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.

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!

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.

What an Adventure!

The End of Our London Story...

Kensington Park, one of my favorite parks in London. Maybe one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. We took a long walk down beautiful embasy row and into Kensington Park. We saw the palace...pretty. It's where Diana used to live. We visited Princess Diana's memorial a beautiful flowing stream in a circular pattern. We walked all the way through Kensington gardens, seeing Royal Albert Hall, the Prince Albert memorial, and into Hyde Park. We took the tube to see St. Paul's catherdral and walk across the melenium bridge to Shakespear's Globe theatre and we grabed lunch and became groundlings, standing in the yard for A Midsommer's Night's Dream. I think Shakespear may have been on heroin or something when he wrote that play. Not my favorite!!! We made our way back across the Mellenium bridge to the tube & quickly went to pick up our bags at the hotel, jump on the train to switch to the Gatwick Express at the Victoria station. We haulded our heavy bags around and made it on the train with blessed luggage racks. 30 min. later we got to Gatwick in the middle of nowhere. Why on earth do they call it London, Gatwick??? Stupid! I'm sorry, it makes me irritated! :{ Got all checked into our EasyJet flight to Berlin and then procceded to wait and wait and wait to get our departing gate. We ate dinner while we waited. Oreo Milkshakes. Don't judge me...we've walked like a thousand miles!!! We thought we deserved it! Gatwick airport (run by British Air) is the most inefficent airport I've ever been to! It took over 1.5 hrs. to get our gate listed. Our plane was late in landing and when our gate did get listed it was listed as "boarding now" for about 60 seconds before being listed as "boarding closed". We had to practically jog to make it to gate 111 from the main terminal. LAME! Two thumbs WAY DOWN for me! Then we proceeded to sit on the Tarmac for over 30 min. before takeoff. All the time poor John & Kristen were waiting for us in Berlin! So sad. Well, we eventually made it and then the Berlin airport only sent one bus to shuttle the entire flight to the airport. We just had to laugh at the funny things that happen when you travel. After customs there were sweet John & Kristen with hugs & love for us even though we were so late. God bless 'em! They navigated the train system for us so all we had to do was get off & on the train when told. Today we saw a million sights but seeing as it is almost midnight I'll tell you all about it in my blog tomorrow! I added new pictures to the London album & added a Berlin album. Check 'em out! Talk to you more tomorrow! Thanks for all the fun comments! Keep it up!

London Adventure Day 2.5

Yes, we made it to London!

A 3 hour lay-over in Vancouver we flew over the pond (for 9 hours) and arrived a little tired and greasy in Heathrow. A 30 min. tube ride led us right to our little hotel. We are pleased with our awesome room, it is very European. Yes, we did get a bathroom, however, our room is smaller than most prison cells, it's 6'x10' with bunk beds. (It's smaller than my second bedroom @ home. Amy has to hop on her bed so I can make it through the door too. He he. I love travel!

We spent the afternoon exploring West Kensington (where we're staying) and searching for a power cord for Amy's computer. Our converter set is for small appliances and we forgot to check if it would work. So we checked at a local PC World on Kensington High Street and they referred us to a Queensway/Baywater computer flea market. Life is full of fun surprises. We found the flea market and after walking past many stalls full of all the drug paraphernalia you could ever need we found the computer section and for only 2.50 pounds she got the cord she needed (instead of the 50 pounds at PC World). We felt victorious! Back in West Kensington we ate at the 3 Kings pub...Fish & Chips, of course! Called it an early night. We're tired!

Today...

An organic picnic breakfast in Holland Park listening to birds sing (and I didn't hate them), the dogs barking, children playing! What a wonderful world it is. Tube ride to the British Museum to see one of the things on my Bucket List...the Egyptian collection! Amazing! When we arrived at the front steps, Amy said, "Let's go check something off your bucket list." How Cool!!!!

We thoroughly explored almost all the collections in the B.M. (for free, it's by donation, again very cool!) and sat on the steps to soak in some real sunshine! I bet you didn't even know the Brits knew what sun was like, but lo and behold we witnessed the sun! Ate lunch at a little cafe round the block at a table on the sidewalk and watched the Londoners scurry this way and that. Took the tube to Trafalgar Sq. to get our pictures taken with the infamous lions (I never did that the first time round) and visit the National Gallery (also free!) We stuck to mostly the impressionists but saw many other amazing works too!

We then took a stroll down the mall to Buckingham Palace and across St. James park. Religiously took pictures of Big Ben in all his glory and hustled to the tube, as it began to give us some of that famous London 'liquid sunshine'...Rain!

Back to the hotel to journal, blog, check e-mail, etc.

Tonight we're heading to Chicago at the Cambridge theatre! Let you know how it all goes!

Don't forget to check my pictures to see all the fun we're having!

We're Off!

Well, my bag is packed. Passport located. Ready to head out on a whirl wind adventure through Europe! Can't wait to see Kristen & Johnny! So many last minute things to do! I'll keep you all posted on the adventures as often as possible (WiFi willing) and try not to miss you all too much! Please pray for Amy & me in our travels that we will have safety & meet lots of new friends everywhere we go! Don't forget to check into all our pictures too. See the 'My Links' section of this blog! Bon Voyage!

Majestic

"Majestic"

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
This is where I live
Yet I traverse a treacherous plain
To encounter others who have lost their way.
I call out to them, “Come to my home
There is food and clothes and drink so sweet
My father would love to meet you
He knows your heart completely
He does not turn away;
Do not be ashamed of your tattered dress
Or your shabby hat.”
They keep walking, I cannot comprehend
If they could only see the streams of mercy
Would they not want to swim in the pools of gladness?
Or taste the ambrosia of the words my father speaks?

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
I came across a man lying in the road
His sores oozed
Legs contorted
Hair matted
I asked if he would like to be healed
Shouting angrily he informed me,
“Who are you to heal me?
Can you not see the perfection of my situation?
Judge me not stranger and keep on your path far from me.”
Tears welled in my eyes, and pain tore through my heart.
Could he really be that blind?
Live an existence in his own filth?

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
I was passing a priest
Thrilled, I paused to speak to him about my father.
Bewildered he looked at me if I were insane
He did not know my dad
Disheartened I continued on
Not know my father?
In whose name does he preach?
Sadly his own I think.

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
A woman fell at my feet and cried out to me
“Son of the most high, renew me
Make me whole, I am broken
My blood is killing me.”
So I gave her mine.
Daughter, you are forgiven.
Follow me.

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
A crowd came to meet me
They had heard of me
Imagine that, heard of me?!
They asked me to tell them of my father’s house
Finally, they want to know of the glories of my father!
So I told them.
I shared from my heart what dad had told me.
Some of the men traveling with me,
Those I love as my brothers,
They began to argue
Who will be the greatest in my father’s house?
Who will get to sit next to whom?
Oh, dad, they just don’t understand, do they?

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
They took me away today
Tried me in front of the ‘holy’ men
Threw me to the political machine
Sentenced me to die
My journey is coming to an end
As I trudge this long road
I cannot feel my father
I can’t hear him
I can’t see him
My God, why have you forsaken me?
I died today
In pain
In fear
I died just the same as you

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
I met them along the road
They didn’t recognize me
We talked for hours
Walking, talking, sharing
They believed I was alive
They knew not that it was I
Somehow they believed
Their hearts burned with the spirit
I broke bread with them,
Their eyes opened and they knew
It was I, Alive

Over the hills and far away
A home built of crystal and clouds
It is time
I must return home, to my father’s house
But do not be anxious
I am making room for you
Go
Walk the perilous and rutted path
Tell others of me
Lead them
Over the hills and far away
To a home built of crystal and clouds
I will welcome them
Those who believe
I am the way
I am the truth
I am the life
Will you come to my father’s house?
I am waiting for you
Over the hills and far away
In a home built of crystal and clouds

i thank You God

Do you ever have those days that just feel like they last forever? This has been one of those days where I look at the clock and can't believe it's only 4:15pm! It seriously has to be like 8pm by now. Some random thoughts for today...

• American Airline, what's the dealy-o? You've got my bud Sarah stranded. Not cool!


• Sunshine is a blessing it's like getting a butterfly kiss on the cheek!


• My family is amazing. They let me use their shower again today b/c my hot water was out.


• I am so impressed with myself b/c my hot water heater company sent me a new motherboard for my thermostat/diagnostic system and I put the new one in myself! I think it's even working! We'll see if my house is still there when I get home. (Say a little prayer!)


• I am leaving for London in 46 days (not counting today)!!! Woo Hoo!

Here's a great poem for you for spring:

i thank You God for most this amazing

i thank you God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-E.E. Cummings 1894-1962

52 Days!

The countdown continues to some fabulous adventures across Western Europe. However, life is still going on all around here in this beautiful valley I call home. Yesterday the sun was bright and the balsam root in bloom. A friend took me up into the hills to see a panorama of the valley. I don't know if I've ever truly looked at our little hamlet from that perspective before. It got me thinking that life really is about the perspective you view things. Right now I'm reading this book by Larry Crabe and in this chapter I'm in he says "I knew I believed that shattered dreams really are doorways to hope. The heat of joy flowed through my soul." (The Safest Place on Earth, 123.) Wow. I don't think I see life from that perspective very often. I choose to assume that I am a victim in the grand cosmic scheme of things, at least for a day, rather than choosing to grow in joy through the challenging times. So this week I'm going to focus on seeing things with new eyes. Perhaps new joys, passions, and the splendor of creation. Possibly I'll pull out my rose colored glasses for the day and even see people in who's image they were created!

Ready, Set, Plan

Fifty-five days until Amy and I leave for Europe!!!
How can I relay to you the ecstatic nature of my soul! I received my order from Athleta yesterday (Mom gifted me some uber cool stuff)!!! I am ready to put on my new clothes, backpack and hit the road! Our airline tickets are purchased, our rail passes in route to our hot little hands and we're buying travel junk left and right! I just wanted to open my little blog with some excitement for the planning process and that I'm counting the days until we go! Can't wait to see Kristen & John and meet lots of new friends along the way!
Keep us in your prayers!