Final Entry

We are back home again and travel home went well. It is good to be home, but we look back with fond memories of all the things that happened. We spent our final night in a castle, it was our anniversary, so we enjoyed a good meal and a very romantic location. What a great time we had on our whole journey!

June 14

First of all, Happy Birthday Kristen.
This will be our last post before we head home. We are now on the Romantic Road, which is a unique series of roads from Fussen to Wirzburg. It goes through interesting and historical towns and through some great hilly country. We are in a town called Nordlingen, which is built into a crater. Yesterday George climbed to the top of the church bell tower. He got to the level of the bells just as they began to ring LOUD!!! The view from the top was fantastic. Then we were able to walk around the ancient city walls, which had been built in the 15 hundreds. The hotel we stayed in was built in the 1400´s. The picture is of our hotel. It is called Sonne Hotel and guess what? This morning the sun was shining for the first time in many days.
Looking forward to seeing you all when we get home.
Love,
George & Carla

June 12

We are now in Fussen, Germany. This is the beginning of the Romantic Road. The first picture is the view from our current hotel.

Today we went up to visit the castles Hohenschawangau and Neuschwanstein. We couldn´t take pictures on the inside, but here are a few pictures from the outside. It has been a great vacation and we have seen so much, yet we have not felt rushed or stressed. It is hard to believe all the places we have seen and all we have done. 6 a half weeks ago seems like a long time. Looking forward to the last few days and also to coming home.

Love,

George and Carla.

June 10

We are now in Mittenwald, on the border of Germany and Austria. It is a mountainous region and we are in a quiet little hotel with a balcony which looks out over the mountains. Yesterday and today we went for hikes. Yesterday to two little mountain lakes and today up a canyon where there were waterfalls. The area is like the Rockies, but more developed, especially the great hiking trails. Yesterday evening we experienced a Bavarian buffet, complete with a guy playing an accordian and yodelling and all the German food we could eat, including knodel, pancake soup and three different kinds of pork. Carla had some deja vu regarding food her mother used to make and so it was very good. Carla was very brave today as we walked down the canyon. Some of it was on metal walkways suspended over the canyon, which stretched her somewhat, but she did great. The weather was sunny and when we can, we should be able to post some great pictures.
Love,
George & Carla.

June 8

Saturday
We had one of the best days yet. We had come from Salzburg to Melk, which is close to Vienna, on Friday. Saturday morning we boarded a ship to cruise down the Danube River. The weather was cloudy and sunny and there was a little threat of rain, but we went anyway. We cruised from Milk(Melk) to Cream(Krems), a distance of about 36 -40km. Sadly, they did not play the Strauss waltz called The Blue Danube once. It was through the Wachau valley which is quite beautiful with little villages, vineyards, castles, churches and great natural beauty. Once in Krems we took our bicycles and picnic lunch and started back to Melk along bicycle paths. The paths also went through the middle of the little villages, through the vineyards etc. It was so enjoyable!! For the first half we took it easy, enjoyed our lunch, the sun was shining, it was relaxing and great. We crossed the river on a ferry and once on the other side noticed a building thunderstorm. Then we began to cycle seriously and within about an hour were back to the starting point, and only got a little wet, no downpour.
This morning we went to the huge catholic church in Melk. It is uber ornate!! There were quite a few people there. We have seen so many such churches and we were curious to see what Sunday would be like.

We are now in Dachau and have just come back from the concentration camp. We wanted to go tomorrow, but found out that it is closed on Monday, so we had a rather rushed visit. What a sad place but still a valuable experience to know and see what happened there, especially since we saw the holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

Love to you all. Only a little more than a week till we come home.
George & Carla.

June in Salzburg

Sound of Music tour. We learned that the Austrians don't like it because it isn't true to the story of the Von Trapp family. Hollywood took a few liberties. We took a bus tour and saw some of the places where filming was done. We went to the lakes district, which is quite beautiful. Our tour guide had the Sound of Music sound track playing so we could sing along. The best part was the Mirabel Gardens where a lot of the shots from the Do-Re-Mi song were filmed. We have decided to stay in Salzburg an extra day and are going to a Mozart dinner and concert this evening. Therefore, we are not going to Vienna. We have found out that Europe Soccer championships are taking place in Austria and Switzerland and prices here will be going up on the weekend. One of the first games is in Vienna on the weekend, so we will want to get out of Austria and go to Germany. The weather has been cloudy and a bit rainy, but we are having a good time anyway.

June 2

What an amazing day we had on June 1. We took two trains, about a 2 hour ride, to the Top of Europe, which is the top of the Jungfrau. It was the best day to do this we have had so far. The trains do not just run on rails, but have cogs to help with the elevation change which is quite rapid. The view from the top was amazing. They have an ice palace built into the glacier and you can also view a panorama of the surrounding mountain peaks. The day was not sunny, but the view was still awesome. When we got to the top, it was somewhat clear and we got to see the vista, but later as it clouded over, it changed, but was still beautiful because of the changes in color and shades of light and dark and clouds and distances. Wow. There are several restaurants up there, souvenir shops and a post office. We hiked further on snow(that was a real thrill) but it was.... help me I am running out of adjectives...but it was quite a climb, so once again, we are getting our excercise. We hiked to a small restaurant, where you could also stay for night.
Today we have travelled on and are in Innsbruck, Austria.
Hope you are all well.
George & Carla

May 30 in the Swiss Alps

Things are going well. For those of you who were wondering, the GPS is taking us where we want to go. Yesterday we set it to avoid toll roads and take the shortest way and we took all the back roads through cow pastures and past people's front doors and through every little town between Titisee and Interlaken. Today we walked about 500 meters up in elevation and saw Heidi and her cows and her uncle, including the bells. The icecream is still good. Carla had the sauerkraut she wanted and yesterday for supper we had Fondue -meat and cheese. It was, as Carla always says, glorious.

We are staying in Interlaken for four nights. Hopefully we can do a bit of hiking and get to the top of Jungfrau, but ithas been cloudy a lot, so that might not work. By the way, we have changed settings to allow anonymous comments.

Love you all.

George & Carla

May 27

We had such a great time with our relatives here. They surprized us by picking us up from the airport, putting us in a great little hotel and showing us Mainz, including the Guttenburg museum and the Dom, which is a large Catholic church. We enjoyed the visit and met their daughter, Betina and her husband, Rolf. So generous and gracious! What a blessing!
We left Monday and spent a few hours in France, going to Strassbourg, where Carla´s dad was born. Today we came to Titisee, which is a beautiful area in the Black Forest on a little lake. It reminds us of Riding Mt. , but not as busy. We plan to do some walking, cycling and we will stay for a few nights. We are enjoying our days. We are now into part IV of our vacation and(I - study tour, II-Italy, III - relatives) so things will be more relaxing. I am back to normal with my health and making up for all the eating I missed. So much to eat and so little time. Today since we are in the Schwartzwald, I will have to eat Schwartz Wald Kirsch Torte. Of course, there is always Gelati everywhere.

This first picture is of Helmut and Ellie Wirth. They were great!



















This is a picture of Strassbourg, the old city.









The picture of the flower on the doilie is for you Kristen. It is in our room. Germans love their doilies.
The view from our 3rd floor window.










Hope you are all well.
George and Carla

Last Day in Italy

We have spent the last day and a half dodging people, traffic, scooters in order to see Rome. We did manage to see the Colosseum, Palatina, Vatican, St. Peter's and Vatican Museum. Only a two hour wait, but there is some fascinating art there, including the Sistine Chapel. We are tired and looking forward to the last three weeks of a more relaxed pace, at least that is the intention. Our next stop is our relatives in Germany, if we can get to the airport in good time and it all works. The flight leaves at 8:20 am, but we will have to leave our hotel around 4:30 or 5:30.
The picture of us is at the Trevi Fountain. The other two are from the Colosseum.
We love you and miss you.

May 21

Getting to Venice by train yesterday was great and a good thing to do since it was raining the whole day. When we got here, the fun began. We put on the GPS and waited for it to pick up a satelite. In the meantime, we got a map and started walking. After about an hour, we finally found our hotel and shut off the GPS, which still had not found a satellite. There was no one at our hotel to look after us, so we went and did our laundry, there was still no one there, so we went for supper. When we got back, at 7:30, there was finally someone there. He was terribly apologetic, and we had been a little upset, but we forgave him. A nice room and today the weather is nice and sunny and we have had a great time walking around this fascinating place.

May 19

What a beautiful place the Cinque Terra is. George came here still sick, but is improving every day and after a two hour hike up and down a mountain from Monterosso to Vernazza is feeling almost normal again. We are staying in La Spezzia and have taken the train from there to Riomaggiori and then walked to the next two villages yesterday. Today we took a boat to Monterosso and are in Vernazza right now. It truly is a beautiful place. if we ever have a chance, we would love to come here again. Tomorrow we head for Venice by train. So far the trains seem to be a really great way to get around and our one back pack each, seems to be working for us.

Yesterday we had rain, but ketp going anyway. We bought an umbrella and it worked OK.

Here are a few more pictures.

Last Day in Israel

Well, this part of the trip is over.

We just picked up our email and would like to express our sympathy to Ben and the rest of the family. What a shock. We will certainly miss her. Our last memory is of a woman of faith, very much alive and hoping for more life. We will pray for you in your grief.

What an amazing trip this has been! We have learned so much. When we thought we had seen enough ruins, we spent time with the people of the land and when we thought we had heard enough stories of people, we discovered interesting things about the Bible and when we were done that we were back to ruins. Always interesting and increasing in knowledge.

The first picture, they are not in order, is at the aqueduct at Caesarea. There are actually two aqueducts beside each other, one built by the Crusaders and one built by Herod. The other is a working olive press and the last one is the theatre in Caesarea. They were actually preparing for a concert of some kind. The acoustics are amazing, but they were still filling the place with banks of speakers and a sound board the size of a ping pong table.

We have really enjoyed this trip, but are also really looking forward to vacation.

Love,

George and Carla

May 13

We are so sorry that we don't have pictures. George is still not doing well, but was able to join in again on Monday. It was a full day and we are getting to the point where by the end of the day we have forgotten what happened at the beginning of the day. Yesterday we had a boat ride on the sea of Galilee. Hard to believe. We also ate a fish lunch, the common name of the fish is St. Peter fish. It was pretty good. It is also known as Talapia. We basically drove around the Sea of Galilee and saw all the different places where Jesus taught and lived. It was interesting to be on the sea shore where it is possible that Jesus asked Peter, "do you love me?" Sometimes still hard to imagine that we are actually in this place. Today we remember everywhere we were and it has been interesting to meet with people of the land again. Today we were at Ibillin which is mentioned in the book Blood Brothers. Unfortunately the author, whom we were to meet, is in America at this time, but it was still good. We also visited a kibbutz.
We are nearing the end and beginning to think about the next part of our journey.
Colleen, How was your birthday? and where are pictures of our grandsons? We miss you all.
George & Carla

Monday May 12

It is 7:00 in the morning and after a day and a night spent in bed, George is up again, but not feeling quite right yet. But today we are going for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and I wouldn't want to miss that. Unfortunately we will not be able to post any pictures until we leave here and we are here until the last night. Thanks for the Happy Mother's Day wishes. We miss you. Mom had two upleasant experiences regarding her fears. We went up to Masada by cable car, which was not a happy experience for her. Then someone in one of the rooms saw a snake, and took a picture of it and showed it to us. That was also not happy. But she is very brave and doesn't let anything stop her. We are safe and still learning very much. Every once in a while it feels like information overload, but after all, it is a study tour. It is hard to believe that there are only 4 more days left. By the way, Amos, I will be bringing a few stones home for you. I have one I picked up when we were swimming in the Dead Sea and I will get one from the Sea of Galilee. Love to you all.

Friday, May 9

Well we have access to internet again and have a few stories to tell.

On Wednesday, we climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai. We got up at 2:00 in the morning and were walking in the dark by 2:30. Our group is pretty amazing. They are so together and on time. It took several hours to get to the top and then we waited until the sun rose. There were several thousand people there plus camels and donkeys. It was not a place of solitude and wilderness, it was a tourist attraction, but the sunrise was pretty beautiful.

On Thursday, we went to Petra. The walk in was amazing and the site is absolutely amazing. It is no wonder that it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Wraith, if you are reading this, we have great pictures.

Today we swam in the Dead Sea and also got wet in the springs of En Gedi, which is where David hid from Saul. We are stayin in a very fancy hotel in Jericho for night. George is a little sick as are a number of other people. Probably something we ate in Egypt or Jordan. Hopefully better soon again.

Monday May 5

Today we would like to introduce you to some unusual things.

1. When you go to the bathroom, you do not throw the paper in the toilet. You put it in a garbage can. This is for the purpose of water conservation. Joel, your camping plan doesn't sound so unusual here.

2. In some churches that we visited, you are not permitted to cross your legs or put your hands in your pocket. This is Middle Eastern etiquette.

3. We have seen some places with signs which say, no weapons allowed. This would not seem so unusual except for all the soldiers who walk around with weapons.

4. There are a lot of cats around. Good thing because on one walk, we passed a dead rat in the middle of the road.

Today we were in the Negev and saw a lot of Bedouin camps and villages. Hence, the picture of the camels.

There might not be blogging for a few days because of where we will be staying.

Sunday May 4

Yesterday we went to two villages in Samaria. One was Taybeh where we heard a priest tell an amazing story of their efforts to make the best of their situation. It is an entirely Christian village and they produce olive oil that is sent to France. He was an amazing man who is brilliant, a good theologian and an economist. He was entertaining and we really enjoyed his talk. He also showed us through a house that was like the houses that Jesus might have lived in with space for animals and living space under one roof. He explained some of the parables from that context. Then we went to Ramallah, which is a large city and heard another speaker, a woman who also is working at peace and justice. Ramallah is the city where Yasser Arafat is buried.

Today we attended a worship service, in English at a Lutheran church in Jerusalem. One of the leaders of the service is a man from Winkler. It was held in a chapel built by the crusaders. We are off to the holocaust museum this afternoon.

For those of you who care, the picture was taken to show mom celebrating one of her favorite things.

May 2

Today is Sabbath in Israel. We came from the Western Wall where many Jewish people gather to pray for the return of Messiah. We had a great day again and continue to experience many interesting things. Today one of the highlites was walking down Hezekiah's tunnel. The one he built to bring water into the city of Jerusalem when the Assyrians were threatening. Check out II Kings 20. It was an amazing feat of engineering and a lot of work. We walked through about a foot of water for about half an hour in a tunnel with our headlamps on. (DAD) Mom is constantly impressed with the architecture and the old places. She particularly enjoyed the Cardo which was a marketplace main road in the 2nd century city of Jerusalem. There is still one original "shop" and a "safe" in the rock. The picture with the pillars is of the cardo. The other one is from the Shrine of the Book where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. The other one is the pillars on the Cardo. Still doing well and having a great time.

May 1

Hello everyone. This is our free day and we have enjoyed a leisurely walk along the top of the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. This is an amazing city and there are new sights and smells everyday. We are staying in the old city of Jerusalem in a convent. We can't upload pictures from this internet cafe, sorry. We were in the Jewish section where the orthodox Jews live and Carla felt like breaking out into the song "Tradition." Yesterday we were at a museum where they have some copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The food is different, but good. We just had an ice cream on Ben Jehuda street, which is a walking mall. Across the street from us is a McDonalds. If Bev is reading this, Carla has some great pictures of St. Jerome, Hadrian's roads and Byzantine architecture and mosaics.

Sunday in Bethlehem

A very interesting day today. We attended church at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church. The service was almost entirely in Arabic. Then we went to Herodium which is the palace built by Herod the Great. It was amazing. He first built the mountain and then a palace on the top with sauna type rooms - hot, cold and warm. Also a synagogue. Then we had time to walk around a market with shops on the side of the street - vegetables, shoes, dollar store, meat market with raw meat hanging from the front. We ate a falafel from a street vendor. On the way back to the hotel we saw this shepherd tending his sheep. An amazing cultural experience.