europe: back in the UK

january 29th
thursday morning we got a bus to the beauvais airport and after a few minor delays, were thrilled to make our flight out of paris. we spent the afternoon at the airport in glascow before getting our flight to london (i highly recommend yates where buying cheap food will get you hours in their big comfy couches). we got into london stansted about 9:20pm and got the bus to finchley road where we met matt geirhart, a great guy with a big flat and a roommate away in switzerland. it was so nice to have this place to stay while we were in london!! we meant to go to bed right away, but the energy from our laptops was enough to keep us awake another few hours. ha.

january 30th
on friday we decided to hit up some museums. first was the national gallery where we took our time roaming through rooms of rembrandt, vermeer, da vinci, turner, and claude, then had to practically run through degas, cezanne, monet, manet, renoirt, van gogh, and picasso as the museum was about to closing. we could have spent quite a while longer there. then we moved on to the british museum and went through the roman and greek sculpture halls and the parthenon galleries (where, sadly, many people and horses are missing appendages which are still currently back in athens). amazing. we spent the last of our time in a special exhibit on "death and dying." intriguing to see a secular museum deal with so spiritual an issue. makes me realize you can't get around hoping there's more to life than here and now. on that note, i saw a london bus go by with these words blaring from the side: "there's probably no god. so stop worrying and live your life," ah. a blog on that might follow at some point.

january 31st
we had planned saturday to be our "london sights" day -westminster, st. pauls, big ben, covent gardens, trafalger square, etc. -but then matt (whose flat we were staying at) mentioned a market down the road in camden and we decided to walk by, our "walk by" turned into a day spent roaming through hundreds of stalls selling everything from elephant candle holders and flower/vine lamps to chinese dresses and vintage converse. i've never seen so many people at one market. lizzie found a gorgeous blue chinese birthday dress and i got a yellow hat to replace my lost green one -apparently yellow is the new green (among other things). that night we went to indian food with matt -a very nice place where you had to know which fork to use first. oh dear. i watched elizabeth and matt carefully and didn't make too big a fool of myself. that night i made cinnamon rolls for lizzie's b-day (feb. 1st), so that they were ready to pop in the oven the next morning.

february 1st
sunday morning dawned and all lizzie's dreams came true when she smelled the cinnamon rolls. actually i burnt the tops and though they were ok smothered in cream cheese frosting, i promised to make them again at home (where ovens cook evenly). at 11am we left to get the bus to oxford and were in one of our favorite places by 2pm. we oohed and awed over our first sights of oxford from the windows until we got to gloucester green and were allowed to step foot on that blessed soil. we went to sunday tea at crick (the house where we lived when we were there), were greeted by jonathan (our old junior dean), and jade (our third roommate) even joined us for a few minutes when jonathan found her on skype! we drank cup after cup of tea -"fat cows" for us -with sugar and milk. that evening jonathan made an amazing three course meal for us -i have an entire paragraph describing it in my journal, but i'll spare you for now. we hung out in the crick kitchen talking for hours -just like old times -had a snowball fight out in the street at about midnight, and walked back to our hostel through falling snow. it was wonderful to be back again and lizzie and i felt like we could fit right back in with hardly a glitch.

february 2nd
we spent monday roaming around oxford and visiting all our old haunts (most of which we couldn't go in because we're no longer students with ID cards). we had tea at frewin court with simon (who was there when we were), got a warm cookie at "ben's cookies," a sausage in the covered market, pasties at cornwall, saw the radcliffe camera, the bodleain, history and english faculty libraries, the alternate tuck shop, etc. etc. nothing much had changed. before leaving oxford met jonathan at blackwells (my favorite bookstore!) and chatted it up over mochas. at 4:30 we got our bus back to london and were back at matt's flat by 7pm. his roommate, josh, was stuck in geneva because of snow, so we got the bed another night. yay!

february 3rd
tuesday arrived and we stormed the castle -the tower of london, that is. jayne had bought us tickets for lizzie's birthday, (a surprise to lizzie) so we enjoyed a day spent on the snow covered grounds of the castle. after a photo with 2 beafeaters, we got a tour from the only female beafeater and learned about those held in the tower -sir thomas moore, anne and jane bolyn, lady jane grey, jane seymour, (a lot of women, it seemed) were among them. we marveled at the crown jewels (and rode the belt past them at least 5 times), walked along the tower walls, and stood in the very square where executions took place. that evening we met up with laura and gillian, friends we met in korea who are now living in london, for dinner. it was great to catch up with them, (and get our bangers and mash in at the same time). at 7pm we rushed to apollo victoria theatre for our scheduled entertainment -"wicked!" the musical tells the story of glynda (the good witch) and elzeba (the wicked witch of the west) in their pre "wizard of oz" days. it was a fabulous show full of funny lines, great choruses, and impressive dance steps. we enjoyed it to the fullest. after he show, since the night was still young at 11pm, we went over to kings cross station to get our train to hogwarts. there at platform 9 3/4 we pushed and pushed, but unfortunately the weasley family was not there to help us and we never got through. however, we got lots of great pictures in the process.

february 4th
wednesday morning we got up early ready to get an early start to cambridge. but because of snow, we were delayed at most every point. what should have taken 2 and a half hours ended up taking over 5 hours and we didn't get into cambridge until after 3pm. we quickly checked into our hostel and made the most of the little remaining daylight. we galavanted through the peterhouse college grounds, which were beautiful covered in snow. then we continued on and found kings college just in time for evensong. it was sweet to get to be there for a service -the chapel was gorgeous and we got to sit right behind the choir, so we would have known if they were off key at all -and believe me, they were not. we made dinner and a chocolate chocolate cake to share with our hostelmates, did laundry, and went to bed semi-early.

february 5th
thursday morning, after trying 3 different showers and finding them all cold, i gave up on being clean for the moment. we had our first full english breakfast at the hostel, and set out with full tummies. we got the train to wales, and due to more snow delays, didn't get to caernarfon (in north east wales) until 6pm. our hostel there was a very cute place just inside the city walls -a big house converted into a hostel by a family who now runs it. we drank lots of tea and watched our first movie of the trip there (it was VHS) -notting hill. quite appropriate as we had just been in london.

february 6th
we bundled up and set out for the castle (a 3 minute walk from our hostel!) friday morning. caernarfon castle was built in 1283 by edward I, and was one in a series of castles he built along the coast in snowdenia after he took over wales. caenarfron is the biggest and was intended to be the main castle. edward II was born in the eagle tower and was there crowned the first prince of wales. as it was a semi-dreary february day, we pretty much had the whole castle to ourselves. we took full advantage of this and romped about like little kids -climbing up all the towers and going through every hall and checking out every nook and cranny we came across. and of course, we played some hide and seek. seriously, this would be an amazing place to play sardines. we got lost a few times without even meaning to. my brothers, ben and soren and haddon would have a hay day there! we spent the rest of the day roaming the streets, drinking tea back at the hostel, and catching up on our journals with"mulan" playing in the background.

europe: swiss miss to ah pari

[written jan. 30th]

sunday, jan. 25th
we had a modest goal for switzerland -hot chocolate. so during our 40 minute break between trains in zurich, we quickly found a cafe and got to work. the hot chocolate wasn't like you normally get at starbucks or somewhere, but came with a glass of hot milk and a package of cocoa you stirred in yourself. it mixed in without a lump and was the smooth like syrup. we sat there in our window seat acting like we always paid 4.70 for gourmet hot chocolate during our train breaks. ha.

we got our train at 5pm and slept a bit, but mostly did sukoku until we got to milan about 7:30pm. so there we were sitting in the milan train station when 2 boys, about 16 or 17, came up and asked us for money. after a minute or so they finally left, and i turned around and something was not right. "elizabeth, where's my bag?" i asked in total disbelief. i was ready to laugh or cry at the empty spot where my bag had been right beside me, and since crying was too messy, i laughed. it was, and still is, the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard of. my GIGANTIC pack which weighs about 2.7 tons, had been sitting next to me on the bench, touching me -and it was gone, just like that. we were flabbergasted (i hardly ever get to use that word. fun.). We soon realized the boys were just a distraction while a third guy took my pack and hurried out of there. i walked all over in search of anything to do with it, but of course, found nothing. i filed a police report and lizzie and i raced to catch our train to milan, only to find out it would be 25 pounds to ride the night train to paris.

so there we were in the milan train station (my least favorite station in the world as i know it), just robbed and with nowhere to go. we sat on a bench, mad at the world ready to go home and just be done. after freezing for awhile, we found the waiting room which was a bit warmer and camped out on a piece of bench for the next 6 hours with our bags practically tied to us and lizzie's blanket snuggled around us. now we can relate to homeless people a little better.

monday, jan. 26th
6:40am finally came and we got the train the paris and spent the next 6 hours sleeping and trying to get good pictures of the alps out the window (more difficult than you might think). we got into paris at 2:20pm, got a baguette and free wifi at a street cafe (my first attempt at french failed miserably), and found our home for the next 3 days -the peace and love hostel. by that time it was too late to go out and we were exhausted, so we relaxed that evening and went to bed at 8:30pm.

tuesday, jan. 27th
we slept hard until 9:30am (that's 13 hours of sleep -wow) and showed up sparkling clean, our tummies filled with nutella sandwiches and yogurt, for a walking tour of paris at 11:30am. we walked all over the city -starting at st. michel's, going through notre dame cathedral , shakespeare and co. (bookstore where hemingway and james joyce hung out back in the day! if you buy a book there, they stamp it with "ground zero" because it's just across from notre dame where napoleon crowned himself, thereby the area became the center of the world, according to him). karen, our tour guide, took us all over and told tons of fun stories about the city and its history. we went by the louvre, the palais royale, the victory arch, a couple of churches (of which i can't remember the name), and much more. the tour ended at the big palace and the little palace (english translation, i can't remember the french names) where we learned that hitler had hated paris and when he thought he might lose the war, he sent one of his men to make sure it was destroyed before the allies got there. but this guy (deitrich ________) fell in love with the city and couldn't bear to see it destroyed so he lied to hitler and bought time until the allies came and freed the city. thank you deitrich -without you we may have missed out on beautiful paris. after the tour lizzie and i went off with 2 girls (ali from seattle and hillary from london, ontario, there were 5 of us from WA staying at the hostel!) to walk the beautiful boulevard toward the arc de triomphe. after seeing it up close and personal we went on to the eiffel tower and got there just in time to see it sparkle (which it only does on the hour at night)! it was gorgeous. we went up to the 3rd floor and were there to see it sparkle again -up close this time. it was magical. we headed back to the hostel after that and had pasta and went to bed early, again.

wednesday, jan. 28th
wednesday morning we went to the catacombs with ali and hillary. we climbed down down down and walked through hall after hall after hall of bones -just right there lining the walls. 6 million people were moved from various cemeteries around paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and buried there in the catacombs. it was quite an experience, one that i wouldn't want to do alone. afterwards we walked to sacre' coure (church of the sacred heart) which is built on the highest point in paris. after touring the beautiful church, we walked around in search of moulin rouge, which we knew was somewhere nearby. we passed many street artists and eccentric shops and eventually found what we were looking for -windmill and all. we went back to the hostel for a quick dinner (we've decided kitchens make the hostel) and lots of coffee in preparation for tackling the louvre. wednesday night is "cheap late night" (remember that for your trip) -just perfect for us. we started with a visit to ms. lisa, of course, then wandered through hall after hall admiring raphaels, botticellis, da vincis, etc. etc. we went through the roman sculpture rooms and had fun identifying all the greek myths we could and learning new hair styles inspired by the goddesses. i think our favorite was eros and psyche -a gorgeous limestone that stretches across with cupid holding psyche back against him, her hair falling on his knees. lizzie decided such an inspired work of art would be perfect for her future home's entryway. we continued through the european sculpture halls and were about to venture through a picasso exhibit when the clock ticked 9 and we were suddenly surrounded by herds of men and women in navy blue uniforms herding us out of the museum. we took the metro back to the hostel and feasted on carrots and peppers with hummus and baguette with fondue. yum! to break the pattern, this was a late night and we paid for it the next morning. goodbye paris!!

europe: disney to the alps

[written sunday, jan. 25th]

wednesday was a lovely day. we took the train to fussen, about 2 hours from munich, and the closest town to the ever famous neuschwanstein castle. this castle was built by ludwig ii in 18---and was designed to be what he thought a truly medieval castle should be -but it was never completed because he died unexpectedly (probably suicide). neuschwanstein is the model for disney's castle and is pretty much the romantic ideal i picture when i think of medieval castles. the castle sits high up in the mountains surrounded by trees and almost hidden from view until you arrive at the gates. white frosted trees, snow laden walks, and low foggy mists made the castle's gates, towers, and terraces even more idyllic. snow started falling on our way back from the castle and lizzie and i felt like we were in narnia as we made our way down the mountain. we got the train back to munich and went to bed early after readying for the next day in rothenburg.

after a rather interesting day of traveling (see my blog for more stories), we finally arrived in rothenburg early thursday evening. my parent's friend, lisa, has a cousin in bad windsheim who was wonderful enough to let us stay with him. james picked us up from the station at rothenburg and took us to his home where his wife and daughter had prepared a traditional german meal of pork roast, potato dumplings, and purple cabbage (like sourcraut). it was wonderful! the ripley family was great company (and they had an amazingly comfy guest bed christened "the princess bed.") the next day, barbara and jackie took us to rothenburg and we walked through blustery snow to the "christmas village" where they had thousands more ornaments in one place than i've ever seen in my life put together. we visited a church where they had a beautifully carved wood alter. then we walked through the snow down cute little streets and after getting cinnamon-sugar schneeballs, a traditional pastry, barbara dropped us off at the train station.

we got the train back to munich (much less trouble getting back than getting there) and then on to salzburg where we found our hostel (after only one wrong turn!). we were dead tired so we went straight to bed. the next morning we ate our nutella on bread and went out to see the sights and hear the sounds of salzburg. first we hiked up to the kapuziner monastery and got some great shots of the city. then we walked around down cute, narrow, winding streets, saw the glockenspiel, and found our way up to the hohensalzburg fortress. on our way down we tried opening some big metal gates thinking they would be locked, only to find ourselves in a crammed graveyard outside the church of st. sebastion. i love walking through graveyards (morbid, i know), so that was pretty sweet. we walked through beautiful squares, taking picture after picture, shared a huge bacon and cheese pretzel, and visited one of the most uniquely gorgeous churches i've ever seen (probably one of my top 3 favorite churches). we found the house where mozart was born and the home where he grew up (nearby across the river), promenaded through the schloss (palace) mirabell gardens (which are supposedly the most beautiful wedding venue in the world), and enjoyed one of my favorite things -crisp apple strudel -before making our may back to the hostel to spend the evening journaling, doing much needed laundry, and packing up to leave early the next morning.

the alarm went off at 7am and lizzie and i reluctantly crawled out of bed, loaded up our huge packs, and got to the station in time for the 8:30 train to zurich -which didn't exist. i don't know what i read, but we spent a lovely 2 hours in the station before catching the 10:30 train. i'm now writing this from that very train, where i'm looking out at the snow covered alps and the sounds of music are still running through my head.

travel happens. as much as we try to plan our time -how we are going to get from one place to the next, when we are going to leave, when we will arrive, where we will stay, etc. -it usually ends up happening quite differently than we expected. take today for instance.

we had planned to go to rothenburg and we knew it would be a bit more complicated than normal because it's a smaller town and a bit out of the way. so last night we looked up the train schedule, wrote down which connections we'd need with times and platform numbers, etc. and were all set. or so we thought. according to the schedule, we'd leave at 10:55am and get to rothenburg about 1:30pm. no problem, right?

after breakfast at our hostel (they had peanut butter and bananas -i was a happy happy camper!!), we set out to catch the 10:55 train to nurnburg. all well so far, we arrived in nurnburg and found our connecting train to ansbach right across at the next platform. we both commented on how much we like traveling by train -especially in germany where the system works like clockwork. maybe this is where we jinxed ourselves?

i don't know exactly how it happened, but we got off at the wrong stop -a random little town just minutes from where we should have gotten off. after looking at train schedule postings and getting very confused, we realized our mistake and sat down (outside in the cold because little towns apparently don't keep their stations open on thursday afternoons) to wait for the next train. the train came along after a bit, and we got up ready to get on, only to be confused by the signs in the window which looked like it was going right back to where we came from, which we definitely didn't want. we paused for like 2 seconds (literally) to think this over, and as soon as we realized we did indeed want this train, the doors were closing and there was no getting on.

so we sat back down, determining to get on the next train no matter what. a while later, the train pulled in and we were inside before your mom could go to college. (which is not very long). we rode along until we came to ansbach, which is where we'd wanted to be in the first place. at ansbach, we looked up our next stop in a computer, found the time and platform, and were there in mere seconds only to realize the train was just leaving and it didn't seem to be the train we wanted. so we went inside to wait for the next train which was scheduled for an hour later.

after an hour, we went to wait at the platform where we met a guy who asked if we needed help, and informed us that there were "no trains" to rothenburg. oh. he said we'd have to take a bus, so we went out to the bus station to check things out. we found a stop for rothenburg, attempted to read the time table, and sat down (outside in the freezing cold) to wait for the 3:45 bus. you should know that doing sudoku with mittens on is hard work. 3:45 rolled around, there was no bus. 3:50 came, and still no bus. when it was 3:55, we decided we'd read the schedule wrong and went inside to ask someone. at information, i was again told there were indeed "no trains" to rothenburg. right. so we found some seats inside the station where it was semi-warmer, sat down to wait for the next train, and continued our sudoku fest.

at 4:40, we were standing out at the bus stop, hoping hoping hoping that a bus would show up as we were supposed to meet people in rothenburg at 6pm. lo and behold -a bus rolled up at 4:50 and we were overjoyed to see "rothenburg" across the front. 70 minutes later we were craning our heads out the windows of the bus and squinting to read signs in the dark so we could figure out where we are. after much frustration at lack of lights, we found out we were in rothenburg and decided to get off at the next stop. it was 6:05 when the bus pulled up at the rothenburg station (and we saw a train just leaving for the station we took the bus from...what??!) we hurried outside and looked around for james, who was supposed to meet us at 6pm. after a few minutes we found him and he was super nice about us being late, and very understanding about the trains. it turned out he works in ansbach where we just spent the last 3 hours of our lives, and had to drive out of his way to pick us up in rothenburg. isn't it ironic? (a little too ironic, i really do think).

so what was going to be a 2 hour morning/early afternoon train ride and then day spent in rothenburg turned out to be 2 hours on the train, 3 hours waiting at train stations, and another hour on the bus. good times.

like i said, travel happens. you scheme and plan, but half the time all you can do is cross your fingers and hope you get there within the month. i'm not good at that -i like to know. but i also like to travel -and this is what traveling is -it just happens.

europe: munich beginnings

update from munich: we thought we were going to have internet at our hostel, but when we got here 2 nights ago, the wireless wouldn't connect because we use firefox. ha. anyway, we just tried it again this morning, and lo and behold, it works!! so we've been in munich for 2 nights now. we went on a city tour yesterday and walked all over in the pouring rain-trying-to-be-snow-but-was-mostly-slush. lovely. today looks about the same. we're planning on taking the train to neuschwanstein castle today, then we'll be back here for the night. look on facebook for pictures, coming soon!

europe: vienna

greetings from munich. well actually i'm writing this on the train from salzburg, but by the time i send it i'll be in munich. unfortunately, they don't have internet on trains yet, but that's probably next.

it's been a few days since i wrote, and lots and lots has happened since then. lizzie and i spent two days in krakow, poland (i've been trying and trying to pronounce it correctly, but i can't get it) this last thursday and friday (i won't tell you how long it just took me to figure out what days those were). on thursday we walked all over the city and saw wawel castle, st. mary's basilica, and the old town square (which reminded us a lot of st. marcs square in venice). it's a beautiful city.

then on friday we visited an anything-but-beautiful place -auschwitz-birkenhau. this was the largest concentration camp run by the nazis during ww2 and is about an hour and a half from krakow. birkenhau was the main camp where thousands of polish, hungarian, austrian, german, czech, etc. jews were sent to be dealt with. it was quite a sobering experience -seeing the barracks, work places, gas chambers and crematoriums where literally millions of lives were destroyed. one really interesting thing (that i hadn't seen at dachau) was a section of the museum telling the stories of local polish families who were dedicated to helping camp victims in any way they could. one older couple even adopted a 5 year old boy whom they were able to rescue from the camp. i was reminded that there are light and hope even in the darkest of places.

on friday night we took a night train (our first this trip!) to vienna (wien, as they say). two girls who were also backpacking were so nice as to wake us up in the middle of the night to tell us we needed to switch trains, and we found ourselves in the lovely, very cold city of vienna at 6:15 saturday morning. we spent the day seeing the sights (trying to stay warm AND see the city by riding trams all over and later sitting in starbucks as long as our shared latte would let us). vienna is gorgeous and i felt the need to be a bit more posh in order to fit in, but that's ok.

late saturday afternoon we took the train to graz where my grandma has friends who were so wonderful as to have us over. the koidl family home was everything two wanderers could have dreamed of -great company, delicious food (we had schnitzel twice!!), a warm bed, etc. etc. etc. we went to church with the family on sunday (the english translation service was most excellent and they sang "i'm trading my sorrows" in english! lizzie and i have both decided we want to learn german and worship songs seem to be a great way to start) that afternoon, elizabeth (mrs. koidl) gave us a tour of graz. a beautiful city that has a seems to have found the balance between traditional and modern. we played games with the family that night (a highlight for lizzie and me) and and stayed up too late drinking tea. it was a wonderful time.

we were up early this morning (monday), and georg (mr. koidl) took us to the station where we got the train back to vienna. today was not nearly so cold, so we had a much better time galavanting around the city. we went to the belvedere palace, karlschiche (st. charles church) and schonburnn palace (where we were very excited to see the labyrinth, but found it's closed nov. - march! one of the downfalls of traveling during the low season). we were very impressed with the palace grounds and decided we need to watch pride and prejudice again asap.

we had planned on catching a train straight to munich from vienna, but after several little frustrating events added up into missing our train, we ended up catching a different train to salzburg and getting on a train to munich from there. having eurrail passes is nicer than ever when things don't go as planned -which they often don't -you just make some adjustments and wallah! all is good again.

i'm constantly reminded of God's hand holding us every step of the way...people who've never met us before treating us like family, train times working out in spite of spoiled plans, warm train cars to sleep in, etc. etc. thank you so much for your prayers -it's so wonderful to know we're loved even far away. coming next -munich. maybe i'll figure out why it sounds like munchkin in german (munchen) and if there's any correlation to the popular term of endearment. =) danka shu und al vede zaine!

europe: krakow edition

here's the next part of our adventure. first of all, we're safely in krakow, poland. we're staying at a hostel where we accidentally booked only tomorrow night instead of tonight, because we were off a day in our dates. oops. fortunately they had space available and we are able to stay here despite our confused traveling dates.

some of you already know, but we got another surprise this morning. yesterday when elizabeth's purse was stolen, i had immediately gone through my stuff to check if anything of mine had been lost. i had thought i found the envelope with half of my money in it (i had my money split up in two places, this was one of them), and thought i was only missing my camera. but this morning i realized my money was gone as well. so the guy made off with both of our money and both our cameras, along with elizabeth's passport, credit cards, ipod, etc. anyway, that was a bit of a shock. at that point we were ready to call our trip off and come home, but we got on the train to poland as planned, just taking one thing at a time.

while on the train, we were both stressing out, of course...trying to figure out what in the world to do. both of us are planners and worriers, so we decided to write numbers/dates/etc. out and see what we could figure out. we ended up coming up with a budget (made up of other half of my money which we still have). we figured out that we can do the next 17 days through to paris, using our 15 day eurrail passes, with a budget of 45 euros a day (for both of us). it seems very doable. we were just looking at some exchange rates online, and it looks like we might have even more than that if the euro/won/dollar exchange rate is as good as google says it is (which seems to differ when we go to money exchange places, ha).

when i got online tonight, i literally had dozens of emails from family/friends/people i don't even know from all over europe offering to help us in any way they could. it's amazing and overwhelming. so no matter what happens, God is here and somehow we're seeing Him more now that our plans are not going according to schedule. funny how that happens.

oh, good news!! we got up at 6:30 this morning and were at the US embassy by 8:30 to get lizzie an emergency passport. everything was fine (excpet we had to go get new passport photos since the ones we had done were .2 cm. too small, ha). so elizabeth has a passport and we could leave prague! yay!

for now, we're in krakow tonight and tomorrow and then we'll take a night train (cutting down on lodging costs!) to vienna on the 17th. then we'll see from there.

more updates to come as they happen....thank you all so much for your prayers and offers to help, etc. you are amazing and we've been blessed.