We're Moving to a New Website!

Well I guess it was inevitable, we have outgrown our lovely home here on blogspot. We have moved to our own piece of Internet real estate. is now the place we call home. It has all of the same information that is contained in this website, but it has more content, more bells and whistles and allows for a little more freedom. In addition, it will have a forum function so you can ask your travel questions and get answers. It will have pages dedicated to photography, handy ideas and unique design. We are excited for the change, so please come over and visit us, kick the tires and take it for a test spin. If you like what you see please let your friends and family know about it. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you at our new location. Rob Shumate

Paris, oh la la

On this particular occasion, it was less of choice and more of necessity that we made it to Paris. Not because we didn't have the desire to go back, we did. The opportunity never really presented itself as we had so many other first-time visits to other countries to make. However, our hands were forced (don't feel sorry for us) to return to Paris because Sharma's parents were flying to Europe and decided to fly into Paris. Darn! I guess we will have to go back to the city of lights. I researched various options on how to get to Paris. We could take the ICE train, we could drive. If we drove, where would we park? If we drove would we pick up her parents or would we just meet them at the airport? A lot of questions needed to be answered and I needed to get busy on answering them. We priced ICE train tickets, once we figured out the price per person, although they weren't terribly priced, we could still beat them if we drove our car. So that was answered. Then we needed to figure out where to park the car. Our first option was to park at Disney Paris, which we know our friends have done. This apparently is a very convenient way of going to Paris. You park at one of the Disney parks and then take the train into Paris, spend the day, return to the park and leave. All great points, except for one key item...this is only good for a day trip. There are no overnight parking facilities. So I moved on to my next option, driving into Paris. Driving into large cities is never something I long to do, in fact if I can avoid it I will. But more often than not I find myself there, in the midst of the city, frantically telling the kids to "Look at the Eiffel tower before you miss it!". We found some parking garages near our hotel, some reasonably priced and some not. Ultimately I decided that I would drive into Paris, straight to Charles de Gaulle airport and pick up my in-laws, then park the van near our hotel. That was my choice and I was sticking with it. We left early in the morning from our hours, needing only four hours to get to Paris. Driving in France is not unlike driving in Germany except for two items, there are no stretches of unlimited speed in France and they charge you so much in tolls that you may want to consider taking out a loan just to visit. Tolls amount to, from our house near Kaiserslautern (Germany) 29 Euro each way. They make this very quick and painless, drive up to the toll station, insert your card and you are on your way with barely a tap of the brake. We made our way to Charles de Gaulle airport, wondering the whole way if I had made the right choice to pick up my in-laws. Airports in general make me a little nervous, with all of the hustle and bustle, a tornado of signs telling you all sorts of information, police, taxis, white zones...ahh! Now add to this list, all of the signs are in french. I know some french, I took it for four years in school, I had to read it while I served in Haiti, so it is not totally foreign. But when you are under stress, the words 'bonjour' and 'banjo' look about the same. We actually did pretty good for our first time there. In advance of them arriving I did my due diligence and looked up which terminal their flight was arriving. With this bit of information I followed the signs and found my way to the parking garage. We found a parking spot that could accommodate our large van (took up two spots, kind of). We walked to the the exit and took the elevator to the next floor, where all of the arrivals were. Actually it turned out to be a great move on our part and not difficult at all. After waiting for 45 minutes Sharma's parents showed up. After several minutes of greetings and conversation we left doing what we just did in reverse. We left the airport and now made our way to our hotel. Our hotel was located near the Sacre Coeur area of Paris. We were following our GPS and as we were getting near our hotel we were keeping our eyes open for anything resembling a parking garage. This was a crazy area of Paris; so many people and cars going every direction that really I just wanted to get off of the street, so the first garage we came to I drove in. It turned out to be quite a ways from our hotel (1/2 mile) but I felt better knowing that we just had to walk. The price ended up being okay as well, for our van we were charged 50 Euro for 48 hours, a small fee was added on for every hour over the 48, which meant we could explore some on our third day and not worry about being charged for a full extra day. We dropped off our luggage at our hotel, located in a very bustling, very diversed part of Paris. Our hotel won't be listed on any five star rating system. It was a clean room with a bed and a bath, these are our requirements anytime we go on a trip. This helps to defer the cost of lodging and gives us more money to play with. There was no elevator, so we were obliged to carry our bags up three flights of stairs. Our first destination was Sacre Coeur, a short walk from our hotel. We passed a Monoprix (grocery store) and purchased our usual. A diet of baguettes, sliced cheese, salami, red peppers, a couple of bags of chips, drinks and a small dessert. Again, this is a cost cutting measure first and foremost, but the great thing is everybody in the family likes it and we can still be mobile if we need to be. We hiked a couple sets of steep stairs to the top of the hill where Sacre Coeur sits. It was a busy day of tourists, the skies were cloudy but not threatening. We took in a rest at the top, ate our food and enjoyed the view from our vantage point from the steps in front of the church. After touring the church, we walked down off of the hill and caught a metro to the Louvre. We got off of the metro and walked back toward the Louvre from the direction of the Obelisk, at Place de la Concorde. We walked along the gardens outside of the Louvre, taking in all of the sites. The line to get in was short and we were in in a matter of minutes. We had a list of three things on our to-do list: Mona Lisa, Winged victory and Venus de Milo. The crowds were present but not overwhelming, it helps to visit late in the afternoon. We walked from the Louvre to the Metro...next destination, the Eiffel tower. We arrived at our Metro stop and walked along the Seine toward the Eiffel tower. As we got closer and closer the crowds became exponentially larger. We found some places to take pictures with the tower as our backdrop. We bought some cotton candy for Maddi, that always keeps her happy. This time we decided to watch the Eiffel tower from a perch 1 km away. We walked north of the Eiffel tower (away from the large expanse of grass), toward an overlook, there was already a crowd gathered, so we had to wait patiently for our chance to move to the front. We waited for 30 minutes until the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle. It twinkled for about 5 minutes and then the lights were shut off and we were left to bask in the afterglow. We caught the Metro back to our beds. The next day McKay and I had tickets for the French open at Roland Garros. Growing up I watched any sport on television, this meant that, from an early age I was exposed to all things tennis. The French open would be awesome to see someday...well that day is today, and doing it with my son? Even better. We took the metro to Roland Garros. We found the right line to stand in and were soon entering the park. We had printed off our tickets in advance and they scan them in and give you an actual ticket to get into the park. We had purchased a day pass (24 Euro) that granted us entrance in to courts 2-18, none of the big ones. I figured this time I would just get a feel for the tennis venue and then next year get tickets to a big court. McKay were definitely novices at this as we had no idea of schedules, who was playing, where to go or how to get into each court. We tried to get into court #3, the guy at the entrance let us in past the rope. We walked around the court and up some stairs and joined the line to get a seat. But nobody was moving. Was this court closed, not letting anybody in? We decided to leave and move to another court. Court #2 was next door. We stood in line at that one and saw that the line was moving. We soon realized that they only let people into the court when there is a break in the play, meaning that the players are taking a small rest. I am a dummy, I should have realized that. We got to see a Women's double on court #2. Then we decided to catch a Men's double, so we walked to one of the smaller courts, past the main courts. Wow, was it crowded and sunny today. They have huge television screens that people will just sit and watch the matches on. After sitting at the men's doubles for a while we decided to make our way back to court #2. It seems that they put the best matches, of those that didn't qualify for the big arena, in the lowest numbered courts (i.e. #2 and #3). We waited patiently for our turn to enter the court. We found great seats about three rows up from the court, right behind one of the players. The sun beat down on us from the right hand side. I brought sunscreen and did apply it, just not very well. I was burnt on he right side of my face, arms and legs. We were fortunate enough to see a Women's single match that went three sets. Then we watched a Men's singles match. This was awesome, 5 sets, 2 tiebreaks, serves going in excess of 130 mph. Truly a great match. It was Juan Monaco vs Milos Roanic. The only thing was that we had such great seats, that we didn't want to lose them, so we sat in our same seats for 5.5 hours in the sun. The best part of the match was when the water guy would come out and spray down the clay between sets. He got the loudest cheers and hollers because he would spray the crowd occasionally. It was such a hot day that any relief was appreciated, and he knew that. We didn't eat, drink or use the bathroom for 5.5 hours and we were spent. We caught the metro back to our place but because we only bought one way metro tickets we had to stand in line to purchase our return trip, us and about 200 hundred other people. Now we know all about the French Open...and I can't wait to get back. The next day we took our luggage to the car and dropped it off. We caught the Metro to Musee d'Orsay because it was a free museum day. We got to the museum and the line was starting to grow. Lucky we got there when we did. In fact we were even more lucky, because the guy running the line saw Maddi and let our whole group go through the VIP entrance saving us some time. The museum was an old train station converted into a Museum. They had many impressionist painters, many sculptors and a variety of other artists. The crowds were large but not unbearable. From here we took the metro back toward our hotel. Sharma had a flea market that she needed to go to...and yes, I said 'needed'. The flea market was called 'Les Puces de Saint Ouen' and apparently it is the largest flea market in France. Upon arriving we walked through the open air market past booth after booth of 'stuff' and when I say 'stuff' I mean 'stuuuffff'. We walked quite a while, just meandering around with no sense of purpose. This is where learning the art of orienteering would come in handy since it was very easy to get lost and turned around. We walked back to the car and drove home. Mode of Transportation: Van; tolls 29 Euro each way; Metro 6,90 Euro/adult for 1 day Mobilis ticket, Jeune ticket (students on Sat and Sun) 3,10 Euro/day. First Sunday of month all museums are free. Hotel: Bervic Montmartre Parking: Clingancourt 50 Euro/48 hours Sites: Louvre: 10 Euro/adult, 18 and under free, French Open tickets: 24 Euro/day, outside courts No 2-18; Les Puces de Saint Ouen- 27 Rue lecuyer, St Ouen (in Paris)

The storming of Normandy France...by the Shumates

Normandy is one of those places that you know that you should get to before you leave Europe, but it doesn't normally make anybody's top 10 lists of 'have to' in Europe. Such was our case, we knew it needed to make our list at some point but it wasn't a pressing matter. We tend to always have plans for spring break, this year was no different. We decided to fit in Normandy the last three days of spring break this year. As it is in any ward, or probably any church, people are always discussing where they are going for vacations and word gets around. We realized Eric and Stephanie Flake were also going to Normandy at the same time. After talking with them they offered to share their lodging accommodations with us. They had secured a small farm house in the countryside of Normandy. In addition, Ken, the owner, gave tours of the D-Day beaches and Mt. St. Michel. Eric had arranged for tours of the beaches, Mt. St. Michel, fishing in the local ponds around the house, shooting guns, gathering eggs, naming the baby lambs etc. We did not opt for this package, our only desire was having a place to lay our heads. So here is what it ended up to be, a large farm house complete with 6+ bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, living room and kitchen/dining area. We had one half of the house with our bedrooms and the flakes had the other half of the house with their bedrooms and we met in the middle to eat, converse and play games. We left early in the morning on Thursday, knowing we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us. We love our GPS, in fact if it wasn't for it we would still probably be in the Czech Republic trying to get back to Germany. Our GPS is on our iPhone, which we love the compact, concise nature of it all. The only drawback is that when we travel outside of Germany we get hit with roaming charges. If I was smart, for all of the money that I have paid in roaming charges I could've purchased two GPS units. Our trick, when outside of Germany, is to turn it on briefly, see how far I have to drive before our next set of instructions and then I will turn it off. In order to get to Normandy, from where we are in Germany we have to go directly through Paris, at least that is the most direct route. We were told over and over again to loop around Paris to avoid the traffic. Before we knew it, we were entering the Paris city limits. Traffic wasn't terrible, we caught a few sites of the city as we drove through, including the iconic Eiffel tower. As we were leaving Paris I saw a sign for Versailles. I mean, really, could I pass this up? No, I should say not. We followed the signs off of the Autobahn and through the city. After 20 minutes of driving we found a parking spot close to the palace. After stretching our legs we started walking. A 10 minute walk led us to the Palace of Versailles. The gold gate laid out the boundary around the outer courtyard. We walked through the first set of gates, past the long line of those going in, to the second golden fence. This was the actual palace border, you could peer in and see just a little. As this was not on our itinerary and we didn't have a lot of time this fleeting glimpse would have to suffice...but we'll be back. Beyond Paris the drive is beautiful, as you get into rolling hills, a patchwork of trees and grasslands that seem to go on forever. The houses are quaint and feel like they have been plucked out of an old country magazine and placed on the landscape. On the way to the Normandy area we decided to stop at Rouen, a small city whose claim to fame is the death place of Joan of Arc. There is a church here that marks the spot where she was burned at the stake. We made our way to the church and arrived just as it started to rain. All the other family members went into the church to take refuge but since Eddie was with us, I stayed outside, under shelter, and weathered the storm. There has to be some scriptural message in that story. The rain let up and we observed where she was burned (it is outside of the church). We got back to the van and took a deep breath for the last leg of the journey. As we were getting close to our destination, we realized that we were hungry and wouldn't you know that a McDonalds was right there...always so conveniently located. We called Eric Flake to let him know that we were almost there and then we grabbed a bite to eat. We drove another 30 minutes and met Eric and Ken, who then led us to our final destination. We got acquainted with our new surroundings, checked out the large house, strolled out in the garden/animal area and then thankfully put our clothes away, followed by us. The next day the plan was to go to the D-day beaches. Ken rode with the Flakes and we followed. On our way to the beaches we decided to go to Bayeux, a town that is home to the largest (longest) tapestry in the world. It tells the story of William the Conqueror. We drove in and out of small villages and towns in order to get there. As we were leaving one of these villages we passed a police car off to the side of the road, tending to another car. We didn't think anything of it. Not more than a minute later, as I looked into my rearview mirror, I noticed the police car on my bumper. They pulled around me and waved me over, so I obliged. Then they caught up to Eric and waved him over and he followed suit. The police car then sped up in front of us and blocked the roadway. Oh boy, what were we in for? Both cars pulled up to the police car now forming a barricade in our lane. They waved us onto a dirt driveway and approached the vehicles...they started talking in French. I understand some French, but I played dumb..."English?" In their best English (which was pretty good) she explained that I was clocked speeding coming out of the village and so was Eric. Since I am one not to make a big deal out of things, especially when I am in a foreign country I was getting ready to arrange payments. But Ken, was not going to take this lying down. I must confess at this moment that I didn't have any money on me, in fact we were just getting ready to find a bank in the next town. Ken pleaded and reasoned and explained...all to no avail. I was sent off by the police to retrieve my international driver's license and vehicle registration. Within the time that it took for me to walk 50 feet and come back, the three police officers and Eric and Ken were exchanging good byes and thank you's. Wait, what did I miss? Apparently as soon as Eric took out his passport and USAREUR (Government issued) license and the SOFA stamp was seen the police officer let us go. To this day I really don't know what happened and I am not sure Eric really knows either but suffice it to say we saved ourselves a lot of money. It would have cost us at least 150 Euro each for these infractions, it would have been paid in cash and it would have found its way into the police officer's pocket. Needless to say I drove 10 Km under the speed limit the rest of the time I was in France. We made it to Bayeux, a small and quaint city in Normandy. The Bayeux tapestry is kept in a building that is enclosed by walls. We got there early in the morning and still had to fight the lines. We had our Yorkie with us so he stayed outside with Ken. We really were not interested in anything else at this site, so we made a bee-line to the tapestry, stopping just long enough to get our audio guide. The tapestry was long, not big, as in rectangular, it stretched forever. They stretched it out in a horseshoe shape, there were numbers on the tapestry so the audio guide could follow along. In actuality, I thought it was a pretty neat thing to see. I took a couple of pictures (without the flash), even though you weren't supposed to. The tapestry depicts William the Conqueror's life, very interesting. We left the building after seeing this and walked up to a cathedral that was near by. We knew we had to hurry today because there was plenty to see. We waited for the Flakes for quite some time, but I became inpatient as I could see my time here slipping away and thinking of everything that I still wanted to see. The Flakes showed up and we piled in our cars and got on our way. Our first Beach stop was at Gold Beach, a site of the British invasion (not the Beatles). We parked and walked along the rode way that paralleled the beach, passing all sorts of trinket shops and souvenir shops selling old army relics. You could probably find anything related to WWII there. We stopped at one of them...because it is written in a bylaw somewhere that Sharma can't pass a souvenir shop without stopping. Actually it was fine, I definitely wanted a memento of this trip. My children bought spent ammo casings (they were probably never used in the war, but who would know). We walked down to this small beach that had large cement stacks sitting in the water, 200 meters out. These were known as Arromanche, they were part of a floating, portable road that the Allied forces used to off load their ships and transport their armored vehicles ashore. Really a great site to see them. And what an amazing feat of engineering to achieve it. Oh yeah, we bought Maddi a cotton candy...she remained happy. From there we drove to Omaha beach. "The beach" that everybody knows. The whole group went into the museum there, except for me, I had to take Eddie. There were no dogs allowed on the grounds, but being undetermined I snuck him in. I walked the grounds waiting for the others to come out of the museum. There were a lot of people there and there were several workers patrolling the area, looking for anybody breaking the rules...namely me. I lasted 20 minutes before I was nabbed, the Yorkie was not welcomed. I took him out to Ken, who was watching one of the Flakes little girls while she was sleeping. The cemetery at Omaha beach is breathtaking, white headstone after white headstone, cast against the backdrop of the site of the beach invasion. We were there while they were taking down the US flag, everybody stopped what they were doing and paid their respects. We walked down to the beach from here, a winding and fairly steep walk. The beach was like any other beach, sand, a barrier of sage brush, followed by a steep cliff. But to think what had happened there, to think that many of those young soldiers would see their last moments of this life there...pretty moving. We gathered some sand to remind us of our time there and started our ascent back up to the top of the hill. From the perch at the top of the hill you could have a clear view of this beach and some of the other beaches that were in play on that D-Day. Next we stopped at Pointe Du Hoc. This was a small peninsula that was carpet bombed on that triumphant day. As you walk up to the area of Pointe Du Hoc you start to see the telltale signs of pockmarks in the ground. Some were small, only 8 feet deep, others were very large, 20 feet deep. The kids had a ball running around, down and in the craters and then climbing back out. The whole landscape was hole after hole. Some of the pill boxes and fortified structures were still there. Compared to Omaha beach, the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc made them look like the plains of Nebraska. These were sheer cliffs, a rock face that was unforgiving. It started to rain on us here, it was about time since it was threatening all day. The rain was refreshing and lasted 30 minutes. We decided it was time to get going and make the trip back home. The next day we arose bright and early and headed out for Mt. St. Michel. Again, this was something I remember learning about in French class. We drove 40 minutes from our farm house and then there it was. There in the distance was this edifice that looked like some giant had placed a huge paperweight on the flat sand and left it there. The land leading to the water was as flat as flat could be and then you have this gigantic rock with an Abbey placed on the very top. It truly was an amazing site and probably the most breathtaking site we have seen so far in Europe. We crossed the causeway and parked our car. We entered the walled village at the bottom of the rock and made our way through the streets taking in the sites, souvenir shops and restaurants. We climbed the stairs to the Abbey and decided to split up. McKay and I had Eddie and the girls went in. The views were magnificent, overlooking the inlet of water, that was now rushing in to try and encircle this monolith. After the girls came out McKay and I entered. We kept a pretty quick pace, knowing that they were waiting for us. The structure was incredible, just knowing how much work they had to do to build this structure. The rooms were cavernous. After winding our way through the Abbey we found our way out and eventually found the rest of our family, they were shopping. We always purchase a water color of travels, so we found a nice water color and few other souvenirs to remind us of our time there. We returned home, cleaned up a bit and hit a antique shop...a huge antique shop in a small town. It had a lot of...stuff, yeah just stuff...oh and did I mention there was a lot of it. From there we went to a restaurant where they had a buffet style food choice of French food (obviously, since that is where we were at). The food was good and interesting all at the same time. I ordered Salmon along with my buffet. It was good, not great, but we did have a great time there. We drove back to our farm house where we relaxed the rest of the evening, enjoying the company of the Flakes and learning a new game called Dominion. The next day we dedicated to relaxation. We could have been very ambitious like the Flakes, who took every opportunity to immerse themselves into the surrounding culture and farm life. We opted against going down to the local dairy farm and buying fresh milk, skimming the top off and making your own butter. Looking back, I would have done that, but at that day and at that time I just wanted to sleep in. I had to get to the dairy farm by 8:30 am. The Flakes left in the morning to head back and we spread ourselves out and enjoyed the house. They had a real wood burning fire place, something I have loved ever since growing up in Washington....the smell and feel of a real fireplace. My skills were not quite as good as I remembered however. It didn't help that the wood was wet from the recent rains...definitely going to blame my lack of starting a fire on that. Eventually the fire started and kept us warm. Sharma and I went to a supermarket to buy enough food for the day. We went to bed and got up the next day and drove home. Info Transportation to area: Drove van from Germany, 8 hours, approx 45 Euro in tolls-each way (29 Euro just to Paris) Lodging: Holiday Lettings-Ken and Charlotte Kitson, CAKitson@gmail.com Sites: Versailles, Rouen, Bayeux Tapestry (7.80 Euro adults, 3.80 Euro children/students), Gold Beach (Arromanche), Omaha Beach (museum and cemetery), Pointe du Hoc, Mt St Michel (9 Euro/adult, under 18 are free)

Bavaria

We have long wanted to take a day to visit the southeastern part of Germany, better known as Bavaria. This is where you would find Munich, Dachau, the Eagle's Nest and Neuschwanstein castle. Obviously we couldn't see all of these places in one day so we chose to see Neuschwanstein and Dachau concentration camp. The Neuschwanstein castle is the model for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. Dachau concentration camp was the first concentration camp established by Adolf Hitler. Talk about dichotomy. The trip was about four hours, not a hard drive, easy to do in a day. As we got close to the castle, from the back seat the call was heard "There it is!" I looked, I swear I did. Where? The classic case of looking beyond the mark, I was looking up on the mountain for a massive monument. I finally spotted it, a smaller castle, placed on a medium sized hill in front of the mountains. Now please, don't let my description deter you from visiting or downplay the 'coolness factor' of the castle...I just had built up something more in my mind. We parked below the castle because you can't drive up to it. On dry days you can pay to take a horse drawn carriage to the midway point and then hike the rest of the way. Today, because it had been snowing and the path was wet, we had to walk to the top. We purchased tickets for the English tour of the castle. On our way to the trail head we passed a very picturesque lake scene. No seriously, postcard picturesque. The lake was serene, the backdrop was a mountain ridge draped in a blanket of snow. We didn't have long to admire this beautiful sight as we need to make our way up the hill to the castle so we could join our English tour guide, otherwise we would be trying to figure out what the German tour guide was saying. We ran into another English speaking family and exchanged picture taking services with each other. We walked up the hill, at least we were able to work up a sweat and get relatively warm. About half way up we heard the tell tale sounds of clomping hoofs. We missed our opportunity to ride by 15 min. Thats okay, if you know me, I am hiking the hill to save a few bucks unless I am physically unable to perform. We made it to the top and looked out over the valley, what a view. We didn't have long to admire it however because we needed to be in the castle in 5 minutes. So after a string of quick photographs we were on our way again, finishing off the last 200 meters. We joined our group and were immediately given rules/instructions. The only one I remember and the only one I knew that I was going to break was 'no photographs'...yeah, like that has ever stopped me before. The castle was very magnificent on the inside. Ludwig II did a very good job on this castle and spared no expense, which was part of his problem. I had my iPhone at the ready to take any photo that presented itself...because that is what any good photographer does right? I have become pretty good about blending in, waiting for the perfect hole, quickly snapping the photograph off, putting the phone away and acting natural. I took several photos of the inside of the castle and never got caught once. Through one of the windows you could see this bridge spanning the mountains behind the castle. People were on it and taking pictures. I asked one of the workers there how to get out onto the bridge, she said the bridge is closed and they should not be on it because it was dangerous. Too bad! That would have been a great picture. Our next destination was Dachau Concentration camp, a very humbling and moving place. I have been here before but it was by myself, I wanted to check it out before taking my family here. I felt that my kids were mature enough and could handle the very sobering subject of genocide. This place was a destination of the visual, for the camp is not a thing a beauty, but it is a destination of the mind. It makes you pause, it makes you think, it makes you question, and in this sense it is a very real tourist destination. The day was a dreary, overcast day, which is the way you would expect a visit to a concentration camp to be. I was excited for my kids to see how evil this world can be, sometimes it is beneficial to take off your rose-colored glasses and see the potential in people...the potential evil. This place made evil a reality. Dachau was used as a prototype for other concentration camps. The ovens were actually used, but the gas chambers were never actually used but they existed here. All of these still stood; the barracks were torn down and where they once stood, just the foundation remained as a testament to what was here. There was a mini museum/story of what happened not only here but from the onset of the third reich. Hailey really wanted to see it, Sharma was not thrilled and McKay and Maddi, I believe, could have cared less. But, I believe they all walked out of this place with a better perspective on life and possibly vowed to be a better person because of it. We try to blend ethical and philosophical places as much as just seeing the beauty of this world. The trick is communication, talk with your children, spouse or friend as you have these experiences...you might just learn something wonderful.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

So, one of the best perks we receive is being able to partake in the Wounded Warrior travel opportunities for providers at the hospital. It is an opportunity to see various things in Germany free of charge, for the whole family. We decided to visit Rothenburg, because it is supposed to have a wonderful Christmas market and just the fact that it is supposed to be a wonderfully preserved walled city. Rothenburg is situated near Nuremberg, in the eastern part of Germany. We left very early in the morning. We drove to the hospital, parked our car and loaded onto one of two buses. Like I have alluded to before, the buses that we get to use are very nice, complete with a bathroom, reclining seats, seats that move away from your seat mate, so you have a little extra room. They always give you a goody bag, this time it included a drawstring backpack, water bottles, and other small items. The bus was moderately full, McKay and Hailey sat next to each other, Maddi and Sharma were paired up and I sat by myself. We left at 6am, on a very cold and dark Saturday morning. I plugged in my iPhone and listened to music and podcasts that I downloaded. Half way to Rothenburg we stopped at McDonalds to have brunch, just as the snow started to fall like a blanket out of the sky. Oh yes...it was cold this day..a bad omen. We pulled into Rothenburg in the late morning, somewhat groggy and very cold. On all Wounded Warrior excursions there are tour guides provided, very knowledgeable and approachable. Here is the rub, if you know the Shumates, we are an independent breed. We don't like to be cooped up in a pack of people, unless we are leading the pack. The balancing act here, is how long do we stick with the pack leader before we break off and form our own makeshift group? We stayed with our tour guide for 20 minutes...not too bad for us. Our first item of business was to find an ATM and get some Euro so we could do what we do best. Before we could do this, we were lured into the Rothenburg cathedral, which much like all of the churches here in Europe, was wonderful...wonderfully 'been there done that'. We conquered the ATM and set out for our adventure. We actually wandered a bit outside of the walled city and purchased something called a Schneeball. It is a shortcrust pastry special to this area, it is deep-fried in a special device that helps it to retain is characteristic ball shape. It is then dusted with chocolate or confectioner's sugar. We bought two and since we were hungry they didn't last longer than 5 minutes. It wasn't fantastic, but we were hungry. From there we wandered back into the city, feeling sorry for ourselves because we were cold. We made it to the town square where the Christmas market was being held. We purchased something called Kinderpunsch, this is our version of a hot drink, non-alcoholic. It is usually made with apple or grape juice, cinnamon and ground cloves. You buy the drink in a souvenir mug, each city has their own souvenir mug. You buy the drink which includes a fee for the cup, if you want to keep the cup, away you go. If you want a Euro back, turn the mug back in and they will dispense a Euro to you. After consuming our Kinderpunsch we wandered down the main street of town. Now, I am going to apologize right now, I am not sure what appeal the Christmas markets have. Please don't get me wrong, they are nice, they put you in a Christmas mood, of this there is no doubt, I just am not a subscriber of needing to see all 2,500 Christmas markets in Germany or the rest of Europe for that matter. We meandered down the street, briefly stopping into stores to look at the local wares, but mainly to get warm. We found our way to a portion of the walled city that you could walk around. So we climbed the stairs and walked along a narrow path and low hanging ceiling, that they built around the wall. There were great views of the city...and into people's homes. I am sure they have gotten used to seeing random people peering into their homes while they are trying to live their life, I don't know, if you ask me that would be just a little strange. We had 1.5 hours to go before the bus was to leave. We found this restaurant that was serving hot chocolate that looked very good. We purchased 5 hot chocolates...I figured that we paid $20 for all of them. The exchange rate can really kill you sometimes. While there we played a game that we like to play...somebody starts of a story by saying one word, the next person says one word, the next person says one word and so on. We laughed, they looked at us, we laughed some more. And since we use our iPhones and iTouches a lot our respective batteries were running low. So we plugged each one in...since we never go anywhere without having a cord to charge them. I know...sad that we can't detach. We met our group and blended in, like we were there the whole time. We did have a good time, we are glad that we went...mainly because I didn't have to drive, it was free and we could mark this one off of our ever growing list.

Roma...not the tomato

Our second time to Rome! There is much to see in Rome and since I really enjoyed our first visit I was looking forward to our second. I decided since we had seen many of the big highlights in Rome the first time we were here that we would spend time in a museum that we didn't get to the first time around. I had everything planned, get off the ship, walk 15 min to catch the train into town. I knew the schedule and how much it would cost. No problem. But Rome had other ideas. We get off of the ship and start to walk toward the train station when we are stopped by a group of taxi drivers...I didn't know if this was going to be a throw down with taxi driver hooligans or what was going on. They indicated that there was going to be a general strike today. Great!! We would be able to get into the city but not back to port...that is unless we used their services. I was skeptical and thought that maybe they were just trying to make a buck. There was an 'information' booth next to us so figured I had better ask to make sure what they were saying was legitimate. They concurred with the information that was being given to us. The information booth had one bus that would be going into town and we could purchase tickets if we wanted. We wanted. We bought round trip tickets for 80 Euro for the family...four times as much as I would have spent on the train and taxi...so not happy at this point. The Pextons, our friends from Washington were getting off in Rome. They had all of their luggage with them and they needed to pass through customs at the port. They also bought their tickets to get onto the bus to Rome, but they purchased them from a lady roaming amongst the people standing outside of the 'information' building. They were keeping lists of people who had purchased tickets, the problem was they were two distinct lists, there was no coordination of the lists to see who was on the bus. So when it was time to catch the bus we were all able to get on, except our friends the Pextons. They were the only people left standing, with their luggage and no way of getting to Rome. Sharma threw a mini fit, John was fit to be tied and our best efforts looked like they were going to be thwarted. There were seats on the bus, but they were for the infants that were being held on laps. To me this didn't make much sense, since when do you see infants sitting in seats by themselves. After a few tense moments, they relented...probably realizing they were going to lose money on not using those seats and John and Stacey were able to get on the bus.

An hour later we were being dropped off in front of the Vatican. We said our 'goodbyes' to the Pextons as they went to find their hotel and start their two day visit to Rome and we had our own destination. We (us and the Palmers) walked passed Castel Sant Angelo and over the Ponte Sant Angelo, which is the bridge that crosses the Tiber river. It is a nice bridge with marble figures lining the sides of the bridge.

From here we walked to Piazza Navona, my favorite piazza (at least so far). As we did the first time, we got several times trying to find this piazza and had to ask several people. I am not the typical male that won't ask for directions if I am lost. I want to know where I am going and will ask multiple people to make sure I don't waste my time. The Piazza was busy today, there were Christmas kiosks selling items and a lot of people taking pictures. We took a few pictures and looked for our next destination, a bathroom. We decided to find a McDonalds to use their facilities, but we did not realize how hard this task was going to be. It was coming up on our GPS, there were signs but we couldn't find it, it was the varitable needle in a haystack. We found ourselves next to the Pantheon and didn't even have a chance to spend much time here because we needed the bathroom so badly. I found somebody sweeping in front of their shop and I asked where the McDonalds was and she looked at me with this inquisitive and almost berating attitude and said 'why do you want a McDonalds when you have all of these local restaurants to choose from?' I explained our plight and she directed us to a local restaurant to use their bathroom...sweet relief.

We hurried over toward the Spanish steps area and stopped at a McDonalds to pick up a quick bite to eat before we had to get to the Borghese Gallery. In order to visit the Gallery I was instructed to purchase my tickets online because you had to have a reservation to visit it. We finished up at McDonalds so we could make our 1pm entrance time and we needed to be there at least 30 minutes before to pick up the tickets. We left McDonalds and climbed the Spanish steps. Just then Travis realized that he had left his backpack at McDonalds and needed to go back and retrieve it. We decided to split up, McKay and I would go to the Gallery and pick up our tickets in time and the rest would wait for Travis and then come and meet us. I didn't realize how far of a walk it still was to the Gallery, McKay and I took off in a very fast walk to pick up the tickets. We made it there just as our 30 min time limit was expiring. What made me perturbed was the fact that the person in front of me had no reservations and was allowed to buy tickets. I don't know if they say you have to buy tickets online, but the unwritten law is that you can purchase them on a walk up basis if there are tickets still available. Anyway, we followed the rule and retrieved our tickets at the appointed time. Our family and friends joined us 15 minutes later. Then we realized that we had to check in our belonging before entering the Gallery which was another 10 minute wait. They allot you 2 hours to see the Gallery and limit the number of people, which is actually nice, because even though you are fighting crowds it isn't terrible. The Borghese Gallery is spectacular with the finest marble creations I have seen. The bulk of the exhibit is by Bernini. There are several famous sculptures here and they all have intricate detail. The indentations that are carved into the marble, for example where somebody is grabbing somebody else, are so intricate and precise that it looks absolutely real. We spent a good hour looking at everything, but the kids moved through quickly and were anxious to go.

We took the Metro back to the Vatican as it was getting close to the time that we needed to get on the bus. Sharma and Corri did some shopping in the shops around the vatican. Me and the kids purchased gelato for everybody. We took pictures of the Swiss Guard around the Vatican and hung out in St Peter's square for 20 minutes. We made it back to the buses and loaded on ready for the hour long ride back to port. All in all, a good day in Rome. Whether there was an actual strike or not, I can't say...we may have been had, but in hindsight it was worth the extra money to make sure we got to Rome....I hope to see you again someday.

It's all Greek to me

Making it to Athens was high on my list, so when this trip came up with not only Israel, but also Athens, I was sold. One of the people in our group used their 'no fee' passports, that are issued by the government to employees/military overseas. He was flagged when he arrived in Athens and therefore they wouldn't let him off of the ship. We all decided to wait for him in the dock area. 20 minutes later he showed up being led by security from the Athens port. He was taken in to a small roomed and questioned about what he was doing here. They gave him a hard time about using his 'official' passport instead of a 'tourist' passport. After another 10 minutes they released him and we were able to get on our way.

We walked into Athens to catch the metro to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon, my main destination. Again, a very brisk morning, so the more we kept moving the warmer we stayed. The hike up to the Parthenon was a pretty steep climb, along a winding path. As we approached the entrance we hit the bulk of the crowds. We all funneled into the passage to reach the top of the Acropolis. The wind was very strong on top, so now it wasn't just cold, it was very cold. It literally blew right through you. The Parthenon was under construction so you had scaffolding that obstructed portions of the edifice. There were tons of people milling all around, so getting the right picture was part skill and luck. The view from the top was outstanding as you could look in a 360 degree panorama over the city of Athens. I didn't linger on top because we were all cold and ready to get out of the wind tunnel. As we descended from the Acropolis I wanted to make sure that I was able to see Mars' Hill, where Paul preached to the Athenians about the 'unknown God', referenced in Acts chapter 17. The hill is not spectacular, but is a rocky outcropping from a hill at the base of the Acropolis. There are some steep stairs the led up to the top of the hill and from there you can navigate pretty easily. I stood there and imagined Paul preaching in this very spot, pretty incredible.

From here we made our way to the neighborhoods of Plaka and Monastiraki to do some shopping. These areas are basically shops and flea markets, but not the traditional flea market you would think of if one said the word 'flea market'. We meandered toward Monastiraki square, a very small square without much to see. However, there was a man selling coconut sticks covered in chocolate, there were delectable. At this point there was a small division in what we should do next. Several of our members wanted to go to "Hard Rock Cafe" to have lunch, which is something they do at every one of their destinations in order to eat and purchase a local souvenir. We decided that we didn't want to do that but wanted to go to Syntagma square instead.

As we parted ways and started to head for the square we passed a Gyro shop. They had spinning meat...which made my head spin. I knew I wanted to have an authentic Gyro from Athens. No better time than the present. We stopped and purchased several. Man! They were so good. I needed to remember this moment so I had my picture taken with the guy manning the spinning meat. We walked up to Syntagma square. A natural meeting place for people dissatisfied with austerity measures that Greece is implementing on its residents. This square has been in the news a lot lately, mainly filled with protesters and people clashing with police. I wanted to make it here if it was safe. We wandered up to the square keeping an eye out for anything that may seem dangerous. There were police around but not much activity. For all intents and purposes, it was a normal square and you wouldn't have known that anything had occurred here. The only tale tell signs were saying in graffiti that were out of place, on the backs of benches, on walls etc. There was your usual band playing for money and people milling around. We walked up to the main road and started to take pictures of a government building when something more interesting caught our eye. There was this dog, a mangy mutt that was patrolling the main street in front of the government building. He would chase anyone on a bike or motorcycle and try to bite them. He had most of his success with slower moving vehicles, so bikes and mopeds were his best option. But he was an equal opportunity biter so he tried anything on two wheels. Did not mess with cars, probably learned this lesson the hard way. As we (probably 10 of us) sat there watching him chase, bark and bite unsuspecting travelers, we found ourselves rooting for him to get somebody. I know, it sounds terrible. He would chase somebody and then he come over to us and sit down quietly, not making a sound until his next victim. Once he saw them, he would chase, bark and bite some more. Come back to us, sit down and wait. He was like Jekyl and Hyde. And we cheered him on. He finally was successful, he bit somebody's pant tore the denim as they rode away. We cheered, feeling like he had won, it was time to move on. That could have been the highlight of our Athens visit. We took the Metro back to our starting point and then walked back to the ship.