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.