The Bergmans

Visit with the Cousins

2011-02-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

My cousins Kirk (on left) and Dolly (on right) with yours truly in the middle. Kirk is Auntie Jo's son; Dolly is Auntie Ruth's daughter. Auntie Jo and Auntie Ruth are two of my dad's sisters.
It was so much fun to get to spend time with Dolly after 26 years! Wow. 26 years! Of course, I don't think we've aged hardly at all :)

Let's don't wait 26 years, Dolly! Come again, soon.

Caleb

2010-09-30T16:18:00.001-07:00

Is he just CUTE or what???

The book makes sounds when you push on certain spots. He LOVES that! Check out those lips :) !!!

He does LOVE Bears!!

Essie Marie -- after her dance class.

Camping -- June Lake, August 2010

2010-08-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Camping -- June Lake. Not very restful, but a TON of fun !! :)

June Lake is SOOOOOOO beautiful !!!

Essie and S'mores . . . mixed with a little good, clean, camping dirt :)

Caleb Cutie!

Abby and Essie in a boat (Papa is holding the rope :)

Nathan, Caleb, Abby, and Essie. Isn't June Lake breathtakingly beautiful ?? God's creation is just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! It made me want to sing, "Then sings my soul, my savior, God, to Thee, 'How Great Thou Art! How Great Thou Art!"

It's too bad that my camera just doesn't quite capture it.

Camping July 2010

2010-07-18T18:44:00.001-07:00

Lee Vining Creek. It's really our favorite secret. I don't want too many people to discover it,

but I'll give you a little peek:

Ruby got the chipmonk to sit on her knee and munch on a few chips.

Wonderful place to REST !

Dale, Ruby, and I at Bridal Veil Falls. This is actually in Yosemite.

Beautifully full this time of the year.

2010-01-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

I had an appointment with the eye doctor, so the girls came along and then when Dale didn't get a subbing job for the day, he joined us as well for a very fun day. Simple things are sooooo much more fun with the grandbabies along.

Just a couple photos from Christmas Day

2010-01-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day

Christmas Get-tgether

2010-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Joel and Richelle, your house looks so pretty :)

Our Christmas get-together at Joel and Richelle's house was so much fun. Great to get together with the cousins. I hope we can do it again and that more people can come next time. Thanks, Joel and Richelle! It was great!

A FEW Christmas favorites

2010-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Mommy has Caleb totally trained to NOT touch that VERY tempting Christmas tree. "Hmmmm -- let me think about it.

Maybe if I just touch it a little bit.

One little touch surely won't hurt . . .

Oh, maybe I better not . . .

What do you think, Gramma?"

"I think you are a very, very good little boy."

2009-12-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

I think some people really don't believe that I'm a court reporter. So here's proof! I'm hard at work ! :)

Desert Outing

2009-04-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

I know it's going to be a real shock to eveyone, but I decided to add to my little blog here.

Today I was feeling just a little down. It just seems like our lives are so busy -- and it's a good busy, but at times I long for just a "free" day, a "getaway" day, if you will.

As Dale was heading out the door for another of his many endeavors, he noticed my sigh.

On his way to "Boron" -- the epitomy of desertness -- he -- yes DALE -- noticd the flowers!! Can you imagine that? My extremely observationally-challenged husband noticed the flowers. You have to know Dale to know how amazing that statement is. But the desert is in full bloom right now. Soooo beautiful! Then, what he was planning to do in Boron didn't work out, so he called me and said, "Let's go look at the flowers." I protested a little because of all I have to do, but he insisted and so he came back and got me and off we went.

The flowers were magnificent. The desert is literally carpeted in bright yellow with accents of purple and bright orange and white. It always amazes me -- God's handiwork. He can grow flowers where NO ONE ELSE could possibly grow them. And not only does he grow them in such a beautiful array -- but so many! Miles and miles and miles of them.

Then since we were already out that way we decided to visit Randsburg. It's an old mining town that is still inhabited (by about 80 people). It's a living ghost town. Really cute. We had an "old fashioned" coke at a 100-year old soda fountain.

Chatted with the "soda fountain girls"

And walked along the main street and enjoyed the old buildings.

And thought about putting one of us in jail

Then went to Boron to eat at a little hamburger stand that is in the shape of an old barrel -- it's called "The Barrel." Probably the best hamburgers in So. Cal, by the way.

Anyway, it was just a wonderful day and I came home so thoroughly refreshed and renewed, thanking the Lord for his beautiful creation and for a thoughtful, loving husband who is my best friend and with whom I love just "spending the day."

I want to encourage everyone to get away once in a while.

Jesus did. If he needed it -- so do we!

Heading Home

2008-11-08T08:44:00.001-08:00

The Trip Home

We had to get up at 5:30 in the morning because all the other connecting buses to the airport were booked. Our plane didn't actually leave London until 12:00, so we had a lot of time at the airport. While waiting there, we noticed this couple reading Bill O'Reilly's books. We're a fan of Bill's, so I snapped this picture (cutting off the heads on purpose) and sent it to O'Reilly. If you see this posted on his show, you'll know where it came from. We told him that he is "ubiquitous." You know how he loves those big words.

We finally boarded the plane and began the long, grueling trip home. Unfortunately, we had seats in the center, so we were so crammed in, you felt like you just could not possibly get comfortable. After three and one half hours I was so done -- but I had seven more hours to go !!! Torture. Pure torture. You fly with the sun so it's light outside the whole way -- even though it's the middle of the night for your body clock.

Our "40th-anniversary celebration trip" was absolutely wonderful. Truly a memory we will treasure forever. We do hope to go again. I would really love to spend more time in England. That's my favorite of all the places we went. Dale said he thinks it would be his favorite as well.

It's sad to leave, but it's so wonderful to come home -- home, sweet home.

America the Beautiful --

God bless America! Land that I love.

Joel picked us up at the airport. Thank you, Joel. It was so nice not to have to catch a bus and drag our suitcases everywhere.

Of course, the favorite thing about coming home is this:

Abby and Essie, little princesses, Halloween 2008

Europe Day Sixteen

2008-11-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Europe Day 16
Last Full Day in Europe

We boarded another bus today and headed for Warrick Castle. Dale loves this medieval stuff, so he was really enjoying himself.

Next we visited the famous Straford on Avon where Shakespeare was born and eventually moved back to to reside there. The house in which he was born is still standing, but the house he bought when he moved back there was torn down. Apparently after he sold the house, he was so famous that people kept coming by to see the house. So instead of selling the house, the owner tore it completely down. A bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?

This is a centuries-old pub where we had lunch. Beautiful.

We boarded the bus again to go to Oxford University. We drove through miles and miles of English countryside, seeing one amazing little village after another – all so well preserved.

Oxford University

We continued to drive through the beautiful English countryside back to London. We came across many of these thatched-roof cottages. Our tour guide explained to us that thatching a roof is an extremely expensive process. It can cost 50 to $60,000 to thatch a roof, but they do it to preserve the heritage. Notice the bird on the top of the house. Apparently there are different types of grasses that they use for the thatching, and every thatched roof has a bird and each bird represent the type of grass that was used.

Tomorrow we head for home. I'll post one more short blog of that long day.

Europe Day Fifteen

2008-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Europe Day 15
London

Another very full day in London.

We had heard that there was a Monet exhibit at the British Arts Museum, so we boarded “the tube” as they call it in London, and headed there. There wasn’t a Monet exhibit after all, but there was a Byzantium exhibit, so we decided that Dale would go see it – since he loves it and had studied it forever and I’m ambivalent – and I would go shop.

A cute little shopping "mall."

Boarded “The Tube” again and went to the British War Museum. By the way, during the war, people would come down to these tunnels during the air raids. At the war museum, we saw a picture of people sleeping along these walkways and the picture looked exactly the same as this except without the people sleeping.

The British war museum is kind of located outside center of downtown London, so we got more of a feel for being amongst the "commoners." London is filled with the most beautiful parks and of course since this is the fall season -- beautiful colors.

Along the walk there, we just happened to come across Captain Bligh's house. They have so much history here, that things like this are just common. Right down the street from this house is an English Pub. We stopped here for a Coke. They were very surprised when we asked for a coke. We got it -- with no ice, of course. We asked the people how old this building was and no one seemed to know. Then we went outside and it's written right on the building. Apparently Charlie Chaplin grew up in this neighborhood and his dad was a frequent visitor to this pub, so he has his own little corner -- Chaplin's corner.

British War Museum
Dale could have spent two weeks here. It was filled with planes and tanks and guns and ammo and on and on. My eyes begin to glaze over. They did have a recreation of the tunnels that these soldiers lived in during World War I that I thought was interesting. How these soldiers suffered to protect our freedom. We will never know the half of it. The tunnels were cold and wet and smelly. Lord, help us never to forget what so many have given.

Next we visited Buckingham Palace and the Queen's Gallery. So many beautiful paintings and some of the sparkling gem-encrusted jewelry of the queen. Amazing.

Europe Day Fourteen

2008-11-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Today we visited Westminster Abbey. This is where Queen Elisabeth the II was crowned queen (and many of her forebears). This is also where she was married, along with Princess Di and Prince Charles. This is the most beautiful church. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Many of the kings and queens of England are buried here along with Handel, Chaucer, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters and on and on. This view you see here is actually a side entrance. This is not the entrance that everyone goes through to be married or buried.

Took our pictures with Bobbies at Big Ben.

From there we walked across the street to the UK Parliament. I had referred to it as the English Parliament, but someone read my blog in the last few minutes and sent me a correction. They said this:

"I hope you had a great time in England. Just one thing - that wasn't the "English parliament" you visited it's the UK parliament. England is one of the only countries in the world that doesn't have its own parliament - something we are fighting to change."

I stand corrected. Thank you for reading my blog and sending me that correction.

While we waited to get inside, we met a precious couple from Israel. This is always a highlight for me, meeting people and getting to talk to them about the Lord. It was like the Lord kept putting them in our path. When we finally started waiting in line to get in, there they were, right next to us -- again. She spoke broken English, he only spoke Yiddish and Hebrew. She said she enjoyed talking to us because she could actually understand us. She was having a lot of trouble with the Brits. I told her that we were as well. She also could understand me better than Dale. Dale would say something and then she would look to me to interpret what he just said. He always has had problems putting the cookies on the lower shelf. Dale started quoting a few Hebrew verses to them that he knows by heart, and you should have seen the smile light up on their faces. Pray for this precious couple -- Rachel and Mordicai -- and PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem.
Then we had dinner at a wonderful little restaurant called the Red Lion, built some 500 years ago. We had beef wellington, which is like a roast baked in a crust of bread. By the way, do you know where the term "upper crust"comes from? When the people in the middle ages baked bread, they had very hot ovens with the heat coming from the bottom, obviously. The top part of the bread would be light and fluffy and the bottom part would be burned. They would slice the top part off and serve that to the wealthy. The poor people got the burned part. Hence, "Upper crust." :)

Another Highlight for me:
After dinner we went back to Westminster Abbey for a church service. Oh, my goodness, it was so wonderful. The choir sang in that “Gregorian chant” style. Not even what it’s called, I’m sure, but I’ve always loved that kind of singing and in this magnificent church – breathtaking. They had several prayers and stand-ups/sit-downs and then the pastor began to pray. You won’t believe this. He began, “Today is the anniversary of the gift of the statue of liberty to America from France.” I’m sure most every American doesn’t even know that anniversary date. And then he began to bless America. He prayed for everything that is on my heart. It was the most amazing thing. Of course, it brought tears to my eyes. It was like a special gift from the Lord to us.

Europe Day Thirteen

2008-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

PARIS!

Notre Dame

Today we traveled by bus most of the day through the beautiful French countryside, snapping pictures through our bus window. This truly has been a whirlwind tour, giving us just a “taste” of Europe, making us want another bite – some day.

We arrived in Paris at about 3:00 in the afternoon. The bus mostly drove around the city with a tour guide from Paris on our bus. Again – snapping pictures from our bus. Then we were finally allowed to get off at Notre Dame – for one half hour. Then back on the bus to the Eiffel Tower – for fifteen minutes!! We were able to quickly snap pictures and then head back. I’m not meaning to sound critical. It’s what we signed up for, seeing a lot in a very short period of time, but it does make us a little sad when we would like to just sit and gaze for hours at these magnificent pieces of architecture. You should see Dale running around – snap, snap, snapping pictures – running back to catch up with the group.

Paris is an amazing city. We had been sternly warned about the pickpocketers that are here. “Hang on to your purse and wallet; don’t let go of your bags for even a second.” At the same time it is supposed to be the “city of love.” Hmmm. Seems a bit incongruous, if you know what I mean. But there is so much history in this city, it’s just awesome to ponder it. Just wish we had a little more time to ponder . . .

Sort of! I am getting that longing to be home. There truly is no place like home. Missing my little grandbabies so very much (and the rest of my family as well, of course).

We ended our tour with our “tour family” at a little Parisian restaurant that looked like it was converted out of an old wine cellar. Probably several hundred years old at least. We were given quite a banquet.

For the first course we were given several options, one of which was escargot or “snails” in plain English. Well, we decided to go the safe route. I ordered French onion soup (yes, it is called French onion soup in France) and Dale ordered the escargot.

We just felt we had to try it. If we didn’t like it, then we could share the soup. Well, the snails came, and they came in their shells. You had to hold onto the shell and scoop out the little creature with a special little fork. Notice the green stuff that is on top of these little bugs. Really appetizing! NOT! See Dale.

His face expresses it all. He did it! Of course, then I had to do it. He made me. But I did it. Neither one of us likes escargot very much. It really doesn’t taste very good and the little creatures are sort of rubbery in texture. Eh! Well, we can chalk it up as a new “experience” for us, and we can at least say we’ve tried it.

The soup was good.

Karen ordered frogs legs . . . Can you see them? SO appetizing! NOT!!Next came the main course. Dale picked a beef dish with a French-sounding name. Neither one of us can remember the name. I had a shrimp thing. The third course was cheese – various choices of different kinds of cheeses. Strange. Final course, dessert. Dale had a chocolate mousse, and I had a caramel cream thing that was kind of like flan. I will say that I really think American food is better than almost anything I’ve had here in Europe, with one exception and that was the German Bratenworst with sauerkraut. Of course, we're prejudiced, I'm sure and it's also what we've been used to all our lives.

At the end of the meal we had some great French entertainment and everyone sang, clapped, and even danced! It was so much fun.

When you travel with someone for 7 days, you make some wonderful friendships.

Majed and Hamad from Dubai and Gloria from New York.

(Thank you, Gloria, for the bookmark from the New York Public Library)

Yosef and Cendriani from Indonesia

Helen and Chris from Austrailia

(Our Auzzies)

Daphne and Rosie from England
(Rosie, I'm sorry the picture isn't a better quality.

It's the only one I got of you, for some reason :(

You'll just have to send me a better picture. If you do, I'll post it)

and many more.

I regret that we didn’t get pictures of everyone and didn’t even get a group shot. Well, it was our tour guide’s first tour. She probably didn’t think of it and we certainly didn’t.

Tomorrow we leave for London and this will be the end of this tour. That will be a good thing. We will be at one hotel for four days, and we will be on our own pace. Yes! We’ll actually be able to sit and gaze. Great Idea! Caun’t wait (said with a good British accent ;)

Europe Day Twelve

2008-10-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Europe Day 12
Switzerland and
France

The Alps

The day in Switzerland started out foggy and cold. We took a boat trip on The Lucerne. If it had been a clear day, it would have been an amazing trip because we would be seeing the Alps all around. Instead, it was just a nice little boat trip on a lake and some pretty (and very expensive) houses on the shore. A little bit of a disappointment, but we can’t blame the tour company on that one.

Next we traveled by bus to get onto a little train to climb the Alps. This train was constructed in 1893 and is still functioning. The windows you see are open. This little train climbed up the mountain at about a 30 to 40 angle.

Going to the top might be frightening for some, hence this sign with a bit of humor.

From our little I-think-I-can-do-it train we boarded an aerial tram or gondola to ascend to the top. It was an ear-popping ride.

Still foggy for a good portion of the trip up, but all of a sudden we burst through the clouds into beautiful sunny weather. We arrived at the top and my, oh my! what a view!

Hi Dale!

“The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.” Psalms 111:2

Europe Day Eleven

2008-10-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Europe Day 11
Verona, Italy
and
Switzerland

Today we went to Verona, Italy. Verona is the location for the inspiration of the famous Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet’s balcony

It is said that the play was inspired from an actual occurrence in this city. Apparently it is a common thing for large families to be mad at each other here in Italy, even today. I’m not sure, but maybe that’s where the mafia got its roots. It is a beautiful city which has inspired many artists.

Here there was a Roman arena that is in better condition than the Coliseum. You can actually see what the arena must have been like. Apparently the people discovered iron in the walls of the Coliseum and began to dig it out, due to its value. However, this greatly weakened the walls, leading to its partial collapse after a large earthquake. If the iron had not been stolen, the Coliseum would probably still be in the same condition as this Roman arena in Verona

From here we began our climb into Switzerland.

Switzerland is the most amazingly beautiful country and combined with the colors of the Fall season – absolutely breathtaking.
This evening we went to a Swiss folklore program of yodeling and blowing of the alp horn. It was a fun-filled evening of music straight out of Lawrence Welk. They called people up to the platform to try their voice out for yodeling. Dale was one of the people they called. He actually did quite well – compared to everyone else, that is. Then as a reward, they brought out a huge tray of beer in mugs to see if they could drink it down in one breath. I thought, “Oh, no, what is Dale going to do?” But he just took the plunge and drank it down. He said it tasted awful. You should have seen the expressions on the faces of our people in the group when Dale told them it was his first beer -- EVER!

Europe Day Ten

2008-10-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Europe Day 10

VENETZIA!! (Not Venice -- like we say in Americaneze :)

Today we went to Venice or Venitsia as they say in Italian. Fascinating place. I basically thought it was an old city built on an island with some canals running through it. It actually dates from the 5th century or mid 450 on and it is built on 18 islands that are connected by bridges. It was built by Italians who were fleeing from the Huns and the Longobards. They discovered they could live on these islands and better defend themselves.

This is St. Mark’s cathedral, dating from 829. It is such a incredibly beautiful building. Supposedly Mark’s remains are there. Who knows. Probably not. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but everything from the floors to the walls to the ceilings is ornately done with marble mosaics floors and gold gilded paintings on the ceilings. Just amazing to think that they could do that so long ago without the technology that we have today and have it still standing. It is interesting that the floors are actually wavy from the movement below. I mean, fairly large waves of maybe 6 to 10 inches in varying heights. You really have to watch your step.

The gondola ride was fun. It was an extra excursion that we had to pay for, but we felt we just couldn’t come to Venice without a gondola ride. Those of us that paid for the extra trip occupied four boats and we had one singer for the four boats. He wasn’t on our boat, but we could hear him very well and he had a great voice. It was really fun.

Our days are very long. This morning we arose at 6:00, and we didn’t get back to our hotel until 8:00 p.m. -- at which time we went to diiner. We’re both very tired, but having a wonderful time. Wish you were all here :)

Europe Day Nine

2008-10-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Europe Day 9

Today is the halfway mark for our Euro trip and it is the absolute highlight so far for me. I know, I know, I’ve said that before, but this truly has been one amazing day. We left our hotel and got on the famous Autobahn. Since this is Fall, the colors are so spectacular. Unfortunately, the camera just cannot do it justice. Plus, many of our pictures, unfortunately, are taken from the bus. Also, it rained all day. Not a hard, pouring rain, just a slight drizzle, just enough to cause our pictures to not be the greatest.
We drove through the most beautiful countryside, passing picture-postcard villages nestled amongst the emerald green pastures and patchwork farmlands, separated by rows of trees of every hue. Breathtaking. Unfortunately, our tour is a birds-eye view of everything, which is a good thing in one way. We get to see a lot, but we don’t get to see anything in detail. It is giving us a feeling that we would love to come back here one day and see things in more depth.

Rothenberg

Yeah, that's me. It's raining, but it's still beautiful!

Finally we arrived in Rothenberg, Germany, a centuries-old village that has been preserved. It is filled with the cutest shops imaginable. It looks like this little Charles Dickens villages that you see at Christmastime, except that it's for real. It was a perfect combination for Dale and me because it has the history that he loves (and I appreciate), and the cute shops I love (and he tolerates). We were only given two hours there. We needed two days. We could have wandered the streets forever.

We were able to go inside a 600-year old church that is still be used today.

These pictures are for Abby and Essie. I thought they'd love seeing all the little dollies in the window.

We ate lunch in a building built in 1596. We had bratenworst and sauerkraut -- of course. It was sooooooo good.

Next we left for Austria, traveling through a fall-colored forest, traveling through the Alps. Breathtaking. I expected Julie Andrews to come sailing out at any moment singing, “The Hills are Alive!” Once we got into the pass, we started to sing “The Hills are Alive . . . and it’s pretty frightening!” Our bus driver hardly slowed at all going around hairpin curves with straight down cliffs on the side.

Tonight we are spending the night in Innsbruck, Austria.

We hired a taxi and went into the city with some friends on our tour named Hamad and Majed from Dubai and Gloria from New York City!

Europe Day Eight

2008-10-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

See if you can see the castle in the background

Europe Day 8

We left Belgium this morning for Germany to take a cruise down the Rhine River. So amazingly beautiful – I took about a million pictures. I just couldn’t help myself. We are seeing it in the Fall and I really think that is probably the most beautiful time. The colors are absolutely magnificent. It was rainy today, but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. In fact, it seemed like it made it even more beautiful with the mists hovering around the mountain tops.

Our reception here in Germany has been cool at best. Out tour guide warned us. She said, “It’s been said that Germans can smile and Germans can work, but not at the same time.” When we got on the boat, one of the workers whom Dale lovingly nicknamed “Hilga” immediately asked for our umbrellas in a very abrupt way. She didn’t want any “dripping” on her carpet. She was sure Dale was hiding one. She said, “I kill you.” We weren’t sure that she was joking. Someone from our group noticed that there were two German couples on the cruise as well and she didn’t pester them about their umbrellas.
Also, our tour guide was reprimanded by the Captain for talking to some of our group in English (even though this is an English-speaking group). She couldn’t talk to anyone for the rest of the trip. She apologized to us once we got back on the bus. I guess the captain wanted us to buy some English tapes to listen to, but it was a little over the top that he didn’t even want her to talk to them.

However, all that said, this was a beautiful beautiful day. I hope the pictures do it some justice.

Notice the beautiful Fall colors

Europe Day Seven

2008-10-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

We left London early this morning for Brussels, Belgium. Long day. It is 10:00 at night and we just got to our hotel and then had to wait a half hour for our luggage. Tomorrow our wake-up call is 6:30, bus leaving at 8:00.

We took a bus ride to the white cliffs of Dover, then a ferry across the English Channel to France. Very rough ride. A number of people on the ferry were sitting with their heads in barf bags.
801

We rode for a while in France and then on into Belgium. This is a beautiful country. The landscape is like picture postcards. I was able to get a few shots from the bus, but of course, pictures just don’t do it justice. So beautiful.

There is a definitely feeling here that we are not exactly welcome. Our tour director has even warned us about it. We’ve already been snapped at by a convenience store clerk for opening a can of coke before paying for it. He was yelling at us in French. Good thing we couldn’t understand. We just looked dumb (not too hard to do :) ).

By the way, Cokes are a premium over here. You pay through the nose and not even McDonald’s gives you free refills. Dale says that he still prefers living in the Land of the Free . . . . refills J. Now that we’re in France we’ve been notified that you have to pay to use most of the toilets (not called restrooms here). Now Dale is saying that he still prefers living in the Land of the Free . . . . toilets :).

This is the European Commission – the center for the government of Europe (eventually possibly the one-world government. It’s been “nicknamed” The Beast. Hmmm – we’re wondering if there is any connection between our warm reception here and this. Could there be some spiritual activity going on here??

King Charles V palace (although he died before it was finished so he never lived there.)

Europe Day Six

2008-10-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today is our first full day back in London. How I love this place. I have some English in my veins and I just feel like coming home here. It is unbelievably quaint, picturesque, charming – all the adjectives like that. Just love it! Buildings like this are everywhere. The weather is “wintery brisk” if you know what that means. It’s perfect. This morning it rained a little (awe, London) and then soon it cleared up and a little blue sky peeked through the clouds. Since it was a “very fine day” (said in a good English brogue) we ventured out. We ate breakfast at the cutest restaurant called “The Muffin Man.” However, it’s not on Dreary Lane :).
We ride the underground to –

Tower of London

Then later have dinner at another cute place (can’t remember the name) and had THE BEST

Fish and Chips – of course!

Europe - Days Four and Five

2008-10-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Europe Day 4

Today we visited the Vatican and my favorite – the Sistine chapel. I know you’ve all seen pictures and so on, so I won’t bore you with details that you already know, but I wanted to share a few things that were new to me. If these things aren’t new to you, you can just skip ahead :)

First off, the Vatican is a state all to itself. It is completely self-sufficient. It houses approximately 1,000 people – all dedicated to the pope’s needs and the needs of the Vatican. It has its own shopping and medical facilities. It is completely independent of Italy, even though it sits in the middle of Italy. It has its own beautiful gardens. It is huge. I had no idea of its size. It is surrounded by a wall that is approximately 50 feet high and is over 1000 years old. The Vatican used to wage war against its enemies and one of the popes, Pope Julius II, actually would go out and fight in the battles.

We were not actually allowed in the Vatican itself, but we were taken into the Vatican museum, which has only been open to the public since 1929. It is amazingly beautiful. You go through a series of hallways which have different “decorating” themes, each more beautiful than the last.

Jesus' resurrection tapestries

The second hallway's walls are lined with these huge and magnificent tapestries. These tapestries took over 30 years to complete. They are enormous (guessing 30 X 20 feet) and are extraordinarily beautiful.

Notice Jesus' eyes. They follow you as you walk down the magnificent corridor.

The next hallway's ceilings:

These actually look like they are three dimensional sculptures , but they really are paintings that look like they are three dimensional.

Finally you’re allowed into the chapel for 20 minutes. That’s just not enough time. It is so amazingly beautiful. I’m so thankful we have been able to see it after the restoration. To think that they used to say that Michelangelo was not very good with colors. Oh my. Some of his colors look like they are illuminated. Amazing. Words cannot express it. To think that Michelangelo did this standing up (not lying down as some have thought) holding his arm up. He even designed his own scaffolding for the project and when they did the restoration some 500 years later, they used his exact same design for the scaffolding.

On the funny side: They allow talking in the chapel but only in “hushed” tones, and there is a man that stands at the front and as the volume begins to increase, “shushes” everyone. I thought, “How funny. If you would ask this man what he does for a living, he’d have to say, ‘I’m a shusher. I shush people.’”

Next we visited St. Peter’s. What an amazing piece of architecture. I don’t think God is very impressed, but from man’s little eyes, it is quite spectacular. I cannot imagine the $$$ that it would have taken to build it. The pictures just cannot capture it.

Of course, La Pieta is located here. Another example of Michelangelo’s brilliance.

I caught this picture of Dale in the foreground and if you look way way up at the top you’ll see "O PASTOR. "

They have former popes on “display.” Quite interesting. I don’t know how they keep them so well preserved. Maybe they are frozen. There didn’t seem to be any information available to read and no one to ask. You’re kind of on your own here. We think this one looks like Pope John 23rd, maybe.

We ate our last dinner meal in Rome just outside the Vatican. Our favorite meal so far – a spinach-stuffed-cannelloni-type thing and another pasta thing with cheeses and mushrooms and y-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-mmy!

After the tour of the Vatican and the Sistine chapel, we had the option of a ride home with the tour group, or going on to St. Peter’s on our own and also getting back on our own. Of course, there really was no choice. La Pieta was there! The tour leader assured us that getting home would be “very simple.” Yeah, I know about those “very simple” things – but we risked it.

Well, you’re right – it wasn’t so very simple. We had to ask directions about 10 different times and everyone said some form of – “Oh sure, just go left at that corner up there and then about 200 meters you’ll see the metro – blah, blah, blah.” Well, we turned left at that corner and immediately the road splits into a Y. We finally figured out which way to go from there (after asking) and then about 600 meters later, found the metro (subway), found which tunnel to take, but buying the ticket – oh, my. You have to buy it from a machine and it is all written in Italian. The only English I could find on the machine was a warning: “This machine will not give more change than 4 euros.” Okay. I get that. Don’t put more money in than you need. Next thing – how to get the ticket. You should have seen Dale and I trying to figure out this machine in Italian. What a riot. I’m sure any local watching would have gotten a chuckle out of it, but no one was watching anyway.

We finally figured out the machine and so the next thing is figuring out which train and where to get on and where to get off. Well, we did it all and arrived safely home (to the hotel.) It was quite a great feeling of accomplishment and at the same time it’s given me a lot more sympathy for foreigners.

We walked our legs off, but it was a great day!

Day Five – Leaving Rome

Dale decides to let me sleep and goes for some last-minute “try to see everything that he didn’t see before” excursion. We needed to be at our bus (about a two-block walk from our hotel) that takes us back to the airport at 2:00 so I thought Dale would be flying in at 1:55 in his usual form. I encouraged him to be back in plenty of time so that we would not be doing that rush-around-like-a-chicken-with-your-head-cut-off thing. My understanding was that he would be back around 1:30. His understanding was that he needed to be back before the 12:00 check-out time.

In the meantime, I decided to do some last-minute shopping and so I packed us up, got the suitcases down to the lounge, asked them if they could store our luggage for a while while I shopped, and left. (By the way, I felt I was being very brave to venture out on my own, but I wouldn’t be going far, I assured myself.)

Dale returns at around 11:30 and finds me gone along with the suitcases and everything else. He goes to the desk to inquire. They have no idea. “Did she check out?” “No.” Huh? He tries not to worry (of course, praying instead) but after a half hour goes by, he is giving in to the worry thing. He starts thinking – “maybe foul play.” You know how our minds work. He is so confused because I hadn’t mentioned my leaving and it is not a characteristic thing for me to do. Again he inquires at the desk and now mentions that he is concerned. They start asking the other workers there and one of them does remember my checking our bags in. This helps Dale a lot. He turns around and goes outside and there I am, walking up to the door with a sweet smile on my face. He’s a little cranky, but happy to see me. Later he quips that he was beginning to wonder how he was going to replace me. “It could take a couple of weeks,” he says. Hah!

Well, I mention all this to say that it is amazing how miscommunication can really mess things up. We both had one understanding and clearly thought we knew what the other was going to do. NOT :)

Our trip back to London is uneventful (thank you, Lord).

The only picture I have for today is riding the train back to London (after flying from Rome).

Europe - Day Three

2008-10-16T12:13:00.001-07:00

We got "snookered" into taking our picture with this Roman soldier -- only to have to turn around and pay 10 Euros (about $14). Boy are we stupid tourists :) Later we see several of these "Roman Soldiers" and with our tour group we were allowed to take pictures with them for free.

Europe Day 3

Not much sleep last night – had trouble going to sleep. Hmm – that is vaguely reminiscent of what I do at home all the time.

Still, I forced myself to get up and off we went to a fun day of sight-seeing.

The Coliseum – what an incredible piece of architecture that was built for man’s totally depraved nature. They say that almost 400 people a day were murdered there (and also torture and killing of animals) – all for man’s “enjoyment.” And by the way – that was “man’s” not mankind. Women were not allowed in the Coliseum – except at the very top level with the slaves and the lowest of the low, and those women were most likely the prostitutes. It wasn’t considered proper for a woman to go to the Coliseum. And for good reason. Wicked men devised wicked things to watch and cheer for. The good news is that Christianity came in and gradually changed all that. Think where we would be now if Jesus had not come to change our way of thinking and to change our hearts to want to do right. Thank you, Lord.

Arch of Constantine

I added this picture because I thought it was interesting. It's the Arch of Constantine which was built to celebrate Constantine's destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. He used all the wealth found in the temple in Jerusalem to build this arch as well as the Coliseum. Notice the menora here. The slaves are carrying the treasures from the temple. Interesting and sad.

I like this picture because it shows these cute little cars that the Italians drive. You don't see any big gas-guzzling SUVs over here. They are so little that you can park them in either direction :)

Europe - Day Two

2008-10-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

Europe – Day 2

This morning we awoke feeling like we’d been run over by a 747 jet! My legs felt like dead tree stumps. Dale woke me up at 9:30 a.m. – Italy time, but my body-clock time was 1:00 a.m. My body’s saying, “No, no – time to stay in bed.” Of course, we fight that because Rome awaits!

First Rome experience – The Shower.

It looks like a pretty normal shower/type arrangement. The tub is a little smaller and narrower than we’re used to American style, but other than that, pretty normal – that is until you get in. The tub has such a sharp slope to it that you literally have to stand with one foot in front of the other. Quite a balancing act, I can tell you. Pretty funny. I honestly don’t think you could take a traditional bath because it would be so uncomfortable to sit in it. What were they thinking?? I haven’t a clue.

We finally get showered and dressed and go outside. My body is still saying, “It’s 1:00 in the morning. What are you doing out here?? Go back to bed NOW!” We walk around, ignoring the body clock, looking for something to eat. I start feeling a little woozy, even faint. World traveler – I am not. We head back to the hotel and go to the restaurant there, a very fancy-looking thing with linens on the table and goblets and such. We’re thinking, “Well, it’s expensive looking, but we’re about to pass out here and coffee might be a good thing, even if it is expensive.” We walk in and the waiter looks at us reprovingly and says in broken English, “10:30,” shaking his head. It’s now 11:00. He then says, “Okay, I find you something.” We sit down and he brings us a nice continental-breakfast-type thing and coffee that is so strong even Eric would shudder. Of course, he also brings some heated milk which we quickly learn is how you make your coffee. Heated milk with a little added coffee and of course some sugar, and in my case – LOTS of sugar, since I’m not much of a coffee drinker. We have a nice little breakfast. Come to find out, the breakfast is included in the hotel fare. Would have been nice to know that. Tomorrow we’ll know for sure, and it will be before 10:30.

We needed some sun block (stupid thing to forget), so we head out to find the “market place.” We finally find it and buy it and believe it or not, by that time I am so exhausted I can’t stand it anymore. Head back to hotel. Dale is not as tired, so he heads out to visit a museum that is just a couple blocks from our hotel. I crash. Dale goes to the museum and takes over 200 pictures!!! Oh my goodness. You know, he’s such a history buff – loves all kinds of history, any history, knows all about the most obscure facts of history that you could ever imagine, but ROMAN history – now THAT’S his real love. So he’s in heaven here. He says that his battery and the camera battery ran out at almost the exact same moment. He heads back to the hotel, comes in the room and crashes, and I didn’t even hear him at all.

We awaken feeling refreshed and head out again. This time we head to another museum. Oh boy, the museum-thing has begun. I quickly run out of interest at looking at every statue and piece of Roman pottery shard imaginable. Dale is totally fascinated with it all. I discover that I have to see a museum three or four times because I get way ahead of him and he calls me back to point out some “fascinating” piece of archeological discovery. I nod and agree and then I have to go past the things I just looked at again. Again, he calls me back to view the next “fascinating” piece of archeological discovery. This is going nowhere fast. What to do?? I find that one of the prizes for me in a museum is finding a comfortable place to sit. Of course, they occasionally provide an uncomfortable bench, but the big prize was finding a padded chair with a back on it that was probably left by some employee accidentally, but I quickly avail myself of it. Awe!! There!

For lunch and dinner today we just roamed Rome and ate at the spots where the locals eat. That’s my favorite thing to do. We had pizza – of course. Dinner – same. Roamed Rome and had lasagna – of course.

Our last highlight for the day was the lovely fountain that you’ve all seen in pictures. It’s so beautiful at night. Got a few pictures, but they didn’t turn out too well until I discovered how to turn the “backlight” on on the camera. That last shot is better.

Tomorrow we are going to take a bus tour. This one goes to all kinds of spots and you can get off at each spot for as long as you like. Our body clocks should be adjusting soon, and we’ll be able to rest and ride and then get off and see up close. If I can just keep Dale out of the museums, we’ll do just fine :)

Love to you all!

Europe - Day One

2008-10-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

Europe Trip Day 1

Oh my! What a wild and crazy time we’ve had so far. We were supposed to leave L.A. at 3:30. Didn’t actually leave until 4:00, flew through the night – hardly sleeping AT ALL – arriving in London at 9:30 a.m. which would have been 1:30 in the morning for us. We had a few hours to spare before catching our plane to Rome, so we had different options. The “easiest” way would have been to catch a “coach” (not called bus here) to another airport called Stansted Airport, but that would have taken us directly to the airport and since we had about 8 hours before our flight went out, we decided to do the adventurous thing and take the underground subway into the heart of London and do some quick sight-seeing thing before we left for Rome. Just figuring out where we were supposed to go and how to find things was a challenge – and that is even doing it in English.

Well, we finally figured out where the subway (called underground here) was and which one to take, so off we went. The underground does just that – goes underground most of the way, with occasionally popping up above ground. When it did that, we would glimpse sights reminiscent of Mary Poppins. Love it!

Our destination was Liverpool Street. It took us about a little over an hour (lugging suitcases) to get there. When we finally arrived it was crazy just to find our way to street level. We were about three levels underground. Of course, everyone around us knows exactly where they are going and how to get there and they are all in a hurry. A lot of the areas we had to go to had stairways (no escalators – they’re called “lifts” here). Of course, we had our heavy suitcases to lug up and down. But twice gentlemen stopped and asked us if they could help – Dale lifting one and these wonderful gentlemen lifting the other. Wow. One lady behind us had a baby and a stroller, so after helping me, these nice gentlemen walked back down the stairs and asked her if they could help her and then proceeded to do so. I’m so impressed.

At another point we had a big stairs to carry bags up, and again a nice gentlemen asked me (not five minutes after the last group had helped us) if he could be of assistance. This guy promptly took off with my bag and was flying ahead of me – faster than I could keep up. I thought, “Well, if he’s taking my bag – bye-bye, because I can’t keep up!” But no, he stopped at the top and waited for me. Wow. I’m sooooo impressed. I can’t imagine that happening in the States. We could surely take some lessons.

Well, when we finally reached the top level and walked outside I was so totally blown away I started to cry. I truly felt like I was walking onto a Hollywood set, except this was the real thing. We were in London!! All these wonderful old old buildings everywhere and double decker buses and the cutest little English-looking taxis all driving on the wrong side of the road. We were really in London. Astonishing.

The other most amazing thing here is that absolutely EVERYONE -- I mean EVERYONE speaks with an accent !!

We walked around the streets there (still lugging suitcases and backpacks and camera cases and whatnot) and enjoying every second of it. We stopped at an outside café and had some lunch. I looked at my watch, and it would have been 5:30 A.M.!!! our body-clock time.

After this short excursion, we took a train to the airport (about an hour ride). Once we got to the airport we discovered, much to our dismay, that our suitcases were too heavy. We were only allowed 15 kilos each (no one had bothered to mention this to us.) We had way over that in both. To pay for the extra would have been about $240. So we found a place that we could store one of our suitcases and then crammed – I mean CRAMMED – most of the stuff in that one, and then finally got the one suitcase down to 15 kilos. Quite a challenge. We were traveling on Ryanair which Dale lovingly calls the Wal-Mart of the airlines. Everything is cheap cheap cheap. Once we got our bags checked in then we literally had to walk I’d say 2 or more miles to get on our plane. Unbelievable.

The plane was a cattle car. Tiny seats crammed together. You couldn’t even make your seat recline at all. We had a two-hour flight ahead of us and this is after flying all night with very little sleep. We tried to sleep, but it was IMPOSSIBLE to get comfortable. They did offer food, but of course you had to pay outrageous prices for crummy food, so we declined. I had brought (on the wise advice of Eric) some granola bars, so we munched on those.

Finally we arrive in Rome. It’s now about 9:00 at night their time. We get to the terminal and we had just missed the bus to take us to our hotel (they don’t time things very well here). The next bus comes in around 45 minutes, so we wait. And now comes the language challenge. Some people do speak English here, but very little. Finding out where we are supposed to go and how to pay for it is extremely difficult. Again, this is without having slept the night before. And since it is late at night in Rome, most people have gone home and those that are left don’t seem too interested in helping you.

The other shocker – how expensive everything is. Of course the dollar is worth about half here and on top of that, everything is outrageously expensive. We haven’t had anything to eat and everyone is closed anyway and what is open is not very appetizing looking and would cost you an arm and a leg. Back to the granola bars. We finally broke down and bought a bottle of water (a SMALL bottle that cost about $3).

Our bus ride to the hotel is about another hour drive in another cattle car bus – totally uncomfortable crammed into tight seats with nowhere to put your carry-ons except your lap and no place to put your legs either.

The bus stops at a terminal that is about a two- to three-block walk to our hotel, but figuring out WHICH WAY to walk is another challenge with the language barrier. The bus driver didn’t speak any English, and he just kept rambling on in Italian and pointing in a direction and shaking his head up and down like, “of course you will find it – just go thataway.” Okay. Thataway we went. We could have taken a taxi, but our Scottish heritage just wouldn’t have allowed that and in the Sean Connery fashion of, “It’s a new ‘exshperiensh’ for me” we chose to do it the cheap way. Well, we finally found our hotel. I was thankful that Eric had found it on the internet for us before we left so I knew what it looked like. That helped.

Two tired tourist-looking Americanos arrived at Bettoja Nord Nueva Roma Hotel (still lugging suitcase – singular by now).

Our hotel room is very nice. It’s old but nice. It has a bedroom, bathroom and a sitting room. We’re on the third floor. Our bedroom has the cutest Romeo-and-Juliet-looking balcony with shutters that open like doors. The rooms are very small but have 14-foot ceilings. If they would have lowered the ceilings just a little and put that on the size of the rooms, we could have had rooms twice their size.

Well, we tried to crash, but our bodies are so mixed up by this time that they’re not sure what they’re supposed to do. We both thought we were going to have a problem going to sleep at first, but then we quickly discovered that we almost instantly went into a deep sleep, even with a big, noisy, what looked like, group of college kids’ party going on directly across from us and of course the honking and beeping of a big city in the streets below.

End of Day One. I’ll tell you tomorrow’s adventures – tomorrow :)

Blog Setup

2008-10-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here you go, Mama!