Precious time with friends, family, and dog + jet lag

Saturday started early for us. We both woke up at 3:30a.m. which was 9:30a.m. in Hamburg. I got up and sorted through mail for an hour and was able to go back to sleep. Poor Ken couldn't get back to sleep.

We started watching weather reports because the snow started falling in Indianapolis. It wasn't bad enough to keep us from our dog. Mom and her friend Ron met us in Gas City, Indiana for lunch and to give us our Aggie. She was not so sure about getting into the car with us. She was shy and shaking the entire ride home. I felt like such a bad mother for abandoning her. It only took her a few minutes at home to get back to normal. "Grammy" took really good care of her the last 10 months. She had fun in the snow.

Saturday night, Margaret and Jason Hiscock hosted a welcome home party with almost all of our closest friends. The Wards even drove through the snow from West Lafayette to the south side of Indy. It was the best Christmas gift the Hiscocks could have given us- time with the people that we care the most about with here. We never could have individually seen all those people these two weeks. We are SO blessed to have such great friends.

As for the jet lag, we were able to sleep in to the late hour of 5:30 this morning. Crazy! Tomorrow when Ken has to go to work, he really is not going to want to get up.

Home!!!

After 18.5 hours of travel, we made it home safely to Indianapolis Friday night. The only adventures happened in Detroit. We had 1.5 hours to clear customs and get to our flight. We first ended up in a immigration line without an officer at the end. Those lines go pretty slow. We finally made it through that line to find that our baggage was not yet on the luggage carousel. Apparently, the unloading machinery on our plane was broken. It finally made it out and we had to tape up one of our bags which had been ripped. We re-checked our bags post-customs three minutes before we were to board our plan to Indy. Ken took our carry-on bags and I took off to see if I could hold our plane. Good thing that I had my running shoes on! We both got there and it boarded 10 minutes later. Once on the plane, we waited. After a while, the pilot came on the speaker and told us that one of the hydraulic lines was leaking. They tried to replace the part, but it didn't work. We were forced to disembark and take a new plane. This delayed us about 2 hours. We were fortunate, though, that we missed the bad weather.

Mom and Dad Lawrance picked us up at the airport. We last saw them Feb 18 in the tiny Ambergris Caye airport. It was so good to see them. They drove us straight to Scott and Megan's house where we got to meet the newest member of the family. Ethan is so precious. Aunt Kristy got to learn how to eat one-handed during dinner and Uncle Ken was the one of us that was successful to calm him down when he started crying.

Bon Jour!

Last weekend Ken and I took a belated anniversary trip to Paris. (More photos are on our photos link.) We left Friday early morning and arrived their mid-morning. We were able to check into our hotel and have a full afternoon for touring. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame cathedral.

Our hotel was on the Platz de Republik. On the plaza was a restaurant that reminded me of home...













On Saturday, we got to the Eiffel Tower early to journey to the top. I was surprised at how quickly we got in. The crowds were not bad at anything we went to. The view was wonderful.

After that we visited the Lourve museum. Neither of us are art fans, so we didn't think we'd enjoy it, but it was really interesting. First of all, it was enormous. There were all styles of art from all over the world. Secondly, I thought it would take forever to see Mona and Venus. We practically walked right up to them. They roped Mona off, but that was good because more people could look at her at once. Venus was on a pedestal that allowed much better viewing.

After that, we visited the Sacre Coeur. What frustrated me about that as well as the Eiffel Tower were the number of pushy souvenir vendors. I got so sick of gypsies asking "Do you speak English?" We learned in Berlin to ignore that question. It usually is followed by a sob story of babies starving at home or you getting pick-pocketed. At the Sacre Coeur, a group of 5 African men actually blocked the stairwell and Ken had to push through them as they were trying force whatever they had on us. We haven't encountered anything so brazen elsewhere.

Saturday evening, Ken took me out for a nice French dinner and then we walked around Paris at night. On the hour, the Eiffel Tower glitters.

An International Thanksgiving

I made the mistake of turning on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last Thursday. You never know what is going to make you homesick.

However, the "North American" girls decided to make a Canadian/US Thanksgiving. We had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, Jenn's sesame seed bread, green bean casserole, "gefülte Eier" or deviled eggs (I didn't know they were common in Germany.), apple and pumpkin pie, and a Hazelnut torte. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

From left to right: Serge (Cameroon, Africa), Judy (Germany), Thomas (Germany), Meggan (US), Chelsea (Canada), Eva-Maria (Germany), and Bettina (Germany)

CAUGHT!

Ken makes the best garlic, cheddar, bacon mashed potatoes!

My husband was a huge help to pull this off. (Pun intended!)

The assembly line.

"I ate too much!"

Uncle Ken and Aunt Kristy

Welcome to the world, Ethan Charles Lawrance!!

Wow! The words aunt and uncle sound so cool! I thought I'd have trouble hearing my husband called Uncle Ken since I have an Uncle Ken Bredemeier, but I don't anymore. Just look at this little guy- how can you not want to be aunt and uncle to such an adorable baby?

I spent some time last night (couldn't get to sleep for 2 and a half hours after the news) thinking about my relationships with my aunts and uncles. They were pretty special. Ken and Judi's dogs were always the best part of Christmas at the Bredemeiers for me. I learned much of what I've taught Aggie from watching Judi and Joy train their big dogs. I remember spending the night at Dave and Joy's- that was cool stuff. Even though I hate to shop, I couldn't wait for my shopping trips with Aunt Judi because I had her all to myself.

As an aunt, I want to especially be like my Uncle Dave. I have incredible memories of him as a child. He invested so much time in me. He was always the one who would go play with me while the grown-ups talked. He never grew tired of singing the Aggelina Magelina song- or at least he never let me know that he did. I remember sitting in Dave and Joy's family room making multiple drawings of Aggelina because I could never get that "one [tooth] pointed north and the other south" part just right. (Did anyone other than me ever wonder what kind of disease this woman had to only have 2 hairs, 2 teeth, and a red and a green eye?) Thank you Dave for being my role model!

Here is the Scott Lawrance family picture. For those of you who want more details about my nephew, here is the message that Scott and Megan sent out. The pictures on their blog are really good.

"Megan and I would like to welcome Ethan Charles Lawrance to our family. He was born today [11/15/07] at 6:54pm and weighed 5 pounds, 6 oz and was 18in long. Both baby and mom are doing well, but tired from a long day.

As some of you know, our original c-section time of 12pm was pushed back to 3pm and then pushed again to 5pm and then again to 7pm. This made for a long day for everyone, but in the end Megan and Ethan pulled things through with flying colors.

Here are a couple of pictures from today. You can see more by going to our blog at www.scottandmeganlawrance.blogspot.com and checking out the Photos link on the right hand side of the page. I'll try to keep posting pictures and info as we go along so check that website to stay up to date. "

The German 2-part wedding

One of the things that I've enjoyed doing with this blog is sharing with you things that I've learned about German culture. This item I first learned about on the reality show, "Frank der Wedding Planner." This is that Germans have two weddings. They first have a legal wedding and then have their church wedding. The first is legal and the other is optional (at least I think so).

Last week, I went to the legal wedding of my friends Grit and Mahi. Theirs is a romantic story. This couple was one of the first I met when I got here last year. At that time (March) they were waiting on "the papers" so that they could get married. Apparently it is very difficult in Germany for a German to marry and "Auslander" or foreigner in Germany. Mahi is from India. The paperwork is immense and must go back and forth between the two countries. I haven't figured out if marriage conveys some sort of citizenship or citizenship-like rights here. If so, maybe these papers are similar to our immigration papers. Many do not want to wait for the paperwork and just leave the country to get married. The easiest is to go to Denmark. Last winter, I asked Mahi why they didn't just go to Denmark. He looked at me and said without hesitation, "Because she is worth the work." WOW! I knew that this was a solid relationship when he demonstrated that he wasn't going to take any shortcuts to get her as a wife.

Single gal friends- remember that you are worth fighting for!!

Single male friends- fight for her if you love her!

We're coming home!

It's been a while since we've posted because we haven't gone anywhere exciting lately. Some slightly interesting things that we've done (or will be doing) here are:

• Last Sunday I ran the Bramfelder half-marathon here in Hamburg. I got 8th out of 18 women. My time wasn't as great as the Mini or the Bloomington half in 2007. I went out way too fast and had to walk at the end.
• This week was my 3rd level final exam in German class and I got my best grade ever.
• On November 16, I'll be taking an internationally-recognized German exam for people at my level called the Zertifikat Deutch Prüfung. Often jobs or universities require this type of test to show proficiency. It isn't required for Colon (my language school), but I wanted it as something to take home to show what I've done here.
• First two weeks of November- Ken's project will be starting up. Initially this was planned for mid-December. They are ahead of schedule so....
• WE ARE COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! We will be arriving early evening December 14 and then leaving the US on December 28.
• AND Ken's work here will be done the end of January, so we'll be home for good the first of February.
• And after all that, you can see why I've begun to look for jobs. In November, I'll be cutting back my German classes to 1.5 hours a day from the 3 hr 45 minutes a day that I've been taking since March (with only July off). This will give me more time to send out resumes and apply for positions. I hope to be interviewing while we are home in December.

Thoughts on our Trip

As the pictures Ken posted a few days ago show, we ventured to Bavaria last week. We met Ron and Julie Kruse in Berlin and took the train down to southeastern Germany. If we haven't said it previously, I'll say it now. We love the European train system. If you decide to travel Europe, we'd highly recommend a Eurail Pass. If you travel with more than 2 people, you can travel for 5-10 days within 2 months in 3 continuous countries for only 45-60 euro ($64-$85) per day. A Germany-only pass for 3 people for 4 days within one month (the pass we got with Ron and Julie) only is 31.50 euro ($44). You'll never find plane tickets or rent a car for that price. The trains also run between major cities multiple times per day. You can also take an overnight train and save on a hotel room. It costs a bit more than your rail pass to reserve a slot, but not as much as a hotel and you save daytime travel. If you do this, we highly recommend paying the extra and getting a sleeper car. The "seats" are okay if you can sleep sitting up, but that doesn't get you a very good night sleep if you are planning to tour the next day. We tried the 6-person "couchette". I was fine with this because I'm a sound sleeper with my Dramamine, am small and can handle the claustrophobia of being on a bunk with only 2 feet between beds. For someone of Ken's size, it was too tight. One more tip... pay a few dollars more per trip and get a reservation. There were some legs of our trip where there was standing room only.

Okay... on to the trip. We arrived in Munich in the early afternoon and went in the rain to Oktoberfest. Since it was mid-week and rainy, we had no trouble going into two tents. Never try to go there on a weekend or an evening without a reservation. You will not be able to get in as we learned on Friday. What was really interesting was that each of the tents had a different clientele and personality. The Hofbrau tent was a college frat party. Too much for us old geezers! The Paulaner Tent was much more our style. We went their twice.

We then took the train to Garmisch (no additional cost since you can travel the whole day on the rail pass) where our hotel was. Garmisch is a picturesque valley town. Our hotel rooms had balconies with views of the mountains.

On Wednesday, we visited the castles of the Bavarian kings, Hohenschwangau Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle, the one created by crazy King Ludwig II which was the model for Cinderella's castle at Disney World. Once again it rained, so we didn't get to enjoy the views as much as we could have. There is a bridge, the Marienbrücke, between two cliffs where you can see Neuschwanstein. The castle was completely covered in clouds and then they lifted. It was pretty cool and mysterious. We toured both castles. Hohenschwangau was kinda boring, so if you visit them with limited time, skip it.

Thursday started out as a resting day. I went for a 5 mile jog that ended in 5.7. I ran along the mountains. The leaves were changing and I found a path uphill to a little lake. The lake-lover in me couldn't resist it. When I got back, Ken told me that that day was the best day to take the train up to the highest point in Germany, the Zugspitze. The two of us took train and cable car up to the top. Unfortunately, there were clouds up there and we couldn't see the . We had fun feeding the birds at the top and had cake at the lodge on the edge of the glacier. You could also cross over into Austria up at the top.

On Friday we all went back to Oktoberfest. The rain cleared and we could go on some rides. Ron and Julie took the overnight train to Berlin to head home. Ken and I stayed one more night and woke up to the mountains. For the first time, it was completely clear in Garmisch. INCREDIBLE!!!

Happy Tag der Deutschen Einheit

or Germany Unity Day. For all of you who think that I had a lot of holidays as a State Government employee, try coming to Germany where everybody gets many holidays. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_holidays. Hamburg (HH) has 9 while Bavaria (BY), which observes more of the Roman Catholic holidays, has 13. The spring ones worked out really well for Ken and me because we could travel more. Then you tack on the minimum 5 weeks of vacation and life is very good.

So what does Germany Unity mean to me? Two things come to mind. The first was Berlin. We visited there in June. I purchased more postcards there than in almost any other city. They had some incredible black and white photos of the Cold War years. These pictures really make you feel the temperature of communism. The photo link above shows Potsdamer Platz. This is the most stark before and after. Then it was a desolate plain with military vehicles and barbed wire. Potsdamer Platz today is filled with skyscrapers- all built since the 90's.

The second thought was my friend Steffen. He grew up in East Germany. The Communist government would not allow religion, so he grew up either an atheist or an agnostic. He went to school and opened a physiotherapy/rehabilitation sports equipment business. Later, he moved to Hamburg and married Judith. She had been raised in a Christian family in the West. She and her brother Tobias invited him to visit the IBC (our church). Steffen was surprised to meet such nice people and to learn of a God that wasn't some dictator in space but was a Father that wanted a personal relationship with him. He gave Jesus his life about a year ago. I've been in a small group with him since last spring. It has been so wonderful to see the changes in his life and in their marriage. None of which would have happened without unification.

Oktoberfest and Garmisch Photos are up

Kristy and I just got back from Bavaria to see the wonderful sights of the Bavarian mountains and the wonderful beer at Oktoberfest in Munich. I've posted the photos, so click here to see them or, as always, follow the "Photos" link on the left.

We'll update more details in the next few days, so be sure to check back!

Ken

Friends since we were 1 year old!

I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't know Julie (Von Bargen) Kruse. Our moms pushed us in our strollers together when we were only a year old. We'd play in the wading pool and on the swing set together and in the sandbox which her cats would try to use as a litter box. We had a club with membership cards for her, her brother David, and me. No one else could be in the club. Not that there was anyone else around to be in the club, but that didn't matter to us! We then went to grade school and high school together. Junior high choir and band, carpools, and high school marching band kept us close through the years. We lost touch in college, but Juj didn't forget the good times we'd had and asked me to stand up with her when she married Ron Kruse.

I honestly didn't believe her in January. She, Melissa (Kanning) Moore, and I got together for a mini reunion of the grade school girls. Julie said that she'd like to come visit me in Germany. She had never been to Europe and decided that this was the time. She convinced her husband to join her and here they are. They spent a handful of days in London and then flew to Hamburg on Thursday.

We had a wonderful time touring and hanging out. This picture is the hanging out part! Turns out that Julie's German roots come from Hamburg. They have both been wonderful cultural adaptors. They've tasted new foods and have tried to learn German words. It brings joy to my soul to be walking down the street next to Julie and hear Ron behind us repeating "Ich möchte..." or "Entshudigung" so that he can remember how to say "I want..." or "Excuse me".

This morning I put them on a train to Berlin. They will spend 2 days there. On Tuesday, Ken and I will hop on a train to Berlin and then the three of us will go down to Munich for Oktoberfest and to Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps. We'll be taking the computer, so if we have net access, we'll post some pictures.

Fun with Language

Learning a language is always humbling and sometimes entertaining. Last night, I was speaking with Thomas, a guy in our Bible Study about Saturday night's "Nacht der Kirchen" or Night of Churches. Unfortunately, because I have trouble with the very throaty "cht" sound (to the American ear this is the sound you make when clearing phlegm from your throat- not a pleasant sound), my pronunciation came out more like "nackt" or the German word for naked. I was basically discussing naked churches.

The others in the group went on to think of other examples. Judy told us about a card she had seen with a mouse and a broom that said "Take Kehr (pronounced care)". Kehren is the German word for sweeping.

Another one is the word "Gift". A present to us and poison to Germans.

More pictures

Ken was busy today. He posted Köln pictures and pictures of our church retreat last weekend. Enjoy!

Kristy

Only a month and a half later...

Sorry that we are such slackers. We FINALLY got our Prague pictures up on our photos link.

You may wonder what we've been doing. The highlights have been a day trip to Köln (Cologne), Germany two weeks ago and a weekend church retreat last weekend. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of those up in the next month :) I'm continuing to take German and Pilates classes and am training for a half marathon.

Ken has been VERY busy at work. We've been really spoiled with him working 8 hour days with no "on-call time" here compared with the stateside 9-10 hour days with problem calls through the evening and night. His project has two start-up phases. The first is next week and the second is at the end of the year. The entire plant will be shut down so that they can link the FBR into the rest of the plant. Needless to say, the past few weeks have been crazy busy for his team to make sure that all the programming and mechanics are ready for next week's shut down. Oh well, we deserve a little pain for getting a year trip to Europe!

Kristy

Indiana is just like Iraq

I don't know how widespread this video is over there, but it really made me laugh. Rep. Pence really set himself up for this one. I've sent it to my international friends to show them my state. :)

Nothing like a summer market in Indiana!:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/223/popup/index.php?cl=3796315

Thanks, Jeff, for sending me this!

Kristy

Hamburg Friends

Some of you who have been able to visit us have met the great people we've gotten to know here in Hamburg. It occurred to me that I haven't shared these amazing people with the rest of you.

Back Row: Left to Right: BJ Lee (US), Judith Eichstaedt (Ger), Cuba Eichstaedt (born in Spain but now lives in Germany), me (in case you forget what I look like), Eva-Maria Siegals (Ger), Steffen Eichstaedt (Ger), Priscilla MacDonald (Australia), and Chelsea Winter (Canada),

Front Row: Luther Lee (Ger)

This group of people is one of my two Bible Study groups. The group started to do a study called, "Starting Point" which is an overview of the Bible designed for people who are not Christians or recently became Christians. Often people who have been a Christian for a while also join it.

BJ Lee and I co-lead the group. He is a Texan who married a German he met in an airport. It was a Romance novel love story. Now he and his wife Sylvia live here with their daughter Phillipa. He teaches English to make money while he works on a Masters Degree in theology.

Judith Eichstaedt is probably the person that I spend the most time with here outside of Ken. And I love it! She is a fitness trainer so her afternoons are free like mine. She is training to be a Pilates instructor. One day earlier this summer, she asked if she could practice on me. I was elated. The kind of personalized, me-specific training that she has given me would cost probably over $60 an hour in the US. She's been training me at her house twice a week. We also then tack on fun things like dog walks in the park and trips to the pool with our work-out.

That leads to Cuba. He is 4-5 months old. Judith and Steffen got him at 8 weeks old when their other dog died. He has been a wonderful comfort to me when I miss Aggie. Judith sheepishly asked if I could take care of him sometime since, next to her and Steffen, "You are the person he knows best." That was music to the dog lover's ears. Ken and I got to watch him Saturday. He was so good. I also now know obedience commands in German. My next dog will be bilingual.

Eva-Maria is a woman who is passionate for Jesus. I love spending time with her for that reason. She also has a cool job. She is in the hotel industry and currently is working in management for a hotel that is staffed by people with disabilities.

Steffen is Judith's husband. He co-owns a business that sells fitness, rehabilitation equipment for hospitals and therapy practices.

Priscilla and Chelsea are two of my four dancer friends. (Ken'll have to take a picture of the other Bible Study that we're in to show you the other two.) Priscilla is starting her last year of ballet school next week and will be looking for professional jobs this year. Chelsea is a member of the world-renowned Hamburg Ballet.

I don't know too much about Luther, so I'll just have to pass on that one.

Being sick in Hamburg

Ken finally convinced me after 3 straight sleepless night that I needed to go to the doctor. I've been playing with a bug since last Tuesday and have been coughing my lungs out since Friday. It was so bad that it would take me 1.5-2 hours to fall asleep because the coughing would worsen when I would lie down. Then it would wake me up every 1-2 hours. It was a huge celebration when I stayed sleeping 5 hours.

So I called my friend Judith. She made an appointment for me with her doctor. I have to admit that I was scared. She assured me that to become a doctor, people have to learn English. She was right.

So I have sinusitis and now am on an antibiotic and a cough suppressant to take at night so that I can sleep. YEAH!

There are two observations that I've made in my German medical experience.
1.) They took a blood sample. Dr. Yerks never took my blood for sinusitis. The tech that took it didn't wear gloves. She didn't touch my "wound", so I'm not worried about myself, but she did handle the blood vials. I thought that was really strange and unsafe. Maybe the US is more worried than the rest of the world.
2.) German medication is administered differently. Ken and I have had a few colds here and have about 5 different medications. Two of them were drops that you shake onto your tongue. Two were tablets that you dissolve in water and then drink. Then my antibiotic was a normal pill. The dissolving tablets and the drops are disgusting. Why can't then just give me pills? I suppose it is faster-acting, but I'm willing to wait!

I spoke German!

Periodically, people will ask me how my German classes are doing. How do I answer that? Yes, I've completed level A1 and am the 8th of 10 lessons in A2. That probably won't mean a thing to anyone.

Here's where it really counts. This morning I went running with three German gals and was talking to them in German! We went about 3.4 miles and probably 2.75 was in German. This was a big moment for me. Not only do I have German friends, but I was sorta talking in their language.

In my first months here, I worried about going to an English-speaking church that I wouldn't get to know any Germans. God certainly wasn't going to let that happen. I'm in 2 Bible Studies and both have Germans in them. They all give me tests on my speaking. It is hard to talk about God stuff, Pilates, or emotions and feelings, but we at least can do the small talk stuff in German.

Baby steps...

Prague, Czech Republic

On Thursday, our friends Kristi and Cary Smith crossed the ocean to come see us on their way to Scotland. They arrived at the airport at 7:30 and then we loaded them on a 6 (which actually took over 7 due to technical problems) hour train ride to Prague. I have to admit that I had very low expectations for the city. My thoughts were 1.) that it was part of the Eastern Block and had to look sterile and 2.) everyone said that its architecture was beautiful but I am not at all interested in buildings. Boy was I wrong!

Thursday night we checked into our hotel and then ate dinner at the U císařů, an authentic Czech restaurant located near the Prague castle. This restaurant has hosted numerous state dinners for both the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia including the 1st President Bush. The food there was very good. You'll notice that both Ken and Kristi had the goulash. Cary and I were jealous, so we ordered it a few days later.

After dinner, we had a chance to see the Prague castle and the Charles Bridge at night. It was the perfect night for a walk. The weather was so much better than Hamburg! Kristi and Cary were such troopers as they had slept none and a few hours respectively. They fought through the jet lag really well.

Our best choice was to take a guided tour of the city. We went with the 4-hour walking tour given by Prague Tours. My biggest regret from the Bredemeier trip was not taking a guided tour of Rome or at least the Colosseum. (Oh, well, we all threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain so we can do that when we go back!) The tour guide did a wonderful job of making the history come alive and also bringing in modern gossip such as the fact that that Tom Cruise stayed at one of the hotels while filming Mission Impossible and a group of girls stole all the toilet seats after he left. (Not sure it was true, but it was sure entertaining!)

We would have never see everything that we did without that tour. The maps of the city were confusing and we just didn't know that it had so many gems. The key points were the architecture, the Jewish quarter, the Astronomical clock, and the Prague Castle. The buildings were indeed gorgeous. You can look at one and see gargoyles and the next is topped with a crown-like roof. The colors and the cobblestone streets added to the charm, though we learned on our tour that the stones were only added after the 1989 fall of communism. The question of the trip became, "Is this fake old or real old?"

The Jewish quarter was intriguing because it is one of the few Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied lands that did not get destroyed. Hitler planned to save this one as a memorial to an extinct race. The Old Jewish Cemetery there is very famous. They buried around 12,000 bodies there in a very small plot of land. Because of this, the tombstones are piles on top of each other. There were also some very old synagogues. What interested me about them was how plain they are. We've been in so many churches this year. They all seemed to be trying to one-up each other. These were very plain.

The Astronomical clock is the joke on Kristy part of the trip. Our tour guide shared with us that the on on the hour, the clock rings and the 12 apostles come out of it. I really wanted to see this so on Saturday, the gang headed over there. The first problem was that our map was horrible. We wandered the streets and found it 5 minutes before the hour. It was a good thing that the guide's advice about getting there a half hour before to be able to see was not needed. It was SUCH a disappointment. Yes, you saw the apostles, but they didn't come out. A door opened and puppet-like figures rolled inside the doors. Don't bother if you are only in Prague a short time.

The Prague castle was interesting, but not nearly as fairy tale-ish as it looks. It turns out that the castle-like structure on the hill is the church. The castle consists of the square, blocky buildings surrounding it.

Dinner Friday night was at a Medieval restaurant, U Sedmi Svabu Medieval Tavern. It wasn't as good as expected. The entertainment was sparse and the food was not worth the price. However, we got to drink as many waters as we wanted and got free entertainment from the drunken British group (whether we wanted that or not). The best part of the evening was when Cary was selected as the Gypsy's dance partner and had to teach all the rest of us the group dance. The fire juggler/breather was pretty cool as well.

Saturday gave us a chance to go back and look in detail at the things we walked by on our tour. We also got to take a vernicular up on of the city's hills. It is a big park with a fake Eiffel Tower. The guys hiked up the tower and the girls walked through the park and dreamed of being in a fairy tale. If we were in one, it would certainly have Prague for the setting!

You want to talk to us?

Give us a call. Today we purchased a service from Skype called SkypeIn. This gives us a local number in Indianapolis for anyone to call us, just like we were still living there. The number to call is

317-644-0515

When you call this number, it is routed to our computer in Germany (or where ever else we are at the time). If our computer is on and we are online, it will ring through and (hopefully) we will answer it. If our computer is off or we are away from it, it will ring into voicemail. You can leave us a message and we can call you back. Just remember though, we are 6 hours ahead of you. We look forward to talking to more of you in the near future!

Ken

Pictures from trip

The pictures from our trip have finally been sorted through and a few posted on line. Between the 3 or 4 cameras that we had, we had over 1000 pictures to sort through. Needless to say there were many duplicates. Anyway, enjoy! Just follow this link.

Ken

Back in Hamburg

We arrived back in Hamburg on Thursday night and sent the family on their way back to the US on Friday morning. Reality set back in as I had to go back to work that day. Oh well, we've gotta pay for these trips somehow!

Salzburg was a truly beautiful city, but even moreso was the countryside outside of the city, filled with lakes and mountains. I'm sure we'll make a return trip back there someday! We arrived in Salzburg at a bit after 4am, by way of the night train from Venice. After orientating ourselves we headed for the hotel. We checked in and luckily they had a couple of rooms ready for us. Needless to say, we crashed for a few hours before heading out to see the sights.

We walked through the downtown area for much of the morning and split into two groups for the afternoon tours. The women went on the Sound of Music tour, to see all the sights from the movie and sing out of key together on the bus to the songs from the movie. The guys, wanting nothing to do with this, went on a seperate tour to see the lakes and mountains of the Salzburg area. Amazing scenery! After dinner at a famous Biergarten, we got caught up in the only rain shower that we had the whole trip. We got clobbered!

We returned to Hamburg the next day on the train via Munich to bring our journey to a close. Now we look forward to our next trip in a couple of weeks when Cary and Kristi come to visit us!

Ken

ROME PART 2 and VENICE PART 1

Saturday July 7 (cont)
-We did go to the recommended restaurant. We learned an interesting thing about "real Italian" meals. You put a meal together piece by piece. You order a salad, pasta, meat, and (if desired) a dessert and antipasti all separate. The guy we had met at the Spanish steps told us about a package deal that included a pasta, salad, meat, wine and dessert for 23 euro. I just knew that Mom and I could not eat all of that food, so Jeff and I decided to just order a meat and a dessert and split hers. BIG mistake. Those group packages are portion sizes that are 1/4 to 1/2 the size of a regular portion. Jeff and I starved. It was a really expensive disappointment.

Sunday July 8
-Another hot day in Rome. We got up early to beat the crowds at the Colosseum. Once again the line was really long when we got out. It was impressive to visit one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World" the day after it was announced. I really wish that I would have taken a guided tour of this. We heard some of the guides as they walked by and they stories that they told of the ancient Romans were really interesting.
-After that, we visited the nearby Roman Forum. By this time, we were hot and tired. We rented audio-guides, but they were rather confusing. The "guide" would start talking about ruins on the right and left and if you were in the wrong spot or facing the wrong direction, you were really lost.
-We got back to the hotel early afternoon and all collapsed. I think that all five of us took a nap. Note to future European travelers, make sure to schedule yourself some down time to rest. Touring is exhausting.

Monday July 9
-We took the train to Venice. We then had the afternoon to walk around and look at the sites.
-We love our hotel. It is called the Hotel Paganelli. It is an old convent right on the water. Each room is different and decorated with antiques and there is a garden and a rooftop patio. I would consider it closer to a bed and breakfast than a hotel. And it was less expensive than other places. Book here if you are ever in Venice.

Kristy

From Rome...

Today is July 7 and we are in the fourth afternoon of Bredemeier & Lawrance versus Europe. Here are a few of our memories:

Thursday July 5
-The train ride to Munich was wonderful and went without delays. I, too, thank you all for your prayers. We got a 6-seat enclosed booth for the 5 of us. We could play cards, eat, read and sleep very comfortably.
-In Munich, we walked around and looked at some of the city center.
-Dinner and (of course) beers for the boys was at the Hofbrau House. This was a great experience. We were seated at a ''regular'' table. Alfred, one of the regulars, told us all about the place and Munich. He was also one of the 300-400 people with their own personal beer stein locker. He took us back to the ''locker room''. Tourists aren't allowed back there. Apparently, there is an 1000+ person waiting list for one of those spots.
-My social brother had the small world moment of the trip. He ran into two guys that he played soccer against in high school in the men's room.
-Then we boarded an overnight train to Rome. This was an adventure. We had selected the 6-person couchette rooms. Turns out that we had the 5 of us and an Arabic guy in one room. You have six 2'*6' bunks, three high in about a 6' wide by 9' high by 6' long cabin (except for the top bunk which is about 8' long so that you can place suitcases up there). It was crazy. Ken convinced the train conductor to let us split up. Jeff and Dad stayed with that guy and Ken, Mom, and I went into another. I took sleeping pills and slept great. Ken was way too tall for that small bed and Mom couldn't get comfortable either.

Friday, July 6
-After reaching Rome around 9:00, we took our baggage to the hotel and headed out to see the town.
-We knew we wanted to start out with a bus tour. We reached the Termini station where most of the tours start. The minute we got there, we got attacked by two different bus companies (blue and green) trying to take our business away from the red bus. We fell for it and got dragged 4 blocks away to their offices. Both had 45-60 minute waits and only came every 30-40 minutes. We ended up walking back to the red bus. It was tied for the cheapest, was the least pushy, and came every 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the English headsets didn't work very well. We got to see most of the major Roman sights in the 2 hour tour which helped us plan the rest of our time. (S&M, we learned well in Berlin!)
-We got off of the bus at the Trevi Fountain. All of us threw coins in over our shoulders to promise a return to Rome someday.
-We then went to the Spanish steps. Ken and Jeff played Rocky and climbed them all. The steps weren't very impressive to me.
-The best part (or so I thought) was that we met a local art school owner there. He told us all about the best things to do and sights to see as well as safety tips. We have plans to take him up on a nice restaurant tonight. Yet as I type this blog, I checked his business card to add a link. I'm getting extraordinarily suspicious. There is no such school on the web. I did a search of the address on the card and found that it is right there on the Spanish steps. I'm really beginning to feel like he was a scam. I'll get the address from Dad and search it. He's probably just a plant to get people to that restaurant.
-We were exhausted by evening and ate near the hotel.
-Jeff and Ken went to the Colosseum and got great night pictures.

Saturday, July 7
-We left for the Vatican at 7:45 and arrived around 8:15. St. Peter's Basilica wasn't open until 9:00, but the Cupola and catacombs were. We sailed through the security (the line at 11:00 was looped around the entire circle of St. Peter's ''square''). Ken, Jeff, and I decided to climb the Cupola's 500+ stairs to save the 3 euro more we'd have paid by taking the elevator. There were 320 steps after the elevator, so Mom and Dad went through the catacombs instead. The steps were a workout. Some were narrow, some were spiral, others were in corridors that slanted 60 degrees to the right. It was an adventure. The view at the top was great.
-The exit from our trip led us right in the Basilica. It was the most beautiful church that I've ever seen.
-TIP: Get there early and do the Cupola first (if you are energetic and healthy). It really saved the line.
-We went to the Pantheon afterwards. It was amazing as well.
-After 7 hours, we were beat and decided to enjoy the air conditioning in our hotel. It's near 90 here and humid. It sure beats the rain and 60's/70's in Hamburg. I got sun on my shoulders yesterday. It was the first time they'd seen sun since Belize!

Kristy

Streiks bei der Bahn vorerst gestoppt, Off to Italy!

"Strikes with the Bahn for the time being stopped"

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, we will now be able to get down to Rome without any problems. Basically the two sides are talking now, so the strikes are on hold.

It's 8am and we're finding out the ins and outs of trying to process 5 people through one bathroom in one morning. Needless to say, it takes a little time to get everyone through and ready to go. We have a 5 hour train ride to Munich, about 6 hours in Munich to walk around and go to Biergartens, then catch the night train for the overnight trip to Rome.

Hopefully, we'll get some posts up immediately upon our return, but if not, I guess it will be par for the course. Back in a week or so...

Ken

Prayer for Travel

Often we pray for the safety of travel for ourselves and loved ones. I bring that prayer to you today as all of my family is en route to Germany. We also need some big prayer action for the rest of their trip here. All of our European traveling is to be by train. Yesterday, the German train system and part of the subway system went on strike. It took Ken an hour to get to work today where it usually takes 25 minutes. We don't know what it will be like Thursday, but that is when we are taking off for Munich and from there a night train to Rome.

Kristy

Berlin Pics Posted

Before we receive any more comments that we haven't posted any new blog entries or photos in a while, I made a point to post our pictures from Berlin (only a week late!). They can be found here.

As an added bonus, we also have pictures of our trips to Schloß Schwerin and Lübeck with Scott and Megan. Click here to see those.

Last thought of the day is that Kristy and I have really enjoyed getting to talk to more and more people via Skype. For those that aren't aware, you can talk with this computer to computer for free. If you're interested in talking with us, and want to know more about Skype, drop us an email and we'd love to help you get setup.

Ken

Baby Lawrance

No, before my mother-in-law kills me for that headline (The only lecture that I've ever had from her is that I will NOT have her grandchild in Germany.) the baby in question is our niece or nephew. Scott and Megan are expecting their first child in December.

We found an adorable shirt for him or her while Scott and Megan were here last week. (Note that the color was picked out by Mom and Auntie!)

Translation: Mein Tag= my day, schlafen= sleeping, essen= eating, and I'll let you guess the third daily activity!

Lawrance kids Germany Days 2 & 3

Yesterday morning, I went to class while Ken and Megan went on a double-decker bus tour of Hamburg. German lesson #3 was to "DUCK". Apparently the route has a few low-hanging branches. In the afternoon, we picked Scott up at the airport after his presentation in Manchester (ask him about eating pig cheeks and faggots sometime).

We all ventured to Lübeck and Travemünde. Dinner was at the Kartoffel Keller or Potato Basement. While we were there, Scott tried to learn German. He learned "Ich spreche kein Deutsch." or "I speak no German" by remembering his fish had ick. Numbers were remembered by the movie Cool Running "Ein! Zwei! Drei! Cool Running!" Goodbye or "Tschüss" was more difficult but then when he realized that it was a combination of juice and Choo Choo, he was golden. Now he's a pro.

Megan is not only learning pieces of the language, but she's learning her way around the city. Since she was here longer, she got to see more of life and not just touristy things.

Today the crew visited Schloss Schwerin in the morning and then I joined them for touring Hamburg in the afternoon. Dinner was at a Bavarian restaurant with authentic music. Once again, Megan's thoughts on the day are great!

"German lesson #4: McDonald's tastes so much better in a foreign country!

Kristy went to class again this morning and Scott, Ken and I went to a castle about an hour and a half north of Hamburg. It was pretty cool even though there was a lot of construction going on (scaffolding can ruin a picture!). After we finished we went to McDonald's for lunch. YUMMY!!!!! MUCH better than the cheeseburger I had on Tuesday. I now fully appreciate why Americans go to foreign countries and eat at McDonald's...comfort food!"

I'll update this entry with pictures tomorrow (I have to download pictures from Megan), so scroll back to this entry later.

Megan here learning her first German lessons

Yesterday, Ken and I got to welcome our first family member to Hamburg. Our sister-in-law Megan wins the prize (are you sensing a theme in these last few entries? I haven't played bid euchre for a while, so I'm trying to satisfy my competitive addictions in other ways. Good thing that our family can help my problem shortly!) for the first family member to cross the pond to see us. Scott will get second prize when he joins us Wednesday after a business conference in Manchester, England. As you can see from the picture next to us, Raja was not happy that they left without her.

Today Megan and I toured Hamburg. She sent an e-mail home to our family. I wanted to share it with you. It was a hilarious recap of our day.

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German lesson #1: A "Cheeseburger" is not a safe thing to order in a German cafe or sandwich shop. (And you can't trust the ketchup, either.)

Kristy and I went down to the harbor for a boat tour at noon today (which was very interesting and fun) and by the end we were hungry. Along the river amongst the tour companies are some travel shops and Sandwich shops. We decided to each get a cheeseburger and split some fries. We ended up with what we think was ground pork pan fried into a patty. (The meat was white and the outside was brown.) We tried to eat some, and concluded it was pretty gross. The fries were doused in ketchup which Kristy thinks was curry ketchup...again, not very good (worse than any island ketchup I have had). I should have known it wasn't a safe place to eat after seeing what looked like a piece of raw fish with scales on a bun (even Kristy the seafood eater agreed it looked gross).

Kristy wanted me to add that the soft pretzel and ice cream we had later were good....so I am not starving here.

German lesson #2: Do not anger the crazy German bathroom lady.

First of all, for those who do not know, there are few public bathrooms in Germany. Most you have to pay to use, even in the stores. Kristy and I went shopping this afternoon and went into a bathroom at a nice clothing department store. As we were waiting, the lady who maintains and cleans the bathroom was chewing out another woman in German. Me, not knowing any German, and Kristy, who has trouble understanding them when they yell, were not sure whether we dared go pee. (Kristy did pick up the German word for "dirty" in the yelling.) So we both went and made it very sure we left it clean and remembered to flush and were very relieved when we came out and did not see her. As we were trying to find some change to put in the bowl she came back in and started talking to us in German. Kristy told her we do not speak German, but she unfortunately spoke English. She proceeded to tell us how the lady she yelled at had peed all over the seat and did not flush (although she was much more lengthy and descriptive than that). So, moral of the lesson...if you pee on the seat in Germany, wipe it up!!!!

Calling us

A huge thank you to Kristine who was the first American to call us over here in Germany- even if we had lost our cordless phone and didn't get to it in time! While we were talking yesterday, Kristine informed us that we show up as 0000123456 on caller ID. A few others have told us this and stated that they don't answer because of the number. The reason for this is that we call over the Internet using a program called Skype. All you need is a set of computer headphones with a microphone (rough $15 at Radio Shack) and you can talk to us for free over the computer. For people that don't have the computer set-up, we can make computer to land calls for only about 0.017 euro or $0.0229 per minute. It costs more to call Fort Wayne from our Indy land phone that it does over the computer! The calls are often more clear than over a cell phone. While Ken was here and I was in the US, he could even here the jingle of Aggie's collar.

So, the reason that I'm typing this is that if you have a microphone and are interested in downloading the software, let us know. We can add you to our "buddy list" and then will see you when you are logged on. We have our computer on a lot between 8am-4pm EDT, so you can also see when we are on-line. My mother and father have downloaded this software and now has the freedom to call us for free. It has been WONDERFUL to be able to talk to them so much for free.

Vienna Pictures

Sorry for the delay. We now have a few of our pictures from the Vienna trip posted here.

Ken

Wien, Österreich

This weekend, we went to Vienna, Austria. I'd say that the memory from this trip was learning about people. We went to Vienna with Bryan, a guy who was born in South Africa to British parents and grew up in Australia. We were hosted by Tony,born in Kenya to a Kenyan mother and an Austrian father. His wife is Jane, a woman who is half Jewish and half Russian who grew up in Moldova. Ken and I can't even claim another state to our blood!!! We were both born in Indiana to Indiana parents. This adventure has really opened my eyes to how little international experience Americans have.

A few months ago, I was worried that I was only making English and a few German friends. My only real Hamburg friends have come through our English-speaking church. However, now, in my Bible studies, there are 4 Germans, one Canadian, one Australian, one Honduran who has lived in Germany for the last 7 years, a Cuban, a Croatian, and a gal from Switzerland. And a few Americans.

So, about the trip. We got there Friday night and Jane had prepared dinner for us. Their hospitality was well above and beyond. Saturday morning, Bryan made us all omelets for breakfast and then we headed out for a walking tour of Vienna. The city has beautiful buildings (Ken will post pictures in the next few days.) which are all relatively close to one another. We had dinner in an Austrian beer garden. The food was really tasty there, but not as good as the Viennese apple strudel. I got a recipe, in German, of course. I'm hoping to perfect it by the time I get home.

After dinner, we went by the Rathaus and saw the "Life Ball", a big AIDS charity event in front of the Vienna Rathaus. Sharon Stone was one of the headliners. It turns out there were 40,000 person attending. There was a fenced in for the red carpet and VIPs. Many of the people were bunch of cross-dressing partiers.

Outside were thousands of people watching the show. It was SO sad. I had the same feeling there that I had in Amsterdam. Sex is so outward and blatant here in Europe. Sure Pendleton Pike and Coliseum have their girlie bars, but there are no windows and you don't usually see people going in and out. Yes, there are cross-dressers, but in Indianapolis they stay inside and do not have parties in front of the City-County Building. Growing up in Europe, you become immune and desensitized to that. It made me truly appreciate growing up in the Midwest.

Sunday we went to Jane and Tony's church. It was a bi-lingual service in both German and English. I really needed a praise and worship service after the sorrow of what we saw the previous night. After that, we went on a 3.5 hour boat tour on the Danube. It was really long and the first half wasn't very exciting. Yet, after all the walking we did the previous day, it was nice to sit.

After the boat ride, we went to Schloss (Castle) Schönbrunn. It was phenomenal.

View from the Castle overlooking the gardens and the Gloriette.

This is us up at the Gloriette.

On Monday, we went back to a few of the buildings we'd walked by on Saturday. We got to see the catacombs at the Stephansdom. No pictures there, but the piles of bones and pots filled with the intestines of royalty were rather ominous.

Kristy

Jesus House- 2 weeks late!

Better late than never, I suppose. Two weeks ago, I volunteered three out of the five days of Jesus House. Jesus House is a youth event that is held every three years and Hamburg successfully won the bid to host it this year.

The lady in charge of the event came to IBC's Young Adults Group one night beforehand to share about the volunteer opportunities and what God had done already. I knew that it was something that I wanted to get involved with when I heard the story of how they got the location. They wanted a place that was distinctly Hamburg. The first place they thought of was the Fischauktionshalle. Every Sunday starting at 3 AM there is a fish market and party down at the docks. This market is a Hamburg landmark. The hall has bands and food service. However, when they went to see how much it cost, they found that it cost way over budget. Headquarters told the local organizing team to find another location. They started praying for a new location. They didn't find anything that fit their budget or their dream. On a whim, they went back to the hall. Since they first went, they hall had gotten a new manager. He was a Christian. He ended up pulling some strings and giving them the hall for 1/2 the original price. Go God!

God answered prayers to get me there as well. No one from our church was doing catering. I put my name in and started getting all of these e-mails in German. Each had 3-10 attachments. It would take hours to use the 500 word a shot translating software to translate it all. Once I translated it, I realized that I had to go to a series of meetings and get food handling certified by attending a doctor's training course- all in German. I nearly backed out. I finally prayed, "Lord, if you want me to do this, you're going to have to provide me with people who can translate for me." He was faithful to me as well. He first provided Leonie and Heidi to help me through the meetings and then Brianna (cutting fruit above with me) and Sally (and a slew of others) during the actual volunteer days. The doctor even spoke English so he could give me the food handling training in English.

While I volunteered, I was on the fruit plate team every day. We would slice fruit for the band and the AV folks who rehearsed and prepared all afternoon long. At 5, we would serve dinner to all of the volunteers. You can see our "kitchen" on the left. I served meat, arranged meat trays, sliced veggies, and did trash duty.

So what happened? Hundreds of youth came for music and speakers. Many lives were changed. There was a volunteer dinner afterwards, and here is a translation of what was said. A guy in our church e-mailed this report out. "Dear all! As promised here is some further information regarding Jesus House: A couple of us Young Adults attended the celebration service on Sunday. The testimonies were a blessing. In total, over 150 people committed their lives to Christ (excluding recommitments!) and over 400 counselling sessions were reported! But apart from these quantitative results, 43+ participating churches have worked together in unity, and so it would seem that God also planned Jesus House 2007 to establish a broad foundation of believers for His continued work in Hamburg. He did great miracles during Jesus House, bringing many people even from the streets to the cross and providing for the many practical needs of the event, and we may be encouraged that this is only the beginning... "

Our catering leader Jörg said, "The youth are the carrier of the revival in Germany." Re-reading that quote, I think of the question that Patrick asked Ken and me yesterday. He asked if Germany was really as spiritually dead as is assumed in the US. My answer to him was that I thought it would be a lot worse. From my perspective, it is probably in the same place that the US is though I have no statistics. God is moving in many places here. It is exciting to see.

Test

The exam went really well. I finished the grammar in 25 minutes while we had 60 to do it in. I had a little difficulty with the reading comprehension section because many of the words were unfamiliar, but think that I guessed well. Everything was multiple choice or T/F except for the 100-word letter. Missy will be happy to know that she was the recipient of my letter.

I've been studying like crazy for this. Now that I know how easy it was, I wish I would've gotten more sleep the past two nights instead of studying. I had trouble getting to sleep after studying last night (go figure!). I had dreams of adjectives and adverbs. Ken told me that I was sleep-talking in German. All he made out was, "Ich bin". You know you are learning the language when you start sleep-talking it. I've now spoken three languages in my sleep. In Mexico, Emily caught me speaking Spanish in my sleep.

Studying

Sorry it has been so long since I've written something on here. We've settled into a routine and routine isn't very exciting. I helped out with Jesus House two weeks ago and haven't posted that. I'll get something up in the next few days about that.

My main task right now is studying for my Friday A1 German exam. A1 is the first level of study out of 6 that my school offers. To go to the next level, you must pass the exam. This is a good thing. There are 7 of us in the class and maybe 2 are struggling. I can see them getting pretty far behind if they do not grasp the basic concepts. For you that know German, this exam will cover present and past perfect conjugation; akkusative, genative, and dative objects, articles and possesive and personal pronouns; prepositions; comparative and superlative adjectives; and modal verbs. The exam will be 4 hours and will include grammar, reading comprehension, listening, dictation, and writing a letter. I haven't taken a 4 hour exam since probably my SATs. I didn't even have that long of exams in college. I've been studying like mad. We had a study group this afternoon. It wasn't very helpful to me. I probably could have done more on my own. Oh, well, it was good group bonding and helped some people (I hope!)


L->R Estelle from France, Carlos from Spain, Keisuke (sp?) from Japan, Wanvisa from Thailand, and Asuza from Japan

Amsterdam

Our weekend was quite a dichotomy. I can only describe it as going from the Garden of Eden into Sodom. On one side, you have the most beautiful gardens that I’ve ever seen and on the other side, you have a city that is a playground for sin.

The brighter side… This trip was one of my top two that I wanted to take while we are in Europe. I dreamed of seeing the tulips in bloom in Holland. Ken arranged for us to drive to Keukenhof, a park only open from late March to mid-May for tulips. It was spectacular and far exceeded my imagination. Click here or on the photos link on the left to see more of these photos. There are few flowers with such bright, intense color as tulips. I didn’t know that they were Ken’s favorite as well until we were there. Ken did some amazing stylist photography while we were there. His photography skills really are impressive. I would recommend this place to any flower aficionado (as well as those that aren’t)! Just make sure to get there early in the morning before all of the tour buses get there. As we were leaving around noon, we saw cars backed up for over 4 km.

After the park, we went to downtown Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank House and take a Canal Tour. They were all good, but required some walking to get from one to the next. That is where my heart broke. I knew that Amsterdam had a famous red-light district and that drugs are legal there, but I really wasn’t prepared for it. There were sex movie stores and “toy” shops on many streets downtown- not just in the district. There was even a sex museum. Then you have the coffee shops that sell more than just coffee. You could smell the pungent smoke as you walked by and could nearly get a secondary high. I had the same feeling that I’ve had two other times in my life- the power of darkness. (The other two times were in New Age stores in Tucson, AZ and in Madison, IN.) It was really creepy. I was so glad that Ken was at my side. This is not a place that I recommend visiting without either a tour guide leading the way or a man at your side. I personally never want to visit downtown Amsterdam again.

On Sunday, we visited the Heineken Brewery. It was really interesting to learn about the beer-making process. After that we visited a farm to see how Dutch cheese and wooden shoes are made. The two “we won’t try anything new” Lawrances were brave and actually tasted the cheese. Shockingly, we actually liked the Gouda they made and bought some to take home.

Kristy

Easter in London

Last weekend, Ken and I traveled to London, England. Germans have a 4-day Easter holiday, so Ken didn't have to use any vacation. This also means that in addition to all the stores closing on Sundays, they were closed on Friday and Monday. Holidays are serious here. Apparently France is more serious. They have national holidays on Ascension Day and Pentecost in addition to the 4-day Easter holiday. My classmate from France also told me that their citizens also get 8 weeks of vacation in addition to their 35-hour work week. We've been watching the developments of the French presidential election on CNN lately and the work week has been a big issue in the election.

Okay.... London. There was a 7am flight out of Hamburg Friday morning April 6. The nice thing was that got us there by 7:30 (London time) so we had a whole day to sight-see. Ken has posted a web album up under the link to the left that says "Photos". I'll give you a few pictures in this post but there are 27 more on our PicasaWeb site.

The first thing that we saw was the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. To be honest, this was really disappointing. First, we were neither close enough to the fence to see what was happening in the court yard nor were we close enough to the gates to see the troops entering or exiting. TIP: Get there early and get a spot on the fence. If you can't get on the fence, get by the left of center gate. I picked this picture because it gives you the feeling of being in the crowd and demonstrates a really cool feature of Ken's new camera. It can focus on one color in a shot while the rest is in black and white.

After that, we went to the Tower of London. This was my favorite place of the entire trip. When I was in London with Grandma and Grandpa Bredemeier, we did not go there. Part of the tour includes a tour by the Tower Yeomen Warders or "Beefeaters". (Apparently this is an unflattering term, so don't use it in front of them!) This was the best part. They make 100s of years of British royal history come alive. I didn't know beheadings could be so interesting. And remember "All this history could have been yours ... if you'd paid your taxes!" (according to our Beefeater guide. The tour is about 45 minutes and stays outside of all buildings except the chapel. You then can explore the insides of the buildings on your own. Also, the Crown Jewels are located here.

The last thing we did on Friday was go to the Tower Bridge. (Seen behind the Warder.) It is the most regal of bridges that cross the Thames, but it is not the London Bridge. That bridge is a real disappointment. No worries if it falls down.

Saturday, we signed up to take a bus tour of Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. We would really recommend this trip. These are huge icons of England and there is no way that you'd be able to see them on your own with public transportation for the tour price. The tour guide also really adds to the learning. First was Windsor Castle. We got to see it and its state rooms, but did not have enough time to fully experience it. That is a drawback to the 3 in 1 day tour is that you are rather rushed. TIP: If you are on such a tour, skip Queen Anne's doll house to get into the State rooms twice as fast, and don't listen to every room on the stateroom audio tour. We did not have enough time to see St. George's Chapel.

Next was Bath. Both the City and the Roman Baths that are there are World Heritage Sites. Being there made me want a spa day! Interesting fact- the Romans lined the baths with lead to prevent the water from seeping out. They contained the water and poisoned their people. Great! (This was for all of you that lived through my lead poisoning prevention Masters Capstone project.) The drive there was also really beautiful. The pastures were green and the sheep were out grazing. The canola (as in the oil used for cooking) was in full yellow bloom which added color to the patchwork quilt of the fields.

Stonehenge was awe-inspiring. When I get to Heaven, I really want to ask God how it got there. The historians and scientists estimate that the stones were obtained from southern Wales which is 240 miles away. They didn't have vehicles then, so it is assumed that these were moved over log rollers that distance. And since the life expectancy of the human in the hunter/gatherer time period was 24 years, it had to have taken over 3 generations to move them all.

Saturday night we got back to the hotel in time to change for the Saturday night Easter mass at the Westminster Abbey. It was an experience. It was awe-inspiring when the organ and voices filled the stone church. It probably would have been been more powerful had we toured the building before worshipping there, but we couldn't fit it into the itinerary. I remember it being an interesting place when I was there in 1990. Every British monarch since William the Conqueror in the 11th century (with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII who were never crowned) has been crowned in the Abbey.

Easter Sunday morning we walked across the Thames to get some pictures of the Parliament Building and Big Ben. Ken took some great pictures, but they did not capture the brilliance of the sun glistening off of the gold gilding of the clock tower.

We then went to Easter service at London's other great sanctuary, St. Paul's Cathedral. The interior was filled with artwork. It would be a fascinating place to go with a tour guide. Maybe when Ken and I go back in 3-4 decades, we'll tour the churches.

After church, we went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. When we entered the first room, I was disappointed as to how crowded it was. Fortunately, the crowds thinned out a bit in the other rooms. This was a fun alternative to all the historical tours we'd taken. Ken gave Superman a few tips before I was rescued me from the Incredible Hulk. I bumped into the queen while we were there. She and Prince Charles are regular visitors. They brought William and Harry along this time.

Ken then surprised me with a walk through Regent's Park. We went to Primrose Hill which gives one of the best views of London. The weather was beautiful all weekend (low 70's and sun) so the park was packed.

Our last excursion was the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War rooms. The museum was probably the most confusing that I've ever been in. The war rooms were really interesting but the package wasn't worth the price.

Speaking of price, England is EXPENSIVE!!!! The exchange rate between the dollar and the British pound is 2:1 and then the prices are the same, so everything is literally twice as expensive. We are so blessed to be living in Germany not England. Hamburg also has a better subway system. You can't even hear the station announcements on the London "tube" and the ride is very bumpy. All said, this was a wonderful trip, but one that we don't plan on repeating for a long while due to the costs.

Kristy