4backpacks

Home Sweet Home!

2010-04-05T15:16:00.006-05:00

So... We are home at last! It is so good to sleep in my own most comfortable bed. I loved the trip and the experience that it brought with it. We flew home on Transat, and we tried to check in, we found that we could only bring 5 kg on our carry ons! We had to switch everything around, and that took about half an hour. Then we got on our plane and flew with very boring movies to Toronto. The we flew to our lovely home. We went to Oma's for dinner and had meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, then we slept there over night with Luca. And that is that I guess, of our grand voyage from London to Athens...or really to London again. It was a lot of fun but I am happy to be home sweet home.

Josephine

Almost home! (Our last day in London)

2010-04-05T15:16:00.005-05:00

Today is our last day till we go home! I'm really happy to be somewhere familiar. (Sort of at least.)First we went to Windsor castle. The Queen lives there a lot of the time. When she comes there they put up a special flag so that every one knows where she is. My favorite part was queen Mary's doll house. Every thing was made miniature, including the crown jewels! It was really cool. Then we saw the state rooms, there were a lot of them but I liked St. George's hall the best. It was all redone after the fire that they had there. Unfortunately St. George's hall was all wood! I can imagine it burned up rather quickly. The King's drawing room was also pretty nice. After Windsor castle we wanted to go to St. Paul's but it was way too expensive. Then we went to the Mouse trap which is an Agatha Christie play. It was really really good. We all had fun watching it. Then we ate supper at the Mediterranean place by the hostel.
Bye!
Emy

The Acropolis and Athens

2010-03-27T14:48:00.003-05:00

Today we went on a three hour tour, first we started in the train station which is basically a mini museum. They had some old pipes, a skeleton, and bits of pottery. Then we got to see the changing of the guards in front of the parliament building. It was so funny! They had pom-poms on their shoes and wool leggings! They stuck their legs really high in the air and touched their toes. Then we went to Zeus's temple of which there are only a few columns left. After that we went to the acropolis which was really amazing. It was soo big and there were tons of columns. After one of the wars they had the acropolis was completely destroyed so they dug a big pit and shoved all the ruins into it, then they covered it up and left. Then we went to a museum *Yawn*. Lots of pottery and statues... not very interesting. But they did have some helpful dioramas. And that's the end of the day...
Bye!(pics tomorrow...not loading!)
Emy

Sea Turtles!

2010-03-27T13:41:00.003-05:00

Today we had to wake up early, at 8 and walk to the tram. Then we had an hour ride before we reached the Sea Turtle rescue center, where we volunteered for the morning.We began to chop up squid and fish, with the help (or not) of the four cats who lived there. Then we got to feed the. Most of them, we dropped the food into the bottom of their tub, but some we got to feed with tweasers. Most of those wouldn't touch their food, but I had two who did, a tiny little Loggerhead, but he took a long time to chew, and a bigger loggerhead who was blind in one eye. The biggest turtle was as big as a... car wheel, if not bigger. The smallest one was smaller then a cookie.
After that we got back on the tram, and went to the agora. We got in, and went straight up the the best preserved temple in the world. It was a black smith's temple, it was rather small, and under construction, but beautiful all the same. Then we went for lunch just outside before going back to the hostel. We leave for London tomorrow.
P.S. Dad didn't feed the sea turtles... Sucks to be him!

Josephine

Athens March 24th

2010-03-24T14:51:00.002-05:00

Hello all
We are safely in Athens! The worries that I had about getting here never came so I thank you all for your prayers.
We arrived on the 22nd and so far we have put a lot of Km on our shoes, however we have not gone to see the sites yet, we are going to see most of the ruins on Friday with a tour guide.
The Greek food here is amazing and we are loving the flavors. Yesterday I went to the war museum and I was surprised by all the people that have fought with Greece and how many times they were defeated by the Grecian people. As a Canadian I am happy that we didn't have to fight so many different nations. The loss of life must have been high! After I left the museum there was a demonstration however it was quite peaceful and nothing really happened.
Today we went to a sea turtle rescue centre and were taken aback by the size of the leather backs. Jane and the kids will probably go back on Sat to help out, I think I will stay here and protect our valuables. It was quite difficult to get out to the centre since today there was a parade downtown with all the school kids. Something to do with a national holiday, not that anything was closed. Tomorrow is the big day Greece independence day. There is a big parade down town which we are hoping to catch, since nothing is going to be open anyway, so why not hey!
Bye for now from Greece where the temp is around 20 every day so far, sweet.

Mike

House of Mary

2010-03-21T13:38:00.005-05:00

Today March 21st was a fantastic day in Turkey, it was warm and we had an exciting day in and around Ephesus. The city/ruins of Ephesus covered a vast area and most of it was toppled due to earth quakes that have occurred over the past several centuries. I have to say that it was kind of awe inspiring to walk in the same area that John would have walked several thousands of years ago. The site has been some what restored however but since it was one of the biggest Roman cities out side of Rome it will take many more centuries to uncover it all. The amphitheater and the library were quite impressive.
After lunch, which is not worthy of mentioning, we headed off to see a weaving factory! Yea... We saw how they made carpets and how the different types of carpets felt. They had pure woolen ones and some that were made from pure silk. Of course they tried to sell our group some carpets, but we avoided buying one. Once we escaped the carpet factory we headed off to Mary's house. This is supposedly where Jesus's mother had stayed while in Ephesus. You can believe the story or not that is what our guide said. He explained all of the facts concerning this belief and left it up to us to judge for our selves. Personally I could believe it!
The day was so nice out that you could see Greece from Mary's house as well as the islands that belong to Turkey. Then we headed over to one of the great wonders of the world, the Temple of Artemus, enough said it was just a bunch of rocks on the ground...and people trying to sell us crap. Now was the time we were all looking forward to going to the beach! (Ephesus was once very close to the sea however over time the land filled in with sediment and now the sea is about 7k's away.)The beach was only 6k's away and the weather was nice and so sitting on the beach for awhile was going to be nice! We got to the beach and the guide pointed it out we turned around and headed back to town, what a huge disappointment for all of us on the bus! No one was happy that we just got to see the beach, we wanted to feel the beach and thought since we were ahead of schedule that we could spend some time there. NOPE nada nothing of the sort. We were heading off to another factory!! This time it was a leather factory, we were not impressed by this, we had enough and just wanted to go home, however since we were captives on this bus we had to go.
Once inside of this factory we had a fashion show, yes a fashion show, where male and female models came out wearing wonderful jackets. The best part of the show was when Jane and I were picked to be models, yes you got it Jane and I were models for a moment in time. I think the kids shot some action shots of it and if you ask nicely maybe you can see them. Once we got out of the coats we and the factory we headed to our hotel, the Paris Hotel, not sure why it is called that but it is.

Tomorrow we are off to Greece and I ask all of you to pray for us while we are there. The reason why is that Greece is going through some turbulent times right now and we need God's protection while we are there. Thanks for reading my blog.
Mike

Calcium hurts your feet!

2010-03-21T11:36:00.003-05:00

Today we went to Pammukale, an old Roman city along the silk road. It's mostly ruins though there are a few things still standing. There are a lot of graves in the Necropolis, (city of the dead) did you know that after 15 years the graveyard committee would come to the graves, take out the bodies and give them to the families, then they would take out all the jewelry and put the grave up for rent! Then we went into the city and saw the latrine! Definition of Latrine: Large communal bathroom of ancient times. Women were separated from men, no toilet paper or sinks just a small stream of cold water. All of this = Nasty, and very unpleasant! Then we went to the Antique bath which we didn't swim in. Then we went to the theater which was very big. After that we went to the calcium deposits and walked down the so-called travertine. The dry parts hurt my feet a bit but the rare wet parts were nice. Then we had lunch which was very good. After that we went to the red spring which was full of very hot water. It was about 35 degrees! I wouldn't touch it though. Then we went to another Onyx factory! Then we got on the bus to go to Selcuk.

Bye,
Emily

Cappadocia

2010-03-21T10:34:00.005-05:00

We left Istanbul on the over night bus, which was not a fun experience, because we didn't get much sleep. We arrived at Cappadocia at around nineish, I think and went to our hotel which had been carved out of a rock. It was cool. We went to the tourist's office, and found there was nothing to do in the town except climb a hill. After that we went back to the room, and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next day we went on a tour. We first drove to Rose Valley, and hiked to the top of one of the hills for a great view. There where hoodoos everywhere, and some yellow rocks, that Mom thought might be sulfur. Next we drove to an ancient village carved out of rocks. I thought the houses looked a bit like wyers (Dragon Riders of Pern) There was some really nice engraving on some of the houses. Then we went for lunch, which was pretty good, but I was sitting beside people who didn't speak English very well, so I couldn't ask for any food! Then we drove to an under ground Hittite village built 3,000 bc. It was really cool. They had huge round door with holes in the middle so they could stab people. They also put wedges under the doors so that they couldn't be moved. Then we went to an onyx factory, and Emy got an egg. It was a bit boring. Then we drove to see pigeon valley, which was very pretty. We now have to take another night bus....

Josephine

2010-03-17T07:51:00.006-05:00

Our time in Istanbul has been a quiet one. Josephine's illness resurfaced with avengence. She had a fever again and a horrible headache in which she couldn't get out of bed. We were blessed though with great people. We met a women in our small hotel who is a molecular biologist from Croatia. She specializes in cancer research, spoke perfect English and had a pharmacy along with her! We tried a couple of things and finally found medication that relieved her headache. She still spent two days in bed so we only did a few things. Mike and I went to the Sultan's palace and were amazed by his treasury. The guide said that if they sold all the pieces they could pay for all of Turkey's debt, 30 billion! The most magnificent piece was a set of solid gold candle stands, 48 kgs and they were covered with 6666 diamonds - the # of verses in the Koran! Wow! We've done a lot of walking around the old part of the city and met up with Adem, a man we met in Seville, who showed us around. Mike's been very happy with the Starbucks and I've had time to finish my second scrapbook of the trip. One more to go!

The Turkish Baths

2010-03-14T15:24:00.002-05:00

We are in Istanbul today! First we went to the blue mosque which is one of the most well known mosques out of the 3,500 mosques in Istanbul. We got a tour guide there but he wasn’t very good. The blue mosque got its name for the blue ceramic tiles that cover the walls. It was a very pretty mosque but I thought it was a bit boring because they are not allowed to have any icons. Then we went to the Hagia Sofia which means house of wisdom. (?) We got a really good tour guide there; he spoke perfect English and was very informative. There were a bunch of pretty mosaics over the doors and in one of the domes. When they converted it into a mosque they covered all the Christian iconography (except the scene of Mary holding Jesus) with plaster and ended up preserving it! The reason they didn’t cover up the mosaic of Mary is because they still believe in Jesus except to them he’s just a prophet not a son of God. There were eight big discs covered with calligraphy which had some names of important Islamic people; such as Mohammed and Allah. They tried to move them into the blue mosque but they couldn’t get them out of the door! The Ottomans had assembled them inside! Then we went back to our hotel and did some homework. Then our driver picked us up and we went to the Turkish bath! First we changed into the clothing they provided. The pants they had there did not fit me whatsoever so I improvised and used a towel. Then we went into the hot room where you lay on a hot marble slab for about 35 minutes going to dump cold water on yourself whenever you got too hot. The temperature in there was 35 degrees Celsius! Then we got scrubbed and some people dumped cold water on us. Then we lay down again on a bench and got scrubbed with soap in a bag! After that I got a massage. Then we got some fresh dry towels and sat in the tepidarium (lukewarm room) and drank ice tea! It was really awesome and I am really clean!

Bye
Emy

The dead sea, and my 13 B-day

2010-03-12T12:00:00.003-06:00

We left Petra at 7, and drove for 3 hours to the Dead Sea. The ride wasn't boring, because I was reading the best series ever:Dragon Riders of Pern. I thought the Dead Sea was small, but I was wrong. It is 25 miles across. We checked into our awesome hotel, which is very nice, and went to our room. It is very cool, but the beds are very small, and we are sharing a room! Then we went down to the Dead Sea, and we walked in, and lay on our backs, we were floating!
It felt like we were wearing life jackets. It would be very hard to drowned, unless you swallowed the water, but let's not be negative. It was tons of fun! We kept rolling over, and over, and trying out different poses. Then Mom and Dad had a mud bath, and Emily and I fooled around some more before showering off, and laying on our beach chairs. Then we (Emily and I) read the e-book for about three hours before jumping into the cold pool. It wasn't very fun, so we went back to our room. For dinner, we went down to the buffet. There were lots of choices, but I like the fillet of fish with lemon sauce the best! For dessert we had chocolate mousse, Mom outwitted a bar tender, and stole(no, sorry acquired, stealing is such an ugly word) a candle for my "birthday cake". It was really good! This has to be the best birthday EVER!!!

Josephine!

The graves of Petra

2010-03-12T10:21:00.006-06:00

Hello!
Today we are in Petra. We woke up early to go to Petra but Josephine was sick so she stayed in the hotel. Then we went to Petra. I thought it was more of a city built into the canyon but it was mostly graves. When we got there we saw a lot of horses pulling carts and carrying people around. You had to listen for them or else you would get run over! When we went into the city there were lots of people and it was very hot. In 1999 the street level was about 5 feet higher then it is now! Then we saw a treasury which wasn't really a treasury, it was just named that because they thought there was treasure in a jar that is on the roof. There was no treasure.

There were a bunch of people who had camels there and you only got to ride the camel for an average of 48 seconds! (I timed some people.) Then we walked around for a bit and saw a cute camel and an amphitheater built by the Nabitians and the Romans. After Petra we went back to the hotel and Josephine and Dad swam in the frigid pool because Josephine was still sick. Then Mom went to a Jordanian cooking class and we went out for supper. (She'll have to cook a lot of nice food when we get home)
Bye,
Emily
P.S. Tom. is Josephine's birthday!

Mount Sinai & the Burning Bush

2010-03-12T09:38:00.004-06:00

Today started early with a drive from Dahab to Mnt. Sinai. We met our guide and toured St. Catherine's monastery, a truely amazing place. It is home to the second biggest library of ancient text after the Vatican and has the oldest bible in the world! It was written in the 2 century! They also have the old icons in the world. They have them because during the 5 and 6th c. icons in Europe were destroyed (thought they were idolatry), but the monastery was cut off from Rome so they didn't. We saw the "burning bush" where God spoke to Moses and then headed up to Elijah's basin. It was a tough climb! Super steep and very hot. We had to stop every 10 - 15 min. to slow the heart rate. Once at the basin we had a Bedouin picnic! The meal was super and made from the olives and herbs found in the area. They had had 3 days of rain just before we came so the plants were out in full force. Before that they hadn't had rain for 10 years! I can't imagine living with no rain! They do have wells but, but were having to dig a lot deeper as they were drying out. Everyone was very happy and grateful for the rain. We had lunch with our Bedouin guide who told us many interesting thing about the region. Did you know that the Bedouin's cut out their uvula? They do this because they think it is the source of thirst and they pride themselves on not drinking very much. Unfortunately they have a lot of kidney problems! After a short easy hike around the camp to look at herbs we went the rest of the way to the summit. It was a great sunset on the top. Most people (1000 usually) come in the morning, so we were happy to have the spot almost to ourselves. We descended the mountain an easier way since it was dark, and had to avoid camels taking more people up to the top! Excellent day!

Jane

March 20th Turtles and Noisy Camels

2010-03-10T09:35:00.002-06:00

Today we went snorkeling in the Red Sea! First we got on our camels and walked to the snorkeling place. My camels name was Super Camel, Josephine got Beauty, Daddy got Mr. Pinkie, and Mom got Bubbles. The reasons they got those names is because; my camel was the best, Josephine's was the prettiest, Dad's camel was called Mr.Pinkie because that's what I wanted his name to be, and Mom's camel made funny noises such as gargelling! When we got there we changed into our wetsuits and got in the water. At first I had a bit of trouble with my snorkel but I eventually got the hang of it. We saw a really pretty sea turtle, sea cucumber, clams and a lot of beautiful fish. The ocean was very cold and I went out early. Then we had a really yummy lunch of potatoes and rice and chicken. We also fed the cats our leftovers,
and then Mom and Dad went snorkeling again. After a very bumpy camel ride back, our bumbs were sore, we went to the beach to have dinner at Nemo's. It was a really nice restaurant with a funny waiter who called himself Marco Polo! Back at our apartment we were creeped out by the ants killing the cockroch in the bathroom! ugh.

Emily

March 6 Up Up and Away

2010-03-10T09:32:00.003-06:00

We woke up early, and left for the hot air balloon ride. It took about five minutes to get there, and them we jumped into a balloon. The flames shooting up onto the balloon looked just like what I think dragon fire would look like. We rose very quickly, and then leveled off. At our highest point we could still hear the donkeys braying.
When we landed, we then drove to Hatshepsut’s temple. She was the only female Egyptian pharaoh to rule Egypt (Cleopatra was Greek) When she died, her successor destroyed her temple, and they have only recently put it back together.
Then we went to the famous Valley of the Kings. We saw three tombs. My favorite was of King Ramses the 3rd, because it was so brightly colored and big. We didn’t go in King Tut’s tomb because it was $20 a person to go in.
Next we went to Karnack Temple. It was very big, and very beautiful. There I learned that there are only 10 erect obelisks in Egypt, and 50 elsewhere in the world! We left rather quickly, because it was so hot.
Then we went for lunch at the Oasis Café, I had a very good grilled cheese sandwich, and fresh lemonade. There we met our tour guide from Cairo, with some other tourists from Rhode Island (they were funny!). We went shopping together, and had dinner together at our hotel. Emy and I got a pendant with our names in Hieroglyphics!

March 5th, Edfu

2010-03-10T09:18:00.003-06:00

We started off the day by walking up on the felucca and having breakfast. Then we drifted around for a bit until we got to a dock. Then we waited till our car came. We got in the car and drove to the temple in Edfu. When we got there it was already really hot. It was very pretty. The Romans defaced a lot of Egyptian stuff and chipped away at the figures in the temples and tombs. The temple is dedicated to Horus who was the god of protection in Pharonic times. Then we had a traditional lunch in our tour guide’s house. It was very good. Then we drove to Luxor and went to our hotel. After half an hour we got in some rented bikes and biked for about an hour through West Bank of Luxor. Mom enjoyed seeing the crops and watch the people work the land. We saw a donkey fall over, and then its master started beating it and stamping on it! Then we went back and had supper.

Abue Simbel & Feluca

2010-03-10T09:00:00.002-06:00

We had to wake up at three, so we could drive for three hours to get to a temple called Abu Simbel. It was moved up the hill, and the landscape was recreated when they built the Aswan dam.When we got there we spent about 1 hour looking at the two amazingly beautiful temples. There where four large statues at each of the temples, one for Ramses, and one for his wife, whose name I don't remember. Her's was slightly smaller then his. The paint was mostly gone, but what we could see of it was spectacular. Twice a year, the sun lines up with the entrances, and lights up the statues of some of the gods at the end. Then we wandered around in the sun on the site for awhile until our van came back. I think I found my sesitive plant in an adult form there! Then we had the three hour drive back. We stopped for about three minutes at the Aswan dam. It doesn’t look as exciting as it is, and the road goes right on top of it. Then we went down the Nile, and boarded our sailing boat, it was nice and sunny, so we lay down on our mattress, and I read the ebook. We had a very good dinner, of meat and bread. We also saw some donkeys. Unfortunatly, the Eco-toilet didn't arrive....We put the walls of the boat up, and were in bed by nine. The sail boat seemed like a lot more fun then the big cruise boats that rocked our boat when they went by.

Josephine

March 3, Garbage City

2010-03-10T08:51:00.002-06:00

Today we started the day by going to Garbage City. In Cairo, a city of 18 million, the garbage is collected by 50,000 people (Coptic Christians) by hand and taken to the abandoned quarries of the pharaohs on the outskirts of the city. They essentially live and work in the garbage dump. In Garbage city all the refuse is sorted, reused and recycled. We were privilege to see an amazing group of people who have organized this work force to produce products from the garbage. They weave rugs and purses, sew quilts and make paper from what they collect. Not only are the young women are taught viable skills, they are taught to read, write, and are trained how to be entrepreneurs. They even provide child care for young babies, nursery school and primary school for any children the women have. We toured their facility, bought some purses and paper and then visited the church that has been built into the rock face there. We then met Hana, a most inspiring man. He only looked about 21, but he has begun the long struggle to revolutionize Garbage city. Hana, with help from a professor from the university (can’t remember which one), he built a solar panel from the scraps in the dump and now supplies his home with electricity. He has also built a bio-fuel generator to supply his home with methane for cooking. He uses organic waste from his home and from the dump to make it. He is now working to build more and slow switch the people of Garbage city over to the new system so that they can be independent of the government. He was so inspiring in his desire to help people in a sustainable way. (Picture of Mike doing exercises with the kids!)

After our tour of Garbage city we went into Islamic Cairo to look at a few Mosques with our great guide Sahr. She also took us to her favorite restaurant in Cairo which made Egyptian pancakes! They are like inside out pancakes filled with chicken and veggies or fruit for dessert! We had one filled with bananas that were amazing! After lunch we were whisked away to the airport for our trip to Aswan. It was a quick flight and then we were driven to a Nubian guest house where we were served a great Egyptian meal and then headed off to bed since we had to get up at 2:30 a.m. to meet the convoy to Abu Simbel.

Jane

Awesome Egyptians

2010-03-02T08:55:00.004-06:00

Today we went to the most famous places in Egypt: The pyramids, The Sphinx, and the Egyptian museum. It was awesome! The pyramids were amazing! They were so huge! The largest one covers 13 acres! It was so cool! I've always wanted to see the pyramids. Then we saw the sphinx whose nose was allegedly shot off by Napoleon's troops. That was awesome to. Then we had a yummy lunch of hamburgers and Falafels. Then we went to the Egyptian museum. My favorite part was all of the stuff that was in Tutankhamen's tomb. They had 5 chariots, some beds (Including the Pharaoh's so called 'camping bed' which is a folding bed), some games, chairs, boxes and more. But the most impressive and beautiful was Tutankhanen's funeral mask. I really liked it and I've seen so many pictures of it. Then we navigated through the horrible traffic back to our hotel.
Emily (the Egypt fanatic)

Rome at night.

2010-02-28T09:14:00.004-06:00

We only left our apartment at one, and wandered around for a very long time. When it got dark, we made our way to the Colosseum The moon was full, and right beside the Colosseum! I was SO mad that I forgot my camera! After that, we caught a bus to a restaurant, had a very good dinner, and went back. Rome was all lit up, and St. Peter's looked very nice. There were also a lot more people out.

The next day (today) we woke up late, and went to a market. It was so big, in an hour and a half, we only got through half of it. I found a really beautiful scarf, and it was only four euro! After the market we went back, and are doing nothing of insert of the rest of the day.

Josephine

CATS!

2010-02-26T10:51:00.003-06:00

Today was a slow day, we left at 10 o'clock and went to a market. The things we successfully purchased were a backpack and a necklace. Then we walked to a place where they had some virtual thing about ancient Rome. First we walked through a dark corridor and then into a dark room with a glass floor. It lit up and we saw some mosaics under us. Then there was a loud noise and the trapdoor in the cieling opened and there was a virtual tiger staring at us through a grate. Then the floor started moving! When all that was finished we went back down and the wall slid open. Then we went into a room with a screen in it and put on some 3D glasses. We then watched a movie about ancient Rome. It was really cool. Then we went to find an Emily the strange purse. We couldn't find one so we went to a church which was closed. Then we went to a gelati place which we couldn't find so we went somewhere else. Then we walked to the cat sanctuary and got a tour. It was very interesting, the tour guide showed us the place where Julius Ceaser was killed and we also got to see a ton of cats.
Emily

The Colosseum

2010-02-25T11:14:00.003-06:00

We left at nine, and jumped on the tram to the Colosseum. The huge brick structure is actually called the Flavian Ampatheater, but was called the Colosseum because of it's colosal size. It was origanally covered in marble, but it was all taken to build a certian huge cathedarl, who would perfer to say recycled then taken. *cough* St.Peter's *cough*. We found our tour giude, and went in. It is huge, and the nobles sat on the first floor, rich people on the second, the third for commoners, and the fourth for women. So we walked about, and some common myths where disspelled, they did not pit enemy against enemy, and the beasts rose out of the basment floor with chains. The shows were free, as well as meals... Anyway, you can find out more on the internet, so I will just move on. After the tour, we wandered around the general area for a while, as we were getting another free tour in an hour.
We found our tour giude, and walked 5 minutes away to Palentine hill, where the ruins of a great palace remain. They removed all of the marble for the same large church. The emporer (Who's name I can not recall) Even had his own stadium. His palace was devided into two parts: Public, and private.In the public part the marble was polished so he would be able to see if anyone was sneaking up on him to assainate him. The irony was, he was killed by a bowl of mushroom soup, compliments of his wife, whose lover he had killed.
After the palace, we went to see the ruins of the Roman Forum, not the internet one by the was. There are many ruined temples there. The ones best preserved are the senate, and a temple that was turned into a church. All the rest are simply columns and a bit of a base. The temple of Remus is pretty well preserved as well.
Then we went for lunch as we were very hungry. We went to a place for pasta. It was very good. Then we went to the Musei Capitolini on the top of Capital hill. We really just wanted to see the foot of Constentine, becuase we have seen it everywhere. But we ended up going around it and seeing a lot of other slightly boring stuff. After that we went home.

Josephine

Fountains

2010-02-24T13:18:00.003-06:00

Today we went to the catacombs. They were a bit disappointing because the tour was so short and also because I thought we would see more then just some tunnels and places where people were buried. (they aren't there anymore)Then we went to the church of Saint Sebastian which is on top of the catacombs. Then we went to Trastavere which is on the other side of the river. It was kind of nice, my favorite thing was a church. It had a very beautiful mosaic ceiling over the alter. Then we went on a free tour! We saw the Trevi fountain, the Fountain of the four rivers, the spanish steps, the pantheon, and assorted buildings and piazzas. (Not pizza! A piazza is a square!) I really liked the Trevi fountain!

Bye
Emy

The Vatican

2010-02-23T11:07:00.003-06:00

Today, we went to the country of Vatican City. It is the smallest country in the world, and the population numbers 1,000. They have there own: Post stamp, pass port, and guard, from Switzerland. The outfits are something else!
So, we got a tour and the entrance fee for 100 euro, and then we went on out way. The first thing we saw was the Vatican museum. There, they have statues, stuff from Egypt, tapestries, and gems and such. Then we went to some rooms done by Raphael, who died at 33. He, and Michelangelo did frescoes (painting on wet plaster) The frescoes where beautiful, and full of elegant figures on horses marching into battle. Even though the room was full of people, the guide said there was no one there compared to in the summer.
Then we went into the Sistine Chapel. The first thing I did was gasp. It was beautiful, spectacular, and wonderful. My favorite Fresco was the last judgment. Michelangelo did the roof on scaffolding, and spent four years looking up at the ceiling and painting. Apparently he had to look up to read after that... The Last Judgment is full of more than 300 people in every imaginable pose. They defaced the painting, by painting clothes on all of them later.
After that, we went into St. Peter's church. Al I can saw about that is WOW! The amount of money put into that church must have been astronomical. They have writing on the walls that is taller then me! (6 feet) But it is so far away, if looks about 2 feet! The floor is covered in marble, and the alter piece in gold. It is the most elaborate church I have seen so far.
Later, we went walking around Rome, we didn't go to any sites, because we are going to some tomorrow. We stopped for a bit at a cafe, and then went back. We spent 5 hours at the Vatican.

Josephine

The church, Alter, and the Swiss guard+ me

Catania

2010-02-19T08:14:00.005-06:00

Catania - land of great food, sunny weather and the craziest drivers! We have really enjoyed the different food here. At night you can find charcol BBQs along the streets where you pick your meat...horse, ass, pig, cow... and they cook it up for you right there. Last night we went out with some people we met at the hostel and Scott had an ass burger! The jokes didn't stop all night. Speaking of the hostel I was sitting in the lounge on the first day and started talking to a guy there, who said he recognized me? It ended up that he was from Winnipeg and had worked with Jennifer at the Panic restaurant! Wow!

Yesterday we also went to climb Mt. Etna. We doned snowshoes and explored craters. The mountain is still quite active, the last lava flow was in 2009. The day was really nice but crazy windy...see pic of Josephine! We were worried that Emily would blow off the crater. After hiking we went into a lava tube cave that had bats. We even saw 2 babies that the guide thought were only 2 days old. The mother gives birth and nurses them without waking up! My kind of labour!

Now on the subject of driving. Nuts hardly describes it. Everything here is a suggestion...red lights, lines on the road, right of way, one ways. You take your life into your hands just crossing the street. We were told the only way to cross is to not look and just walk. Ugh! Needless to say there are very few cars without dents and scratches.

Today we walked around the town enjoying all the markets and fresh food. The chesse, fruits and veggies are super. You can get any meat...body part too. I think it's intestine.

We're here for one more day and then off to Rome for a week.

Jane

The ruined city of Pompeii

2010-02-18T11:46:00.005-06:00

February 14,

Today we drove to Pompeii! When we got to the ticket office a guy tried to sell us a tour for 100 euros. We declined the offer and went to buy our tickets. We found out that children were free and since it was valentines day we got a buy one get one free special! It ended up only being 11 euros! So then we shared the tour with two other people and it cost way less.
When we walked into Pompeii I noticed that there were three stones across the road. "That probably keeps the chariots from driving down the street" I said. Actually they were used when the citizens of Pompeii threw their liquid waste onto the street. People could then walk across the street without getting their sandals wet! Then we saw a basilica that has the same floor plan as some modern day basilicas! (The old type of basilica is like a court) We also saw some really cool baths. There was a fountain in there that has the price and who paid for it on the rim. The roof was also ribbed so that water wouldn't drip on your head. It was quite warm in there. They had a small bar with a marble counter top where they kept their wine cool. My favorite house was not the biggest house (which was owned by a lawyer). But a medium sized house that wasn't even half the size. The plaster casts were also pretty cool but I thought there would be more. It was raining the whole time we were there and at the end I just wanted to jump in the car and go. But we had a traditional pizza first. It's called a Margerhita and it is the colours of Italy. Red for the tomatoes, white for the mozzarella, and green for the basil. Sorry if I make it sound like the colours for the flag of Italy were chosen by different toppings on a pizza. Because that is completely untrue though it would be kind of funny if it was!

Bye
Emy

Florence

2010-02-13T13:29:00.003-06:00

Feb. 10
Today, we went to Uffizi museum. My first view was of mideavel gold-back alter peices. My favorite painting there was the Annunciation by Lenard DaVaincie, because it is balanced, neat, beautiful, andmost importantly for me realistic. I also like the Birth of Venus.
After that, we went to another musum, It had mostly stuffed animals. They had entire rooms full of every animal imaginiable. Even a Lesser egyptian Jerboa! I also didn't know walruses were so big! They had mostly birds, in the most amazing colors, even neon! They also has the human anatomy made in wax. It took them ten years to make one body! After that we went back to the apartament.

Feb.11
We left our apartament at ten, and went to the Bargello musum. It was not as good as the Uffizi, and it was mostly statues. We only spent half an hour in their. Then we went back, and I read a book called DragonSong for a bit. It;s about a girl named Meonlly and her nine fire lizards in Harper hall. It's in the Dragon Riders of Pern, it's very good.
At seven, we went to meet Mom's email friend for dinner. They luckily have two children around our age, a 13 year old girl, and an 11 year old boy. They are VERY nice, and have even read warriors! They came over at 10 for coffe, and so we played on their DSI's with them.

Feb.12
We had to wake up early to make it to the anthropology museum, becuase it closed at one. It was very cool to see all this stuff from other cultures, they had some creepy skeletons that were doing the scream! They had fuzzy underwear as well!
After that we went to the Plazza Medici Ricardi. The first thing we saw was the famous chaple with another version of the "Adoration of the Magi" couvering it was very beautiful. All of thr rooms were lovely, but then we saw the roof of a ball room. It was couvered in Greek myths. It was sooo beautiful. After that we tried to go to some other musumes, but they were all closed. Mom's friend, and her family came over again at 6, and we also went for gelatie.

Josephine.

Lesser Egyptain Jerboa, and David!

Food

2010-02-12T01:12:00.001-06:00

Today I was fortunate enough to do a Tuscan cooking class! I was picked up by one of the owners of the school and taken to a 14th villa to cook. I was joined by 2 other couples from Chicago (one was Kevin Kitching’s twin!) and our Chef for the day , Alberto. He was handsome, funny and a very good chef. We made a four course meal of stuffed onions, home pasta with meat sauce, veal rolls with spinach and ham, roasted potatoes and Tiramisu. I enjoyed making the pasta the most. He taught us how to make it with and without the pasta machine. It was a lot of work but very worth it. I learned a lot of little tips too, for example – when making roasted potatoes, wait until they cool before you try to get them off the pan, then they won’t stick. He suggested doing them ahead of time and them re-heating. At the end we sat down to a wonderful meal. I was so stuffed I didn’t eat again until the following lunch! It was a great morning and the other 2 couples were a lot of fun.

In the evening the girls and I went to an Opera – Guispee Verdi’s La Traviata. Mike opted for beer and snacks! We booked it on line where it said it was in a church. I assumed it was going to be a huge church with many people, but it was actually a very small church and only about 60 people, and we had front row seats! (great for Emy). Wow! What an experience to have the singers 10ft from you. It was very powerful and tragic – Voiletta dies in the end….of course! We also ended up sitting beside a women from Toronto! Small world.

Jane

Carnival... Finally!

2010-02-07T15:33:00.003-06:00

Hello!!

Today we drove to Florence! We went to our apartment then we tried to navigate towards the Duomo. We found the tourist office and... got information! Then we walked back,got in the car and drove. After yelling at the GPS for a bit we reached our destination... the carnival!!! I put on my cat mask, Josephine put on hers and so did Mom and Dad.
We saw tons of people dressed up almost everyone was dressed up! There were at least 20 floats! Some up to 30 meters high! I felt soooo short :(
My favorite float was a dragon, he had moving eyes, wings and there was smoke coming out of his mouth. He was very pretty. There was also a hunchback of Notre Dame snd alot if other cool ones. It was very fun and we had a great time. After the carnival we drove to Ikea, still yelling at the GPS. We had a yummy supper there and then walked around the store. I found a really nice bed spread that I really really want. Sadly ut does not fit with what I want my room to look like... will have to change colour scheme... hmmm

Bye!
Emily

The bridge and the Ice Man

2010-02-07T15:02:00.003-06:00

Feb. 5-6
Dad left for a museum early in the morning, while we were sleeping. Five minutes later, Mom read an email that told her about a man, 5600 years old, perfectly preserved. His name was the Ice Man. Mom, was miffed, as it was only one hour and 45 minutes to get there. Alas, she had no way to contact Dad, and just had to hope he would get back in time. Meanwhile, I enjoyed myself reading Dragon Riders of Pern, by Anne McCaffery. Dad, thank heavens got back in time, mostly because 1/3 of the museum was closed, and they were still charging full price. So, we went to visit the Ice Man.
At the museum: The first floor was devoted to the Ice Man and the stuff found on/around him. They learned that he had brown hair, and blue eyes. He was around 5 feet tall, 50-60 years old, and died of an arrow head that hit a major artery. It was very cool. He even had leggings. The rest of the museum was pretty good, and they had lots of dioramas. After that we drove back home.

Feb.6-The Bridge
This morning, we woke up leisurely and I went on the internet for a while. We made no plans, but Mom wanted to do something, so we went to a disused marble quarry, and the longest natural bridge in the world. The marble quarries were cool, and Dad found a dead sheep! The people around the area use the flawed marble as fences! Next, we went to the bridge. It was nice, but muddy. We also saw some icicles forming upside-down. There was a water fall under the bridge. After that we had some hot chocolate and went back to our apartment. Mom made apple crisp, and then we watched Up.

Verona - City of Love

2010-02-04T14:22:00.004-06:00

What Shakespear play is based in Verona? Anyone? Romeo & Juliet! We found out that the story is actualy based on true facts. We also found the balcony where they never met but is a great tourist attraction.
But before we get to that....we need to talk about Mario & Anne - the people we are renting an apartment from. They are super! Our first day here they invited us to come with them to a classical music concert. Their friend had started a concert series with students from the university and we happily went along. It was an hour long with 4 groups. The best was a young women who play my favorite Chopin piece...it was incredible! We then went to dinner with them and then to an English quiz night. The we all had lots of fun and ended up winning 3 bottles of wine...Mike is very happy. The next day they took us to their favorite winery (again Mike is very happy) where Mike tried 5 different wines and I enjoyed the cheese and jelly. It is so nice to be shown around a town by locals.
Yesterday we did a self guided tour of Verona where we met Juliet, climbed the staircase of Reason and contemplated Dante's expression. Today...Mike and I went to visit the Campagnolo bicycle factory. It was really neat to see how they test the quailty of the parts, make bike chains and carbon fibre wheels. Discovery channel filmed an episode of "How it's Made" there. They don't usually give tours but the salesman said that Mike "asked so nicely that they couldn't refuse". Lastly, tonight we went to a thermal pool that was outside. The water was so warm and they had coloured lights everywhere...fun!

Jane

The City of Masks

2010-02-01T13:52:00.002-06:00

Hello!
Today in Venice we decided to go to St. Mark’s cathedral. On the way we found a stand with a bunch of masks on it. Josephine bought a nice pink one and I got a blue and white cat one with music notes and gold swirly things on it!! Yay!! When went inside St. Mark’s cathedral we were amazed. Venice is famous for its mosaics, specifically the ones that are gold leaf covered in glass. While we were here we figured out why. It was beautiful, there was gold covering the ceiling! The ceiling was covered in mosaics of different scenes from the bible… well it was mostly scenes from the bible there was a mosaic of some people stealing the body of St. Mark. Then I looked down. The amount of different types of marble on the floor was staggering! There were at least twenty-five different types! There were also beautiful mosaics on the floor. There were peacocks and gryphons and lots more that I can’t remember. Then we walked out and met a guy who was giving out free tickets to see the glass factory. We took four and went on our merry way to the island of Murano. After getting off the boat we went inside and watched a man make a cute little glass horse. It didn’t take him very long; he started out with a ball of molten glass and shaped it into a horse! Then we watched a different guy make part of a chandelier. After that we went to look at some finished products. There were soooo many!!! My favorites were the glass animals, such as: the zebras’ camels’ horses’ fish penguins’ and much more. Then we didn’t buy anything and left the island after walking around and seeing a glass Don Quixote going over a fence on his horse and Sancho’s donkey jumping over the fence leaving him behind. Then we went for a long walk bought a mask for Mom and one for Dad and found inspiration for the title of this blog on the cover of a book. We also ate some giant pieces of pizza!

Bye!
Emily

City of Water

2010-02-01T13:31:00.002-06:00

Jan. 31

Venice

We left for St. Marco’s square at nine, so we could but tickets for the prison and the Doge’s Palace, but on the way we talked to a gondola man, who informed us that the gondola rides were 80 euro for all of us as opposed to 80 euro each. So we went on a gondola ride, but we got it for 70 euro, because we were stopping at the square. It was very fun to ride on the shiny, black gondola, even though it was rather rocky. When we got to St. Marco’s square, Dad realized he had forgotten his expensive hat on the gondola! The gondola man was already gone though. So we bought our tickets, (did I mention it was INCREDIBLY cold out?) and had a tour of the Doge’s palace. First we went into a very tiny office of the Grand Chancellor, who was in charge of secret documents, and got paid 600,000 euro a year! Then, we went into a bigger office of his where the secretaries worked. It was very cold inside too, and there were no fire places in the rooms. Venice has the third largest archive in the world! (I am supposed to mention that yesterday Dad became the proud new owner of a three cornered hat.) Then we moved on to the torture chamber, where the only torture device was a rope, with which they would tie the person’s hands behind their back and pull them up, very painful I am told. Then we went to the cells. The doors were so small even Emily couldn’t get through without ducking. We went into the room where Casanova spent several months as a political prisoner. It was there we learned back then you could be executed for littering, or crimes against the environment. I think Venice must have been very clean. Now, back to Casanova, he was allowed to go for walks in the attic while he was prisoner, because he was too tall to stand up in his cell. He found a piece of metal, and a piece of marble up there, and he used the marble to sharpen the metal (iron it was) and made a hole in the floor so he could escape. The day he finished (he was going to leave the next day, because there was a political holiday then) when the guard came to his cell and told him he was moving. So Casanova put the iron in his arm chair, and black mailed the guard when he moved the bed and saw the hole, by saying to the guard that he (the guard) gave Casanova the metal to make the hole. Now, we moved on to the attic, and will finish the story later. In the attic there where lots of swords, about 100 or so, and it was rather chilly (I’m not supposed to complain about the cold too much) Then we went back down to Casanova’s other cell. There, it was not a private cell, so he couldn’t try to escape again; also the guard was watching his every move. But next to his cell was a priest who was there because he had 12 illegitimate children. They were both allowed books, and loved books, so they were allowed to share, and in the books they passed messages and came up with a plan to escape. Casanova asked for a great, big bible and hid the piece of iron in that so the priest could get them out. So first he carved a hole in his roof, and crawled up into the rafters, and made a hole above Casanova’s cell. (I didn’t really get this part) I think they made a hole in the wall of the cell, and walked right out the front door of the palace, and then they went to Paris. The funny thing is several years later they made him a secret agent! Then we went to the normal rooms which were full of lovely paintings, (here I will say something about the cold as it is important) as it was cold, we went quickly through the rooms, until we found the biggest… canvas, I think. It has five hundred saints in it, and it was painted by Tintoretto, the day he finished, his daughter died, and he painted her in as saint 501. Then we went to the common prison which we flew through, and then we went back to our apartment for lunch. After wards, we walked around and looked at churches and stuff… I love the masks here, they are so beautiful and I even found a unicorn mask! I am getting a mask some time, for Carnival!

Josephine.

Have a Piece of Piza!

2010-01-28T15:20:00.004-06:00

Today we started off by going to a riding lesson we did one yesterday and Josephine wanted to go again. Yesterday we all rode except Dad obviously*Sigh*. Josephine rode a cute little horse called Pixi and I rode his/her twin! They had the tiniest ears EVER! It was very cold so we stood by the fire. Today only Josephine rode. I stood by the fire, played fetch with a dog, and fed hay to the horse that I rode yesterday. After freezing for a bit we got into our car and went to another dead town! It wasn't too dead because I saw around 15 or 20 people. Then we walked around a bit and had lunch, it was extremely good. Then we got back in our car and drove to Pisa to see the... Leaning Tower Of PISA! Wooooo.... I'm not getting much of a reaction here. *Sighs* Did you know that Galileo dropped balls off different floors of the tower to figure out how acceleration works? And that was all that there was to do there so we left. So we came we saw we pushed we bought. Not the tower. Just a clock... then we left and drove back.

Soo that was our day!
Emily

Welcome to...Deadsville

2010-01-26T13:26:00.003-06:00

Today was our second day in a VERY small town by Cinque Terre, called Deiva Marina. Since it is a summer town, we decided to go hiking. *sigh* We did the three hour tour with a description of "A steep two hundred meters" I think they forgot and extra zero when they described it. But the scenery was lovey.
Then we the sign "Wild boar hunting" We were all a little freaked out, until we realized that in was Sunday and Tuesday, and it was Wednesday. So we went down the nice big path until we got to a town that was even more dead then ours. We saw three people, some VERY run down houses, and some gardens in need of a very good weed. We decided to take the train back, but in the train station, 1/2 the machines were broken and we didn't have any bills.. so we jumped on and jumped off at our stop (which was the next one) hee hee Then we went back to our house.

Goodbye, Josephine

The City of Fashion

2010-01-26T11:11:00.007-06:00

Today we were touring Milano, the city where fashion comes to life, unless of course you are backpacking, then once again you are stuck wearing the same clothing over and over! Oh well, after t months of wearing the same stuff you don't know that you are wearing the wrong stuff!
Today is Saturday, well the day we did the tour was on Saturday and today is well Tuesday, I have been a little behind schedule on posting this blog, oh well. So we did a walking tour of Milan and we were in luck in that we were the only ones who were on this tour so we had our own personal tour which is great because then we can ask questions and get answers to them. The weather was not very nice to do any tours since it was sooooo cold, but we did it anyway. We walked over to where the La Scala opera house and when you look at it from the outside it is bland, but going inside you are in awe! I have never seen such a fantastic looking opera house, however I have to admit that I have not been in a lot! Maybe 2 or 3 of them, however it was magnificent! We were not allowed to take pictures inside so I will not post any! Across from the house there is a great big statue of a famous Italian and I will let you guess who that is!
After that we went to the plaza where there is a tile in the floor where you must rotate you foot 3 times for luck, here is a pic of Jane doing that. Across from that point is a seven star hotel where they feed you and take good care of you, we were not staying there!!
Once we walked through this wonderful plaza we went into the Dumo and what a Dumo, church, it is covered in fantastic marble and has some 200 statues on top. Inside was pretty interesting but once you have been in about 10 churches they all seem the same, except in this one had two unique things that we saw. The first one is that the ceiling was painted to look like it was carved, we could not take a picture of it since it was too dark in there. The second was a statue of St. Bartholomew which showed him flayed! It was kind of gross but it was neat.
After the chuch visit we went for lunch and it was out of this world! We have not had a meal like that since we left France. I had pasta which was very mouth watering and the wine was too die for.
With full tummies we ascended the Dumo to the top via elevator, since we had the tour we received tickets for the elevator so that was nice. Once we got to the top, we were surprised to see that we didn't have to go into another staircase and go to the top, however we were able to walk around the roof of the church which was awesome.
Tomorrow we head off to cinque terre.

Where have we been!

2010-01-22T14:11:00.004-06:00

Hello,

Where have we been for the last week! Well....we managed to get to the 20,000 km mark on our car and had to have a service check in Barcelona. We didn't get there until in the afternoon on Friday and couldn't get an appointment until Monday so we put our feet up for a few days. We found a super cheap (6 euro/night) hostel and it was nice! Picture below is of our little cubby hole that we shared with 6 other people. The glamour of hostel living! Only one guy snored a lot, not too bad! We also met some great people from Australia and New Zealand that made our stay very enjoyable. We were going to leave on Tuesday morning but our computer completely died and the N.Z. guy, who is a IT for a living, spent a day and a half trying to fix it. We had to then stay another day. He was able to save all our stuff on it but the hard drive is gone. At least we have the Mike's old computer that Jen brought at Christmas time. So we are now in Milan for 2 nights and are then going to a place we have rented in Cinque Terra. We tried to see "The Last Supper" but it's booked until Tuesday! Apparently in high season you have to book 3 months in advance. The girls wanted to see it because they found a copy of the Da Vinci Code in one of the places we stayed and thought it would be cool to see it. Oh well. Jane

Morning in the Desert

2010-01-15T15:40:00.004-06:00

Today was suppose to be our last day in Morocco however due to the snow storm that we had on our way to the camel trek we had to spend another night in Fez.
Which I don’t mind since Fez is a wonderful city. Oh I have to mention that this morning we woke up at it was only 2 C in our tent and getting out of bed was not pleasant, however seeing the sunrise in the desert was marvelous. Jane had taken some wonderful pictures! We had to climb the tallest sand dune to see it, 150 m. We didn’t climb to the top though, only about half way and by the time we got there we had shoes full of sand! And again running down I had another booter!

The camel trek back was uneventful, however Hamid made the girls proper turbans and gave them each a Berber name: Josephine is Fatima Couscous, and Emily is Isha Tagien. As we were driving back we passed the area where the snow storm was and most of the snow was gone, go figure.
Back in Fez we went looking for a non-Moroccan meal and let me tell you it was hard to find! We were just tired of the Tangiens that we have been having here! So we had spaghetti which was not on the menu but the guy made it for us which was great!

Ships of the Desert

2010-01-15T15:26:00.002-06:00

Our day in the desert finally arrived! After a long drive from Ouarzazat we made it to Erfroud, a town on the edge of the Sahara. We met our camel guide Hamid and he introduced us to our camels. We got on and held on tight as they see-sawed back and forth to stand. It felt a bit like a horse but the neck and head are so far away! Our little caravan of 4 then walked into the dunes. Hamid had to walk because apparently a camel will not go if you are not leading. We found that to be true with Emily’s camel. Part way into our ride Emily’s camel’s rope came undone. She was at the back and no one noticed that her camel just stopped.
We just heard this little voice say, “Daddy!” and saw her a ways back. It was really funny! The desert was amazingly beautiful. The deep blue sky, graceful dunes, bits of green grass and the silence was awe inspiring. Having been in busy cities for a week the silence was wonderful. But it wasn’t completely silent because there were camels. I’ve never known an animal to burp so much and so often! I’ve had horses for years and can’t remember a horse belching once. We giggled a lot as our camels took turns out doing each other. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the sunset and play a bit in the sand. As soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped dramatically. We then rode for about half and hour more to reach our Berber village. After stowing our bags in the tents Hamdi explained with a wave of his had that the bathroom was the desert. There was one bush…and it was none to big! The girls decided that they would wait until we got back the next day. Hamdi sent us to sit in the tent while he got Berber tea (or whiskey) ready for us. It is very strong tea with a ton of sugar. We sat and talked for a bit, drank tea and ate peanuts until he came with supper. He made us Tagien with chicken and I have to say it was the best we’d had so far. After dessert of oranges and apple we went out to watch the stars. I’ve never seen so many! The sky was almost white with them. The night was cool so we put on our long underwear and climbed into bed – a stiff mattress with 4 blankets. As we lay down and looked up we could see the stars through the holes in the tent! I thought we were going to freeze but the blankets were pretty good, and of course Mike is a little oven! The night was peaceful except for the fighting cats and the grunting camels.

Donkeys through a river

2010-01-13T14:17:00.003-06:00

Today we drove closer to the place where the camel trekking is. We had to go over the Atlas Mountains again but this time we made it! Yay!!! Then we went to a place where there was a fortified city. All the buildings were made out of sand like stuff and straw. We didn’t want to get our feet wet so we rode donkeys through the river mine was brown and Josephine’s was grey. Dad and Mom got mules… They filmed part of the movie Gladiator there! (Not that I know what that is… but they filmed it there!) It was I really cool place and I had fun there. To pass the time of our 5 hour car drive Josephine and I cut out Pokémon cards! (He he)
Bye everybody!!

Emily

Marakech

2010-01-09T13:48:00.003-06:00

We left our hotel at 9:30 and drove to a mosque with lots of graves and then we went to a place formerly owned by a prime minister with five wives and 27 children. I loved all the beautiful ceilings and tiles, but it was ruined by a modern art exhibit. After that we went to another, older mosque, where we looked at the gardens, they were very beautiful. After that, we went for lunch at a restaurant, over looking the older mosque. I had a calzone that was very, very good. Then we had popcorn tasting gelatie! (Pardon my spelling) Then we went to another medina (walled fortress) I didn’t like it as much as the one in Fez, because cars were allowed in. They had some VERY nice lamps and other things. Note to any cat lovers: Emily and I counted a total of 61 cats in the medina today. Then we went to the square, where we saw some snake charmers, so Emily and I got out pictures taken with a non-venomous water snake. It was very cool. After that we went to a famous garden where there was a memorial for the famous fashion designer Yves St. Laurent. Then we went back to our hotel. I feel bad for this donkey!

Josephine

Taste of Manitoba

2010-01-09T13:27:00.003-06:00

Things today did not turn out as planned. Today was supposed to be our camel trek out to the desert. We got an early start, no rain....but then we tried to drive over the Atlas mountains. As you can see from the picture (Mike is there somewhere pushing), we hit a blizzard of Manitoba proportions! But of course there are no snow tires, shovels or mitts! We had to turn back and go to Marrakech instead. We made a little stop for lunch - Moroccan specialty. Chopped up meat, various kinds, BBQed with tomatoes and onion and eaten in fresh baked bread. It was like a hamburger, but they don't show you the meat like this at McD's! It was hanging right there...notice the testicles too! Killed last night ready for the morning. He chopped it up right in front of us. Of course I'm thinking were all in for food poisoning or E. coli for sure, but I feel ok today! After 12 hours in the car, every Ipod was dead, we made it to Marrakech thanks to our amazing driver Hasani!! Our tour guy is busy rearranging the trip and hopefully we'll get our camel experience another day.

Jane

On the Road in the rain

2010-01-09T12:59:00.002-06:00

Well today we went on a road trip to see some Roman ruins, however we were minus some people! Jane and Josephine were not feeling too well so they were in the hotel. Now on to the rest of the story!
We went to this ancient Roman site that once held 12,000 people it was fantastic till it started to rain, and when it rains here it comes down in buckets! Emily and my pants were soaked. However we did see some great mosaics such as this one before it rained. The site was discovered by the French and was partially rebuilt. The only people that visit this site are people from outside Morocco! And guess what it is a UNESCO site.
We then saw the first Muslim city ever in Morocco, however there are no pictures of it because it was raining!
Oh by the way we have a great driver for this trip and he is very helpful his name is Mohamed Hansani.
As we carried on to the next town as it was raining we went to Meknis, we saw some gates a shrine and a market. After that we went back to the hotel! It might not sound like a lot but we drove for a while to get to these places, while we were driving we saw the wonderful land scape's! I will post some pics later.

Ciao for now from Morocco Mike

Fez Jan 6 Donkeys and Cats and the Narrowest Street

2010-01-06T14:28:00.007-06:00

Lot’s of Donkeys and Cats and the Narrowest Street ever!

Hello everyone!

Today we were in Fez. We woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast. At 9:00 our driver and our tour guide picked us up from our hotel and we went to the palace. We couldn’t go into it though… that was not good. Then we went to see the panoramic view of the medina which is the walled part of Fez. You need to know about the animals, the medina is not for cars the only vehicles are donkeys and bikes. There are a lot of cats there to. We aw some cats by the meat shops there they looked like this: The medina has 9,600 streets and if our guide hadn’t been there we would have gotten lost! We drove down to the medina and the first thing we did was go to a school, it was very beautiful and there was lots of cats there. After that we went to the local bakery. The people who work there know exactly where each tray of bread has to go! The bread was very good. Then we went to a collage type place. You had to memorize a really long poem ( The Koran) and lots of other stuff to be accepted into it! After that we went to the tannery which is where they make leather. It’s the third hardest jobs in the world! (I forgot the other two.) We went to a really yummy restaurant for lunch. It was extremely good. We also saw the tiniest street in the world! It looked like this:
Isn’t it narrow?!
Then we went to a pottery place and we got to see all the steps of making pottery and mosaics. That was really cool.

Bye!!!
Emily

Blog for: January 5, 2010-Traveling

2010-01-06T14:13:00.003-06:00

Today, we had to wake up early…*sighs* and leave for Morocco. Dad had parked the car the night before, so we walked to the ferry, which was about five minutes away. Then we bought our tickets for the slow ferry, and got on. All I can say is that it was VERY wavy out on the strait of Gibraltar. Lots of people where throwing up, that made Mom almost through up, and made Emily throw up. After the awful ferry ride that was late by three hours, we got in a taxi and went to the train station, where we learned we had missed the train to Fez by about 10 minutes. So we had some lunch and waited for the next one. We couldn’t even find a plug so we couldn’t go on the computer! We also saw a herd of camels in a mud field since they have had a lot of rain here. When the train arrived, we jumped in our first class seats that were about 60 dollars in total and got part way to Fez.

At the other train station, we had drinks and some Oreo cookies. Then we played Numero and waited. Then we got on the next train and FINALLY got to Fez. Then we got a taxi to our hotel and went to bed.
Pictures

Africa

2010-01-04T14:59:00.002-06:00

Hola,

Tomorrow we are off to Morocco! We are very excited to visit a new continent! We are not sure what the internet access will be like, so it may be a while until the next blog.

Jane

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T02:16:00.001-06:00

Dec 31

Jen, Don and Luca are gone…..sniff, sniff….and it rained all day. I lay in bed a read the book she left me to distract me from my sadness. At 11:30 we ventured outside to find the fireworks. It was a bit of a walk which was fine but there were a lot of drunks on the road walking with us, a little unnerving. The fireworks were super and lasted a long time. Happy New Year! A new year and the adventure continues. We are now a little wiser regarding traveling, we have learned some new words and we can pack up very quickly. We still have a lot of things to look forward to but I have to say that I am at least a little homesick. But Morocco is coming, and I’m really looking forward to our camel ride out to the desert.

January 1

Today was sunny, bright and warm! We made our way to Paderna to the Medieval festival. Wow! With in a few minuets we were all caught up in the excitement. There were donkeys, horses, knights, falcons, pigs on a spits, soup out of ceramic bowls, fresh bread being baked over coals and tents with people in costume selling their wears. After an hour of wandering around and EATING, the performance started. We couldn’t understand what they were saying but we figured it out by the expressions. The show started with the 4 knights being introduced. Of course there was a good guy (he looked and acted just like Johnny!) and a bad guy from Granada. While the knights were getting their horses ready we were entertained with sword fights, belly dancing, snake dancers, a whirling dervish and some falconry. At one point the falconer asked for two volunteers and no one did so Mike and I did. We had to stand really close together facing each other and the falcon flew right in between us! Then he got Mike to stand with his legs spread and he told him to protect what he thought was most valuable….and the bird flew between his legs. It was all very funny. The knights finally started their contests. First they had to hit a shield on a spinning pole, get a ring with their lance, chop a cabbage off a post and finally hit a propped up board with a spear – all of this on a galloping horse. The good guy and the bad guy then jousted …. The good guy fell off his horse but rallied in the end to win. We were thoroughly entertained by it all. After a few jewelry purchases we were on our way, but to the 21st century. Back at our apartment we watched the latest episode of Merlin…we are in love with the medieval world.

Jane

Fairwell to Family

2009-12-30T14:00:00.007-06:00

"Hello World" (This is my first blog, not a Tiger reference)

So we have had 7 eventful, rainy, ant infested, beautiful days. To end the adventure we went to the market this morning and walk through a miles of scarves, stripped sweaters, very cheap Chinese shoes and water puddles. One more scarf for the road... why not! The girls seem to really enjoy the super bargins on anything shiny. As with most days of this trip, it rained, then poured and socks and shoes where wet. Luca got drenched when a tarp heaved, there were some extra tears there.

Just so you know, Jane and Mike were super gracious by taking Luca for a day so Don and I could escape to Madrid! We had a very good time, drinking coffee, eating meatballs and trying to sleep in between slamming doors and very loud Spanish people. I managed to drag Don on a shopping trip, a walking tour AND a art museum! I am so glad I married a super d duper guy!!!! The high speed train was also fun, and we got movies! How could life be any better.

For this afternoon, we began with lunch at "Bruno's", the boss attempted the "snake trick" but I already jumped 5 feet for that. We will be returning for dessert and coffee after supper - best dessert in the world!

The highlight for me was an hour car ride to the end of Portugal, iterally, the most westerly point of Europe. The cliffs were enourmous and there were huge waves and sea spray. The water was the most beautiful colour and the waves relentless crashed against the cliffs making sea stacks, caves and sink holes, everything appealing to my rock hounding nature.

We are now eating our last supper... peanut chicken, Mike's specialty.

It has been an amazing holiday. It was so good to spend time with our "bestest friends" who planned so many fun activities, showed us increadible sites and gave us endlessly fascinating conversation. So sad to leave.

Jennifer (the other twin)

fun with cousins

2009-12-27T06:41:00.003-06:00

hey,

hi its luca. I am in portugal with josephine and emily. Yesterday we went to the markets in largos and faro. They were selling lots of stuff and all of us bought scarves. ( they are really cheap here) and fish (yuck) then after that we went to the zoo. It was in largos but it only had monkeys and birds. We took lots of pictures and saw some really cool things. My favorite bird was the toucan. it looked so real it looked fake. The only freaky part was that i almost stepped on a dead rat! After the birds we went to see the monkeys. They didnt have cages, they were just on islands and they didnt run away. But the absaloute best part of the day was we got to feed ring tailed lemurs!!! They were really cute and they loved bannanas! One even held my hand. Thats all for now.

bbyyee

The Eagle Has Landed

2009-12-25T12:32:00.002-06:00

December 24

After 30 mislaid hours and some big tears, the Sawatzky family arrived in Portugal!!!! The large amounts of snow in central Europe, and the airline's inability to deal with a little bad weather, robbed us of a day and a half!!!!! They got to the aparment at 2 am and we stayed up until 5 am talking and catching up before they passed out from exhaustion. The next morning Don and Mike promptly got on the rented bikes and took off. They experienced some pounding rain but still had a great time. Jen and I walked out to the beach and got ready for our Christmas Eve dinner. We had rabbit, potatoes, beans, salad and bread. Everyone said the rabbit tasted like chicken? Oh well. We then opening presents, played some games and talked until late. Awesome Christmas!!

Jane

Christmas festival in Portugal

2009-12-20T14:00:00.005-06:00

Dec. 19th

Well today was interesting experiencing how the Portuguese celebrate Christmas. We went to a Christmas festival in a small medieval town north of Lisbon. Before getting to the actual site we walked through the winding streets looking at all the little shops, sampling hot chocolate, cherry liqueur in chocolate cups, and Portuguese Christmas baking. The main site was just outside the city walls where they had skating, sledding, skiing, fake snowmen and very interesting mascots. Mike had to go skating to show off! He just skated circles around everyone smiling away at his prowess on ice. Most people were just clinging desperately to the boards or falling....they were smiling though. The girls went sledding on wooden ramps...no snow in site and got attacked by a mascot who we think was supposed to be an Inuit/Eskimo. We spent most of the time eating a variety of things just to try them. I initially want to go to the Christmas musical that they had but I got voted down. That was good because we could hear it being performed and all were relieved that mom lost out on that one.

Jane

two days of Lisbon

2009-12-17T13:32:00.002-06:00

Day one: Into Lisbon we go

It is an unpleasant thing, waking up in the morning. Especially when one has a sore throat as I did. Luckily the weather was on my side (for once) and it was unpleasant and rainy. Eventually, it stopped and we left for the capital of Portugal. When we got off the train, and went to the tour bus stop, we met the person who was driving us yesterday! So we traveled with him for a while, then we stopped at the only department store in the city to find some underwear. We didn’t find one pair. It was all grotesquely large *Ewww* Then went out side to the other bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited for the blue line bus to come. Eventually it came and we jumped out of the cold on
to the double Decker bus. But unfortunately it was the last stop and the bus waited for another half hour at the first stop. It was raining though, so we stayed on. We wanted to go to the aquarium, because it was so miserable, and it was cheap. When we finally got to our destination, we walked quickly into the museum and paid 22 euro for all of us, better then the 92 we paid in Barcelona. When we walked in, the first thing we saw was a VERY large tank with manta rays, sting rays, a sunfish, sharks and assorted large and small fish. The sun fish is very ugly; it can grow up to three meters and weigh up to 2 tons! Then we went into the Atlantic exhibit, they had lots of puffins and fish. The birds weren’t even fenced in! They we went into the arctic exhibit. They had penguins and real ice. The next exhibit had two otters that were sleeping. They were very cute. Then we saw a… oh what is called, the fish in Finding Nemo called Dory. They had free range birds in that one too. Between the exhibits, we could see more of the first tank, which was in the middle of the aquarium. Then we went downstairs and saw the bottom of all the tanks. The penguins were very cute as they went in and out of the water. The otters had woken up as well. Then we saw it, a cuttle fish, and relative of the octopus. It was the first one any of us had ever seen. Then, as if the aquarium couldn’t get any better, we saw a giant pacific octopus. It was bright red and was swimming against the glass. Did you know, each of its suckers works independently? After that, they had a behind the scenes thing with baby sea horses, baby sharks, and blue jellyfish and………….. Baby cuttle fish!!! They were the cutest things in the aquarium. After that we left and had to wait another half hour for the bus to come back. By then it was rush hour and we were stuck in traffic for an hour. When we finally got home it was already nine :o and boy, were we hungry. We had pizza, it was good. Then we went to bed.

Day two: Here comes the sun.
I was feeling even worse today, and mom didn’t want to do anything, but lie in her bed. The weather eventually called them both out and we were allowed to go on the internet. In a couple hours, Dad got us out of the apartment with the promise of milkshakes. Unwillingly, we came, and it was beautiful. We stopped at a little restaurant by the beach, were a dozen or so surfers we having fun in the massive waves. We had lunch there, hamburgers, fries and a chocolate milkshake. A good thing about being sick is that Mom and Dad don’t steal you drinks and fries. We stayed for a while, then Dad went to the store while Mom, Emily and I went back to do our homework, and Mom to get her camera. Luckily for us, the math wasn’t working so we did our magazines instead. Now we're having dinner, G2G (got to go)

Josephine

Granda & Seville

2009-12-14T14:57:00.005-06:00

Dec 12 & 13

Hola,

On December 12 we went to Granada to see the Alhambra Palace. We were lucky to get tickets since you are supposed to book at least a day in advance. The Palace is an amazing example of Islamic architecture and we were astounded by the intricate carving on the walls. The palace was also filled with fountains and pools which were fed by an elaborate aquaduct that ran under and over the ground. The fortress was also impressive and the view to the Sierra Nevada mountains was incredible. They picked a good spot for this place.

After a few hours at Alhambra we went off to Seville. It is a lively city especially during the Christmas season, and there were lots of people on the streets, music and buskers. The girls enjoyed mini donuts and Mike found a Starbucks....big coffee. We spent the next day exploring Seville to find things to do in anticipation of coming back with Don, Jen & Luca. Oh...one fun thing in Seville today, we got stopped by a group of people as we were trying to walk down a street because they were filming a movie!!! Cameron Diaz and some guy (can't remember the name) in a movie called Knight & Day and they were waiting for a motor bike chase down the street. Interesting.

Cordoba & Gibraltar

2009-12-10T05:48:00.004-06:00

Dec.7 Cordoba

We dove to Cordoba, and walked through a ghost town because it was a holiday, and everything was closed. We made our way to a ½ cathedral and ½ Mosque. It was absolutely splendid, what with the ingenious watering system in the orangery and the simplicity of the Mosque. In face the only thing that wasn’t beautiful was the cathedral part. When it was first built, it was a cathedral, but then the Muslims came and tore it down, putting up a Mosque in its place. When the Muslims where conquered, it was turned back into a cathedral. Then, to attract more tourists, the tore down most of the cathedral (did I mention that when it was turned into a cathedral again, it was a renovation, not a demolition) and it was a Mosque again. They left the chapel and the nave though. So, after that, we went for lunch. This was more of a drink because the Spanish weren’t ready for lunch yet. Unfortunalty, it was incredibly smoky, but there was Wi-Fi, so we staid for a while. Then we did a bit of shopping where we didn’t buy anything. We then went home.

Dec.9 Gibraltar

It’s a two hour drive there, but as they are a part of the UK, they speak English and use pounds. They also have a VERY large rock that dwarfs the town and has apes (Makacks) on it. When we arrived, we spent a good half hour looking for the elusive tourist’s office, before stopping a sort-of information place. So, they directed us to the cable car. When we where there, a sale's man intercepeted us and told us that the cable car was more expensive then his car and, if you take the cable car, you have to walk to the sites and pay those seperately. So we went in his car, to the pillars of Hercules, where you can see across the nine mile long striat of gibralter. Then we drove to St. Micheal's cave. It's been around since the Neandertals were around, and it is amazing. Some of the colomns look like a lopsided cake! It's very beautiful in there. Next we went to see the monkeys. Then tour giude go the monkeys to jump on our heads. They aren't potty trained!!! No one had any acctidents though. Then we went to the Great Seige tunnles. It was boring, then we drove down the rock again.

After, we went for lunch in the Gibralter Arms. I had british fish and chips. It was very very good. Then we went to the glass factory, but it was closing.... *Cries* then we went home.

It still doesn’t feel like December!

2009-12-07T07:41:00.003-06:00

Day 1
December 4, 2009
Today was also kind of disappointing. We started out by going to a technology museum because they had a Galileo exhibition, but it wasn’t very interesting and it was extremely tiny. My favorite thing in the museum was a pink camera that was in a make-up case. Then we went to a modern art museum *Yawn* there were a lot of paintings there and I have decided that modern art is just too weird. Then we started to walk to our new hostel it took a very long time, but we made it there eventually. We walked up the stairs to the first floor and we asked the reception person which floor our hostel was on. It was on the Eighth floor!!! We climbed all the way up to the hostel and went into the reception, but it was really hot in there!! We got our keys and went into our room, and Josephine and I slept for a bit. Then Mom and Dad went shopping and we stayed on the room. After watching Merlin we had supper and went to bed.

Day 2
December 5, 2009
Today we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, etc. All we saw was olives, so Mom got out and tried one. She pluked an olive from a tree and popped it into her mouth. She didn't like the olive at all. Later we found out they are only good for olive oil. There are 80,000,000 olove trees in that part of Andulusia alone!!! Then we got lost, but Dad called the people who own the apartment and we drove there. We went to go buy some food then we had supper and Mom and Dad and I sat in the hot tub. Then we went to bed.

Good bye.
Emily.

dissapointments

2009-12-03T10:58:00.003-06:00

Today we went into Madrid again. We got off at the the palace, but we then found in wasn't open!!! It was closed for a government thing. So then we went on a self guided tour of Royal Madrid. We went to the tourists office to see if the theme park we wanted to see was open. It wasn't. Grrrr, neither was any other thing for children, unless it was outside Madrid. So we went to the archeology museum. It turned out to be free, something to be happy about, until we found that the museum took no more then ten minutes to go through. So, we went to the garden, still hoping the boats would be open. To our surprise........ They were open!!! So we spent a happy 45 minutes rowing around a pond. Then we went to a hot house, but alas it was another disappointment, it was an art exhibition (In my mind a garbage heap) that used bottles to make compasses *yawn* So we went back to the Prado, stopping at a restaurant for lunch. Today we did the second floor, they seem to do themes in art....... dieing, ill, war, and religion. With a few exceptions of Saturn eating his children! *Ewwww* Then we went back to the hostel with Saturn eating his children in our heads. Josephine a not arted out person *gasp*

The Good and the Bad

2009-12-02T15:46:00.010-06:00

Hola,

We've had poor internet in the mountains, hence no blog, so I will now play catch-up. We were in a very small town about an hour north of Burgos in Northern Spain. We went there to see a Neanderthal site that brother Jim told me about. Unfortunately I could not find a good website with info about the site and it was closed. It was only open on the weekend and we missed it by an afternoon! Very disappointing. The next day we had more success. We went to see a Monolith or Megalith (not sure) from Neanderthal time which they don't really know anything about, and a very cool cave that was close by. We were the only ones on the tour of the cave, no one else would go in the cold and snow but Canadians! We were all fascinated with the stalagmites etc. but the best part were the tiny little bats hibernating in the cave. They would have fit in the palm of your hand. We then drove around trying to find a Roman village, but couldn't but we did find the start of the Ebro River. Josephine and I had a snowball fight - her aim is really improving - and then we headed back to our apartment. I made up a jeopardy game for mike and the girls with questions from the trip to pass some time in the afternoon. We then left for Madrid. The weather slowly improved as we drove south about 3 hours. We did a very good walking tour of Madrid during the siesta time, and then went to the Prado for an hour and a half. The Prado is amazing. It has a lot of the famous paintings I studies in the Renaissance course that I did. Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" is beautiful and very strange. If you've never seen it you should look it up. So we're now back at the hostel getting a few computer things done and then going to bed so we can enjoy a full day tomorrow.

Driving

2009-11-28T14:45:00.002-06:00

Today we left Pinsecola and drove four hours to a town that starts with Z, but I don't know it's whole name. When we arrived in Z, we checked into our hostle. We then got really cool chip cards that we can use for the internet, doors, and lockers. Then we went out for lunch, as we were VERY hungry. The reccomended reastarunt had an hour long wait, so we reaserved a spot and had some chicken pasties at a store near by. After, we went shoping and bought some candy. Then we went back and had our yummy meal. We all had bread crumb stuff with a mixture of ingreadeats.

I had shrip and tomatoes, Emily had eggs, Dad had an egg and a very small sausage and Mom had meat and something else. Then we went for a walk. We saw the bull fighting ring and walked around the castle wall. Then we went back, and Emily and I went on Horse Isle (if anyone cares we now have a million dollars of HI money) Tomorrow, I think we have a five hour drive..... *Sighs* AHHH the color button is GONE!!!

Oh well, Josephine

Bikes and Chocolate!

2009-11-27T11:04:00.004-06:00

Today we rented bikes but first we had some hot chocolate with deep fried dough! I really liked the deep fried dough better than the chocolate because the chocolate tasted funny. Then we rented two blue tandem bikes, we rode them for an hour beside the beach. It was really fun!!!!!!!!!!

Bye!
Emily.

Rented bikes

2009-11-27T01:10:00.003-06:00

Yesterday (Jane’s birthday) and today we rented a couple of Mtn bikes and decided that the mountains around us needed to be explore. So that is what Jane and I did. We were riding out of town and saw a path that was snaking its way up a mountain and decided that was for us, so we just headed in its general direction. After a 15 min ride up hill most of the way we found the path that we saw earlier! So we went up the mtn side with our rented bikes and in about 20 minutes we were on top of this lovely mtn. It was tough going though; I was in my granny gear climbing away when all of a sudden we took a corner and found our selves at an even steeper part of the climb. Well there was only one thing to do, no not get off and walk, but that we needed to zigzag up it! However zigzagging was hard to do since the road was full of loose rocks and gravel! Well we made it up the path and as we were just enjoying the view we heard this guy coming up the path he was huffing and puffing even yelling, so we actually thought there were more coming after him, but it was only him. After we said hello we noticed that he was all scrapped up and covered in dirt. So we gathered he fell on the way up and we were happy we didn’t.

On the way down the mtn we had a grand view of the Med. After we made our way back to town we decided that it would be a challenge to ride up the hill to our apartment. I think it took us longer to ride up the road than it did to ride up the mtn. Man this was difficult, besides the dogs barking at us which there is one crazy one that we bug each day, we had to start zigzagging all the way up and again once you thought you were done the hard part, wham there was another steeper section. Well we did make it up the road to our apt. had some water then headed back down. Darn that ride up was sweet. The ride down was easy and fast but there were so many yields you couldn’t go to fast. Don you would have loved the decent. I think you could only ride this road during this time of year since the traffic is non existent.
Today we rented the same bikes and did the same route except we road up the mtn twice then headed back to the most difficult climb up to our apartment. Tomorrow we will be heading out again.
These pictures do not do the climb justice but I thought you might enjoy them. Oh and the last pic is of the town that we are overlooking early in the morning.

Miss you all!!
Mike

That's a nature preserve??? Mom's birthday

2009-11-25T14:10:00.005-06:00

Today, we went to the Delta Marsh (or tried anyway) it was also Mom;s birthday. We got up bright and early, then proceeded to drive the the marsh. When we arrived, we found that the little town around the marsh was boarded up, except for the restaurant and the tourists office. The person in the tourists office spoke not a word on English, so we left to another of the towns on the cultivated nature preserve. (Growing rice is not my idea of a nature preserve) We drove through a couple towns, all the tourist information's were closed, so we went for a walk on a beach in the preserve. Unfortunately, the beach was insight of a gravel pit. That sort of put a downer on things, but we found four cuttle fish bones anyway.(Cuttle fish only have one bone a piece) We then had lunch on the beach, there were tables and we saw a diver going up and down(Or his feet anyway) in the same spot, it was rather funny. We then went to a stable for a ride it was fun, but there was a misunderstanding, and we accidentally told the man who only spoke Spanish that we wanted to walk the whole time!!! All three of us (not dad) had white horses. There was also the most beautiful horse I've ever seen there. He was a dark Pasafino stallion, he was almost perfect, except one hoof was a little crooked. My horse and Emily's horse's were mares,, and Mom's was a gelding. After that we went home, then out it dinner, it being Mom's birthday and all. I enjoyed the Chinese very much. Josephine

Josephine

A Room with a View

2009-11-24T03:09:00.005-06:00

Hello all,

We are in Peniscola, Spain and have a spectacular view from our little aparment. We arrived here on Sunday afternoon and then spent the rest of the day walking around the little town. It is quite touristy but there aren't any tourist here so it's ok. We did rent a 4 seater bike - the girls enjoyed the free ride. Yesterday we drove to Valencia to explore. We hit a few markets and then made our way to the Science museum. The buildings reminded us of Gaudi - cool. The museum was very interactive and the kids had a great time. Today Mike and I are going to rent bikes for a few hours and the kids are staying back at the apartment to do homework!! Don't feel to bad for them, they would rather do homework than ride bikes! Crazy.

Jane

Happy Birthday

2009-11-20T15:59:00.006-06:00

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... I could go on and on with this but I have to comment on what we did today.
Today we went into Barcelona to see a few sites and go for dinner at a place recommended by our friend Tim.
We were a bit slow getting out of our house today so we got into Barcelona today about 11am. We walked around the Gothic area and saw some fantastic buildings, Gerald would have loved to be here to see them all!
Then we went for a wonderful lunch at Polla Riko's it was the best chicken I have had. Sorry Esther!
Then we went to Gaudi's park which was wonderful and full of great items. Then we went on a walk of the modernism building for two hours. It was great to see some buildings from the late 1890's to the 1920's. There are some excellent examples of Gaudi work, as you can see!
Then we went out for a great meal, I had steak with pepper sauce, Jane was a little, disappointed with her meal she ordered some different items. There you go don't order stuff you don't know you never know what you will get. Always order what you know best. Tomorrow we might be going to the beach. That is all for now.
BTW I have the best wife ever, and you can not dispute that.

Mike

Mount Surrat

2009-11-19T13:04:00.003-06:00

Today we went to a cool looking mountain, called Mount Surrat. We kept saying, all day that aunt Jenifer would like the mountain.
We left for the mountain at around ten, on the way we stopped for bread and doughnuts. Mom had a bite, and said it was the best doughnut she had ever taken a bite of. The mountain was lumpy and looked like a lot of partly made hoodoos. We looked around, while Dad parked the car, and then started up a short trail with a cross, it said it would take 40 minutes, but it only took us thirty, so we went to another one, which required a slightly hair-raising, almost vertical trip using a cable car. The St. Jerome trail took two hours, and it was very tiring, the view was very nice though, we went to the top of the highest hill/mountain thingy. It was a good day, but I'm really tired. I also just figured out the color on this program

Josephine

Cubisim sharks

2009-11-17T12:04:00.005-06:00

Today was our first day in Barcelona, we first went to the Picasso museum. We walked around there for a long time, I don't really like cubism it's weird. He started out with realistic paintings then he went to cubism then engraving then ceramics! If you saw some of his earlier works at a garage sale you wouldn't even notice them as Picasso's! There was about three rooms full of cubism paintings that were copies of a famous painting. All the dogs in the paintings looked really funny. Barcelona has very interesting architecture....don't the balconies look like skulls?

Then we went to the aquarium it was almost exactly the same as the other one we went to, but in this one they had Octopi!! Which are Mom's favorite animals! They also have more sharks, I was kind of disappointed because it said there would be Nautiluses and Cuttlefish and I didn't see either of them! They also had penguins which were cool. They had tiny seahorses and larger ones, my favorite part was.... the octopi and the sun fish!!!!!!!
When we left the aquarium we saw Christopher Columbus pointing the way to Canada. (I think) Then we went to a market where there were a lot of different foods such as: Smoothies, Prawns, dragon fruit, and fresh coconuts.
Buhbye!
Emy.

Sitges Spain

2009-11-17T01:14:00.004-06:00

Hola from sunny Spain! I've been sick for a few days but the warmth and sunshine has really helped. We are in a little town about half an hour from Barcelona. It's very dry here, they have only had rain once in 3 years, and mountainous but it is beautiful. There are cacti and flowers blooming everywhere and oh... did I mention dogs! We are at the top of the valley and there are many dogs in the valley that bark at everything! A good science lesson about how sound travels.
Anyway...we went to the beach today since I still wasn't 100%, not up to running around Barcelona. The kids went wave jumping- crazy because the water is cold!! Mike went in too, after his run, yes Mike ran - another amazing thing (he is really missing his bike). We walked along the shore, read and played in the sand. At the bottom is the little house that we are renting, and a picture of Josephine and me doing homework on the balcony. It was a great day.

Carcassone

2009-11-15T03:50:00.005-06:00

The day and life in the castle at Carcassonne

Today was our first day at Carcassonne castle, yes we are staying at another castle! Just one word describes this castle, WOW! Carcassonne was a fortified castle and Wavell was more of a palace for King’s and Queen’s.
Carcassonne was first a Roman fortification then later on became a medieval fortification! People were afraid to attack it because of its walls and turrets. It was attacked by the crusaders because the people living inside were Cathars whom the pope didn’t like. The crusaders defeated them because of the siege. There is more history but you are not reading this blog for history you are wondering what we are doing, right?
Well I, okay we, found all about this castle on our tour! We went on a tour of the ramparts and of the castle and this interesting French guy give us a tour in English. The castle was actually in horrible shape in the 1800’s till the French gov’t realized how much of an attraction it would be so they rebuilt it and we are happy about this.
We are staying inside the castle at the Youth hostel, however we are paying big bucks for it. The breakfast they are serving leaves something to be desired.
Okay getting back to the tour, we saw a huge theater that can hold up to two thousand people and is full during the festival during the spring. Also they hold jousting tournaments in July and August, all this we missed oh well, we avoided the crowds though!
When we got to the castle it was 25 c and the day of the tour it was only 12! Egads the weather followed us. We were planning on staying a few more days however we want warmer weather so we are leaving tomorrow, to go even further south.
Tonight we went into town to get a few pictures of the castle at night however they we wish that we had taken some pics the night before from a different road. However here is a picture of the castle at night. Oh another fact is that everything shuts down early now that there are not enough tourist around, drats.
This area, again would be a wonderful area to go riding in!
We met this two guys from Quebec earlier in the day and it was nice to talk to some folds from Canada. That night we shared a meal with them since Jane had overdone it with her cooking!

Ta ta for now, Mike, I am writing this blog from Spain!

Day of fortunate events

2009-11-13T05:44:00.001-06:00

Today was a day filled with a series of fortunate events. First, we went to the Font-de-Gaume, one of the only remaining caves where you can see original prehistoric painting, and a very nice French women offered to translate the French tour for us! The actual guide wasn’t too happy but she kept on translating saying he was selfish to deny us the information. Yea!!! A French person stood up for a tourist – we along with 2 Americans were really grateful. The cave was amazing!!!! Yesterday’s cave was a reproduction (don’t know if Emy mentioned that) where as today we experienced the darkness, dripping stalagmites and cramped spaces, and or course the REAL THING. The paintings were 15, 000 years old and a real miracle that they are still there for us to experience. There were bison, deer and horses run around the walls of the cave. Many of the painting were also etched in and showed perspective. According to the guide it took many years before these painting were classified as works of art, but you can really see the skill needed to paint the animals on rock that look so life like. The second fortunate thing was that when we exited the cave at noon, the clouds had disappeared, there was blue sky and the temperature was 15C!!! It’s been about a month with no sun….hard for people from sunny Manitoba! Number three was a GSP miracle. We realized as we were driving to Carcassonne for the night that the cigarette lighter stopped working and our GPS said low battery. We can not live without our GPS – if our marriage is to survive we must have it! Mike figured it was probably a fuse so we went in to the next town to find one. We phone the Renault dealer and there happened to be one, it was open until 6 (another miracle since it seems that most places are closed at 4) and the GPS survived long enough to get us there. A service man fixed it in 5 min! The last fortunate thing is Carcassone, not the game the place. We drove up the hill and saw the fortress lit up – the girls shouted, “Cool”. It is a complete 12th c fortress with cathedral and castle and the youth hostel is inside its walls. Can’t wait for tomorrow to explore.
Jane

An almost disaster

2009-11-11T10:28:00.007-06:00

Today we went to the cave paintings. (Lascaux is the cave name) We got there and figured out that there are no tours in english! But we had already bought our tickets and we thought that maybe we would get a sheet of paper or an audio guide but soon it became apparent that we wern't going to get anything. We went around the caves for an hour (It was supposed to be fourty minutes) It was annoying because we couldn't understand any of it. After the dissapointment and waste of money we were a bit depressed, we saw some people from the U.S. and told them that it was in French but they had already bought tickets. They were actually the only people on the tour so we asked the tour guide if we could go with them. He said yes and we got an english tour! The caves were very interesting when we could actually understand something.

Then we went to a castle! Yes I know too many castles but this one is differant! It's a medival fortress not a palace. Actually we didn't get to see it because it was closed for remebrance day. So instead we did a self guided tour around a medival town until our map was soaked then we went back to the car and drove back to our tiny hostel.

In the medival town we found a wonderful street does anyone recognize the name? You have to wait till tomorrow till you get the pic!There is also a town however we never made it there. Too much rain

Bye!!!! Emily. XD

Another unfinshed castle...

2009-11-09T02:05:00.002-06:00

This blog post starts a day before the title suggests. I just wanted to comment on the Lippizaner Stallions. They were absolutely spectacular, what with their flying lead changes and hopping on their back legs. They were all stalions, because if one was a mare, all the guys whould pay more attention to her then their work! All the riders where guys too, mabye for the same reason!
Next day, we left Vienna, and drove to a town by Salsburg, where we stopped for lunch and to see the market. I had half a kabab and some fries. Then we drove for two minutes to the boat you had to use to get to the caslte. One had just left, so we had to wait half an hour for the next one!! When we finnaly got to the island the caslte was one ( A lot like Harry Potter!) it was a two kliometers to the actual castle (I'm running out of battery, better make it shorter!!)Then we had about 20 min until our 45 min tour. So, we looked around the gift shop until then. Our tour seemed very short, and King Ludwing II's bed room with the first ever night-light was being renovated!!! He had a hall of mirrors, like Versille, heating, an indoor swimming/bath pool, and a table thatcould be lowered into the servent's quaters. In total, he lived there nine days and had two 8-hour baths!!! After the tour, we drove to Munich and stayed in the same castle. (He planned for 70 rooms, and only 20 were finished, becuase the money ran out!)

Josephine

Knights in Jeans, and Auschwitz

2009-11-05T10:51:00.006-06:00

Today we went shopping! Mom finally bought boots ! When we went to go buy jeans ( since hers got a hole in the bumb!) at the market Mom asked where she could try them on, the sales person responded by saying "Here" Mom was totally shocked who ever heard of trying on jeans where tons of people can see you?! We all laughed very hard as Mom pulled off her jeans. Of course none of us looked, that would be rude! After that incident we walked around for a bit and Dad left for Auschwitz. We went into St. Mary's Basilica and saw the biggest alter in Europe. It was huge!!! n the outside there were 12 panels depicting the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. On the inside there were 6 other panels along the sides and in the center the ascension of Mary to heaven. Then we walked back to the castle and on the way we met a knight and we took some pictures with him. Josephine stabbed him with his fake sword. It was fun! the dragon is a resident of Wawel Castel, he spews flames every 2 min!

Emily

Auschwitz
I went to Auschwitz to see the concentration camp and I am saddened to see the place! The girls did not visit Auschwitz they decided to stay in Krakow. The camp was interesting and sad place to see if one can say it that way! I took a mini bus out to the camp and got there an hour before the tour started, so I went around the camp and visited a few of the blocks on my own. I was surprised to see so many people out to visit on a rainy day. You were not suppose to take pictures inside the camp however everyone was taking pictures there so I didn't too bad taking some. They had the same saying over the gate at Auschwitz as they did in Dachau, which was work will set you free, yea right!
There was not as much to read in the rooms as there was in Dachau, however there were more reminders here of who inhabited and died there than at Dachau so it was interesting to see the difference between the two. However what happened at both were not good to recount.
At 3pm we all watched a movie about what happened there then we met our tour guide there were suppose to be 4 of us, but I was the only one there at the time so I had a private guide and she told me so much that it over whelmed me with facts and figures. One interesting thing is that the reason why they pick this place to create the concentration camp was because it was a Polish military base before hand with was in perfect condition and thus they didn't have to do a lot in the beginning to create the camp. But after a while it was transformed into a huge camp.
I could go on for ever, but I won't, all I have to say is that we should never forget to remember those that lost their lives there! And to fight those that don't believe that it never happened, like the president of Iran who belives that it was a good thing. What an idiot.
Mike

Krakow

2009-11-04T15:21:00.006-06:00

Hello,

Time after time on this trip we have be over whelmed by the generousity of others, and in Krakow it happened again. We are staying in our "cousin's" (long story) apartment within the walls of Castle Wawel. It is awesome! This morning we got up and just walked 10 steps to Poland's most famous Cathedral, it was a jewel! We spent an hour in the Cathedral admiring the statues, altars and it's famous bell that weighs 14 tonns and is only rung on special occasions. Our cousin then arranged a guide for the Castel itself, where we learned about the rich and confusing history of Poland. Did you know that Poland was not on any maps for 120 years! It was a very rich country during the 14th century but many wars and occupations later, it was devastated. After a quick lunch we headed off to the salt mines. It took a little longer than anticipated as we learned a new bus system and tried to figure out the right place to get the bus after being misdirected several times. The salt mines (source of Poland's great wealth in the 14th c) were amazing. It is now only open for tourists to see how the mine worked, the statues carved by the miners and only Cathedral that is underground. It also has a concert hall, bar and banquet room. You can even get married in the Cathedral for the small fee of 1000 euro and hour! Fortunately, there was a squishy elevator to take us up the 130 m back to the surface. We then headed back to Krakow to Miroslaw's apartment where he made us a HUGE Polish dinner! We were blessed today!

Jane

Sancoussi and Horse Racing!

2009-11-02T13:57:00.009-06:00

Hello everybody!

Oct.27 Potsdam:
Today we went to Sancoussi (A medium sized palace in a giant park which is in Potsdam) it was expensive but nice. They had a ton of different things to see but we didn't get to go into the new palace. First we went to the kitchen and looked at all the different stoves and ovens (I think Daddy's favorite was the wine cellar.) We went into the castle and it wasn't as magnificent as most of the other castles we've seen. My favorite room in there was his library. (Frederick The great's) Then we went into the guest house which used to be an orangerie, Mom's favorite room was the Jasper hall which was red. My favorite was a yellow room with metal birds, monkeys, and flowers on the walls and roof. After that we went into the chinese house which was a bit dissapointing all it was only a little building that looked chinese with little in it.

Nov.1

Today we went to a horse race! It was really interesting and we got to watch a steeple chase. (None of us have ever watched one before) It was really interesting. One of the races had all grey horses in it! We also bought some really yummy pastry!!

Emy

Mysterious Prague

2009-11-01T02:37:00.003-06:00

Prague! Wow! The most beautiful city we've seen so far. Yesterday we went on the Ultimate Tour of Prague. It was 6 hours of walking, boating and riding a tram. Our tour guide was fantastic. He gave a great combination of history, politics and had us laughing a lot. The city was the third largest in the world in the 14th century, and most of those buildings are still here beacause it wasn't bombed....occupied by the Communists mind you but at least they didn't ruin the place architectually. After the tour we went back to the car and tried to find a new hostel....and we found the best one yet! We have our own room, bathroom, and the place has a pool and a sauna! Hostel Heaven. We got settled a bit then went back into the city center for a ghost tour. Unfortunately, we got off at the wrong tram stop, ran around like crazy and then got the worst taxi driver ever. We were late but managed to find the group eventually and only missed 15 min. It was a bit lame...she'd tell a story and then someone costume would jump out from behind a building to scare us...but it was good for a laugh. It's pretty cold here (yes it is! It's a wet cold!!!) I was wearing most of my clothes for the ghost tour....and now a lot of thing are closing because it's Nov. so we're going to head south sooner than planned. We heard it was 25 C in Madrid...so we are going to Spain! We still have Poland to do though and a little in Austria, but then we're driving to a warmer climate.

Today we are going to see some horse racing and then go swimming.

Bye for now....Jane

Berlin, days one and two

2009-10-30T13:35:00.001-05:00

Day One
Today we wandered around a lot.
We started off early, using the metro and city bus to get to where we thought we wanted. It turned out we where about a 15 minute walk to Museum Island, (our planned destination) and we got lost several times. When we finally arrived, we had to then find out where to buy the tickets. There was a booth that said “No lines”, but a massive line had appeared behind it, and unless they where all wizards and staring at something we couldn’t see, they where there for the tickets. We then figured out that you had to buy a time slot ticket at the museum across the way. We had to be at the museum from 3:30-4:00, and it was about 11. So, we stopped at the bus shelter to look at the map, and find where to go. Then we set off to find the best curried sausage in Berlin, but by the time we got to the appointed address, we were hungry and tired, and it wasn’t there. Then we set off back to the place with a noodle bucket for 3 euro, and Mom got her sausage from the restaurant next door. Then Mom and Dad decided that we should walk back to the island which was an hour walk. So we left the warmth of the restaurant for the rainy out doors and started on our walk. When we were done, we were even more worn out and regretting the decision to walk, but we go there on time and saw lots of cool things, like a solid gold hat, that you could foretell eclipse with, the bust of Nefertiti. I also found my favorite philosopher, who remains anonymous, he states that nothing is superior to books and you should love writing more then your mother. After we had spent a good two hours in the museum, we went back and had a good dinner.

Day Two
Today we went swimming.
We had an identical breakfast to the day before, consisting of bread, meat and cheese. After we were done breakfast, we left for a mall. When we arrived, the elevator room looked like that of a 5-star hotel. When we got up, we went into several boot stores, still in search of the perfect boots. While she went in a Christmas store we found a large toy store, and reached for the five euro we both had in our pockets. Then we found it, a Play mobile advent calendar!!! It has horses and donkeys and puppies and when Luca comes for Christmas we can play with it together, and the best thing was… it was on sale for 10 euro :o so we snapped it off the shelf and Dad sighed as we walked out of the store with our new treasure.
After the mall, we looked around for a swimming pool, as we where itching to use our bathing suits. The one we saw was closed, so we went back to have lunch and then we looked for a pool on the internet. Once we found one in close proximity, Dad left to go see some war thing and we left for the pool. The pool was very nice and we spent about two hours. Then we went back for dinner

King Ludwing

2009-10-22T11:15:00.002-05:00

Greetings from Bavaria,

Today we were off to the Alps and the castles of mad king Ludwig. It was great to get out of industrial Munchic to the beautiful countryside. The green grass, cows and majestic mountains were right out of the Heidi novel (which Josephine said she tried to read 3 times but just couldn’t finish - funny). It snowed here last week so the mountains were really lovely. We started our visit at Schloss Hohenschwangau (the highland swan castle), summer castle and boyhood home of Ludwig. Unlike most castles we’ve been too these castles have all the original furniture, paintings, etc. because they were turned into museums after the last Prince died. It was small, but rich in beautiful murals and dark wood. Both Ludwig and his dad were obsessed with knights and the associated legends which were the bases for the construction design and the murals. After a great tour guide at the first castle we went down the hill to ride a carriage in the rain up to Newschwanstein – the fairy tale castle.

Yes it’s a tourist trap, but it is really wonderful. The castle was never finished but what was is breathtaking. It doesn’t have the opulence of Versailles but we all agreed it was more attractive because of its warmth and scenery….out of every window is a view of the Alps! On the way down we bought something that looked like putzelkin (German New Year’s cookies) without the raisins. Deep-fried dough with icing sugar, what could be better on a rainy afternoon? Sorry mom but they were better than the ones you make! It was a grand day and we’re now off to find some dinner, maybe curried sausage!

Jane

Southern Germany

2009-10-21T16:04:00.002-05:00

Today was a travel day we went from our home away from home to Munich which is a four hour drive. On the way to Munich we decided to stop at Dachau to visit the first concentration camp that Hitler created. It was very moving for everyone in the family. It was incredible to see how people could treat other humans!
The museum went through the history of the nazi party and how they eliminated all of their opponents including those in parliament. After that the museum describes why and what happened to the people once they arrived in Dachau. There was even a movie about it, however their was too much reading and I am sorry that I didn’t get us a guide to take us through, it would have saved us a lot of reading and not truly understanding what we were looking at. In two of the remaining barracks that we saw men were crowded in like cattle in a cattle truck.
We must not forget how we got there and we must remember to maintain our rights as humans and citizens in our county. Don’t let other people take your rights away.

Once we left Dachau we took off too Munich and found a good place to hang our coats even though we still needed them on. We found the toy museum however it was closed, we try to go there tomorrow, after we visit Neuschwannstein Castle.

Mike

Crazy Animals

2009-10-20T16:34:00.004-05:00

Our time in Schifferstadt is coming to a close. It was a great time with cousin Judith and her husband Eugen. Eugen made us some fabulous German meals, we enjoyed his 60th birthday party and we had fun in Heidelberg. Yesterday Mike and I got a day alone together at the spa in Baden Baden. We were pampered in the traditional Roman spa with massages, floating in pools of various temperatures and the best part....being wrapped up in warm blankets for a little sleep at the end!!! Today we visit the Stuttgart zoo and saw some creatures we'd never seen - the Tapir, the Okapi and the cutest little octopus! It was a sunny day but still cold for October in Germany. We ended the day having dinner with Julia (Jennifer's exchange student from a few years ago) in a perfect little German Gasthaus. The food was fabulous - Mike said the best meal yet.

Jane

HTML coding problems

2009-10-17T08:21:00.003-05:00

Not sure what happened with the last posting but somehow it got all messed up and I don't want to have to play with all the html coding so if you don't like it well get over it! I have heard this from a famous philosopher so I am using it here.

Mike

Fish!

2009-10-16T14:23:00.003-05:00

Today we went to an aquarium. It was really cool; we saw lots of interesting things such as egg cases, manta rays, sting rays, sharks, and big bellied sea horses. My favorite part was the….that’s really hard… it’s a tie between sting rays, watching the sea horses get fed, and walking under the shark tank. We were there for quite a long time. The jelly fish were in tanks that had lights that changed colour.

Then we went to Ikea where we walked around and looked at all the different rooms they set up while Mom and Dad where talking about our house and what we should do with it once we get back. But I think the one in Chicago was better because it had more kid stuff.

For supper we had red cabbage and Rolladen a typical German meal…. And I ate it all!

Emily.

Heidelberg

2009-10-15T12:33:00.005-05:00

Today was our first full day in Germany. At about 10 am we drove to the picturesque city of Heidelberg and wandered down the streets. We found a massive Christmas store and dove right in, we found everything from Coo-coo clocks to stuffed animals to matchbox scenes!
Then we found a kabob place (The Turks must love us, we've eaten at so many kabob places) and ordered too much. Then we found our way up an incredibly steep path to the castle. It's kind of a ruin but is home to the largest wine barrel ever made. It is bigger then most rooms and one could live well inside it. It was refilled only 3 times in it's life, probably because it holds 500,000 gallons and they used 150 oak trees to build it! The castle was attacked two times and destroyed by fire. So it's mainly a ruin, but they have rebuilt some parts of it.
After the castle we went to Mom's cousin's house and made peanut butter chicken. It was absolutely delicious.

Josephine

Lommel

2009-10-14T15:27:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends,

It’s been a great couple of days with Christine, Ben, Brittany and Ashley. They were very hospitable and we had an opportunity to unwind from busy traveling. I was able to help Christine a bit by cleaning the barn (she has 5 horses), making supper and helping with the horses…fun! She was having trouble with her stallion spooking in the forest when he saw people so she got me to run around in the bush and surprise him. It was a great run for me and Geo behaved himself so she was happy that he is finally learning. The highlight of the jog in the woods was that I saw not 1 but 3 Fly Agaric mushrooms! They are the red ones with little white spots on them…a very poisonous mushroom! I can now check that off my list of things I wanted to see before I die. We were all sad to leave today. The girls had a lot of fun playing with Brittany and Ashley and now they are back to boring adults. Our 4 hour drive today will take us to cousin Judith’s in Germany….a new adventure.

Belgium and racing

2009-10-11T15:29:00.005-05:00

So we are now in Belgium and are relaxing with some friends. However we had stayed with a very nice family who lived just outside of Amsterdam. It was nice to spend sometime there. Today I left the family and headed off to a cyclocross race, and boy was that an eye openner, there was a ton of people there as well as a lot of food and beer. The course had a lot of switchbacks or what ever they are called, and a lot of little mounds to ride up or climb up. It was slightly raining and I was hopping for some falls but there were only a few, thankfully and no one was really hurt. Here are a few photos that I took. I also forgot to mention that the fans were really into the race and when the belgium champion went by as well as the world champion. I talked to some dude who I think was part of the cycling association and he was hoppig for a closer race, he beleives that the sport will lose popularity if Albert Nills keeps winning, however saying that he did have a lot of fans cheering him on. I am off to a bike store shortly to buy some funky stuff. Oh yea I went to a huge bike store on Sat and I was in heaven, they had almost every team kit you wanted as well as a ton of other cool stuff that we don´t have at home.
Drats the longer I am on this computer the more I remember and thus have to add more info. The people that we are staying with one of his clients here has a machine to see if you are sitting on your bike properly, if your peddle stoke is good, the machine can do a lot more as well which I won´t bore you with the details, if only I had my bike here...
Bye Bye from Belgium

Bikes, Windmils and wind

2009-10-10T02:16:00.005-05:00

Today we woke up and drove to the nearby town of Edam, where we rented bikes for the day. Once they were rented and Emily and I had some food from a nearby bakery, we set of to a windmill. It turned out that the windmill was a museum.We went to it,but when we go there we found it was closed. So we climbed a hill to look at sheep, and there was the ocean! You would never know it was there it you didn't climb the ridge. We biked for a while, checked the map, turned around checked the map again and went back on the first path.
We biked for a long time and finally found a restaurant where we had sandwiches and fries. Then we started our trek against the wind back to our car. Dad had to push us a lot, but it helped, when we got into town we wandered for a while, trying to figure out where to go, but we asked, and eventually reaturned the bikes and drove home.

Amsterdam

2009-10-08T13:44:00.002-05:00

Today we went to Amsterdam, there we went to The Street market, Anne Frank house, and the Hermitage museum. At the street market we bought a smoothie, and nuts. It was really fun. The hermitage museum is not what you would excpect. It's about the Tsars who lived in Russia.
It was very interesting to see all the clothes, Toys, and acsessories they used. The Anne Frank house was really awesome. They had all the differant rooms in the annexe but you couldn't go to the attic. Our favorite quote was " One Anne Frank stands out more than all the others who shared her fate. They are standing in the shadows, but perhaps it's better that way because if we knew all of their pain and suffering we wouldn't be able to live" . Mom said it was very moving. I thought it was very horrible how they were all sent to Aushwitz where almost everyone died.

Bye! Emily

Wonders of Holland & Belgium

2009-10-06T10:31:00.007-05:00

Hi All,

We've been biking a bit, Emily and Mike had a neat bike where she was in the Front! Josephine and I had a normal one with me in the front, we laughed and screamed bit but eventually got the hang of it. There were a few Windmills along the way as we biked around Brugge. We are now in Holland and are biking again. We are staying at a Mennonite Your Way house and the couple is fabulous. They have cooked for us, helped us find a place for tomorrow in Amsterdam and lent us their bikes. Everyone bikes here from kids, young women in high heels to 90 year old men & women. So they opened their shed and brought out 4 bikes for us to use and there were still 4 more in the shed! Today we biked to a little town about 10 km away from Zwolle on paved bike paths the whole way - you hardly have to bike in traffic at all. They even have bike paths in the traffic circles. On our way back I got this cute pic of an old man with his clogs and ponies. Jane

Chocolate and more chocolate

2009-10-04T15:36:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we were in Brugge belgium and found a lot of chocolate shops, infact it seemed that every second shop sold chocolate and then the other shops were lace shops. However I am getting ahead of myself. Yesterday we went and visited Ypres and the museum was moving, however there was too much to read at that one museum. We then traveled to Brugge and thus we found a fantastic town that was very friendly and great for cyclists, which is a nice change from home.
There is a lot to see in that town but unfortunately we didn't have too much time we could spend in that old town, however it would have been nice. We had to leave to get to our next stop 4 hours away. But before we made that trip we rented some tandem bikes and we rode around the town. Learning how to ride that type of bike was kind of difficult but once you mastered that it was a hoot. We rode around the town and saw some fantastic windmills however they were only for decorations. We have had some difficulties in understanding people but most people really tried to help us, except in France, not sure why they were different, oh well.
Our car is great and I am having fun driving it is different.
Oh well that is all for today.

Mike

For Don

2009-10-03T02:50:00.004-05:00

Hi Don, this is for you because you only think the computer is good for looking at cars. Jane

Vimy

2009-10-02T13:04:00.004-05:00

Hello everybody!!!!!!
Today we packed up and left our cool house! It was sad... then we drove for a while. Then we looked for a place to eat. Vimy the town near Vimy ridge had no restaurants!! Oak Bank has 4!!!! So we back tracked to another town we had passed before. Their food was REALLY REALLY good. Dad was full *Gasps* very very very shocking. Then BAM! we were at Vimy ridge okay maybe not that fast...
Vimy is a battle site where Canadians fought as one regiment or something like that. It was really cool they had trenches and........SHEEP!!!! They did have tunnels but they weren't as cool as the ones in Dover. We took a guided tour then drove to the Memorial. Some teenagers asked Dad for help with their English word search.After that we drove a couple seconds to the cemetery. It was depressing. The hostel we drove to after has free Wi-Fi! YAY!!!!
Bye,Emy

Chateau de Versilles

2009-10-02T12:17:00.002-05:00

Today we went to the palace of Versailles. A massive castle only surpassed by the miles of gardens and 300 fountains. There used to be 1,500 fountains, but they where destroyed in the French revolution.
We waited 45 minutes in line before buying our tickets. Then we explored the vast palace for about an hour and enjoyed the hall of mirrors and the many drawing rooms. At 1:45 we went outside for lunch and then waited for our tour of the king's (Louie the 14th 15th and 16th) private and vast apartments.
Once we were done the tour of the sparsely furnished rooms (It was all auctioned in the revolution) we visited the spectacular gardens and the free public toilets. We spent about an hour enjoying the serenity of the gardens and many fountains. My favorite fountain was one of Apollo rising out of the water with his chariot.
In total we spent 4 hours 43 minutes and 32 seconds at the splendid palace of Versailles. (Said Versi)

Art Lesson

2009-10-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

Today we tackled the Louvre! I had done some reading before going, Ric Steve’s Museum guide, where Ric suggested a 2 hour tour of the most famous works of arts – but it took us 4 hours! It was really hard not to get distracted along the way by the myriad of rooms filled with some of the most beautiful things. Josephine and I were like crows…attracted to shiny objects. Emily’s favorite piece was the Mona Lisa and she liked the Dutch artists , Josephine’s favorites were the painting of Empress Josephine(her name sake) and a crystal and gold dressing table, Mike liked the huge painting of Napoleon’s coronation and the apartments of Napoleon and I enjoyed Ingres – La Grande Odalisque, Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People and the Horses of Marly. We were all awed by the vibrant colours and the size of some of the paintings…ginormous!!. The building itself was incredible as well. It was the original palace of the kings of France but was made into a museum, the first one, after the French Revolution. Although the rooms were modified the ceilings still maintained their splendor from the past. Emily had a sore neck from looking up! After resting our feet and filling our stomachs by the pyramid fountains, the girls went shopping!!!! So many clothes, so little room to carry them! Mike went to McD’s to check email, I’ve never spent so much time at McD’s in my whole life, but it’s the only place to get wifi! We then went to Notre Dame Cathedral to view the rose windows. Although the cathedrals are all starting to look the same we enjoyed the simplicity of this one. Josephine said this one was her favorite so far. After a long day and lots of walking we were all ready to head home. Tomorrow Versailles!

Sorry no pics....the connection at McD's today is super slow!!

Jane

The City of Light

2009-09-28T13:16:00.003-05:00

Hello!
Today we travel to Paris the city of lights. We caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower through the smog not fog smog. We got to our new awesome house where everyone gets their own room except for Mom and Dad of course. Josephine and I had a debate over who should get the awesome red room. I said that the partially awesome green room made me feel like I was in a leaf and that made me feel claustrophobic. I won the debate. We then got our day passes for the expensive train and went into Paris. We walked to the Arc de triumph and looked at it for a bit. We went to go have supper I picked Chinese. It was really good I had Sweet and sour chicken with chicken spring rolls. Then we went to the Eiffel tower and took a couple pictures, we looked for a boat to take us on a cruise. We decided to come here for some water and internet. Then we will go back and get a boat for our tour around the city of lights.
(Makes me think of Ratitioue…XD he he he)
Bye!!!!!!
Emy.

Addition after the boat....the boat trip was really interesting! The oldest bridge in Paris is called the "New Bridge"!!! funny....also the island in the Seine where the first Pariseains lived was called "dwelling surrounded by water". We had fun but I got cold. Mom got this neat picture of the tower when it was lit up.

Emy.

Chateau Day

2009-09-27T09:37:00.001-05:00

Today we went to two French castles (chateaus), the chateau de Chenonceau and the chateau Cheverny. The first one we saw was built on a river and the other inspired Captain Haddock’s house from the Tintin series by Herege. The one over the river originally belonged to Henry the 2nd’s mistress’ (illegitimate wife). It has many rooms, in one a lady lived the last 11 years of her life mourning her husband’s death and doing needle point. The grounds consist of two flower gardens, one vegetable garden, a 16th century farm, a donkey pasture and a maze in a forest. It was very interesting and in every room, there was a large basket of real flowers. It was beautiful.
In the Chateau Cheverny, we went to the Tintin exhibition; it contained rooms of the house that Captain Haddock lives in. There were seven rooms. One was the crypt as seen in “The Secret of The Unicorn.” Another was the lounge in the Calculus Affair. Then there was Calculus’ laboratory, Tintin’s bedroom, Abdallah’s gallery and the Super-Calaculor.
After that we went in the actual chateau and learned that people still live on the third floor, and that it is open 365 days a year. It was very beautiful and a favorite hunting lodge of King Henry the 2nd. Did you know people of the medieval times slept sitting in their beds, because lying down was a position reserved for the dead. No wonder the bed’s where so small! After we went to see the 100 hounds kept there. We where shocked that they all did their business in one spot! We waited the 45 minutes in order to see them fed, but they weren’t fed on time so we left the dogs to wonder where their meal was and went the three hours back to Orbec.

Josephine

Two different directions

2009-09-25T09:53:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

Today we went in 2 different directions! Josephine and I went to the Bayeux Tapestries and Mike and Emily went to the Normandy War museum.

Battle of Hastings - The Tapestries tell the story of William the Bastard's war against Harold for the throne of England. William won the famous battle of 1066 and became known as William the Conquerer! Josephine and I were impressed with the life-like 70m stiching of horses, soliders, warships and battles. The story had approx. 50 scenes describing, for the mostly illerate people of the time, how great William was! The truly amazing part of it is how it survived mostly intact for a 1000 years. At one point it was used as a tarp to cover a cart full of guns in the late 1700's, but a general saw it and saved it.

Emily and I went to the Normandy Landing Museum which was very informative. The museum cover everything from the inception of the plan to the end of Aug. There was a fantastic movie in english that covered everything that happened during that time period, so therefore we didn't have to read the endless posters that hung on the wall. In the museum they had a lot of displays that covered what was worn by all the combatants and explained what they all carried. Further they had a lt of equipment inside such as AA guns and self propelled guns. We could not take pictures in side so thus there is none for this portion of the blog.

After we met up again we headed off to Juno beach were the canadians landed on June 6th. There we had a picknick on the beach where hundreds of Canadians lost their lives it was kind of wiered for me to be doing that. I collected some sand to bring home so that I could use it in a history class. Once we finished lunch we took of to the Juno centre which housed some facts about Canadians participation in the war and after. I have to say that I was disapointed in that museum! It cost more to see that museum than the other one we went to see which had more? Go figure!! Well we are in McDonalds again blogging so that is all from us today.

Mike and Jane

Castle in the Sea

2009-09-24T10:18:00.002-05:00

Hi!
Today we went to Mont-Saint-Michel. It’s very huge and really cool. How many stars hmm…. 4 ½!!!! Out of 5! As you walked in there was a loooooong street full of shops, restaurants, and hotels. You could take a tour that talked about the dungeons and a couple of other museums. Sadly all were in French except for the Maritime museum 250 ships help! We did not go to the maritime museum yay! We then climbed up lots and lots of stairs. We got into the abbey and walked into this room where there was a church. There was a cool balcony with a beautiful view. Then there was the room where the Nuns and Monks ate. They weren’t allowed to talk at all! Next we went to the cloisters where they pray. It was made to give the impression of ‘a floating garden’. There was supposed to be another chapter house leading off of it but it was never built. There is a giant wheel which they used to haul supplies to the cathedral. Mom was amazed that people actually walked in it to move it. Once we got out we saw a really narrow street that would be really hard for some people to get through!
Bye!
Emily

Dieppe

2009-09-24T09:52:00.006-05:00

Hi all
We do not have Wifi where we are staying so this blog is going to be short!
We arrived in France and went to our new abode which is fantastic! There are children there whom Josephine and Emily can play with. I love the yard but it reminds me of how much grass I don't have to cut, yea.
Here is a picture of where we are staying at!
Our first trip in France was to Dieppe and it was heart stopping for me to be there, seeing all those headstones in the cemetery I almost cried. As well we were on the beach and we saw this awesome monument for the Canadian troops. Well I told it was going to be short.

The Grand Tour

2009-09-21T11:00:00.002-05:00

We have just left the land of expensive food and good beer to the land of good food and great wine! We left Dover this am and on the way over we saw the white cliffs and they were wonderful.
Once we got into Calais we had to wait a few hours to get our car but we now have one and we don't have to carry our luggage as much as we did in England.
So we decided to leave Calais and eat a nice meal outside city limits, well everything was closed and we were all starving. We went to about 3 different towns and found nothing open. We should have stopped at the McD's for some food but we thought we would try something different, oh well.
We are now in Boulogne and are relaxing and waiting for food joints to open up.
There are no pictures from today I should have taken a picture of our brand new tan colour Clio but I didn't I will add one tomorrow.
Ciao from France Mike

Secret tunnels

2009-09-20T13:42:00.002-05:00

Hello everybody!
Today I will be telling you about (Drum roll please) …. DOVER CASTLE! Today we had fried eggs, ham, toast, and sausages for break-fast. At least I like eggs & toast! Then we trekked all the way up, and up and up and up and up… until we got to the castle. After that we walked to the war time tunnels. Our tour guide took us to the Annexe level A.K.A. the hospital. We followed the story of a pilot who had been injured in a dog fight. (Airplanes not dogs) It was really interesting. We then went on a self guided tour of the second level (It’s lower than the first one.) We couldn’t go down to dumpy the final level because it’s unsafe. We traveled through the 2nd level and ended up outside. Then we walked to the roman light house it was pretty cool. We went to the castle and wandered around there climbing up stair upon stair. After we reached the very top we found we could get to the highest part of the castle! It was really awesome. We walked through the kitchen, the King’s room, the Queen’s room with teensy kid beds, and much more. We also went through the Medieval tunnels they were cool.
We also saw wild horses, they were really cute!!.

Bye! Emily

The white cliffs of Dover

2009-09-20T13:33:00.002-05:00

Today we went from out house in Canterbury to a guest house by the sea. We dropped our bags off in the hotel (we weren’t aloud in our room until 3:30) so we went for a walk by the sea. Then we went up to the white cliffs, which are actually made off small dead animals. We stopped on a ledge for a while and watched the boats. Unfortunately, it was so foggy we couldn’t see the other shore. It was also very hot, 25 degrees. After we rejuvenated we continued our walk up the hills. It got hotter as we went farther and eventually (after we ran out of water) we turned around. When we got back we went in to our room and all had a drink. In our room we have three beds, TV and an en-suite, but no Wi-Fi. Once we had lounged around for a while we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant, it was good. Then we went back to our room and watched TV until bed

Josephine

Cycling Heaven

2009-09-18T09:58:00.010-05:00

HelloAll,

Today we finally got to do some cycling! The best part of cycling in Britan is that they actually like cyclist here. Motorist don't swear at you but are patient and give way. There are bike lanes, paths and even a designated part of the sidewalk for bikes!! We did some cycling out of town on beautiful roads that wound through the countryside. We stopped to look at this little church along the way. We met a caretaker there who was getting ready for a funeral in the afternoon and he showed us around. The rose is called Peace and it smelt wonderful. The roses in England are spectacular.
The first vicar served there in the 1300. We also got a beautiful view of the city. The kids did really well in town and on the trails. After about 3 hours (kids were tired) we made our way back for lunch. The girls and I then went exploring while mike biked off to the Spitfire Museum 17 miles away. We found a beautiful park and window shopped at a bunch of stores.
I'd love to bring back some pottery but back packing and pottery don't mix well. Mike just got back so I'll put in a few of his pics too. He said the museum was a little anticlimactic. That's all for now. Jane