Traveling the world with kids

Chicago

2009-08-05T05:12:00.004-07:00

We uneventfully dropped off our niece in NYC. The next day we arrived in Chicago 3 hours ahead of our foreign exchange student and made it to her airport with a whole hour to actually sit down and wait for her. After seeing some friends and some of the sites of Chicago we were back home again.

London: The most beautiful city in the world

2009-08-05T05:11:00.003-07:00

We jockeyed on the plane to be the first ones off and through immigration. We planned on leaving our checked luggage but gave in 10 minutes and it showed up in time. I arranged a cab to take us to Heathrow post haste. I looked at taking a helicopter but that service is not offered.

Our cabbie was amazing, you have no idea. We explained the situation to him. We drove fast, we drove very very fast, we drove on the side of the road on the shoulder. He had navigation and traffic congestion warning. We drove on access roads and side streets and everywhere else we could fit to dodge traffic and make it in time. The drive was amazing and we did our best to make sure that the tip matched.

We had been in contact with Heathrow and been told that if we would arrive by 6pm that they would get us on the plane. We hit check-in at 5:55. A manager from British Airways took us over from there. There was no room on the flight so she bumped us up to business class, opened a baggage check-in line just for us and got us through security so that we could make our flight. Despite the truly horrible picture of her above, she was beautiful. British Airways was beautiful. And despite anything I may have ever said in the past, London was beautiful. And on that day it was by far the most beautiful city in the world.

London Bound!

2009-08-05T05:10:00.002-07:00

Once the wheels left the ground in Morocco life became better. Other than the Steward coming out to lie to us and tell us that the plane was not opperating due to weather (in an attempt to dodge liability) when all the other planes were flying, the flight went remarkably well.

Our spirits were much better. Even if we missed our flight to the tune of another $3600 in London, we would be in a country were we understood the language and culture and make other arrangements. We could at least call friends in Chicago and not leave our exchange student stranded.

Back to Marrakesh

2009-08-05T05:09:00.006-07:00

This post is out of sequence:

So Easyjet put us all on a bus and send the 200 people to a local hotel for diner and sleep promising a flight at 10am the next morning. We needed to rebook our London-NYC flight since it departs London at 7am. They sent all 200 of us to a hotel that they had not bothered to call to let know that we were coming. They were not prepared for us. They did not have cribs for infants or internet or phones for us. Someone at the front desk took pity on us and allowed us to change our flight on the hotel computer at 3am after they had finished booking everyone in. We re-booked British Airways for the last flight (7pm) the next day and had Laurel's mom re-book our NYC-Chicago flight so that we could meet our exchange student on time. The total cost of the changes was probably around $3600 but we were happy to have a working plan to get out and not leave our student stranded in Chicago. We were herded back onto the airport bus at 7am after 3 hours sleep.

We arrived at the airport to find that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours!!! Deja Vu,

We had no working phone but the people pictured above let us use theirs and helped us in every way possible. They were brilliant. Just like the day before the plane was repeatedly delayed by 2 hours. Finally at 2pm the plane actually showed up and was available for the flight. It was just possible now that we could make it but we would have to cross London from Stanstead to Heathrow in 2 hours at rush hour including going through customs, immigration, checkin security and getting to our gate at Heathrow. I'm not a pessimist, but my grasp of reality did not leave me hopeful.

Marrakesh Airport

2009-08-05T05:09:00.004-07:00

We arrived at the airport well in advance of our noonish flight. After we all had our crotches grabbed in security we arrived at our gate to find that our plane had been delayed by 2 hours. No problem our connecting flight in London was not until early the next morning. We spent the last of our Moroccan money on some food and drink and waited the two hours until they announced that our plane was delayed another 2 hours. This repeated until 9pm at which time the board flipped and showed our flight as canceled. At this point we realized that we are unlikely to make our connecting flight in London. If we do not make it to London in time we will not make it to Chicago in time to meet our foreign exchange student and she will arrive in this country with no one to meet her at the airport and no one coming for who knows how many days?

Saying Goodbye to Marrakech

2009-08-05T04:56:00.003-07:00

It had been a great summer but we were done and starting to look forward to heading home. We wanted to take a few pictures of the Riad where we stayed while in Marrakesh. So much of the decorative carving and tile work on the buildings was just amazing. We hung out at the riad while waiting for it to be time to grab our cab to the airport. No one had the fortitude to hazard the streets for fun. Our minds were set on home. The last picture is a spice vendor that we passed on our way to the main square where we could grab our cab to the airport.

Diner with the tourists

2009-08-05T04:45:00.005-07:00

On our last evening we arranged to be wisked off to the far outskirts of Marrakesh for the whole dinner tour package. This was Morraco, homogenized and sanitized, just the way you would think it would or should be. As travelers, we would normally turn our noses up at such a contrived spectacle. However, at this point in our trip it was probably the perfect activity.

An awesome last full day in Marrakech

2009-07-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Our goal for the day was to get up, get some cash, get some lunch, see the old palace, get our daughter a henna tattoo and then to a fancy touristic dinner at the end of the day. After we got some cash we started walking towards the old palace looking for a spot to eat at along the way. We just happened to enter one non-descript hole in the wall that turned out to be a huge palace from the 1600's. Alfred Hitchcock filmed a movie there. Sean Connery had eaten there and we had this huge palace all to ourselves. Really really amazing. Really really cool.

After lunch we walked though the heat some more to the ruins of the old palace. This area was set up with stages for the Marrakech popular arts festival.

By the time we were done with the palace, our daughter had melted.

After some water and a spot to rest awhile she was revived enough to enjoy getting a henna tattoo (permanent for about 2 weeks).

Sleeping, Souks and Surfing

2009-07-19T01:08:00.002-07:00

We slept in until, well, until late today. this photo was taken at noon. Our kids are still in pajamas. Our niece . . . (shhhh, read quietly, she's still sleeping)

We walked over to the Souks, the small shops on the small twisty streets. They are a bit more shaded so it wasn't actually very horrible during the hottest part of the day. We were able to find some nice leather goods and a few other baubles to take back to the States with us.

After some shopping in the Souks we had a very late lunch and went back to our Riad for a swim and to take a short nap out of the heat. Our plan was to join a Couch Surfing meeting taking place at a local cafe. This would be our chance to meet some locals and ex-pats who might be able to show us a better side of Marrakech. Unfortunately, nobody showed up. The cafe had no food so we had a couple of Cokes and some icky coffee and banana drinks and headed off in search of some food and an early night back at our Riad.

Cooking class

2009-07-19T00:25:00.002-07:00

We took a cooking class at a swanky resort. For us this was a nice break from the real Morocco.

Aye, what manly men we are.

If enough of the work is pre-done Laurel actually enjoys cooking.

The results were by far the best food we had in Morocco (and by far the most expensive (but worth it)).

Adjusting to Marrakesh

2009-07-19T00:17:00.002-07:00

It takes some time to adjust to Marrakesh so we elected to keep it simple. We went to a shopping area that sells things at fixed prices so that we do not have to barter. This way we can learn what prices should be before we are eaten by the sharks.

We took a carriage ride to get back to the main square near our Riad.

We made a quick stop on the way back for a Camel ride.

This is the picture that we intended to get of the snake charmers in the main square. What I ended up going through to get it is another story.

First full day in Marrakech

2009-07-19T00:06:00.003-07:00

The Djemma al Fna main plaza is the main destination for tourists but is probably one of the riskiest places for them. Away from the plaza and the Souks I believe that Marrakech is a decent city with decent people. And indeed, a high percentage of people in the square are decent people. But with so many people in a given area there are definitely some who are not.

I am in search of a better side of Marrakesh. We have certainly met some wonderful local people. Hopefully we will meet more.

Marrakesh, some first impressions

2009-07-18T23:53:00.002-07:00

When you are flying into Marrakech it is like flying into a cotton field. Each building has from 1 to 5 big white round satellite dishes of different sizes. The overall effect is live looking at a cotton field after all the plants have dried and turned brown, the leaves have dropped leaving nothing but brown sticks and a brown field with white balls of cotton.

The street are full. Really full. At first I was really impressed by the use of donkeys. Then I was really impressed by the number of motor cycles and scooters and just how crazy they drove. Then I was impressed by the number of accidents and the fact that no one really cared enough to slow down.

The pushcart that brought our luggage to our Riad is a very common mode of transportation.

No pictures, no video, no amount of words or oration can describe the complete and utter chaos, the heat without air conditioning, the screaming of competing music and vendors, the smells of people and animals and food and spices, the constant jostling and grabbing and pushing, the continuous blur of movement and sounds and smells. All of this then abruptly parts to a man who suddenly throws a snake on you without your permission and yells "cobra!" while another blocks your family and places a larger monkey on your terrified niece. This is Marrakesh: highly interesting and well out of my comfort zone.

Arrival on Marrakexh Morocco

2009-07-18T23:27:00.002-07:00

Just off the plane the Arabic writing on the airport was the first indication that we were heading someplace very different. Our driver failed to meet us at the airport so we hired a taxi and headed to the main square hoping to locate our Riad (guest house/small hotel)

The taxi driver arranged to have this guy carry our luggage to our riad from the main square (Djemma al fna). Unfortunately he did not know where our riad was either, but got us to a smaller square where we enlisted the help of some young boys who got us to our Riad.

There were so many people, donkeys, motor cycles, bicycles, cars and bulldozers in the tiny streets it was very difficult to keep an eye on our luggage.

After successfully getting to our Riad a relaxing lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant was exactly what was needed.

Madrid Spain

2009-07-18T04:30:00.001-07:00

Our apartment was a perfect fit for us. Perhaps the best of the trip. Nice area and comfortable.

The area around the presidential palace was very upscale.

We just happened to be there for one of the changing of the guard ceremonies.

Ah, the Iowa. Serving fresh porkchops and mash potatos from who knows where. Not to be outdone, one street over and slightly more upscale is the Nebraska. Go figure. Funny what makes up exotic foreign food!

Touring Aarau

2009-07-18T04:16:00.002-07:00

While Tobias and I bicycled outside of town, Suzanna and Laurel took all of the kids on a tour of Aarau.

Any town with bronze monkeys hanging around has their priorities correct. (Fun first!)

The town was very pretty and had so much going on. With only 17,000 people it made our town of 15,000 feel like it had only 5000.

Switzerland, scenic? Who would have thought it?

Aarau Switzerland

2009-07-18T04:04:00.001-07:00

We spent our days in Aarau Switzerland with the wonderful Linder family.

This is Tobias's BBQ grill. In Tobia's words and accent: "This is sutch a daum nitce grill." It was really nice for us that their English was so good that we could really enjoy each other's sense of humor.

I have to admit that this daum nitce grill made some "daum nitce piedza". I think that our son agrees.

What a wonderful family. The Linders remind me of what I hope our family was like 10 years ago. They are such nice people. Warm, generous and friendly. We miss them already.

Leaving Besancon France

2009-07-18T03:27:00.003-07:00

This is some of us with Eric and Ely, our hosts in Besancon.

Our sons had a good time getting all their energy out.

This is my new Bronze friend ala Cobert style.

Besancon was definitely one of the prettiest cities that we have visited this summer. If we were to choose 1 place to spend a year in Europe out of the places we have visited so far this summer this would definitely be it. The people living there were friendly to us and stopped to say hello to each other on the street. People seemed relatively happy with their lives and the city had a good healthy vibe to it. At this point we have spent nearly 2 months traveling and are getting tired of everything being an extra struggle with the unfamiliar. We are currently thinking that when we spend a year somewhere it will be at our condo in Mexico just to keep things easy. Of course, another 2 months from now when we've had a chance to recover a bit, who knows what we'll be thinking.. Our exchange student will definitely get a lot of empathy when she gets homesick and overwhelmed. (been there, done that, but not for a whole school year completely on my own).

Besancon France

2009-07-15T14:51:00.001-07:00

Trunnelbach falls

2009-07-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

At 5am in the morning it was clear enought to see out the window of our hostel. By 7am when we were up it had mostly clouded over.

We took the sideways elevator up the inside of the mountain to see the falls cheared by the runoff of two glaciers.

It was very impressive. My camera was low on batteries so I have very few shots of it. This is corkscrew falls named for the way the water twists though the rocks at this point.

Yeah! Some sun and a view! Time to leave Switzerland quickly before it starts to rain again!

Through the Alps through the rain

2009-07-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Our hike across the Alps was much as you see here.

Our family had a good attitude dispite the long hike, the dissapointing view, and the pouring rain.

We hiked for 8 miles past misty hillsides and cows with loudly ringing bells.

Until we reached a train station in the middle of a deluge. It was time to call it quits for the day,

Disappointment in the Alps

2009-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Geneva late in the evening. It is a beautiful but unfortunately I have no pictures to prove it. The next moring we drove to Grindelwald were we took a cable car up into the Alps were we were to walk across a ridge and back down into Grindlewald (around 12 to 14 miles)

Unfortunately the weather was rainy and cloud covered.

Unfortunately this was about as clear as it got. There are huge mountains all around that we could not see. I know that it would have been spectacular if we could have seen it. Instead it was wet.

These carins in the fog looked rather spooky.

Day 1 post race wrapup

2009-07-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

At the end of the day the Swiss rider Fabine Cancellara was still in yellow. We atarted the walk back across the country to our hotel.

We were quite incredulous at Monoco's strick anti Schnauzer laws. ;-) (we own 2 miniture schnauzers)

This is dispite the fact that they allow cats.

And bears are welcome. It was time to leave Monoco.

Tour de France Day 1 2009

2009-07-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

From our highside location we could just make out the riders as they passed below.

And then they were flying up the hill. I had always been told to choose a hill location to watch the tour. Otherwise the riders pass too quickly. Even at the top of a small hill the riders where quickly here.

And then gone.

The only thing remaining being the caravan strung out for miles afterwards.

TDF Day one pre race

2009-07-09T21:24:00.005-07:00

Monoco is nice, it is hot, it is humid, but it is nice. Our son and I walked to the Monte Carlo Casino across town where the grand caravan of sponsors and the race was departing from.

More floats and swag similar to the day before, but this time we were in the right place to get some goodies.

Since we were already across town coming from just across the boarder in France, out son wanted to complete the walk across the country to the oposite boarder going the longer length of the country. We did this an so ended up staged on a highside in France to watch the Tour de France.

We had time for a quick dip in the Med before the riders came by.

Post Prologue

2009-07-04T22:54:00.001-07:00

This was as close to the awards ceremony as we could get. Why they announced to the crowd to come to the ceremony is beyond me. There was room for maybe 1/50th of the people trying to attend.

Ah TDF bliss. A table all to myself. Just me, a beer, my 5 sweaty hats and my giant green Peruvian man purse.

The table next to me was still going strong even after 7 hours in the hot sun watching cycling all day. My family did awesome.

TDF Prologue 2009

2009-07-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the Prologue

2009-07-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

Arrival in Monoco

2009-07-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tour of Milan

2009-07-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

Milano

2009-07-02T23:00:00.002-07:00

All tourists in Milano flock to the Duomo. It really is spectacular. If you are a tourist in Milan you should flock there. The stairs to the upper deck were closed when we wanted to climb them. We skipped the climb, but the upper deck is purported to have the best view of Milan that you can get.

We came cross the Scala Opera house and found that the event for the evening was a Ballet set to the music of Pink Floyd. After a search for tickets we found that we could get box seats with a really really obstructed view for around $500. However, the gentleman at the ticket office was very kind and explained the process to get gallery tickets for $10 each. The seats would also be bad but the cost would at least somewhat match. An hour later we had our tickets to a basically sold out show.

The shopping mall in downtown Milan was even fancier than the Walmart in Payson AZ. Actually, for the price of a wardrobe from the Prada store where we did our window shopping, you could buy the Walmart in Payson AZ.

The Scala theater was very large and spectacular. Boxes are arranged not so much to see the show as to be seen. As a result, you could not actually see the stage (at all) while being seated in out seats. Our row was fitted with hand rails so that you could stand up and lean over the row in front of you to see the show. The show itself was, well, interesting.. The first 2 songs featured nothing but guys in tights and no shirts doing pelvic thrusts. The children thought that the show was "weird". The show did get better and became more of something that you would see at the halftime of the Superbowl and less of a Chippendale's routine. 1/2 way though our son and I left to use the restroom. We were not allowed back in but were instead directed to the center of the second gallery were we had awesome seats where we could see the whole stage. These seats were somewhat wasted on us but there was no way to let the others know that they should change seats.

Leaving the Czech Republic

2009-07-01T02:16:00.001-07:00

Before we left the Czech Republic we sent some packages home to ourselves (via Lydia's house).

This is the town barber in the small town near Osice. One of these words means "barber" but I cannot remember which one.

Neither the woman who took this picture nor the barber spoke a work of English. She also had never used a camera before. Not too bad for her first picture!

It was then time to say goodbye to our good friends Marcela and Petr. We will really miss them. They made so many things possible for us in the Czech Republic. Visiting friends like these is really the best way to travel! We hope to see them again soon. Perhaps in the USA, Mexico, or back in Europe.

I have decided that the Czech people are the best looking people in the world. It may be that Petr and Marcela just have very good looking family and friends. Of course the fact that I am Czech and can include myself remotely in this group places no bias on my judgement whatsoever! ;-)

Home with Thomas and Luci

2009-07-01T02:02:00.001-07:00

After the airshow we visited Thomas and Luci's house. Luci's parents own a lumber mill. Thomas and Luci are currently living on site in an apartment while they are building their house.

Luci collects teabags, boardgames, match sticks, yogurt labels, wooden stamps, food labels etc etc. We used to say "Marcela" was short for crazy Czech lady. Now we can just say "Luci".

We had a very nice dinner outside despite it threatening to rain.

The kids clayed a Czech boardgame after dinner. If fun and volume are related it is safe to say that they had an AWESOME!!! time.

Air Show

2009-07-01T01:53:00.001-07:00

After our visit to Terezin a trip to the Czech airshow was a much welcome change of pace. We had never been to an air show before.

The carnival like atmosphere was accentuated with rides and food.

The Red Bull acrobatic team was there as well as the Czech version of Air Force One. Czech Army jets (made by the Swiss I think) screamed by.

The helicopters did a low level tango with each other. Several times I flashed on all of the airshow tragedy footage they are always showing on the "when accidents happen" TV shows.

Terezin - Not a happy place

2009-07-01T01:41:00.001-07:00

We thought that it was important to visit a former concentration camp at least once. It was an educational experience.

Terezin was not a "death camp" per-se. Intellectuals and other "enemies of the state" were kept here. The Jews were in the Getto in the larger part of the city. I had always thought that the bulk of the Jews killed were killed in the gas chambers as part of the final solution. This is not true. The majority were kept in horrible horrible conditions. Conditions that make bulk animal farming look very humane. You could look at examples of these conditions and think "there is no way you could survive is those conditions". That is correct and the people who were keeping you there did not care. People were worked to death, froze to death, starved to death or died of disease or suffocation in the super crowded conditions.

"Work will set you free." This slogan was used by the Nazis and later by the communist party after the war.

The gas chamber was not used at Terezin. This was a real shower room. Transport for Terezin to "death camps" such as Aushwitz was regularly around 1000 people. Usually between 2 and 18 of each 1000 survived the camps. Shipment after shipment is logged in the books.

Osice

2009-07-01T01:18:00.001-07:00

We arrived from big city Vienna to the very small town of Osice (pop ~500). Here we are picking cherries just outside of our friend's town. Very very tasty!

We visited a local museum in a neighboring town that displayed many of the jobs people have traditionally worked. For us, the most interesting thing that Petr told us about was the Easter egg tradition. Girls will hand paint fancy eggs. Boys make a special stick out of a fresh willow tree branch. The boys will go to the girls' houses and sing a special Czech song that Petr sang for us. It basically says "You must give me a fancy colored egg!" The boy must then hit the girl on the butt with the stick and she gives him an egg. This was all very strange and interesting to us. I still do not quite understand how the dynamics work in this. Petr says that the closest thing we have to this would be trick-or-treat.

Our daughter really enjoyed getting to spend some time with Pavel and Wendy's daughter.

Only two more days of school left for Czech students. Pavel and Wendy's children demonstrate how they are currently feeling about school.

Palace Museum

2009-07-01T01:02:00.002-07:00

These were some of the more interesting displays from the Armory and the Treasury of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

When attending a ceremony it was important for a knight to dress appropriately.

The crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

The holy grail. The history of this object is unclear. Some purport it to be the vessel that was used to catch the blood of Christ as he was crucified.

Beautiful Vienna

2009-07-01T00:52:00.002-07:00

I have heard two different things about Vienna. One is that it is a wonderful vibrant city with much to offer (but expensive). The other is that it is an empty shell of a city milking the tourist trade with it's bygone trappings of it's glory days. I have not been in Vienna long. While there is a healthy tourism industry in Vienna I can comfortably say that whoever made the later statement is full of crap. Vienna is awesome. We would like to return someday to see it properly.

The only real negative thing I can say about Vienna during our short stay is that it was raining. I mean RAINING. There was flooding like they had not had in 50 years. One art gallery was being forced to evacuate many of their priceless painting for fear of water damage.

We didn't really see any sign of the flooding ourselves and were basically unaffected except for all of the rain.

The Hofburg Palace was amazing. This photo is the steps in the Armory Museum within the Palace.

To Vienna Austria

2009-07-01T00:34:00.002-07:00

We stopped back in Czesky Krumlov to do some rafting and Kayaking (Pavel & Thomas being the Kayakers).

The river around Czesky Krumlov has a series of slucegates which helps keep the otherwise slow river interesting. One raft flipped going through the largest gate. We took a bad line through the same gate. While we didn't end up flipping, Petr ending up hitting quite a wall of water.

Our niece ended up looking all "pro" in borrowed equipment.

After an easy 3 hour drive with no checkpoint at the border we arrived safely at our appartment in Vienna. Quite tired from the previous week we spent one whole day doing nothing but laundry, grocery shopping, and catching up on our blog.

Czesky Krumlov

2009-07-01T00:08:00.001-07:00

Ceske Krumlov is perhaps the second most visited place in the Czech Republic after Praha(Prague). We were lucky that our visit was timed with an annual festival. We first arrived in the city of Ceske Brodovice (sic) and found a very nice town square but really nothing else noteworthy. People at the information center looked perplexed when we asked about a festival and a castle. We found a spot for lunch and a quick check of our navigation system revealed that we were in the wrong Ceske.

For a few Czech crowns you could fire a quiver of arrows at some circular spiral targets fashioned out of straw.

We were amazed at the length of this procession though the town. There must have been 1/2 a kilometer of people dressed in period costume. Many of them famous Czech actors. All the more impressive as it was raining. The women's long dresses were beginning to act as mops. Such was life in the middle ages I guess.

In the town square many vendors had set up and were making the equivalent of fair food. These mini doughnuts were nothing but melty gooey goodness.

50th Birthday Party

2009-06-21T01:32:00.001-07:00

A good party requires the correct state of mind!

Birthday gifts were given in a very unusual fashion (for us, apparently this is customary in the Czech Republic). People formed a line to say something to Jana (the birthday girl) and present their gift. Once all the gifts were given they were opened one at a time.

Another late night of singing, playing games, and partying around the campfire.

Many people who had partied hard the night before made an early (midnight) night of it. We took the early departure and I was up in time to catch the sun dawning as the mist was rising off the lake.

Second Day in Mydlak

2009-06-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

Most of the women here for the weekend had been on a volleyball team together. Here we are playing men against the women. The women won in a close match.

Our son and his 12 year old Czech friend got to paddle Kayaks around the lake.

Pavel's family shared their bikes and rollerblades so that our children could join in.

We went rafting on a nearby river course. The weather was cold and rainy and we were cold. But it was so cool to do this. Well worth it.

Party Czech Style continued,,

2009-06-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Marcella and Petr's son Thomas played guitar.

Drunken people danced wildly. Czech, Slovic and Czech Slovic songs were sung. We sung one verse of the "star spangled banner". In painfully out of tune fashion.

Party the Czech style!

2009-06-20T05:43:00.000-07:00

At the lake. No cars. No problems. Time to have fun! Czech beer and the national drink.

Cheers!

The night is young!

Castles and Cascades

2009-06-20T05:35:00.002-07:00

After spending the night in Czesky Brudjoice we took a tour of this castle. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside.

Our neice thought that it may be her fantacy castle with the exception of all the deer heads. Our children pointed out that in the fantacy castle all the deer would speak. I pointed out that they would all be saying "why did you shoot me?". They might also tend to be a little pissed off.

We arrived in the rain to our campground at Mydlak

Wood was brought for a bonfire! This was an awesome idea I thought!

Marksburg Castle

2009-06-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

We visited the Marksburg Castle on the way out of Koblenz

The picturesque castle is pirched on a hilltop.

Tall hill with a shear cliff face plus a tall tower equals really high up.

We have been running the kids pretty hard and it is beginning to show. Perhaps they will be able to rest on the plane to Prague and in the car to Czesky Brudjoice(sic).

Kolblenz and Kietterwald Sayn

2009-06-20T05:14:00.000-07:00

We found Germany to be very nice. Quality of life seems on par with the USA. Perhaps even better in some ways. Kolbelnz was a much bigger town than I expected. I wish that we had the time to explore the old center. Instead we went to a Zipline, climbing, obstacile course called Kietterwold Sayn. We rate this 3 1/2 times better than Euro Disneyland! We were there on a school day so the lines were really minimal. We had SO much fun. Laurel stayed home and worked which was perfect as she hates heights or even watching the kids around heights.

There were 9 courses to choose from. You could do them all as many times as you would like. It was awesome.

Our neice, who did not want to go to the top of the Eiffle tower, had no problems with this.

Dispite being well marked we had some minimal nagivational problems.

Koln area

2009-06-20T05:01:00.000-07:00

Even in the rain these market were running in Bruhl.

Our children are suddenly Gangstas from da hood??? Go figure.

It was great to see Kirsty again and meet her boyfriend Abib.

Britta and Heleno were great hosts and gave us a big chunk of their time even with busy young family life. We really enjoyed our time with them.

Near Koln - Germany

2009-06-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Walking to the train depot.

In the streets of Bruhl

This palace was closed for Monday. :-(

So we had the palace grounds to ourselves!!! Pretty cool to have your own private palace.

Brussels from Dinos to Dodos

2009-06-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

Our children(us too) are just barely taller than the ankle of this large Sauropod.

The Belgian Dinosaur Museum was new and amazing.

Smile!

For lunch I had "The American". If you cooked it I am sure that it would be a great hamburger. This is not how its eaten. An excellent cut of beef is freshly ground up and made into a patty (don't try this at home kids). Notice that there is almost no marbling in the meat. You then mix in the raw egg yoke and other ingredients. The texture is much like Sushi. Very interesting to try once.

Would you like some mouse with that?

2009-06-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

Brussels Subway

Le Roy

Le Roy on the Grand Place

Dinner and a show. Our son shared his chair with a mouse! (More Ick and Eek!)

Grandvoir

2009-06-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

We did a small walk in the countryside in the morning and stoppped at the park so that the kids could play together.

Many of the houses in this little village were quite picturesque.

Lunch with salad fresh from the garden has been such a treat for us. We have been eating outside in the garden anytime that the weather permits.

We did a big bicycle ride from Grandvoir to Neuftchateau. This was 4 miles in each direction. Ryland opted to ride back in the car but Our Niece and daughter opted to stick it out for the 4 miles back in the pouring rain. Large dishes of ice cream with hot Belgium chocolate were ordered all around in Neuftchateau.

Fast train from France

2009-06-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

We took the Thalys high speed train from Paris to Belgium. This worked very well until the train broke down 30 minutes into the trip. A new engine was brought and we arrived in Brussels 2 1/2 hours late. Our friends Alice and Antoni were left waiting for us at the train station the whole time with their young baby.

We then made the trip by train and car to their small village of Grandvoir.

The following day the children and I made the trip to see Charteau Fort de Bouillon in the small somewhat touristic (but very beautiful) town of Bourillon.

Their young daughter was so happy to see more of the world while keeping close to mommy.

The fort/castle was very nice. The pictures do not do it justice. We have been to several castles which look very pretty from the outside but do not really have very much to offer the visitor besides a couple of empty rooms.

This castle is the real deal with torture chambers, dungeons and a huge amount of fortifcations. 3 draw bridges and dark recesses for guards to hide. The crusaders of old were an agressive and highly violent group.

Easy day!

2009-06-07T02:29:00.005-07:00

Today the Walas are taking another easy day. A late night party (1am-4am) with lots of people and very loud music kept us up. The Day family set off to Giverny to see the gardens of Monet, and got up at 6 am, but the Walas are taking a needed rest day instead. I am finally caught up on blogging! The museums are free today. Great timing as today is the day that our museum passes (a great value) have run out. We hope that the Days have a good time today, but they all seemed pretty tired as they headed out the door this morning.

We headed to the Picaso Museum instead. On the way we found a market at Chatau de Halles. We purchased an authentic Falafal sandwich before heading on towards the Museum.

Laurel and Rachel managed to look into this church yesterday. We did not bother today. We are starting to get to the point that we have seen so many cathredrals that they really need to be something very special before we will look in.

The Picaso Museum was very nice. I think that it was very interesting even to the kids. They did a lot of play with light an mirrors. This is a picture of 1/2 of the front of the building relected in a giant mirror.

We returned home to the apartment to find that the Day family had a very nice day in Giverny. We were so glad that it had worked out well for them!

Paris in the rain - Montmartre

2009-06-07T02:17:00.001-07:00

We had our first little drizzle in Paris today. Perfect! I don't think that any trip to Paris can be complete without at least one walk though the streets in the rain. Rachel provided the guided tour of the impressionists at the Orsay museum today. It felt really nice to be back on the educational track and a bit more removed from the EuroDisney/tourist/eat too much track.

We had lunch at a real Indian restaurant today. Pretty awesome.

We were attacked by hucksters while heading up the steps to Sacre Cour. Watchout if you go. They are VERY agressive and not nice.

We had a nice afternoon snack and then all the children (and our niece) had their pictures drawn by local artists.

Laundry, Louvre, and the Park

2009-06-07T01:56:00.001-07:00

Today was an easy day. We caught up on some work. Made some changes to our reservations and did a little bit of catchup blogging. We did some laundry that we were very due for.

We spent the afternoon over at the Louvre. After 3 hours I was convinced that we have raced though between 1/20th and 1/10th of it. You could easily spend a full week to see the Louvre.

The route to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo are well marked. Finding other specific works are much more difficult.

In the evening we took the children to play in the maze (hedges near the Louvre). We quickly realized that this was not the right place for them and took them further down the path to play on the carousel and jump on the trampolines in the children's park.

Euro Disneyland

2009-06-07T01:40:00.001-07:00

When Jim and Rachel decided to make the trip to Euro Disneyland to celebrate their 10 year old son's birthday, I must admit that a part of me was really happy. I had worked designing and building the central reservation system for Euro Disney around 25 years ago. Even though we got nowhere near the location of the central reservation system or any of the Disney hotels it has always been a nice association for me.

Euro Disney turned out to be a real mixed bag for us. The '25' minute wait for the Big Thunder Mountain railroad actually took an hour and 10 minutes. In general, the wait times for rides was long and the number of rides in the park was small. There were perhaps 7 rides in the park that we were interested in and 2 of them were closed for maintenance. Big Thunder Mountain kept getting stopped for technical difficulties. We probably should have checked the 'mousesavers.com' website for tips before we went.

The Indiana Jones roller coaster had only a 15 minute long ride and was one of our favorates. Unfortunately Jim and Rachel's daughter was just a hair too short to be allowed on.

The Disney parade was in the early afternoon and the park opens at 10am and closes at 7pm. My expectations based on our last trip with the kids to Disney California were considerably higher.

The Eiffle Tower and Rue Claire

2009-06-07T01:18:00.001-07:00

Just like the Grand Canyon in Arizona or the Statue of Liberty in NYC, if you are in Paris you must visit the Eiffel tower. We made our obligatory visit while Laurel stayed home to work.

Our daughter on the viewing deck.

While heading to Napoleon's tomb and the Rodin museum, we rediscovered Rue Cler. One of our favorite streets in all of Paris. Our children had to have crepes again in the place where they first discovered them.

Rachel had arranged for us to all write poems for her son's birthday. We all had a lot of fun reading them. What a clever idea and what a great gift!

The Palaces of Versailles

2009-06-07T01:06:00.001-07:00

The last time we visit Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors was closed. We were quite glad to see it this time as were the tons of other tourists jammed into this enormous space.

The hallway of Napoleon contained an exhibit on more modern wars including this photo exhibit of Abu Giab.

While the palace was good for 1 1/2 hour tour, we spent 5 1/2 hours in the gardens and maybe saw 1/4th of them and probably walked for 5 or 6 miles. The kids (young and old) ALL did awesome!

There were other palaces, gazebos, fountains and lakes tucked in the gardens. Getaways from getaways, from getaways. This little rustic grouping of homes was probably the closest thing toa cabin that the aristocracy had. Perhaps spending time in this pretend little village even made them feel in touch with the working class.

Saint Chappel, Norte Dame, & the Conciergerie

2009-06-07T00:47:00.001-07:00

Our first stop of the day was Saint Chappel with it's beautiful stained glass windows. We followed this with a tour of Notre Dame Cathedral. The lines to tour the towers were around 1 hour long so we opted to have some lunch and use the restrooms first. This is our first taste of the summer tourist lines. In winter (5 years ago) we wisked though these sites with barely a thought to it.

At the restaurant where we stopped for lunch, the waitress allowed our children to tour the wine cellar.

On top of Notre Dame. Can you pick out the scariest gargoyles?

The black tower of Notre Dame and the Sein river.

Arrival in Paris

2009-06-05T23:42:00.002-07:00

We had to leave the wonderful Lecut family in US as we headed to Paris to meet up with Nick and Toni and the Days.

Our first order of business after checking into our apartment was to walk across the sreet through the Louvre and to the Place de la Concorde. The Arc de Triomphe (that we were walking the 4 miles to) can be seen in the far distance.

This is the view from the top of the Arc de Trioumphe.

And so is this with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Modern Art Show

2009-06-05T23:32:00.001-07:00

Claire and her eldest daughter in front of one of the
nicer homes hosting art exhibits.

We spent several happy days with the Lecut family. We went to a modern art show in a nearby village. While still selling, the atmosphere seemed to us to be much more focused on exhibiting than selling. This made for a nice atmosphere however the the prices (and quality) did seem to reflect the more high brow approach.

Most homes at the exhibit had beautiful gardens full of flowers. Our niece and their daughter spent some considerable time taking pictures.

The next morning I awoke to a bicycle race passing our front door. (How awesome is that?!)

We headed out to buy fresh croissants and bread in the morning as the cyclists passed by. Another nice walk through their picturesque little town before lunch and a hasty departure for Paris.

Arrival in US france

2009-05-31T01:02:00.001-07:00

After flying out of Bristol England we arrived at Charles de Gaul airport in Paris. A very nice city bus took us all the way to Cergy where we were met by our friend Claire at the station. To our 16 year old niece's delight we were staying with the Lecut family with two daughters ages 16 and 13. We arrived around 8:30pm and had a very nice dinner with lemon chicken and excellent food.

The next morning we took a nice tour of their village. A picturesque stream runs though the town. In fact all of the small towns we passed were beautiful French small towns fitting my image of what a small town in the French countryside should be.

This old mill (complete with waterwheel) is now open as a restaraunt.

We all enjoyed fresh croissants, bagettes, cheese, and egg on the patio. The weather is very nice.

Visiting Exeter

2009-05-30T23:53:00.001-07:00

Exeter contained a few old homes that were every interesting to us. We also visited the local cathedral.

No. Our children are not in a gap between two houses or simply a small alleyway. This is in fact the smallest street in the world. Nobody knew for sure what the criteria was that made this a street other than the fact that it has a plaque stating that it was the smallest street in the world. Humm.. I KNOW that matchbox cars drive on MUCH smaller streets. ;-)

Steve sat down at the table and declared himself "A rose between two thorns!"
(You can judge for yourself)

Once again we really enjoyed Mandy and Steve. And this time got to meet and enjoy their extended family. Our stay with them was certainly the most enjoyable and relaxed part of our trip to England.

Members of the crowd could jump in and compete in
the 800m roller race.

They managed to arrange to do everything I mentioned in passing. A trip to a local church and a farmers market. They even managed to arrange the British cycling tour series for the day that we visited Exeter. You would not believe the number of activities going on or the number of people in the streets and this was on a Thursday night!

While very excited to be heading to France we were sad to be leaving Mandy and Steve after just such a short visit. I am sure that we will see them again.

Thorverton and one quick stop along the way

2009-05-27T23:51:00.001-07:00

We took the metro from our hostel to Heathrow (Easy), and a shuttle from there to the Hertz dealer (Easy Easy) and picked up our rental car ( 1 hour+ (a bit like Mexico)), and then drove out of London towards Exeter (way less than easy. Actually, downright stressful). We didn't actually have any problems, just some stressful driving, wrong turns and several short but quickly resolved panics.

We did manage to happen across this old ring of rocks stuck out in a field.. (I wonder if we could be the first to notice it? Tickets were 6 quid each, so perhaps not!)

The area around Thorverton is really spectacular rural England. The type of area you would visualize when you think of rural England. Quaint, beautiful, charming are all appropriate adjectives. Our friends Mandy and Steve greeted us with such a welcome including all of their extended family. It was very nice. We had been quite happy with our clean comfortable hostel in London but it was SO much nicer to be invited into their welcoming household. After eating a huge family potluck style meal at their house we walked the 200 yard distance down to the local pub.

Talk about what a British pub should be! Just an awesome place. Lots of old antiques on the walls and hanging about. Lots of great beer on draw. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Our children and Steve and Dave all shot a few games of darts together. I'm afraid that our daughter may have added some to the character of the place with some of her shots!

Ginger's Birthday (in London)

2009-05-27T23:21:00.001-07:00

We went by Buckingham palace about the time of the changing of the guards. Since we were there anyway we thought that we might as well watch. It turns out that it was actually cancelled in lieu of parade practice for the Queen's birthday. Since today was not the Queen's birthday we concluded that today's parade was in fact in celebration of Ginger's birthday.

The once proud Lions of Trafagar Square are often saddled with young children.

We took a tour of the Globe theater in the afternoon. The set for the evenings play was very simple and we got to see almost all of it being built while we listened to the tour.

We had a very nice dinner at the Swan Restaurant by the Globe theater. A bit pricey but at least the quality of the food matched the cost. The performance of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors was really excellent. Aspects of it were updated and the children all really enjoyed the physical humor and much of the dialogue. They made up 3 of about 6 children in the entire 1500 person theater. Anyway, a really great day in London.

Whitehall, Westminster, and the Tower

2009-05-26T01:05:00.001-07:00

Apparently the "egg" in London is smaller than I remember.
Our daughter picked it up as we were passing by. :-0

We were up out and about by an early 11:30 today. We grabbed some breakfast to go at the local grocery and had our breakfast in the gardens at Whitehall off of the embankment stop. Under the bridge a large troupe was playing percussion. Very good very loudly. The Garden was far enough away from the stop to make the noise pleasant. From there we headed over to Parliament and Westminster Abby.

The Beefeater's at the tower of London go through a near impossible
selection process to obtain their jobs

We headed over to the tower of London around 3. The tour is only one hour and has been consistently excellent both times we have taken it.

The tower bridge is pretty cool. We haven't been up in it yet. (Maybe tomorrow.) The Parliament building was closed today for the bank holiday. Laurel worked at a local wifi hotspot while we discovered that the Parliament building was closed and tour Westminster Abby.

Big Ben is Awesome. Our timing today was such that we got to hear it only on the half hour. If only there was another clock somewhere in the world that emulated the same chime I could know what it sounds like. ;-)

We finished the day out with dinner on Southwalk and hanging out at the youth hostel bar playing board games and catching up on the computer.

Off to London!

2009-05-24T15:40:00.002-07:00

It was a LONG day today. Many thanks to Lydia for helping us get it started off right. We had good relatively stress free flights from Phoenix to Newark on Continental and from Newark to London Heathrow on British airways. But not much sleep.

Just another day at the office.

We arrived at 6:30am in London very tired and unable to check into our hotel room until 2pm. We made the best of it with a trip to Madam Tussuad's Wax museum. It was OK, fairly expensive and was SO overfilled with tourists that it was not enjoyable for me. However it did manage to kill some time until our very tired crew could go back to the hostel and nap.

An otherwise enjoyable walk in the park can feel like a death march

when all you want to do is rest.

Next we walked down to Hyde park (basically a big unkept grassy field in the middle of the city. We walked across Hyde Park to Kennsington gardens and palace. All very nice but we were all quite at and end and Lindsey was a trooper but fraying around the edges even faster than the rest of us. We took a tour of Kennsington palace, had a lunch/breakfast/dinner (who knows what time zone we are physically in?) and then gratefully retired to our room!

Packing and more packing

2009-05-09T05:36:00.001-07:00

We head to Europe 2 weeks from today. We will be continuously traveling for just over 2 months. Getting all of our gear to fit in our tiny carryon suitcases has become somewhat of a puzzle. If I pack all the electronics and books that I think would be useful I'm left with enough room for a pair of shorts 2 pair underwear and 1/2 a Tshirt.

Still lots to do. Getting services suspended at home. Shutting down the house and reconfirming with all the people we will be visiting. I'm still hoping to track down some distant relatives in Bratislava.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Ruins South of Lima

2009-03-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Once a girl was hand selected for this house her career path would go only one of three directions: sacrifice, concubine or teacher.

No, thats no mirrage. The ocean and it's rock islands just seem to pop out for teh desert from the top of the temple of the sun.

The ruins south of Lima are so much different than the ruins around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The area matchs my expectaions for the desert enviroment near Marrakesh, not my expectation for a place on the ocean. Made almost entirely if adobe
these ruins are much more difficult to reconstruct as the adobe tend to return to the ground with time and the elements.

In Lima it is important to select the right taxi.. So far we have had good luck.

2009-03-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a kind of a do nothing day. We flew from Cusco to Lima. Its hot here in Lima today.

Modern Inca Jewelery

2009-03-18T02:26:00.005-07:00

In the morning we said our goodbyes to Swiss friends Marchello and Enis.

We had made plans that the kids would take a Jewelry making class so that Laurel could work and Devin could play. However our Son spent the night vomiting because of food poisoning, a condition common among everyone we have talked to in Cusco.

So our daughter and I went to jewelry making class by ourselves. I was planning on being a non-active observer but discover on entering the shop that this was a serious class for adults taught only in Spanish. Rather than the string and beads that I was expecting, the room was filled with volatile chemicals, torches, and large presses.

Our daughter was able to do some of the work, I was able to do a good percentage and our instructor bailed us out one the rest. All work was done in .950 silver which we forged ourselves. The total cost for 4 hours of instruction the resulting silver ring and silver pendant was $15USD.

We had a very late lunch at a highly recommended restaurant where the ¨Panqakies¨ left our daughter in awe.

By plane, by train, and now by horse of course

2009-03-17T04:58:00.005-07:00

The last and only time I was on a horse I was 1 or 2 years old and riding on a horse with my father. The horse rolled over on us and broke my dad´s leg. So what better place to get over a mild fear of horses than in the middle of a third world country 1000s of miles from home.

Laurel booked a horseback tour to the temple of the moon through a local agency. Total cost for 4 was 140 sols (around $12 each USD) and included our transportation to and from the ranch. It turned out to be one of the best $12 I've spent.

On the road to the ranch we passed the ruins of Sawqaecaswan. We had been warned by friends that the ruins are pretty need but not worth the price of the ticket unless you are visiting other sites on the ticket. Our friend's comment was that there isn't much of anything there that you cannot see from the road.

The horses turned out to be rather pony sized. And their speed was an unimpressive 1/2

walk. All of this turned out to be rather less intimidating than I had feared.

The temple of the moon turned out to be pretty cool. A cave explored by the light from my digital camera brought us to an alter. I am pretty sure that the alter is/was used for animal sacrifices. It is located directly under the ceiling where a fisure opens to the sky above. Given the name of the temple, I have no doubt that the moon shines through there at some significant time of the year.

Pisac Market

2009-03-16T07:48:00.006-07:00

Today was one of our best days in Peru. We are all feeling relatively healthy. In the morning we took a cab to the small town of Pisac for the traditional Sunday Market. Driveing in Peru is much much less dangerous than in Guatemala although there are trucks that regularly come across the center line causing our driver to have to swerve. We managed to finish all of our various shopping. I even managed to purchase several sweaters effectively making up for all the sweaters that I had wished that I had bought while we were in Ireland. There is a good chance when I check out information on textiles on the Internet I'll find that Apacha is a cruddy sweater yarn. We will see.

The Market fill the central town square and stills out into several side streets. In the center of this massive square is one equally massive tree. The photo does not begin to do this tree justice.
After doing our bit of shopping we had an early lunch in an excellent little restarant with a balcony overlooking the market. The restraunt was named "Mullu". We were quite surprised thatbesides it's excellent location for viewing and photographing the Market and associated people and activities. It also provided the best meal we have had outside of Lima.

On our return from Pisac we ran into traffic that was stopped in the main Plaza de Armas inCusco. A descent sized parade was going on with a band play what our taxi driver said wasBolivian music.

We finished the day by closing down the local restaurant with a world traveling couple from Switzerland, exchanging stories and travel information.

What a great day. I'll take another please.

Easy Day

2009-03-16T07:34:00.003-07:00

Today we had kind of an easy day. Our daughter was not feeling well in the morning. A late morning stroll through the streets found us quickly at breakfast after a quick stop at the Pharmacy. The potatos and tubers we had for lunch were very good and very unique. (Well, good except for the one that looks like blue cheese. That one was unique.) Like Europe and most of the rest of the world, the drug prescription pharmacy system works better and more efficiently than in the US. For simple problems the Pharmacist prescribes and fills the medication on the spot. With such highly trained Pharmasists in the USA it is a shame that we do use Pharmasists for much more than dispensing agents.

In a small square we took the pictures of one of the many Incan people in traditional dress who are looking for money to have their pictures taken. I was somewhat offended when what we offered was not enough. I guess you need to negotiate before hand. The experience kind of made my skin crawl because it is really not what I want to support.

Our son was in need of a haircut. I have always wanted to get my haircut in a foreign country for the experience. I think that the experience was just as painful as getting his haircut at home (he hates ahircuts) with the added displeasure of getting trimmed with a straight edge razor. I have to say that he did get one of his best haircuts ever.

Agua Calentes to Cusco

2009-03-13T15:40:00.003-07:00

The kids were fully loaded with their purchases.

Today was mostly a day of recovery for me. We went to bed early last night and slept in untilafter 7am. We got packed, had a leasurely breakfast and went down to the train station by 9amto catch the 9:30 train. At around 10am they annouced that there had been a small landslideand that the train would be delayed a hour.

This little hydroelectric dam powers a small town and sends excess power off to Cusco

I am feeling a little better today than yesterday (up to 20% from about 10%), just a nastycase of the squirts and a general lack of energy. I am a bit surprised to run intoproblems here after having no problems in Guatemala or China.

Laurel purchased a couple pairs of travel pants for the summer. Long pants with zippers toturn tnem into capries or turn them into shorts. The fabric is kind of thin so they should be comfortable. Hopefully they will wear decently as well.

Parts of Peru remind me of Switzerland.

As a side note the Rick Steves travel bags we purchase for our Summer European trip areamazing. These small airplane carryon sized bags can hold so much stuff and are so well organized. Alsorecommended to us where the Rick Steves travel cube suitcase organizers. Most organizationstuff in my life quickly makes it's way to the bottom of a pile, gets thown in the closet andthen ends up at a yard sale or thown out. This is actually the first time I have really feltorganized and somewhat tidy while traveling for a more than a weekend. The suitcase comes withtwo very small (which is the correct size for traveling) laundry bags. I thought that this was silly until we were having stuff launderedand I still had a laundry bag so that I could continue to keep my dirty cloths seperated from my clean clothes.

This is a VERY steep hill. We saw this on the way to Ollanttaytambo and our driver (sporting

an evil smile) thought that we would enjoy going down it on the way back to Cusco.

We had a late lunch at Audino's today after arriving back in Cusco. This has been the first foodthat we have had in Cusco that was actually good. It was also about 1/2 the price of Papaplanchawhich gets recommended by all the hostels. Since the food there is good I am actually goingto order Cuy (Guinnea Pig) (Yummy!!) once my stomach settles back down.

Machu Picchu

2009-03-13T15:31:00.002-07:00

Like going to the statue of liberty, the grand canyon or the great pryamids you must go to Machu Picchu if you are in Peru. The entire trip is built like a sive to siphon off money fromthe throngs of tourists passing thru this spectacular site. Start with the $120 flight to cusco,follow by a $60 to $80 cab ride to Ollantaytambo, follow by what has been billed as the mostexpensive manditory train ride in the world $35 - $125USD, followed by the manditory bus ride for $14, and finally your $45 ticket to get into the park and multiply by the number of peoplein your party and pretty soon you can be into some serious buckage just to see this one sitewith a mob of other tourists all vieing to see the same site. For our family the total cost wasaround $1200. Was it worth it? Probably not, but dispite being sick and it costing so much, I am glad I went.
The site trully is spectacular and I can't imagine thgat there is anything else like it in the world (discovered or not).

Our youth hostel had intermitant water service. With 3 of 4 of us suffereing from travelers diaria we would have apprecieated a consistantly working bathroom.

What is there to say about Machu Picchu that hasn't been said 1000 times before and 1000 timesbetter. We took a guided tour. The was nice to get some of the history of the place. Our favoratepart of the day had to be the climb to the panoramic view. At the top we all stopped and sat for a half hour or so surrounded by Lamas and a few other tourists. We just sat and took in the wonderful view and the wonderful place in the rarified air.

Ollantaytambo

2009-03-13T15:23:00.002-07:00

We choose to take the train to Agua Calentes from Ottantaytambo. Ths makes the train ride considerablycheaper. Ottantaytambo is an intersting town. We took a tour of the Ottantaytambo Archeological site. Like Machu Picchu the cost was a high $23USD unlike the $6.50 price ourtourist guide claimed. Actaually most prices seemed to be about double of what ourguides claimed. $40 for a tour guide of Machu Picchu instead of $20.

This is a blurry picture of an alter in a house in Ollantaytambo. To the right of the alter are three baby lamas that have been sacrificed for good luck. Above the alter just under the flower vase are the skulls of 3 ansestors of the family who still watch over and protect the household.

Our guide for Ottantaytambo worked for tips and while we did end up tipping him $40 he gaveus an excellent tour of the houses and fountains of Ollantaytambo as well as a tour ofthe historic old town and the guard house and sore house ruines on the other side of town.
The thing that was most impressive about Ollantaytambo is the quallity of construction.They moved massive stone blocks from around 7 miles away and across a fast flowing river, These blocks were carved to interlock with each other perfectly. The phrase "they don't build them like that anytome" came to mind again an again.

This site was quite interesting and while the setting is not as spectacular as Machu Picchu it is actually built better, and with a good guide, was more interesting than Machu Pichu.
Our night in the youth hostel was quite intersting as there where multiple long power outages.We choose to have an early dinner at the Youth Hostle Restaurant. Part was though dinnerthe power went out and the kitchen was forced to finish cooking by candle light and we finished dining by candle light and made our with by candlelight across the courtyard and back to our rooms.

The power came on later fot long enough for us to take showers and get tucked into bed. We left on the train for Agua Calentes yearly the next morning and in the dark. The kitchen staff was nice enough to prepare us scrambled eggs for breakfast by candlelight at 5:20am.

A full day in Cusco

2009-03-11T05:16:00.004-07:00

Our second day in Peru dawned nice an sunny, which I have been told is highly unusual forCusco this time of year. In the morning we hiked down to Plaza De Armas. The view of the city from a school near our hostel was very nice.

We had a cup of coffee in a shop overlooking the main Plaza. While the plaza does seen to get a little bit of use by the locals it is almost entirely filled with tourists and people working thetourist trade. The hard selling reminded me a little of the vendors in Nogalas Mexico on theArizona border. All pushing hard on the tourists to buy their stuff.

Our next task was to find the train station and return our vouchers for tickets. One the way we discovered San Franciscan square less than 1/4 mile from Plaza de Armas. This is a similarcentral town square which gets used by the local population and seems to be left along bythe tourist crown. I was glad to see that Cusco was not the heartless city that I thoughtit might be. One of the catedrals has these decorations above the doors. I have not yet discovered what they are for.

Soon after we came across the central indoor market for Cusco and I was in travelers heaven. Thisis the main marketplace used by the locals and frequented by a handful of the more adventuroustourists. The marketplace is huge and arranged by isles. Vendors butchering and selling meattake up a few isles, Vendors selling fresh juices take up and isle. The is an isle for bread vendors an isle for flower vendors, etc..

At the far end of the marketplace are six or so isles of vendors selling cooked foods. Having watched too much Anthony Bordain and Andrew Zimmerman on TV I had to give it a try myself. Steering away from seafood in a mountain area seemed like a good idea so I had some chickenwith blanched vegetables as well as some excellent chicken soup with some kind of potatosor tubbers. Since I was not eating fried goat nostrils or something equally bizzar it turnedout that the most exciting part of the meal was the location and the company. (I wish my Spanish was better.)

At another stand our daughter purchased an Alpaca sweater for 24 sols (8 dollars). I amnow enjoying Cusco just in time to temporarly depart to Ollantana, Agua Calienties, and Machu Picchu.

Arrival in Cusco

2009-03-11T05:10:00.002-07:00

We arrived in Cusco to a nice but cloud covered day. Our youth hostel here is very nice but only has shared internet which makesit a little bit hard for Laurel to work. Posting to the travel blog understandably takes a back seat. We have a room on thesecond floor with a very nice view of the city outside our window.

We went to visit the main square in town. Plaza De Armas. It was quite pretty but was overrunwith tour busses, tourists and people trying to hawk anything to the tourist crowd. WhileI enjoyed seeing another area of Peru I was beginning to think that Cusco was not mykind of place if heavy tourism was all it had on offer.

We tried to find a less touristic place for dinner without luck. A restaraunt called PapaPlata which was near our hostel in an area filled with hostels. Despite a promising menu including Cuy (which had to be ordered 24 hours in advance), the food a mediocre. The best we had was an appitizerplate of tubbers and a pork dish covered in beef gravey which tasted like it was mixed up from a packet. The cost of dinner was around $80USD which was high for Peru and veryhigh for what we got. So far I am not liking Cusco although the rest of the family seems tobe more open at this point.

Lima - Dinner & a beach

2009-03-09T02:45:00.008-07:00

We spent the afternoon visting the beach near our hostel. Much to our surprise the beach was filled with locals rather than tourists. We spent some time strolling around and throwing rocks onto the ocean with the locals.

Our son discovered one of the favorate drinks of Peru: Inca Kola. This is a bubble gum flavored soda which is popular with our son but would be an aquired taste for the rest of us.

We had one of the best dinners we have ever had at Javiers, just up from the beach in the Barranco. One of the top 10 meals we have had at any price and THE top for the price: $66USD for 4 people with excellent 30% tip including wine, mixed drinks, shrimp, fish, steak, desert, great service, a spectacular view of the pacific and a tour of their spotless kitchen. Worth the price of the airline ticket to Lima!

Changing of the Guard

2009-03-08T13:09:00.004-07:00

We have watched the changing of the guard in London, Prague and now in Lima. I have to say that the display in Lima was the least crowded and by far the best. The presentation went on for a long time (45 minutes). After having staked out good seats the kids were ready to leave after 20 minutes. I felt like quite a heal for leaving before the best part of the show. We went to the south side of the Plaza with a balcony view of the Plaza and palace. After a few minutes the whole procession left the palace to circle the plaza and stop under our balcony. We felt like we must have had some great forsight to have "planned" it so well.

I Like Lima

2009-03-08T12:54:00.003-07:00

I think that I may really like all of South America in fact. Similar to Europe yet quite different and much cheaper to visit. I must admite that I am a little bit sick of travelers talking about how wonderful, outgoing and friendly the people are in whatever place they are visiting. But the fact of the matter is that there must be something a little different with the culture here or we have just happened to run into many wonderful people looking to say "Hi" and help us out without looking for any return.

We are staying at the Barranco Backpackers in the south of Lima. The youth hostel is OK, but it's location is really unbeatable. The Barranco is the Bohemian section of town; safe to walk around at night with lots of great activities and good places to eat

Full day of travel continues

2009-03-08T05:45:00.007-07:00

Our driver took us to seem many of the sights of San Salvador. Above is the Catholic church of Don Rua and one of the many statues around town. We also managed to catch a nice lunch while in town. $80USD for a 4 hour tour was well worth it when you consider that we would have just been killing time at the airport. I would definitely be interested in returning at some point to spend a bit of time getting to know El Salvador.

Everywhere we went there we saw posters and ads for the two candidates in the upcoming presidential election. On the way pack to the airport there were long processions of cars and trucks all packed with flag wavers.

From San Salvador we caught our flight to Lima where are driver met us at the airport at the correct time of 7:30pm despite my telling him that we were flying in at 7:30 am. We had a great meal on the Ocean last night with live Entertainment. Very similar to Casa de Gonsalaz in Puerto Vallarta but costing $50 instead of $300.

After a good night of sleep, a shower, and hopefully gettting my ears to pop someday after all the flights with a head cold, I could really like Lima.

A full day of travel

2009-03-08T05:05:00.006-07:00

This was probably the toughest day of travel we have ever had. We picked the kids up from school around 2pm with the plan of driving to LA to catch our first flight heading towards Lima, Peru. We were on a tight schedule to make our flight in LA. When we got to Phoenix we ended up stuck in traffic. We decided that it was worth flying to LA. We drove to the airport and booked some flights. It was around this time that I noticed that my allergies were not clearing up. What I actually have is a cold.

Our children assumed their standard airport travel positions.

Our flight schedule was tough. After arriving in LA at 9pm we waited for a 12:30 departure. We arrived in San Salvador at 7am and had a 5 hour layover.

The San Salvador airport was a modern international airport.

For $10 per person we opted to pay the visa fee and leave the airport. We hired a taxi driver named Manual to give us a tour of the capital.

We speak only a small amount of Spanish so it was nice that he was so happy to try to use small words.

It was expecting El Salvador to be very similar to Guatamala City. It is not really that similar. We discovered that San Salvador was very clean with very good roads and infrastructure. The only disappointment for us was the huge number of US chain stores.

Saying goodbye to London

2006-10-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I can't say that I am sorry to be leaving London. We are at the end of our trip and we are all tired and ready to be headed home. The day started out in a hectic way as we started to pack . I headed out to find a bank machine so that we could pay for our cab ride. Our metro station did not not have a bank machine so I ended up running(literally) up to Highgate Village in search of a bank machine.

We got packed up and all of our stuff downstairs. Our cab showed up 1/2 hour late. We had a LONG wait for British Airways at check-in and then going through security they continually hassled us over the number of bags since we were carrying bags for our children. This was followed by a woman who was very upset with us for the large size of our carry-ons despite the fact that it was within British Airway's given dimensions. Her co-workers were forcing her to let us pass but she told us she was sure that security would not allow us to proceed because of the size of our carry-ons. Her co-workers seemed to be shaking their heads. This women must have a miserable life to wish others to be miserable also. We have had such good previous experiences with British Airways that I am still impressed by this poor state of service.

I came to London expecting to really enjoy the city. I was hoping to find something I would like about it that would justify the expense of visiting. Unfortunately I didn't discover anything for myself. The few people I stopped on the street to ask what they liked about London were all trying to move away. The one answer I got is that London used to be "Free and Easy". I don't know exactly what that means but it does not sound like our experience here. Before anyone from London or England is offended, let me offer the following: We have visited London for only 5 days, my opinion is formed based on only the smallest of samplings. We do not judge England by London anymore than we judge the United States by New York. London is a big city. We experienced only a little piece of it and had many positive experiences. But, it is not our city. It does not seem to be a family friendly city. If you live in London and feel otherwise please share what you like about it. I may just be tired at the end of a long trip.

Last full day in London

2006-10-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

It is said that every tourist in London comes out for the changing of the guard. They were all there. I counted. The main reason to attend this function is because everyone does. It is much like attending a parade in Phoenix. There are so many people and it is so uncomfortable it really made me wish we had spent our short time exploring what else London had to offer. Our guide book was dead wrong on where you want to be located to view the ceremony. It said to get there early and get a position on the center monument (where these pictures were taken from). In reallity, you need to camp out (perhaps starting the night before) to get a spot along the palace fence. From what we could see there was nothing here that should attract such a huge crowd. As a species we thrive on the mundane.

The view from St. Pauls was actually better than that from the London Eye. Unfortunately the upper golden concorse was closed but the stone concorse offered a great panoramic view of the city. Our son claims that he counted more than 120 cranes and I believe him. London is a growing city.
I eat rubbish. Hey! English food isn't THAT bad.
We took the tour of Shakespears Old Globe Theater (rebuilt in 1999 in a relocated area). The tour was worth the time and money and the guide was intresting enough to hold the intrest of the children for the full 40 minutes.

Narnia of Hamley's

2006-10-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Besides all the toy demos going on inside Hamleys the stairway was all decorated with scenery from the Narnia movies.
Our son had the opportunity to call forth his army.
And our daughter gets the opportunity to be a Queen or a witch. I forget which one.
Along with the mural-ed walls, many of the original movie props were displayed.

British Museum

2006-10-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

On the plus side London has one of the best metro systems in the world. Of course this is only true when it is not under construction and from what we understand it is always under construction. On the positive side we got to ride the double decker buses taking the place of the tube.
The London Museum is great. Free for a donation. A great visit for kids with more mummies per square foot than any other place we have ever been to.
We were likewise impressed by the reading room. The photo does not do any justice to the size of this library.
We also stopped at Hamleys. One of the top toy stores in the world.

London Eye and London Ire

2006-10-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

I'll come right out and say it. London is not my place. Everything is twice as expensive as home. Now I don't really mind this if I am getting to experience something new but so much of what is available in London is produced by the same companies who produce it for the United States. Also, doubling prices for a family of four is no trivial thing. I wish I could justify it, but I can't. Especially when there are so many other interesting places to go in the world. Why someone would choose to live here other than "because they always have" is not understood my me. Perhaps if I was a young single professional living in the city center I would feel differently.

UTILITIES AND WATER: I have put together the following understanding of utilities and hot water based on my own experience and antidote. This may be specific to our current apartment but I somehow expect not. Utilities in London and all of Europe and England are extremely high priced. The residents of London then said "A ha! Then we won't use any!". To which the utility companies said "Then we will charge you for NOT using our utilities." Not to be outdone, apartment owners decided that if they were paying fees anyway that they might as well be comfortable so they devised the following system for obtaining hot water: Through an ingenious combination of turns both off and on of the hot and cold water dials a stimuli is given to the lines of pigeons on the roof. The stimuli scares the pigeons into pooping. The warm steamy poop lands on water pipes carefully laid below and heats the water to some random temperature just above freezing. Thus the answer to your request for hot water can be determined by many factors including how many pigeons are currently on the roof, how well they have been feed and when a request was last made. Did I say that London is not my place?

We rode on the London Eye today. The largest Ferris Wheel in the world. This picture does not do justice to how amazingly tall it is. It is really interesting to me that it is built like a bicycle wheel. It uses cables for spokes but the principle of the wheel being under compression is just the same as that used in a bicycle wheel but on a much larger scale.
As I said the pictures do not really do justice to the height.
The cars are really like large glass elevators and very stable. Not at all frightening to most people.
Like many of the things we have experienced here in London we found the Eye to be overpriced for a family considering what we got out of it. The Tower of London was a much better attraction for visiting with children. Between dirty windows and a foggy sky the pictures and view from the Eye was not spectacular. Whatever beauty London has must lie within. While many individual buildings stand out, the view of the city itself is drab.

The Crown Jewels & Polish Water-park

2006-10-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

We were all impressed with this "Jewelled Sword of Offering." Not shown in this picture is the sheath, which is likewise encrusted with diamonds and emeralds. Our son thinks he needs one of these for his room!
This photo shows the huge diamond inset in the "Sovereign's Sceptre" from 1661. Of course it was even more impressive in real life than it appears in this photo--the photo isn't able to convey how large this diamond really is.
These crowns belonged to Queen Mary in 1685. The display at the Tower of London included numerous crowns--it was hard to pick a favorite! How does the Queen decide which one to wear?
This is the Russian water-park we visited in southern Poland. This is the best picture I was able to get from the brochure. There were many different slides, mineral spas, saunas, wave pools and play pools.

Tower of London

2006-10-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

Our first day we spent at the tower of London. The thing that really impressed us was how the actors and guides brought history to life for even the younger kids.
The Beefeater guide was very dramatic in his overview of London Tower.
After seeing the crown jewels we were able to see a 100% accurate word for word historical re-enactment of Thomas Bloods theft of the crown jewels. And yes, a crown of 50 or so tourists really was part of the robbery attempt.

The re-enactment was very well done. Kids and adults alike were well entertained while watching and following the performance throughout the tower.

Arrival in London

2006-10-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

We arrived in London fairly late at night. We were prepared for it but everything here is so expensive. I just don't understand why anyone would choose to live here. Hopefully I will find that out over the next few days. We picked up groceries for 1 diner (bread, a cheap bottle of wine and cheese) and breakfast (milk & cereal) for $55.

I was hoping to find really good beer in London. I was thinking that England was known for it's beer but when I thought more on the subject I realized that it is really more known for it's drinking. Most of the beer I can find is imported. These betting/drinking sites remind me that we in in the home country of Andy Cap.

The tube in London is well.. tube shaped. The trains we have seen have been clean and the system is extremely well run. It is most remarkable that none of the trains we see are covered with Graffiti.
This is the Witherspoons pub across from the London Tower. We discovered later that this is a chain. Nice pubs like this appear to be where people go to discuss business. It is only a semi-social event meant to establish and maintain business relationships.

Leaving Slovakia

2006-10-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

We went shopping at the Tesco and our daughter purchased a stuffed animal that we decided to dub the “travel monkey”. We like it so much that we think that no family traveling should be without a travel monkey.
When we drove out and back to Kosice Monika Petranova from Petcar who speaks English meet us at the train station and helped us drive out of town and then meet us to drive through town and back to the airport. She was so helpful we can recommend her services without hesitation.
We found Kosice airport to be nice and clean.
This was our first experience on SkyEurope. We did not realize that our luggage would not follow us through on our trip. We needed to pick it up after every leg and recheck it in. Everyone else seemed to be familiar with this though it did not appear to be noted on their website.

Dinner with the Sabova's

2006-10-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Maria prepared a wonderful Slovakian meal complete with beer and the national drink of Slovakia. They also gave us some wonderful candies all the way from the Ukraine!

Maria & Merak Sabova

2006-10-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is our friend Maria from the hospitality club. Her and her family were very generous to us. They have two lovely daughters.

Her husband Marek is in software development somewhat similar to what I used to be in. Their children are at the ages where ours were at their most difficult. I am sure that things will get easier for them as well. Already they make regular trips into Ukraine.
Thier youngest took our daughter everywhere with her. They really were a very nice family.
Their oldest played everywhere.

Jan and Maria Leno October 11th 2006

2006-10-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Cecehov

2006-10-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is the town of Cecehov where my Grandfather was born. We have come a long way to see it and have no idea what we will find. Our friend Maria from the hospitality club has arranged for us to be able to meet my Grandfather’s cousin Jan Leno and his wife Maria. Unfortunately she ended up have to tell them of Albert’s passing.

This is a picture of Jan and Maria. They were very nice people and welcomed us into their home as family. We had some copies of old family pictures. I wished that I could have brought some current pictures to leave with them.
This is a picture of the main street of Cecehov. There are not really any other streets. Our expectations were that Cecehov would be an impoverished rural town. What we found instead was a beautify kept little village.
This is Catarina and her mother. Catarina did some amount of translating for us. She was very embarrassed to use her English. We gave them some pins and they gave us a business card holder and some coins with the Cecehov town crest.

Eating Out

2006-10-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

This is the Wiking restaurant next door to our hotel. Very cool decorations.
Beef Wellington. Probably the best tasting dish I have ever had. Laurel and I split this beast. Cost: an excessively (for Slovakia) expensive $18.
Our other dishes were very good as well. Total cost for a very nice meal for 4 people with wine and beer was around $30

Arrival in Michalovce

2006-10-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

We have arrived in Michalovce! Unfortunately we had no idea where our hotel is located. On the way into town there was a billboard for our hotel. Laurel is able to get a picture of it. We show the photo to different people along the way and they keep pointing us in the right direction until we arrive at our destination.

Our hotel is located in the town center which is not open to cars. The kids all think that the center of Michalovce is pretty cool.
Laurel and I have the best veggie burgers for lunch that we have ever had. They have not tried to imitate hamburgers with ground vegetables. These are REAL veggie burgers and they are REAL yummy.
This is an interesting old building in the center that they were in the process of restoring.