Going into the homestretch

Thursday  7/25/13

We woke at around 07:15 got ready and headed down to the train station to make sure that our train was on time and to check the platform number.  All was good and we had around an hour to spare so we did a little more exploring of Stockholm.  What a beautiful city.  Prague and Stockholm are probably the nicest and cleanest cities we have been to.  Prague's streets are narrower and the buildings are taller so it feels a little more cramped but very clean and one thing we noticed, no beggars.  Stockholm's streets are a little wider and the buildings don't seem as tall.  Things seem a little more open and not so congested.  We made our train and left around 10:21 headed for Copenhagen.  Our travel time to Denmark took us roughly 5 hours.  That gave us about 3 hours in Copenhagen before our next train left.  We made it and we were able to wander the city for around 2.5 hours.  A nice city but very crowded.  Lots and lots of people.  This city is not as clean as the other two I talked about.  Paris and Rome were very dirty as well.  We definitely have our opinions on the different cities and which ones we would visit again.

Around 18:30 we boarded our night train to Amsterdam.  We were able to get a 4 berth unit this time so we do have someone with us that we don't know. Well we will make another friend hopefully.

Our roommate is Paul from Nigeria, not to talkative I guess that is good seeing that we need to get some sleep tonight.  

Our trip will last until 10:49 tomorrow morning.  Not too exciting on the train for that long but we do make up a lot of time and have a room for the night.  We will probably head to Corrie Ten Boom's house and catch a tour.  From there we don't have any definite plans.  Lots of train travel, short nights, make for some weary days.  Tonight should be good sleep.

Meeting the Family

Wednesday  7/24/13

We needed to get up fairly early because today we are going to meet some of Mark's relatives.  We had a nice treat for breakfast.  Last night we were able to get some groceries to make our own breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs with ham, yogurt and toast.  We then headed to the train station to meet Anders Hudberg.  We arrived around 09:50 and he showed up just a couple of minutes later.  He said he would drive us to meet his sister as well.  Her name is Eva Britt.  His first question was, "Do you really think we a re related?"  Well we talked the whole way there.  He trains flat coated retrievers, likes to bird hunt and deer hunt.  He is married to Karina who is Finish and has a 6 year old son Melker who will be attending 1st grade in the fall.

We arrived at Eva's home which is in the country around 45 minutes from Gavle.  We talked for quite a while about our family name and what it means.  He said the English translation would be 'skin mountain'.  Everybody we have talked to in Sweden has said that our name was unusual.  It is  not a common name but Eva told us that our name was changed when Mark's great great grandfather was in the military.  He and another man from the same area had the exact same name so one of them had to change theirs.  Our name was Johansson.  What an interesting find.  We shared pictures and took some of them and us.  We were treated to a wonderful lunch of pork, potato salad, bread and cous cous  plus juice.  We were glad to have met this part of our family and we welcomed them to stay with us when they come to visit the U.S.  Anders gave us a ride back to the train station where we needed to catch the 15:10 train to stockholm, not sure what we are doing after that but that hasn't stopped us yet.

Well we arrived in Stockholm, wandered the city streets and finally found a tourist info. center.  We were able to find another hostel and took it as it wasn't too far from the train station.  We dropped off our packs and headed for the old town of Stockholm.  As we were walking the girls noticed many little shops and decided to browse.  We finally were able to get away and head down 

to the old town.  The time frame of this part of Stockholm is roughly 1200-1300 AD.  There were many beautiful buildings surrounded by lots of water.  Also many boats,restaurants and ice cream places.  We wandered for a while, sat for a bit longer and then decided to walk back to our hostel.  We had 11 krona in our pocket and wanted to leave the country with nothing in our pockets.  We passed a McDonalds and all three of us grabbed a cheeseburger, used up our money and had to debit a bit more.  Oh well that was our going to bed food.  Good night for now

On to Sweden

Saturday  7/20/13

Took off early to take our luggage to the train station so we could walk around town easier.  We found our train and headed over to the east side of Berlin where we decided to go on a tour of Sachsenhausen.  It was the second concentration camp that was built under the third reich.  Winston Churchill's  nephew was there as well as Joseph Stalin's son.  This camp was a working camp where they made bricks.  It was also used to exterminate people but that was not the main purpose..  Jews were brought there as well as gypsies and political prisoners.  It is very sobering to view and very grateful that our country stepped up at that time.  We finally went back to Berlin and walked the city, we also ate at a cafe.  We had till 22:30 in town  and then we would get on our train and head towards Malmo Sweden.  Malmo is where my grandfather when he was 1 year old boarded a ship with his mother and headed to america to meet up with his father.  We found our beds for the night on the train and met our berth companions, Paolo from northern Italy and Jessica and Kimberly from Goteburg Sweden.  They were all very nice and wasn't as awkward as it may seem because we are all in the same boat.  We went to sleep around midnight with no A/C but awakened around 03:00 as the train was entering the hull of the ferry that would take us from Germany to Sweden.  Pretty cool to watch, it also saved us some money because our ferry and lodging were combined.

Sunday  7/21/13

Well Mark was not able to sleep so he went up on deck of the ferry was joined by Gloria tried to wake Kjersten but couldn't so she slept.  The view was of the Baltic Sea with many ships and a beautiful sunrise.  Went down to the train and slept for around an hour and then the hustle and bustle on the train picked up so it was time to arise.   We were in Sweden at 08:30 and no clue where to go  or what to do.  We were very surprised to find free wifi at the train station so we tried to find lodging.  While Gloria was on the computer Kjersten and Mark went exploring and found a tourism office open and got some maps and some public transport info.  Swedish money is in Krona which is 10 krona for around $1.50.  We noticed and were told that Sweden is very expensive ie. Burger King whopper meal for $10.80.  We got a bus pass for 24 hours for 65 krona.  We figured out how to find our campsite and headed to the bus stop.  We arrived at the campground and were amazed that it was right on the BalticSea.  Lodging was a bit pricey but hey we're here, so we will enjoy it.  First on list to do is laundry we have a slot allotted to us from 14:00 -16:00 to get 4 loads of laundry done for the 3 of us.  Laundry is done so we thought we would get our moneys worth out of the bus pass so we headed to town to find food and some entertainment.  We found an India restaurant that had a burger, fries and a drink for 50 krona so why not.  The food was great.  We decided to find this park we were told about that had free concerts.  Tonight was Flamenco night in Sweden.  5 ladies from Barcelona sang played instruments and danced, they were very good.  We left and found the bus and went to anther section of town where they had this impromptu music for the night.  It was called Goodnight to the Sun.  The music was good, the view was amazing as we watched the sun go down over the Sea.  We finally headed back to camp and looked forward to sleeping outside, it has been a few nights since we last slept in our tents.  

Monday  7/22/13

Well after a good nights sleep we packed up and headed to town to find the archive building.  We made a grocery store stop to grab some supplies for the next few days.  We finally arrived at the archive bldg.  It was around 10:30 and we had no clue what to do or where to even start.  There was an information place so we asked if she could help us.  Again we were at the mercy of having to ask for help.  Karin was very helpful and put us on the right path.  We were able to find the name of the ship my grandfather came over on, it was the Argo.  We were able also to trace one side of his parents back to my great great great grandparents.  Pretty cool to do, I think we could have gone further  but the man who was helping Mark his computer needed to be recharged and we had a train to catch.  Upon leaving this place Mark was thinking how important it is to leave a good legacy for your kids and grandkids. We could have stayed there for a long time but we needed to move.  So here we are on the train again heading to Goteburg and Boras where some more family history awaits us.

Well we arrived at Goteburg (Gothenburg) and had around 20 minutes before the info. place closed.  We were able to get bus and tram passes and find a campsite.  We had to walk around 1.5 kilometers to our camp but found it very nice.  

Tuesday  7/23/13

Well we slept in this morning till around 08:45.  It was a very cool night which made for perfect sleeping conditions.   We got ready and took off around 10:15.  Our first stop was to the train station to get wifi and contact a relative of Mark's.  His name is Anders Hudberg and we have been talking about getting together.  We are planning on meeting him in Gavle which is a town north of Stockholm.  

After the train station we decided to go to the city archives bldg.  We found it without to much difficulty and proceeded to find out more about the Hudberg side.  We had a birth date and a possible birth location which made it easier to locate them.  Everyone we have talked to has said that the name Hudberg is very unusual (maybe that explains why Mark is the way he is).  We did finally find them around an area called Hudene.  Hud in our name  means skin or hide.  We did find that our family was involved in weaving fabric (skins or hides).  The name could have also come from the area Hudene an area of weavers.  The books are very interesting to view, some are very neat and orderly, some not so much and some are even alphabetized.  The hardest part is trying to figure out the Swedish.  The archives over here are very helpful.  They allowed us to borrow a book for translation and we made a few copies with our I pad camera.  The archives here are all free.  People have been very helpful to us and very encouraging when we get stumped. 

We were able to go back to Mark's great great grandfather in 1831.  The names of children and parents is very helpful even for some of the pictures we have.  We have located other members as well but have found that we don't have nearly enough time to do it properly.  We left the archives around 13:20 and only had around 1 hour and 15 minutes till our train left for Gavle which goes through Stockholm and Uppsala.

We decided to do a quick tour of Goteburg by tram and go to the old town and wander.  We found many antique stores which Gloria and Kjersten love but had to be quick so no shopping.  We made it back in time to get some ice cream a favorite of Mark's and a subway sandwich for the train.  We actually did not know we needed reservations for this train because it was a high speed train so in ten minutes we had to get reservations.  We did it so, Amazing Race, here we come.  

We have traveled from Goteburg to Stockholm and have boarded another train from Stockholm to Gavle.  We should arrive by  19:40 and then we try to find camping again.

Just another side note, the country in Sweden reminds us of northern Michigan and Minnesota so wondering if that is why a lot of Scandinavians went to those areas when they immigrated.  It is a very pretty country with lots of lakes and trees.  The towns have lots of parks in the middle of them and are very pretty and used a lot by joggers, walkers and bicyclists.

We made it to Gavle but had no idea where to go.  Well, we must have looked pretty  helpless because the Lord brought a man and his wife to our aid.  Their names are Ronny and Agnetha Nellfors.  They saw us looking at the tourist info. building and it was closed.  I looked at him and he looked at me and I asked him if he knew of the camping area but it was pretty far out of town and we couldn't find a bus to take us there.  So they recommended a hostel just around the corner.  They knew the man who ran the place, so they walked us to the door and we then parted ways.  The Lord has an amazing way of introducing us to people and helping us out, pretty awesome.

Well our hostel has a kitchen with refrigerator, stove and sink plus a toaster.  We are having our own pizza and chips with a 7-up.  Pretty american huh.  Tomorrow we will do our own breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, apple juice, ham and yogurt.  The girls are very happy about being in the kitchen.  Once we are done we will be going to bed .  We are sharing the hostel with 60 people from Poland, they just gave each of us a polish meatball what a treat.  There was only one room left in the hostel - the Lord saved it just for us.  He is amazing!

To Vienna and Beyond

Wednesday 7/17/13 continued...
Our traveling companions arrived at around 22:00 from the station near Florence.  We all went to bed and woke up at almost every stop, not very restful but better than a seat. 

Thursday  7/18/13

We arose at around 6:30 and waited for our complimentary kaiser rolls and tea.  We met our companions who were two girls from Denmark.  One was studying to be a teacher and another a doctor.  Very nice and informative on where they have been and what they have done.

Mark went for a walk to the end of the train to watch the scenery.  As he was there he met a young girl Laura from Austria.  They talked for about half an hour until her stop came up.  She was traveling through Italy by herself.   She was 18.  Her ticket expired the day before and so she had to beg a ride from the conductor to get her close to home.  She was not allowed a seat.

As our train came in to Vienna around 9:15 we decided to carry our packs with us and tour the city.  What a bunch of hicks.  We were not real sure what to do in Vienna so we just started walking and found a man who was promoting a show about Mozart that evening and asked for suggestions.  He mentioned a bus tour around the city.  We decided to find out about it and see the cost.  There were two bus tours, the yellow line and the red line.  We decided to go on the red line, it was supposed to be around one and a half hours but was closer to two.  It was a wonderful tour where we got to see a lot of older bldgs. and the history of Austria very interesting.  

As soon as our tour ended we had to hurry back to the train to catch our 14:32 train from Wien Meidling (Vienna) to Praha (Prague).  We made it and arrived in Prague around 19:30 with no clue where to stay or what to do.  We found a tourist info. at the station and the man found us a hostel a quarter mile from the station.  It cost each of us 15,65€.  Not bad for a nights sleep and a shower.  We arrived and found a 4 bed room just for the 3 of us.  It was clean and had wifi which was very nice.  

We decided to go out on the town get some food and explore.  We first needed money.  The bancomat did the job; 200 czech krona for 10.18 U.S.  We had no clue where to go so we just wandered and found people going to this place which later we realized was the town center where they had stores, food and even entertainment.  Night life is different than in the states our places close down around 22:00 and these places are just getting going.  We ate some Prague sausage had ice cream and watched 4 guys perform a skit which was very entertaining.  We decided to head back to the hostel around 10:45 so we could get caught up on the internet.  Sorry you haven't heard from us personally but wifi has been a little hard to find.  We took showers and went to bed around 00:15 excited about exploring Prague.

Friday  7/19/13

We woke after a good nights sleep had some rolls with peanut butter and headed out to see Prague.  Again we had no clue what to do but we did know where to go so we went to the train station and stowed our backpacks in a locker.  We finally headed to the city center to see about another tour, this time in Prague.  We found one that went out at 12:00 and was an hour long.  We booked it at 9:45 so we had 2 hours to wander.  We found many parts of this city but had no clue what they were.  The food vendors everywhere and musicians as well.  What a beautiful city.  We headed to our tour and learned a lot about the Czech Republic and its history.  The many areas that we explored finally had names and a history that made sense.  

We got done with the tour and found some food to eat, tried to get rid of all of our Czech krona and rushed back to the train station to get our packs and hit our next train.  We were supposed to take the 14:29 train from Prague to Berlin but it was delayed by about an hour, so we really didn't need to hurry but that is part of the adventure.  

Currently we are on our train the EC172 headed to Berlin hopefully arriving at around 20:30 and then we start all over again trying to find a place to stay and then touring the town.

Well we made it to Berlin.  We found the train information place and scheduled our next leg of the journey.  We will get on the train Saturday night at around 22:30 and sleep again, then hopefully we will end up in Malmo, Sweden.  That is the place where my grandfather Oscar Larson was born and then headed to America when he was 3.  

Tomorrow in Berlin we will do some wandering, but we are thinking of taking a tour of a concentration camp.  We'll see.  All is good here, we found another hostel for the night, Mark and Gloria are the hostel parents.  Maybe the Lord prepared us by working at M-dub.  It is 22:50 here and these old timers need to get some sleep, we don't sleep on the train as much as Kjersten.  So long for now.  We are trying to figure out how to download pictures but not working out so check out facebook if you want a peek.

More adventures

Saturday  7/6/13. 

Upon waking at around 7:00 to a crying baby we decided to get up and start our day. What a beautiful area.  We were below two castles and on Lake Forggensee  in very southern Germany.  We showered, had a pretzel and a croissant filled with cream cheese and something very sweet; another great breakfast.

We finally figured out that we needed to catch the bus and head to Fussen and figure out our train schedule and when we needed to leave for Interlaken, Switzerland.  The bus cost us 2,50€ each a bit cheaper than the cab.  We walked around Fussen for a while and then headed out on another bus to go to the castles.  

The first castle we visited was the Hohenschwangau which was built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  We walked around it and did not pay the tour fee of 12,00€ pretty cheap (Mark strikes again).  

The next castle was the Neuschwanstein castle, that was quite a hike up a very long hill but wonderful exercise.  We finally made it to the top and walked around this castle which was beautiful on the outside but the interior was never finished or so we were told because again we were too cheap to pay the tour fee.       

We had talked to an information specialist who found out that we were camping at Brunnen and he strongly suggested that we take a little used trail back to our site which was beautiful walking along the river and then by some milk cows and then a dairy farmer and his grandson who were moving their cows back to the parlor for their afternoon milking.  They move their cows differently here in Germany , they use bicycles.  We finally arrived back at our campsite after walking roughly 10 kilometers which is 6 miles.  Another fine day.  The sun was out and temps. were between 75&80 degrees.  

Kjersten had saved the rest of her pizza from the night before and decided to eat that for dinner while Mark and Gloria went to a small cafe and ate on the patio.   The steak, salad and fried potatoes were wonderful.  Even though we split the meal we had no room for the amazing ice cream.  We wandered down to the lake for an evening stroll before going to sleep.

Sunday  7/7/13

We got up at around 6:45 and got ready for another day of train travel.  We headed for the bus stop at the edge of our campsite and took the bus to Fussen Bahnhof, which is German for train station.  In Fussen we arrived at 9:08 but too late to get on the 9:05 train.  So we waited and planned our itinerary before we got on the 10:05 train to Buchloe,Germany where we then would get on a train headed for Zurich,Switzerland.  We arrived in Buchloe and had 2 hours to spare so we walked downtown and got some ice cream and Kjersten got a sandwich for the next train ride which was going to be 3.5 hours long  Currently we are on the train to Zurich  sitting in a reserved section in 1st class waiting to get kicked out.  So far so good; we've been here for almost an hour and no problem yet.  What a gorgeous day, partly sunny or partly cloudy whichever you prefer and around 75 degrees, no mountains yet but quite a few little farms, each one having only  land enough for 15-25 cows and then some hay for feed, very simple but quaint.  It'll be interesting to see if we fit into the Swiss culture or not as in Germany we stood out but did look a little more normal than in France.  Signing off for now but will catch up when we get to tonight's destination. 

 We finally arrived at West Interlaken which is in between two beautiful lakes right at the base of the Alps.  A very busy little town on a Sunday night with a boat load of tourists.  Our main objective is to find an ATM to get money in Swiss francs so we can take the bus to Alpenblick, our camping area.  We are on our way, paying 3,60 francs a piece roughly $3.60 in American for our 10 minute bus ride.  Our campground is nice but very expensive: 63.80 francs for the three of us.  I guess when you are in tourist areas they can charge whatever.  We would question paying that much for some hotels but oh well we will make the most of it. 

 Dinner was expensive as well.  Gloria and Mark split a dinner of fresh fish (egli) a local fish with a salad and a piece of bread and Kjersten got a bowl of potato wedges.  We all drank water.  You really can do this on a shoestring budget.  

We were able to get Internet for a bit so tried to catch up with the outside world.  That has been our biggest struggle - trying to find Internet on a consistent basis.  What did they do 20 years ago? (ha,ha).  We did meet a wonderful couple, Martin and Carol from Lancaster, England who were in a VW camper next to us.  They gave us lots of valuable information very much appreciated.  We finally went to bed around 23:00.

Monday  7/8/13

Woke up around 8:00 to a beautiful 68 degrees and very low humidity.  Our tent was dry this morning (yah).  We are packing up and getting ready to take the bus to town and then heading to the Jungfrau region where they have a train that takes you up to 11,333 ft. We are looking forward to that.  

We are at our campsite for possibly 3 nights at a little village called Stechelberg.  We found lodging for 37 francs a night.  Not bad.   We are ready to explore this region in the next few days.   We have already been to a waterfall which comes directly out of the mountain face called Staubbach Falls.   In this area there are around 72 falls and they are just gorgeous.  

We are heading into Stechelberg for a little walk and maybe some dinner and then possibly up to Gimmelwald tomorrow.  We got back from our walk which lasted from 16:15 to 21:30 we didn't plan on being gone so long but found a little cafe and decided to sit and maybe get some ice cream.  Well we did get ice cream but we also split a dinner of cordon bleu with two veggies green beans and carrots and then french fries.  Kjersten had a traditional hamburger with fries. It was all very good. As we were sitting there our friends from the night before walked up and so we invited them to sit with us as we finished our dessert ( Martin and Carol).  We then left and went back to our campsite and went to bed.

     We also met a young couple from Dresden,Germany.  Their names are Alex and Phil (Phil is a girl we just couldn't pronounce her name so she said call me Phil ).  They are backpacking thru Europe while on break from college.  They are not married but we enjoyed being able to talk with them and share similar stories.

Tuesday  7/9/13

We awoke to another beautiful morning and finally left around 9:00 to head to the cable car/gondola which was going to take us one way up to a town called Murren.  We would then hike from Murren to Gimmelwald to Stechelberg and back to our campsite which is roughly 6 miles.  As we were in line to get our tickets who should show up but our friends Martin and Carol.  They were doing the same trip.  So we spent the day walking and hiking and eating and just having a good time.

 We were able to see the local people putting up hay -very hard work as everything is on a hill and tough to do. We watched many people paraglide thru the air which is very popular here so the three of us have decided to venture out and do it.  So on tomorrow the the tenth at 12:00 we will fly out of Murren and catch the currents over the Alps and see them from a different vantage point.  Near the end of our hiking as we were getting closer to our friends campsite they asked if we would stay for a bit and talk and so we did.  We exchanged information and told them we may see them in a couple of weeks and they said no problem plus we invited them to the states.  

As we left and started walking back to our site the afternoon rain started to come down and boy did we get wet so we had to put our clothes in the dryer and get things dry and warm.  As that finished we went back to the tent and had dinner inside because it was still raining.  That is why we are writing now because we are trapped in the rain. Hopefully it won't last long.  

The rain finally ended so we decided to take a walk.  It was beautiful as the low clouds were hovering in the valley.  We arrived back and called our nephew Ben who is serving his country in Vicenza, Italy - thank you Ben. We are going to try and visit him this weekend. Time to sleep.

Wednesday  7/10/13

Woke up to another beautiful morning, Mark and Gloria got up around 6:30 and went up to the Schilthorn , the location where the new James Bond movie was filmed.  What an amazing view - a 360 degree panoramic view of the alps.  We saw the Eiger, the Monch, the Jungfrau and the Mont Blanc.  We decided to  have apple strudel in the restaurant at the top.  It rotated  360 degrees in one hour.  

From there we took the gondola down the mountain to Murren, the location where we are going to paraglide with our niece Kjersten.   At around  12:07  three men came up and they were our partners on our trip.  Their names were Sebastian, Roby and Patric.  They were very friendly and outgoing.  Our paragliding trip was amazing.  We were able to have our cameras so the views were spectacular.  Mark was able to fly his with the instructor - very fun and not too difficult.  Upon landing we said our goodbyes and walked back to camp around 13:30.  We ate a little lunch and then headed  into Lauterbrunnen to check  the train schedule and enjoy the town.   While we were there we saw both sets of our new friends.  We bought a rotisserie chicken and split that 3 ways - what a nice meal.  Our English friends found us again and gave us a ride back to our campsite.

Thursday  7/11/13

Upon waking the sky was gorgeous with not a cloud in it, we packed up and decided to head for Lauterbrunnen to catch the train and then head to Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn.  We found the correct train and halfway up to see another mountain with some snow on it, the porter in the train asked for our ticket and we showed him the eurail pass and he told us that we were on a private train and the eurail was no good so we had to pay.  The eurail did give us a 25% discount but it still cost us around 52 francs each.  We decided to make the most of it and spend a whole hour looking at the Matterhorn.  The town of Zermatt was very nice but it was also very touristy.  We walked around looked at things and decided to head back to the main line and go into Italy.

  We finally arrived in Arona, Italy and headed to our campsite which was a 45 minute walk.  The heat was crazy - 90 plus degrees and very humid.  We arrived and the first thing we did was head to the lake for a time of refreshment, boy did that feel good.  

We then decided to go find a phone and check in with our nephew Ben and let him know our schedule.  Phones were a little confusing because the operator didn't speak English (go figure).  It all worked out when I borrowed a cell phone from this guy, very nice  I offered to pay but he said no problem. 

 We then started walking to see the town and found a place that sold Gelato (Italian  ice cream).  Mark was happy now.  We journeyed back to the site and to our amazement there was this huge dance party going on until 24:00.   It was in the campground next to ours but sounded like it was in our backyard, needless to say no sleep till around 01:00.  Oh well, we'll catch up on the train. 

Friday  7/12/13

We woke and packed and then headed to Arona for our 13:36 train which was delayed by an hour and twenty minutes which messed up our connecting train in Milano.  We noticed that people didn't seem too uptight and so we asked if this was normal and they said yes.  Welcome to Italy.  We arrived in Milanvedv and found a phone and figured it out so we contacted Ben to let him know we would be late because of that earlier delay.  Then we had to call him again and let him know that we would be later because this train was delayed as well.  We finally arrived in Vicenza and connected with our host for a couple of days.  Ben gave us a ride to his place and we talked for a while to catch up.  Ben was a very good host.  He let us stay in the living room on the couch - the only room with air conditioning.  What a treat.  Thank you Ben.

Saturday  7/13/13

After deciding the night before that we would head over to Venezia (Venice)  for the day, we woke to an overcast morning but it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We caught a bus to take us to the train station where we headed to Venice with Ben and two of his friends.  What a great day.  Venice has no automobile traffic, just a lot of water and gondolas.  We stopped for lunch at a little cafe where we sat outside and had pizza, lasagna,and spaghetti.  The food was great but the company was better.  The streets in Venice are narrow and very winding with a number of ways to get lost or turned around but we did manage to find our way around.  That evening we were treated to a thunderstorm and some hail.  Sure glad we were not camping.

Sunday  7/14/13

Woke up around 6:30 to get ready to catch the train to head down to the Cinque Terre.  Ben drove us to the station where we said our goodbyes.  Thank you, Ben, for your hospitality and generosity.  We had a wonderful time.  Thank you also for your service to our country.  It is greatly appreciated.  

Our train to Podova was delayed,  kind of par for the course here in Italy.  It's all good though, taking it in stride.  

We are currently headed for La Spezia which is close to the beginning of the Cinque Terre.  We will camp there tonight and hike the roughly 8 miles tomorrow.  The hike goes thru a lot of private land so we will see lots of olive groves and vineyards plus be next to the Ligurian Sea.  It is supposed to be very beautiful.  After 2 days in that area we will head to Rome and possibly to Mount Vesuvius  (Pompeii).  

We made it to Deiva Marina and walked around a bit and found a nice campsite around a half mile from the train station.  We set up camp and decided to go eat dinner at the camp's  restaurant.    We all got pizza.   The pizzas are pretty large but very thin so you can eat a whole one and feel reasonably full.  

We decided to go for a walk and get some gelato.  We came back to our camp and met  Jorge from Costa Rica who now lives in Switzerland with his wife and son.  We had a really nice time talking with him about his job and family as well as local places to go.

Monday  7/15/13

Woke up around 7:30 and got ready for our day of hiking, exploring and  shopping or should I  say eating.  Our train was delayed again but no problem.  We just make new friends and the time flies by.  

We finally made it to our first stop on the Cinque Terre or 5 villages along the Ligurian Sea.  The first town was called Riomaggiore and then Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and then Monterosso.  We were saddened by the fact that all the trails except for the trail from Corniglia to Vernazza were closed.  Later in the day we realized that we were glad that they were closed because it was very hot to hike in the afternoon sun in Italy.  Instead we were able to take the train to each town and then explore them.  Each town was very unique from being high on a hill with a very defensible position right on the water with accessability  to the sea.  Lots of little shops and places to eat.  

After our hike, which was 4 kilometers long and took us roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes, we ended up in Vernazza and found the beach right away.  Wow did that water feel amazing.  Mark and Kjersten were out there for around an hour and met a couple from Lexington, Kentucky.  Their names were Derek and Ann.  Gloria met a lady on the beach from Houston,Texas and they talked for quite a while.  

After the beach we headed for our last town and then back to our camp.  We decided to stop at a local restaurant that our friend Jorge recommended.  It was wonderful.  Kjersten got a pasta dish with pesto, Gloria got a salad and a calzone and  Mark got a pizza again.  We split and shared with each other and enjoyed the local culture.  We were again tired from our day so decided to go back and go to bed around  22:00. 

Tuesday  7/16/13

We woke around 6:30 and packed up early to catch the 8:30 train to Pisa.  Well our train never showed so we waited around 1 hour and then boarded the next train headed south to Pisa.  It made quite a few stops along the way but we finally arrived.  We had 2 hours to walk from the train station to the other side of town to see the leaning tower of Pisa, get some gelato, a happy puppy ( slush puppie) and then McDonalds ( when in  Pisa do as they do). Well we made it with  30 minutes to spare.  

we are now on our train to Rome.  We are supposed  to get in around  17:45.  We thought maybe a hostel, hotel or a bed and breakfast would work because we're not too sure about camping in Rome.  Tomorrow we will tour the city and see if we can reserve some seats on a night train and get in to Vienna, Austria and spend the day there on Thursday. Today is the halfway point of our journey and we still have  a lot of places to go and see and time is running out.  

We finally arrived in Rome and had no idea where to stay.  We prayed on the train that the Lord would take care of us.  So we went to the ticket office and made reservations on the 19:12 train to Vienna, it would arrive at 8:33 on Thursday morning.  We were able to each get a bed for 31€ a piece, cheaper than a hotel room.  Once that was done we asked if she could recommend a hotel or two the first one cost 450€ a night for three, the second one was 250€.  So our venture in Rome begins.  We then walked to the information booth and immediately this man approaches us and asks if he could help.  We told him our situation and he asked if we wanted a room with a bath or a room where we shared a bath with others.  At that point we weren't going to be too picky.  We walked across the street to this complex with many rooms and settled for the closest to the train station, plus sharing a bath but for 30€ a night for each of us not too bad.  

We went out on the town at around 19:30 and found a man who tried to sell us a tour to the vatican, the sistine chapel and st. Peters basilica for 50€, but said he would give us a deal for 41€, we said we would think about it.  We went to Rik's cafe for dinner and all got pasta but a different flavor for each, not too bad.  We then decided to go for a walk around town and then head back to our room for the night.

Wednesday  7/17/13

Ricardo, our host at the hostel where we stayed, allowed us to leave our backpacks there during the day for 5€ each.  That's a great deal compared to the cost at the train station.

We decided not to go with the 41€ tour as Kjersten found that we could buy tickets at the vatican for 16€ each.  We got up at 6:00 and got ready to go early so we could get in line for tickets before it got too hot.  We first went back to the train station to purchase all day tickets for the metro for 6€ each.  This would allow us to ride the subways and buses all day.

We arrived at the Vatican at about 8:10 and stood in line until the ticket office opened at 9:00.  The line went quickly and we were soon inside.  We spent 

1 1/2 hours going through the Egyptian museum, Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel.  We were very impressed with how everything was laid out to keep things from getting too congested.  The Sistine Chapel was amazing with pictures from many different events in the Bible.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures so we won't be able to share it with you.

We left the Vatican at about 11:00 and headed toward the Colosseum.  We took one of the buses but ended up going the wrong direction so we had to go to the end of the line then get on another one going back to where we needed to go.  we got a cheap tour of that part of town anyway.  The temps were in the high 90's and it was hot and sunny.  Kjersten decided to go on a tour of the Colosseum while Mark and Gloria found a little place to get a sandwich across the road.  

After Kj finished her tour we walked around to check out some ruins of the old city and the ancient field where they competed in track and field events.  It was called the Circus Maximus.  We then started making our way back to the hostel to retrieve our packs then find some food for the train.  

We boarded our train and are now settled in our 6 berth compartment waiting to meet our traveling companions in Florence, Italy.  The compartment is air-conditioned and nice, though a bit tight.  We're all looking forward to a restful sleep while traveling to Vienna.  (We're praying the people sharing our compartment don't snore.)

Traveling through France and Germany

Friday  6/28/13

After 15 1/2 hours on the Ferry the Oscar Wilde, we arrived in Roscoff, France on Fri June 28 at 9:30 am.

We met two gals from Calif on the ferry, Shelby and Taylor.  They were traveling thru Europe also.  They had started in London and had already spent a couple weeks in Wales and Great Britain.  We all walked to the train station together and took the train to Rennes.  

The 3 of us hopped a train that took us east toward Bayeux which is near Normandy.  Because it was early evening, we stopped in Dol and found a campground near the station.  It was a bit different from campgrounds in the US - the bathrooms were co-ed.  After being up since Thursday morning, (with a bit of sleep on the floor of the ferry and cat naps on the trains)  we all slept well.

This morning we went to an open market in the city centre of Dol.  we bought some fresh fruit, olives (Mark) and bread.  We love France - they have fresh bread everywhere!  As our train doesn't leave until 17:19 we walked to the Super U and found an adapter to charge the iPad, toilet paper (for campgrounds that don't provide it) and a filter water bottle (Gloria left hers on the last train:( )

Now we are waiting for our train and planning our next few days.  We will probably go to Normandy on Sunday then head to Belgium.

The towns are amazing with the 400-500 year old buildings.  The people have been very nice and helpful.  Mark spent 1 1/2  hours getting a French lesson from the young man sitting next to him yesterday his name was Luigi and he was 22 years old and in the navy on an aircraft carrier (French).

Friday 6/28/13

After leaving a very busy train station in Rennes we decided to go to Dol and see if we could find some place to camp.  We arrived at around 20:30 with no clue where to go and no Internet access so we met some people at a small bar.  They didn't speak any English and we don't speak any French but we were still able to communicate and find a restaurant for Jambon (ham and cheese pancake thing).  Very good. We found our campsite and stayed the night.

We left Dol at approximately 17:30 and arrived in Bayeux our campsite was roughly 3 kilometers away so we walked to it in around 30 mins. the office was closed we went to a home and a man gave us our campsite for the night.  It cost us 18.86 euros for the 3 of us.  It was very nice and clean.  We went out to get dinner, the closest place was McDonald's so we thought when inFrance do as the French and have French fries, it wasn't to bad.  

Sunday. 6/30/13

Well we slept in woke up around 8:30 got ready and left by 10:00 to go to the city center and talk to the tourism center.  We saw some ice cream and just had to try it wow was it good (strawberry).  The lady at the tourism office said the tours went from 8:00-18:00 but we were to late for that and the next tour started at 13:00 and would cost 50 euros Mark decided to ask if they had a car rental place and they did she gave us directions we found it. The man at the car place didn't speak  English so we had fun trying to communicate what we wanted to do.  I like to barter and so I was able to get the car for 7 hours and 150 kilometers for 80 euros plus diesel all told around 94 euros.

The day was filled with our own tour to Normandy.  What an amazing place thank you to our veterans and soldiers for your sacrifice for our freedom we all take it for granted.  As one man put it, He said "it is amazing that these young men would come 6000 kilometers and fight and be willing to die for people they didn't even know."  Our savior Jesus Christ did even more we are so blessed. 

Monday  7/1/13

We woke  at 5:00am, left the campground at 5:55 to meet our train which left for Paris at 6:36 am.  We arrived in Paris at 8:58 am where there were overcast skies.  We visited the information center and met James (aka Charles) who was very helpful.  He told us to purchase an all day ticket on the subways for 6,60 € each.  We first made our way to Paris Le EST train station to put our packs in a locker.  We then headed to the Basillica which overlooked the city.  

After this we made our way to our next station.  On the way we found a public fountain where we filled our bottles.  While there we met a couple from Tanzania (David and Katelynn).  They live in the same town as the Tanners and Wildasins.  They work for Mary Knoll where they teach natives how to work with handicapped children.

We then made our way to the Charles de Gaulle place and the arch of Triomphe.  We walked down the most famous street (Avenue Des Champs Elysees ) where we found a soft serve ice cream shop there.  It was a very crowded and materialistic place.

The Eiffel Tower was our next stop.  We then walked to the next subway station where we headed to Notre Dame cathedral.  What an amazing building.  We walked thru the church - many candles burning.  We wonder what The Lord thinks about all this.

We had gyros (French style) which were very good.  We then made our way back to Paris des EST train station to retrieve our backpacks and catch the TGV to Metz.  We averaged about 300 km/ h.  

Once we arrived in Metz, at 10:00 pm, we made our way across town to our campground (Municiple Camp). I was a very nice place and we camped on the river.  

Tuesday  7/2/13

After a VERY restful sleep we got up about 9:00.  There was wifi and we planned the next leg of our trip.  We met a German couple, Kia and Monica who were very helpful with places to go.

We walked through the town and picked up some lunch on our way to the train station  where we caught the 1:30 train to Luxemberg.  We then traveled to Wurzbourgh via Trier, Koblenz, and Frankfurt.  While in Koblenz we tried German McDonalds.  It was very good.  During the train ride we enjoyed the beautiful landscape of hardwood covered hills, the Rhien river, and miles of vineyards going up the steep hillsides.

We arrived at Wurzburg at about 21:30 and found a room above the Haus of 150 Biers.  It was very clean with bathrooms in the hall that we shared with others.  The gal downstairs in the bar even did our laundry for us.  

Wednesday 7/3/13

We caught the train to Rothenburg at about 9:00 and arrived about 45 minutes later.  We were told about a camping platz about a 15 minute walk downhill from Rothenburg.  It was a very nice place - the nicest and cleanest so far.  We set up camp and returned uphill to the walled town of Rothenburg where we spent the day exploring the many streets and shops.  It rained on and off all day.  We went to the medieval crime museum where we were also able to go down into the dungeon where the torturing was done.  We tried the schneeballen (snowballs) which was a local tradition.  Wonderful!  We had a dinner of sauerkraut and sausage.  At 20:00 we went on a tour of the night watchman where we heard much history of the town.   At 10:30 there were fireworks we could see a bit from the camping platz.  

Thursday 7/4/13. Happy 4th of July!!

We left Rothenburg at 10:07 bound for the Black Forest Academy somewhere near Frieburg or Basel.  We have been unable to get wifi to contact the Academy.  The train arrives in Frieburg at 16:00.  We decided to go to an Internet cafe and get online to see exactly where BFA is and to look up camping.  PTL we found a camping area in Kandern the same town as the BFA.  So we got back on the train and headed towards Basel Bad and to find the bus to take us to Kandern.  We finally figured out what bus we had to get on, it was #55.  We waited for the bus and paid the driver 3,60 € for our 50 min. bus ride to the city of Kandern Germany.  We finally arrived at 20:10 and we were hungry but decided to find the camping area first so we could set up in the daytime.  We did find it Tessamessen camping a nice little spot with a small water park we settled there for the night.  We set up camp and decided to explore the town of Kandern and see about the night life and what kind of food we could find.  A little cafe called munzur kebab was what we needed  Hawaiian pizza for 5,50€ a sprite and some gyro meat and fries all for a whopping 10,20€ not a bad deal.  The pizza was big enough that we had extra so it would make a fine lunch for tomorrow.  With dinner out of the way we hiked back to our tents roughly 10 minute walk and slept like babies.

Friday  7/5/13

Friday morning welcomed us to sunshine and rather pleasant temperatures around 65 degrees F. We got up around 8:00 took showers and headed out to see the Black Forest Academy in Kandern, Germany.  We told Luke our contact that we would be there around 10:00.  We arrived and found our contact and he gave us a wonderful tour of the academy.  It is a very busy place during the school year as they have classes for grades 5-12 in English and house around 300-350 kids in that same age range.  The children are the kids of missionary parents that send them there to get a good education and to prepare them for college in the States.  They are in need of people to serve there so who knows what The Lord will do.  We left the academy at around 11:45 and grabbed some cold pizza and cold ice cream  what a great lunch and then we headed for the bus stop to take our return trip to Basel Bad and then hop  a train to Fussen, Germany.  Fussen is where our next camping is located hopefully we will make it on time, also there is a castle near there called the Neuschwanstein Castle you may have seen it before because they got the design for Cinderellas castle at Disney from this castle.  We are excited to see it and maybe spend 2 nights in one place.  Currently we are on the train headed for Mannheim then down to Stuttgart , Augsburg  and finally to Fussen.