tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30137444246371656362024-02-06T19:23:04.529-08:00Schwenks AbroadMish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-22935420818988892312011-06-28T09:28:00.000-07:002011-06-28T09:28:29.410-07:00Just a couple pictures from the last few days.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWQDh2bDOj0WptHN-0sEVcJRgQk4qq6fbN4yJVe3Y_b45fElVvVJtVArYDB9SKycEifQWQOwzljguint6Q7IVYAGPQjYoAbjL4Y80UdbALho7ntJuhhJwh3DqN6drsr66IRJkPKa21aM/s1600/on+the+boat+SUA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWQDh2bDOj0WptHN-0sEVcJRgQk4qq6fbN4yJVe3Y_b45fElVvVJtVArYDB9SKycEifQWQOwzljguint6Q7IVYAGPQjYoAbjL4Y80UdbALho7ntJuhhJwh3DqN6drsr66IRJkPKa21aM/s320/on+the+boat+SUA.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the boat for the Boat Ride down the Avon River - beautiful. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGRBvI-eboTFcnrJSvLTJ3LQfeDbPGAGM150Sg2-KzFF2dC3PnzaxcGwVU8b-Aa4zsGbmSnF0Z4c7rInIpoSu1pGMriYS637nIip3tiYOrFW26LuvvwIP8SJ5sGooWDUuGnw7x03ahxQ/s1600/Trafalager+EJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFGRBvI-eboTFcnrJSvLTJ3LQfeDbPGAGM150Sg2-KzFF2dC3PnzaxcGwVU8b-Aa4zsGbmSnF0Z4c7rInIpoSu1pGMriYS637nIip3tiYOrFW26LuvvwIP8SJ5sGooWDUuGnw7x03ahxQ/s320/Trafalager+EJ.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trafalager Square Elizabeth and Paul</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-11348335067932905302011-06-28T09:19:00.000-07:002011-06-28T09:19:47.175-07:00June 20 - 28 (Our last week in London)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday the kids and my mom went to The Princess Diana Memorial Playground and Kensington Palace (in Hyde Park).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not like Kensington as much as some of the other palaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was done up to attract more people but that made it a little creepy and weird, though they liked looking for secrets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The playground they always like. They have been several times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At night we just hung around the house, ran to the store etc.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday the kids went to Legoland again, hey, when you have season passes, why not use them to get maximum value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To get to Legoland you have to take a bus, train and then a bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids are getting very good at public transportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day I wanted to meet them from work, and I asked them which bus to take, and they knew, they know all the bus schedules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Wednesday during the day, the kids and my mom went to the grocery and worked on home school stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really to be honest, they work on school stuff lots of mornings before heading out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not putting it into the blog every day, I guess my work and the kids school is the mundane and doesn’t deserve a mention every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is June now and they kids are still doing school, but don’t tell them their friends are all out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since they haven’t focused that hard, and since they seem to need lots of repetition we decided to keep up a level of school work for the rest of the summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is really one of the last days they did school work, for the last few days in London, we packed the books and just did stuff around the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This day they had a slower day because we had a big night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I bought tickets for us all to see Wicked – the musical. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really good!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went with a woman I work with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So she and I left work early and came home, had chili from the crock pot and set out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this particular night, everything went smoothly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got downtown in plenty of time with no delays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were able to stop at Hotel Chocolat (yum free samples) and hang out a little before getting our seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bought seats in the very last row (much cheaper), so I was a little worried about the view, but it was fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We loved the musical, the music, the story, the experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>London Theater!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life is good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the train home and everyone was very tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t get home until after 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It was a little hard to get up on Thursday for work, due to the late night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thursday everyone went back to the science museum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom hadn’t been yet, and the kids wanted to go again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids came home looking at contraptions on the internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They like science museums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course Thursday was another late night from work for me, the shuttle was late again, and it was time for Boy Scouts at 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran home, shoved food in my mouth and we ran to boys scouts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were a tiny bit late, but not too bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys said the wrestled and played games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I walked them to Boy Scouts, walked home, waiting till 9, walked back to Boy Scouts to pick them up and walked back home again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a lot of exercise in this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They enjoyed another opportunity to go to Boy Scouts in the UK.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday the kids went to the Zoo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The zoo wasn’t that great except for the Penguin pond which they really enjoyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the reports I heard, they spent most of the time at the Penguin pond, which was very cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They came home wanted to adopt a penguin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said, our house isn’t cold enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After work I took a bus to a train and a train to Paddington station to meet them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then went souvenir shopping in London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a few gifts I wanted to buy and I hadn’t gotten anything for myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up not liking the Tshirt I bought myself (too tight), but Oh well, I can always give it to Libby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were going to eat at a restaurant, but Friday night the lines were long and the kids were tired, so we just bought stuff from a street vendor (fish and chips and pizza) and ate on the train ride home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was good to get fish and chips again.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday we were not sure what to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally some people at work decided to drive a car to Stratford-upon-Avon and they had enough room for us, so we went along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a beautiful sunny day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw Shakespeare’s birthplace, and the place where he died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a boat down the Avon river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we had seen about what we wanted to see, we were walking by a park and hear talking (a play).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went in to check it out and sure enough, the Royal Shakespeare Company was doing (what I believe was) the second act of Henry V in the park. The kids sat and watched very closely - I was surprised how closely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sun was shining, it was a beautiful day, and I thought, how cool is this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Watching Shakespeare in the park in Stratford-upon-Avon???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life is good and I am very blessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I will have to find another Shakespeare play to take them too, they like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have videos of Libby saying the Shakespeare she knows in front of his birthplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like I said, we are very blessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we went home we threw together a dinner of some leftovers, and from now on we started making dinners from whatever was left in the cupboards, we are in the downhill stretch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sunday we were debating too about what to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We wanted to go to church, but since it doesn’t end till 12:30 or so (well - after I stand around and say goodbye to everyone), that doesn’t leave a lot of time to go places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The day was sunny and warm again, and so finally after dinner we decided to just go back into London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to go to a store called H&M and my mom was looking for a couple things, so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked to Oxford Circus (lots of shopping along there).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found the England Soccer Jersey I wanted to buy for the boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we took a tube to Leicester Square and walked to Trafalgar Square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned out to be a great thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had seen some of these things from the tour bus at the first weekend we were in London, but I was really glad we decided to go back and see them on foot, one last look on the last day in London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(ok the last day I could walk around, since I had to work the rest of the time).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a beautiful day and London was beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a couple good deals, but didn’t spend too much money. I bought some British Candy to bring to Candy School in a couple weeks, so that will be fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got back on the tube at Charring Cross and took the tube back home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate potatoes and ham and played legos until it was time for bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids watched a bit of TV, it was a game show of problem solving with a bunch of 10-13 year olds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They liked it and wanted to figure out how to compete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We are all really ready to be home, and we are getting really excited.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday the kids went back to Legoland one last time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell Matt we got our money’s worth from the passes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After work we ate and packed and cleaned and stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had brought a crock pot so we took that over to donate to the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to stop by the store because we had run out of breakfast stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought porridge (oatmeal) and milk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids have to eat PBJ for the last few days, but I think we will be able to pretty much eat all our food with no left overs and not having to buy anything since last Monday or Tuesday or whenever it was I went to the Tesco after work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We have been reading the new Andrew Peterson book “Monster in the Hallows” which we have really enjoyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are getting close to the end, so it is getting pretty exciting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most nights we are reading for quite a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope we can finish tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have 20 or so pages I think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recommend this series highly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt brought the new book that just came out when he came and we have been reading it since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have read it on trains and in hotel rooms and now our little apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really, Monday night I think we read a little late since I really didn’t want to stop, I wanted to know what would happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tonight, Tuesday, hopefully we will finish tonight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday the kids went to the Tower of London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was Libby’s choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She really wanted to go back there one more time since there are some papers that you can do when you go (for kids to fill out) and there was still one that she hadn’t done that she wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I worked, my last day in London. I have to admit, I was a little less than focused. Monday night at 9pm I got the last approval I was waiting for which was due before I could leave, so, I was pretty much done with everything I needed to do before the big June 30 deadline. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I will write more, but probably not until I get back in the US, about Tuesday night and our trip home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I can tell you now, is I am very excited and I can’t wait to get home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though I have had an amazing time on this trip and we have seen more than I ever thought I would in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am ready for good coffee, a hot shower without worrying about the fire alarm going off while people sleep, and my warm blanket (I mean Matt by this).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-54720970697356067382011-06-28T06:00:00.001-07:002011-06-28T06:00:14.372-07:00June 14-19th<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday, it was time to go to work again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This week was a little quiet because our team was all separated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Silvia and I are in London, Beata is in Hungry, and the consultants are all at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gave me a little time to catch up on some things I had been ignoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad just has 4 days left in the UK, he goes home on Saturday, so they made a list of things he still wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at the weather, Tuesday was the best day to go back to Legoland (because of the weather).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they all took off for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since we bought season tickets, the more times they go, the better at this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Wednesday the kids and my Mom and Dad went into London to the British Museum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Mom wisely found a scavenger hunt for kids on the internet, so the kids looked for stuff and my Dad looked at antiquities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they went to a new park in London and played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said they made new friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wednesday night, I rushed home, because of course, this night, the shuttles were late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran home and then ran to catch up to my dad and Elizabeth who were walking to the church for a Girls Brigade meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth was able to go and interact with some girls there, which was pretty fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They played games and had a devotion and a craft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat and watched though mothers usually leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was too far to walk back home and walk back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thursday the parents and kids went to the Imperial War Museum and Churchill War Rooms in London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all really liked it even the kids which I was impressed by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a well-designed museum and gave the kids an idea of what it was like in London during WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thursday night my Dad took Paul and Jacob to the local Boy Scouts meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They really seemed to enjoy that too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was similar to Boy Scouts in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The troop near our house meets in an old barn about 1km from our apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one of the strongest troops around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The troop owns canoes and BMX bikes and it sounds like they have a lot of fun. The really enjoyed the evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The guys there said there is even a badge for seeing a foreign club, so we will have to check into that when we get home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday morning the kids and my parents went to Hampton Court Palace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a home of Henry VIII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had some really nice interactive programs, where they kids got to dress up and (in their case) apply for a job at the Palace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth especially liked dressing up and was curtseying right away after putting on the frock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had someone dressed as Henry VIII and his 4th wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their tour guide was the wife’s best friend who was interviewing new servants for the new household.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone enjoyed their time at the palace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a little jealous I couldn’t go with.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday night the local town, Harlington, had a “fayre” to raise money for the Harlington Hospice, a local aid organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was at the Boy Scouts hall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids all wanted to go, so after dinner I took them to the fayre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents finished packing my Dad and went ahead and took his suitcases to the airport, so on Saturday we could go straight from our fun to the airport to save time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had been raining all day, and pretty cold, so we all dressed warmly and headed out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a climbing wall, or rather, trees, that everyone wanted to do first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth, especially, was a little monkey and climbed all three routes and went back for more later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we were nice and wet right away (that was outside).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We played games and won prizes and spent money, and had fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob bought some sweets, I bought some handmade gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought punch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a nice time, in spite of the rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got back my parents were just leaving to go to the airport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got home an hour or so later, and we had a nice week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would call it a week of doing things like locals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday my dad didn’t have to leave until 6pm, so we thought if we got up and got going we could head to Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really interesting, we got to Oxford, it looked a little rainy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did sprinkle a little a bit, but it wasn’t too bad ever, and ended up clearing up nicely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made it to the information center, and hoped to take a tour, unfortunately, the tours for the morning were all full, and the afternoon ones would be too late to make it to make it to airport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we got a walking tour guide and set out on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The colleges are different, they are separated from one another and they have a gate, so students live, eat, go to class within the gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They each have a fancy gate, and a nice courtyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a different system than we have in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought the buildings are pretty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gardens and flowers were so beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a nice day, though it got a bit busy at the end when we were trying to make it to the Eagle and Child (where Lewis, Tolkien and their friends would meet to discuss books, philosophy, life etc. in the Rabbit Room.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were looking for a bathroom which when we found had a terrible line and we made in to the train station with 2 minutes to spare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to go pretty fast there at the end, and we were all happy we made the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train only came once an hour, if we would have made the next train, it still would have been ok, Dad would have made his flight, but this way, we rushed up front and had more than enough time at the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We took Dad to the airport, had some ice cream with him and then it was time for him to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all sad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went home and ate frozen pizza and watched a movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The apartment had a DVD player, but of course DVDs in the US have a different format than the ones in the UK, so the DVDs we brought from home don’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately I was able to hook up my computer to the TV and we could watch DVDs that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a relaxing evening.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sunday we got up and went to church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had figured out that we wanted to go to Cambridge on Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had an afternoon service in the famous chapel so we wanted to make it there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We figured out with the buses, tube, and train that we should probably leave church a little early to make it in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, this day was not the best for travel, so we had no end of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>troubles, though they were all just minor and annoying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we made it on the bus, tube, and to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We only had a few minutes before the train left, and the machine selling tickets wouldn’t take our credit card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So finally we walked and got in line with a person, Mom tried different machines and finally got one to take our credit card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got tickets, rushed to the train and …. Missed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grrr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned out ok, because I wanted to go to the London 2012 Olympic shop that was at this train station (there are only 2 in London right now), so we shopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made it back for the next train; we still had enough time to make it to the service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we sat on the track not leaving the station for 20 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very frustrating the train was delayed. So when we got there, we had about 5 minutes to get to the concert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a taxi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there we followed the arrows to the entrance, when we got there it said to go around the other side to enter, when we got back to the other side, it was too late and the door was closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around with a walking tour and the Rick Steve’s guide and saw things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought Elizabeth a t shirt with crests to all the schools in Cambridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we would look on the gates and signs and try to figure out which school we were looking at and take a picture with E in her T shirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That made it fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I enjoyed Cambridge better than Oxford, even with the train problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems more relaxed and the schools seemed more individual than at Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked the town better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was smaller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the train back to London and there were SO MANY people, we couldn’t sit down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids just sat on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and I tried to lean and crouch and at least the train ride was only 45 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made it back home after a nice day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday it was back to another week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-38532086442735613572011-06-20T09:46:00.000-07:002011-06-20T09:46:25.967-07:00June 6th thru 13th (Second week in Lubeck and Denmark over the weekend)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday was a sad day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt got up early and it was time for him to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had to take a train to Hamburg, the S-baun to the airport, fly to Paris, fly to Detroit, and then fly to Bloomington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got up around 5 on Monday morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got an email from him at 5 on Tuesday morning saying he made it home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor thing (it took 24 hours to get home).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all sad because he had to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It felt right to have him there, and when he was gone, it wasn’t right anymore.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday then, I had to go to work, and the kids had to get back in the habit of some school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are still working on multiplying and dividing fractions, and this week they finished the book they had been reading, Robin Hood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monday it was raining when I got home from work and so we waited for a while and when it slowed up we got up and walked around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked down to the city center, show my parents the marzipan place and walked until we found somewhere to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a place that served noodles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was fun because the waiter could not really speak any English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a really good dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday I decided I wanted to do a little shopping, so my mom and I went out and ran around for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been seeing sundresses all over Europe and I wanted to get one (since I keep hearing reports of sweltering heat from Decatur).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to get Elizabeth some leggings too since she wears them every day and the European ones are a little different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I accomplished all my missions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Wednesday after work we all went out walking, and went back towards the center of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped at a store and found a great deal on a German Soccer Jersey for the boys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reminds us of Finn, who loves the team so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went back to the “flintstones” restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was cheap pizza night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all got different pizzas, except me, I got – currywurst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thursday was our last night – already!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made a plan with the people, I work with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents and the kids took the train to Travelmunde earlier in the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Travelmunde is a city on the Baltic Sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They walked around, played at the beach and in the water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a nice playground with a ship, so they played pirates and sailors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I drove up with my friends and we met my parents at the beach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked along the pier, and along the harbor there, and found a yummy seafood restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate outside which got a little chilly but it was nice to smell the ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My work friends drove my parents’ home and the kids and I took the train and walked back to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday, I had a big conference call in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t go into the office since we didn’t have a car (it had been driven to the airport).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got up and started packing all of us up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had been in the room for 2 weeks, so things were a little unorganized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 9, I went and paid our bill and got ready for my call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids and my parents finished getting ready to leave and walked to buy more marzipan for matt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was on my call till noon, our train left at 12:30 and we had to check out of the hotel at 12.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took a cab to the train station, and I couldn’t find anyone when I got there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was starting to think we would miss the train, we didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were waiting up by the ticket counter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided that we would spend this weekend going to Denmark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Billund to the Lego headquarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really all that is, is an amusement park, Legoland, but it was fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stayed at Legovillage which is a hostel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we had to rent linens, but it was nice, we saved some money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
We had to ride to train to Vejle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Europasses give us first class tickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got on the train, we went to first class and there were plenty of seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman who check us in, gave us some free vouchers for a drink and a candy bar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got into Vejle at a decent time and then we had to take a bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now in Denmark they are not on the Euro system, they use Kronners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to the bus and the bus driver said he would indeed accept Kronners, and so we got on and went to the Lego stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We arrived at the Village, got settled, got something to eat, played on the playground stuff they had around, the kids liked “space balls” a big ball pit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we decided to walk over to this big Lantias place next door (the front desk clerk and said to check it out).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were under the impression that we had free admittance to the water park so we all had our suits on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Turns out that it was free admission to some other water park which was not open on Friday).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked over and the kids had their eyes open so wide… Paul said “this is kid heaven”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has large trampolines, and miniature golf, the water park (which closed at 8 which was when we got there), I can’t even remember what else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was built indoors, but it had a ceiling with special lighting etc that looked like you were outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blue sky, clouds, the different stands looked like different storefronts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really neat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around and figured out everything cost money, so I told the kids they could pick one thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were about to pick something when I discovered a huge indoor playground, so they picked that, since it would be the best value, and they could play till 10 for the same money as other activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the kids played, my mom and I went to the grocery store and got food for the next day there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After an hour or so they were getting bored of all the climbing and sliding, so they started playing with the huge Legos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They ended up making a house that went up to their chest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was neat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then walked home to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we were walking home (at 10) the sun was just setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate some ice cream and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids liked the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only did it have a Lego table in it, but there were beds that folded down from the wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Libby and Paul slept on those bed, that folded down, and Jacob and I slept in other beds where were already set up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our room key had a Lego on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A funny thing happened when we were looking for our room after we checked in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said it was on the first floor in the yellow building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We looked all over and couldn’t find it, and finally found it up the stairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should have known better, but we forgot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Europe the ground floor is called 0, so the first floor, is the first floor up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kind of funny.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday we got up and prepared for the day of Legoland fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had breakfast for free at the Village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told the kids to eat a lot because we wouldn’t eat again for a long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The park opened at 10am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were there ahead of that which allowed us to be early in line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to buy a ticket, which I bought at the hotel, and the kids and my parents had season passes to the Legoland Windsor which gave them free admission to this park too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to head straight for all the roller coasters first and do the looking at Lego stuff when the crowds were bigger at the end of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pretty much went from ride to ride with no major lines until 12:30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time we had done all that we wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad lost his glasses on rollercoaster #3, I think, and so he and my mom had spent a lot of time trying to retrieve them (to no avail).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around 12:30 it was starting to look like rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We needed to leave at 3:30 in order to get to the bus, to get to the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around some of the Lego, what do you call them?, sculptures, until it started raining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically they have all this stuff made out of Legos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a Lego Star Wars exhibit which had a scene from every movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they had Lego sculptures of farms, and towns, and an airport, all kinds of stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had boats and working locks, and things that moved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really amazing and if you had been to any of these places, it was really impressive, because they looked like the real thing, but they were made from Legos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a Neuschanstein Castle that I really liked (remember we saw that in person).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had Los Angeles where you could move a movie camera and “flim” the movie that was happening with Legos in front of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They taught about different types of power, you got to see different kinds of architecture in northern Europe and all made out of Legos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my father said, “they took a children’s toy and turned it into an art form”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was neat to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a boat ride around some other sculptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In between looking at all these Lego sculptures it would rain, and we would run inside and look in the shops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids each got to pick out a little Lego kit, and a Lego person as a souvenir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a fine deal, because it is all they play with, they only toy the boys brought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We had a little more time, and so we walked around to check out different rides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of us wanted to spend much time in line, so we picked shorter line things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it was time to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby and my mom walked to the bathroom and then to the bus stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys, Dad and I walked back to the village to get our stuff, and to the bus stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had had a bit of snack in the park, but at the bus stop we had our sandwiches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got on the bus, and… yes, the bus driver did not accept Euros and we didn’t have Kronners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually what happened is that my dad got on to pay while I loaded all 6 suitcases on the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad got off and said to unload, and so I did, but my mom, unwilling to give up, “negotiated” with the bus driver to let us on with Euros.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally he did, at a great profit to himself I might add.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t care; we had to make the bus to make the train to make the next train which was an overnight train that we had reservations for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ended up with extra Euros anyway, so it was ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reloaded the suitcases on the bus and we were on our way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So we made the bus, to the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the train station I was laughing because my mom was giving directions to another American because she had investigated the trains so well she knew them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They called me the pack horse since I was loading and unloading the suitcases all those times on the bus (and everywhere else) and I called her the travel agent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We got on the night train before 7 which was nice, just because we were settled and we didn’t have to switch for 12 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids and I had started reading a book that Matt had brought to us, called “Monster in the Hallows” which is by Andrew Peterson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the third book in a series he is writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We love them, I would highly recommend them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we read some chapters and we went to bed, early, but it has been such a long day, and we went to bed late the night before and we were tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next morning came early, we had to switch trains in Cologne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got rolls from a bakery in the train station and waited for our train to Brussels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made it to Brussels and found our hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We dropped our luggage around 10am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were rather putzing around and I asked my mom what our plan was for the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t decide between Gent and Brugge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been to Gent and not Brugge, my parents had been to Brugge but not Gent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom said that the train was leaving at 10:05 for both, and so we booked it across the street to the train station and got on the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sat on the train and decided that rather than either Brugge or Gent we would go to Ostendee to the Ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a sunny day when we arrived, we kinda walked aimlessly around, saw their cathedral and found the main drag through town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a pedestrian street with tons of shops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our goals for Belgium were waffles and Pomme Frites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of the waffle places we saw were what we wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally bought some Pomme Frites because we were getting pretty hungry (remember breakfast was just rolls in Colonge a long time before).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Pomme Frites are what we would call French Fries).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We reached the beach, the boys rolled up their pant legs, Libby took off her tights and ocean frolicking commenced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents went off in search of food while the kids played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was overcast now, and with the ocean breeze it was a little chilly, they kids didn’t care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw the English Channel from the other side, which was pretty cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents found a sandwich, a _________, which is another Belgium favorite, and we ate that, it was pretty yummy, they went and bought 2 more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate those too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we decided we had seen what we wanted to at Ostendee and so we walked back along the beach to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the last street there were tons of vendors selling things made out of fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also had a fish market that we took the kids to, so they could see what one of those was like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were many sites and sounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made the train, decided to take it to the central train station in Brussels instead of the south one we were staying at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The central one is downtown and we knew where to get the good waffles and Pommes Frites from there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, and of course, my mom wanted more chocolate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hit all our favorite spots and walked back to the hotel and just relaxed for an hour or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it was time to figure out dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went down and talked to the front desk and they recommended a nice Belgium restaurant just a short walk away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went there and it was really yummy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad got beef stew, Libby and Jacob got chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul got meatballs in tomato sauce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got cheese Croquettes (another Belgium food we hadn’t eaten yet.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The restaurant was really cute, with a circular staircase in the middle, and stain glassed windows and a stained glass dome at the top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked back home with bellies full.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next morning, we got up and went back to the train station to take the Eurostar to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left about10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got to London, we took the tube back to our cute apartment and we were all very happy to be settled again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all very happy to not be lugging our suitcase around anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad will leave on Saturday and we will have just 10 days left after that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time will go fast now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a little concerned about how we will get all this stuff home, but we just have to make it to the airport and then it should be ok.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I worked from the kitchen table till 5, my parents worked in the bedroom and the kids played Legos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul worked on math, but I think he forgot stuff in the time he had off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It shows the importance of doing this stuff every day until it is engrained in their heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After working we walked to the grocery store and the park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We came back home to a pasta dinner and played and then read our 2 chapters of Monster in the Hallows and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was funny, I guess since it was before 6, but the drug store next to the grocery store was open for the first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is usually closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad was able to get reading glasses which help him survive until he can get his real glasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a blessing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the glasses we went to the park, my dad was chasing my children around to their great glee and the glasses fell out of his pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately the boys found them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope he can keep a hold of them for a couple days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">After that it was home and eating and to bed. We made it through another week and our time is coming shortly to an end. Time goes fast, and we still have a lot to do! </span></span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-79090536620887347242011-06-17T05:54:00.001-07:002011-06-17T05:54:59.181-07:00Weekend with the Kroschels<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So, it is Friday morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got up and worked from the hotel for a while while everyone slept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 10 we got ready to meet Olaf who was an exchange student from Germany who lived with Matt’s family when Matt was in high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He happens to live in northern Germany now, which is about an hour or a little more from L<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ü</span>beck where we were staying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He came down with his 10 year old daughter Mercedes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We toured around L<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ü</span>beck a little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went and saw the city gate from the middle ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We climbed to the top of a church and looked over the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lübeck is know as the town of the 7 cathedrals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is funny to drive into town, because from a distance you can see the spires of the 7 churches much higher than the other buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are tall and green and skinny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We toured the famous Marzipan store in Lübeck and went to their “salon” which had all kinds of things like life size statues made of marzipan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(there is a picture posted previously).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought marzipan to eat later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We walked around a little more and bought a snack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got the Alsis pizza (it is on a thin crust, with sour cream and bacon and onions) and curry wurst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curry wurst (as you will see) becomes some of our favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a sausage with a sauce – most like barbeque sauce, with curry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is yummy and we love it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got ice cream too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We then drove up towards Gettorf, Olaf’s son had a soccer tournament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got there after the game was over, but we met up with the rest of the family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 8-year old son named Finn, a 6 year old son named Elias and a 2 year old son named Keanu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to go to the beach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They live right by the Baltic Sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went for several hours, the kids played in the ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had their suits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t put mine on, it was cold!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did get my feet wet and take lots of pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just sitting on the beach in the sun, watching the kids, was so fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After they got cold, they played on the playground equipment, and played in the sand and just had fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice afternoon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the sun was setting, we got ice cream and left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Olaf’s and they bought pizza for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids enjoyed being at a house with toys and they played and played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a lot of playmobiles, the kids had them all over the floor covering everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep in mind, my kids have only had some littlest pet shops, squinkees and a bag of legos for the past 3 months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were in kid utopia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a really nice little house, with three stories (and a basement).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We felt like it was huge after living in a one bedroom apartment and hotel rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was glad, one of things I wanted us all to learn is that we are really blessed with all that we have in Decatur, and we could really live on much less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played and the adults hung out and talked for awhile before we went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday we got up and were treated to a huge german breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had lot of rolls, meat, cheese, cream cheese, salmon, yogurt, juice, oh I don’t remember what else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do remember that I liked german breakfast and there is nothing better than a fresh roll with a good cup of coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UMM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only coffee we had been drinking was instant coffee from the hotel, so the coffee was a nice treat too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After breakfast, we decided to drive to the nearby town of Kiel, which is the big town around there and a major port city in Northern Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a canal that goes from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea to facilitate trade with Scandinavia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a ferry up and down the port, we had currywurst from a vendor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped at one of the top 10 ice cream places in all of Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all that, we were deciding what to do next and thought…we will go to the beach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we did, for the afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again we sat in the sun and played in the waves and had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth spent quite a while trying to catch a jellyfish, which she eventually did catch.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the beach we went back to the Kroschel’s and were treated to a huge pasta dinner with tomato sauce, and home-made cheese sauce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really yummy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids played more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really fun to watch them interact with Olaf’s kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His kids didn’t know much English and our kids didn’t know any German.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mercedes was just learning some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elias followed Paul and Jacob around and basically repeated everything they said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>P and J called him “little buddy”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all enjoyed Keanu’s silly antics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finn was incredibly passionate, especially towards soccer, but you could see it in other areas too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mercedes was a beautiful girl, with a very sweet spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a girl slightly awkward on the brink of starting her trip into being a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Olaf’s wife was named Gitte and she was so patient with her children and such a loving mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was so tolerant of all of us, and nothing seemed to fluster her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She spoke just a little bit of English, more than I spoke of German.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really can’t put into words all my memories, but they are warm and rich and wonderful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kroschel’s were so hospitable, it was just crazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope they come to the US someday, I would love to have them stay with us to return the favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We said that we would have Mercedes and whoever else would like to come and stay with us in the future.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The kids watched a Land Before Time movie they had in English while we played a card game..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it was time for bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sunday we had another big breakfast, and decided to go to the zoo there in Gettorf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really different in that you buy some zwieback (that dehydrated toast stuff) and feed it to any animal…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the monkeys, the birds, the goats (of course).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids had a lot of fun interacting with the different animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was also a playground every two or three animal exhibits so I think the kids spent more time playing than looking at animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an upside-down house at the zoo and so we toured that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was built right side up and put upside-down on its roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was fun for the kids too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the zoo we got a snack – yes – currywurst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gotta figure out how to make that in the US.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the zoo we went back to the Kroschels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played badminton in the back alley and finally it was time to go home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Olaf drove us back to Lübeck, and we were sad because we had such a nice time and we knew it would be a long time before we could see these friends again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The traffic got worse the closer we got to Lübeck because people were returning from the holiday weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, we heard that Olaf was able to take a different way home that was a little better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Olaf had packed us sandwiches and we had those for dinner and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a nice weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the highlights of the trip to be sure.</span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-58004363065488981062011-06-11T09:38:00.000-07:002011-06-11T09:38:31.290-07:00Starting Monday May 30<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Matt and his parents were still here but today is the day we needed to leave on our two week trip to northern Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tate & Lyle has a company they own in Luebeck Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is close to the Baltic Sea (or Ostsee).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More about that later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So Monday, yes, we got up and since we were leaving we had to pack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was going to start the day before, but, of course, we got home too late for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we got up and started packing for our trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything, of course, took much longer than expected, and Gordon and Mary Ann came over and were weren’t ready, and we weren’t ready for a while after that, finally we ate breakfast and we were ready to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t easy packing for 2 weeks and different kinds of weather even when you don’t have very much stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why it took so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After breakfast, we took the bus to the tube and then tube to San Pancras station where the Eurostar would take us at 6 pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was around 11 when we got there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My great idea was to leave the luggage there so we didn’t have to go out to the apartment after we did things downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most train stations in Europe have some sort of luggage lockers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>packed rather… inefficiently, with lots of extra bags, because it didn’t matter, and we were in a hurry, but soon that came to be a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured we would have to rent a couple lockers and typically they can cost 8 euros, we were traveling with Matt, me, the three kids, and my Mom and Dad for 2 weeks, we had a suitcase each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, turns out, for all of you who think it is a good idea in the future… San Pancras station does not have luggage lockers, they have a luggage check, and for each bag, you have to pay a fee, and the fee is pretty ridiculous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wont tell you how much because I am still disturbed about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am pretty sure we could have fed a family for a long time with that money, but ok, we didn’t have much choice at that point, we couldn’t lug the luggage all over London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we left it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After that we went to Greenich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan was to take a tour boat down the river, it isn’t too costly and more interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a great tour guide and finally landed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hiked up to the observatory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt made a point with his GPS at the prime meridian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was 9 seconds off, it was so sad for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took pictures with our feet on both sides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then hiked back down the hill and had some ice cream before we had to rush back to get the train to get the tube to get to the Eurostar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a fast trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Eurostar is the train that connects London to Paris or Brussels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Brussels, so that night we had a hotel close to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next morning we had a few hours before our train so we walked toward downtown Brussels and as I say, we ate our way across Brussels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First we had Belgium Waffles, you could have them with chocolate sauce (my choice), or fruit and whipped cream or both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They smelled so good as you walk down the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are sold at little places along the street, you go to the window to order and eat there in front of the shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have a “shell” which is almost like crystallized sugar on the surface, they are soo good, I love the texture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to figure it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around saw the cathedral, the main sites (there is a special statue you can ask Paul and Jacob about), and went to a chocolate shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had free demonstrations and samples…. MMM… it worked for us, we bought stuff there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the chocolate and more walking and seeing we ate Pomme Frits (French fries) did you know french fries were invented in Belgium?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They like to put mayonnaise on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I am getting used to it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After that we decided we better get back for our train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to go fast, but we made it to pick up our luggage and to the train station in the nick of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took trains the rest of the way to Lubeck and got there in time to go to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was really upset, because I had gone to the money machine in the train station and it ate my card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pretty sick about it actually, but it turned out ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cancelled mine right away that night and matt had another one we could use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No loss, just frustrating.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next day I had to go to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt stayed with the kids and mom and dad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were so nice and went and got the kids breakfast before they got up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They swam mostly that day and had a lazy day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After so much business, that was nice, besides, we were finally in a hotel with a pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After work that night we went to a restaurant recommended by the hotel which they called “flintstones” in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t have the characters, but it did have dinosaurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>German food was yummy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thursday my parents decided to go to Poland for a few days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I should ask them to blog about it and post it here, because I don’t know too many of the details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They left Thursday morning and came back on Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got all the way across the country and found out their passes didn’t work in Poland, which I think is kinda funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They liked it, and it gave them a different experience from the rest of our trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They rode on a very scenic train along the low mountains and streams there in Poland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went to Krakow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess that is pretty much what I know.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Matt and the kids walked around the town, did some geocaching, went to a park and waited for me to get home on Thursday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, I had to work late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were going to go out with some friends from work for dinner at this resturaunt that I thought Jacob would love, it was called something like Karrtoffhoger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kafftoff is potato I think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, Jacob got potato pancakes with mushroom sauce, libby got potato pancakes with applesauce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul got a plate of roasted potatoes with eggs, matt got sausages, sourkraut and potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I usually can eat off everyones plate and get enough to eat so I didn’t order anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, what is most often left over?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Salad, which is fine with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ate salad and some of most everything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Turns out, I found out over the weekend that this was a restaurant which was connected to the EHEC outbreak and one woman died after eating there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ate there May 13-15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They thought it was the sprouts that made her sick, I ate radish sprouts, I remember because they were so good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That rather freaked me out for a while, but we are going on day 8 now and I still feel ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The E Coli outbreak was going strong the whole time we were there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t pay attention at first, but it was concentrated in northern Germany (right where we were).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the weekend we were more careful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday morning I worked for a while from the hotel. Thursday and Friday were holidays in Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thursday was Fathers Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Germany, that means that the guys all get together and hang out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it was explained to me, the guys get together, pull a wagon of beer and go to the woods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Matt walked in the woods with his kids. (close). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I will have to tell you about the weekend later. We are on the train now, after the weekend after this (i am a bit behind). We have internet on the train! LOVE IT! So I thought iIwould post what I have.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Post more soon.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-84744234570363475282011-06-07T12:54:00.000-07:002011-06-07T12:54:00.772-07:00London with the Matt and Parents<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tuesday the kids, Heidi and Braden went back into town. They had a busy day at the Bank of England museum, science museum, V&A, Harrods and Picidilly circus (sovienier shopping). They liked the Bank of England museum, they learned about the money, and economics... it was a neat find (and free). They didnt get home until after I did. I had started dinner and then it was pretty much bedtime.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Wednesday the kids had to get back to work again (school). After work we went to the grocery. We went to the first Tesco. We got some nice bargins, but it was a disaster. They wouldnt take my credit card, I dont know why. They wouldnt take my Dad's since his signature since it didnt match his drivers liscense. That is because he had written SEE ID after his name. His drivers liscense didnt say that, so they didnt match. Finally, I went out and got cash. When I got back inside, in the meantime, they accepted Dad's credit card. I was left with a lot of cash. We went out for the bus and waiting over 45 minutes for a bus that is supposed to come every 10-12. Very frusturating. I just wanted to go home. We finally made it. We went to bed after I made some delicious peanut noodles with vegetables. (all on clearance, so I fed the family for less than 2 pounds, I was so proud,.) </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Thursday – finally Matt came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His parents are visiting <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to work all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt and his family arrived around noon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was torture to work those last 6 hours until it was time to go home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, it was time, I made sure I was on the first van home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pretty much raced to the flat, went up stairs, opened the door – and – no one was home!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After coming home for lunch, and depositing their stuff, they decided to into to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They left about 3:30, but with so little time till I got home, they did get to see much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got home a little after 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went ahead and started dinner, so at least that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was (almost) ready when they got home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom had to finish it up, because after Matt got there, I was a little distracted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said they had gone into <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> on the Tube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a while, it had rained very hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They saw Westminster Abbey from across the street, and they were able to walk to the middle of the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Westminster</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Bridge</placetype></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had dinner, and sat and talked and pretty much went to bed. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Friday I had planned for people to sleep in a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By Friday I had already worked around 50 hours so I decided I didn’t need to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it would be best to let the jet lagged people sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally got up and got going around 9 or 10 and we decided to go to <placename w:st="on">Kew</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Gardens</placetype>, the <placename w:st="on">Royal</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Botanical Garden</placetype>, and <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Kew</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Palace</placetype></place> (in the Gardens).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt’s Dad really likes plants, and my Dad does too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hadn’t been to the <place w:st="on">Kew</place> gardens so it seemed the perfect plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a wonderful day at the gardens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The weather was a little cold, but pleasant and no rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked and walked to see everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had Japanese gardens, and a warm weather plant house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a redwood walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a more recent planting of a tree which until recently had be believed to be extinct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until they finally found it in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Zealand</place></country-region>, the tree had only existed in the fossil record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was called the Wollemi Pine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had some really huge trees that were planted in the 1700’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The walk with the Rhododendrons was so beautiful,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a fun place for kids with caves, which was supposed to be like where badgers lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We met a woman whose husband grew up in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Champaign</place></city> there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were recognizable by our <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">Illinois</state></place> clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You could crawl around, I had to be on my knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My knees got a little dirty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a picnic there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a very high tree walk, which was built above the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt liked the engineering as much as looking down at the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place w:st="on">Kew</place> palace was interesting; it focused on Queen Charlotte, who was married to the King George, who was the King George of our revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They used <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Kew</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Palace</placetype></place> as a summer getaway, and one of their 15 children started the Gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Kew</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Palace</placetype></place> and Gardens we went home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had cooked hamburger before, and so we chopped stuff, warmed the hamburger and had Tacos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we all winded down before bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
It is light so early in <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">London</city></place>, before 4 am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is light very late, after 9pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You end up eating late, like at 8 all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe because we are always going places and getting back later, or maybe because it is light so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Londoners eat late too, the company dinners are always planned at 7-9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a little different.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Saturday it was time for the big adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to get an early start because we were going to go down to the white cliffs of <city w:st="on">Dover</city> and to <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Leeds</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Castle</placetype></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a two hour drive down to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Dover</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were able to leave early, I had a few problems finding the right road to get on and it was not comfortable to get used to driving on the other side of the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without too much stress or yelling, we got on the highway (M25) and we were on our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked driving on the highway much better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The funny thing about that was the slow cars are supposed to go to the left, not like on our roads where the slow cars are on the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The white cliffs were very impressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a cloudy day, and it was VERY windy by the coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hiked around along the cliffs, it was so windy, sometimes it was a little scary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw some wild ponies who live there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of National Parks, they have National Trusts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a step path down the cliffs and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt and I and the boys hiked down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad came with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Down by the ocean we could see two old gunning stations, with a connecting cave left from World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would be stationed there and make sure no boats crossed the channel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The white cliffs were made of chalk,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had round rocks of flint in layers in the chalk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The beach was made of these large round rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the waves came in, it sounded like marbles, you could hear the rocks rolling against each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tide was going out, and so you could start to see a couple shipwrecks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think there were many in this area, one of the signs said it was a protected shipwreck (preservation) area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After hiking we ate lunch, which was cold and windy, but we all enjoyed seeing the cliffs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we all piled back in the car and headed to <place w:st="on">Leeds</place> castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Now the thinking reader is probably counting in their head, the four London Schwenks, Michelle’s two parents, Matt who is visiting, Matt’s parents, what in the world car are they driving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I don’t really know, it was some kind of a Chevy, and it was PACKED full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately it had three rows of seats but really because of the wheel well there were only two seats in the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob, Paul and my mom had to sit back there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the middle there was a bench, matt’s mom, matt, my dad and Elizabeth sat there, in the front, I was driving and Matt’s dad got the other seat, I guess there is an advantage to being the biggest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very tight fit, but I think we got to do some things that would be difficult by train, and fit a lot into a couple days, so I think it was worth it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will have to ask everyone else if they did.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><place w:st="on">Leeds</place> castle was build in the 16<sup>th</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or at least started back then. It was bought by an American Heiress in the 1940s, and so she had spent a lot of money, restoring and updating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we arrived, they were having a bird show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heiress liked birds so she had started an Aviary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a outdoor flying birdshow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a macaw, and an owl, but the most interesting to me was two falcons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had trained them to dive at a target, which they would swing above their heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was amazing to watch those birds fly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really windy that day, so you could see the birds the using the air currents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The little falcon, called a Merlin falcon would fold his wings in and dive down so fast, then pull up at the last minute when you thought he would crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was amazing. We enjoyed the bird show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a hedge maze so after the bird show we thought we would do that before going into the castle, though we knew we couldn’t dilly dally or we would miss the last entrance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, my mom, me and Matt’s mom stuck together and got very lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t very comforting to have everyone standing on the platform in the middle saying we were going the wrong way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally Paul (and my Dad) took pity on us and came back to get us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul lead us, and a lot of other people we picked up along the way, out of the maze.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The Castle was interesting; part of it was from Norman times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an old cellar and storage rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of it was updated and renovated more recently and so it had an interesting personality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heiress had an uncle who founded Standard Oil along with Rockefeller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died without children, so she and her sister inherited 40 million dollars, just think how much that would have been back then, no wonder she bought a castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very pretty castle with a moat and gardens all around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she died she left the castle to a trust, which is who manages it today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her daughter still lived in the castle until 2001 when she died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a picture treasure hunt for the kids, they had to look for certain animal pictures in different rooms, which kept them looking around while they had a reading guide and signs in the rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had knowledgeable people standing around, but you had to ask a question, if you did, you learned a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the castle, we headed home.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Since it was Saturday we had frozen pizzas when we got back, and then it was bed time again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sunday we were slow, which was ok, because church didn’t start until 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took the whole clan to church and they got to see my interesting and ecletic little church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will have to ask when this church was built, you can tell it is old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is made out of stone with stainglass windows and beautiful woodwork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked to church and then walked home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had made a nice lunch in the crockpot so it was ready when we got home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate, and then I don’t know what happened, but it seemed like we could never leave, we finally did around 2 which was much later than I wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We drove (yes, I drove again!) to <place w:st="on">Stonehenge</place>, it was very impressive, like taller than I thought, but closer together than I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a display with the two kinds of stones used at Stonehege, one is a stone from nearby but it has a cold feel, one is from all the way in Wales Called Bluestone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has a warm feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had the two stones side by side and you could feel a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never noticed that in stones before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was kind of amazing to think how people back then could have brought those huge stones for 200km away!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though there are many stone circles in that part of <country-region w:st="on">England</country-region>, <place w:st="on">Stonehenge</place> is unique for a couple reasons, one is that it has stones on top going horizontal, the other is that the stones are all smoothed and uniform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I mention that we didn’t pay to go in, but stood on the other side of the fence?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed like a good way to do it, you couldn’t get much closer, it is all roped off, even on the other side of the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After <place w:st="on">Stonehenge</place> we went to another stone circle called Avebury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed like a good idea at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The guidebook said Avebury was nice because you could get right next to the stones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stonehenge and Avebury were not too far apart either, so it seemed like we could do that and still make it to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bath</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, let me tell you, driving on the M25 on the left hand side is a lot different than driving though the English countryside on the left side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roads are SO NARROW, and winding, and you had to stay on your side of the road, but there doesn’t seems to be enough room for you on your side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hit the bushes on the left more than once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone in the car noticed I seemed to speed up when I got in a dangerous spot, rather than slow down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I did, because I wanted to get out of there quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to be mindful to be more slow after that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, I said to my riders, does it disturb any of you to know I close my eyes every time we pass a car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said, that is what they did too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh it was scary and stressful, but I made it to Avebury.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We made it to Avebury, and it was neat because we could get out and walk right up to the stones and touch them, climb on them etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a HUGE stone circle all around the town, at one place there was a smaller stone circle inside the bigger one, though not in the middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a really cute little town, and a nice thing was that when we were driving in, a guy gave us his parking pass so we didn’t have to pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t say too long because it was getting late and we still had to get to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bath</place></city>. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I was a little concerned about driving more, but hey, at this point we were already out, and this was our one chance to see all this stuff, so on to Bath we were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">We got to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bath</place></city> after 6 so we missed the Roman Bath tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had printed out a walking tour from the internet, so we started that, only I wanted to be efficient, so we started the walking tour in the middle (close to the parking garage where we parked).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That made it a little tricky, but maybe it was fun to try and find the next plaque on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids liked looking for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We started at number 15 or so and made it back to the beginning, so we could do some of that in order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw all the houses in bath, they all looked the same, and they were all connected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It as a very clean and neat town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went down and saw the bathhouse and Bath Abbey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around and saw the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Avon</placename> <placetype w:st="on">River</placetype></place>, and a famous bridge, one of only three known bridges with shops lining both sides. (we saw one of the other two in Venice). Bath was a really interesting town. We wanted fish and chip for dinner and we wandered aimlessly for a long time with my map of resturants, not really finding what we were looking for. Finally my parents had the brilliant idea of asking at a pub. They were only serving pizza but they had a brilliant suggestion of a place with "crackin" fish and chips. We walked there, and they were right, the fish and chips were crackin. YUMMY (and I dont like fish that much). After dinner it was back to the car and back home. We got home very late, but it was a great Sunday.</span>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-41375255299161976422011-06-07T04:39:00.000-07:002011-06-07T04:39:04.407-07:00<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJVMhI_3MUtufxuXTTNyXI7f1TLtePqjeSCSLeO1ZZ3k1svVotp4bYY2obUf-wl0UU_rLaN2N0dJaD0RRIhyphenhyphencl2i6MivF2dRV-t1UXsXv3Hxh3ch86kKMvwYYU-3henkii7zDoUdxTD4/s1600/IMG00432-20110522-1710.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJVMhI_3MUtufxuXTTNyXI7f1TLtePqjeSCSLeO1ZZ3k1svVotp4bYY2obUf-wl0UU_rLaN2N0dJaD0RRIhyphenhyphencl2i6MivF2dRV-t1UXsXv3Hxh3ch86kKMvwYYU-3henkii7zDoUdxTD4/s320/IMG00432-20110522-1710.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Braden, Paul, Elizabeth, Jacob with a guard at Windsor Castle</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrv1Lyy8le-gDsvFZmzz8ENRop1C1j2FAZGl9fD0TXjW0NWzXz1DWCg3skUm13aoIx0E_FilvNaKdpFsrXBqp8V3YY4HriJnIq5HBbPHOcSWP4Bbj_NAtzWvfMWAMuLZVe2uLEhrLna24/s1600/IMG00450-20110603-1221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrv1Lyy8le-gDsvFZmzz8ENRop1C1j2FAZGl9fD0TXjW0NWzXz1DWCg3skUm13aoIx0E_FilvNaKdpFsrXBqp8V3YY4HriJnIq5HBbPHOcSWP4Bbj_NAtzWvfMWAMuLZVe2uLEhrLna24/s320/IMG00450-20110603-1221.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinky's with life size Marizpan sculpture</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpMtWB2hllBwx5VK-DuSN8Td_bqOdDHKPDq7aXprHPE7iB4tXtsrgWtxl49gH295Z7ev6pXvAd-Xl5e1OBchbE42BmQCBvxJ7TocxOYvo7_tVOb_m7sf08uhu56N-4lHPwhriCS0QymM/s1600/IMG00426-20110515-1930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpMtWB2hllBwx5VK-DuSN8Td_bqOdDHKPDq7aXprHPE7iB4tXtsrgWtxl49gH295Z7ev6pXvAd-Xl5e1OBchbE42BmQCBvxJ7TocxOYvo7_tVOb_m7sf08uhu56N-4lHPwhriCS0QymM/s320/IMG00426-20110515-1930.jpg" t8="true" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinky's at Cologne Cathedral (Kohn Dom)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJv_Rx61gfKKX6cFLhFlYyI6WJXXaELiCBQL-UFGh0vxWM6OFjZTuw3v4-HYSL7-MeTDxiG5x-sZin61nhSUS3b_IQV97yAvfdgb_-jfSk1_QPcKdNakA4_puBU9oJXks_e1NUTWeJ44/s1600/IMG00443-20110602-2112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJv_Rx61gfKKX6cFLhFlYyI6WJXXaELiCBQL-UFGh0vxWM6OFjZTuw3v4-HYSL7-MeTDxiG5x-sZin61nhSUS3b_IQV97yAvfdgb_-jfSk1_QPcKdNakA4_puBU9oJXks_e1NUTWeJ44/s320/IMG00443-20110602-2112.jpg" t8="true" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jacob's Favorite Resturant in Lubeck Germany (It is all potatoes)</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-21933158445758361502011-05-24T02:35:00.001-07:002011-05-24T02:35:54.595-07:00Week 7 Back in London<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We arrived back in London on Monday evening after the weekend visit to Munich and Cologne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the train from Cologne to Lille, got our luggage and headed back to London, that trip wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, considering we had all our luggage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday morning it was back to work for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids also had to get to work because my sister was coming on Thursday wither her son, Braden, who is about their age, so not a lot of school work would be happening at the end of the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids worked in the morning and then took an exciting trip to Tesco, a large grocery store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Tesco isn’t within walking distance like our little local place, so they had to take a bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got home about the time I did from the Tesco and we were well stocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we put stuff away, we figured out about 1000 things we forgot, so we went back Wednesday after work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was raining Wednesday afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Originally we were going to meet at (a different) Tesco, but then I just came home because of the rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After dinner it stopped raining, so we went ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rode the bus to Uxbridge (passed several groceries on the way).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought there was a large store in Uxbridge, but it was a smaller one, so we got back on the bus and rode it back to the passed Tesco and proceeded to shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is really fun for me to shop in a large store and see the difference in food etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had cut green beans as a snack and raw peas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those were yummy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So Tuesday and Wednesday were about working, and shopping, and then Thursday morning my sister came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and Dad and the kids met her at the airport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the came home, dropped off the luggage, freshened up and went to Legoland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Legoland is close by and we had bought season tickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thursdays was bring a friend day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got home about when I did and we all had dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friday I worked while they went to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met them at Hyde Park (at the Princess Diana Memorial Garden).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After playing we decided to head off to Harrods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That place is big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to buy a Heidi Pie again so Heidi could try one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought some other food, but mostly waited to eat till we got home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(If you wait till the store is almost closing a lot of the food is ½ off).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the way<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>home, Paul, Jacob and I stopped at a little market that we pass, and everyone else went to McDonalds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got bread, fruit and frozen pizzas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had run out of bread and fruit for lunch on Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate at McDonald’s, they finally talked me into it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It pretty much tastes the same anywhere, the only difference here was the ice cream treats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had Cadbury Caramel Milkshakes (and some other local candy blizzards).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went home and went to sleep.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next morning we were trying to get up and get going to see the changing of the guards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything took much longer than we wished, but we got there just in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had an ok view, at least I am tall and people were very nice letting the kids push to the front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had 120 pictures left on my camera which I thought would be enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I didn’t have a great view, and Jacob was in front and Elizabeth was on my sholders for a lot of it, I had them take pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were out of pictures before the end of the changing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t tell them, I am going to have to delete some of those.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a band that played music like Michael Jackson, so that was cracking me up (I thought it was supposed to be this formal ceremony).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we saw that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the changing of the guard we went up to the subway and went to the Tower of London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there we ate our packed lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we went for a tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very interesting by a older warden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The adults enjoyed it a lot, he was very entertaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys sit in the back and played hand games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby paid attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nice thing was that I had seen on the brochure or somewhere that they had some kids activities, so when we checked in at the visitors center we asked about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got a button, (I think they called it a badge) and a pencil saying “practicing princess” or “knight in training” and a booklet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book had things for them to look for and to do along the tour which really seemed to help them have a purpose when we were walking through looking at the rooms and the crown jewels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully, they learned something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had to do things like count the maces in the mace room, or look for answers of questions in the exhibit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids really like doing those. We spent most of the afternoon in the Tower of London.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After that we decided to go to the London Eye (this huge Ferris Wheel type thing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stood in line and bought tickets and went up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The views were amazing and it wasn’t too scary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a clear day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that they had a 4D movie which we all went to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the kids liked that best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to wear 3D glasses and they had smells, and bubbles and things coming at you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pretty fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the London Eye, we decided to go home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep in mind, since we are on the edge of the city, going home is a long process, maybe 1 and a half hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had our frozen pizzas (it was Saturday night after all) and we went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sunday we got up and went to church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We packed other clothes and a lunch and went straight from church (which is conveniently located next to the bus stop) straight to Windsor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate lunch on a bench when we got there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really windy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t have a lot of choices since we didn’t want to carry it all, but we had meat, cheese, and Nutella.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(only my Dad ate all of those together).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had these delicious little oranges, like clemintines, only they tasted like mandarine oranges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were very juicy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also bought some candy, called Turkish Delight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, if you have read “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” you will know why I had to buy these.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was especially pleased because this Turkish Delight was rose flavored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Britian is one of the few places in the world with use flower flavors in candy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So eating rose flavored candy was an interesting experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby liked it, the boys didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pleased with the experience.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After lunch we went to Windsor Castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again they had these books for kids to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys got one about armor and Libby got one about Castles of the Past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really nice again, because it explained some things in and easier way and it gave them things to look for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Queen was at home, as you can tell from the large tower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it has her standard flying from it, she is there, if it has Union Jack, she isn’t home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was fun she was there, of course, we did not see her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys learned about the colors of armor, how HUGE Henry VIII’s armor was and some of the weapons (lances etc).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby learned about the battlements and set up of the castle, and how that helped in defense etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kids programme even came with a parents guide with extra facts (and the answers!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I really enjoyed Queen Mary’s dollhouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very elaborate and even had running water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to go back and spend more time looking at it, it was hard because there were so many people in line, you couldn’t take as long as you wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course it also didn’t help that the boys were bored and running ahead, that had to keep you moving as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state apartments were very impressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One interesting thing to me was that in other of the older castles we have seen in Europe they always had ceramic heaters in every room, these have a fire in them and they are fed by a secret passage in the walls by servants so as not to disturb the inhabitants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windsor castle did not have these, they had vents along the floor that had blowing air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A warden told us that there is one air system for the entire castle and when the Queen is there, it is much warmer than when she is not (the Queen likes it warmer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The warden was even saying it gets too hot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought that was kinda cute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like an old lady, eh?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After the castle, we went home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gotta tell you, the train platforms are SCARY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You stand there and these trains come zipping by so fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a wonder more people aren’t zipped away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just a warning if you come and ride the local trains.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We got home in time to decompress a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got to talk to the kids grandparents who are coming this week, play chess with a cousin (we like Skype) and talk to Dad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it was time for bed to be ready for another fun week.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday the kids went to Greenwich England and stood on the dividing line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They took a boat from downtown London to Greenwich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went to several of the museums there, which they reported were very good, and very hands on. They took a tour and had a very nice time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I finally had a reasonable day at work, so I didn’t come home a grouch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had delicious skillet lasagna and worked on the blog, our journals, and postcards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, as always there was lots of Lego playing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legos was the one toy we brought along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby brought some other little figure animal type things, and stuffed animals and a doll, but the one thing they play nearly every day, is Legos.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We went to bed a little early, people seemed to be dragging from the hectic pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that gets us through Monday May 23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This week we are all looking forward to the arrival of Matt’s parents and Matt himself whom we haven’t seen since April 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time we have left in Europe will go quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After this week in London, we have 2 weeks in Lubeck Germany, and then 3 weeks back in London, and our time will be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are really having fun and getting to do lots of really neat things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t believe we get this opportunity, and I hope I am appreciating it, being appropriately thankful and enjoying it all I can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sure am trying!</span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-46224335915620006042011-05-23T12:51:00.000-07:002011-05-23T12:51:43.869-07:00Paul from May 1We saw the Eiffel tower. It was very crowded. You could get lost easy. The Eiffle tower is made iron. You could get to the tippy top of the Eiffle tower. There are three stops on the lift. I like the Eiffle tower a lot. <br />
<br />
Today we went on the Glacier express. It has 91 tunnels, 291 bridges and 4000 valleys. 2005 was the 75th anniversary of the train. 2005 was the 100th anniversary of the Rhine gorge and alba lines of the Glacier Express. Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-61259534906908843242011-05-23T11:16:00.000-07:002011-05-23T11:16:04.299-07:00Pauls 5/15 post<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We went to see the castles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The castles were build by King Ludwig II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second castle, Walt Disney used as a model for Cinderella’s castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a blue wallet made out of deerskin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw red stag antlers. They were hanging on the wall because they used the castle as a get-away castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would hunt in the woods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have that bed in my own castle that you would live in all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bed from Neuschwanstein castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The castle I would design would have a cave full of rubies and gems and pearls and gold and silver and platinum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would give some of the jewels to the poor people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would make 5 big rooms that are all connected for family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Mommy, wouldn’t you and Daddy want to share a room since Daddy is warm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also would have three guest rooms for all my friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would put stars made out of clear crystals and put a lamp that twinkles on and off and changes colors really quickly on the floor above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(this is what King Ludwig II did in his bedroom).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would put little clouds and make a glass floor and under it would be a little sculpture of the city so it would look like a flying room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the back I would put a maze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also in the back I would put a water park/amusement park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We went to a cathedral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to see the bell tower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to walk because there was no elevator so we had to take stairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just to get to the bells there were about 300 stairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To get to the top there were 533 stairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not like going to the top but Mom forced us, and it wasn’t very nice because I don’t like heights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We had a very fun time in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Germany</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-16975870272649139052011-05-23T11:12:00.001-07:002011-05-23T11:12:42.203-07:00Jacob's post from 5/15<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Today we are traveling to <city w:st="on">Cologne</city> <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">Germany</country-region></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are on our way back to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train ride is 4.5 hours long, we got on at 1:30 and we will get off at 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>now we are stopped at big train station for some weird reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought the car 38 was going to be the last one, and the cars were so big it was actually the first one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were two trains connected together, at a town (Stuggart) the two trains separated and went different ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Yesterday we were in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Munich</place></city> called Munchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a tour of two castles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first castle wasn’t as beautiful as the second castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second castle was filled with gold and even had a fake cave inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to a restaurant last night, and Paul, Libby and I had shisk kabobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had meat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby had some tortellini thingies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was german food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom had beer and cola mixed together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it tasted plain and dull.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The first castle was called the swan castle and it had lots of fountains that all stood for something but I don’t remember what now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kitchen was in a different building than the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a painting in the dining room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The painting was of a battle but there was no blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tour guide said<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they must have actually died of heart attacks in the battle since there was no blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King Maximillion built the first castle, and his son King Ludwig II built the second castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We got a new wallet made out of deer leather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">If I had a castle I would build it in a maze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would not like to live in the second castle because it was too big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The castle is by the mountains and it was hilly everywhere but sometimes it was flat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-84903804650786310812011-05-23T11:10:00.000-07:002011-05-23T11:10:27.068-07:00Second week in Lille - weekend in Munich and southern Germany<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We returned to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Lille</place></city> late Sunday night (after the train disaster).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monday it was back to work again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The routine was pretty well established by now, work, home, eat, go out for a walk or to the park, bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The kids worked on fractions this week and still Robin Hood. They also worked on writing (which hopefully will be posted very soon).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Work was going well, it was good to be in <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Lille</city></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This week we had several meetings with people who worked there that helped us in our planning and designing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a new consultant, who was very helpful but unfortunately he had to go home on Tuesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The week went by quickly at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had meetings ½ the day and then we had to work to get more details into our design and documentation (details are not my favorite part).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Monday after worked we walked to the grocery store, bought some cooked chicken and other things (a bagette) and had a picnic in the park which was right there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a beautiful day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then played in the park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I climbed to the top of this giant spider web thing, we had been to the park before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was feeling brave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would never have a climber that high in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">US</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was scary, and pretty fun. The boys played on it too, we all spent a log time playing at park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a slide ingeneously built into the side of a hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were also nice trails for walking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a good time.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">At night before bed we have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>been reading fairy tales every child should know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are currently on Aladdin, it is a long story.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tuesday at work I got pretty frustrated, some politics of the business were getting me there a string… MOM water is coming from the ceiling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The water was coming down so hard, it looked like a string.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We grabbed a bowl to collect it, but we noticed the water etc had already gotten on a suitcase and clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called the front desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned out to be the air conditioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to sleep in a different room that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was frustrating to move and on an already bad day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to go to the grocery store and get chocolate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bought the kids kindereggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are chocolate eggs with a little toy inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby got Papa Smurf. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys were jealous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We split a delicious chocolate bar, the trick was, we had to pick something you couldn’t (easily) get in the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">US</country-region></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That limited us because much of what we could find, we could get in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">US</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found something delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made me feel better.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">During the day on Wednesday the kids went to <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Paris</city></place> to the Louvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On two previous occasions they tried to go to the Louvre, once the line was too long and we didn’t have enough time, and once it was closed (apparently may 1 is mothers day in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>, though I think taking her the Louvre would be a nice thing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seemed to like the Louvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grandpa tripped and almost fell against a priceless statue, the Mona Lisa looked like it was looking right at you no matter where you moved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob liked a statue of wood made out of thin pieces of plywood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also toured Napolean’s Apartments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a good day.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Wednesday after work we decided to walk to the city center, because I had not been there yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked and it was very nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a creperie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had gallets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The waiter did not speak much English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys thought it was very funny, because when I ordered I said I would share what <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said “same” and I said yes, but in retrospect, I should have said no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He brought me the same thing elizabath ordered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had two of them, and too much food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys thought that was very funny and from then on, always wanted me to tell the waiter I was going to share.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Thursday we were trying to pack etc to get ready to go from <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Lille</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had found an ice cream store named Chuck’s close to the hotel and wanted to take me there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went for ice cream first, because it closes early.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we went to the grocery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were too late for chickens and we were at a loss of what to get, keep in mind the only way we could cook was tea kettle (hot water warmer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ended up having instant mashed potatoes with ham and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pretty good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I tell you how great my mom is, how many different meals we made with just hot water?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had chicken twice,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the leftovers we had couscous with tomatoes, black olives and chicken, we had potato chowder with corn, we had tacos with beans and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each one of these things represented quite a savings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To go out to dinner usually cost a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way to save money when you eat out, soda is cheaper than ordering water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I eat off the kids plates and don’t usually order something for myself, but still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I am very grateful we though of all these different meals to have that would save money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For lunch we mostly had sandwiches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baguettes are very yummy when fresh, and we had a lot of those.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Friday morning I got up very early to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We let the kids sleep in and <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> didn’t get up until 9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all packed and ready to go, and the train left at 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the train to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Brussels</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Brussels</place></city> we went to a ticket place to get reservations for our journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t have to get reservations, but then you have a seat, on some of the fuller trains, it isn’t a bad idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got reservations to <city w:st="on">Frankfort</city>, but not all the way to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Munich</place></city>, so the second train we had to just find seats that weren’t reserved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E had a seat separate from the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and Dad were behind each other and Paul and Jacob found places across the isle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all in one car, but I didn’t have a seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to be on a conference call for work, so I stood in the hall outside the car, with my headset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could keep <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> in my eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pretty cool to work from the train while driving to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Munich</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just about the time that my call was over, the seat across the Eisle from <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> opened up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was able to finish the call sitting across from her (most of my talking was done by then).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so nice to have that seat across from E.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got in to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Munich</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to get a town train to the airport since that is where our hotel was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The airport sure is out of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder it was so much cheaper than in the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got on the right train going the wrong way the first time, but Mom figured it out quickly, when we finally got to the airport we had to wait forever to finally to get the airport shuttle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally got t, our rooms were not ready (so much for a reservation – prepaid)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>finally we got to our rooms and went to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bed was hard and the pillows were small and I was sore the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder the rooms were so cheap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">On Friday we literally had no time between trains so we had to have sandwiches for lunch and for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids were pretty bummed, but we made it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Saturday was what I called CASTLE DAY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rented a car in the morning and we went to Hohenschwenstien and Neuschwenstein castles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was about a 2 hour drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got a little confused getting out of the city, but finally found our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had this HUGE people mover (their name for mini van).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could hold 9 people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and Dad didn’t think it was much bigger than my van, but it sure seemed bigger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought we were driving a boat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was blue, it was a Mercedes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it seemed bigger since I haven’t been in mine for 6 weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
So we drove through <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">Bavaria</state></place> to these castles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The countryside was beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first castle Hohenschwenstien castle was called the swan castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was built by</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">King Maximillion on the site of a medieval knights castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a hunting/summer castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is still owned by the family and they tour guide was an employee of the royal family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a very good guide and the tour was very interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boy liked the dining room which had a battle seen painted on the wall, but in the scene, there was no blood painted, because that would not have been appetizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it was interesting that it was believed that in the old Swan’s <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Knight</placename> <placetype w:st="on">castle</placetype></place>, it is believed that Martin Luther hid there for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King Maximillion had a son who built the other castle – Neuschwenstien – new swans castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the last king of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bavaria</place></state>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He built 4 castles duing his reign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became king at age 18.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family doesn’t own any of the castles he built, because he just like to spend money and he racked up lots of debts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After his death, the family had to sell the castles back to <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bavaria</place></state> to pay the debts off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The castle was pretty amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only lived in it 172 days and only about 1/3 of it is finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw King Ludwig II’s private rooms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each is decorated after a different Wagner musical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King Ludwig II was a supporter and good from of Wagner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The castle was the inspiration of Cinderella’s castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not to hard, after touring it, to see how he became broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is pretty elaborate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Construction lasted 17 years, when it had to be abandoned after his death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
So, his death was pretty interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was raking up all these debts, and he fired one advisior who told him he was too in debt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His next advisor secured a loan to pay his debts but instead of doing that, he just funded more construction projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He built these different castles, and at least two theathers, supported several artists (including Wagner), ETC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, the state of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bavaria</place></state> had him declared insane, though no doctor actually examined him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why he is sometimes called Mad King Ludwig.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was taken into custody, and the next day he was dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interesting…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They say he died under mysterious circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know if he was mad or not, but he sure did like to spend money and had very nice taste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His bedroom had this furniture which took 60 workers in 2.5 years or something like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even had indoor plumbing (thanks to being build on a hill and a mountain stream).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very elaborate castle.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After the first castle, while waiting for the second we had brats, “meatloaf” and pomme frits at a Biergarten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yummy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a very long uphill walk to the second castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom, and Dad decided the walk might be too much, so they took the horse wagons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> went too, because, well, it involved horses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys and I walked up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the tour we walked back down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woods were beautiful, I really liked that part of the country. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We went back down, had ice cream and popcorn from this crazy machine that popped it right into your container.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t taste as good as it looked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did some souvenier shopping and it was time to drive back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped at a little place in a small town along the road and the food was so yummy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was here Jacob said “This is the best day of my life, everything is meat”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had little brain puzzles in small clear plastic cubes and our table was covered with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had ½ wheat beer and ½ cola.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so weird, I had to try it, from a flavor perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t imagine it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very sweet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Finally we made it back to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dad and I decided to return the car right away so we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to wait for 40 minutes for a shuttle and when we got back Mom had the kids in bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul decided to sleep with Grandma and Grandpa since the extra bed wasn’t too big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This lead to some interesting conversations with Jacob.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are laying in bed and he says “Mom, what is a spinal tap?” When I explained it he said “does it hurt?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know what that kid thinks sometimes, or how his brain works, where this stuff comes from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do like talking to him though, and I am glad for the quiet moments where I finally get a peak in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sunday morning we got up late, had a long leisurely breakfast and took the train back downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had an hour to wait for the train so we walked around the block and tried to get a little bit of a view of “Munchen”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got on the train and rode for 4.5 hours and got off in Colonge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main cathedral (Dom) was close to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked to the hotel, checked in and then walked to the Dom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was Sunday night, so when we got there they were just starting mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had the most beautiful organ music playing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stood at the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know if I wanted to force the kids to sit through church – in german – after sitting all day on the train, but we stood at the back for a very long time listening to the music and the singing and talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For my part, I enjoyed Church that day emensly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then walked to a german restaurant and had more delicious food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and I shared this pizza type thing which was a local specaialty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had a very thin crispy crust, and then sour cream, bacon, onions and cheese. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth and Jacob had snitzel with cream sauce, Paul had pasta and Grandpa had Snitzer with an egg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had apple flavored soda, but with a little bitterness to it, we really enjoyed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to bed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Monday morning we got up and went to the visitors information center and asked what we should do with just a couple hours, they said go to the cathedral, we said, we have already been there, and they said, did you go to the top of the towers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hadn’t so we went there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got mom situated in the pews with our luggage listening to more organ music and we were on our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The towers are 157meters high, though you don’t climb to the very top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do, however climb, 533 steps, so we were pretty tired!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys didn’t want to go, they were afraid of heights and their legs hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not a nice Mom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a beautiful view of Colonge from the top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Colonge is a different city because the buildings are much more modern than most of the cities we had seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was bombed on 262 occasions in World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>90% of it was leveled and rebuilt after the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An interesting thing is, this cathedral, the largest cathedral in the world for a long time, the highest building in the world before the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Washington</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Monument</placetype></place> was built, was not damaged in these raids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Colonge was the site of the first 1000 bomber night by the RAF - bombed with 1400 tons of bombs in 90 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is just one of the 262 air raids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One bomb was reported to hit it, but it did not go off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a beautiful gothic cathedral, and I am glad it was not destroyed when most of the rest of the city was.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We then decided to walk to the <place w:st="on">Rhine</place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took off in one direction, thinking it was a good idea, but we walked too far south, and well, we ran out of time about a block away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to go back to the station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least we saw the <place w:st="on">rhine</place> from the top of the bell tower.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We then got on our train to <city w:st="on">Brussels</city>, and switched in <city w:st="on">Brussels</city> to a small local train, and then another train and then to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Lille</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will eventually end up in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then start the season of visitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First my sister and her son, then (finally) Matt and his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the next two weeks in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> will be quite busy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids are looking forward to people speaking English again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a little tired of trains at the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The next post (from me) will start on Tuesday May 17th. </span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-61722783132058891442011-05-23T06:04:00.000-07:002011-05-23T06:57:20.938-07:001st Week in Lille France (and the weekend in the Netherlands)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic76oYtXuwUxJdx3flxzZnPB57lkYFp8aBysMe8foJSYkSDMiaDtL4oXKQnQ_Mwa_kd4wAFtzZ1FZso2zPrYhuAgYj3KV8LOPrvpRmHieIBszIjRoAqmDK4YbHOwm7osSXZxQzMa5Qc3Y/s1600/Libby+on+the+top+of+the+spiderweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">We arrived in Lille, France on Sunday afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had left our luggage the week before, and the hotel was right across the street from the train station (very convenient).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We drug all out stuff up to our rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to rent two rooms for the week because of the number of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nice thing was the rooms were at the end of the hall and had a key to access, and then a small entry way and then a key to access either room, however, these doors could be left open so you could walk back and forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These two rooms were bigger than our London apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It all would have been perfect, if not for the lack of a kitchen (more on that later).</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFDpdhqScmVPcW8jXAG8H_3wyxo3I9gmxejKEcoKwDhyphenhypheniCwSeaLOk0n1soVJG4a0csZiCgO3kOpEJfVRi-fPfxEZHwLtPju6g5KTHZbizlOIOmtkibrpd7rd2Hn_u64cqeoLg7kCUxMw/s1600/Jacob+on+the+spiderweb%252C+lille.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">We arrived late Sunday afternoon and we were really too tired to do anything but find a place to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was May 1 which is a holiday in France so many resturants were closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked down towards the city center (but not all the way there) and found a nice, local restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad and I had a local stew type thing, which they said was meat cooked in beer, but really it just tasted like sweet barbeque.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very good and generous portions, but a little sweet for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth had a local sandwich which was like grilled ham and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had melted cheese in the middle and melted cheese on top, she liked it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys both got hamburgers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom got a salad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went back to the hotel and went to bed.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday morning I got up and went to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met my co-worker and we rode the metra and then walked. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a 1.4km walk from the stop to the office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a bright sunny day and we enjoyed the walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday the kids had to get back to school work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They worked on 2 and 3 digit multiplication this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first couple days back it was hard to get them to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They complained about writing, and it was a fight, when I came back home from work, they still had not completed what they were supposed to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They worked in the morning and then went to the laundry mat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sure was nice for me coming home from work to some clean clothes after dragging everything (dirty or wet) around for a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess they packed a couple suitcases full of clothes to take to the laundry mat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That night they had just gotten home not long before me, and so we decided to walk to an area of town that had lots of restaurants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found it ok, but it was very overwhelming trying to pick which one to eat at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally I heard someone say “Michelle” which was a little weird, but I turned to see my boss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He and some other people were just leaving a restaurant, and getting into a cab.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that restaurant was good, so we said, ok and picked it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was also proud that we walked, and they said hotel had told them it was too far and they needed to take a cab.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We had more local French food for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob had something that tasted like potato casserole (potatoes and cheese), Paul had something that tasted like egg bake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We liked the food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t order anything because it saves some money to just eat a little off of everyones plate and I get enough food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday it was back to work for all of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also made a trip to the grocery store and we began our adventures in cooking in a hotel room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I mentioned earlier, we didn’t have a kitchen, the only real cooking equipment we had was a hot water warmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of a coffee pot like we might have, they have a machine which boils water, then you add instant coffee (very common in Europe) or tea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we could boil water.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I will give you an idea of some of the things we made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t take long going out to eat before you are glad to figure out a way to save some money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first night they bought rotisserie chickens to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second day we used the left-over chicken mixed with tomatoes, black olives and couscous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also had tacos with beans and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course lunches aren’t so hard, but we sure had a lot of bagettes these two weeks in Lille.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fresh bread is delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Wednesday they kids did more school work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are reading Robin Hood. After school work time they went to the belfry in town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the largest TV tower in Europe when it was built.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the top you can see all the way to Belgium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a nice tour and enjoyed the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thursday after school work the kids and my parents went to these tunnels in a down about 30 minutes south of Lille.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently, in the past, they were a mine when they used the stone to build houses (limestone).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later bricks came into fashion and the mines were abandoned until World War II when someone remembered them and decided they would be a great place to hide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The French army used them as a barracks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their plan was to have the English attack from one side, and the French army would pop up from the backside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The allies ended up winning this battle, but the French were a little late, so the English sustained a lot of causalities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic76oYtXuwUxJdx3flxzZnPB57lkYFp8aBysMe8foJSYkSDMiaDtL4oXKQnQ_Mwa_kd4wAFtzZ1FZso2zPrYhuAgYj3KV8LOPrvpRmHieIBszIjRoAqmDK4YbHOwm7osSXZxQzMa5Qc3Y/s1600/Libby+on+the+top+of+the+spiderweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic76oYtXuwUxJdx3flxzZnPB57lkYFp8aBysMe8foJSYkSDMiaDtL4oXKQnQ_Mwa_kd4wAFtzZ1FZso2zPrYhuAgYj3KV8LOPrvpRmHieIBszIjRoAqmDK4YbHOwm7osSXZxQzMa5Qc3Y/s320/Libby+on+the+top+of+the+spiderweb.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elixabeth at the top of the Spider Web</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Friday we found a park nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually we knew the park was there, but we didn’t know where the playground equipment was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to go for a walk after work, we walked to an old city gate, and then walked around the park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When walking around the park we found the play equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a slide built into the side of the hill, and they had a HUGE (what we call) spiderweb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would never find anything this large in the US , if you fell off, you could get seriously hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played on it for a long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went back home and went to bed.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday morning we left early and set out for Haarlem (and then Amsterdam) in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to take trains to Brussels, then to Haarlem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We arrived a little after noon (we ate lunch on the train).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We headed for the Corrie Ten Boom house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a place I have looked forward to visiting for a long time.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFDpdhqScmVPcW8jXAG8H_3wyxo3I9gmxejKEcoKwDhyphenhypheniCwSeaLOk0n1soVJG4a0csZiCgO3kOpEJfVRi-fPfxEZHwLtPju6g5KTHZbizlOIOmtkibrpd7rd2Hn_u64cqeoLg7kCUxMw/s1600/Jacob+on+the+spiderweb%252C+lille.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFDpdhqScmVPcW8jXAG8H_3wyxo3I9gmxejKEcoKwDhyphenhypheniCwSeaLOk0n1soVJG4a0csZiCgO3kOpEJfVRi-fPfxEZHwLtPju6g5KTHZbizlOIOmtkibrpd7rd2Hn_u64cqeoLg7kCUxMw/s320/Jacob+on+the+spiderweb%252C+lille.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jacob 1/2 way up the spider web</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Corrie Ten Boom is one of my personal heroes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She live in Haarlem, Netherlands in WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She lived with her parents and her sister. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was the first female watch maker in the Netherlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe when the German invasion of Netherlands started she was 48.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her family built a false wall in their house made of bricks and hid Jews and Dutch young men (who would be sent off to work camps in Germany if found).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They hid them and had to steal ration cards to get enough food for everyone until someone whom they trusted turned them in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corrie, her sister Betsy and their father were sent to concentration camps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her sister and father both died in the camps, but Corrie survived and was released due to what is believed to be a clerical error about 2 weeks before the execution of all the older prisoners in the camp (if she stayed, she surely would have died).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the next 30 years she traveled around the world with a story of forgiveness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find her pretty amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have read many of her books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The visit to the house was very interesting and spiritual for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I probably can’t really describe it, because it was a personal experience, and much of the time the tour guide was speaking I had tears in my eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tour guide had a couple challenges for us, one “what would we do?” if faced with similar choices, or as hard choices find you in the days ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know, but I sure wish I could be as brave as Corrie and her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple things really struck me from the visit. One is that Corrie has always been a hero of mine, but Corrie considered her sister Betsy as her hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Betsy had two visions right before she died in the concentration camp, one about Corries release date, and the other about the ministry that Corrie would have traveling the world telling people about the power of forgiveness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corrie also tells how Betsy was the one who could always look on the bright side of things (in the blessing even in the curses).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Betsy told Corrie to “thank God for the fleas” in the concentration camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The barracks they stayed in had fleas; they would end up with bites always on their bodies. The blessing was that the guard knew that barracks had fleas and would therefore stay away, which allowed them to have a Bible hidden and to conduct prayer meetings so they could have hope even in the horrible conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Another thing that struck me was the hand of God through the life of a family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The guide told of how Corrie’s Grandparents held regular prayer meetings for peace in Jerusalem and for the Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was during the Ottoman occupation of Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was interesting that years later, this family was used again in relation to the Jews, the family surely had a heart for those people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder how the thread continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In a separate post with pictures, you can see the kids in the little room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have broken out the wall now so you can see inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people, who hid, had to crawl into the room using the bookshelf which had a false door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the raid in which Corrie, Betsy and their father were arrested, the people in the house crawled inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had to stay there, in that little space, with no water, and no light for 2 days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, they were rescued by some police who were part of the underground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people who hid inside were never captured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I hope I have courage like Corrie and her family, and I also hope that I can use this to remember what is really hardship in life, and what really matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After leaving the Ten Boom house we went to <i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Grote Kerk</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">the (High Church) a Dutch reform church at the center of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the church where the Ten Boom’s went one of the most famous landmarks in town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was consecrated in 1559.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an old church, obviously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An interesting thing is the floor has gravestones (people are buried beneath it).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is built in the gothic style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a large organ which has even been played by Mozart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After finishing in Haarlem it was time to go to Amsterdam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to the train station, but unfortunately trains were not running from Haarlem to Amsterdam on this day (construction), so they had a bunch of buses to take people back and forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a warm sunny day so standing waiting for a bus was getting hot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People were very pushy, and we missed the first 2 buses, and I was getting a little frustrated, but I just thought:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what would Corrie Ten Boom think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would probably think there was some reason we needed to be on that (3<sup>rd</sup>) bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we finally got off the train (bus to edge of town, train downtown), we were very tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found the tourist place were after a couple people we made a view of the visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to get ice cream first, then boat tour, then walk around a little, meet my friend, eat dinner. We had previously decided to have Pankakes for dinner (pancakes).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ice cream was yummy, the tour was very interesting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finding a bathroom was a pain, we finally met my friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before the pancakes, a couple comments about Amsterdam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amsterdam has a series of cannels (like Venice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of house boats that line the cannels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are run down, but some are so fancy with gardens and everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The streets are lined with these gables houses, they used to be charged taxes by the width, so many are not very wide, but long and thin instead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amsterdam is a beautiful city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Pancakes were as big as a plate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a ginger one (cause I thought it was the one matt would like best).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul and Jacob got ones with cheese and bacon, and Elizabeth got an “animal” one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it would be an animal shape, but it turns out that it is just the shape of a plate like everyone else, it just comes with a stuffed animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was very excited to get a lion.</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After a filling dinner we made it back to the hotel, which was by the airport and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids were excited that this hotel (finally) had a pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got back too late to go on Saturday, but on Sunday morning we got up early so we could go before starting the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we snuck in a little early (before it was supposed to open).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After swimming, we went to the airport, and we hadn’t had breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate a Starbucks, sheesh that was a lot of money!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent this day with my friend Silvia from work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After breakfast we got on a bus and went to Keukenhof this amazing garden type place with all kinds of flowers blooming, tulips, orchids, it was amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wished my father-in-law was there, he would have loved it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the kids said, “everywhere you look, you think, this is the prettiest, and then you go around the corner and think, no this is the prettiest”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That pretty much described it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent most of the day there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left about 4 and what was a two hour trip to Amsterdam took more than 4 hours to get home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the trains were not running because of construction or because it was Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman who told us which trains to take didn’t tell us correctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one train station we had the help of a friendly passenger who knew the train schedule and english!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got us along another step on the journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally we made it home and fell into bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good thing at one train station we had just a few minutes so we went across the street to a grocery and bought food, or we would have been really hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate on the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone was patient with all the delays and setbacks, so it wasn’t too bad a day, though I was longing to be off trains.</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Monday was back to school and back to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will write more about that later.</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFDpdhqScmVPcW8jXAG8H_3wyxo3I9gmxejKEcoKwDhyphenhypheniCwSeaLOk0n1soVJG4a0csZiCgO3kOpEJfVRi-fPfxEZHwLtPju6g5KTHZbizlOIOmtkibrpd7rd2Hn_u64cqeoLg7kCUxMw/s1600/Jacob+on+the+spiderweb%252C+lille.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-19605386233720511062011-05-17T01:18:00.000-07:002011-05-17T01:18:26.660-07:00<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSq97irwZGdImpUp2G14l8zCfphCm9AL0h4W0RIm-tkq3W-1pvO2P-1u_rhZabwb1ALMOwYWIpQv288wM90tEklt6fc1IBf4-gy3vOIGvIz-DwpnG5uqkwGeqcNn2gCB9nPWhzqvOR5M/s1600/DSCF7568.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSq97irwZGdImpUp2G14l8zCfphCm9AL0h4W0RIm-tkq3W-1pvO2P-1u_rhZabwb1ALMOwYWIpQv288wM90tEklt6fc1IBf4-gy3vOIGvIz-DwpnG5uqkwGeqcNn2gCB9nPWhzqvOR5M/s320/DSCF7568.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Paul in Venice</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaBXA6m8dc7VQ-ZXiUgv4hQRS5MNEq0rn2dMKe1NyMOnXlcnD3R0AmX70Ae45VFpLpXWIfk6sG7emzHUAFajUbuLiqHElNrF1ezZJV4MfZk15Tdv1LQG6QcHkfKdmRtIaCfRh4GPHVFc/s1600/DSCF7613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaBXA6m8dc7VQ-ZXiUgv4hQRS5MNEq0rn2dMKe1NyMOnXlcnD3R0AmX70Ae45VFpLpXWIfk6sG7emzHUAFajUbuLiqHElNrF1ezZJV4MfZk15Tdv1LQG6QcHkfKdmRtIaCfRh4GPHVFc/s320/DSCF7613.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Elizabeth playing with a girl who only spoke french on the train.</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-16588418166131974012011-05-11T08:00:00.000-07:002011-05-11T08:00:37.946-07:00Pinky's Pictures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Bxu7jTkmVaEN3Wwx6m2zvSLhcx9bX7TG_NYEw0p_CbYRe6kpRJcPsMO-vyOHRoTGEWHNPa7s1bGrQ4FZUqhfZNKeeFSZSacbefvQ6pYatWuhuiN2352OCq4ABSQZe1SjoRqdeUjfk0Q/s1600/DSCF6886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Bxu7jTkmVaEN3Wwx6m2zvSLhcx9bX7TG_NYEw0p_CbYRe6kpRJcPsMO-vyOHRoTGEWHNPa7s1bGrQ4FZUqhfZNKeeFSZSacbefvQ6pYatWuhuiN2352OCq4ABSQZe1SjoRqdeUjfk0Q/s320/DSCF6886.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's in the Costwolds on a Zip-line</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqcjEDUYqVQ631yjhyphenhyphen02EJ_qVa1YJzf6mKq0_W2VknuUtZsRR0uKJoxnDsXHj1gtogliNIpm0fH71DAz9vc51-_Ew3kjJ5V7p4JKW-AphRPEoW0Z7tBRg64Cypg9SqpT1wBWddB0Wagw/s1600/DSCF7151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqcjEDUYqVQ631yjhyphenhyphen02EJ_qVa1YJzf6mKq0_W2VknuUtZsRR0uKJoxnDsXHj1gtogliNIpm0fH71DAz9vc51-_Ew3kjJ5V7p4JKW-AphRPEoW0Z7tBRg64Cypg9SqpT1wBWddB0Wagw/s320/DSCF7151.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's in Luzanne</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9NeC2KK0XVVxQwOFp7VWLAfDcb0gELvVF6ih5yhHZbu2AIooySUHpUB_i48yK0CK_LMhMEOUZxqiwWbVSrf5lRttUWEqFLTGBFiD87WJ9Rltn53sDg7OUbEAu0YbPmw7PTSjG3ZViDg/s1600/DSCF7266.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9NeC2KK0XVVxQwOFp7VWLAfDcb0gELvVF6ih5yhHZbu2AIooySUHpUB_i48yK0CK_LMhMEOUZxqiwWbVSrf5lRttUWEqFLTGBFiD87WJ9Rltn53sDg7OUbEAu0YbPmw7PTSjG3ZViDg/s320/DSCF7266.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's in front of the Matterhorn</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEharlLZiE_TUwCAsCeb4KFAEM0pay5vTQz4L8bUkqFjKt-DGaZg2ullwWqTZtGzojIAgYLw21Ol0Y32Q9-edPzE-05asBHUOlQfSTcJ6-jwaXsEAAjEhlQGszvFvRizzNctpO-R5xAxMEs/s1600/DSCF7439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEharlLZiE_TUwCAsCeb4KFAEM0pay5vTQz4L8bUkqFjKt-DGaZg2ullwWqTZtGzojIAgYLw21Ol0Y32Q9-edPzE-05asBHUOlQfSTcJ6-jwaXsEAAjEhlQGszvFvRizzNctpO-R5xAxMEs/s320/DSCF7439.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's in Vienna</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_06_iOU0S5oYMyV8pw1uzUPLFT4wf6-bS_KRgOuYZeEEVU-iE0-xDHMTn9NSGdqvjEAlzLLRe_RGFcUd5hamvwi86O1nDwBcFMmu-aPsVlLXUsz1i48XUMCbvopDfppi_rgA5y07wNc/s1600/DSCF7506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_06_iOU0S5oYMyV8pw1uzUPLFT4wf6-bS_KRgOuYZeEEVU-iE0-xDHMTn9NSGdqvjEAlzLLRe_RGFcUd5hamvwi86O1nDwBcFMmu-aPsVlLXUsz1i48XUMCbvopDfppi_rgA5y07wNc/s320/DSCF7506.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's eating ice cream OOPS (in Venice)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWT1ICfAd9jXXrZLrexVmnPnxCYB3UCgTmM6gLHF2ldc3Oe__4wFGF6I_T9ldKrtRaZJmjL3gqyBN-OU1oe-KfxWp2MTTfdg-5lQjb1TruTIvLL_iThB3GQiotC3ZRFClLiNBwb8crNs/s1600/DSCF7589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWT1ICfAd9jXXrZLrexVmnPnxCYB3UCgTmM6gLHF2ldc3Oe__4wFGF6I_T9ldKrtRaZJmjL3gqyBN-OU1oe-KfxWp2MTTfdg-5lQjb1TruTIvLL_iThB3GQiotC3ZRFClLiNBwb8crNs/s320/DSCF7589.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's on a Gondola (in Venice)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLWexmBXxOlBncXQfg7rk1pCizNbFe_mfxFrZj9Rg0KpfMvAq78Bxu27ImCS8m-zHyPsLdFWmXm7ECueQDoVtRLAqqcOd4MGNncDt97imuVWoz9rwxlsDLB7U5qb0OWDwU5p4ps6DJsE/s1600/DSCF7660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLWexmBXxOlBncXQfg7rk1pCizNbFe_mfxFrZj9Rg0KpfMvAq78Bxu27ImCS8m-zHyPsLdFWmXm7ECueQDoVtRLAqqcOd4MGNncDt97imuVWoz9rwxlsDLB7U5qb0OWDwU5p4ps6DJsE/s320/DSCF7660.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's in Corrie Ten Boom's Hiding Place</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UGt4r_IWl5reRfCQjF2AB1uHZuvDeyENP-HK6pIIWWn-Vf6-MltIlCfolEFB2Xa7S3O1L5MMGIDIpVH3fNBv2hFJivzZV9FOKONcZq3W5U1FKsC7J1VdYkqr5fDiTlaXUalcK6ftDd8/s1600/DSCF7800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UGt4r_IWl5reRfCQjF2AB1uHZuvDeyENP-HK6pIIWWn-Vf6-MltIlCfolEFB2Xa7S3O1L5MMGIDIpVH3fNBv2hFJivzZV9FOKONcZq3W5U1FKsC7J1VdYkqr5fDiTlaXUalcK6ftDd8/s320/DSCF7800.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's on top of a windmill in Holland</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXpiytCcq2NHY0PFEfDBmJNmQ9nGK4FXCKBXOXw6emkX_g4xqWwvsHNTak57oYzm7ADhMEU5Gt6rvPQ3L_85N-ZLbsuXcxoIbI8m3Lz2vVVqxRLTtfN0DLRAD2nb5rhZefO0tKIXuoJZQ/s1600/DSCF7830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXpiytCcq2NHY0PFEfDBmJNmQ9nGK4FXCKBXOXw6emkX_g4xqWwvsHNTak57oYzm7ADhMEU5Gt6rvPQ3L_85N-ZLbsuXcxoIbI8m3Lz2vVVqxRLTtfN0DLRAD2nb5rhZefO0tKIXuoJZQ/s320/DSCF7830.JPG" width="320" /></a>Pinky's and tulips in the Netherlands</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqmorr9hH6MfcXyUgaclKpXL5je4HhOOw7-xm4atPZeGaf1a7mtkCPXoAiC8FUF2FSbUCnovLn-1zH3nLzYNzh_4YDOc3zkxX9DtWvf0wxww_ae4QkXrK6jzpPbokPwdF5hqA61_MF0g/s1600/DSCF7106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqmorr9hH6MfcXyUgaclKpXL5je4HhOOw7-xm4atPZeGaf1a7mtkCPXoAiC8FUF2FSbUCnovLn-1zH3nLzYNzh_4YDOc3zkxX9DtWvf0wxww_ae4QkXrK6jzpPbokPwdF5hqA61_MF0g/s320/DSCF7106.JPG" width="240" /></a>Pinky's in front of the Eiffel Tower</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-42326212926600044482011-05-02T13:34:00.001-07:002011-05-02T13:34:42.891-07:00Vacation Part 2 - Switzerland to Lille, France<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">So, in the morning we took the glacial express to Chur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we arrived in Chur at around 1, we had a layover until 10 pm where we would take a train ½ hour to a town down the road and board an overnight train to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a locker and stashed our stuff, and took off to explore the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The information place told of several old churches in the historic old part of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a cute smaller town quite, with the mountains in the background. We found a post office to buy stamps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After walking for a while, we found a park with a waterwheel to play with and a zip line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a hit with the kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end we had to wait in the train station for a while after it got cold and dark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it was a good time to break out the computer movies, but they didn’t work of course, so we played uno and apples to apples to pass the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rachel, unfortunately, twisted her ankle on the stairs, but somehow she made it to the trains we needed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The night train, was not a sleeper train, we did not have reserved seats, so we were lucky enough to find an empty car for 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three kids, Rachel and I took that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and Dad had to go off in search of another place to sit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seats didn’t<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fold down or anything, so we kinda had to sleep sitting up, or laying on each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rachel gave up on the chairs and slept on the floor, that left three seats for Paul and Jacob and three for me and libby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t the best nights sleep ever, but we were glad we got a car, because I think it was literally the last empty one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and dad found a place where the seats folded down, they had to share, but, at least they got to lie down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So in a way, we were both blessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We arrived in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city> the next morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were able to check into the hotel early, so we left our bags and set out for the days adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rachel’s ankle was swollen and hard to walk on, so we decided to take a bus tour of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found these guys on the streets selling tickets to a concert that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to go because <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city> is a city for culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we toured around and found lunch in a cafeteria type place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had sausage, and sauerkraut, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>apple strudel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob got potatoes and goulash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul got spatzel (whatever those noodles are).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided I needed to relearn to make goulash (the stuff Jacob had was good).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually we made it back to the hotel, at the hotel, we took a nap, and then got up and got ready for the concert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concert was really neat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They played Mozart and Strauss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a chamber orchestra with some dancing, and opera singing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was designed for the uninitiated, so even the opera, was cute and playful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course it was Jacob who said in a loud whisper, “I cant understand a word they are saying”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end he was saying, “it was definitely worth the money” and “can we do this again mom?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think one of the opera numbers was from the Marriage of Figaro.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The actors were fighting over whether they would have a boy or a girl, which was pretty funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice cultural evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After dinner we found a restaurant and had some good Austrian food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul had noodles and sausage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby had schnitzel with a cream sauce, Jacob had it with cheese and potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all like Austrian foods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The next morning we got up and went to see the Lippenzaners practicing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are famous dancing horses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really neat to watch them practice (and much cheaper than an actual show).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have always wanted to see the lipensaners since I was a girl, so it was especially neat for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that we took the public transportation out to the famous Hapsberg house and took a tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The palace was pretty amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> liked it that there was a famous Empress Elisabeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is interesting that the Hapsbergs had such an influence over <place w:st="on">Europe</place> for many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the tour of the house we went out to the gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had built some fun hedge mazes and we played there (and in a playground) for most of the afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 5 we thought we should start heading back and it was then we realized that the house closed, which would not have been a problem but they made me check my backpack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran around the house to the front, and made it (with 4 minutes to spare) to get my backpack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a scare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city> was really beautiful and we had a very nice time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am definitely glad that we added it to our itinerary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very pretty, cultural city and the food was yummy.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
We made it back towards the train station, because that night we took a night train (with couchettes) to <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Venice</city></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time we had beds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They gave us linens and the saddest pillow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the morning we had rolls and (yum) coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t been able to drink much coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times for breakfast we are buying something from a bakery and eating on the run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So train coffee from Italians was a treat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 285.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We arrived in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> mostly refreshed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had directions to our hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a self-catering apartment this night, and mom and dad had a room at a bed and breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to buy a pass on the boats, which they called buses or water buses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took one 45 minutes to a stop in the old part of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> where our apartment was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bed and breakfast building was first built in 15 century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The apartment wasn’t built until the 1600’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice part of town to stay in because it wasn’t very touristy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We dropped off the luggage and made it to San Marco Piazza which is the main attraction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to the tourists information center there and decided to go to the glass factory that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a water bus there and were able to see a demonstration on them blowing glass which the kids enjoyed very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we mostly walked around looking at all the glass in the stores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had bread, sausage and cheese for lunch, it was nearly impossible to find a place that had somewhere we could sit and have lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a map and it would have green on it (for green space) we would walk to it and it would be like a tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> was beautiful, but it had a remarkable lack of green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did have lots of flowers growing in every window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After finally finding a place to sit and eat, we were off again in search of glass treasures (at a good price).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally accomplished all this and we were tired so we went back to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we got off the water bus stop at our stop for the apartment there was a nice park (with lots of green and trees).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played there while we went to check in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After checking in we went to the grocery store to buy stuff for breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made it back to the apartment and we watched a replay of the royal wedding while we did laundry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a tiny place, just two beds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Libby had to sleep with Rachel and Me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made a bed for Paul on the floor but I noticed he was in Jacobs bed when I got up in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">That night we went out for Italian food at the bed and breakfast owners recommendation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had pizza, and ravioli and spaghetti.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was just a short walk from where we were staying and very local.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The waiter was very helpful with the menu.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Saturday morning we got up and “self catered” our breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had eggs, prosciutto and provolone cheese on bread (which I had to toast in the oven).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was delicious!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to try and iron the clothes since they didn’t dry overnight and the apartment only had a washer and not a drier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walking around <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> on nearly every street there are clothes hanging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I don’t think they really have driers, and everyone just hangs stuff out, that works ok if you live there, but if you are only there for one night, it isn’t so great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to iron the clothes but they were mostly still wet, so I wrapped them in raincoats and put them in the suitcase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made our way back to the main square (San Marco Piazzo) and toured the cathedral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then walked around the streets to the most famous bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bridge even had shops on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pretty big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped at a bakery and got pastries in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also had decided not to carry a backpack, so we were all so thirsty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bought a liter of water and we had it drank in less than 20 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the visitors center, we had a list of sites to walk to (a walking tour) so we followed that most of the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw a gondola yard (where they were repairing gondolas) and got a great view of the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is full of canals and tiny streets and lot of churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a very different town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally decided to end with a Gondola ride for Rachel, me and the kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very nice and very relaxing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom and Dad had cappuccino by the canal while the waited for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we made our way back towards the Bed and Breakfast but stopped to have lunch first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had some time before the train so we decided to walk back to the oldest church in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a white and bright building so different from many others which were dark, and not well lit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the church we decided to get our stuff and head to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played at the park, well Paul and <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> did, while we got the stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob came with because he had to go to the bathroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He ended up going in the place we had lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were waiting forever, and finally I went in to check.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got there, three Italian ladies were yelling at him through the door to turn it to the left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Yelling at him in Italian), Somehow Jacob had locked himself in the bathroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I arrived, assessed the scene, and looked at the lock, which I was able to move with my fingernail, and unlock the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor Jacob.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The day before we had had our gelato by the Bed and Breakfast which was DELICIOUS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since we had all our bags etc, we decided to wait till we got to the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was kind of a mistake because that gelato was not nearly as good as the day before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Rachel left us then, and she headed to the airport while we waited at the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a train to <city w:st="on">Milan</city>, which we basically just slept at, and then the next morning we got on a train to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From there we head to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Lille</place></city> where we will stay the next two weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><strong>Impressions of the Trip</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u>Paul:</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my favorite parts was going to the glass factory (in <city w:st="on">Venice</city>) because I had never seen a glass factory and I had only seen one glass sculpture in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Indianapolis</place></city> (children’s museum).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also liked the pasta and the pizza.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u>Jacob:</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite part was the gondola ride because you can sit back and relax and the guide told us lots of stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw the tomb of Marco Polo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rode on lot of boats in the ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to a glass factory and saw how they made glass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul got some penguins and I got some glass seals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we are riding on a long train to <city w:st="on">paris</city> and then <city w:st="on">lille</city> <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">france</country-region></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went on the glacier express when we went to <country-region w:st="on">Switzerland</country-region>, and <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Switzerland</place></country-region> had lots of mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite food was sausage and the strawberry ice cream tasted better than in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">US</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><city w:st="on">Elizabeth</city>:</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite place in Europe is <place w:st="on">Zermatt</place> because lots of goats live there and I like goats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a glass kitty cat and a gondola driver hat (in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city>). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also like <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> because its streets are canals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite thing about <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Venice</place></city> was riding in the Gondola.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked the strawberry gelato and the schnitzel with cream sauce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are riding on a train to <city w:st="on">Lille</city> <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">France</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are lots of mountains out of the window of the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-11834991811219523472011-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:002011-04-27T13:20:59.162-07:00Our Vacation - France and Switzerland<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Friday morning we got up early and got on the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to get our passport checked and we got stamped for <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">France</place></country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the train to <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">lille</city></place> and dropped ½ our luggage at the Hotel there, which was a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went from 4 suitcases and 4 backpacks to two suitcases and two backpacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish we could have gotten down less, but that isn’t too bad for 10 days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides with going to the <place w:st="on">Alps</place> we had to have some warmer clothes, the rest of the places we had to stay will be warmer.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We had a couple hours to wait in <city w:st="on">Lille</city> before we could take a train to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a fun flower statue the kids played on and we had a snack (stuff we brought).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we finally got on the train to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After arriving in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">France</place></country-region>, I had to have a nap since I hadn’t been sleeping well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There had been a problem with some of the train tickets I had tried to buy and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere, so I hadn’t been able to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took a nap and the kids watched French TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pretty funny how long they watched something they couldn’t understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did say one of the cartoons was the Pink Panther which was in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After my nap, we took a walk around the area of the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we got back and waited for my parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I slept they had gone to the aiport train station to try and figure out the ticket problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After they got back we decided it was dinner time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked into the nearby town of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Rossie</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kids found a park and played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very cute town, and we found a crepier (or however you spell that)!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had gallettes for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had one with goat cheese and almonds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yumm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids had ham, eggs and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made me miss Heidi, the last time I had delicious gallettes was with her. We had chocolate crepes for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We to walked back to the hotel and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sat</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">On Saturday morning we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had delicious bagettes, finally coffee and meat and cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were a little behind the eight ball when we finally got to the airport to meet Rachel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time we finally got there Rachel had the metra tickets and we were ready to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we remembered we needed to buy one more train ticket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So after waiting for that, we were on our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the metra down to our hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course the subway stop that we were supposed to get off at was closed, so, it was a little trickey to find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks to the GPS we did make it there, and we only went down one street that we wish we hadn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, my boys were mostly oblivious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We dropped our bags at the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The desk clerk gave us a hard time about the number of people and that we would have to share a bed which we already knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought maybe we had made a mistake of where to stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents took the small room and we took the bigger one, they were nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shared a bed with Libby, Rachel got one to herself, the boys shared one and my parents had a double.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally dropped our bags and set out.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We took the metra down to Notre Dame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so crowded already. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids liked to take pictures inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think they were impressed, but they thought it was dark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tried to explain the special style of architecture, and how it really was light compared to its countertypes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So after finding flying buttresses along the outside it was time for lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob had gotten made inside and disappeared for a while, which was very stressful for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were so many people and you could just shuffle along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we found him again, he got quite an earful which apparently ruined his appetite (and mine).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had peanut butter and jelly (again).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were amazed and how we might never eat or even want to eat peanut butter and jelly in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">US</place></country-region> but when you were really hungry, it tastes really good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(PBJ is pretty portable for your take along lunches).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After Notre Dame we walked down the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Seine</placename> <placetype w:st="on">River</placetype></place> to the Louvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a warm day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The line was so long, and the kids were so grouchy and the line was in the hot sun so we decided to skip going inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sat in the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Italian</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Gardens</placetype></place> for quite a while enjoying the warm sun by the adults taking a nap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When were were recharged we went back to the metra to the Eiffel tower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around there for a while and took<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lots of pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then took the metra to the Arc de Trimuph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that we walked up the Champ de Elysses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally found a restaurant and we had gallettes for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went back to the hotel and went to bed a little early (9pm).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Easter morning we had to get up early to catch a train to Lusane <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Switzerland</place></country-region>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Lusanne we had a 4 hour layover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked to a bakery, got bagettes, butter, sandwiches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Elizabeth</place></city> got a crossiant, her favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked downhill and found a beautiful park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate lunch and then the kids played and played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a large hill in the park with trails. After playing at the park for a long time, we walked up the trails and got to the top of the peak, which had a great overlook of the town and the lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an ampitheater and the kids put on plays while the adults just sat in the sun and enjoyed the view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked back down the hill and the kids played more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a giant sand area with mining type equipment, there was a large water area where you could control wher the water went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a huge treehouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a nice park, and it was such a nice day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally got on the next train which took us into the alps to Randa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The town of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Randa</place></city> is a quite town, with just one main street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our hotel was so nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was owned by an Italian couple who were so welcoming and picked us up from the train station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a playground next to the hotel, and the kids played, and then we decided to go for a walk and explore the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hotel owners let us borrow their scooters and we went down the one hill and up the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a church (Catholic) and a cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a little different from ours, with large wooden crosses at each site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were lots of pictures and flowers etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After our (long) walk, we got back to the hotel in time for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hotel had an Italian restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a piano player and we could all sing along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tried to make dad sing <state w:st="on">new york</state>, <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">new york</state></place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was such a delicious dinner with such a warm fun atmosphere you almost didn’t mind how much it cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to bed tired again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Monday we were pretty lazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we finally got up we ate a large breakfast at the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was typical with yogurt, bread, cheese sausage and SUCH good coffee – I will miss the coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We then had the hotel owner drive us to the next town where we took a train to <place w:st="on">Zermatt</place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place w:st="on">Zermatt</place> is a car free town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the town at the base of the matterhorm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked to the lifts and were so happy to find a family trying to sell their all day lift tickets for ½ price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saved a lot of money, they had 4 adult and 2 kid tickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We only had to buy one kid at full price then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took the lift up the mountain to a stop which had a great view of the matterhorn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t even that cold yet, even though there was snow and lot of skiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took lots of pictures and took the lifts around to several different places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around for a while and then went back down the mountain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped to a place for fondue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had bread and veggies and lots of melted cheese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went souvenir shopping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul and Jacob were going to buy these little rocks from the mountain, but they were 25 swiss francs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally found the playground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had a mini matterhorn you could climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids played while I walked back and bought the souvenirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It rained a little, but not too bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finally took the train back to Tasch and then we decided to walk the rest of the way to Randa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a long walk, we finally reached the little park in Randa, the sun was going down, so it was getting a little chili, but we decided to have a picnic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ate our bread and cheese and meat and went to our rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to do some laundry in the tub, which probably wasn’t the best choice, since it wasn’t completely dry, but, it is all packed now, so I guess it was ok in the end with the help of some hairdryers.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tuesday morning we got on a train to Chur and then <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vienna</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our first train was from Randa on a regional train, where the conducter helped us get us on the Glacier Express.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was nice because it has periodic narriative of history and sights along the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a tunnel that took over 15 minutes to go through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The view on the train was pretty amazing too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another good thing about the Glacier Express is that we do not have to stop like the regional trains or change trains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids were mostly plugged into gameboys etc and I think they missed most of the beautiful mountain views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the alps are pretty amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to bring Matt here to see them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Everything is clean and crisp and beautiful. </span></div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-40864937170934142752011-04-27T13:18:00.001-07:002011-04-27T13:18:49.524-07:00The mundane<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sunday-Thursday</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sunday was a lazy day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Church, came home, played etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the afternoon, we took a walk around the neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are actually some nice walking trails we hadn’t discovered yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had to go buy ice cream for a snack. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Monday was the day that <place w:st="on">Lena</place> left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mom and dad came too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were supposed to come Sunday night, but they had no end of disaster in their flying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least they came in time to relieve <place w:st="on">Lena</place> of her duties and help her get to the airport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got home to dinner made an everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very nice, we will miss <place w:st="on">Lena</place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was great to have her here, and we are so glad she could come for a few weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tuesday was my long work day, when I got home (after 7) noone was home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the morning the kids did their school work and in the afternoon they had gone into <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went to Hemsley the LARGEST TOY STORE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the WORLD!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They came home very excited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After dinner, it was pretty much time for bed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Wednesday the kids and my parents went to LegoLand which is in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Windsor</place></city> close by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a great day at the amusement park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were home late again, so I came home to an empty apartment, it was a little lonely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was nice because the next day were leaving the apartment for 3 months and so we had to completely remove our stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had some time to pack and organize.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Thursday the kids and my parents had to get the apartment ready to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They packed and cleaned while I worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is so beautiful here, we are able to walk almost every day at lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walk to a nearby place and buy a sandwich and eat outside in the sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is really nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the walking feels good!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After I got home we rushed around and left the big suitcases (2) at the Tate and Lyle hotel nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took our suitcases with three weeks worth of things and got on the tube to the Kings Cross station (St Pancreas Station).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stayed by the station<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because our train left for <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Lille</city></place> at 6am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there we walked to the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very small European type hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With twisty halls and VERY small rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found a delicious Indian restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got our tickets for the morning and went to bed.</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-1030057119261035132011-04-27T13:17:00.001-07:002011-04-27T13:17:14.969-07:00COTSWOLDS<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">COTSWOLDS</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">On Saturday we got up with the purpose of going to the Cotswolds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had tried to buy tickets online the night before but we were having all sorts of troubles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when we finally got up and moving we took the train to Paddington Station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Paddington station we bought tickets to go to Moreton on Marsh for the day, unfortunately we had just missed the morning train and so we had to wait a couple hours for the next one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(the trains go about once an hour except during lunch time).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fun thing was that we bought the book Paddington Bear and read it several times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of us read it during the day so we all got practice reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also had a Krispy Kreme dount. Yum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train ride on the countryside was beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were green fields, lots of sheep, fields of yellow flowers (canola?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had lunch on the train, unfortunately, even though we had to wait -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we got on the train late and didn’t get to sit together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some guy sat in a 4 person area with the three kids, and I sat in anther 4 person area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t figure out why that guy didn’t move, I cant imagine he had a great journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I almost feel sorry for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train stopped in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Oxford</place></city>, we will have to go back there some day and went on to Moreton on Marsh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got to town, and it was a cute, quiet town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The buildings were made with a yellow stone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were antique stores and craft stores and even a second hand store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bought Travel Mastermind at the second hand store, it has never been opened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It only cost 2 pounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys bought old coins at craft fair and Libby found a hand knitted dress that fit her American girl doll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It only cost 9 pounds or something like that, I thought it was a good deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Cotswolds they have hundreds of miles of walking trails that are just in and along the fields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you just walk, right through the sheep and everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a little weird at first, but you got used to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had special gates so people could get in but the sheep couldn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids had fun chasing the sheep and taking pictures of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since it is spring there were lots of cute baby sheep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There was also a nice park in town with a large zip line that the kids got to swing on for hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had an English tea in the afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all ordered tea, with milk and sugar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul had a scone with curdeled cream (he didn’t like that).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob and tea and toast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth and I shared a macaroon and a tea cake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Before we went home we ate dinner at an English pub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had Yorkshire pudding, Jacob had a meat pie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul and Elizabeth sausage and chips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was yummy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very typical English day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went home and talked to Dad and went to bed</span>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-26841496567198804702011-04-18T12:47:00.000-07:002011-04-18T13:01:23.044-07:00Elizabeth's4/12<br />
Today I did some school work. I did math, reading, Bible and writing. We went to the National Gallery. There are nymphs and naked people. There were fairies, people with clothes and Jesuses. We talked about 1 Samuel in Bible class. It was fun.<br />
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4/13<br />
We went to the V&A museum. There were lots of statues. They were boring. The silver was cool. We went to the science museum. We went to the Launch Pad Area and the Exploring Spare Area. We took the train there and back. Today was fun.<br />
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4/14<br />
Today i went to Herods. I got a watermelon [to eat] and my mom got a heidi pie, We saw the toys. I wanted a violet bear or some squen. The buses were pretty crowded. We saw an ugly Kate Middleton doll. I was talking to my Dad on Skype. We did not want to do much in the morning. We had fun today.<br />
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4/15<br />
Today I saw the Lion King. My favorite acit was the Nayla girl, Simba's friend. My favorite costume was the elephant mom. There was one person in each leg. It was huge. We went to the park, had ice cream and played spies. I had fun.<br />
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4/16<br />
Today we went to the Cotswolds. I bought an outfit for my dolls. I saw Penny [her horse for her doll] on Skype. At the cotswold, yellow flowers stood in clumps like a lemon ice cream factory explosion. Green pastures filled the scenery like a green sprinkle factory explosion. Blue flower beds dotted the stations like a rainbow sprinkle factory explosion. I had fun. <br />
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4/17<br />
Today I went to church. We talked about the last supper in sunday school. We had tea and cookie afterwards. We went swimming. I wish I had goggles and Mom wished she had a swimsuit. My swimsuit had flowers on it. We watched two movies. We watched the Princess Bride and the Muppet Show season 2, disc 2. I had fun.<br />
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4/19<br />
Today my Grandparents came. We went to a park, got ice cream bars and left Lena at the airport for her flight.Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-15051457648648516382011-04-18T12:25:00.000-07:002011-04-18T12:29:42.798-07:00PAUL'S POSTThe V& A was boring. We walked a lot. We saw boring statues. There were only statues and paintings. There was an old staircase. It was made of wood. I dont really remember a lot about the V&A.<br />
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The science museum was more interesting. They had a Rube Goldberg on thier website. (<a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/">http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/</a>) Go to home, go to search, go to "On The Move". There as a pellet/rice thing and you pull it up and since the bag was broken all of it fell on your head and it felt like hail. There was a computer game where you have to complete these Rube Goldberg's. I want to go back to the science museum. <br />
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<u>The Lion King</u> was cool. The cast did a good job. The costumes looked good. The elephant was my favorite because it had 4 - 5 people in it. When the people fell they had a string thingy attached to them. I liked The Lion King.<br />
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I miss my fish, Scribbles and Skittles. I cant wait till my Dad comes to visit us. I miss him too. There are a lot of other things I miss from home. In spite of missing these things, I am having fun in London.Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-72225188070331308162011-04-18T12:10:00.000-07:002011-04-18T12:10:22.131-07:00Jacob's FunThis week we went to the A&V museum. It was not intersting. It had statues and a diamond ring. It was boring.<br />
<br />
We went to the Science Museum of London. We saw a rube on TV. The website is <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/">http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/</a> if you click on the website and type in videos, you can see all the videos. My favorite video is called "On The Move". It was fun.<br />
<br />
We saw The Lion King, the play. It was cool. I got up so close to an actor that if I'd spoke the people in the audience would hear me. We got home about 11:30pm. <br />
<br />
Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We are right by the airport, which makes it hard for Paul and I to sleep because the planes make lots of noise. <br />
<br />
The trip is interesting but some of it is kinda boring. The interesting stuff is like the science museum and the Tower of London. Some of the National Gallery was interesting and some was boring. The V&A was boring. <br />
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Being on the tube is really bumpy and you cant even feel it when you turn. <br />
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So far London is really exciting.Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-61821323999375706772011-04-18T07:42:00.000-07:002011-04-18T07:42:32.739-07:00Week 2 (not the weekend)Well, we have now finished our second week in London. It has been another fun and exhausting week.<br />
<br />
Monday the kids went on a tour of the HMS Belfast which is a WWII ship in the Thames river. This is the night we caught up on journals and such. Libby is good and writes in her journal every night, but the boys we have to chase around a little. <br />
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Tuesday they went to the National Gallery (art museum) and to Hyde park to the playground. I had to work late this night so Lena had to cook. The food was all gone when I got home. <br />
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Wednesday was a fun day at the V&A museum and the Science Museum. The V&A museum they said was boring and had a lot of statues. They didnt have much more than an hour at the science museum but they like it alot. They definetly want to go back.<br />
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Thursday I had a meeting in downtown London, so the kids went to Hyde park to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (one of thier favorites) and then came and met me at the Tower of London. From there we went back towards Hyde Park on the tube. It was so crowded (rush hour). We got off and walked towards Harrods, but the kids were too hungry, so we stopped at a bakery called Pauls. They boys got olive bread and Libby got a croissant. We then got to Harrods, but they were still hungry so we got more food and after all that, we had barely any time to shop before they closed, so we didnt buy anything. (matt is probably glad). We spent what little time we had on the toy floor. I did walk out of the store (after closing) very slowly by stairs so I could see more things.<br />
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Friday we decided to go to the Lion King, so we have now experienced London Theater. It took a lot longer to get downtown that it usually does, so we were stressed, but the show was wonderful. The costumes are more amazing than everyone says. After the show, the streets were lined with these guys on bicycles which could hold several people in a cart type thing on the back. They rang thier bells to try and get business. We got home very late.<br />
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More on the weekend later.Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3013744424637165636.post-16932298275721203232011-04-18T06:26:00.000-07:002011-04-18T06:26:56.009-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9do47WTqh-bcxKYkF2J9oXxaA8ymSBfnGHdpCDBOsgRJvs-t42r-MwFZJs_wiUDBOZfelPDZkGD73287pcy5xb9k8qKHWUw0Y4Xp7jHQphJfBXpiX0M7Uh-5lF0a-4AGDGniKCk3KKQ/s1600/london+bridge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9do47WTqh-bcxKYkF2J9oXxaA8ymSBfnGHdpCDBOsgRJvs-t42r-MwFZJs_wiUDBOZfelPDZkGD73287pcy5xb9k8qKHWUw0Y4Xp7jHQphJfBXpiX0M7Uh-5lF0a-4AGDGniKCk3KKQ/s320/london+bridge.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Kids at the Tower Bridge. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKL3Ts92qpE39E_NJXZkAwaVX-Y9XO89l_n7xyealSI0jIdhgIhhB3ngirx2s10LMU6Jn2J23jL3GipKxkkWhcdkOzHlMzNJgoaqGIseTc7YeAJwYFZaop0aDxR7pR4JrmZYYrlHSPOCs/s1600/museum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKL3Ts92qpE39E_NJXZkAwaVX-Y9XO89l_n7xyealSI0jIdhgIhhB3ngirx2s10LMU6Jn2J23jL3GipKxkkWhcdkOzHlMzNJgoaqGIseTc7YeAJwYFZaop0aDxR7pR4JrmZYYrlHSPOCs/s320/museum.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Cool Couch at Museum</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjUVaRJXbBvru7duAuXsphRiHh0HJRhp_jydIsRF97q3owVGlDGMhHyBqdiQ_sqg4GIzA0e2d7f5ND2l_9cQr-7o9-yry6zuVzhnEQsazCni9fw_gTFi1VrG1j3BsqK0wHJp2IMng2BM/s1600/Tower+of+London.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjUVaRJXbBvru7duAuXsphRiHh0HJRhp_jydIsRF97q3owVGlDGMhHyBqdiQ_sqg4GIzA0e2d7f5ND2l_9cQr-7o9-yry6zuVzhnEQsazCni9fw_gTFi1VrG1j3BsqK0wHJp2IMng2BM/s320/Tower+of+London.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Tower of London</div>Mish n kidshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15184034885925881179noreply@blogger.com0