Prague blog

We have been really forunate on all of our vacations so far. Everything just fell right into place, we found the right hotels, we had our itinerary all laid out, the finishing touches completed. Like the pieces of a puzzle, everything fit. This one however, was a different story. We had no plans, no hotel in advance, no reliable transportation. It just didn't feel right. But was that going to stop us? No way.


Our van was in the shop a few weeks before we needed it for this trip. It freaked out on Sharma and overheated, A/C stopped working, the check engine light came on and had several leaks. I dropped it off at our mechanic. I normally just drop the car off in his parking lot, drop the keys in a box and leave a note on the seat saying what is wrong with it. I usually receive a phone call within a few days with what is wrong and how much it will cost. This time there was no call. I called him a week later and he said that he was on vacation and now is very busy. I said just let me know when you look at it. 'No problem' he said, he'll look at it tomorrow and let me know. Another week passed, nothing. Called him again. This time he had bad news, it was going to cost a lot of money to repair it...more money that it was worth. I decided right then and there to junk it. It was time, it has been a great vehicle, but it is 14 years old and has 190,000 miles on it. It is only a matter of time before something major goes wrong with it. It is time to cut our loses.

So this brings me to our current vacation. No van to drive to Prague, we decided to rent a vehicle. We got a mid-sized car that ran well and had A/C, what more could you want. The drawback to this is that we can't take advantage of the discounted gas that we are entitled to as part of our military agreement with Germany.

Our pet sitter was also booked this time around, being Memorial weekend, so we had to take Eddie as part of our trip. I love Eddie, but sometimes he can be a bit of a handful when he is out. He gets a bit anxious...wait, a lot anxious and can attract attention. The thought of going through this gave me anxiety, so here we are, two anxious people trying to go on vacation to have a good time.

We loaded up the car and started off for Prague. It took us a little longer than we anticipated to get there...seems like this is always the case. We had great travels until we got to Prague. We were racing against time, because our hotel confirmation stated that the front desk closed at midnight. We got into Prague with about 10 minutes to spare but had no idea that we had to drive all the way through Prague to get to our hotel. It took forever to get to our hotel, and then to make matters worse, we could see our hotel but couldn't get to it. We had to call our hotel twice to make sure they knew we were coming so they would close the doors on us. We drove up this deserted road trying to find the hotel, realizing it was a deadend we turned around. We spotted a couple of police officers standing, smoking and talking. I pulled up and asked for directions. They didn't know either but gave us their best guess. With a bit of luck we finally found our place. Time to go to bed.

The next day we ate a continental breakfast at the hotel and left around 9am. We had to walk about 15 minutes to our metro stop, under a couple of overpasses that could be intimidating, especially if it was nightime. We found the metro to be easy to use and convenient to where we wanted to go.


Our first stop was the area near the Powder gate. As we were approaching it, we noticed several advertisements for concerts, operas, ballets etc for that evening. We had our choice of twenty different places to watch a show, but we had Eddie, there would be no culture on this trip. We wandered down several streets without a real destination or purpose. We could see this amazing edifice in front of us, but it was surrounded by buildings and we didn't know how to get there. We wandered down a couple of streets...passed a TGIFridays...that wasn't what we were looking for, too American. We finally made our way to the area that contained the church and then realized it was still surrounded by buildings. The church we were after was called 'The church of our lady Tyn'. It is a monstrous church with multiple spires, very beautiful. We were standing around near this area, trying to get our bearings straight and figure out where to go next, we noticed a group of people taking a picture of this thing'. It looked like a hooded figure, but it was a statue. It had a plaque on it, but it was in Czech so we couldn't read it. Come to find out the place was called Estates Theatre, and it was the first place that Mozart's Don Giovanni was ever performed. We took a picture outside and then strolled into the lobby, asked if we could go inside and take a picture, were denied and then left. There were several groups of Americans in tour groups, we stood and listened for a while but realized we did'nt like that style of tourism and kept on moving. We worked our way to several other churches and happened upon a wedding that had just taken place. They were taking pictures outside of the church in front of this classically restored automobile. We stopped and took a picutre ourself, little did they know they had just become part of Sharma's roll of pictures. In this same area there is something called an astronomical clock, a very neat clock that displays the relative position of the sun, moon and zodiac constellations.
Next we walked to the old Jewish settlement admiring the synagogue, the old cemetery and other buildings...what we failed to realize is that it was Saturday...their sabath. Everything was closed, we would have to return tomorrow. We continued on to the Charles Bridge. A wondrous bridge, that spans the Vltava river, unique with its pairings of statues the whole length. It was very crowded with sightseers with vendors selling their goods. As we were approaching the end of the bridge I noticed these photographs of different Beatles lyrics painted on this graffiti ladened wall. I took note, but did not buy. Then a few vendors later I noticed more pictures, and the next vendor had more. By this time I was intrigued so I stopped and browsed through them. I selected one, Hailey and McKay each got one as well. As we were leaving I asked the vendor where these pictures were taken, expecting the obvious "London" as a response. I was surprised to find out we were about two blocks from it...that suddently became my mecca, I had to find it. It was a nice stretch of wall, a block long with all sorts of Beatles lyrics, inspirational sayings and tributes to John Lennon. It was the highlight of our trip. Everybody in the family took turns defacing the wall with our own Beatles lyric. It was well attended and everybody had a good time. We stumbled upon a street bazaar, full of souvenir shops and tourist kiosks. We spent quite a long time shopping...correction, Sharma spent quite a long time shopping. It is okay though, we knocked out most of our souvenir shopping at this stop. Our next destination was the Prague castle. A huge (according to the Guinness Book of world records, the largest castle in the world) castle set on top of a mighty hill. Yes, we climbed up to it. It is within a walled area that contains a church and other buildings. The best part was the view that it afforded us once we got to the top. We looked out over Prague on a beautiful evening and just took in the sites. One of those quiet times to reflect on the unique situation that we find ourselves in, being in Europe. We walked back down from the castle and caught a metro home. We were tired and it was late, our beds sounded good.


The next day we grabbed breakfast at the hotel again and caught the metro. First we stopped at the Jewish Quarter since it was open. We bought tickets to take the tour of the Old Jewish quarter and decided we should hide Eddie so that he could go along. We dropped him into Hailey's bag and stood in line. The next thing I knew we had been spotted and told that we couldn't take him in. I opted to stay outside while everybody else went in. When Sharma got to the ticket booth, she explained the situation and described how big Eddie was, she got special permission for Eddie to accompany us, as long as he stayed in the bag. No problem. We enjoyed the buildings and especially the cemetery. It contained the gravestone of Rabbi Loew, who is associated with the lengend of Golem...look it up. All of the kids took etchings of Rabbi Loew's headstone. Very cool. We went to St Wenceslas square and walked toward the National museum. It was a nice walk and we passed a lady selling pizza, we bought a slice each and a drink and enjoyed it as we sat in the middle of the square watching the cars zip by. From the National museum we walked down to a museum dedicated to Antonin Dvorak, Sharma's favorite composer. This was her highlight. We almost had tragedy strike...we got there and realized it was closed. We tried to read the sign and realized we had missed it by 10 minutes. RATS! So we decided to walk around and look in the windows, then Hailey noticed that they were just closed for lunch, not for the day. Awesome!! We waited in the shade and then the time came. We paid the small fee and I just sat back and watched as Sharma and Hailey were enthralled with everything. It had his viola, piano, pen, music sheets, family pictures, graduation robe. It even had a desk that Beethoven owned. It was very neat, and Sharma was happy, that is all that mattered at that point in time. We walked to the National Theatre and walked out on to the bridge next to it. There were several paddle boats in the water, many people taking in the day on the river. We stood on the bridge and watched them. We walked down to McDonalds to grab a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel.


We caught a nice night's sleep and the woke up and grabbed one last breakfast before leaving. On our way out of town, we stopped at an IKEA for Sharma. If any of you know her, this is her passion, so she loves to collect catalogs...but not just any catalog, European IKEA catalogs. We stopped, but it was closed except for those that were having breakfast there. Sharma went in and convinced the lady to lend her a catalog...little did the lady know that that would be the last time she would see it. Now announcing, in our IKEA catalog collection, we officially have a Czech IKEA catalog...I know how excited everybody is. Since you can't make it over here to see it, I am sure if you ask Sharma, she will take a picture of it and send it to you. We decided to drive to Dachau and see the concentration camp. Too make a long story short, we drove 4 hours just to find out that the site was closed on Mondays. I felt so bad, I should have looked up the hours/day of operation. The drive home was especially long from that point on. Info Transportation to city: Drove van Transportation in city: Metro Lodging: Wellness Hotel Step Sites:

Observations around Miesau

I wanted to write this before it fades from my mind. Sharma, I and the kids had the glorious experience of renewing our ID cards yesterday. As most of you are not privy to military adventures such as this I will describe it as such...very similar to sticking a hot poker up your nose (which is better than a hot 'picker' I guess, but I digress). I had my picture taken for the ID card and I realized "Rob, you don't look like you did last year". In the picture, whether real or imagined I felt like my face was much fuller than it was a year ago. When I told Sharma about this she called me crazy and said that I looked the same (as a good wife should, she said all the right things). However, since I had been thinking about doing some exercises lately and this visual proof was in my hand I decided today was the day. I asked if Sharma wanted to go and she politely declined but said that she would walk with me. So we compromised, we sadled up Eddie with his harness and leash, set out with money in hand and off we went. We walked down to the local Hanchen (chicken) guy that shows up down the road from us everything Wednesday selling his rotisserie chicken. Man, these aren't just any chicken, golden brown, dripping juices, just spinning around...tempting you with every spin. Now, this is not all, he also has some of the best fries as well, freshly made at the time of your order. In addition he has a small container of salad (cucumber, carrot, sauerkraut, potato) that you get. We order Menu #2-chicken, salad and fries (which feed the whole family) for 10.90 Euro. We purchased the meal and walked back down to our house, as we approached our house there is a small road that branches off and leads of into the fields behind our house. I told Sharma not to eat the whole meal and ventured off down the road on my run. The first thing that entered my mind was "I am running...here in Germany" just a mundane activity that I could be doing anywhere, but I was doing it here in Europe...how grateful I was. Then I started to really take in my surroundings. I found myself running on this paved path through fields of bright yellow flowers, followed by green fields, followed by yellow as far as the eye could see. Then I noticed the hills that surrounded us, far in the distance, but still present, watching over us. As the monotonous sound of my gasps for breath continued I noticed this brilliantly yellow bird land on a plant in the field and watched me as I lumbered by. I had never seen a bird so brilliantly yellow, except in photos, what a treasure. In conclusion, I made it all the way back (I didn't run that far because I have to start slowly, lest I kill myself) and enjoyed the chicken, fries and potato salad that we bought. But I just wanted to let you know I do the same things here I would back in the states, pretty ordinary if you ask me...ordinarily amazing! I love it here and am glad that I took the time to really notice what was happening around me yesterday and appreciate our unique situation.

My oh Mallorca

We had a really hard time deciding where we should go on vacation for spring break. We had a few requirements, among the most important was it needed to be warm. Second, it needed to have sand for the kids. We thought about the south of France or Sardinia, off of the coast of Italy. Then as always, we let Ryan air help us decide. We were able to get tickets to Mallorca for 6 Euro each way, problem solved. We were able to go with two other families, the Cherringtons and the Tholens, they each had children the same age as ours so it really was a nice fit. We were able to get a hotel with three rooms that could accommodate all of us, which turned out to be 30 minutes outside of the main city of Palma. The funny thing was that when we booked plane tickets on Ryan air I thought we had all booked on the same flight, it turned out that we were the only ones on the late flight, and the others had arrived there early in the morning. We arrived around 6pm and found our way to the car rental, we upgraded one step to get a little bigger car, a nice Peugeot. The first impressions of this island is that it is fairly large with a very diverse terrain and much like Aruba in that it is a pretty arid place. It is not the lush green island one would automatically think of, but then again the Mediterranean lends itself to this kind of landscape. The other noticeable feature of this island is its dichotomy, 1/3 of the island is very steep mountains and 2/3 very flat expanses. We arrived to our hotel in Cala Pi and found our cohorts resting from their fun adventures. We were starving and they had just ordered pizza and were getting ready to eat. Since our hotel had a kitchen we decided to go to a grocery store. We had Kyle Cherrington take us back into town to the grocery store they went to. We didn't realize it was going to be such a long drive. We made it to the store and bought breakfast and lunch items. On our way home we stopped at the pizza joint and ordered three pizzas. They looked good and they were good, mainly because we were so hungry. At the restaurant we picked up a cool souvenir of wooden matches in a triangle box. We quickly planned out the next day and then went to bed. So the observation on driving on this little island. The side roads that lead to the smaller towns are narrow, not a terrible thing but when you combine this with the fact that they line every lane with 4 foot tall rock walls, it makes it a bit treacherous when you meet another car. Now if this wasn't bad enough, apparently in the winter this is where are the cycling teams do their training. So now we had the added pleasure of trying not to kill the cyclists. They were everywhere, on the road, on the side of the road, in the middle of the road, in the bushes, in the trees...okay, they weren't in the trees, but if they had been I wouldn't have been surprised. And the problem? They all thought that they owned the road, if you came up behind them, they may or may not scoot over to let you past. I felt like yelling at them "Hey! You're not Lance Armstrong you know?"...since I was driving I had Sharma do this. Our first full day we decided to hit the beach. I had done a little research and found a beach called Es Tranc, which was supposed to be this big beautiful beach. We get to one end of the beach and realize 'this place stinks', there was washed up seaweed all over the place, no place to enjoy the sand, no facilities etc. So after driving all the way there we decided to go back to Palma and hang out at the beach there. As a side note, come to find out, we were at one end of the beach and the nice part was at the other end. We went to Palma beach, which was very nice. They had built rows of shaded straw huts that you could just throw your beach towel under and start to enjoy. It was also next to a McDonalds so if we needed a bathroom, food or a diet coke (for Sharma) it was 30 seconds away. The day was sunny, but it was not warm, in the truest sense of the word. If the wind wouldn't have been blowing it would have been fine, but the wind kicked up pretty strong and it kept the day cool. The kids stripped down to their swimsuits and started to enjoy the sand right away, even getting into the water. The adults just lounged. I collected a bunch of small shells and sand from the beach as is our custom anytime we go to a new beach. I didn't put any sunscreen on because I wanted as much color as I could possibly get. And boy was I successful. I never realize how red I am getting when I am out in the sun, and this time I had no pre-beach color...I was as white as I could be. Oh I would pay later. We walked across the street to a McDonalds and grabbed a quick bite to eat, while there we decided to go to the big cathedral in Palma. We drove down to the Cathedral and decided to pay the entrance fee to get in. It was a very interesting church, very different architecture on the outside, faced by a pond and just a stones throw from the bay. We bought a few souvenirs from the cathedral to commemorate our visit and then decided it was time to head back. We found a nice restaurant so we could sit down and enjoy the evening. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the refreshing air. We ordered pizza and burgers and just enjoyed good conversations throughout the evening. The next day we decided to explore the other side of the island. We drove through Palma and went up into the mountains. Along the way we passed an Ikea, Sharma drooled and we drove on. We went to a little village along the coast named Soller. It was a very quaint city that sat on a cove, surrounded by 90% land. There were two lighthouses at the entrance to the cove that looked off into the Mediterranean. There was a small beach that sat along the cove. They also had a cool little train that went from Soller to Palma and back. We walked around the whole cove along the waterfront, stopping in stores and browsing their goods. Our goal was to make it to the lighthouse, after walking for what seemed like an eternity we made it to the other end of the cove where the lighthouse sat. Then we realized the lighthouse was in an area off limits to tourists. We decided to climb up the hill, looking for another way into the lighthouse. We passed little alleyways full of tiny houses, with ladies out hanging laundry and sweeping, kids playing. We made it to the top of the hill and found a museum that overlooked the ocean. We all took pictures of each other, with the sea in the background with it's constant pounding against the shear cliffs. We walked back down the hill to the city and found a nice little grocery store and did our normal routine. We found a few tables and sat and ate our bread, cheese, meat, chips, red peppers, drinks and candy. We decided to drive to the other side of the inlet and checkout the other lighthouse, with the main goal of finding a bathroom at the top. We did find a bathroom but don't think it was meant for public use. It was meant for a bed and breakfast that sat at the top of the hill, but it served the purpose we needed it to. We drove back to the hotel and let the kids play. The older ones wanted to go to the little inlet by our hotel and do some snorkeling and the younger ones wanted to swim in the pool. Sharma and I stayed at the pool with Maddi and her friends and just enjoyed the sunshine, however it was a little on the cool side. McKay was only one of two people that actually went snorkeling, everybody else said they wanted to, but when it got down to it they decided it was too cold. We cleaned up and went to this little restaurant that we passed every time we drove from/to our hotel. And every time we passed it there were 50 cyclists there eating. This evening it was us and another family. Sharma and I decided to order the Paella (seafood). Man it was good, very filling and plenty of seafood. Oh and just so you knew I had a pretty bad sunburn from the first day so I was pretty happy not to be at the beach today. The next day we decided to hang out at the beach on the eastern side of the island. We drove several small villages, as we passed one in particular we noticed them having a small farmers market. We stopped and roamed around, but several different fruits and sat on the steps and ate. We bought more food from a local grocery store and had lunch before continuing on our journey. We finally ended up in Portocristo and planted ourselves on the beach. We enjoyed the beach, the kids played in the sand, the older ones played with a soccer ball McKay had brought and the adults lounged on our mats and talked. I played keep away with the kids, using the soccer ball, until I realized that I was in the middle more times than anybody and I should probably quit before I pull something. After several hours we decided to drive into Palma one last time. We found our way to the McDonalds by the beach, we had spent quite a bit on dinner the previous three nights so we needed something a little more manageable on the pocketbook. We enjoyed our meals and then walked across the street to take in the view one last time. There were four guys that had just finished making a beautiful sandcastle complete with candles on it. We paid them a few coins and then took some pictures of it. The Cherringtons always collect items from 'Hard Rock Cafe' wherever they go, so we hit that up so they could collect their souvenirs. Then it was home to pack. Goodbye Mallorca, it was fun getting to know you. Maybe we'll meet again sometime.

Info Transportation to city: Ryan Air Transportation in city: Rental Car Lodging: Cali Pi Club (located in Cala Pi, 45 min outside of Palma) Sites:

Friends and Family

We recently had the joy of having our first two sets of visitors come and visit us. We first had our friends, the Mitchells, come from North Carolina. We met Sharmyn and Jon just prior to us moving to Germany. We had the opportunity to get to know them briefly as we crossed paths a few times. We really liked them, and felt they had seen and done things in life that we wanted to do, and therefore looked to them as a mentor for us on our travels. We received an email out of the blue that they were coming in a month and were very excited to have them, but not knowing them too well, we were a little nervous if our young friendship would last the four days they would be here. Sharma picked them up at the Kaiserslautern train station on a Friday. They had flown into Paris and took the ICE train from Paris to K-town. They arrived at our house very tired but very excited to be here. They were just like little kids on Christmas morning just oooh-ing and aah-ing over everything in our house. Just so excited about everything we were doing and seeing. We spent a good hour giving a tour of our place and showing them all of our trinkets and goodies that we had collected. Jon sat at my desk and thumbed through my little book of things that I have collected. I got a sense of how an artist feels when somebody gushes over one of their works of art as Jon sat there talking excitedly about everything I had collected. The first night we decided to give them a tour of Ramstein AFB and grab a Doner Kabop. We got them checked on base, interestingly enough the pass to get them on base was never collected at the inspection point. We thought momentarily about keeping it and adding it to Jon's collection, but we decided against it. After a nice dinner and tour of the base we drove back home and talked for quite some time. The one thing I love about the Mitchells is their interest in everything, they are always asking questions...to everybody in the family, and we loved it. Through questions you become introspective and find out a lot about yourself. They shared some gifts for our kids from their friends back in NC and then we had family prayers and turned in for the night. The next day we set out for Frankfurt. It was raining a little as we left our home but within an hour it was almost perfectly clear and beautiful. First, we found our way to the Frankfurt temple and spent a hour touring the grounds. We also found a LDS store with CTR rings in German and French, I bought a Book of Mormon in French, German and Spanish for our collection. Sharmyn bought a bunch of German CTR rings for the young women back in her ward. Next we walked down to a local square that had a local market set up. We purchased a big red pepper, baguettes, cheeses, olives and heart-shaped salami and sat in the middle of the square and watched as German life just swirled around us. It was fantastic! After the temple we went to a museum in Frankfurt that the Mitchells wanted to see. They appreciate art and know much about it so we felt it an honor to go to a art museum with them and learn about the art we were seeing. I must admit at this point in the story, although one can think art to be boring, my children have never expressed that sentiment as we have toured numerous art/museum exhibits. They do very well and try to appreciate what they are seeing, I know they are going to be much more cultured than I ever turned out, thank goodness. From the museum we walked across a bridge into the main part of Frankfurt. We made it to the Goethe museum (he wrote Faust, among many other literary works). We walked to a very large cathedral and toured the inside of that, and again were educated by the Mitchells about some of the meanings, architecture etc. We stopped in a little square and did some trinket shopping. The highlight was having McKay buy some stamps, using only German (Jon speaks some German and he was telling McKay what to say), McKay was definitely a good sport and we all had a good time and a nice memory. Thanks to you, Jon and Sharmyn, for making small moments like that the highlight of your visit. The next day was Sunday and we went to church. We have a German branch that overlaps their time with ours, so Jon and Sharmyn went to Sacrament with them and I think they really enjoyed it. We came home, changed clothes and drove to Idar Oberstein to see the church in the rock. We enjoyed a nice drive on a sunny day and arrived at our destination with only two wrong turns...not too bad when you consider who was driving. We hiked up to this church...in the rock. Literally looks like a giant scooped a piece out of the side of the mountain and then just placed this little church inside of it. We toured the tiny church but the highlight was looking at the paintings and getting an education by Jon about the symbolism and the content of the pictures. Then we took pieces of paper placed them over carved names on the wall and took a pencil and shaded the paper to leave the impression of the names...very cool. After the church, we decided to keep hiking up the hill to the castle. What a hike, pretty long and steep, but good company makes the time go fast. Rocks, leaves and paper were collected throughout our travels...anything can be a souvenir, many times it is the free things that are the most valuable. Jon and McKay (Jon started calling McKay 'enfant' while he was here) got lost from the group and ended up calling for Eddie (our dog) to help. Eddie wasn't much help and they had to find their way back to the group themselves. We drove home and munched on some food. We then had family home evening, and evening of songs around the piano and looked at a bunch of our photos on the tv. We have truly been blessed. The next day I had to work, so Sharma brought Jon and Sharmyn up to the hospital so they could see me in action, actually I just gave them a tour of the place, but I think they appreciated it. Sharma then took them to France (we love France) and went to Cora, a great French grocery store. I think they may have bought the place out of yogurt and cheese. Sharma then had to take the kids to piano lessons and Jon and Sharmyn stayed at our place packing and just winding down. I came home and had a lovely talk with them. Our last night together came too quickly, but our time together will always be remembered. We have truly strengthened a friendship and now often ask ourselves, 'why didn't we get to know them better when we lived in NC?'

That very same day Carey, Chantel and their kids joined us. Sharma picked them up from the train station. They were tired as they had already been to London and Paris for three days each. Their kids were doing remarkably well and ready to play with our kids. We also gave them the tour of the base and basically just let them relax the first day. They rented a car and from that point on, they were go, go, go. They decided to drive to Prague, Munich and Neuschwanstein castle in a matter of two days. A very long trip but they really seemed to like it quite a bit. Our kids continued to play and entertain each other. It is great when cousins can get a long so well and entertain each other and play. They also went to Trier, Germany (one of our favorite, little cities in Germany) and then kept going to Luxembourg city. They did that on a Sunday afternoon, which just goes to show how close many places are to us. It seemed like they had a great time and would fancy a return to Europe again...maybe Italy this time. It is so nice to have friends and family come and visit, to renew ties and catch up.

Rome can't be seen in a day

We left early to take our flight to Rome. We got off to a later start than I wanted and then realized that my GPS had indicated that the trip would be 20 min longer than I had anticipated. We got to the ticket counter, no line thank goodness. Next we stood in line for the security check and again relatively short lines. What we didn't realize is that we were racing against time, in fact as we made it to the terminal there was nobody else in line...that was because everybody else was on the plane settling in. They immediately closed off the gate as we walked through. We were the last ones on and needed to find a place to deposit our luggage, which is never an easy thing to do on a Ryan air flight. We made it to Rome a little early, got in line to use the restroom and then walked out to catch our bus to Rome. Unfortunately, our little detour to the restroom delayed us just enough to miss the bus, we were the first people for the next bus. Our bus took us to station Termini, the main bus, metro and train station. What we didn't know was that our bus dropped us literally 50 yards from our hotel. Our hotel consisted of one medium sized room with 2 beds, a bunk bed and a very small bathroom that had an intermittently working toilet. The location of the hotel was fantastic, next to the metro station, a stones throw from the hotel and within walking distance to the Colosseum. It was beautiful weather, completely sunny and 60 degrees. We made it to the Colosseum and had a great view of it as we approached it. Now I had Rick Steve's guide to Rome and had read it multiple times and did my due diligence in researching what to do and how to do it. But I went against his advice and stood in line at the Colosseum, I could have stood in line at Palatine hill and probably saved a half and hour. We stood in line for 30 minutes and gained access to the immense structure. You walk through and just can't imagine how old this structure is and even more unbelievable is what went on here. The precursor to our stadiums today. There were a lot of people at the Colosseum but only a fraction of what would be here during the summer, that plus the fact that it wasn't hot made it a very nice experience. From here we walked over to Palatine hill and walked through the ruins and made our way across to the Roman forum area. Again, many ruins and structures, it just keeps you in awe of what they were able to achieve so many centuries ago. After walking along cobblestones paths for several hours and almost twisting...nay, breaking a couple of ankles it was time to move on. After leaving the Roman Forum area we walked to the Pantheon past many old churches and buildings. The Pantheon is interesting because it has an oculus in the center which allows the only light into the building (at least at the time it was built, now it has some mood lighting at night). The artist Rafael is also buried here. From here we walked several small streets until we reached the Trevi fountain. The steps were filled with people, many people sat on the steps while others were lining the edge of the fountain and casting coins over their shoulders into the fountain. I must admit, each one of us jettisoned a coin into the water to ensure that we will return to Rome...I think that is a good investment. There were many vendors selling all sorts of trinkets. We took the metro home at that point, because we were all tired and still needed to officially check into the hotel. We made it back to the hotel and crashed. Our toilet wasn't working so I called the desk and they had a guy named Bruno come and fight with it, only to get it working temporarily.

The original plan was to get up very early the next day and stand in line at the Vatican. We decided not to get up so early and just make our way to the Vatican at a decent hour. We finally made it to the Vatican by 9:30am and stood in the line. We were hounded by "tour groups" wanting to get us to join with the promise that we could skip the line. We were not swayed, we stuck to our guns and stood in line for 30 minutes. We were herded like cattle into the Vatican museum. Man, so much to see in this tiny country. We made our way through the museum and saw all sorts of classic works by Michelangelo, Bernini and Rafael. The opulence was remarkable, there was definitely an air of "look what we own". The Vatican museum was long, with the final destination leading to Sistine chapel. The chapel was really an amazing site, I can't imagine Michelangelo putting together a scaffolding and lying on his back for several years, meticulously painting this huge ceiling. Amazing. The best part was listening to the security guards yell out "No photo!" over, and over and over again. You could tell they were definitely tired of saying it. I must say we did break the rules and take some photos, I think we were only busted one time. I mean really, how can you stand in this amazing room without stealing a few photos? We left the country of the Vatican temporarily after seeing the Sistine chapel. We stopped at a little outside cafe and ordered three pizzas. After filling our bellies, we walked over to St Peter's square and snapped a bunch of pictures and then got in line for St Peter's Basilica. Upon passing through the metal detector we entered into the church itself. A huge, cavernous church that is believed to house the remains of Peter, the apostle of Christ. After the basilica we decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, 60 degrees should not be wasted. We pulled up a couple of steps, leaned up against a pillar and just lounged about. There were a lot of pigeons in the area waiting for people to discard their food. As we sat there, one of these birds decided to relieve himself on my wife's camera. It was a direct hit, I mean it couldn't have been more accurate. The good thing is that it landed squarely on outside of the lens and only caused cosmetic damage. I don't think anybody else around us was even aware that we were had just become casualties and that soon they would too. Now I could make up some old fable at this point and say it is good luck to have a pigeon relieve itself on you on a sunny Saturday in St Peters Basilica...but I don't recall that ever being talked about in Rick Steve's book, and after all, if Rick didn't say it, it can't be true. After sitting there for an hour we walked to Piazza Navona. On the way we stopped by a grocery store and purchased baguettes, chesse, chips, red pepper and some water. We parked ourselves at one of the many benches in the piazza and watched life go by. There were many people milling around just taking in the night, enjoying the atmosphere. There were many artist stands selling their wares, with many artists drawing seated tourists. The kids were amazed at their talent and would have stayed there all evening watching them if we would've let them. We left the piazza and meandered over to the Pantheon. Each piazza we went to was alive with people. Onward we kept moving, to the Trevi fountain. The fountain was surrounded with people sitting on the steps, vendors selling their goods, snapshots going off and coins being tossed over shoulders. We purchased all of the kids this cool little toy, basically a very heavy balloon material filled with a flour like substance. When you molded it, it would stay in that position. It had yarn for hair and two little eyes, it was really a neat souvenir and funny to play with. Next we walked to the Spanish steps and again mingled with the crowd and took some pictures. From there we caught the Metro home.

The next day we started out by going to piazza del Popolo. We bought muffins from a girl scout stand outside of a church. After eating the muffins we went into the church and sat for 20 minutes of mass. After listening to the sermon in Italian and appreciating the religious fervor, we decided to move on. We walked down to the Spanish steps and took copious pictures all the while maneuvering through the crowd toward the steps themselves. We climbed the steps, took some more pictures and took in a view of the city. At the top there was a church that we took a break in. We walked over to Borghese Gardens, which overlooked the city. We stumbled upon a few young men showing off their rollerblading ability, they were doing tricks, weaving in and out of evenly spaced cones and doing "rubber legs"...thats the best way I can describe it. We rented two pedal powered go-carts for Maddi and McKay. 10 Euro for an hour for the both of them...a small price to pay for some fun times. Next we all had pinini sandwiches and kept moving toward the Borghese museum. We couldn't go into the museum, not only does it cost but you have to reserve a time to visit it. We walked further through the park and found several old men playing Bocce ball. Classic. We walked back into the city, past the US embassy. Our last destination was the Capuchin crypt. When we got there it wasn't going to be open for another 10 minutes, so we decided to find some Gelato...since I had been promising Maddi for three days. We all purchased two scoops and stood by one of the many running water fountains (ones that you can fill your water bottles from. They are throughout the city). Once finished we walked to the crypt and paid a small donation to see the remains of 4,000 Capuchin friars arranged in an artistic fashion. Sharma was a little freaked out and decided to take Maddi out, while Hailey, McKay and I finished up. After we finished we caught the metro back to the hotel. It was a great call as we were tired and the kids were ready to just sit and relax, plus it started to downpour about 2 hours after we got back to the hotel. The next day we caught our bus back to the airport only to find our plane delayed 1.5 hours because of snow on the ground back in Germany....great, do we really have to go home? Info Transportation to city: Ryan Air (10 Euro/person, roundtrip); Ciampino to Rome 8 Euro/person Transportation in city: Metro Lodging: Viennese due BB (near Termini station) Sites: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Borghese park, Pantheon

Barthelona

Here is the thing about flying Ryan air, yes, it is inexpensive, but because of that many times you don't land directly at your intended destination. In this example, we wanted to go to Barcelona but had to fly into the Girona airport, 1 hour north of Barcelona. So what you gain in cost, you lose in proximity and time. But who is complaining when the tickets to Barcelona cost us 50 Euro (70 USD) for the whole family to fly roundtrip. Ryan air does usually provide a corresponding bus service into the destination town, Barcelona was no exception. We purchased tickets for the bus and loaded on. It was an hour drive from the Girona airport to the bus station in Barcelona. After trying to sleep for an hour on the bus we arrived at the bus station and gathered as much intelligence as we could before we set out on our adventure. Our first task was to get to the Metro and buy tickets for us and our friends (Rock and Kailey Jaster, who were with us). After 20 minutes of trying to figure out which ticket option would be the best and least expensive we were on our way. I had reserved an apartment-type lodging for us and told them that I would meet them at a certain time to get the keys. As a side note, it makes it a little more difficult to find lodging for five people, where most places only accommodate four. We made it to our destination and realized that the door to the apartment complex was locked. I called the number on the outside of the building and arranged to get the keys. We unloaded our things at the apartment and headed out for the day...first stop Park Güell. We walked for quite some time toward the park, along the way we passed this little store selling vegetables with humongous red bell peppers displayed next to the street. Rock was compelled to buy one and we all laughed at his purchase. We continued our walk to the park, which was at the top of a very steep hill...so steep in fact that we had to take three escalators to get there. The pay off, however, was a beautiful view of the city. Hunger had set in and we decided it was time to eat our lunch. We had bought some baguettes, cheese, water and chips...while Rock had his red bell pepper. But Rock had the last laugh as the bell pepper tasted excellent and we were all a bit jealous of him. The park was very large, with many different areas to explore. The uppermost part had a lookout of the city with a large cross at the top. There was a courtyard area with performers, black-market souvenirs and bustling tourist activity. We watched a guy make bubbles with a long piece of rope and soapy water, another lady performed a Flamenco dance, one guy wore stilts and was dressed up as a matador. Then, not to be outdone, were the people selling souvenirs, illegally. They had all their souvenirs lined up on sheets for everybody to see, one after the other. The best part was when word came that the police were coming, you suddenly saw 30 vendors take the edges of their sheet and sling it over their shoulders and off they ran...it was amazing to have this rush of wind as all of these people ran off into the hillside. We continued walking through the park admiring the uniqueness of it. It was a park designed by Gaudi, an artist known for his modernistic approach. The word gaudy came from Gaudi the artist, so think of something over the top and you have pictured Gaudi's works. We left the park and went to Las Ramblas area, a very famous street. We noticed a Hard Rock Cafe near Las Ramblas, and we being hungry, seemed like a match made in heaven. After eating our meal we roamed down Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is like a circus, alive with action, never quite knowing what you are going to see next. We passed newspaper stands, ice cream/crepe stands, pet kiosks, souvenir shops and street performers like the man in a toilet, elvis, a princess, a tribute to the band KISS, a man in a suped up vehicle and a golden devil-man floating in the air being balanced by a cane...yep, just your ordinary stroll down the boulevard. We decided to head back to our apartment, it had been a long day that started at 3am, we were tired. The next day I had the whole day planned out, our first stop was the church, La Sagrada Familia. A huge church that was started by Gaudi around 1884 and continues to be worked on until this day...as a matter of fact they don't expect to finish it for another 30 years. We ate a McDonalds for breakfast, which sat across the street from this large church. A couple of notes about American fast food places here in europe, the food tastes of better quality and they have some very interesting menu choices. I once had a shrimp burger at McDonalds, verdict? Not too bad. After having breakfast we walked around the outside of the church and spent a good hour taking pictures, examining all of the intricate designs and interesting stonework on this church. From a distance the church looks like it is melting, I can't explain it, it just does. Have you ever seen a picture of something close up and can't figure out what it is until you back away and take a broader perspective? Well this church is just the opposite, it doesn't look very pretty from afar, but as you get closer you suddenly notice all of the hand-carved detail and rich design that truly make this a wonderful church. We didn't go inside in the interest of time, but someday when we return we'll grace her entrance. We walked down several streets on our way to another of Guadi's creations, La Pedrera. A housing unit with a curved facade and unique items built into it's construction. From there we kept walking toward Las Ramblas again, passing several unique building, graffitied rolladens (european window and shop covers), stenciled sidewalks and statues. We made it back to Las Ramblas again and finished walking the length of the street, which led to a large statue of Christopher Columbus near the waterfront. We walked to the beach and enjoyed our first touch of sand in almost a year. The beach was beautiful, the sun was setting and people were playing...to bad it was too cool to really enjoy ourselves. As it was dinner time we decided to find someplace to eat. I wanted to eat paella, a traditional spanish dish. We found two places next door to each other, one was busy and a little more expensive, the other was empty and a bit cheaper. So Rock said, "let's eat at the empty one, we don't have much to lose"...wrong Rock. Only one table at the restaurant had people at it, so we figured we should have excellent service and food quickly. The waitress greeted us with nothing near a smile and it felt like I had just ran over her cat with the way her demeanor was. We said we weren't ready to order yet and you could just see the steam starting to come out of her ears. We ordered...we got a pizza and a large dish of seafood paella. Rock and Kailey ordered a ham and pineapple pizza. We waited...and waited...and waited. 30 minutes later we had our pizzas and 60 min later we had our paella. The funny part of this was Rock's pizza was not ham and pineapple like he wanted, it was bluecheese...the stinkiest, most potent bluecheese you have ever smelled. And they don't like bluecheese. He even went over to our ornery waitress and said this isn't ham and pineapple and she promised up and down that it was. Lesson here? Ham and pineapple in spanish translates as bluecheese. Kailey and Rock wanted to go to a Dominoes across from La Sagrada Familia, since they were still hungry. While they were eating, Sharma and I decided to walk around the perimeter of the church, it being night and the stained glass being lit up, it was spectacular. The next day I decided to use the pedometer on my phone to see how far we walked. We started off the day going to a park near the Olympic village. The park had a few statues in it and very large fountain, that I am sure in the warmer weather is very nice. However, on this cool morning no water was running. From here we walked to the Arc de Triomf, a very similar, but lesser known version of the one in Paris. Next we walked to the main cathedral in Barcelona. We got there just in time to walk through and then they ushered everybody out. Rock had seen some ties the day before that he wanted on Las Ramblas, so we headed back to get the ties. With Rock's new purchases, he was happy and it was now time to move on to a new area of the city. We walked to Park de Montjuic, a destination at the top of a very large hill. After walking, for what seemed like an eternity we reached the top of the hill. It opened up to a wonderful panorama of the city. Then we realized we weren't at our destination yet...final destination was the Olympic stadium. So on we trudged, with no complaints other than we all needed a restroom. In Europe, we have learned, sometimes at great expense, bathrooms are hard to find when you need them. Near the Olympic stadium, we found a park with a WC (watercloset) in it, and we all found relief. The Olympic stadium was very cool, just the way I remembered seeing it on tv back in 1992. After spending a few minutes at the stadium taking pictures and realizing they weren't going to let me run on the track, we walked over to National Art Museum. It overlooked the city and had a glorious view. We descended many steps to get back down to the street level, we were quite tired by this point. One last item on our agenda, I wanted to take McKay to the stadium where FC Barcelona (famous soccer team) played. We rode the metro for quite a distance, which was nice because it gave us a chance to rest. We walked to the stadium never realizing how big it actually was. We walked around 3/4 of it until we finally found the entrance to the souvenir shop. The tickets to take a tour of the stadium were quite expensive, just for us to take a few pictures, so I decided to spend some money on getting McKay a souvenir instead. It was getting dark out and decided it was time to wrap up our time touring Barcelona, especially since we had an early flight back to Germany. Pedometer grand total for day three 7.5 miles. Our second day, we actually walked more and our first day we walked a little less. So I would guess that, in all, we walked around 20 miles total for three days...not too bad and not one complaint from any of our children that they were tired, needed to stop or their feet hurt. Another successful journey. Info Transportation to city: Ryan Air- 10 Euro/person, roundtrip; Shuttle from Girona to Barcelona- 'Barcelona Bus', 20 Euro/person, roundtrip Transportation in city: Metro- 3day pass, 13.20 Euro/person Lodging: Apartamentos Park Guell Sites: Park Guell, Las Ramblas, Barcelonetta (beach), La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera (Casa Mila), Olympic stadium, FC Barcelona stadium

Romeo, Romeo...

When our ship docked the plan was to spend the day in Venice and then stay at Aviano AFB that evening. Our last day on the ship we checked the weather coming through the pass and it was going to be clear, however the next day there was a good chance of snow. Our choice was made, we needed to go through the Alps today and not take a chance tomorrow. We got off of the ship and schlepped our luggage to the van. We decided to alter our path home by going through Verona, Italy and then swing through Munich. The drive to Verona was uneventful, pretty, but uneventful. We reached Verona only knowing that we wanted to visit Juliet's house. We drove around Verona looking for a parking lot. The Europeans make parking as convenient as possible by having electronic signs posted around the city with directions to different parking garages and showing how many 'free spaces' are available. Now this is agreat idea in concept, as long as you can find the parking garage. In Verona, however, we were trying to find a 'stealth' garage, the same technology employed by the military to hide their jets...at least that is how it felt. At one point I was going the wrong way down a one way street and sitting at an intersection going the wrong way. After getting honked, waved and yelled at we finally got turned around (and us in our van, they had to know we were Americans...I'll just say it now 'Dumb Americans'). We found the garage and parked our big van into an itsy-bitsy, tiny little spot. We walked to the coliseum, which is the second largest outside of Rome. As we approached there were guys dressed up in gladiator costumes wielding swords. If you know me, I never pass up an opportunity for photo, so I got my picture taken. Then the kids got their picture taken and then Sharma got her picture taken...then he wanted money. If he didn't have a sword I would have run but I ponied up a couple of Euro and off we went. We bought tickets to the coliseum, which were kind of expensive, but I am trying to take this eternal perspective about my travels here. Yeah sure, sometimes the things we see are expensive but at the end of the day do I want to look back with regrets about not seeing something because it was a few too many Euro? In most cases I end up buying the ticket. We strolled around the coliseum on this rather cold day, walked up and down and around and around the steps. After circumnavigating the coliseum and looking over Verona we decided to depart for Juliet's house. We didn't really know where we were going, but that had never stopped us before. We meandered off in a direction that looked the most crowded. After walking several blocks without any indication that we were going in the right direction I decided to stop in a hotel and ask the concierge for directions. Now, if you have ever traveled with us and ended up getting lost (which is very likely) you would soon realize that Sharma won't ask for directions to save her life, not that she doesn't find merit in it, she just won't do it. So I have assumed the lofty title of "the asker of directions" for the Shumate household, not something that I have aspired to, I guarantee you. He was very kind and gave us directions and amazingly enough we were actually pretty close to her house. We arrived at this narrow street with cement homes and businesses all along its length. The entrance to Juliet's home was bordered by a little archway with a gate and tiny informational plaque. As you entered the first thing you noticed was the writing, scribbling and graffiti...not from people trying to deface the property, but from people writing to Juliet or professing their love to another. There was no exposed brick, that I could see. Once through the entrance you came to the courtyard, a very humble space with a small store selling souvenirs. There was a statue of Juliet at one end and high up on the wall of the building, a balcony. The tradition says that you are supposed to touch the statue's breast for good luck... the next thing I know Sharma is up there "touching" Juliet...so I got a picture to prove it. Man, I hope we get some good luck off of that. We bought a few souvenirs and took several pictures and then decided it was time to move on. On our way back to the car we hit a small Christmas market and took some more pictures. We climbed back in the car and proceeded on. We had a non-eventful drive, passing through Innsbruck, Austria on our way to Munich. We decided to stop in Munich and hit their Christmas market as well. Again, we really did not know where we were going to find this market, and Munich is no small town. We did happen upon the market, however, as luck would have it. Again, we had some difficulty finding the parking garage, but the real trouble came once I found the garage. This must have won the award for the smallest, narrowest and most claustrophobic garage yet. The worst came when I was trying to maneuver our van around a tight corner with cars parked on both sides. I didn't hit any cars, but I did scrape a pole, which left a nice dent in the side of our van. Normally I would be upset over this, but our van is pretty old and it's not a looker any more so I figure a dent here or there just adds character...I mean who else can say "Oh that dent? I got that while driving in Munich, Germany." How cool is that? We found our way to the Christmas market and the festivities were in full swing. There was a lot of alcohol there and, as a non-drinker, I can give an unbiased assessment that the Europeans don't drink to excess. There were crowds of people and many booths selling their wares. There was a lot of food for sale and musicians playing music. The atmosphere was very festive and you couldn't help but feel excited for Christmas. We ended up buying an authentic German nutcracker...now if we only had some nuts. Since it was a very cold night and we were getting tired, we decided it was time to get on the road. All in all, it was a very nice day...but we were happy to crawl into our own beds that evening. Info: Transportation to city: Drove car, parked in city parking structure Sites: Juliet's house-free for courtyard; Colosseum- 4 Euro/person