Lots of love! Ian & Stacey

Target Baby Registry

Diaper Dude Diaper Bag

Kelty TC 3.0 Child Carrier

Burley D’Lite Bike Trailer - our first baby purchase!! Hope she likes biking

IKEA Blames High Chair – Red

IKEA Leksvik Crib

Spring is slowly creeping into Grenoble, turning our thoughts to blossoming trees, picnics, and weather warm enough to finally get out and try to burn off all the extra calories we’ve gained from eating too much cheese!! And where better to visit in the middle of the rainy season than cold dreary Scotland! A few weeks ago we set off for a quick trip to visit my “Aunt” Betty in ye ole Scotland. Disclaimer: this tale includes gratuitous consumption of meat, potatoes, and sweets. Anyone currently on a diet is encouraged to close this browser immediately.

We left Grenoble and arrived in Edinburgh around 11pm on a Saturday night. We hustled out of the airport and thanks to the kindness of the airport bus driver, we managed to catch the bus to Glasgow straight away and settled back for a relaxing one hour ride… unfortunately the bus seats were pretty cramped so we had to stow our legs away in the luggage compartment under the bus. Upon arrival at the Glasgow bus station we reattached our limbs, found a pay phone (they do still exist!), and tried to convince Betty that we really were at the bus station. She called us a taxi, which we gladly hopped in, then found out that the taxi driver didn’t have the address to drop us at. Now a seasoned and prepared traveler would have been carrying that information with them, which proves that despite all of our journeys we are still usually unprepared for the ridiculous situations we get into! We finally got the address and arrived at our destination, then we sat up until 3am “blathering” with Betty until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore.

The next morning dawned with sun streaming in through the curtains, making me think that perhaps the whole journey was just a dream because I didn’t think the sun ever came out in Scotland in March. After a delightful breakfast we trotted off to catch a bus that would take us to Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain. After an hour standing in the cold blustery weather, we finally got on the bus and set off through the countryside. We arrived at the Loch just in time to hop on a boat that took us on a one hour ride around the lake with commentary pointing out the ridiculously huge country houses and the island of Inchmurrin, home to a thriving nudist colony… all I can say is brrrr!

After an hour of sitting on the open top deck of the boat, we were more than a little excited about slipping into the inn across the street and warming up with drinks and scones. Since we hadn’t stopped for lunch, Betty ordered two scones for each of us. It took two waiters to carry out our order as each scone came on a separate plate complete with powdered sugar, jam, butter, and a giant pot of heavy cream. Ever since that day I’ve been begging Ian to start a family tradition of afternoon tea, but he seems to think that eating massive amounts of heavy cream everyday would be bad for us… crazy right?

We caught another bus to take us a bit further around the lake, wandered through some shops, and then hopped back on the bus to head back to Betty’s house. She made dinner reservations at a restaurant along the way, which turned out to be quite tasty and quite Scottish. Betty and I both had the steak pie, and can I just say that steak, gravy, potatoes, and puff pastry are a genius combination?! Back at Betty’s we ate yet again, this time a heaping bowl of flan, jello (called jelly in Scotland), and cream. We were joined by a few of her long-time friends from down the road, so we got to hear lots of great stories about Betty and the fun they’ve all had together.

On Monday we decided to see the tourist sights, so we started off at the Transportation Museum, a giant warehouse structure full of old trolleys, cars and trucks, motorcycles, boats, and BICYCLES! I could have stayed all day, but Betty dragged me out and across the street to the art museum. I spent the next hour or so going “ooh, pretty colors” while Ian pointed out the art movements and techniques represented by each work. When he finally realized that I have no taste in art we grabbed Betty and made our way outside to catch the tour bus that loops around the city. We rode through the whole loop once, just listening to the commentary and enjoying the left hand driving experience, then on the second loop we stopped at the Glasgow Cathedral and the Peoples Palace, which showed what life in Glasgow was like over the past 200 years or so. The Palace was definitely one of my favorite stops, and as we walked through Betty shared her own stories about what life was like during the war and when the Singer sewing machine factory was open.

With all that sightseeing we didn’t have time to stop for lunch, so we were all excited to get dinner, especially when we found out that we would be dining at McMonagles Fish Restaurant, home of the world’s first fish and chip “boat-thru” takeaway window. It was definitely another very Scottish meal, starting with buttered white bread and then continuing to a giant piece of fried fish, an equally huge serving of chips (i.e. fries for all you Americans), baked beans, and a cup of tea. Ian opted for the Scottish version of Coca-Cola, named Irn Bru and tasting remarkably similar to bubble gum… as they say in Scotland, “It’s fizzy, It’s ginger, It’s phenomenal!” After dinner we went in for another “blather” with Betty’s next-door neighbor of 30+ years, Marian. She is absolutely hilarious, and when the two are together it’s like listening to an old married couple. She knits a scarf a day and sent us home with a scarf and three of the funniest baby hats you have ever seen. If we ever have a baby, we will definitely be putting one of these on the kid’s head.

Tuesday was our last full day in Scotland,  so after eating our potato scones and scrambled eggs, we all caught the bus to Edinburgh. Luckily Ian and I managed to score the handicapped accessible seats, so we didn’t have to sit with our legs around our ears. We toured Edinburgh on another sightseeing bus, which helped us figure out the lay of the city and where all the best sights were. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and I think I could have spent days there. After one rotation on the bus we had a quick lunch and then waved goodbye to Betty, who said she needed to get back to Glasgow and rest since we wore her out with too much sightseeing. I really think she did the wearing out – I don’t even think I stayed up as late as she does when I was in college!

Ian and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, seeing the castle, and popping in and out of shops. The sun actually came out, which made us appreciate the beauty of the city even more. We hiked up to a hill that overlooks the city and offered a fantastic view of the ocean. For dinner we decided that our bodies would welcome some lighter fare so we ate a fantastic meal at a little Thai restaurant. You definitely cannot find food like that in France… they wouldn’t know what to do with so much spice!

It was a great trip and one of the few places we’ve visited that we absolutely want to go back to. Especially after we discovered that there is an official canoe trail with campsites, shelters, even toilets! Now we just have to figure out which five days out of the year have a guaranteed 0% chance of rain : )

Next stop: Amsterdam!

More Pictures Here

Like the many other posts that we have done in the past this post is long over due. It has been nearly a month since we have returned from Egypt and I hope I haven’t forgotten any crucial details of the trip. Egypt is intense even in the more off the beaten path areas, but it is a rewarding experience – especially in hindsight! I found that a lot of the things Stacey and I experienced in Egypt, and especially Cairo, were trying and hard to appreciate in the moment. However, I have had vivid dreams of Egypt since our return and I am convinced it is an experience that sticks with you the rest of your life.

We flew into Sharm el Sheikh on the 19th of January on an early flight out of Geneva. We landed around lunchtime and had an escort meet us at the gate to expedite our entry into the country. Meaning that he “knew” people at the airport and got us through the long tourist visa line and passport control and into our hotel in less than 20 minutes. On our way there we learned that it had rained the Sunday before we arrived and apparently that is the equivalent of a blizzard in East Tennessee. There is no infrastructure for rain and so there was a lot of flooding and damage to buildings in the area, but thankfully our hotel was hardly affected by the rain and wind. We made it!

Sharm el Sheikh is built up around tourism and is hardly Egyptian by any stretch of the imagination. We spent our first afternoon walking around the old market (which is definitely Egyptian!) looking for a restaurant that apparently doesn’t exist. So, in our hungry desperation we settled on Hardee’s, which was situated in a modern strip mall designed for tourists. We just embraced it for what it was. The next day we spent our time on the beach soaking up the Egyptian sun and even took a plunge into the Red Sea to check out the fish and coral reefs that the area is known for. We soon learned why, as it was like nothing I have seen before in my life. A multitude of colors swimming all around us, with hundreds of varieties of coral hiding even more varieties of fish. Probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, making me think that snorkeling in more locations around the globe is definitely in our future!

On our third day we set off for Cairo via a Superjet bus. Man…did we stick out like two sore thumbs. Amazingly we were treated like everyone else and had an enjoyable bus ride (complete with Egyptian snacks and strange Arabic movies) until we hit traffic outside of Cairo, which resulted in an incident that required us to take a taxi from a small bus station way outside of town. Our bus driver, who was probably traveling a little too fast in the gridlock, slammed on his brakes and the bus attendant flew from the 5th row of seats to the front windshield and cracked the shatter proof glass. He popped up and said he was completely fine, though everyone on the bus was sure he was delirious from the concussion he surely suffered. Anyway, we were dropped off at this slightly ghetto bus station and found a seedy looking cab to take us to our hotel. We made it to our hotel an hour later after many minutes of trying to explain the name of our hotel to our drive, who apparently only knew enough English to lure unsuspecting tourists into his cab. We asked the front desk where to find some food and he suggested a pizza place around the corner. We ventured in and found ourselves in the middle of a little boy’s birthday party, complete with a frightening loud puppet show. The employees were very welcoming and super friendly, and the mother of the birthday boy even welcomed us and introduced us to the guest of honor. This was just one of many encounters we had with fantastically nice Egyptians, and definitely a highlight of our stay in Cairo.

The next day we took a tour to the Pyramids, and not wanting to deal with hagglers at the front of the entrance I arranged this trip in advance. It was an efficient trip and our tour guide was nice enough, but took us for a ride when she suggested we take a camel around the Pyramids. In short, we paid too much and she was in on the take, but that is how things are in Egypt. The camel ride was pretty fun and allowed us to see the Pyramids from all sides (and our oh so friendly camel guy took tons of cheesy pics of us riding along… the poor fellow should have known from looking at us that we’re not big tippers!). 

That afternoon we walked a few miles from our hotel to the Cairo Metro and rode that across town trying to get a feel for Cairo and to get a glimpse of the Nile River. Let’s just say that Cairo is not a pedestrian friendly city. You have to say a prayer before crossing an intersection, which are on average the length of a football field, and then you have sidewalks that were made back in the 50′s and forgotten about. We found a “local” section of the city and I managed to order some food off of an Arabic menu from a local equivalent to an Egyptian fast-food restaurant. We got some strange looks, but most people were very nice. We passed an Arabic patisserie on our way back to the hotel and managed once again to point and sign what we wanted (okay, okay, the guys inside spoke perfect English). It was delicious!

The next morning around dark thirty we took a taxi to the bus station to go back to Sharm el Sheikh to conclude our trip. We caught our bus and had an uneventful trip back and made it to our hotel around 4 in the afternoon. We found a Lebanese restaurant on the beach for an early dinner and retired to our room to process the experience of our trip to Cairo and back.

The next day we went mountain biking with a German guide who has lived near Sharm for 10 years and is well acquainted with the area and the local Bedouin people. We went on a 15 mile trip through Ras Mohammad National Park, which is world-famous for its diving and snorkeling. Then we jumped in the icy water to cool off from our ride and saw coral and fish even more spectacular than we had seen on our first snorkeling excursion. We were swimming in some very clear, very deep water over a beautiful coral reef with thousands of fishes. All I can say is wow, God made some crazy cool stuff! We lunched by the Red Sea and had some Bedouin tea to warm us up from our chilly swim. We biked back to our starting point, which was great fun until we hit a wall of wind that pretty much sent us biking backwards. Needless to say, the last stretch was pretty challenging and as both Stacey and I were feeling out of shape with our super-fit German guide, Klaus, making good headway ahead of us. We concluded our day at the same restaurant as the night before and watched the sun set over the bay. A truly fantastic day.

The next day was supposed to be a relaxing day on the beach and it started out that way, but later resulted in me getting a stomach bug and spending the whole day in bed praying that I would be well enough to go back home the next day. Stacey took care of me and got some help in the form of a nurse, a doctor, two IVs, and lots of pills to rehydrate me and take care of my nausea. The next day I felt much better and made it to the airport and home thanks to my caring wife.

Overall Egypt was an experience that was at times overwhelming, exhilarating, exhausting, and inspiring. I don’t think I’m ready to head back tomorrow, but soon… of course there are still a lot of other places to see first!!

Happy New Year!

More pictures of Germany and Austria available here on Picasa

We had a splendid Christmas break this year even though we missed our families terribly. However, we did have the best fondue ever with some friends from church on Christmas Eve and a wonderful lunch with our neighbors on Christmas Day. It was great to have fellowship with others that are away from home and those that have made Grenoble their home, if only temporarily. We have been blessed with friends within our community, which makes the distance from home seem not so far.

The day after Christmas we headed out in a borrowed car (Thank you Steiners!) to Baden-Baden, Germany and fought some post-Christmas traffic on our way there. I didn’t know there were so many Netherlanders who headed south for Christmas, but now I know to stay out of their way the next time I decide to travel on December 26th. European traffic isn’t so much stopped, but more like an ooze that has a hard time regulating it’s speed according to the objects around itself. That is until we made it into Germany and everyone realized that, “Hey, I can drive as fast as I want to!” We made great time in the last 70km, which hardly made up for the traffic before Germany. The weather in Baden-Baden was particularly freezing, but we found that the Christmas Market was still open so we took advantage of the numerous food stands to partake of some weinerschnitzel and not so healthy desserts. The stands were filled with the typical Christmas kitsch like cheese, meat, food, candles, glowsticks, clothing, and woodwork, which was all made in Germany of course As Stacey’s hands were turning purple we decided to retreat back to our room at the hostel, which was pretty much deserted besides a really loud group of Japanese-Germans who came in rather late and were doing really annoying things that disturb one sleep like blow drying hair, yelling each others names from one floor to the other, eating McDonald’s take out, and oh yes, talking very loudly. I don’t think they knew they had people sleeping in the same hall so I banged on the inside of our door really loud and I think that frightened them because I didn’t hear a peep out of them the rest of the night.

The next day was spent driving through the Black Forest, which looks a lot like the Smokies in East Tennessee, with a touch more snow. It was quite the drive and the only really sunny day we had the whole trip. A lot of the area is developed around tourism and we found a few of the towns filled with bus loads of people wandering around looking for cuckoo clocks. I admit, we were looking for one too until we saw the price tag for one we thought would go perfect in our dining room. “My goodness!”, I said, “We could use that money to make a down payment on a house.” Stacey agreed and we drove off without a clock but with the feeling that we made the right decision not to buy one after all. That evening we ate at the Christmas Market again and branched out into the finer areas of German cuisine like Sauerkraut, Noodle, and Sausage casserole and Whole Potatoes with Curry Sauce. Yum yum….. Don’t get me wrong, it was very tasty going down but getting it to digest was a task that we were obviously amateurs at. We tried Mezzo Mix, a German mixture of Coke and Orange cola, and that didn’t work. Next we tried hot tea and that seemed to do the trick.

While still processing the food from the night before, we headed out for Munich. We stayed at a B&B which is run by a Portuguese and Dutch couple with 2 big furry dogs. They acquainted us with the area and which train we should take to get into town. We found Munich to be one of those cities where if you like to shop and dine then you will love it, and if you don’t do either one of those than you might not care for the place. The locals in Munich make the hipsters of Nashville look like hobos. They are without a doubt the most fashionable Germans around and give the French and Italians a run for their money. I think the highlight of the city for me was the Hofbrauhaus, which is really a tourist trap for people looking for a “real beer hall”, but was quite a rowdy experience to behold and take part in. The second best part of Munich is that it is very pedestrian friendly and is easy to get around quickly by foot.

Well rested and fed by the innkeepers in Munich we headed out for Salzburg, Austria. This is where The Sound of Music was filmed, but we didn’t go there for that or for Mozart. We went there for something that we didn’t even know about before arriving. After walking around the city and checking out the hills near the fortress on the highest point of the city we found the coolest coffee shop/restaurant called Afro Coffee. This place is seething with coolness and had the atmosphere of something in between an opium den and a modern bar. The menu served food of African origin and drinks from everywhere around the world. We’re thinking of asking them about franchising opportunities : )  We stayed at a Guesthouse right outside of Salzburg which was a converted barn full of country charm. The breakfast was once again amazing, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t eat lunch either day we stayed there!

For our second day in the Salzburg area we went to Bertesgardnerland, which is the area where Hitler installed his second office of command. The famous Eagle’s Nest was closed for winter but the Documentation Center where the bunker is located was open and very interesting. It is an extremely exhaustive exhibition and I was very impressed how the Germans have preserved and documented this part of their history that most countries would have tried to forget. We also learned that German children are required at some point in their education to visit a concentration camp to witness what happened not too long ago. After trying to hike up the snow and ice to the Eagle’s Nest we went to a small town nearby named Konigsee with a pristine mountain lake closed in by mountains with a church across the lake accessible only by boat. It was a pretty amazing sight with three bright red onion domes for a roof and nothing else within miles.

The last 2 days of our trip we stayed in a town named Bad Kohlgrub at a guesthouse with the nicest German couple, who didn’t speak a lick of English, but were always telling us about sights and the weather and who knows what else since we don’t speak any German! After we checked in we headed to Neuschwanstein castle, which is the castle Mad King Ludwig II built and Walt Disney used as inspiration for his castle in Disneyworld. The inside was closed since we were visiting on New Year’s Eve, so we saw the inside of the lesser known neighboring castle of Hohenschwangau (actually a hunting lodge for the summer) built by Ludwig’s father. The tour was interesting and informative of the family and the people who visited the place, but the coolest part of the area was not the castle, but the Marienbrucke, which is a bridge overlooking the gorge and the back of Neuschwanstein. It is incredibly high in the air, fitted with delightfully loose wood boards, and sways ever so gently in the wind, all of which made the experience all the more exhilarating. For New Year’s Eve dinner we went to one of the few restaurants in Bad Kohlgrub, La Locanta, which is Italian and very good. Huge portions for next to nothing by European standards. We only had an hour since the table we were sitting at was reserved for a larger party, but it was so great we went there again the next night (okay, maybe we just couldn’t handle the thought of eating any more sauerkraut!).

The last day we ran out of stuff to do and see so we went to a couple of small towns and hiked around until we decided that we needed to go back to the Guesthouse and relax since it was our vacation after all. That night it snowed and we awoke to frozen powder-covered roads. I think we surprised our hosts by getting up so early for breakfast, because Mrs. Gerold was still shopping for breakfast goods. Nevertheless, they served us up a huge breakfast and sent us with some sandwiches and hard boiled eggs for our long drive home. Mr. Gerold even came outside in the icy weather and helped scrape all the snow and ice off the car. We had a great experience with all the places we stayed at in Germany, but they were definitely the friendliest people we met and we will remember them for years to come.

So, I am tired of writing and you are probably tired of reading. Leave comments, we love to read them!

-Ian

P.S. Check back in a few weeks when we will have a new tale of an adventure in a much warmer climate…

Merry Christmas everyone!! Just wanted to wish you all a joyful day filled with family, friends, food, fun, and… fresents? : )  We will be celebrating in Grenoble with some of our wonderful friends, then we are going to hop into the car and spend a week driving through Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland! We’ll be sure to post a few funny stories and photos when we return, but for now here are a few snapshots of our snowy weather and tiny Christmas tree. We love and miss you all!

A Christmas Prayer: God of all gifts, we thank You for the many ways You have blessed us this day. We ask You to bless us and our food and to bless those we love who are not with us today. We remember Your humble birth into our lives and pray for those who are without enough to eat. We remember the stable in which You were born and pray for those who have no place to live. We remember Your challenging message of caring and giving, and we pray for peace in families and nations throughout the world. We praise You and give You thanks through Your Spirit who brings our hearts to life, on Christmas Day and forever. Amen.

Hello everyone or to those who are still following the blog….. yes, we are blog slackers and we apologize!

Here is the link to more pics (click)

We just got back last Thursday from a 4 day trip to Budapest, Hungary and we are right back in the swing of things in Grenoble. We had a wonderful time in one of the most progressive post-communist countries in Central Europe. It pretty much rained the whole time we were there, but it was fitting weather for the landscapes and helped to enhance its charm. Our journey there and back was made more interesting by the fact that SNCF (the national French train system) was on strike and had limited trains running to select destinations… and by select destinations we mean just our destination. Such is life in France…

Our first day in Budapest was rainy, but we made an effort to see some major sites around the area of our hotel and stumbled upon an interesting restaurant. Originally, we stepped in to have something to drink, but decided that we should just eat there as well since the place had peanut shells everywhere and written accounts of many visitors stuck on the wall. It turned out to be a good decision as we noticed many locals dining around us (a sign that you are in a good restaurant and not a tourist trap). I ordered something that translated to Gypsy Chicken and Stacey ordered Cheesy Cauliflower. We received our food promptly from our less than enthusiastic waitress and 2 minutes later they brought out the biggest serving bowl I’ve ever seen filled with pickled everything! I wish I would have taken a picture of it but our waitress was weary of us already and I didn’t want to chance the rest of my delicious food. Needless to say we were stuffed and needed some exercise, so we went swimming at the indoor pool located in our hotel. We usually don’t travel in such style, but we found an excellent deal and took advantage of it.

The next day we had breakfast at our hotel with an amazing spread of meats, cheeses, eggs, breads, juices, and jams. The breakfast was included in the price of the room, otherwise it would have cost us 29 euros per person! Ouch! This was our only partly cloudy day, so we decided to take advantage of it and walk around the hilly Buda side of Budapest (Budapest is actually 2 cities – Buda and Pest). We saw many remnants of the old monarchy, and the only Cave Church I have ever been in (pretty cool). Later that day we checked out the Market Hall and bought some sweet and hot paprika, which Hungary is famous for. That night we had dinner at a different restaurant called Cafe Soul, selecting classic Hungarian goulash and pumpkin ravioli. Yummmm! We ended the evening by swimming in the pool and watching Conan O’Brian. What a good day!

The third day we visited the House of Terror, which is a memorial to Jews and Hungarian citizens executed by the secret police during WWII and later under a communist regime. This memorial gave us a better understanding of the city’s history and it’s people who still remember how it was back in those tumultuous decades. After that we needed something a little less heavy and went to the New York Cafe and splurged on expensive desserts and coffee. This cafe is modeled after the Vienna cafe scene with fancy decor and excellent service. With plenty of sugar in our blood stream we headed out for a stroll around town and made it back to our hotel to relax before going to the symphony later in the evening. The great thing about symphonies in Budapest is that they are incredibly inexpensive. For a total of 6 euros Stacey and I went to the state Opera House and enjoyed some excellent music and beautiful architecture.

We definitely saved the best for last because on our final day in Budapest we went to the Szechenyi Baths and enjoyed the delightful outdoor and indoor thermal pools. All of the baths are continuously circulating in fresh hot mineral water. We started with the outdoor heated pool as it was the closest (and it was COLD outside!!) and worked our way inside to the array or thermal baths treated with different minerals to cure different ailments. Plus, there was a sauna, a really hot-tub, and a whirlpool when you got too warm. Excellent start to the day! After our bath we walked a mile to get back to our side of town and stopped by a cafe to get some coffee and hot chocolate, to which was quickly added a sandwich and a giant brownie (hey, sitting in thermal baths really work up an appetite!). Next we went to our hotel to relax for a minute and then did a bit of shopping as we had some extra Hungarian forints that we needed to spend before leaving the next morning. After what seemed like an eternity to me (because Ian is ALWAYS hungry), we went to dinner and had Indian food, which was most excellent. Apparently Hungarians love Indian food, so we had to give it a go since we will never find anything in France with even a hint of spice!

So far, with all of our traveling, I think, Budapest was one of my favorite big cities that we have visited. It still has some local charm and doesn’t feel like a regular tourist stop. I would definitely go back! We spent our last day traveling back to Grenoble, starting at 7:00 am and getting home at 7:00 pm, but it was totally worth it. Thank you SNCF….. ALWAYS ON STRIKE!

A+

P.S. We need your help!! Where should we go for Christmas??

It has been some time since we have updated our blog to let you know what we have been up to since August. We have been to the States twice in the past 3 months and we are getting settled back into life in France. It’s nice to be back on a regular time schedule and not wake up in the middle of the evening. The Fall was amazing this year and lasted up to last Monday when it started raining and knocking the leaves off the trees. Now there is snow on the mountains, which are cloud covered at the moment and will probably show themselves sometime tomorrow. Snowboarding will start up some time in December if it gets colder and stays that way.

Last Saturday we had the pleasure to parapenting (paragliding) with Stacey’s boss, Phillipe and some of his buds. Basically, there is a cliff, runway and a parachute that acts as a wing to keep you afloat. It’s an awesome sensation to run off a cliff and realize you are flying above the trees. It’s a big sport here and you can do it all year with the right weather conditions. Also, with wind thermals you can potentially fly around for hours at a time.

This weekend we are traveling to Budapest, Hungary for a 4 day vacation. There will be an additional post that right after we get back. I promise!

As always, there are more pictures on Picassa (click).

*You can see all of the pictures on Picasa. Just follow the link on the right-side of the page.

So we started our 2 week journey in Italy at 3:30 in the morning to catch an 8:30 flight to Rome at the Lyon airport. We arrived promptly at 10:30 and made our way to our hostel to drop off our bags, so we could check out Rome without carrying our luggage. Rome is amazing, however, it was very hot too! The temperature during the day was intense and made our sightseeing seem more like a crawl across the desert, which made the sights even more rewarding. The first day we managed to pack in the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain, and some gelato of course. We were lucky to have excellent roommates in our hostel, 2 Slovakian girls and 2 Aussies. Our second day in Rome we decided to go do the Vatican City and St. Peter’s. It’s hard to imagine this place is a separate country when it is so tiny. The church is amazing in it’s attempt to glorify God in a materialistic way. Everything within the church is masterfully done to inspire a sense of awe. The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel were quite amazing too. The museum houses the books, maps, and artworks that the Vatican has collected throughout its existence. However, the main attraction here is the Sistine Chapel, which is amazing to gaze at if you are lucky enough to get a seat in the very crowded chapel. After our busy morning and afternoon we sat in the park and reflected on our day. Rome is intense and is better in small doses, so the next day we went to the National Museum of Rome and 5 different churches around the city. That night we prepared for our departure to Cinque Terre, which is a coastal area consisting of 5 villages connected by a common trail. No cars and motor scooter’s in this place! We stayed at a hostel in Manarola, a very beautiful village situated on a cliff side facing the Mediterranean. We spent three nights there and enjoyed not running around trying to “see” everything. We went swimming and hiking and I managed to get stung by a jellyfish during one of our little dips in the sea. Although I was stung by a jellyfish I still loved Cinque Terre and I think it is an amazing wonder of the world.

The next place we set off to was Venice, which sounds pretty easy right…? You just hop on a train and you are there. Wrong! It took us 5 trains and a bus to get there, no thanks to Trenitalia who complicates things with their indecipherable schedules and last minute platform changes. Oh well, what an adventure just getting there. Hallelujah, we made it. Once again, very hot, but one of the most incredible creations of man. Mainly built up around tourism these days, Venice still has some of its old world charm with no cars or motor scooters and fashionable residents arriving in fashionable boats. It was a fantastic place just to stroll until you were completely lost and then find your way back to familiar ground. We stayed there for the night and made our way to Florence the next morning on a direct train with air conditioning. Beautiful…..

Florence is quite the opposite of Venice in the sense of its geographical situation in the middle of the country and traffic congested streets. The funny thing about Florence is everything revolves around the Duomo. There is a lot of shopping to be had and wonderful museums, but take me back to the coast, please. Maybe I didn’t appreciate Florence as much as I could have had it not been unbearably hot and crowded. However, I usually judge the quality of the place by the things that are free and let me tell you nothing in Florence is free. But the people were genuinely kind (especially at the hospital!), so we had fun anyway. 

Our next stop was Assisi. A medieval stone village built on top of a hill frequented by Saint Francis of Assisi. This is truly a beautiful place and is preserved quite well under its UNESCO world heritage status. Like Venice it is a place to stroll around, especially at night. All of the buildings are of the same stone and gives the impression of an authentic medieval town. We ventured around Assisi for 2 days, hiked to several monasteries and convents, and relaxed each evening in the hostel courtyard, which was surrounded by olive groves. The hostel was wonderful, and we met some great people there. One night we ended up hanging out in the common room playing YAMS, a French version of YAHTZEE, with 2 people from Paris and an Italian. We communicate in a mish-mash of French, Spanish, English, and broken Italian. Good times! We eventually ran into our Parisian buddies in Rome on our last night in Italy (always funny to see someone you know in a foreign country!).

The next day we were off to Sorrento, back to the coast! It took 2 trains, a ferry, and long walk to get to our destination, but we made it. We arrived in Naples and cringed at the grittiness we were witnessing. If you ever imagined a place fueled by corruption, unemployment, the mafia, and overpopulation, Naples is the place, only in real life. Seriously, one-third of Naples is unemployed and it really does have a mafia. However, it is an experience to behold, so take a minute to look… and then get out of town! We took a ferry to Sorrento because it sounded fun and it was. We arrived in the beautiful cliff-side town with the paparazzi in full swing as soon as we stepped off our yacht. Oh wait, that was a day dream. Actually, we walked for an hour trying to find our hostel, which was actually in the next town over. Oh well, beautiful walk through a beautiful place. Finally, we arrived and got our beds and went to the beach. I napped and Stacey swam. One of our bunk mates talked us into doing the Capri cruise instead of seeing Pompeii and I do say that I am glad we took her advice. We had an amazing day cruising around Capri and went swimming in all of the different grottoes scattered around the island. We even swam into the Blue Grotto, which was amazing. It was an intense day as some people were stung by jellyfish and others scraped up by the rocks, but we were all smiling at the end of trip. Thank you Alvina, Francesco, and Rocco!

The next day we ventured back to Rome to stay for the evening. We felt like we knew the city by then and just pointed on the map and went about our evening. A picnic by the Pantheon, some gelato, and a beautiful sunset. A glorious last day in Italy, a mysterious and beautiful country. The next day we flew back home to Franec, and are now preparing to visit the States for 2 weeks. Can’t wait to see everyone!

Only two days until we leave for our much anticipated grand tour of Italy, so we thought it might be good to post an update of our recent summer activities before we go off the grid for a while. The summer has been great, other than the sometimes rather unbearable heat which has given us an immense appreciation for air conditioning… and the nearby lake! Ian found a lake that is right off the piste cyclable (i.e. bike path), so we can bike there in about 20 minutes. The best part is that it is inaccessible by car, so it is rarely crowded. And it has a tremendous view of the mountains, which begin to climb up almost right from the edge of the water.

We have been doing quite a bit of travelling around the Grenoble area, thanks to our friend Ruth from church, who is a great adventurer and always up for seeing something new. But before I go into our travels with her, let me first fill you in on one of the coolest things we have seen so far this summer… Le Tour de France!!!

We took an early train to Annecy, a beautiful town about an hour away from Grenoble and the location of a time trial for the famous cycling race. We wandered around in the masses for a while, saw all the bike team buses with exorbitantly expensive cycles propped up on bike trainers, watched a few riders warm up and smile for photos, and then decided to find a nicer place to watch the action. The race route was a 40+ km loop around the lake in Annecy, so we walked along the lake for about 5 km and found an amazing spot on an inside curve, sitting right on the curb – no barrier between us and the cyclists! Which was actually a little scary, as I was picturing myself making the evening news for accidentally falling in front of a cyclist and ruining the whole race! So we had an awesome time feeling the breeze off the cyclists as they blew by, and Ian managed to snap quite a few great shots. Seeing all of those great riders that close up was quite an experience, and it was even more fun after I dug a program out of a trashcan so we could identify who was going by : )

One of the families at our church hosted a picnic at their house the next weekend, so Ian and I decided to ride our bikes there. Which normally is not a big deal, but this particular ride was 15km with an elevation increase of about 600 meters… that’s almost 2000 ft! No big deal for Ian, but I was definitely proud of myself for making it all the way up. There were certainly a few moments I doubted whether I could do it!

A few weekends later we jumped in the car with Ruth and headed southwest, destination: Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval. Basically a wacky postman built this “palace” in the middle of nowhere out of rocks and concrete, and it took him 33 years to do it! You have to check out the pictures of this place, because it is just too crazy. We also saw lots of beautiful countryside on the drive, and never got lost despite the fact that we forgot the GPS!

Last weekend Ruth called us for another adventure, so we again hopped in her car, this time headed towards Les Grottes de Choranche in the Vercors mountain range. These caves were really spectacular, with thousands of glittering stalagtites and stalagmites (luckily, those words are the same in French so we could sort of follow what the tour guide was saying!). Wandering around inside the caves made me want to go spelunking, but I think I’ll have to find someone else to go with because I don’t think Ian was too excited about it! After seeing a waterfall and having a nice picnic, we hopped back in the car to continue our cave adventures at Les Grottes des Echelles. These caves are on a walking path called la Voie Sarde, which is a “road” built in the 17th century to link Italy and France, back when this area was part of Italy instead of France. Lots of really interesting history on this tour, plus the path is really gorgeous with lots of huge trees and dense undergrowth. It made us a little homesick for the mountains of East Tennessee!

That’s about all for this update, as we are busy packing for our trip. You can see many more photos from our recent adventures on Ian’s Picasa site (http://picasaweb.google.com/ian.isom). I’m sure we will have tons of things to write about when we get back, so prepare yourselves for a lot of reading and picture viewing!

FYI: I will be posting pictures on Picasa from now on, as WordPress developers have not made a decent tool to upload photographs on this page. I will still put one or two photos to spruce it up, but not as many as before. You can find the Picasa link to right of this blog post.

Rather than write one blog for everything we have done and every place we have been recently, I have decided that I should condense this into a digest format. It’s summer time and it is friggin’ HOT in Grenoble. However, this weekend’s forecast is promising lower temperatures that are more suited to…. I don’t know, actually walking down the street without feeling like a zombie having a heat stroke! We are somewhat in a drought in Grenoble right now as the grass is starting to look more brown everyday. I guess this is normal for July, since August and September are typically more rainy.

Our friend Beth came to visit in the middle of June and stayed in France for 3 weeks. Her visit overlapped with Stacey’s parents arrival in Geneva, which worked out great because we all just jumped in the rental car and headed to Normandy. If you know anything about driving in France then you know how much they nickel and dime you to drive on the Interstate. It was worth it since we had unusually nice weather in Normandy with 5 days of sunshine. It is hard to believe what happened there in WWII when you look at how beautiful the country side is. There are farms that go right up the shore of the beach and more cows than people. The French people have done an excellent job of protecting the area from over-development.

We stayed at a great bed and breakfast close to Juno beach situated in a convenient area to visit all of the sites. There was fresh fruit, bread, pastries, homemade jams, and yogurt every morning. The owners, Mylene and Christian, were awesome! The name of the place is Le Mas Normand if you are curious. Also, you must like dogs to stay there since they have two wonderful dogs that greet and love everyone who stays there (one dog is named Grenade and her favorite toy is a giant seashell… it was hilarious!).

When looking back to all of the places we visited I believe everyone really appreciated the American Cemetary the most because of its immediate impact. Hundreds of white marble crosses and stars of David perfectly arranged on what is probably the most well maintained pieces of land on Earth. Really impressive. Arromanches was quite impressive from an engineering standpoint. The British built a bridge and artificial barrier in the water to secure a section of beach in the middle of a German stronghold, which gave the Allies the momentum to win the war. We were able to explore some of the pieces on the beach and you kind of have to wonder how they did it. Amazing!

We took a day trip to see Mont St. Michel, which is essentially a huge church built out in a bay on a big rock. Of course, there were tourist shops and restaurants, but we we went straight for the church and found why we came. While walking around this massive church you sometimes forget where exactly it was built and when for that matter. Construction was started in the 700′s and continued for quite some time. You just have to look at the pictures to see. If you come to Normandy don’t forget about Mont St. Michel!

After our stay in Normandy we made our way back to Grenoble via Versailles so we could drop Beth off to catch the regional train into Paris where she would spend the next 2 days before flying home to Denver. The drive back to Grenoble was around 9 hours after stopping for lunch somewhere in the middle of France. Stacey’s parents, Bill and Chris, stayed in Grenoble for a week checking out the sites and even braved Carrefour with me a couple of times. We kept the car for the week that they were here so we could explore whenever we felt like it. We stayed pretty busy doing things in the morning while it was cool and went out in the late afternoon. One weekend we went up to Lac de Laffrey past Vizille in the pre-Alps. Amazingly nice weather and cool clear water to swim in. The day before they left, we took a train ride in La Mure, which is an old train route for anthracite mining. Beautiful views of the Vercors and the Alps. We finished the day off at Pizza Bella, which has a wood-fired oven and the best crust in town.

Things are getting back to usual this past week, well, as usual as it can get during summer in France. Everything seems to slow down for summer and there is nothing to do other than sit down to try and stay cool. We celebrated Bastille Day on Tuesday by watching some fantastic fireworks (the show was designed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing – it didn’t seem very French but it was awesome anyway!). We are preparing ourselves for a 2 week trip to Italy in August, which will be by train and not by car. Thank goodness!! After our return to Grenoble, we will spend two weeks in town and then will be heading to the States for 2 weeks on September 5th to attend Stacey’s brother wedding on the 12th. In October, we will be in Knoxville for 5 days to attend another wedding. Stacey is one of the bridesmaid’s and we know the couple quite well. We have lots of traveling ahead of us. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Ian

P.S. from Stacey – I can’t get used to hearing people at work say “See you in September”… this two months of vacation thing is crazy!!