3 other people in there) and Amy decided that she’s try this Cherrio looking wafer that we got with our coffee. Expecting it to be just like a Cherrio she bit in only to almost break a tooth. She dramatically gnawed on it and of course I got the giggles in the silent restaurant and the whole 3 people were looking at us in a disapproving manner. For lack of better things to do, she decided to learn to “make a pirate” according to the directions that came with her new hat. New peals of laughter and I think we drove all 3 people out of the dead dinning area. We finished our coffee and decided to head back into Interlaken since all the shops sold the same touristy stuff but at even more inflated prices. Sad to leave the beautiful mountains, but since we couldn’t see them, I think it we’ll be okay! Back in town we changed out of our ’hiking’ gear and into our ’clean’ clothes. Finished our allotted internet time in McDonalds and watched some of the Romania v. Italy game. We decided on dinner in the Swiss Chalet, hey, sounds authentic right?!? We haven’t seen more than a handful of Holland fans since getting back from the mountain and we began to wonder. We overheard our waitress telling some Canadians that over 2,600 Holland fans boarded a train earlier in the afternoon and went to Bern to see the game or be in the FanZone there and then would return on the train that night. Wow, Interlaken is not big! About 21,000 people live in Interlaken, over a 10% increase in population with JUST Netherlands’s fans. Wow! Amy in her Orange Netherlands glasses made us get honked at or yelled at about every ½ block. After the first few times we even stopped jumping as screaming orange clad fans leaned out the window to shout at us. Oh…last night as we were leaving McDonalds there were many a drunk Dutch to go around and one especially enthusiastic fan decided to get all up into my personal space and proceeded to scream Holland cheers into my left ear. If you speak into that ear when we get home I still may not hear you. I was mainly concerned because he had food stuck to his face and I didn’t want it ending up in my hair along with the expectorant he was issuing from his mouth. He got an elbow to the ribs. Unfortunately he didn’t feel it through the booze induced haze. Hopefully in the morning. J Always exciting traveling! Dinner was very Swiss, Amy had a cheese, egg, ham opened faced sandwich thing and I had an onion sauce wurst with hash browns. Hummm. Yummy & different. We headed back to the room so we could type some stuff which you are reading now and up-load pictures. Also to watch the Netherlands stomp France 4 to 1!!! We thought we’d maybe get to bed before midnight and well, I guess we’re not going to make that! Night!

Things I've Learned in Europe!

• In Germany recycling is compulsory. Saving the Earth is cool & good stewardship!
• I LOVE parks! The healing power of being in God's Creation!
• Trains only stop for 2 min. @ transfer stations.
• I DON'T speak German.
• Castles are amazing! Castles in the mountains are Uber awesome!
• The Eruo-Mullet is IN here! Think Mullet but cut like a mowhawk...no sides. Hummm.
• Amy & I ARE two of the coolest people I know!
• Cows are NOT horses.
• BierGartens have fun AND funny people in them.
• Rain or shine we have a good time!
• Nuns make gut kaffe & kuchen! (good coffee & cake)
• Internet time is precious & always takes longer than you think.
• Bavaria IS better than Leavenworth!
• Freeloading at John & Kristen's is the way to travel...thanks guys! We love you and MISS you! See you in a few days!
• Gelato shared with friends is medicine for the soul & I'm fairly certain has NO calories!
• We love 1st Class!
• The freedom of putting down a burden. (Especially my pack!)
• They like their "bio" in Berlin! (And Austria!)
• Football fans are fanatics and the will overtake entire cities & countries, by force if neccessary!
• I LOVE chocolate. People should carry it around and if I get surrly just hand me a piece and it would be ALL better!
• Soccer is NOTHING like fussball!

The spell checker is broken so sorry if this sounds like it was written by a 3 year old. :)

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Football Fans!

Tuesday, June 10 2008
The day of the big game here in Salzberg! But we ate a yummy breakfast at our pension on the pattio and then waited for Bob’s Special Tours to pick us up. The funny thing is that it’s a short yellow VW Euro Van. Yes it’s the short bus! The Sound of Music Tour. THE MOST AMERICAN TOURIST THING WE’VE DONE! The sights were fun to see and identify as in the movie, like the gazebo, the house, the gardens, the church where they got married. It was super cool to hear the real life story of the VonTrap family and realize that it wasn’t a picnic and they had a really hard life. We did get to go out into the lake areas beyond Salzberg and see some sights out there and I loved seeing St. Gilgen and Montsee (I’m not sure if I spelled that right). Beautiful mountains and glacial lakes with picturesque little towns set down by them. (see pictures for more details.) When we got back we hiked with our huge packs to the funicular to take us up the Monchsberg to our hostel Stadlam. They wanted like 11 euros for the funicular + the museum. We informed them we’d already seen the museum and wanted just to ride up. He said no and that we had to use the lift on the other side of town about a half mile away. We both said forget it and then Amy said “I think we can just do it!” I confirmed that she actually meant hike up the stinking huge mountain with our 40lb. Packs and she said “yes” well naturally not wanting to look like a wuss, I was like “heck yes we can do that!” Okay maybe it wasn’t that positive! We eventually made it up the MILLIONS of steps and sweating (it was pretty warm yesterday afternoon) to our hostel. Got all checked in and our view is breathtaking! We can see all the way from our hostel to the Hohensalzberg and the entire city! Beautiful. About ready to pass out we decided maybe we should eat, since it was 2:30PM & some how we always forget about lunch. We headed down the stairs (we counted 335 of them) and grabbed lunch at a little café with internet so we could make reservations in Interlaken (our next stop). We found a pension with a room available and it has a little kitchenette! Thank goodness, we were having a time of it the other day when we were looking for rooms nothing available in Interlaken, praise God! We also booked our room in Geneva as Amy’s computer died. Few. We at least got done what we’d come to do. It was a nice and quiet café off the main street hidden behind a church. Perfect! With all the fans parading around it’s quite udder chaos! We enjoyed the Mirabell Gardens wehere a lot of the Sound of Music scenes are filmed and also it’s just a beautiful place to enjoy a quiet afternoon away from the scurry of the city, especially with football being here. As we headed back into old town across the bridge we were arrested by the sight of a wave of yellow and blue fans with a police escort marching to the stadium singing The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” and the Swedish National Anthem. Wow, see the pictures. There were thousands of them! Man alive! We went to a café/bar to grab some more free internet so that we could do stuff like post our blog and e-mail but we didn’t bring the converted for the cord and we weren’t about to hike up the hill for that. So we just enjoyed a snack of chips & salsa while we watched the Spain vs. Russian game. Spain killed Russia with 3 goals by David Villa and none by Russia! We had to drop by the FanZone to take pictures and see the crazies ready to cheer on Sweden! Wow! There are not words to describe the hub of activity here! Again, see pictures! Both the FanZone and the overflow zone were full! We hiked up to the hostel and enjoyed all the thunder and lightening all around Salzberg. It didn’t rain in Salzberg at all but the pink lightening was incredible! The view from our hostel was amazing, we could see the whole city and all the sights AND the lightening hitting in the hills. A group of 7 police men and women come up to where our hostel is and were taking pictures too. Not that they didn’t have thousands of unruly fans down below but they were taking a smoke and picture break. Kinda funny. Well we took showers and tried to sleep. Our roommate is from California. Hey, our coast! Cool. The party could be heard from the city below until early in the morning. Daylight was coming in the window when it was finally quiet!

Salzberg Splendor!

Monday, June 9, 2008
This morning when I woke up the sun was pouring in the window, I could hear the fountain in the park behind our room and I could hear the birds singing. Out the window there are snow capped peaks reminding me of the northern cascades. Makes me a little homesick! I have learned that I need mountains and water to survive where ever I live. There is an amazing healing power in just being in God’s creation! I love it! We ate breakfast in this cute oak paneled breakfast room with a sun room attached. Gingham placemats and cute curtains and an awesome breakfast spread of meats, cheeses, jams, bread, AND fruit salad AND yogurt! Woo Hoo! Score! We began our hike to the station and got the schedule for Fussen to Salzberg. We have to go back thru Munich and onto Salzberg. The train connection in Munich was tight! We pulled into the station uncharacteristically late and we only had about 10 min. to get all the way across the HUGE station to platform 12 (from 36) in time to jump on the train with no markings as to it’s going to Salzberg so we asked an elderly lady and she assured us that it was. We sat in a berth with a sweet Austrian lady who spoke great English. She laughed at us while we were playing ‘horse’. She said she used to play car, because there weren’t that many cars in her day. We arrived in Salzberg along with the rest of Europe who came to watch the Euro Cup ‘08. Tomorrow Sweeden & Greece play and there are some enthusiastic Swedes here! We caught the bus (with some help from the local agent) and headed out to our pension. When we got there the lady told us she’d actually booked us at her friend’s home b/c she didn’t have any room so she loaded us up in her car after clearing out her grandkids empty cereal bowls and toys and took us to our lodging. The owner wasn’t there so the daughter let us stowe our stuff in the breakfast room. We went into town to explore the zentrum (center). In Mozart Platz we walked the Getreidegasse (the old town shopping area) and saw Mozart’s birth house. There are tons of Christmas stores and cool trinkets for tourists. Plus tons of soccer stuff & everywhere sells little chocolates w/ marzipan in the middle called Mozart balls. Yummy! We explored the St. Peter’s Church graveyard and the catacombs were closed. We began climbing a hill to see a view of the city and ended up hiking up to the Festung Hohensalzberg (Salzberg fortress & the seat of the bishops and principalities of Bavaria for many centuries). We decided to take the tour. The tour was highly disappointing but it was worth the price of admission to get the view from the top tower. A complete 360 of Salzberg! The cool thing about Salzburg (pop. 140,000 people, or so a person told us) is that you can go less than 30min. In any direction and be in the country! Beautiful city with the river runing through the middle, mountains! I could live here! We ate dinner, after we hiked down, in a little café tucked back off an ally that Amy noticed. We at schnitzle! And warm apple strudel! Yes! We also got to watch the Romania vs. France game. We thought we should probably get out to our pension so we could check in and the lady was there and checked us in and even took the time to make a reservation for us for the “Sound of Music” tour tomorrow. She gave us the key and we went up to our room. We paid for a double and got a quad! Usually 100 euros a night we got it for less than her double price! We only paid 57 euro! I love a good deal! The hardwood floors, table & chairs, private balcony, the works! Plus the bathroom! We’ve had tiny little bathrooms or shared bathrooms the whole trip, this bathroom had a tub and then in another corner a shower! Plus the WC in it’s own little room with a skylight that opens! So cool! Then we read a sign that said they had laundry faculties (with a dryer, unheard of!) So we did laundry! What a blessing! God is soooooooooooo good ALL the time! Too bad we can’t stay more than one night! We saw a beautiful sunset out our window tonight and we saw stars for the first time in our whole trip! Awesome!

Chuga-chuga-chuga-chuga-SHOE-Choo!

Sunday, June 8, 2008
The theme of today's blog...trains and walking (as usual)!
This morning we checked out of Hotel Modern “Any thing but” (Amy). We caught our train and headed to Fussen. We have become accustomed to sitting in 1st class because we were too old to buy EuroRail passes in 2nd class (must be under 26) so when we were forced to sit in 2nd class we realized just how lucky we were to sit in 1st class. The car behind us had a grade school class on a fieldtrip and the car in front of us had a boy scout troop. Both seriously lacking chaperones! But we got really cozy with our neighbors. No lockers were available in Fussen so we began the hike to find our priciest hotel yet. It was by necessity not by choice, there wasn’t anything cheaper in Bavaria. Our hotel spa (we actually never saw a spa) was a 15 min. trek from the station through the town and up into a park area. Leavenworth sure got the setting right for the theme. We felt at home so close to mountains that could be the Eastern Cascades. The hotel is just like a dream. We couldn’t check in because we were too early but we left our bags and headed on a scenic walk along the river (looks like the White or Napequa Rivers outside of Leavenworth only much wider and deeper!) to the town square and to the bus station to catch our bus out to the sites of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles. The Hohenschwangau is the older of the two castles mainly occupied by Bavarian King Ludwig I. It is an amazing castle on a little hill built as a retreat for the family. The castle is still retained by the royal family though it has been used as a museum since a year after Ludwig II death. The wood in the castle is amazing! Walnut parquet floors with each room displaying furniture of a different type of wood, Lebanese cedar, ash, walnut, cherry, etc. Gold plated statues, center pieces, fine china, a snooker table from the 1600s. It’s pretty amazing! The castle has been redesigned a number of times most recently after Napoleon burned it to the ground. After Ludwig I’s death, the crown passed to Ludwig II because his elder brother Otto was mentally ill. Ludwig II had an eccentric personality and he enjoyed spending more money than the treasury held. He also loved Wagner & his operas. So he combined these two loves and began building a number of castles the most famous of which is Neuschwanstein located across the valley on the next mountain side. Ludwig II actually watched the castle construction from the bedroom window in Hohenschwangau. Built to honor Wagner’s German Fariy Tale Operas (almost all including a swan, Ludwig’s favorite animal) the castle’s interior has swans gracing every surface and each room is dedicated to depicting one of Wagner’s operas. In the King’s reception hall there are over 137 swans. And you know how I LOVE birds! (Yuck!) The most impressive room, and this is saying a lot when you consider all the wood carvings, tapestries and that every square inch of finished castle is hand painted or gold leafed, was the throne room. Missing the throne itself, which was never actually completed, the throne room has an amazingly detailed mosaic floor, a 1 ton golden replica of Ludwig II’s crown as a chandelier with semi-precious stones in it and paintings of the 12 apostles looking to the throne for his words. The 4 sainted kings are above and to the rear and above all of them Jesus “King of Kings” over seeing King Ludwig II. This castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. I felt like a little girl so giddy to be in a real castle. Only 1/3 of the castle was completed because the parliament cut Ludwig off from over spending and had him declared insane and the very next day he was found dead in a lake with his doctor. No one ever found out what happened. Conspiracy theories abound I’m sure! The Fest hall was also amazing and designed after Wartberg Castle’s fest hall which we saw in Eisenach! All in all it was phenomenal! We ate at a little Italian place (they love their Italian here) San Marco, and I had a salad, and broccoli pasta. We are thanking God for little things like veggies. It’s easier to get fruit than veggies here. After dinner we sat in the sun by the St. George fountain and ate lemon gelato. On our way home we heard orchestral music coming from the courtyard of the Rathaus and we saw a great German orchestra giving a free community concert. They were very good. Settled in for the night and enjoyed out super amazing room with fluffy pillows and comforters!

Eisenach and Munich and into Bavaria!

Hey I think this looks a whole lot like Smeltzer Street! Strasse means...street and Schmelzer is oh so close to Smeltzer! FUN! And Martin Luther's house was right on the corner! YES!

On Thursday, we went to Eisenach to see Bach’s birthplace and where Martin Luther went to school as a young boy and later where he was hidden in Wartberg Castle after his excommunication from the Catholic church. Pretty cool actually. Wartberg Castle was scouted out in early 1000 AD. And completed over the next century. Wow, a thousand years ago this castle was being built. Pretty impressive! Done in the romantic styling when redone in the 1800s at famous writer Gothe’s insistence, Wartberg is an architectural and functional masterpiece. The Earl’s court, for example had heated floors in the 1100s! Wow! Martin Luther’s Stube is a replica now with only the whale’s vertebra foot stool as an original piece. But pilgrims over the years have come to pay homage & starting in the early 1600s people scratched their names into the walls of his room where he translated the New Teatament into German & wrote 14 other thological reformative texts in 10 months time. Impressively Holy Spirit inspired! We also saw St. George’s church (it was closed but we looked inside) where Bach was baptized & his family was organists for 7 generations. By the way, what's up with St. George? He's supposed to have slayed a dragon. Hummm. I have some questions about that. Don't you? And wandered the streets of Eisenach enjoying Nikoli’s Gate close to the Hoptbahnhof. On to Munich for more excitement.
Friday
Today we saw Dachau Prison camp. So hard to describe what was going on in my head. So hard to see the basest of human depravity and so much life lost. I can’t comprehend it and honestly don’t know if I could handle it if I could understand it. I sat in a Catholic Nun’s chapel (the Karmelite Kloister) with the organ music playing on the site of Dachau and cried for those lost and for those who survived. And Amy & I were talking about how those people are covered by grace the same way we are. Those who caused and perpetrated the most horrific acts, maybe in the course of humanity, are covered by Christ they same way I am if they ask for his forgiveness. I guess that’s the two sides of fair. We don’t want God to be fair so we can have his forgiveness & saving grace but we don’t think others deserve it. I think I understand better how we crucify Christ each time we sin. Wow it was hard to take all that today. Tonight we explored the Hofgren & also the English Gartens and in the center of the English Garten (larger than Central & Hyde Parks) the park is beautiful! We saw swans with their little babies! So cute! And little ducklings and some wierd kind of geese with their little ones. I know I hate birds and all but they were really cute! We ate at the Chineese pagoda BierGarten. Yummy! We though of Jeff & Crystal as the German band was playing IN the chineese pagoda! Funny! We laughed at a couple of German groups (mostly comprised of young college aged men) sing German songs back & forth, just like in the movies. It was a fun end to a pretty tragic and depressing day. Back to the hotel and the guy at the desk told us if we bought something at the restaurant next dooe that we could use the internet for free. Wrong-O! Oh well, we bought overpriced sparkling water for nothing. Bummer! Oh well. Last night it POURED rain! It was fun to hear the storm and be warm & snuggly inside! So today we're just East (as far as I can tell) of MarienPlatz in a little San Francisco Coffee Co. with a daypass to the internet for 4.50 Euro. Oh, well it's better than nothing. Post again when we can. Tomorrow we're off to Fussen to see Neuschwanstein and the Hohenschwagau Castles. Walt Disney modled the main Princess Castle after Neuschwanstein. Until Austria...Aufwiederzen.

Wittenbrg & Erfurt... Following Martin Luther!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Last night this was my view…Looking at St. Mary’s church out our hostel window at the light illuminating the towers whilst rain is pouring down all around and lighting paints the sky behind it. Yesterday didn’t quite go as planned, it was great none the less. Let me start at the beginning…
We packed up at Kristen’s and ate a wonderful breakfast w/ her and Johnny. Said goodbye to Kristen @ the train station and boarded our train at the (Hauptbahnhof) to head to Wittenberg. I did not have high hopes for Luther’s little town but we’ll get to that happy mistake later. It was a pleasant train ride in 1st class! Wed had to get 1st class with our EuroRail Passes and we are soooooooooooo glad we did!!! We had our own birth with plenty of room and comfortable seats!!! It was pretty amazing! We arrived in Wittenberg, stowed our bags and made our way to Collegienstrasse an adorable little street with picturesque buildings and cobblestones! We ate lunch at a little café run by some Vietnamese people. Can you imagine trying to learn German and knowing Vietnamese? Sounds hard to me. The information center provided us with maps and a guide pamphlet. We saw Castle Church wehre Martin Luther nailed his infamous 95 theses to the door. The church and attached castle actually burned down in 1760 so they are not the original doors or interior. Now the doors are overlaid with black iron & the theses translated into latin. Weird huh? The church is simple yet elegant. It had cool notes on all the stuff in the church so you could do a self guided tour. The building attached is still in use as a theological seminary. There are tributes to the reformation all over the church. Crests of the Germanic territories that helped with the reformation, above the princes chairs their family crests carved into the stalls to attribute their assistance in the reformation and in the stained glass windows pictures of the other reformers that assisted in their own countries with the reformation, like Calvin and Knox!!!!!!!!!!!!! Both Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon (Luther’s good friend and co-reformer) are buried there. Also buried there are Electors Frederick the Wise & John the Steadfast (brothers). The church had a beautiful pipe organ! Upon leaving we strolled up the Coswiger strasse to the Town Church (where Martin Luther actually preached) also called St. Mary’s. It still has a practicing Lutheran Congregation that meets weekly to celebrate Sabbath. The art work in the church was the highlight! Lucas Cranach (the Elder) did most the work but the younger did some of the paintings too! Our favorite was the painting of the Vineyard depicting Martin Luther and the other reformers rebuilding a destroyed vineyard while Christ holds back the Pope among other key Catholic leaders of the day. The guide booklet we got in the church posed the question to today’s Christian community…”Nowadays-in the era of ecumenical dialogue- we must aks ourselves: What is in our midst that is destroying the Church (the vineyard) and what is building it up? What tasks lie before us on the way to unity in Christ?” We LOVED this question because that is some much of what we’ve been talking about in our small group Bible study! It didn’t let Christians off the hook seeing history, it challenged us and the rest of the Christian community to take an evaluation of are we hindering or building up the Church of Christ! Important stuff to think on! Another thing that constantly amazes me is that this ONE man changed the course of history, faith, language for the German people, and art! Wow. Martian Luther was just a man and later at the Luther Has we saw that is anti-Semitic writings later in life were used by the likes of Hitler to justify horrible acts against our fellow man. Speaking of anti-Semitism…the Town Church has a cornerstone has a portrayal of Jews wollowing with pigs and the slanderous version of holy name of God, not to be said by Jews spelled out. In 1983 a bronze plaque was set into the ground by that corner of the church depicting the cross as 4 doors closing over the evil of the world. Not completely closing it out but shutting most of it out and around the outside of the square it says The true Name of God, The malignes “Schem Ha Mphoras,” Which Jews even before the dawn of Christianity Reguarded as almost inexpressibly holy-this name died with in six million Jews Under the symbol of a cross. (Written in Hebrew the beginning of Psalm 130) “Out of the depths I cry, O Lord, to you.” Really moving and interesting that this was done while Wittenberg was still a part of the Communist block. Then we went to the Luther Has, an amazing museum and a steal for only 5 Euro! It’s difficult to process all the amazing information that is there. Luther was a spit fire that’s for darn sure! We spent almost 2 hours there! We treated ourselves to a little gelato and headed back to the station. We unfortunately missed the train we intended to take and waited for the next two hours for the next train to Erfurt. Our hostel seemed like a long ways from the train station as we hefted our packs but I think we just took the long way.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
This morning we had an awesome breakfast with John Koeshall’s sister Stephanie! She picked us up at the hostel this morning and we walked to her apartment to have a lovely German breakfast. She helped us stake out a route for the day and encouraged us to see a few thing we hadn’t even thought of. We left her apartment and headed to see the DomPlatz to see St. Mary’s church Marienkierke (another one) and St. Severus Kierke immediately next door. Marienkierke was the Bishop’s seat and St. Severus a regular church (both catholic and very gothic. We hiked to the top of a little hill thru Citidel Petersberg to look over a wall and get awesome pictures of the city. We ate our sandwiches Stephanie let us pack at her place and walked to the AugustinerKloister where Martin Luther became a monk and lived for a number of years. Today there is a contingency of Lutheran Nuns living there and making yummy cakes and serving coffee. We tried to stay in their guest quarters but were unable to get a reservation. The Kaffee and Kuken (not sure if I spelled that right but it’s German for cake) were next on our list and recommended by Kristen! We are just taking things slow and enjoying a cute German town today. We have nothing else on the list so we visited Anger Platz (recommended by Stephanie) and saw some cool old buildings with fun shopping in the ground floor flats. We got treaties at McDonalds, Amy a McCaffe in a fancy cup with a chocolate and me a bier in a paper cup. I was just laughing that they serve beir in McDonalds. Weird! They drink it like pop here! We found a Euro Store…the German answer to the dollar store. Yeah, Mom! Who’s you’re girl!! If anyone could find a Dollar Store it would be your girl! I’m not going to tell you if we bought any of you gifts from there! He he! We walked back to our hostel and now we’re trying to keep up with the bogging. It’s a big responsibility we have to you our public!
Until tomorrow or the next day depending on if we get a place with internet or not. Pictures then too!

Our last day in Berlin till we return

Our last day in Berlin till we head back to London. Today we started out a little more leasiurely. Woke up, checked the e-mail, ate breakfast, and at about 10am we headed out to Museumsinsle (Museum Island) we didn't have time to go into any of the museums but we did take pictures of all the cool architecture. It's like Berlin has the coolest old archetecture and newest too! We began the day with the old and by the end of the day we saw the best new stuff! Began with the Berliner Dom again and then saw the Altes Musteum. Some super cute class of kids were on a field-trip and all looked like they were going to leap into the fountain at any time. Next to the museum was Lust Park. (This is a funny name for a park in my language.) We grabbed an ice cream around 11am and walked some more (walking is the theme!) Saw the Pergemom Museum, and many more amazing buildings. So many buildings are under construction. It's like all of Berlin is being rebuilt or revitalized. Later we took a little rest by the Spree River at little cafe tables. It was a beautiful day but already hot by 11:30! We walked back along the river and met Kristen & John for lunch. After lunch we took the U-Bahn to see the Reichstag and the Brandenberger Tor (gate). Amazing to see the Berlin Wall marked out on the street. The gate is so big & beautiful. We saw the American Embassy (or Consulate?) and drank starbucks blended beverages! Nice to be in an air-conditioned building and drink something tasty good! From there we met up with Ryan & Kelly and walked to the holocaust memorial. it's hard to describe but it's cement blocks arranged in lines on a wavy plot all the blocks start small (at differing heights) and grow in height towards the middle of the memorial. You can walk though the memorial and get lost in the cement blocks. It's supposed to represent the way anger grows and you can get lost in it and overwhelmed by it. It can start small and grow till you can't even recognize it. We then took a little detour and came across a exhibit out of doors called The Topography of Terror. Built on the ruins of the old SS building and part of the wall still remined. It was very informative but also super sad. Amy saw this letter from a man to his wife when he was sentanced to die at the hands of the SS, thanking her for giving him 4 beautiful children and being a loving wife and thanking God for the great life he had. SAD!!! The exhibit was in the sun so it was soooo hot! We headed for Checkpoint Charlie (in the shade, few!) and took some pictures. It's hard to comprehend how much of that area was all no-mans land! The whole Potsdamer Platz is almost exclusively new buildings! Some of the most amazing archetecture I've seen in the world! We walked for yummy tasty goodness of Gelato! I got a coconut & raspbrry cone! We saw the first stoplight in Berlin, some pieces of the wall and explanations of that. And we ended with seeing the Sony Center. An amazing accomplish ment with tons of glass and beauty. We headed back to Kristen & John's place. Had some down time and re-hydrated! All six of us headed out to dinner at Basil, Basil, Basil! Yummy noodle shop! SO tasty! Back to the house for some visiting. Now I'm journaling, bloging and uploading my pictures to Picasa so check 'em out! Leave me comments too! Please keep praying for safety and opportunities to share Christ! Tomorrow we leave for Wittenberg, Erfurt & Eisenact til Thursday morning. Don't know how often I'll be able to post but I'll try my hardest! Gutten Nact!