Sightseeing, Sleeping and Singing in Paris

Madison's school group were invited to come and sing in Paris at two events. The first was at a small school close to the Eiffel tower, the second was at DISNEYLAND Paris!

So, because we couldn't miss seeing them we drove down too! Madison left with her group at 7 am on Monday of half-term and we followed shortly thereafter. (Unfortunately, we left Scott behind as he doesn't have the vacation days to spare for this year.)

We rode the ferry from the port of Dover to Dunkerque, France. As we left the port we saw the beautiful white cliffs from the oceanside perspective. They really are beautiful.

We met up with Madison's tour bus on Tuesday morning. They had graciously agreed to let us tag along and occupy a few of their empty seats as they toured Paris. The first stop was the Seine River cruise. We hadn't done that before so it was a nice change for our family.

Next was the Eiffel tower. And although we had visited there earlier last summer, it was nice because Jeanne had missed the first level and only heard how neat it was.











It was cold and breezy, but the kids still had fun.

After a performance for a small group of schoolchildren in a school in Paris, we continued our bus tour. We had some unexpected excitement when the bus turned left into an aggressive Frenchman who thought he should be able to squeeze in going straight on the left side of a left turning bus...crunch! ...another sterotype of driving in Paris that was proven true. But we lived through that AND through the flying bus across 5 lanes of traffic into the Arc d' Triomphe AND the motor scooter gang that broke the window of a car in front of us to steal a purse. YIKES! Jeanne then determined that she never wanted to drive in Paris! We did learn that many UK insurers have clauses that exclude coverage on any accidents that would happen on the Arc d' Triomphe because the roundabout rules are opposite to the norm...the right of way goes to the person entering the roundabout! So strange!

Christina was EXHAUSTED and fell asleep on Jeanne's shoulder.

We were exausted but got up early the next day to go to Euro Disney! Bryce and Jordan wanted to do the exciting rides while Christina only wanted to meet the Disney characters...especially Minnie and Mickey. Jeanne thought..."no problem!" famous last words...

So we tried to fast pass, but everything was closed or the lines were too long. 12 years ago we went there with Bryce in late January and had a great time because no one was there! We had the park to ourselves. But apparently, their marketing and reputation has improved significantly because it was quite full.


Bryce in 1997.

Kirkstone house was scheduled to sing at 12 noon in the fantasyland stage. Jeanne videotaped while Bryce got some camera pictures and video clips.




We wanted to make sure to get video of the whole performance for Scott to watch later.

They did SUCH a wonderful job. The stage, the lighting, just the fact they were in Disney PERFORMING on STAGE...it was all just incredible! Well done to all you Kirkstone House Choir singers and Mrs O'Rourke and Mrs. Lamb! It truly was the highlight of our trip to Paris!

Around 4 pm we decided to head over to MGM so Christina could meet the characters (we had heard you could meet them easier over there). But we found out that there were no more character meetings and we needed to go back to the Disneyland side. We split up because Christina really wanted to meet someone and she had been waiting so patiently. So, after waiting where the schedule said they would be we were directed to city hall who then told us to go and wait at 7:20 over by the small world. We waited and waited. But with 35 minutes more to wait we decided to ride the Small World ride (with no wait). We came out and the lights were on. Christina says "hurry mom RUN! We don't want to miss them" But we had no such luck. They were 25 minutes early and the last character was running in the door as we ran up. Daisy turned around for Christina though. She was disappointed and so we waited some more thinking more would come out. THEN Mickey and Minnie came! ...only to push Christina to the side as they walked past. Christina was a trooper and was only moderately sad. She tried to look at the positive side. I was so proud of her!

As we were leaving I thought I would let the City hall worker know that the schedule wasn't what she had said and to make up for it she actually arranged for a personal meeting with MICKEY!!!! Christina was grinning from ear to ear and actually didn't say anything...she just smiled. She felt so special it made all the running around worthwhile to see her so happy.

The next morning, Jeanne picked up Madison from the group hotel and we rejoined the boys at the apartment hotel. We packed up and then Jeanne made a spur-of-the-moment decision. She decided to Drive in Paris (even though she has said she wouldn't just 2 days earlier). The reason was that Jordan had never seen the Louvre (it's closed on Tuesdays). That was the ONE sight that Jeanne's sister had requested him to see. Thanks to the Tom-Tom we made it with no crashes or angry Frenchmen!

The boys ran in and saw Mona Lisa and were out in record time. Best of all kids are free! Hoorah!

Then came the next part of our journey... Geneva, Switzerland!

A long days drive brought us to the Alps and lots of tunnels. We arrived at the home of Merv and Barb Stalter. They are friends of ours from church back in Monticello. They were transferred over here about the same time we were in 2007. They have a wonderful home outside of Geneva and were gracious enough to share it with all of us.

Scott took friday off and joined us in the morning. We went to castle Chillion along Lake Geneva. We parked at Monteaux and walked along the lakeside to the castle. It was a beautiful day.


Castle Chillion is a wonderful example of a castle. It was built around 1150. We had a great time investigating the rooms from the foundations to the upper floor of the keep. It was incredible.






Our second day in Switzerland had us drive back into France and up to the Les Gets area (pronounced Lay-zhay). Barb has a sister with a chalet on the base of the ski slope and sledding area. Madison and Christina call it "sludging" as they do in the UK.













It was a wonderful afternoon of pizza lunch, relaxing in the sun and watching the kids sled down the hill. It was wonderful. Jordan and Merv got a half-day lift ticket and enjoyed skiing and snowboarding. Jordan actually ran into some friends from school on the slopes! It was a wonderful wonderful day!


Dinner was a traditional meal of raquette- melted cheese over vegetables and grilled meat. Merv is a great cook!

Unfortunately, we had to drive home...14 hours. But we had good memories of a great trip.

Prague-Blog

We left early Saturday to fly to a city we've heard a lot about...PRAGUE!





Bus 119 from the airport to the Metro




Our stop on the Metro






The transportation system in Prague is fantastic. We bought 3 day passes and one kid got to travel for free with us per adult- good deal! Bus 119 to the Metro and then straight to our hotel stop Namesti Miru. Okay, reading Czech words is difficult but the Metro system is so clearly marked that it made it quite easy.

While we waited for the room to be ready we had pizza lunch. Scott laughed so hard when my pizza came. I thought I'd try something new that sounded interesting. And when my pizza came he said "it looks like a pasture!" It actually did taste good when some of the "grass" was removed. Scott then said that we should box up the leftovers and bag the grass... He was on a roll.

The hotel room Aparthotel Susa was wonderful. It had 6 beds, a small kitchen AND was located very close to both the tram (#22 that goes to all of the tourist stops) and the Metro. YEA!








After a bit of confusion with our tour guide (Jeanne accidentally booked two tour guides- OOPS!) we were off to see the Castle area of Prague. Along the way our tram #22 was stopped by a protest march. Apparently some people were upset about the agreement with the US to build a missile defense station nearby. Our guide said that the unrest stems from uneducated viewpoints. Something about the people believing that it will house deadly radioactive production facilities. It was sad to see.



We went on to see the rest of the castle area of Prague. The ground was high and provided a great vantage point to see the city.


Architecture in Prague is different from what we've seen in our travels so far. Here is a building that was interesting in that different colors of plaster were layered and then scratched off making amazing detailed scratchings. This building was a national museum of art that was just recently refurbished.

Everyone was tired so we ate pizza again in our hotel room and went to bed early. The next morning we slept in. We got ready and Madison was thrilled to see snow outside. So she went down and enjoyed a raging snowball fight with the hotel clerk. It was quite funny!



This day of touring began with the Charles bridge. Although under construction, it was my favorite sight of the town. The bridge is long and has statues on either side. Another interesting tidbit was that the bridge was built on an unusual date. Legend says that the foundation stone was laid in 1357 on the 9th day of the 7th month at 5:31 AM and that Charles IV chose this time so that when the numbers are written it is a sequence of odd numbers, 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1.

The Charles Bridge is also where St. John of Nepomuk was murdered for not telling the king's wife's confessions to the king. The kids called him "five-star guy" because they couldn't remember his name and every picture of him around town showed five stars around his head.


Supposedly, if you touch his picture of him being thrown off the bridge it means that you will come back to Prauge.





We toured Old town with its astronomical clock and the old town square. The astronomical clock was big and pretty but when it actually went off there wasn't much to it. Well, perhaps that is judging too harshly...I'm sure it was pretty fantastic back in 1410. When it rings pictures of the disciples go by the little windows that open while a skeleton rings a bell.


Poor little Christina was so c-c-c-c-old that Bryce gallantly gave up one of his layers to help keep her warm. What a wonderful brother you have Christina!

Just around the corner from the astronomical clock is the Huss church and a statue of John Huss that commemorates his influential life. In case you don't know, John Huss was a strong protestant voice against Catholicism. He was influenced by John Wycliffe and rejected Catholic teachings that were not based on scripture. The Moravian church was greatly influenced by Huss and so continued his influence around the world. However, Huss was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church and burned at the stake in 1415. History can be quite gruesome.


We left the square to go visit a church a few blocks away. You would think that would be safe from the gruesomeness of history...not here! Apparently a child tried to steal a treasure from the church and his arm was chopped off. Then to teach a lesson to all of the dangers of theiving they hung the arm up on the wall for 300 years! YIKES!

By then we were so frozen we needed a break. We stopped for some much needed hot chocolate in a CUBIST building whose interior was designed after that style. We really didn't care about the building though at that time...we just wanted to get WARM!



When Christina finally thawed she had a nice hot-chocolate smile.





We finished the tour off with walking through New town (not much to see unless you want to enjoy night life). BUT it was the sight of the student begun revolution against the communists. It began as a protest against the police but grew into a revolt against the government. Our guide told us that Poland and the Czech Republic were first in breaking free from Russia and then Berlin followed.

The Jewish Quarter was next. It housed Franz Kafka for awhile...strange man. But the history of the Jewish Quarter was very interesting. The Jews were forced to pay taxes to go in and out of their mandatory living quarter. It was against the law for them to live anywhere else. Then they were not allowed to do many jobs only money-lending! What I found interesting was how persecuted they were. There are only 200 remaining Jews in Prague now where there used to be 200,000 before the war. Largely due to mass murder during WW2, but also because the remaining survivors left for Israel. Prague had so many beautiful synogogues that weren't destroyed during the war they didn't know what to do with them. So they turned them into museums and concert halls! Another interesting aspect of the Jewish community here was how they had to bury their dead. They couldn't make more land so they were forced to bury bodies up to 12 deep! That is why their tombstones are like blades of grass throughout the cemetery (You can see them above the shop stalls behind the fence).


Scott and the older kids were tempted to go back in the evening for a ghost tour. The boys came back to the hotel and said that it was a complete waste of money...they wished that we had used the money for food! Apparently it was SOOO bad that it was actually a little bit funny. Bryce and Jordan were laughing throughout the tour. Good thing that they were the only ones on the tour! I guess we should have known...

Our third and final day brought more snow in the afternoon. We rode the funicular up to the castle hill to see the mini-eiffel tower...but it was closed. We then walked over to the mirror garden...but it was closed.








There are some downsides to travelling in the winter. On the upside though, the kids enjoyed a long snowball fight. Even Scott got in the mix. The kids didn't miss the other sights being closed!




We went back to the old town section and souvenir shopped. The kids all found some wooden toys. Jordan wanted the stacking blocks game while Bryce opted for a twisting rubics cube-like puzzle. I easily guessed that Madison was going to choose a magnetic puppet stage toy. Christina chose a really neat wooden three-headed dragon which will fit in well with their castle/petshop playing they do nightly in their room.

Tuesday morning we caught the fast Metro/bus back to the airport and landed in a snow filled England! That was a surprise! The kids were so excited to get into yet another snowball battle!

All in all it was a very relaxful fun trip. We saved a lot of money eating spaghetti and grilled sandwiches in the apartment, which with the way things are right now is a good thing! Maybe we CAN still travel on a very limited budget!

I wish the sun had shone some and that it had been a bit warmer, but it was a good trip.

Amsterdam in a day

As crazy as it may sound it actually worked out very well. Friday evening we drove to Harwich and caught the overnight ferry. We parked inside the ferry and rode the elevator up to some compact but very clean rooms. Jeanne, the girls and Bryce shared a 4/5 person outside cabin with bathroom and Scott and Jordan shared a two person interior cabin. Although the night sleep is somewhat shorter than we all would have liked, it is nice to arrive able to hit the road early in mainland Europe.

Since the world doesn't sightsee as much during the winter, we were able to PARK one block from Anne Frank's house. We had made a point to watch the Anne Frank BBC show prior to coming. It did make the visit more meaningful. It was something to actually

BE where she and the others had been hiding for two years. Incredible, but sad. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I got some postcards.









The next stop was unusual for Amsterdam...Noah's Ark! We had received some emails showing how this guy built a half-size replica of Noah's ark. It was located 1.5 hours north of Amsterdam...which really is why we decided to drive instead of fly. But then we found out it actually was touring and was almost ready to leave Amsterdam. It worked out really nice. Driving up the kids were a bit disappointed because they thought it would actually be bigger. I must say I was also. But when we went inside I was really surprised how large the rooms were and how much walking we did to see all of the rooms and exhibits. Some of the displays weren't to the quality of a publicly funded museum, but was impressive nonetheless. Especially when we read about the history of the project.

Next we drove to the surprise highlight of the trip...the Hiding Place. Corrie Ten boom's house has been turned into a "museum". I really enjoyed the 45 minute talk in the living room where they held weekly bible studies. The talk highlighted the history behind the Ten boom family's dedication to Christ and active participation in trying to save over 800 Jews and other persecuted peoples during WW2.


What surprised me was how solid the hiding place room was. The entrance door was so small that it was really Christina sized not adult sized!












Madison even got to press the real button used to alert the guests who were actually there during the weekly bible study. They were able to run and hide for two days. The Nazi's never found them



When we finished the tour we still had enough time to drive up to the dyke built to protect the inner part of the Netherlands from the ocean storms. Very interesting. I can't imagine the difficulties in constructing such a long earth wall. WOW!





It also was very strange to walk OVER the long dyke-highway. Madison and I couldn't help but have wobbly-knees a little bit.



The day was near perfect by the boys standard when they got to eat at an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet. We asked Bryce what his highlight was of the entire trip and he said "that chinese restaurant!" Sigh.

We made it back to the boat tired and we all fell asleep fast. But still 6:30 came too quickly for us. Jeanne drove 2.5 hours home while everyone else slept. We made it back for church and horse riding for the girls. You know, sometimes it is really amazing what you can get done in a weekend with time to spare!

It's just so....BRITISH!

We were able to go and see Madison in her final netball match.

Netball is a very strange game that girls play. It's similar to basketball but you can't dribble and there is no backboard to the basket. It also is full of rules. Madison is one of the better players of the team and is really starting to take after Scott! The first game I watched was the first game she played. She was what I would call a scrappy but aggressive player and was on the floor oodles of times. This really took the British by surprise. They kept asking her "are you alright?".


This game however she played quite well and wasn't on the floor any!

It is funny how the players stop frozen before they shoot. There is some rule that the defense cannot be closer than a meter? I don't understand it. but it was interesting to watch!

There are so many differences in culture that we notice. Some are not as pronounced as others. But this was something that I've never seen in America. Click the video play button below.



After these three cheers and hip-hip-hoorah's both teams go to "tea" together. For these occasions tea is actually small sandwiches, sausages, rolls and juice.

Christmas at home

Scott's sister unfortunately slipped on ice Christmas eve and broke her leg. It changed Christmas plans but it all worked out fine. So instead of waiting for her to come down we went up and enjoyed a day at their house in Kokomo, IN. Scott, Bryce and Lawrence were able to help Steve with a "manly" project outside.






While inside, the kids enjoyed more cousins and fun time with Steve and Michelle's four kids.












On our way to a Purdue Basketball game we stopped by a former employer of Scott's while he was in college. Mr. Plumblee is a vibrant 89 year old that was a purdue Ag professor/farmer. Scott enjoyed working on the weekends driving tractors and farming...he was even excited to wake up at 4 in the morning on Saturdays to get an early start out on the farm! We have tried to keep in contact with him and his wife throughout the years. (As a side note his grandsons are playing for Duke this year! And his daughter just came back from years in Poland while her husband served as the Polish Ambassador.)


Since Christmas was postponed we made another trip back to Indiana for New Years Eve. By that time Michelle was able to come down and prop her leg up...which by the way made an excellent euchre table :-) David and Sarah with their new baby Andrew stayed up til midnight! He is such a cute happy baby. It was really fun to see the cousins all together.

While back in Monticello, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't take many pictures. But we did get to visit so many good friends! The Johnson family who visited us here last summer were so gracious in allowing us to stay at their house. They even gave up their master bedroom! And their house was so beautiful. We had so many people to visit but they made it very easy to come and go. We did get in one good game of Ticket to ride (Europe) with them though... Thanks!

Scott was able to work a few days and make contacts at work, Doctor and dentist appointments, visit our house and dogs (who are very carefully being watched by the Landa family- thanks!) visit church friends and friends from Monticello Christian Academy. By the end of our stay, school started there. MCA was so gracious to allow my kids to visit the school for two days. They had just moved to their new building and it was quite exciting to hear and see how God has been directing and blessing them.



Christina was able to visit her best friend back home, Chloe. It was like they had never been apart...so cute!


At the end of the stay, Jeanne came down with strep throat. It was caught early and so for a bad situation it actually worked out okay. It was a fantastic visit home.

On our way out of town we were able to visit and stay with David and Sarah (Scott's brother). They live just outside of Indianapolis in a beautiful home. We were able to spread out our US shopping purchases (it is so much easier to shop in the US!), box them and weigh them. Since we were flying internationally, we were allowed two bags/boxes at 50 lb. each. Believe it or not, we actually ended up with exactly 10 boxes/bags at 50 pounds each. So we loaded down our rent-a-car and David's van with 500+ pounds of stuff and drove to the airport.

We connected again in Minneapolis with Jordan (Jeanne's nephew who will be staying with us one more term since he liked it so well last fall). It all went smoothly.

Luckily when we landed we had a driver pick us up with our 12 boxes/bags and 6 carryons. We were loaded and tired. But we made it back to our home in Manthorpe.

...and yes, our kids made it to school the next day (though not happy about it).