Prague is an adventurous city! We wish we could stay here longer! Prague is known for their beer, unique liquors, street-meat, amd most importantly Old King Wenceslas! Our first day here we just walked around the city aimlessly... tried some streetmeat called the Wenceslas sausage, and it was yummy! Its basically a big sausage wrapped in bread with saurkraut and/or any sauce you want. We visited Wenceslas Square... he is the patron saint of the Czech Republic. Then we ended up at the Charles bridge to watch the sunset over the river. It was beautiful :) Our second day we went to the Prague Castle which sits on a hill overlooking Prague . There we got to tour the Old Royal Palace which is exactly how it sounds, an old baroque style castle... it was really fascinating. Then we saw St. Vitus' Cathedral which is where Wenceslas was buried and we saw his crown and sceptor! Very cool! And we visited the vineyards on the hill, which had breathtaking views :) It took the whole day to see everything so we were exhausted! We rested the remainder of the evening at our hostel, The Old Prague Hostel... which is I think our favorite hostel yet! They have free WIFI, free breakfast, a free lunch sandwich, free towels and shampoo, a kitchen, AND its located in Old Town Square which is within walking distance to everything in Prague :) So basically its AWESOME!
Today, Thursday July 7, is our last day in Prague. We went on a day trip to Kutna Hora to see the Kostnice Ossuary, which means "church of bones".... it was very cool and creepy! Its a small church that's filled and decorated with bones. This is the story as we heard it... there was a Czech man that traveled to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. He took a handful of soil from Jerusalem and brought it back to his home in Kutna Hora... he laid the soil over the foundation of what was to be a church... so then the church was built over the holy soil... when people learned of this they wanted to be buried there... so many people wanted to be buried there that the cemetery became overcrowded... thus a half-blind monk was asked to take many of the bones and decorate the church with them... its believed that there are bones of over 40,000 people in the church. Creepy!
We are now at the hostel about to eat some dinner. Then we are taking a night train to Auschwitz... we will visit it tomorrow, and then head to Berlin and then the Black Forest. This trip is blazing by and we are seeing so much in so little time. I am glad we are journaling and taking lots of pictures. We can't wait to share it all with you when we are home! We are doing really well, so thankful that God has continued to bless us with safety, good health, and overall provision. Thank you all for your prayers. Keep praying please and keep us posted on how all of you are doing back home and if there's anything we can be praying about for you. We love you and miss you very much. We'll be home in about three weeks!
Much love,
Tyler and Carmel
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Vienna!
Hi everyone! So, my apologies for not blogging for over a week and now posting several blogs at once in a day but hopefully you won't mind getting multiple posts and you can catch up on us in your own time :) We won't have internet for the next few days so I'm trying to blog while I still have internet and while I have all these amazing places fresh in my memory!
VIENNA, AUSTRIA aka WIEN
We arrived in Vienna on July 2. We stayed at the "Do Step Inn" hostel. It was a lovely place, especially because it had a kitchen. Since we've been staying at campgrounds over the past week or so we haven't been able to cook our own meals so it was wonderful to have that luxury again! After hitting up a local supermarket, we cooked some rice with peppers and onions and Vienna sausage! But its not what you're thinking... Vienna sausage in Vienna does not come in a can and its absolutely delicious!! On Sunday July 3rd we visited the Vienna Zoo called the Tiergarten Schonbrunn. On the way there we passed the Schonbrunn Palace which was beautiful :) It was a cold and rainy day but we still had so much fun! The zoo is huge, we saw a wide range of animals from all over the world, and the exhibits are really close-up so we got some great pictures. Our favorites were the penguins, giant pandas, flamingos, and seals!
Funny story: While standing at a viewpoint above the elephant yard Tyler noticed an umbrella that someone had dropped and thus abandoned inside the yard, just a few feet below the railing of the platform we were standing on. So what does he do!? He proposes that we fetch it by using his belt and my scarf (remember I said it was rainy, at at this particular time in the day it was raining really hard so an umbrella would be very useful to us!) So, after rigging up his belt and my scarf, he lowered it down and began to try and hook the loop around the umbrella so we could pull it up. After a few close attempts, I gave it a try and guess what? I hooked it! So with a swift movement we flipped it over and then Tyler was able to get the loop hooked under the hook-end of the umbrella, and we lifted it up to our hands. To our surprise a crowd of people across the elephant yard started clapping and cheering! Apparently they had been watching us for a few minutes, lol... Se we rescued the umbrella and thus we were much drier the rest of the day, hooray!
Then on Monday, July 4th we visited the Heindl Schokolademuseum... can you guess what that is? Yup. A CHOCOLATE museum! So we weren't able to celebrate the 4th with hot dogs or fireworks, but we had a LOT of free chocolate samples! The museum and factory were very cool. We learned all about the process of harvesting cocoa beans and how to make it into chocolate. We saw artwork made of chocolate including paintings and sculptures. And then we got free vouchers for the gift store so we bought some Hazelnuss Ecken (wafer covered in hazelnut cream, then in chocolate, and then in chopped hazelnuts) and some Truffel Pralinen mit Alkohol (chocolate covered truffles with different alcohol flavorings). Both were very good, especially the white chocolate bourbon truffles! Now, I'm not a big fan of chocolate anyway so maybe I'm not the best judge but I must say that some of this Vienna chocolate was delicious and had Hersheys beat by far. Sorry Hersheys :(
Vienna was a beautiful city. We hope to go back there one day and maybe then we'll be able to afford to bring you all Vienna Chocolates back home!!!
VIENNA, AUSTRIA aka WIEN
We arrived in Vienna on July 2. We stayed at the "Do Step Inn" hostel. It was a lovely place, especially because it had a kitchen. Since we've been staying at campgrounds over the past week or so we haven't been able to cook our own meals so it was wonderful to have that luxury again! After hitting up a local supermarket, we cooked some rice with peppers and onions and Vienna sausage! But its not what you're thinking... Vienna sausage in Vienna does not come in a can and its absolutely delicious!! On Sunday July 3rd we visited the Vienna Zoo called the Tiergarten Schonbrunn. On the way there we passed the Schonbrunn Palace which was beautiful :) It was a cold and rainy day but we still had so much fun! The zoo is huge, we saw a wide range of animals from all over the world, and the exhibits are really close-up so we got some great pictures. Our favorites were the penguins, giant pandas, flamingos, and seals!
Funny story: While standing at a viewpoint above the elephant yard Tyler noticed an umbrella that someone had dropped and thus abandoned inside the yard, just a few feet below the railing of the platform we were standing on. So what does he do!? He proposes that we fetch it by using his belt and my scarf (remember I said it was rainy, at at this particular time in the day it was raining really hard so an umbrella would be very useful to us!) So, after rigging up his belt and my scarf, he lowered it down and began to try and hook the loop around the umbrella so we could pull it up. After a few close attempts, I gave it a try and guess what? I hooked it! So with a swift movement we flipped it over and then Tyler was able to get the loop hooked under the hook-end of the umbrella, and we lifted it up to our hands. To our surprise a crowd of people across the elephant yard started clapping and cheering! Apparently they had been watching us for a few minutes, lol... Se we rescued the umbrella and thus we were much drier the rest of the day, hooray!
Then on Monday, July 4th we visited the Heindl Schokolademuseum... can you guess what that is? Yup. A CHOCOLATE museum! So we weren't able to celebrate the 4th with hot dogs or fireworks, but we had a LOT of free chocolate samples! The museum and factory were very cool. We learned all about the process of harvesting cocoa beans and how to make it into chocolate. We saw artwork made of chocolate including paintings and sculptures. And then we got free vouchers for the gift store so we bought some Hazelnuss Ecken (wafer covered in hazelnut cream, then in chocolate, and then in chopped hazelnuts) and some Truffel Pralinen mit Alkohol (chocolate covered truffles with different alcohol flavorings). Both were very good, especially the white chocolate bourbon truffles! Now, I'm not a big fan of chocolate anyway so maybe I'm not the best judge but I must say that some of this Vienna chocolate was delicious and had Hersheys beat by far. Sorry Hersheys :(
Vienna was a beautiful city. We hope to go back there one day and maybe then we'll be able to afford to bring you all Vienna Chocolates back home!!!
Venice, Italy to Munich, Germany
VENEZIA
We spent two days in Venice. Our first day was spent laying by the pool at our campground, Camp JOLLY! It was very refreshing to take a day to relax instead of tour. We spent the entire second day in Venice and it is BEAUTIFUL! It is so cool to see an entire city built upon the water. There are no cars, everyone travels by boat or foot. We had no idea what to do in Venice so we just explored the town by walking along the Grand Canal. The streetpaths don't actually follow right along the canal so you have to zig-zag back and forth through winding narrow passages in order to go in one direction. And the buildings are so close together! We felt like two mice in a maze, it was so fun! While exploring we stumbled upon the Venice Museum of Natural History. We ate lunch in the courtyard and then visited the museum. It was really fun and a nice change from all the art museums we've seen so far. We walked to the famous Piazza San Marco which at high tide is covered in about 6 inches of water. We wanted to take a gondola ride back to the main station that evening but it was far too expensive :( So we got some strawberry and vanilla-bourbon gelato and walked back instead. It was so delicious! On the walk back we found a Music Museum Exhibit. It was really neat, we saw some instruments dating back to the year 800 AD. Tyler really enjoyed seeing everything there. We thoroughly enjoyed Venice. It's a beautiful city and hopefully if we ever make it back we'll ride a gondola. Venice was our last stop in Italy, a great place to end our Italian tour!
MUNICH, Germany
We only spent one day in Munich... our hostel was called The TENT and thats exactly what it was, a giant tent that had about 100 beds in it. Probably the most interesting place we've slept so far... The best thing about Munich was the food and the beer :) It was REALLY cold and rainy so we didn't do as much as we had planned to do in the city. We ate lunch at a Bavarian tavern called FUNKSTADL. We ordered some "schnitzel weiner art" and a mixed grilled meat plate with fries and two beers. The famous Munich beer is the "weiss" beer, which is a light wheat beer. It was really good (and this coming from a girl that doesn't care much for beer)! The food was delicious too!! We walked through the city market, bought some snacks, and then visited the Oktoberfest Museum. We spent the afternoon and evening at "Tollwood" which is a park area on the edge of the city where they frequently have festivals. The festival going on while we were there was a Food & Music of the World festival. It was fascinating! It was a huge fairground covered with rows and rows of food booths and music tents, each with a different cuisine from countries all over the world and different music styles. We stepped into many tents to stop and listen to the live bands, most were pretty good. And for dinner we tried some African cuisine from the Africa booth. It was a huge plate of different stews poured over rice with plantains on the side. It was really yummy! We ended the night hanging out around the bonfire at the TENT and chatting with other travelers.
We spent two days in Venice. Our first day was spent laying by the pool at our campground, Camp JOLLY! It was very refreshing to take a day to relax instead of tour. We spent the entire second day in Venice and it is BEAUTIFUL! It is so cool to see an entire city built upon the water. There are no cars, everyone travels by boat or foot. We had no idea what to do in Venice so we just explored the town by walking along the Grand Canal. The streetpaths don't actually follow right along the canal so you have to zig-zag back and forth through winding narrow passages in order to go in one direction. And the buildings are so close together! We felt like two mice in a maze, it was so fun! While exploring we stumbled upon the Venice Museum of Natural History. We ate lunch in the courtyard and then visited the museum. It was really fun and a nice change from all the art museums we've seen so far. We walked to the famous Piazza San Marco which at high tide is covered in about 6 inches of water. We wanted to take a gondola ride back to the main station that evening but it was far too expensive :( So we got some strawberry and vanilla-bourbon gelato and walked back instead. It was so delicious! On the walk back we found a Music Museum Exhibit. It was really neat, we saw some instruments dating back to the year 800 AD. Tyler really enjoyed seeing everything there. We thoroughly enjoyed Venice. It's a beautiful city and hopefully if we ever make it back we'll ride a gondola. Venice was our last stop in Italy, a great place to end our Italian tour!
MUNICH, Germany
We only spent one day in Munich... our hostel was called The TENT and thats exactly what it was, a giant tent that had about 100 beds in it. Probably the most interesting place we've slept so far... The best thing about Munich was the food and the beer :) It was REALLY cold and rainy so we didn't do as much as we had planned to do in the city. We ate lunch at a Bavarian tavern called FUNKSTADL. We ordered some "schnitzel weiner art" and a mixed grilled meat plate with fries and two beers. The famous Munich beer is the "weiss" beer, which is a light wheat beer. It was really good (and this coming from a girl that doesn't care much for beer)! The food was delicious too!! We walked through the city market, bought some snacks, and then visited the Oktoberfest Museum. We spent the afternoon and evening at "Tollwood" which is a park area on the edge of the city where they frequently have festivals. The festival going on while we were there was a Food & Music of the World festival. It was fascinating! It was a huge fairground covered with rows and rows of food booths and music tents, each with a different cuisine from countries all over the world and different music styles. We stepped into many tents to stop and listen to the live bands, most were pretty good. And for dinner we tried some African cuisine from the Africa booth. It was a huge plate of different stews poured over rice with plantains on the side. It was really yummy! We ended the night hanging out around the bonfire at the TENT and chatting with other travelers.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Naples and Florence
Hi everyone, so here is a short attempt to share with you our last week or so since I haven´t got much time to blog right now....
Naples, Italy
We spent just two days in Naples. We had been hearing rumors that it was a really dirty city and they were all true. It was terribly filthy. As we walked from the station to our hostel we passed piles and piles of garbage just lying on the street. One street was even blocked completely because it was filled with trash from one side to the other. We were in shock. At least we were relieved when we reached our hostel, The Welcome Inn, and it was nice and clean. We ventured outside of Naples to go see the famous site of Pompeii which was the ancient civilization that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pompeii was fascinating. We saw preserved shops, streets, homes, kitchens, a theatre, and some tombs. In one of the tombs we even got to see a preserved body of a Vesuvius victim. It was cool but SO creepy... After Pompeii we headed to the Sorrento, a town along the Amalfi Coast of Italy. It was beautiful, we swam at the marina, ate a picnic dinner, and then headed back to Naples for the night.
Florence
After Naples we headed to Florence. We stayed at Michelangelo Campground just outside the tourist district. Our campground was on top of a hill overlooking the city so we had the most beautiful view of Florence. It was a fun city. We toured for two whole days... saw the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, which is the 4th largest in the world. It was pretty but not much compared to St Peters in the Vatican. We walked along the Ponte Vecchio, which is the famous bridge of Florence. Its one of only three bridges in the world that has functioning shops and stores on it. Its also the only bridge in Florence that was not destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. We learned that originally the bridge shops were occupied by butchers and fishmongers. They would clean their goods and dump the remains into the river, which flows west to Pisa. This caused Pisa´s water to become very polluted. After decades of pollution, the Florence officials finally realized the problem. So they created an edict that only goldsmiths and jewelers were allowed to own shops on the Ponte Vecchio. So to this day, all you see along the bridge as you walk in to Florence, is jewelry shops. It was really interesting. Florence is the birthplace of Michelangelo so the original David is here. The museum was too expensive but we ate at the restaurant outside it. Our first official Italian meal... spaghetti with meatballs and a regina margherita pizza. It was SOOO GOOD. Florence is also home to Dante, as in Dante´s Inferno, so we saw his house. Our favorite time in Florence was the Mercato Centrale. It was a huge food market in the heart of the city. We saw a meat stand selling cow hearts and tongues and pigs feet... lots of cheese, wine, and olive stands, fruit stands, and BREAD of every kind. We got to sample a lot of things and ended up buying some things to take with us. It was all so delicious. The best thing we´ve discovered in Italy is the GELATO. We had some coconut, mango, and pina colada in Florence. Its so much better than ice cream back home, we love it.
Got to go catch a train now but we´ll try to write more soon about Venice as well. We are now in Munich and heading to Vienna today. We´re having a great time and loving every minute of it. Thanks for all your continued prayers. We love you all and miss you very much.
Naples, Italy
We spent just two days in Naples. We had been hearing rumors that it was a really dirty city and they were all true. It was terribly filthy. As we walked from the station to our hostel we passed piles and piles of garbage just lying on the street. One street was even blocked completely because it was filled with trash from one side to the other. We were in shock. At least we were relieved when we reached our hostel, The Welcome Inn, and it was nice and clean. We ventured outside of Naples to go see the famous site of Pompeii which was the ancient civilization that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pompeii was fascinating. We saw preserved shops, streets, homes, kitchens, a theatre, and some tombs. In one of the tombs we even got to see a preserved body of a Vesuvius victim. It was cool but SO creepy... After Pompeii we headed to the Sorrento, a town along the Amalfi Coast of Italy. It was beautiful, we swam at the marina, ate a picnic dinner, and then headed back to Naples for the night.
Florence
After Naples we headed to Florence. We stayed at Michelangelo Campground just outside the tourist district. Our campground was on top of a hill overlooking the city so we had the most beautiful view of Florence. It was a fun city. We toured for two whole days... saw the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, which is the 4th largest in the world. It was pretty but not much compared to St Peters in the Vatican. We walked along the Ponte Vecchio, which is the famous bridge of Florence. Its one of only three bridges in the world that has functioning shops and stores on it. Its also the only bridge in Florence that was not destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. We learned that originally the bridge shops were occupied by butchers and fishmongers. They would clean their goods and dump the remains into the river, which flows west to Pisa. This caused Pisa´s water to become very polluted. After decades of pollution, the Florence officials finally realized the problem. So they created an edict that only goldsmiths and jewelers were allowed to own shops on the Ponte Vecchio. So to this day, all you see along the bridge as you walk in to Florence, is jewelry shops. It was really interesting. Florence is the birthplace of Michelangelo so the original David is here. The museum was too expensive but we ate at the restaurant outside it. Our first official Italian meal... spaghetti with meatballs and a regina margherita pizza. It was SOOO GOOD. Florence is also home to Dante, as in Dante´s Inferno, so we saw his house. Our favorite time in Florence was the Mercato Centrale. It was a huge food market in the heart of the city. We saw a meat stand selling cow hearts and tongues and pigs feet... lots of cheese, wine, and olive stands, fruit stands, and BREAD of every kind. We got to sample a lot of things and ended up buying some things to take with us. It was all so delicious. The best thing we´ve discovered in Italy is the GELATO. We had some coconut, mango, and pina colada in Florence. Its so much better than ice cream back home, we love it.
Got to go catch a train now but we´ll try to write more soon about Venice as well. We are now in Munich and heading to Vienna today. We´re having a great time and loving every minute of it. Thanks for all your continued prayers. We love you all and miss you very much.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
When in Rome... (part 2)
Ciao again! Today is our last day in Rome. We have LOVED it! Yesterday we spent the whole day in the Vatican City. We visited the Vatican Museum which had SO MUCH to soak in, most importantly the Sistene Chapel! It was more than beautiful and very impressive. We really enjoyed looking at every detail and following each different biblical scene. It was wonderful. We stayed in there almost an hour just staring at the ceiling. Afterward, we had some lunch and then headed to visit St. Peter's Church inside the Vatican. It was HUGE and so ornate and beautiful. The walls were covered in fresco paitings or carved stone scenes. This church is where its believed that Peter is buried so we got to see his tomb which was cool. When we walked in the section with the tomb, we were told that there was a Mass service in a few minutes, so we joined in! We were both excited to experience that and now we can say that our first mass was in St. Peter's church in Rome! How cool is that! It was a great day but exhausting, so today we stayed at the campground and just chilled by the pool all day. It was very relaxing and fun. Tomorrow we head to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Thanks for all your continued prayers. We're having a blast! God is good!
Love,
Tyler and Carmel
Love,
Tyler and Carmel
Monday, June 20, 2011
When in Rome... (part 1)
Bonjourno yall!
On the way to Rome we stopped in Pisa to switch trains and had three hours of layover so we visited the Leaning Tower. It was pretty cool :) We arrived in Rome, Italy on Saturday June 18. We are staying in the outskirts of Rome at Tiber Hostel & Campground on the Tiber River. Our "room" is literally a shed-like trailer with two single beds and a bookshelf crammed in. It's hilariously tiny and yet awesome! But the riverview is beautiful and we have free internet, hot showers, and a free shuttle into downtown Rome.
On Sunday, we spent all day at the Colosseum. It was beyond amazing! We learned so much information! Not only was it the main venue of gladiatorial games but it was also used for executions, ritual ceremonies, and numerous shows... really fun fact: the floor of the Colosseum was originally made of wooden planks so that it could be easily removed and the basin underneath filled with water for aquatic shows... actors would perform famous mythological sea battles using live sea creatures brought in. Atop the wooden floor, they would perform tragedies and circus-type shows with lots of exotic animals. The lower section of marble seats (closest to the action) was where senators and their families sat. The higher up your seat, the lower your status... We saw lots of cool etchings in the rocks made by spectators, usually of their favorite gladiator. The whole place was so intense and so rich in history!
Today, Monday, we went to the Palatine, which is right next to the Colosseum. Its where Marc Antony and Octavian were both born. Octavian eventually became the king of all of Rome after he defeated Marc Antony & Cleopatra in a famous battle. The Palatine is the oldest ruins in all of rome so we saw lots of archaeological facts and sites. Then we visited the Pantheon, which was first built as a temple to all the gods of Rome, but some centuries ago, the Roman Catholic church decided to turn it into a church for the one true God. It was really neat too. Lastly, we saw the Trevi Fountain which is famous because its believed to be lucky if you throw in a euro. We're on a tight budget so we didn't throw one in, lol... we're counting on God more than luck anyway :)
Tomorrow we'll visit the Vatican including the Sistene Chapel, St Peter's Cathedral, and more! So,stay tuned for When in Rome... part 2.
Love you all,
Tyler & Carmel
On the way to Rome we stopped in Pisa to switch trains and had three hours of layover so we visited the Leaning Tower. It was pretty cool :) We arrived in Rome, Italy on Saturday June 18. We are staying in the outskirts of Rome at Tiber Hostel & Campground on the Tiber River. Our "room" is literally a shed-like trailer with two single beds and a bookshelf crammed in. It's hilariously tiny and yet awesome! But the riverview is beautiful and we have free internet, hot showers, and a free shuttle into downtown Rome.
On Sunday, we spent all day at the Colosseum. It was beyond amazing! We learned so much information! Not only was it the main venue of gladiatorial games but it was also used for executions, ritual ceremonies, and numerous shows... really fun fact: the floor of the Colosseum was originally made of wooden planks so that it could be easily removed and the basin underneath filled with water for aquatic shows... actors would perform famous mythological sea battles using live sea creatures brought in. Atop the wooden floor, they would perform tragedies and circus-type shows with lots of exotic animals. The lower section of marble seats (closest to the action) was where senators and their families sat. The higher up your seat, the lower your status... We saw lots of cool etchings in the rocks made by spectators, usually of their favorite gladiator. The whole place was so intense and so rich in history!
Today, Monday, we went to the Palatine, which is right next to the Colosseum. Its where Marc Antony and Octavian were both born. Octavian eventually became the king of all of Rome after he defeated Marc Antony & Cleopatra in a famous battle. The Palatine is the oldest ruins in all of rome so we saw lots of archaeological facts and sites. Then we visited the Pantheon, which was first built as a temple to all the gods of Rome, but some centuries ago, the Roman Catholic church decided to turn it into a church for the one true God. It was really neat too. Lastly, we saw the Trevi Fountain which is famous because its believed to be lucky if you throw in a euro. We're on a tight budget so we didn't throw one in, lol... we're counting on God more than luck anyway :)
Tomorrow we'll visit the Vatican including the Sistene Chapel, St Peter's Cathedral, and more! So,stay tuned for When in Rome... part 2.
Love you all,
Tyler & Carmel
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Ciao from Italy!
Ciao everyone! We are having fun learning some Italian!
So we arrived in La Spezia, Italy LATE last night. Our train yesterday was changed because of an accident in one of the tunnels so instead of taking one train straight from Gimmelwald to La Spezia we had to change trains about four times with many delays. The train system here is CRAZY! But we found our hostel without any trouble even at a late hour, thank God!
So today, Thursday June 16, we took a bus and headed to the Cinque Terre! The Cinque Terre is a coastal area in Italy consisting of 5 towns sitting on cliffs along the Ligurian Sea. It is BEAUTIFUL! The five towns are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We learned today that these towns were settled by a group of people who were trying to escape marauding pirates centuries ago. We thought that was awesome! The Cinque Terre is a unique landscape of rugged mountain terrain covered in vineyards that literally just runs into the ocean so the "beaches" are not sandy but all stone and rockcliffs that jut out into the sea. It only takes a day to hike the entire Cinque Terre going from town to town along the coastline, so thats what we did! We started at Riomaggiore and hiked to the fourth town of Vernazza. We stopped along the way to swim in the bay at Corniglia and eat a picnic lunch which was amazing. The weather was so perfect, sunny and warm, and the water was clear blue and chilly, just the right temperature after hiking a few hours :) The towns are filled with shops and restaurants and homes practically stacked on top of each other. Each bay is stocked with with small fishermen boats, swimmers, divers, locals laying out on the hot rocks and other tourists.
We ended up stopping our hike in the fourth town of Vernazza. It was just too beautiful to pass by. The town is built on the ruins of an old medieval castle, some of the walls are still visible... We arrived in Vernazza around 5pm... walked through the city to see it first, then bought two bottles of Vernazza wine (yup, its made right there!) and found a little take-out pizzeria. We bought some olive foccaccia pizza and some pesto-cheese foccaccia pizza. Did you know that PESTO is originally from the Cinque Terre?! Yup. It was first created here and MAN! It was GOOD!!! Italy has the most delicious tasting bread I have ever had in my life! I dont know how we are going to ever eat bread back home and enjoy it after having the bread here! I also learned that Sophia Loren was born here. I thought that was cool. Tyler of course said, "Who is that?" lol... To end the night, we sat on some rocks by the sea in Vernazza and ate our pesto pizza with our local wine and watched the sunset. It was wonderful :)
Tomorrow, we will go visit the fifth town of the Cinque Terre. We were told that its the only town here with a sand-beach. Hopefully tomorrow will be as restful as today. We are so glad to be getting some restful vacation time in. After hiking for 4 days in the Alps, our bodies need it! After the Cinque Terre we are going to Pisa then ROME and then Naples. More of Italy updates to come...
Love to all our family and friends, we wish you could be here with us, we love you and hope you are having a great summer!
Ciao,
Tyler and Carmel
So we arrived in La Spezia, Italy LATE last night. Our train yesterday was changed because of an accident in one of the tunnels so instead of taking one train straight from Gimmelwald to La Spezia we had to change trains about four times with many delays. The train system here is CRAZY! But we found our hostel without any trouble even at a late hour, thank God!
So today, Thursday June 16, we took a bus and headed to the Cinque Terre! The Cinque Terre is a coastal area in Italy consisting of 5 towns sitting on cliffs along the Ligurian Sea. It is BEAUTIFUL! The five towns are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We learned today that these towns were settled by a group of people who were trying to escape marauding pirates centuries ago. We thought that was awesome! The Cinque Terre is a unique landscape of rugged mountain terrain covered in vineyards that literally just runs into the ocean so the "beaches" are not sandy but all stone and rockcliffs that jut out into the sea. It only takes a day to hike the entire Cinque Terre going from town to town along the coastline, so thats what we did! We started at Riomaggiore and hiked to the fourth town of Vernazza. We stopped along the way to swim in the bay at Corniglia and eat a picnic lunch which was amazing. The weather was so perfect, sunny and warm, and the water was clear blue and chilly, just the right temperature after hiking a few hours :) The towns are filled with shops and restaurants and homes practically stacked on top of each other. Each bay is stocked with with small fishermen boats, swimmers, divers, locals laying out on the hot rocks and other tourists.
We ended up stopping our hike in the fourth town of Vernazza. It was just too beautiful to pass by. The town is built on the ruins of an old medieval castle, some of the walls are still visible... We arrived in Vernazza around 5pm... walked through the city to see it first, then bought two bottles of Vernazza wine (yup, its made right there!) and found a little take-out pizzeria. We bought some olive foccaccia pizza and some pesto-cheese foccaccia pizza. Did you know that PESTO is originally from the Cinque Terre?! Yup. It was first created here and MAN! It was GOOD!!! Italy has the most delicious tasting bread I have ever had in my life! I dont know how we are going to ever eat bread back home and enjoy it after having the bread here! I also learned that Sophia Loren was born here. I thought that was cool. Tyler of course said, "Who is that?" lol... To end the night, we sat on some rocks by the sea in Vernazza and ate our pesto pizza with our local wine and watched the sunset. It was wonderful :)
Tomorrow, we will go visit the fifth town of the Cinque Terre. We were told that its the only town here with a sand-beach. Hopefully tomorrow will be as restful as today. We are so glad to be getting some restful vacation time in. After hiking for 4 days in the Alps, our bodies need it! After the Cinque Terre we are going to Pisa then ROME and then Naples. More of Italy updates to come...
Love to all our family and friends, we wish you could be here with us, we love you and hope you are having a great summer!
Ciao,
Tyler and Carmel
Monday, June 13, 2011
Yodel-ay-hee-hoo! Switzerland!
Hi all, we arrived in Gimmelwald, Switzerland on Friday June 10. Gimmelwald is AWESOME! It's a tiny Swiss-German farming town with a no-car policy and a wünderbar (wonderful) view of the three legendary peaks of the Swiss Alps....Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. We are staying at the Mountain Hostel which is located about half-way up Schilthorn Mountain in the Alps. When we checked in on Friday, the hostel informed us that they accidentally double-booked the room we had reserved....so they put us in the Honeymoon Suite for our entire stay! Praise the Lord! It's a small room in the attic... but its the ONLY private room in the hostel so we love it! It also has an amazing view out of the tiny little window. On Saturday, we did some much needed laundry, by hand, in the sink because the washing machine was expensive. We also explored Gimmelwald and the neighboring town of Mürren. In Gimmelwald, we found a couple who sells fresh milk, Alp cheese and butter, eggs, and home-made sausages right out of their home....so we bought some fresh milk and a GOAT sausage! It was so delicious! I was so proud of Carmel for eating goat sausage....she loved it.
Sunday, we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day....so we wanted to hit the trail and do some hiking. We spent about 6 hours hiking a loop from Gimmelwald to Rotstockhütte (elevation 2039 meters ...about 700 meters from the top of Schilthorn) and back to Gimmelwald. It was a challenging hike...lots of long, uphill stretches....and dodging all the cow pies! One section of the hike took us right through a cow pasture, where we could have reached out and touched the cows. This was some of the most incredible hiking I've ever done. Everywhere we looked, we were blown away by breath-taking beauty. We were pretty beat after the hike so we came back, made some goat spaghetti, and went to bed early.
Today, it was rainy and cloudy, so we slept in really late and made a delicious breakfast. Later, we walked to Mürren and sat in the hot tub at one of the hotels. It was relaxing and refreshing...just what we needed. Tommorrow...we plan to hike to Sprutz....which is a big waterfall that the trail goes under...and then spend the night sipping wine and eating Swiss chocolate. Wednesday, we'll take the gondola back down the mountain and get on a train headed to La Spezia, Italy (near the Cinque Terre).
So things are going really well for us...we are having the time of our lives and feel very blessed. Much love to our family and friends. We miss you! Check back later to read about our adventures in Italy!
Love,
Tyler and Carmel
Sunday, we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day....so we wanted to hit the trail and do some hiking. We spent about 6 hours hiking a loop from Gimmelwald to Rotstockhütte (elevation 2039 meters ...about 700 meters from the top of Schilthorn) and back to Gimmelwald. It was a challenging hike...lots of long, uphill stretches....and dodging all the cow pies! One section of the hike took us right through a cow pasture, where we could have reached out and touched the cows. This was some of the most incredible hiking I've ever done. Everywhere we looked, we were blown away by breath-taking beauty. We were pretty beat after the hike so we came back, made some goat spaghetti, and went to bed early.
Today, it was rainy and cloudy, so we slept in really late and made a delicious breakfast. Later, we walked to Mürren and sat in the hot tub at one of the hotels. It was relaxing and refreshing...just what we needed. Tommorrow...we plan to hike to Sprutz....which is a big waterfall that the trail goes under...and then spend the night sipping wine and eating Swiss chocolate. Wednesday, we'll take the gondola back down the mountain and get on a train headed to La Spezia, Italy (near the Cinque Terre).
So things are going really well for us...we are having the time of our lives and feel very blessed. Much love to our family and friends. We miss you! Check back later to read about our adventures in Italy!
Love,
Tyler and Carmel
Sunday, June 12, 2011
BONJOUR PARIS!
Bonjour! So about a week ago on June 6 we arrived in Paris, France. Originally we had planned to go straight to Italy from Spain but we couldn't find any trains available so our schedule shifted. So now we're doing France, then Switzerland, and then Italy. Our first night in Paris was rough... the hostal we had booked turned out to be really dirty and LOUD so neither of us slept much. Thank God that we were only there one night... the next day we found a different place to stay called Hotel Cheap Beds! it sounded so sketchy b/c of the name obviously and b/c it was outside the city, but PRAISE THE LORD, it was wonderful! It was a hotel so we had our own private room and bathroom for four nights, woohoo! It was clean, safe, affordable and only about 15min from the heart of Paris! God just keeps on providing for us around every corner :)
So after getting settled into Hotel Cheap Beds, we ventured into Paris! On Tuesday we saw the Eiffel Tower and ate a picnic lunch in the park right by it. It was much more impressive than we imagined and we learned that it was originally built as the entranceway to the World Fair in Paris. Then we went to see the Arc de Triomphe which is a monument built by Napoleon to honor the French army. After every war that France has been in the victorious army marches around it and then down the famous Champs De Elysse. We followed the same path and had fun windowshopping along the strip. On the way back to our hotel the train we needed to take wasn't working so we arrived really late and were so hungry! The only thing open at 11:30 was a Mcdonalds, lol... so sadly, we had dinner there. It was the same as back home. What we really enjoyed there was a Coke! We hadn't had caffeine in a week so that was a treat!
On wednesday we spent the whole day in the Louvre Museum! We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and SO much more! It was all beautiful and inspiring :) On the way back that night we stopped at a supermarket called Carrefour... we thought it was a small place until we got in and realized that it was huge! It was like 3 WalMarts stacked on top of each other! We spent an hour grocery shopping and had fun trying to decipher French names and prices. We did really good though. Got enough groceries for a few days for really cheap.
On Thursday, we slept in. It was fabulous! then we went to see Notre Dame. On the way we passed through the Luxemborg Park and got to see the Luxemborg Castle. It was beautiful. apparently it was built by King Louie XIII for his mother. what a present! We tried some French crepes with Nutella at a street vendor, DELICIOUS! And then called it a night...
Overall, Paris was fun. We really enjoyed all the sites and the history. It was a lot dirtier than we expected and the people were much nicer than we expected. After Paris we headed to Gimmelwald, Switzerland in the Alps! It's beautiful here! We'll try to blog soon about our hike today and where we're staying... Miss you all and love you very much! Thank you for praying for us and following our blog as we continue our adventure! God is good :) He's blessed us so much with our time here so far :)
Much love,
Tyler & Carmel
So after getting settled into Hotel Cheap Beds, we ventured into Paris! On Tuesday we saw the Eiffel Tower and ate a picnic lunch in the park right by it. It was much more impressive than we imagined and we learned that it was originally built as the entranceway to the World Fair in Paris. Then we went to see the Arc de Triomphe which is a monument built by Napoleon to honor the French army. After every war that France has been in the victorious army marches around it and then down the famous Champs De Elysse. We followed the same path and had fun windowshopping along the strip. On the way back to our hotel the train we needed to take wasn't working so we arrived really late and were so hungry! The only thing open at 11:30 was a Mcdonalds, lol... so sadly, we had dinner there. It was the same as back home. What we really enjoyed there was a Coke! We hadn't had caffeine in a week so that was a treat!
On wednesday we spent the whole day in the Louvre Museum! We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and SO much more! It was all beautiful and inspiring :) On the way back that night we stopped at a supermarket called Carrefour... we thought it was a small place until we got in and realized that it was huge! It was like 3 WalMarts stacked on top of each other! We spent an hour grocery shopping and had fun trying to decipher French names and prices. We did really good though. Got enough groceries for a few days for really cheap.
On Thursday, we slept in. It was fabulous! then we went to see Notre Dame. On the way we passed through the Luxemborg Park and got to see the Luxemborg Castle. It was beautiful. apparently it was built by King Louie XIII for his mother. what a present! We tried some French crepes with Nutella at a street vendor, DELICIOUS! And then called it a night...
Overall, Paris was fun. We really enjoyed all the sites and the history. It was a lot dirtier than we expected and the people were much nicer than we expected. After Paris we headed to Gimmelwald, Switzerland in the Alps! It's beautiful here! We'll try to blog soon about our hike today and where we're staying... Miss you all and love you very much! Thank you for praying for us and following our blog as we continue our adventure! God is good :) He's blessed us so much with our time here so far :)
Much love,
Tyler & Carmel
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sevilla y Hog-Infested Barcelona!
Hola mis amigos y familia! We are in Barcelona and loving it! But first let me fill you in on our last night in Sevilla...
On Friday, June 3, we got to tour Sevilla and it was amazing! We walked to the river and enjoyed the scenery. It reminded us a lot of Savannah... Sevilla (like many Spanish cities) is designed in squares with multiple parks and it runs along a river. The riverwalk was very much like Savannah RiverWalk :) We loved it! Then we went to a FLAMENCO museum and show... it was awesome!!! The museum taught us a lot about flamenco dance and then the show was so good! The music was done by a guitarist and singer (they were SO good!) and the dancers were both instructors at the Sevilla school of dance and they were AMAZING! Flamenco seems very similar to tap, we really enjoyed it! Then we went to a hostal rooftop to eat PAELLA for dinner... it´s a spanish dish consisting of rice, veggies, chicken, shrimp, mussels, and spices... I´ll be honest, I doubted the paella at first. While cooking it looked like vomit in a pan (eww) so I was worried BUT once it was done, it looked and tasted AMAZING!!! We both really
liked it so it was a successful night! That was the end of our Sevilla adventure....
On Saturday we got a train to Barcelona... It was a long train so we got in late and had to find the hostal at night... which was interesting. we´re staying at the INOUT Hostal which is on the outskirts of Barcelona in the mountains. It was quite a trek up to get to it. On the way up the winding road, we ran into a mama hog and her five piglets... she seemed defensive so we both jumped onto nearby picnic tables and waited it out to see what she would do. After a few nervous minutes we decided to just run for it, so we ran down the street and thankfully made it past her to the hostal door where we could retire for the night, (today we learned that the hogs near here are harmless and used to humans, lol...)
So after waking up today, we ventured into Barcelona which is also beautiful :) We saw the Cathedral, the Barcelona Park, and then went to the beach! Tyler swam in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time so that was really exciting! Since we only had today in Barcelona we tried to see all of it so we walked about 8hrs today! Needless to say, weŕe quite exhausted! We met several people on the trains and got to use our Spanish a bit. I was really excited and proud when a woman on the train complemented my Spanish pronunciation and usage. I haven´t lost all of it apparently! Then we bought some Spanish wine, pizza, cheese, and Nutella and headed back to the hostal where we enjoyed a quiet and relaxing dinner :) And now, we´re off to bed... next stop, PARIS!!! I am beyond ecstatic!!! Time to learn some french....
On Friday, June 3, we got to tour Sevilla and it was amazing! We walked to the river and enjoyed the scenery. It reminded us a lot of Savannah... Sevilla (like many Spanish cities) is designed in squares with multiple parks and it runs along a river. The riverwalk was very much like Savannah RiverWalk :) We loved it! Then we went to a FLAMENCO museum and show... it was awesome!!! The museum taught us a lot about flamenco dance and then the show was so good! The music was done by a guitarist and singer (they were SO good!) and the dancers were both instructors at the Sevilla school of dance and they were AMAZING! Flamenco seems very similar to tap, we really enjoyed it! Then we went to a hostal rooftop to eat PAELLA for dinner... it´s a spanish dish consisting of rice, veggies, chicken, shrimp, mussels, and spices... I´ll be honest, I doubted the paella at first. While cooking it looked like vomit in a pan (eww) so I was worried BUT once it was done, it looked and tasted AMAZING!!! We both really
liked it so it was a successful night! That was the end of our Sevilla adventure....
On Saturday we got a train to Barcelona... It was a long train so we got in late and had to find the hostal at night... which was interesting. we´re staying at the INOUT Hostal which is on the outskirts of Barcelona in the mountains. It was quite a trek up to get to it. On the way up the winding road, we ran into a mama hog and her five piglets... she seemed defensive so we both jumped onto nearby picnic tables and waited it out to see what she would do. After a few nervous minutes we decided to just run for it, so we ran down the street and thankfully made it past her to the hostal door where we could retire for the night, (today we learned that the hogs near here are harmless and used to humans, lol...)
So after waking up today, we ventured into Barcelona which is also beautiful :) We saw the Cathedral, the Barcelona Park, and then went to the beach! Tyler swam in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time so that was really exciting! Since we only had today in Barcelona we tried to see all of it so we walked about 8hrs today! Needless to say, weŕe quite exhausted! We met several people on the trains and got to use our Spanish a bit. I was really excited and proud when a woman on the train complemented my Spanish pronunciation and usage. I haven´t lost all of it apparently! Then we bought some Spanish wine, pizza, cheese, and Nutella and headed back to the hostal where we enjoyed a quiet and relaxing dinner :) And now, we´re off to bed... next stop, PARIS!!! I am beyond ecstatic!!! Time to learn some french....
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Living La Vida Buena in Sevilla!
Hola amigos y familia! We spent all of yesterday in Madrid, the city is so beautiful, much greener than we imagined and it was actually cold outside! Much colder than Savannah! But around the middle of the day, the weather was perfect :) We toured the city for hours just walking and soaking it all in. We had our first European food fail... after napping at the hostel we went in search for some food... we stopped at a local cafe and we ordered burgers since it was the only thing we could understand on the menu, lol.... sadly, they were disgusting! Lesson learned: DO NOT eat burgers in Spain. Fortunately, later in the day we learned about a local supermarket closeby. We stopped there and bought enough food for two whole days for only €11, which is pretty stinking amazing since our gross hamburgers cost €7 for one meal. Lesson learned: ALWAYS eat out of the supermarkets in Spain :) We made spaghetti for dinner and it was delicious! We found a cute candy store named El Rincon so we HAD to go in and get some Haribo gummies :) After walking all day I discovered my very first backpacker blister on my pinkie toe, ugh. But Tyler says that my feet will toughen up after the first couple weeks. Our first night in a hostel was great. We both slept all night and got to get hot showers, praise the Lord!
We woke up this morning feeling like new people and ready to move so we headed to the train station. Our first EuroRail train experience was hilarious... we got there, got our tickets, and had 20min to find our train to Sevilla... in a HUGE train station, and of course no one around spoke English so we were going in circles trying to decipher signs for about 15 min and then we found it just in time to board! 2.5 hrs later we arrive here in Sevilla... found our hostel, which again is suprisingly nicer than we expected (very grateful for that) and a local market where we got more food for a few days. It´s really cool learning how to be flexible and okay with not knowing where we´ll be in the next day or so (Tyler is much better at that than me) but it´s helping me rely more on God by trusting Him and rely more on Tyler too. There´s actually a lot of freedom in living like this :)
Okay, well that´s it for now... we´re off to sightsee Sevilla tonight, going to the river tomorrow, and then tomorrow night we´re going to seea Flamenco show and have paella for dinner! So EXCITED!!!
Miss you all,
carmel
We woke up this morning feeling like new people and ready to move so we headed to the train station. Our first EuroRail train experience was hilarious... we got there, got our tickets, and had 20min to find our train to Sevilla... in a HUGE train station, and of course no one around spoke English so we were going in circles trying to decipher signs for about 15 min and then we found it just in time to board! 2.5 hrs later we arrive here in Sevilla... found our hostel, which again is suprisingly nicer than we expected (very grateful for that) and a local market where we got more food for a few days. It´s really cool learning how to be flexible and okay with not knowing where we´ll be in the next day or so (Tyler is much better at that than me) but it´s helping me rely more on God by trusting Him and rely more on Tyler too. There´s actually a lot of freedom in living like this :)
Okay, well that´s it for now... we´re off to sightsee Sevilla tonight, going to the river tomorrow, and then tomorrow night we´re going to seea Flamenco show and have paella for dinner! So EXCITED!!!
Miss you all,
carmel
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Arrival in Madrid
Hi friends and family! So, we arrived safely in Madrid this morning at 6:30am which is 12:30am East Coast Time, which means that it´s the middle of the night back home as I´m typing this... The flight was long and packed but we watched a few movies and read to pass the time :) It took us awhile to find our way out of the airport, to the Metro subway, and then to our hostel but we found it! Feeling a bit jetlagged but other than that, we are REALLY EXCITED to begin our adventure! Spain is beautiful so far and the people are so nice! We´re praising God for getting us here safely and providing everything we need. Stay tuned for more updates as we move through Spain and then onto France! Much love to everyone!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to our blog. As of June 1, we will be traveling through Europe. This has been a dream of ours for a while and we feel very blessed to have the opportunity to do it. God has been good to us. Please check back to this website as much as you want to follow our progress, as we will be keeping it updated as often as possible. Our plane leaves May 31st, and will return July 29th....giving us 60 days to tour almost the entire continent! We have a tentative schedule that we will more than likely follow... but we are also open to making some plans up as we go..... Here is the route that we plan to take....we are flying round trip to and from Madrid, Spain.
Spain - Italy - Austria - Czech - Poland - Germany - Belgium - Holland - England - Ireland - France - Switzerland - Spain
Thank you for taking an interest in our travels! We'll see you all in a couple months! God Bless!
Spain - Italy - Austria - Czech - Poland - Germany - Belgium - Holland - England - Ireland - France - Switzerland - Spain
Thank you for taking an interest in our travels! We'll see you all in a couple months! God Bless!
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