Welcome Christmas Card readers!

Merry Christmas from the Rajavuori family!

If you're reading this you probably received our Christmas card with a link to this blog. Our Christmas card has a few "tiny" photos of our trip to Europe in June 2012. If you're interested in seeing a little more, click on the link below:

Paste this link into your browser:
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6267425015/a=1007958_1007958/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

OR

Click here to see Europe pix

There are about 250 photos in the link above -- but that is just a small selection of the 10,000 photos we took on the trip! (Laura and Summer REALLY like to take pictures!)

To learn a little more about the events behind the photos, read the blog entries below.

If you REALLY, REALLY want to hear or see more, let us know. We'd be happy to share!

Hope your family has a blessed Christmas and New Year.

Love,

Steve, Laura and kids

P.S. If you have any trouble accessing the photos send an email to Steve at stever@reiprop.com or contact us on Facebook.

The rest of the trip

Monday, July 2 – Back at home

Our final days of the trip left us little time for writing, so while its still fresh in my memory today I want to finish the log of the trip.

Wednesday, June 27

After having the most amazing hotel breakfast of our trip (at the cheapest hotel!) we drove up to the mountain Republic of San Marino (24 square miles). We walked around the narrow streets up to the castle turrets, enjoying the view along the way. They were offering samples of the local wine at the top of one of the turrets!

After this we drove toward the mountain village of Bedia Tedalda. In the summer of 1980 Laura had taken part in a Teen Missions team that came to this area, and she had memories of visiting this village. We stopped here, hoping to eat lunch. The village consists of a few streets, and what looked like two or three small bars. We walked in one that had “pizzeria” on the sign and tried to ask if they served lunch.

(NOTE: Laura and I had tried to learn some French before leaving, but Jonathan had focused on Italian. We depended on him here and numerous other times to make some attempt at interpreting for us.)

Jonathan asked about lunch, but the lady said they didn't serve until dinner, and she tried to direct us to another town 20 miles away. We got in the car and drove around the corner to one other place we had seen, and we were welcomed in by a college-age girl who spoke very good English. We figured the first restaurant lady must have some kind of grudge against this other restaurant, since she claimed no other place in town served food! We had some delicious pasta dishes, then took off for Camp Maranatha.

Camp Maranatha is the place where Laura's Teen Missions team served in the summer of 1980. The camp is a small evangelical camp and retreat center up in the mountains. There had been a terrible earthquake and much of their main building had collapsed. Laura's team spent the summer clearing rubble there, staying in tents on the camp grounds. Laura had gotten to know the missionaries who run the camp, Jim and Fran Lines, so she wanted to go back and visit them and see the place again.

With the help of the GPS and directions from Jim we found the camp easily. Jim and Fran welcomed us and spent time telling us about the history of the camp and their work, and they gave us a thorough tour.

We needed to reach Venice by evening, so it was a short visit. At this point, a very memorable event occurred. We took off from the camp, confident our GPS would guide us out of the mountains to the highway leading to Venice. However, after about 20 or 30 minutes of driving it was clear that the tall mountains were causing havoc with the GPS, and it was not showing the roads correctly. We continued to follow the VERY narrow winding road through the mountains, but occasionally we passed a fork where we weren't quite sure where to turn. Being a man I hate to stop for directions – especially when I don't speak the same language as the people in the area – but finally Laura convinced me to stop and ask some farmers on the side of the road for directions to the highway. Actually, it was Jonathan who did the asking, since he could speak a few words of Italian. With Jonathan's words and some pointing at maps we managed to get across to this nice lady that we were trying to find the highway. She gave us very detailed instructions in Italian, but she couldn't speak a word of English. She actually walked us over to a fork in the road and pointed which way to go, then drew a little map. After about 20 more minutes on the windy roads we made it out to the highway, much to everyone's relief!

We had one more issue that evening. We were returning our rental car, and I had been told that the rental car return office at the Venice airport closed at 10:00 PM. By the time we got out of the mountains we could tell we would be cutting it close. We made it to Venice at around 9:15, where I dropped off the family, then drove toward the airport (supposed to be about 20 minutes away). After the GPS misdirected me twice and I drove through some suburban neighborhood near Venice, I got back onto the right road and made it to the rental car return lot at about 9:50 PM. However, the booth there was closed. The sign said to go into the Arrivals part of the terminal. With just a few minutes left I had to take all of my luggage (carrying several extra bags for souvenirs, family, etc.) and walk/run about ¼ mile across the Venice airport parking lot. I got to the Hertz desk at 10:02, and saw a sign saying they were open until midnight! Then caught a taxi back to Venice and collapsed in our beautiful hotel room overlooking the Grand Canal.

Thursday, June 28

Our one day in Venice. If only it could be more! We really loved this city. It is surprisingly small, so it was easy to walk around all day – a much shorter walk than many of our other touring days. After some initial walking we took a long gondola ride that gave us a good overview of the heart of the city. We spent most of the day walking around the narrow streets, stopping at any shop or cafe that looked interesting.

Around lunch time we saw a small pizza shop where the pizza on display looked VERY inviting, so we stopped to try it. It was by far the best pizza we have ever eaten! After a little observation and conversation we discovered that it was a husband/wife team – he makes the pizzas and she works the counter. We discovered it is a very popular stop and they've won many awards – not surprising with the quality of the pizza. They were very friendly and she spoke good English, so we explained to them that I make pizza every Saturday night at home, and we were interested to know how they made theirs so delicious. They actually walked us through every step of how the dough is made, what flour and cheese they use, and so on. It was so cool!

We did the other usual Venice things (San Marco Basilica and square, climbed the bell tower, etc.) and finished with a delicious dinner overlooking a canal.

Friday, June 29

We thought today was going to be a pleasant 7-hour train ride from Venice to Zurich. The adventure started with us trying to figure out how to get from the island of Venice to the train station on the mainland with all our luggage. A VERY nice guy from the hotel was just getting off his shift, and he volunteered to not only help us get a local train (across from our hotel), but he went with us all the way to our main train, helped us get tickets, carried luggage, etc. He further confirmed the impression we had by this time – the Italian people were consistently the nicest and friendliest we met anywhere!

We took our first train and had to switch at Milan. That was no big deal. However, after about a half-hour on the next train, it suddenly stopped and everyone started getting off. No announcements were made in English, but we learned from another passenger that there had been an avalanche farther up the line, so the train could not continue. The entire trainload of people got quickly off and piled onto a number of large commercial buses. We were rushed through and just barely got on the last bus.

They dropped us at a commuter train station where we all got on – with no instruction whatsoever on how to get to our final destination. We had to switch trains several more times, and on the next to the last train a lady who spoke good English explained to us how to get on the right train to finally make it to our original destination (the main train station in downtown Zurich). We arrived several hours later than originally planned, exhausted, and after grabbing some food we crashed in our hotel room for the night.

Saturday, June 30

Our day to see the Alps! We started with a stop at Starbucks, where we were stunned by the prices ($8.00 for a small latte!). We booked a guided tour to take us up a mountain. We boarded a large commercial tour bus in the morning and proceeded on a drive of two or three hours to the south, with our tour guide giving us an introduction to Switzerland along the way. Our destination was Mt. Titlis. When we arrived there Laura and Starla stayed in the village at the bottom of the mountain and enjoyed shopping and eating, while Jonathan, Benjamin, Summer and I took a series of gondolas to the top of the mountain (about 10,000 ft.). Thanks to unusually warm weather in Switzerland it was still about 55 degrees at the top of the mountain, even though there was plenty of snow. (We had brought lots of warm clothes in preparation but didn't need them.) We got to do a few runs of snow tubing and ride over the glacier at the top before heading back down.

That evening we walked a little in the main streets of downtown Zurich and finished up with a final delicious meal at a great French restaurant (we like the French food best of all countries we visited).

Sunday, July 1

We woke very early to take taxis to the Zurich airport. We discovered our first flight from Zurich to London had been delayed by several hours, so it turns out we didn't really have to wake up that early. Our flight home from London was a completely separate ticket on a different airline, so we knew we would have to get our luggage and cross through Heathrow airport, but our original schedule had a long layover in London, so it looked like we would have plenty of time.

Unfortunately, with the delay in the first flight we had much less time after arriving at London Heathrow airport. Then we discovered that we arrived at Terminal 5, but needed to depart from Terminal 1. This airport is basically a small city, so after collecting our luggage, going through immigration and customs, and taking a train to the other side of the airport, now we had less than an hour until our next flight departed.

We checked in at the Icelandair desk, but after we were done checking in we had just over 35 minutes until our plane took off, and we had yet to go through security. After security we RAN to our gate, only to discover that the gate printed on our boarding passes was incorrect. We had to cross to the other side of the terminal, and as we were running again we heard an announcement on the PA saying, “Passengers Rajavuori, your gate is closing.” We ran up to our gate, and as we boarded the already-full plane they closed the door behind us!

The rest of the flight was uneventful, but when we arrived at baggage claim our luggage was not there with us! We checked with the lost luggage office, and they confirmed what we had figured out – because we had checked in so late for our flight the luggage area had already been closed, so our bags didn't get on. As I write this they still haven't showed up, so we are hoping we will see them today!

Closing Thoughts

Anyone who talked to us over these past six months knows that we spent many, many, many hours (including quite a few entire weekends) planning for this trip. It may have seemed a little overboard at times, but after living through it now we can tell you it was worth it! Thanks to my lovely wife's organizational skills, we had two notebooks full of daily itineraries – schedules, maps, tickets, etc. – so each night we could look ahead and see what we would do the next day. We were able to skip waiting in hours-long lines and move smoothly from place to place because we had it all planned out ahead of time. It was great!

Also, I have to mention that we experienced answers to prayer almost every day as well. The whole trip was a great blessing from the Lord, but with six of us traveling over 24 days we had no sickness (even from food), no danger, no getting lost, had parking spaces provided, had people help us in unexpected ways, and so on. Every time we encountered a problem we prayed and saw answers quickly. Thank you, Lord, for being with us in such a great way!

We'll be posting lots of pictures on Facebook soon – probably more than anyone (but us) will want to see!

Friday, June 29 – on the train to Zurich

Friday, June 29 – on the train to Zurich

It's been 11 days since I last wrote an update. So much has happened, I hope I can remember it all!

Tuesday, June 19

Leaving Paris and heading south today. Each morning in London and Paris I prepared breakfast for us. We had a kitchen in the apartments where we stayed, so we bought eggs, ham and fruit from local groceries stores and had a good meal before taking off for each day.

This morning we had to get to the train station, which was a little over half a mile from our apartment. We really tried to pack lightly, but with luggage for six people for 24 days, plus cameras, plus souvenirs, etc. – there's a lot. We had to drag this all with us for the half-mile walk down busy Rue Saint-Antoine to get to the Gare St. Lyon train station. We arrived just in time to find our train and get seated.

This train is one of the super-fast trains that speeds from Paris to Marseille (crossing almost the whole country north to south) in just over three hours. The time flew by quickly, and we arrived at the Marseille train station in time for lunch. I had to leave the family here at the restaurant and catch a taxi to the Marseille airport (about 30 minutes away) to pick up our rental car. We had rented a Puegeot Expert – a very spacious 8-passenger mini-van. And so began our adventure driving across France and Italy.

We probably would not have ventured out with a car if it had not been for the modern wonder of the GPS. Before leaving we bought the map of Europe from the Garmin website and uploaded that to our GPS. I got into the van and plugged in the GPS, wondering if it would work OK. Within seconds the map of my location in Marseille popped up. I plugged in the Marseille train station as my destination and was on my way driving down the freeway in France!

The GPS got me to the train station successfully but then I had to find the family. There was construction going on around the station and it wasn't clear where I was allowed to drive. I ended up stuck in a narrow road with a huge truck coming toward me. Several guys were shouting to me in French about backing up and going another direction. Some how I got around that area and to the front of the train station in the dropoff area. I couldn't leave the van here, but fortunately our phones were working, so I called Laura and told her where to find me. By the time they got their and we loaded all of our luggage into the van there was a line of cars behind us honking to get out of the way.

Our destination from here was Chateau de la Barben – an amazing 700-year old castle out in the country in the general area of Aix-en-Provence. The GPS guided us flawlessly through the country roads right up to the castle. Here I had to navigate the VERY narrow “driveway” up through the castle entry to the door where we could unload our luggage. We just barely could squeeze the van through the old stone arch.

If we looked funny dragging all our luggage down a busy Paris street, we must have really been a sight dragging it all up four separate LONG flights of stairs to our bedrooms at the top of the castle. Looking back on it now we wish we would have thought of a way to pack single-night bags where we could leave most of our luggage in the car at these stops – but we weren't prepared for that, so we had to bring our suitcases along each time.

The castle was AMAZING. It has been beautifully restored. The owners live in a part of it with one of their adult daughters and her family. They rent out four rooms in a “bed and breakfast” kind of operation, and also do paid guided tours through the castle each afternoon. We took the last tour of the day, then prepared for dinner.

We had made arrangements to have dinner at the castle. The owners had appetizers with us and conversed a little. The husband spoke very good English, but the wife struggled and was embarrassed of her English skills. We moved to the dining area and the daughter of the owners prepared us a stunning gourmet meal.

Wednesday, June 20

We struck out again in our van headed for the city of Aix-en-Provence. After about 20 minutes of looking for a parking spot big enough for our van, we finally succeeded and then spent several hours walking around the city and having lunch. After this we drove toward the mountains, as Laura wanted to drive by a castle owned by Picasso (and still owned by the family today).

We discovered that the freeways of France (and later Italy) are very pleasant and easy to drive. A little more winding and narrow than American freeways, but also very few exits. They are all toll roads, but they have oasis stops for gas/food/bathrooms.

Picasso's castle was NOT near the freeway. We had to drive up to a tiny village to find it, then make our way back out of the mountains. Getting out was more difficult than getting in. We ended up on a road so narrow that only one vehicle could pass, and at some point I think we were driving through the campground in a national park. Eventually we got back out to the freeway and sped along to our destination in Nice.

We didn't realize what a big city Nice is, and how crowded it is. The GPS guided us to our destination, but it couldn't do anything to get us a parking place. Our apartment was on the main street on the beach, and the apartments are crowded very close together. All we could do was drop the people and luggage, while I drove off in search of parking.

Throughout the trip (and well before) we've been praying for God's guidance, blessing, and protection on the details of our trip. We've seen many examples of little things the Lord has done to take care of us, and this was definitely one of them. As I was driving through the very narrow, very crowded streets of old town Nice in the huge van I was praying to find a parking place. I discovered some sort of parking sign, and followed the various one-way streets to find what turned out to be a large underground parking place. I found a spot for the van, but the sign at the entry (all in French) seemed to indicate that you could only stay for a maximum of 24 hours. We needed 72 hours. I walked around in the parking garage for a few minutes, and suddenly a French angel appeared – in the form of a parking attendant, who spoke perfect English. I told him what I needed and he directed me to a place where I could pay for our whole stay in advance. Parking problem solved.

Our apartment in Nice was amazing. The living room had huge windows looking across the street to the beach (the Mediterranean Sea), and the kitchen had a small balcony also overlooking the beach. The kitchen was large and modern, and the caretaker had actually stocked some things in the refrigerator for us.

Thursday, June 21

We did so much planning of every detail of our days on this trip, but these two days are different. At what is sort of a half-way point in the trip we have two days in Nice that are totally unplanned. No wake up time, no agenda to follow.

The beach is not like we're used to in Florida. First of all, there's no sand – just rocks, like on the north shore of Lake Superior. Second, there's no space. The beaches are fairly small and short, and totally covered with chairs. Fortunately there was a place directly across the street from us where you could rent a chair for the day. They have a restaurant and toilets so you can literally stay all day at the beach – and we did! In the evening we found a nice restaurant on the beach and enjoyed the view some more.

Friday, June 22

More sleeping in, more beach. This evening we walked farther into town to find a quaint little restaurant down a narrow street. Benjamin, Summer and I climbed a large rock that was the site of an old castle (now a city park) to get a view of the whole city.

Saturday, June 23

We took off early for a day of driving the Italian Riviera coast (Liguria). After a brief stop in Monaco for coffee, toilet and a view of Casino Royale we began winding our way down the coastline. We purposely took the small roads that followed the coastline, winding around the mountains and beaches, until we got close to Genoa. At that point it was starting to get later in the day so we had to go out to the freeway until we got to Portofino. There we went in to the coast again to view the stunning beach towns. After having some incredible gelato we headed back out to the freeway, as we needed to make it to Florence for the evening.

This day was the beginning of our experience of driving the Italian mountains. Laura started counting the tunnels we passed through. I decided somewhere along the way I want to call this trip “100 Tunnels” (although she actually counted 103 by the time we finished driving later in Venice).

We arrived in Florence around sunset, and had to set out walking to the restaurant Laura had picked out. The GPS messed us up here. It insisted that we go across a certain bridge, but there was no crossing, so we had to park and walk about a mile. We didn't realize how narrow and crowded almost all the streets of Florence are, so when we had to walk quite a ways through what seemed to us to be a dark narrow alley, we were a bit nervous.

We eventually got to the restaurant – Obike mozerella bar – and had an incredible meal featuring their special mozerella made from buffalo cheese. After walking back to our car and driving to our hotel we collapsed in bed around midnight. (We have had many late nights and early mornings on this trip!)

Sunday, June 24

This morning is for seeing Florence. Laura had planned a route for us to see some of the major sites. Our first stop was to see Michelangelo's “David” statue, and the museum containing it. Next stop was supposed to be the famous Duomo basilica, but because we were there on a Sunday almost everything to see there was closed for services. Even so, the streets around here, and pretty much everywhere in Florence, were stuffed full with tourists.

We made a point of stopping at several gelato shops and coffee bars as we strolled through the streets, including one gelato shop that Laura had looked up online as having a great reputation (Perche No!). Turns out that we found better gelato on our own.

We continued walking down to the famous Pont Vecchio bridge, where stores are built right onto the bridge, and the African immigrants try to sell knock-off purses until the police show up and they all scatter within seconds.

After more time browsing the streets we also stopped in the Ufizi museum. By this time we were getting a little weary of museums, so Jonathan and Starla opted to sit outside. The rest of us walked through, but we discovered that there was a one-way path which forced you to go through every hall and every one of the three floors. After more than a half-hour of walking quickly toward the exit we finally emerged.

After packing up we took off on the freeway toward Rome. Many more beautiful mountains and corresponding tunnels. By this time I was getting bold on the freeway and fitting in with the Italian drivers. Good thing, because driving in downtown Rome required some bold moves!

We arrived in the evening at our hotel and once again had to find an underground parking garage to store the van. Despite the GPS we could not find the garage or restaurant where we had reservations. We finally found the restaurant, so I dropped off the family and set off to try and find parking. About 20 minutes later after turning around the streets of Rome after dark, I found a parking spot on the street and walked back to the restaurant.

The food here was great – our first chance to try real Italian pizza, and it did not disappoint. The place we ate had kind of an outdoor sports bar atmosphere, and it was the perfect evening. Italy was playing England in the quarter-final game of Euro Cup 2012. Americans may not even be aware that this is going on, but imagine the Super Bowl combined with the Olympics. That is the excitement people here have over their national team winning these games. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and after two overtime periods they did a shoot-out and Italy won. Much cheering all around!

Monday, June 25

The good news: today we tour the ruins of ancient Rome. A dream-come-true for a history freak like me! The bad news: the weather is scorching hot, and after a few hours of walking around in the burning sun, the family is losing patience with my desire to explore more of these incredible sites.

We started out with the Colosseum, and thanks to an audio guide we got a very good view of this. We walked throughout the whole building and got a great look at it. After lunch we walked thru Palantine Hill, where most of the old ruins are found. The area is quite big, so given the burning sun and near heat exhaustion we had to move quickly through. We were able to see most of it, but didn't have time for a guide or really getting into the detail that I would have liked. (Of course, my interest level is QUITE a bit deeper than the rest of the family, so I tried not to push it.)

After this we moved on to walk through the streets of Rome, taking in shops and snacks. We ended near the famous Trevi Fountain, where we got some great pictures, then ate at an amazing spaghetteria. They had more than four pages of small print with all the different types of spaghetti offered. Very delicious.

Tuesday, June 26

This morning we visited the tiny city-state of Vatican City. This was one of a number of places where we had bought tickets online from home, and as a result we were able to skip very long lines and just walk right in. After Laura and Summer sent postcards from the Vatican City post office, we toured the museum, which ends up in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel itself was much smaller than we imagined, after having seen quite a few amazing cathedrals, but Michelangelo's painting was truly stunning. Its hard to enjoy for too long because there is such a pressing crowd all trying to see it at once.

We moved on from there to St. Peter's Basilica – probably the biggest church we visited, and also very crowded.

After a quick lunch we took off in the van to cross over the ApininneXXX Mountains, bound for the beach resort town of Rimini. The mountains on this drive were even more beautiful, and reminded us of Colorado.

We walked through a little of the beach town, and Laura haggled with a shopkeeper to get a bargain on a new piece of luggage which we now need to hold the souvenirs we've bought along the way.

Update from Paris

Monday, June 18 – on the train home from Bayeux

Thursday, June 14 (Edinburgh to Paris)

A relaxed start to the morning. We were able to sleep a little later and have a nice breakfast before catching a taxi to the airport, on our way to Paris. We had to do a little juggling of luggage because the airline we are flying (Easyjet) has a VERY strict policy of one piece of carry-on baggage per person (including purse, camera, etc.). We tried to cram extra carry-on items into single bags. Unfortunately Starla's carry-on was too big and they forced her to check it at a cost of $60.

We arrived in Paris late afternoon and had a driver waiting for us. It took just under an hour to drive from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to the apartment we are renting in the center of Paris. We immediately felt the difference of being in a foreign country. In England and Scotland we didn't feel too out of place, since everyone spoke English and all the signs were in English. Now suddenly we can't read the signs and everyone around us is speaking in French.

Our apartment is modest by American standards, but very luxurious for the heart of Paris. We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen.

The kids were exhausted from our days of traveling, so they all stayed in the apartment as Laura and I went out to get groceries. We had thought about going to a restaurant for dinner but we ended up getting take-out Chinese to bring back to the apartment.

Friday, June 15 (Paris)

A walking tour through the center of Paris today. We started at the Conciergerie. After looking around briefly we realized there wasn't much to see, so we moved on to Saint-Chapelle. There was a line to get in, so we decided to stop and get some coffee at a cafe. Unforunately the line got a lot longer while we were in the cafe, so we ended up waiting almost an hour to get in. It was well worth the wait – although it is fairly small, this church has the most amazing stained glass windows that we've ever seen. Highly recommended!

From there we went on to Notre Dame. The crowds there were huge but moved quickly. Amazing architecture. A mass was taking place as we walked through – not sure if that always happens, but there were several hundred people taking part, and they were oblivious to the hundreds of people walking around the outside perimeter.

Next we crossed to Ile-Saint-Louis where we stopped at Berthillon for ice cream. They are world-famous for their delicious ice cream made fresh at the store every day. Just around the corner we stopped for a quick lunch of crepes.

Much of the rest of the day was just walking and seeing the sites of the Latin Quarter (5^th district) and St. Germain (6^th district). We stopped at Lauderee for treats, Cafe Flore for apertifs, and Cafe Procope for dinner. Finally after that a long walk home – about 12 miles of walking in all.

Saturday, June 16 (Paris)

Today begins at the Louvre. If you've never been here its hard to describe how truly big it is. The museum is housed in a former palace of the king. We were there at the opening and went straight to see the Mona Lisa. It was a good plan – usually the crowd around that painting is huge, but there weren't too many people here yet and we had a good unobstructed view. We had a little over two hours to see some paintings, but then had to leave. We've been told it could take three full days to really see all that there is in this musuem, and that seems about right.

After stopping for lunch we began another long walking tour. This one took us through Jardin de Tuileries (a large beautiful park), a stop for some gourmet chocolate, then down the Champs de Elysees (with a few stops along the way), to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed the stairs to the top of the Arc and enjoyed the amazing view of the city.

Next we walked toward the river, where we boarded a dinner boat cruise that took us the length of the city and back.

Finally we ended up at the Eiffel Tower. We had arranged a tour ahead of time that allowed us to skip the 4-HOUR line of people waiting to buy a ticket to go up. Our guide gave us lots of amazing facts as we went along. We stopped at the first and second levels, then finally made the trip to the top. The sun was just setting a little after 10:00 PM and we were able to still see the city before it got dark. After we came down (at 11:00 PM) they turned on the “sparkling” lights for five minutes – what an amazing sight!

Sunday, June 17 (Paris)

This morning started early with a trip to one of the best-known flea markets in Paris. After stopping for crepes and cofee we browsed the long streets of vendors selling beautiful antiques. Laura was desperately wanting to buy paintings and china she found, but our luggage won't allow it. She did find a beautiful tapestry that she may use as a rug.

We had avoided the Metro until now, after our firsr attempt at it was frustrating and confusing. However, now we had to get a long distance across town, and there were no taxis in sight. After we figured out the ticket machine we discovered it wasn't that hard to use, so we took the Metro across town to Montmarte, where we met a group tour of the city.

It turned out that the group tour was a dud – the tour guide spent long stretches rambling on about the detailed lives of painters who had lived in the city. So, after awhlie of that we split off and walked the streets of the town on our own. Although this area is now technically still inside the city of Paris it has the feel of a small town on the hillside. We enjoyed a cafe lunch on the street here before taking the Metro to our next destination – a bike tour.

We started at the bike tour office, which is near where we are staying, but the tour took us to the south part of the city – districts 13 and 14, which are outside the areas that tourists normally see. Very interesting, and very different from the much busier and noisier center of the city.

After the bike tour we picked up some groceries (we are making our own breakfast at home each morning before leaving for the day), then walked back over to Ile-Saint-Louis to have more of that delicious Berthillon ice cream before going to dinner.

Monday, June 18 (Bayeux)

Got up early this morning to catch a train to Bayeux. We arrived shortly after 11:00 and had a little time to stroll around the town. There is a HUGE medeival cathedral in town (Notre Dame de Bayeux).

We met our tour guide at 1:00 and took a 4-hour drive around the Normandy beaches at the site of the D-Day landings. I didn't realize there are still many German bunkers left in place, including some with the guns still in place. Our guide gave us some great background to the whole operation. We visited the American cemetary at Omaha Beach where over 7,000 American soldiers are buried. We found one cross with the name “Pvt James Ryan” who died on D-Day (June 6, 1944) and we wondered if we had found one of the brothers from the story in “Saving Private Ryan”. However, our tour guide informed us that the actual name of the family the movie was based on was Neeland, not Ryan.

Now we're on the 3-hour train ride back to Paris. We leave early in the morning taking the fast train to Marseille to continue our journey to the south....

Update from the UK

Thursday, June 14, 2012 – writing while in flight from Edinburgh to Paris

Its been hard to find time to write. Days have been quite full. Finally here in the air I have a few minutes to catch up.

Friday, June 8

We arrived in London around noon on Friday, June 8. The flight over was smooth and uneventful. After getting our baggage we made our way to the Underground and caught a train to the apartment where we'd be staying. We bought “Oyster” passes in advance, so we already had the cards we needed to board the Underground.

Our apartment was about three blocks from the Gloucester Road Underground station, so it wasn't hard to walk there. The building was hidden behind another building on the street so it took a bit of looking the first time to find it.

After dropping our bags we took off immediately again on the Tube to a bike tour (which we had paid for ahead of time). We had our own personal guide take us around the heart of London for about two and a half hours. Unfortunately it was raining lightly and very cold, but it was still a fun introduction to the city.

That night we had dinner at “Petrus”, a very nice restaurant in the Mayfair area, where we also celebrated Jonathan's 23^rd birthday.

Saturday, June 9

On Saturday we started the day by taking the Tube to the east end of the city where we went through the Tower of London. More about that in a minute.

Before we started planning our visit, I was confused about London Bridge and the Tower of London (never having been here before). I thought it was all basically the same thing. Now I know that there is London Bridge (the first bridge ever built in London, but very plain and boring to look at), Tower Bridge (the famous bridge with two large towers, seen in the first “Sherlock Holmes” film, and is only a little over 100 years old), and the Tower of London (which is actually a castle).

Being a real fanatic about history, I was excited to tour the Tower of London. The original innermost castle (“The White Tower”) was built by William the Conqueror shortly after he won the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and took over England. Over succeeding centuries other English kings built more walls and surrounding buildings. It still sits guarding the river entrance to London, just a few blocks away from the modern skyscrapers of London's financial district.

The Tower is most famous for the prisoners that have been held (and often executed there), including deposed kings, wives of Henry VIII, and others considered by the ruling powers to be traitors and criminals. We followed one of the “Beefeater” guards around for a guided tour and storytelling.

Leaving the Tower we began walking to the west, heading toward St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunatlely I didn't read my notes carefully enough. I had written down to be in St. Paul's before 4:00 but didn't remember why. We walked leisurely along and got there at about 4:10 – to discover that they close the doors at 4:00! So we were not able to go inside. Bummer.

From there we walked north to the Museum of London – where they have the entire history of the city described through numerous exhibits. Especially interesting – an exhibit on how the Black Plague wiped out half the city in the mid 14^th century, and another on the Great Fire that burned much of the city in 1666.

As we walked away from the Musuem on our way to the Tube station we were stopped for about 10 minutes, unable to get across the road because of a huge parade of naked bicyclists! Men and women of all ages were yelling, blowing whistles, singing, and more, while riding bikes with no clothes whatsoever. No idea why.

We took the Tube over to the West End near Oxford Street and had dinner in a little pub before going to the Dominion Theater, where we saw “We Will Rock You” – a musical story featuring the music of Queen.

After the show we spent some time trying to find a store still open at 11:00 PM that would sell a hair straightener. Laura brought hers from home and had used it that morning with the 110 → 220 volt converter that we brought. Unfortunately the converter didn't work perfectly with that high-wattage appliance and apparently the straightener got too hot. I heard her scream when I was in the other room and went running in to discover her holding a chunk of black, burned hair in her hand! We were able to find a 220V straightener the next day, so no more hair emergencies.

Sunday, June 10

An early start this morning, as the girls had a 9:00 appointment to ride horses in Hyde Park. We all walked together to the stable. It was a little surprising – we were walking down a residential street in the city, following our map, and it directed us down an alley (“Bathhurst Mews”). It appeared to be an alley where cars could park, and had more homes. Just when we were sure we were in the wrong place, we turned the corner and discovered a small horse stable right there!

The girls took off on a pleasant one-hour ride, while the boys walked over to an Italian Cafe for coffee and wi-fi.

From here we began a long walk through the Mayfair area, viewing the houses and buildings while we made our way to The Ritz hotel for high tea. We met Monica and Ian Hunter there (parents of Denise Vogt, our friend and director of the ballet school that Summer attends). They were delightful hosts, helping us understand some of the traditions of English tea.

After tea we walked on through Oxford and Regent Streets, to Picadilly Circus, and through the Soho area. After grabbing some snacks in Chinatown we made our way by Tube to the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel that sits on the river). It was a fun experience, but the weather was very cloudy and rainy, so the view was not the best.

Monday, June 11

The nasty weather got even nastier today. We had a whole walking tour planned of the Westminster area. Due to constant heavy rain and cold we had to scrap a good portion of our plan.

We were supposed to start by seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Due to the queen's 60^th jubilee they have the outside area surrounding the palace closed to the public as they work on taking down the stands that were put there during the celebration. We had to stand way off to the side of the palace and wait an hour in the pouring rain. Finally we saw a small group of guards march by, wearing rain gear, and that was it. We couldn't get in closer to where they do the actual ceremony – quite an anti-climax.

After this we went to Westminster Abbey. That was amazing – so many kings and queens and famous people buried there from hundreds of years ago. Its a shame you can't take photos inside.

From here we had to make up a new plan to stay out of the rain, so we hopped on a bus to the east side and went to the Tower Bridge. There is a really interesting exhibition at the top of the bridge showing how it was made.

After this we were ready for dinner, so we made our way back to a fun Chinese place we had seen in Soho, then afterward walked one more time through Picadilly Circus.

Time to leave London. It was nice but the weather stunk!!!!

Tuesday, June 12

Morning flight to Edinburgh. We had looked into taking a train in order to see the countryside, but it turned out to be MUCH cheaper to fly.

We checked into our hotel (in the center of the city) then looked for a little place to grab some lunch. We had to try Scottish fare at our first chance – Laura had some haggis (which she really enjoyed), while Jonathan and I both tried some Scotch whisky with our food.

We walked up the hill to Edinburgh Castle (just a half mile away) and toured the grounds. Fascinating history behind this 800-year old castle, and an amazing view of the whole city and the sea.

We returned to our hotel and caught a taxi out to Prestonfield, where we had dinner and watched a great show called “Taste of Scotland”. Lots of traditional music, singing and dancing, with an intermission of a dish of haggis.

Wednesday, June 13

An early start in order to get on the tour bus by 8:30. We traveled with 10 other people on an all-day drive through the nearby Highlands to the west. We saw six castles throughout the day, along with AMAZING scenery of mountains, lochs and streams with little villages in between. Our tour guide told us stories and gave descriptions throughout, taking occasional pauses to play traditional music on a CD.

We had lunch at Inverary Castle, where we were told the Duke that owns the castle still lives. Laura and Summer took a quick tour through the castle and stopped at the gift shop. The man behind the counter made a comment about signing a book about the castle. It turns out he was the Duke himself, and Laura talked to him for awhile and got some pictures.

When we got back to our hotel the Olympic Torch was just arriving. There was a HUGE crowd all along High Street from the middle of town up to the castle. We watched as the torch ran by to a procession at the castle.

For dinner we took a taxi outside of town to Dalhousie Castle, dating from the 12^th century, where we had an AMAZING dinner.

Packing up tonight to fly to Paris....

Final Days of Preparation

Three days from now we'll be on board a flight on Icelandair bound for London. Its hard to describe all that's led up to this time:

- saving for five years, setting aside business earnings to pay for the trip
- envisioning the perfect timing for our family to take this trip for years
- starting last fall to buy tickets, think thru cities to visit
- countless weekends in Caribou and Starbucks poring over maps, reviews, hotels, apartment listings, etc.

Its true, we are kind of freaks for details. Most people would probably go nuts spending the number of hours that we have in putting this all together. But we've had fun. We've put together a plan for a trip that we believe will be an amazing experience.

I'm going to try an post along the way as time allows. Of course, that won't be much. We have a business that is still running while we're gone. Thanks to our dedicated employees, we trust that things will continue on just fine while we're away. But I'll have to spend some time attending to the business details, so time available to post here will be limited.

So -- if you're interested to follow along I'll post whatever I can along the way, including whatever pictures I can get on. Later when we're back we'll post more detailed photos and videos.

Here's the beginning details:

June 7 - depart from Mpls/St. Paul at 7:30 PM on Icelandair. Six hours to Iceland, slight layover, then another three hours to London, arriving around noon on June 8 (local time). The queen's Diamond Jubilee will be over by then, so we should be able to move around normally.

June 8 - we are renting a private apartment just a few blocks from Kensington Palace (where Diana lived) and Hyde Park. After dropping off luggage we'll take off immediately for a 3-hour bike tour of London, so we can get acquainted with the sites. We'll come back and change clothes, then off to a nice dinner overlooking River Thames for Jonathan's 23rd birthday celebration.

More to come....

Europe travel tips and tricks

We are back at it this weekend, after several weeks off. Laura is working on a plan for our three days in London. So much to see in so little time!

I've been finishing off our travel arrangements. We booked our transAtlantic airfare back in November, thinking we would save money. Turns out that ticket prices have not increased at all since then, but its nice that we got good seat assignments for all legs of the trip back and forth (we're flying Icelandair from Minneapolis to London).

We discovered that Easyjet has EXTREMELY cheap flights within Europe. We'll be flying Easyjet from Edinburgh to Paris.

We had hoped to take a train from London to Edinburgh, but it appears that the rates go up to a ridiculous price at the end of May. We ended up booking a cheap flight instead (about 1/3 the cost of train!).

From Paris we'll be taking the high-speed train to Marseille. We discovered that we should NOT use RailEurope for booking train tickets. Its actually an American website that resells European train tickets at a much higher price. After learning lots of tips and tricks from "the man in seat 61" (www.seat61.com) we were able to get a great price on the train by booking directly on TGV-Europe.com and choosing the "print your own tickets" option.

We'll be picking up a rental car in Marseille (booked thru AutoEurope.com) and driving all the way until we get to Venice.

From Venice we'll take a train to Zurich. Once again, RailEurope had outrageous prices for this trip. Instead, with a little effort we were able to book tickets on the Italian site (www.trenitalia.com) for about 60% cheaper! It was tricky because they only let you buy a maximum of five tickets in one purchase and we need six.

Now we have all lodging and all transportation booked. Yeah!!!

The final stage -- deciding what we'll see in each city we visit.

What to see in London and Paris?

Another full weekend spent at Caribou and Barnes & Noble. This weekend Laura spent most of her time trying to develop an itinerary for our three days in London, while I spent most of my time doing the same for our three days in Paris. So much to see in so little time -- it really takes some careful thought.

We're debating whether or not to buy the "London Pass" -- pre-paid admission to most major sites. We need to figure out which ones we'll see in order to determine whether or not its worth the money.

We found a really interesting 3-hour bike tour of central Paris. That will probably be one of the first things we do. Most of our time will be self-guided walking tours of the major sites.

We have a fourth day in Paris, but that will be spent on a day trip to the Normandy beaches of WWII. We'll take a train to Bayeux in the morning and then a guided tour of the major sites, returning to Paris by train in the evening.

Lots of other loose ends to tie up. For example, we thought we had a hotel booked in Edinburgh, but after several conversations back and forth they still have not charged our credit card, so we don't have a firm reservation. Also still trying to make a final decision on a hotel in Zurich.

-- Steve

Almost done with lodging

Another weekend retreat. We spent about 8 hours Saturday at our usual Caribou Coffee looking for a place to stay in Zurich. The nice thing about hanging out here is that we almost always see friends!

We spent some time trying to figure out what we want to see with our very limited time in Zurich. We found a great looking day trip to Mt. Titlis that we're planning to book through Viator.com. A little over 9 hours, it takes us up an 11,000 ft. mountain and over a glacier -- looks like a great way to see the Alps!

We both looked exhaustively over almost every hotel that is close to the City Centre. By end of Saturday we had it narrowed down to a short list. We broke at 4:30 to head off to church and then our usual Saturday evening pizza and movie.

Sunday morning started with breakfast at IHOP. We made a brief stop at Caribou to say hello to friends, then on to Burnsville Barnes & Noble, where we spent the rest of the day until 6:30 PM. We went over the list of hotels again and narrowed it down to about four. We sent email off to each hotel requesting exact pricing and description of bed arrangements. (We've discovered it is really challenging to make sure we get enough beds for six people in these European hotels!) We'll wait to get responses and then try to make a final decision tomorrow night. That will complete ALL of our lodging arrangements for the trip. Yeah!!!!

Now that we've completed our lodging arrangements we'll start planning the actual daily itineraries. We've discovered from previous trips that if we really think through ahead of time what we want to see, and what times it will fit in, that it results in the best trip for everyone.

Laura has started looking into the details of how we'll spend our three days in London. I've already spent some time in past weekends looking at Paris, but now I'll make a full plan of what we want to see with our three full days in Paris, plus I'll arrange a day trip for a visit to the Normandy beaches from WWII.

We have all our inter-Europe travel planned out, but not all can be purchased this far in advance. We bought flights from Edinburgh to Paris and from Zurich to London. We have at least three train trips planned, but its too early to buy those tickets. We're still trying to decide whether to take a train or fly from London to Edinburgh -- it depends on the price. (Looks like flying might be cheaper!)

Background

We've been saving up for awhile to do this "once in a lifetime" trip. This year is the perfect window of opportunity for us. Our oldest (Jonathan) is graduating from college in May, so soon he'll be tied down by a career. Our youngest (Benjamin) will turn 14 this summer, so he's old enough now to appreciate a trip like this.

We decided to go in June, right after the younger kids get out of school. We discussed where to go -- its hard to cram all of Europe into just a few weeks! After some discussion we came up with a plan to see a lot of our "most desirable" places. We can't spend too long in any one place, but we are planning to cover a lot of ground.

Here's our calendar:

Depart Thu Jun 7 7:30 PM – arrive in London Fri Jun 8 11:45 AM ( London is 6 hours ahead of us) [LONDON]

June 9-s- London area visit – [LONDON]

June 10-S – London area visit [LONDON]

June 11-m- London extended area day trip [LONDON]

June 12-t-  travel to Scotland – Eurorail 8:00 AM – 12:30 PM [EDINBURGH]

June 13-w-Scotland visit [EDINBURGH]

June 14-th-- flight from edinburgh, scotland to Paris-- some Paris evening time [PARIS]

June15-f—Paris [PARIS]

June16-s-  Paris [PARIS]

June17-S- Paris [PARIS]

June18-m-- Go to Caen and see Normandy sights [PARIS]

June19-tu--take TGV speed train to Marseille in morning (9:07 - 12:28) [AIX-EN-PROVENCE]

June20-w-- wine tour in Provence ,  continue on to Nice (2n hours) [NICE]

June21-th-- Nice all day [NICE]

June22-f--  Nice all day [NICE]

June23-s-- Travel to Florence (6 hrs)  (see Monaco and Portofino on the way) [FLORENCE]

June24-S-- sightseeing Florence in the morning; travel straight to Rome by highway (3 ½ hour drive) [ROME]

June25-m-- sightseeing in Rome [ROME]

June26-tu-- morning in Rome; drive to Rimini (5 hour drive) [RIMINI]

June27-w-- San Marino/Camp Marantha/ return car / train to Venice [VENICE]

June28-- th- Venice [VENICE]

June29-f- train to Zurich, Switzerland [ZURICH]

June30-s- sightseeing in Switzerland [ZURICH]

July1-S –  British Airways flight Zurich to London Heathrow 8:45 AM – 9:35 AM; depart London at 1:00 PM; arrive in Minneapolis at 6:05 PM [HOME]

Introduction

I was encouraged by a friend today to start documenting our adventures of planning our big "once in a lifetime" family trip to Europe. Rather than blasting Facebook all the time I thought I'd keep the detailed notes here and just tell people where to find them. That way only people who are actually interested will read, and other Facebook friends won't have to endure all the details.
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Today we are camped out all day at our "usual" spot -- Caribou Coffee in Burnsville on Co Rd 11 & Co Rd 42.

Laura just finished booking a hotel for our one night in Florence (June 23).

I spent at least four hours yesterday researching hotels in central Rome. They all started to look the same to me after awhile. Very expensive, all look fairly dated. It seems like most of the sites we want to see are close together, so I'm focused on staying close the the Colosseum and train station, so that we're able to easily walk to the major site. Today I found a good recommendation on a hotel that seems like a winner -- just waiting to get an email back from them confirming availability.