Look kids...Big Ben!

My sister, Jocelyn, and b-n-l, Stephan, arrived in Frankfurt the morning of Friday, March 12th, ready for a European vacation. I picked them up from the airport and ran them around Frankfurt showing them the all the sights before they crashed from the jet lag. The next day we hopped a train and headed down to Heidelberg to let them check out the castle and wander the quaint city there. During these first two days of sightseeing, Shea and I were sure to get them walking as much as possible, so their legs would be numb to all the hoofing we would be doing in London!

On Sunday, we woke up early to catch our flight to London. We had to take just about every mode of transportation imaginable to make it (minus, maybe...unicycle) but we got there all the same. In London we found our way to our hotel in the Marylebone area of town, very near Hyde Park and only about 2 kilometers from all of the well-known tourist attractions. We checked in and freshened up before taking the world-famous Underground (a.k.a. Tube, a.k.a. Subway) to Piccadilly Circus. There we walked around London's equivalent to Times Square with the enormous neon lights and billboards touting all of the world-class shows in town. From there we walked down to Trafalgar Square, where we stumbled upon the St. Patrick's day festival for the city. Everyone was decked out in green and double fisting Guinness Stouts around the world famous National Gallery and Nelson's Column. We didn't witness a single person jump into the fountains, but then again we didn't stick around till the end of the celebrations either.

After making our way through the party, we headed south away from the square down Whitehall Street. Along this street we snapped pics of the Admiralty Arch, the Horse Guards Parade and Cavalry Museum, Downy Street (where #10 Downy Street is located, which is where the PM stays but you aren't allowed anywhere on the street), and the Cabinet War Rooms-where Winston Churchill met with leadership underground to discuss strategies to defeat the Germans while the city took waves of bombings during WWII.

After making our way down the street, we found ourselves standing at Parliament Square, with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben to our left, Westminster Abbey directly before us, and the King's Court to our right. A very impressive sight to behold.

From there we headed over to the river Thames and crossed over Westminster bridge to the London Eye (which is best described as an over-sized ferris wheel). As sunset was nearing, we decided to take a ride and were rewarded during the loop with a magnificent sunset and seeing the beautiful lights of the city turn on and brighten the sky.

After our view of the city from on high, we headed back across the Thames and came across the Texas Embassy restaurant. Joc and Stephan were kind enough to let Shea and me enjoy our first quality Tex-Mex since leaving Dallas...it was great and the ice cold Dos XX's also tasted amazing. From there, we headed back to the hotel room to get some rest after a long day of travel.

On Monday, we headed out and walked along Hyde Park to meet up with a walking tour at Wellington Arch. We saw all of the military monuments to the British colonies that fought for the Empire. From there we headed down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace, where we took in the changing of the guards. Impressive display. Unfortunately though, the Queen wasn't in, otherwise, I'm sure Shea and Joc would have been invited in for tea. The tour then led us to St. James Palace, which was the original home to the royal family, before upgrading to Buckingham Palace. Outside we each took turns playing the part of soldier in the guard shacks and having our picture taken. The tour then wound us through the a number of the same sights we had seen the day before, but only this time, we were able to learn about the history of what we were seeing. Very interesting and definitely worth the time. After the tour, it was time for lunch, and we all decided it was time for some traditional English flair. We headed to a restaurant and rewarded ourselves with fish and chips (fried fish and fries), wrapped in (simulated) newspaper, (almost) like in the old days. "Jolly good lunch, Governa"

After lunch we headed over to the Covent Garden area of town, which is a trendy area with plenty of shopping, but also home to many of the theaters of London. We decided to take in a show that night and were able to buy some cheap seat tickets to one of the big name shows in town called "War Horse". We wandered around that area of town for a while, and then headed back down to Westminster Abbey to take in a prayer service/choir performance at 5:00pm. We got to sit and enjoy the wonderful choir, while at the same time soak in the 1000-year-old cathedral. After the service, we grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the theater to make our 7:30 curtain call. We all really enjoyed the show and after it finished caught a late night Tube ride back over to our hotel and called it a night.

On Tuesday morning, we headed over to the Notting Hill area of London, famous not only for the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie, but also for the Portobello Road Market, which is a mile of shops lining the street with antiques, collectibles, food stalls, top designer and vintage clothing. Stephan and I were very thankful that we had afternoon plans and were able to get the ladies out of there before any credit damage was done. Although the refrain heard through the rest of the trip was "do you guys think we can get back over to Portobello before we leave?"

So, from Notting Hill, we headed back into the city to make our bus to go and see Stonehenge. It took almost two hours to get there, but we were able to watch the city fade away and then see the beautiful English countryside stretched out before us. Let me say here that we were amazingly lucky with the weather in London...we had nothing but clear bright skies and temperatures in the 60's during our entire trip. Unheard-of weather for London in March, but Joc and Stephan were kind enough to bring some of the Texas sun along in there pockets and share it with their English speaking brethren.

We arrived at Stonehenge and took the audio tour around the site. We were pretty amazed at the size of the stones, and it is remarkable to think that we don't really know how or why the ancient people brought them there around 5000 years ago. Best guess is as an ancient sundial calendar...although Shea is sticking with her guess of ancient ice-age drinking Jenga blocks "make fire or drink 5" (+2 GK bonus points for all readers who get that joke). After our tour of Stonehenge, we took the bus back into the city and decided it was time for a night in a famous London pub.

We headed to the "Cittie of Yorke", which has operated as a pub since 1430 and claims to have the longest bar in all of England. We headed down to the cellar where we grabbed some English pub grub, which let me say, does a great job of sticking to your ribs. We then headed back upstairs to indulge in some more of their tasty adult beverages. We had a great time chatting it up, and I can honestly say that we closed the bar down, but don't be too impressed because London bars close at 11 pm.

On Wednesday, we headed over to the oldest parts of the city of London. There we quickly peeked in St. Paul's Cathedral and then walked over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern Museum. We didn't have time to tour the Museum but kept that on our list of places to hit next time. We walked over to the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theater and then popped in the infamous Clink Prison museum...ghastly what medieval people would do to each other. We then took the "Queen's Walk" down the Thames to the Tower Bridge and over to the Tower of London. The Tower is best known of course for being the place of imprisonment and beheading of Anne Boleyn and also for housing the crown jewels. Seeing all these things allowed us just enough time to blow through a souvenir shop and then head for the airport to catch our 8 pm flight back to Frankfurt.

London was an amazing trip and though we saw lots of stuff, we feel like we were really only able to scratch the surface. It is probably one of those places that you would have to live in in order to have the time to take in all it has to offer. Maybe that is were we need move next...

Just kidding moms.

We got back to Frankfurt and packed Joc and Stephan up to send them by train off to Paris for a romantic getaway. They really enjoyed their time there together and then they headed out from Frankfurt Saturday morning back to Dallas. It was a great trip with them, and though they likely needed a vacation after their vacation, we got to see and experience many new things together!

Istanbul...not Constantinople

Istanbul, Turkey is one of the largest cities in the world and is the only one that sits on two different continents. It has acted as the gateway from Europe to Asia for thousands of years. It is pinched between the Marmara Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the north, and the Bosphorus Strait connects the two seas and at the same time divides the city and two continents. Istanbul has been fought over, passed around, and claimed as the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and today the republic of Turkey.

So, we jumped on a flight on Friday, February 26th to check this place out for ourselves. We arrived late that night and caught a taxi to our hotel, which was located in the heart of the city and within walking distance of the major historical and tourist sights. Along the drive we drove past the ancient walls that have unsuccessfully protected the city for centuries and the Marmara Sea. We checked in to our hotel and got ready for our sightseeing the next day.

On Saturday, we headed out early and went first to see the hippodrome. The hippodrome was once a big stadium for chariot races but today all that is left are several obelisks that mark the course the chariots would race around...like a scene out of Ben Hur. From there we went to the famous Blue Mosque immediately adjacent to the hippodrome. With its imposing 6 minarets, the mosque's interior is adorned with blue tiles giving it its name. Shea and I took off our shoes and were able to walk around inside and check out the beauty of the building for ourselves. From there we visited Hagia Sophia, which was a church for 916 years, then a mosque for 481 years, and now a museum for the last 80. It was incredibly interesting with a mix of Christian symbols, including stucco paintings of Mary and baby Jesus and gilded mosaics walls of Christ next to Islamic symbols of faith with their Arabic scriptures painted into the center of the dome and Islamic pulpit. It was amazing to see how the building was adapted over the ages for use by the differing religions rather than destruction of the religious art.

After taking the morning to visit some of the big tourist spots, we then grabbed a lunch of some ever-popular Turkish doner. If you have been able to visit us in Germany, than you already know that the doner has been integrated here and is more popular than MickeyD's. After lunch we visited the basilica cistern. It is an underground palace with rows of decorative columns that has collected water for the people of the city for centuries. Some of the decorative columns from the roman period include large sculptures of Medusa with her hair of snakes.

After the cistern we walked through a new beautiful city park. The flowers were in bloom and many people were out enjoying the warmer weather. We stopped and snapped several pics of about a half dozen Muslim women, covered head to toe, with only their eyes visible playing volleyball. Not something we had ever seen before! We walked through the park to the Topkapi Palace. It was a home of the Ottoman Sultans and included a large harem chamber for the Sultans' many wives.

From the Palace we headed to the Grand Bazaar or what could also described as the first indoor mall. Since 1451, tradesmen have been selling all sorts of rugs, spices, fabrics, jewelry, pottery, and metals in this location. You could haggle as much as you like here and were expected to give it back as good as they gave. After some haggling we decided to sit for a while and refresh with some tea, local specialties, and desserts. We tried some handmade breads made by women hard at work over the stove. It was very similar to tortillas, filled with your choice of potato, spinach, or cheese.

After catching our breath, we ventured up one of the main streets in town and were rewarded with some beautiful views of the surrounding city and sea. We found a historic Turkish bathhouse and decided that we would return Sunday morning to experience it firsthand.

We headed up to a rooftop bar and relaxed with a beer as we watched the sunset and the city lights come to life.

We had found a restaurant earlier in the day that offered belly dancers as entertainment during dinner. The owner had a great personality and promised there would be a male belly dancer as well for equality purposes, and that Shea would really like it. So, we decided to return and see what this was all about. The restaurant was small with only about 7 tables and we were rewarded for our return with a table by the cozy fireplace and a wonderful 3 course meal with wine. At about 9:45 the female belly dancer came out and performed her show. It was fun, but then as she finished the owner comes bouncing in and starts belly dancing. He is blowing the female belly dancer out of the water and has the whole restaurant clapping and laughing hysterically. He pulls Shea and several other women up and proceeds to put on a belly dancing clinic. Everyone was having a blast. Come to find out after the performance, this restaurant owner was actually a professional bellydancing instructor and taught for years all over the world in places like Australia and Germany. It topped off the night, and Shea's laughter as she was belly dancing in the middle of this restaurant are awesome memories. We got back to our hotel room about midnight and racked out hard after a full day.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early again and headed over to the Turkish bathhouse. We were shown to our separate sauna areas. This bathhouse has been in existence since 1581, and you are directed to lie on heated marble platforms that are suppose to purify your system and relax you. There are warm and cool water basins where you splash water all over yourself when you get to hot. Then if you want, you can be given a bath by an attendant who massages you as you lay on the heated stone. Shea and I went with the self service sauna, as hey, this was our first experience and we didn't know how friendly these Turks would get. After you are done relaxing in the sauna, you are able to take showers and dress followed by an offer of tea or water to rehydrate. We both really enjoyed it and felt really relaxed after our time there.

From there we headed down to jump on a hop-on hop-off city bus to get outside of the downtown area. We were able to see the Sirkeci train station, which was the last stop of the Orient Express, the Galata tower, which protected the ancient port of Istanbul, and a bunch of other large mosques. We got off at the Dolmabahce palace and took a ferry boat across to the Asian side of Istanbul. We ended up in an area call Kadikoy and experienced our first visit to Asia! We wandered around some of the open air markets and the shopping district before stopping for some lunch. After several hours, we then got back on the boat and headed back to Europe and our bus. We then saw Taksim square and its shops and famed restaurants. We were able to take in some wonderful views of the "Golden Horn". The golden horn is the natural harbor that is formed by Istanbul and is named for the golden hue the setting sun makes on the water there. We then saw the Golden gate, which is the main entrance gate to the ancient walls of Constantinople, or what is present day Istanbul.

We hopped off again and headed to see the ancient Roman Aqueduct before jumping back in a taxi and heading back to the airport for our 8pm flight.

It was a crazy fast trip, but we had an amazing time there. The people were incredibly friendly, and the food and atmosphere were wonderful. We would definitely go again and spend more time there!

Köln (Cologne) Karnival

Lent is upon us, so it is time to get all our partying out of our systems. In Germany, Cologne is to Karnival what New Orleans is to Mardi Gras, so of course we have to go check it out firsthand.

We took a fast train the little over 2 hours to Cologne. As soon as you disembark the train at the main train station, you find yourself standing in the shadow of Cologne cathedral, which is one of the largest in the world. Outside people are dressed up in all sorts of elaborate and colorful costumes. If you recall, Shea and I went to Mainz last year for Karnival, so we were able to re-use our costumes. Hello, Poncho Villa and Old blue-haired Lady...good to dust you off again.

We followed the bands of musicians through the streets and stopped in any number of bars where the local beer is flowing. Heck, if the bar was too crowded to get inside you just party right there in the street.

Cologne is known for its Kölsch beer, which is very strong and served in small glasses. We definitely helped ourselves to our fair share. We checked out several different bars and had a great time dancing, singing, and meeting people from all over the world who came to Cologne to celebrate.

After partying ourselves in to the late night hours, we headed to our hotel and hit the sack. We woke up Sunday feeling really rough...you could call it a Köln Karnival Kölsch Kater ("Kater" is German for hangover). We had a little lunch and then caught our train back home.

Next year, we'll meet you all there!

My Big Fat Greek Vacation

Frankfurt is cold...cold and snowy. The snow is fun for a while, but eventually it's just yuck.

So, what better idea than flying on down to Athens, Greece, to soak up some sun and check out some ancient history.

After a nice long flight delay in Frankfurt due to the aforementioned wintry precipitation, we arrived in Athens a little before midnight on Friday night January 29th. We found the right bus and headed into the heart of the city where our hotel was located. From the main bus terminal, we then walked the short distance to our hotel, woke the night desk-man, and checked in. We debated heading back out, but decided to settle-in instead and rest up for the weekend.

On Saturday, we woke up to sunshine, bright blue skies, and warm weather. Ahhhh, we were definitely ready to welcome some sun-kissed cheeks.

We headed first thing to a pastry shop just across the street for some breakfast. Shea ordered a Greek coffee, which neither of us had ever tried. The coffee is definitely more of an acquired taste, but the shot of rose liqueur and square of candy that are served accompanying the coffee more than made up for stout java.

From there we walked to the Greek Parliament building to pay some respect to the founders of democratic government. As we approached the front of the building we noticed a large crowd of people gathered to watch the changing of the guard at the Greek tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an interesting display with lots of high leg kick marching and timing - and men in skirts. We toured around the outside of the Parliament to the National Gardens. There was beautiful foliage and rows of orange trees. We noticed that there seemed to be enormous amounts of fallen oranges that were going to waste and we wondered why no one was putting them to use? We selected two from a tree and put them in our backpack for a later snack. We then finished touring the gardens with its small zoo and headed back into the heart of the city to the ancient market area.

At the market area, you find yourself at the foot of the plateau with the Acropolis sitting atop. The Acropolis and Parthenon dominate the city, and you are easily able to see why it has been heralded for thousands of years.

We were going to head on up to the top, but when we went to enter the historical park, the ticket office told us if we came on Sunday, the park was free...see you tomorrow Acropolis.

Instead, we went and visited an ancient amphitheater and then toured the Acropolis museum, which houses artifacts from the site. We decided to enjoy our oranges and after one bite the burning from the acidic slice was enough to show us why nobody was eating these things. After several hours on our feet we had a late lunch and enjoyed meeting and talking with a nice older couple on a world tour from Norway. For dessert, I had my first taste of baklava...I loved it and was determined to have it at every meal for the rest of our time there.

After our late lunch, we toured around the more modern shops of Athens and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We followed our guidebooks suggestion and headed to a traditional Greek restaurant for dinner. It was wonderful with fresh vegetable, salads, and seafood (and of course baklava). We tried some of the local wine and tried a digestive of the world-renowned ouzo (whoa - and we thought the Greek coffee was stout.) After dinner we toured around the historical roman agora (roman plaza) and then headed into a club to enjoy a nightcap before heading to bed.

On Sunday, we woke up to the sound of church bells from the Greek Orthodox Church across the street. We grabbed some breakfast, which included some Greek yogurt for Shea. Shea really enjoyed it with the wonderfully sweet honey. From breakfast, we headed up to the Acropolis and walked around the ancient site taking pictures of the modern city laid out before us. We walked around the Parthenon and were amazed at the size and age of the structure. We toured the ancient park and walked through the remains of the ancient legislative buildings the Greeks used to develop democracy.

We then decided to head over to the port for lunch. We thought we might be lucky and get to stroll along a beach, but to our misfortune, the port of Athens is a very busy dock and not much of a spot for romantic strolls. We were able though to enjoy a great lunch of gyros, so much so that I had two. Opa!!! (Greek for hooray)!!!

We then took the subway over to the site of the 2004 summer Olympics. The site had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains, and we enjoyed seeing the more suburban lifestyle of the Athenians. We headed back into the city to watch the sunset from our rooftop balcony and enjoyed a late dinner.

We really enjoyed our short trip to Athens - the city, the people, and the food were all warm and friendly. We were able to get a slight rose on our cheeks just as we had hoped. During the trip, Shea and I decided that I must look Greek, because at least a half dozen times people speaking Greek politely asked me questions that all I could do was smile back and reply, "sorry, but that's Greek to me."

New Years- Italian Style

Happy New Year! Buon Anno!

Welcome to 2010! Benvenuti al 2010!

For New Years we decided to head south to bring in the new year in a more romantic locale. How about Venice? Perfect.

So, we had an early morning flight from Frankfurt on December 31st to Milan, Italy. In Milan, we jumped on a train and took the 3 hour train ride along the southern Alps to Venice. We weren't the only ones to have this idea, as the train to Venice was packed, but luckily I had booked us a room for two nights in Venice and then one night in Milan.

As we got off of the train in Venice and made our way to the boat to head to our hotel, Shea and I quickly noticed that many people were walking around in waders...weird fashion statement we thought, but hey their Italians, they know fashion, right? We made our way to our bed and breakfast, which was only a two minute walk from the famous Piazza San Marco. As we checked in, excited about the concert in the Piazza that night and being in such a wonderful location, our hotel owner told us we timed our trip perfectly for the flood that was coming in that night at 11:00 with high tide.

Oh man, time for Shea and I to jump on the Italian-wader-fashion bandwagon!

So, we headed out into the city and did a bit of sightseeing around Piazza San Marco. We found out that the concert was still to take place, so we went to invest in a few items...1) some bottles of wine 2) two sets of waders.

Problem was that waders were running at a premium, as every tourist in town was in the market for them, so we went with the heavy grade trash bag glued into a plastic sandal waterproofing-system instead.

We were impressed with the city. Even though it was cold and rainy (and ready to flood) the city had a certain romantic charm that was unlike anywhere else we had been. The canals, gondolas, beautiful churches, gelatto, and wine create a wonderfully romantic environment to bring in 2010.

After some sightseeing, we headed back to the hotel room to dry out before heading back out at 10:30 to celebrate with everyone.
At 10:30, we headed over to Piazza San Marco and found a place to put on our waders. We then ventured out to the one of the higher points in the Piazza and danced our wet way into the new year with several thousand of our new closest friends.

The next morning after properly drying out our shoes (the heavy weight trashbag waterproofing-system finally gave out to the floodwaters and dancing near the end) we enjoyed some breakfast and waited for the tide to roll out about 11:30am. Once it did we were high and dry for the rest of the day. We toured the inside of St. Marco's, visited Doge's Palace, Gallerie del Accademia, St. Maria Del Salute, and Campo St. Stefano. We loved just slowly wandering through the sidewalks and taking in the canals and beautiful scenery. We had a nice long meal that night that included several courses and acted as a nice end to the first day of the new year.

The next morning we woke up and packed our bags to head to Milan. We were treated to a nice tour of the city via our boat ride through the Grande Canal to the train station to catch our 12:50 train to Milan.

In Milan, we checked into the hotel and then headed back downtown to the famous Duomo Cathedral. Our timing couldn't have been better as we arrived just as the sun was going down, and we were able to take in the beautiful cathedral in the darkening blue twilight. The stained glass windows shown brightly and gave the cathedral life (see photo above). We walked inside and noticed it was 5:28, and that 5:30 Mass was about to get underway. We acted liked we belonged and took some seats in the pews to take in mass in the 4th largest cathedral in the world. After Mass, we walked through some of the famous shopping areas adjacent to the Cathedral. We found a restaurant to eat in and had some good pizza and pasta.

On, Sunday we checked out and deposited our bags at the train station, where we would pick up our bus to the airport. We headed back to the center of the city and toured through the Duomo in the light. We then headed over and toured the Castello Sforzesco (Castle Sforzeco) and happened upon a winter festival, complete with bunny hills for skiing. We left the castle and walked down the main shopping street to the famous La Scala Opera house and Galleria Emanuele II. Unfortunately, the museum housing Leonardo's "the Last Supper" was closed the entire month of January, so we were unable to see it, but we were able to head over to the mecca of shopping in the Via Montenapoleone fashion district. Shea window shopped through all the major fashion designers of the world, and I felt happy to not have to keep up with these Jones's. We found a local market and before heading back to the train station, we enjoyed a Cannoli and our last few minutes of Italy. All in all, it made for a wonderfully memorable New Year's celebration...flooding and all.

Israel

What better place to celebrate Christmas than the place it began, right? So, after some discussions with some German friends who went to Israel last summer, we decided to make our own trip to the holy land during Christmas week 2009. It took several weeks to research flights, hotels, and tours, but we were able to put together a whirlwind trip that would allow us to see a number of sites in a 5-day trip.

We flew into Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesday, December 22nd. We decided that Jerusalem would be our main point of interest and the hub from where we would embark on all our trips, so we took a shared taxi to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Jerusalem is only about an hour by car from Tel Aviv, but in reality you are driving 2000 years into the past, leaving a vibrant modern city in Tel Aviv with skyscrapers and modern conveniences and arriving in a city divided along religious and cultural lines that has been disputed and fought over for thousands of years. Jerusalem sits on the dividing line between Jewish controlled Israel and the Palestinian territory, and the city is divided accordingly with western Jerusalem occupied by Jews and eastern Jerusalem occupied by Palestinians. The old walled city of Jerusalem is divided into fourths with the sections known as the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters - each of which tending to house holy sites important to the differing religions.

So, we arrived at our hotel, which was located in eastern Jerusalem and were greeted by the owner of the hotel with delicious pea soup and tea with fresh mint leaves. A nice warm welcoming. We arrived around 9 at night and were a bit hungry still, so he ordered us a pizza, while we settled in and then we came back downstairs to eat and meet some of the fellow hotel guests. There were people from all over staying there and we chatted with some graduate students from the US who were currently studying in Egypt. After eating most of our pizza we headed back up to our room and headed to bed, because we had an early tour the next morning.

On Wednesday, December 23rd, we meet our tour at 7:00am outside Jaffa Gate, which is one of only 7 entrances to the old city of Jerusalem. From there we loaded onto a shuttle bus that would drive us to sites in the northern territories of Israel in "the Galilee". Along the 2-hour bus ride to Nazareth we watched the landscape change drastically, from the baron moon-like-scape of the Judean Mountains and Dead Sea, to sparse grasslands, and finally lush valleys and prairie near the Sea of Galilee and River Jordan.

Our first stop was Nazareth, which was the home of Mary and Joseph before the birth of Jesus. There we toured the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is a modern Catholic church built over the remains of a Byzantine church and a Crusader church. The church incorporates the cave in which the Virgin Mary received the news of Jesus from the angel Gabriel. The cave that is enshrined inside the basilica was identified no later than the 4th century as the place of the Annunciation, and has been a destination for Christian pilgrims ever since. The basilica centers on the cave of the Annunciation and is topped with a 55-meter dome that is shaped like the Madonna lily.

After touring the basilica our next stop was the town of Cana on the outskirt of Nazareth. Cana is known as the location of the first miracle performed by Jesus when he turned water into wine at a wedding. There we toured the Catholic Wedding Church of Cana, which is a tribute to that event. Shea and I, never ones to miss an opportunity, renewed our wedding vows in this small quaint chapel.

From there we drove through the town of Tiberias with amazing views of the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding hills and grasslands, stopping in Tabgha, which is the traditional site of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Located here is the modern Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, but with its mosaic floor depicting two fish and basket of bread, which dates back to Byzantine times. It's a great place to stop and think about how much you are blessed.

From Tabgha, we drove along the Sea of Galilee to the Kfar Nahum ("Capernaum") and the House of Peter. Capernaum was a settlement on the shore of the Sea of Galilee that was the home of the apostles Peter, Andrew, James, and John. According to Luke, Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and the remains of a synagogue from that period has been found and excavated. Additionally, the ruins of the ancient city of Capernaum have been uncovered and a church to St. Peter has been constructed over a small area of the ruins. Shea and I toured the church, walked around the ruins, and through the synagogue. From there we went down to the beach at Capernaum and dipped our hands in.

After Capernaum, we drove alongside the Sea of Galilee to the River Jordan. There we stopped at Yardenit, which is the site of the baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist. There were groups there from all over the world that were dressed in white robes and being baptized. It was remarkable to watch. Shea and I both sprinkled the water on our heads and then renewed our baptismal rights. I celebrated with a beer. Nothing better than a baptism and a cold beer.

We loaded back onto the bus and headed back to Jerusalem. We arrived back close to 6:00pm, and Shea and I strolled into west Jerusalem and found an outdoor restaurant on the main walking strip. We people watched and enjoyed some kosher kebab and our eighth helping of hummus...oh, and another beer.

After dinner we walked into Old Jerusalem and toured the ancient streets lined with merchants and vendors. We got lost for a bit in the maze of alleyways and finally made our way out through Damascus Gate. We walked back to our hotel and crashed after a full day.

On Thursday, Christmas Eve, we slept in a bit in preparations for a full day in front of us. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes, sesame cakes, eggs, hummus, olives, tuna, and cheeses and then headed to Jaffa Gate outside Old Jerusalem to meet our walking tour of Old Jerusalem. Our tour guide, Noam, was amazing. She had an incredible knowledge of history and religions, and led our group on a 5-hour walking tour of Old Jerusalem. She first took us to Mt. Zion through the Zion Gate and there we visited the room of the Last Supper. We spent some time there and then we went down to the Western "Wailing" wall. We then got in line to go up and visit the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, as the Muslims only allow non-Muslims up to the level of the Dome of the Rock and Mosque for 1 hour per day. She took our group up to visit one of the holiest spots for the Muslim religion and then explained why the Dome of the Rock has so much significance for both Jews and Muslims. First, the Dome of the Rock sits on the spot where the holiest of all Jewish synagogues once stood...the Temple Mount that housed the "Holiest of Holies". That is why they pray at the Western Wall, as it is the closest they can now get to that spot that once stood. As for Muslims, the Dome of the Rock houses the place where Mohammed ascended to heaven. From here we had a beautiful view of Old Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. After our hour there, she led us out to an area of the Western Wall that is hidden and she gave us a history lesson on the wall's significance.

From there, she took us on a tour of the Via Dolorosa, which is the path Jesus carried his cross to the Hill of Golgothe, pointing out the stations of the cross as we went. Shea put her hand in an imprint supposedly left by Jesus as he caught his balance. The Via Dolorosa ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She took us inside and up the stairs to the top of the hill of Golgothe (or Calvary) to the place where Jesus was crucified. From there we were shown were Jesus was buried and the stone of the anointing where Joseph of Arimathea prepared his body for burial. The tour took us back to Jaffa Gate and Shea and I had lots of things to go back and inspect closer on Christmas Day, but for now we had to catch a bus to Bethlehem!

When Shea and I decided to go to Israel for Christmas, we knew we wanted to be in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve. We had done some research and were put into a lottery to receive tickets to Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem. We were fortunate enough to receive tickets and had picked them up just before our tour of Jerusalem started. We took a public bus to Bethlehem, which is in Palestine and populated by Arab Christians. The bus dropped us off about a 10 minutes walk from the center of town and the church. The city had a carnival type atmosphere with live music and lights, and thousands of thousands of people celebrating.

We had met another couple from the US on the bus ride over and the four of us went to grab some dinner before heading back to stand in the mass of people waiting to get into the church. As we were standing outside, we also happened to bump into the American students we had meet at our hotel two nights before. So, we now had a small group of us and we chatted and made friends as we waited for the church to open and the security screenings to begin. We stood in line from about 8:30 until 11:15, when we finally made it inside the church. It was standing room only, and the church was packed. Television crews broadcast the Mass around the world as the Bishop said mass in Latin, and delivered his homily in at least 8 different languages. We left Mass after it ended at about 1:45 and caught a taxi back to the Palestinian/Israeli checkpoint. From there, we took our bus back into the city and made it home to our hotel room about 2:45 in the morning.

On Friday, Christmas Day, we reserved the day for touring Jerusalem on our own. We walked over to the Mount of Olives and toured the Jewish cemetery there, which houses over 150,000 burial sites. Jewish tradition holds that this is the place where God will return to collect his people. Also on the Mount of Olives, we toured the burial site of Mary, the garden of Gethsemane, and the Church of All Nations. We walked back into Old Jerusalem through Lions Gate and then walked the entire Via Dolorosa and the Stations of the Cross. We went back into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and spent some time inspecting what we had only seen on Thursday. We waited in line and touched the top of Calvary, where a Greek Orthodox altar protects the site of the crucifixion. We then waited in line and toured the inside of Jesus's tomb. We watched as a Franciscan Mass processed through the church and touched the stone of anointing. Pretty amazing to say the least.

From there we headed over to the Wailing Wall, as Jews begin their sabbath on Fridays at sundown. Shea and I cleared the security lines and watched as masses of Jewish people celebrated and prayed outside their holy site. Men and women have separate areas of the wall to pray too, so Shea and I wrote down our prayers and headed off in separate directions to cram our prayers into the wall. I grabbed a paper yarmulke and did my best to fit in as I squeezed into a spot between prayers to deliver my prayer. Shea and I met back up and watched the large throngs of people celebrate as the sun went down and pray intensely in Hebrew. It certainly was a sight to behold. From there we went into the market and bought a manger scene that Shea had her eye on...she successfully negotiated the guy down and after years of saying she wanted one, she finally had one to call her own. As an alternative to the usual Christmas ham, Shea and I went crazy and decided we were really in the mood for some sushi. So, we found a nice restaurant in New Jerusalem and enjoyed a nice Christmas meal together...complete with raw fish.

On Saturday, December 26th, we had another 7am tour. This time we were headed south from Jerusalem. Our first stop was the Qumran caves. These caves were the location where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, which altered the study of the Old Testament. They also unearthed ancient communal towns, which demonstrated how tribes survived and practiced religion thousands of years ago. After Qumran, we headed to Masada, which was a fortress built by the Roman emperor Herod on a plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod built the fortress between 37 and 31 BC and furnished it as a refuge for himself, filled with food, water, palaces, barracks, and an armory. We took a cable car to the top and enjoyed the views and amazing Roman architecture...bathhouses included. We took the "snake path" back down which took a sweaty 35 minutes to complete. Nothing better after a sweaty walk then going swimming right? Well, that is exactly what we did next...but this time it was in the Dead Sea. The tour went to a beach located on the Dead Sea, and we were able to go swimming and treat ourselves to a "do-it-yourself" mud treatment. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth (on dry land ) at -420 meters below sea level, and the salt content and chemical make up of the environment make it the world's original health spa. People use the salt and minerals from the sea to create cosmetics and herbal health treatments. Shea and I floated in the super-salty water and felt like little kids trying to figure out our buoyancy. We caked each other in mud and took pictures for you all to see (and make fun of).

We showered off and headed next to see the ancient city of Jericho. Jericho is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world dating back to 9000BC. We were able to see the tree of Zaccharus and the Mount of Temptation there. We then headed back to Jerusalem, where we stopped on top of the Mount of Olives again for a view of Jerusalem at night. The lights of the city were beautiful.

We then went back to our hotel and collected our belongings. We ordered up a shared taxi and took it to Tel Aviv along with our American friends from our hotel.

Shea and I stayed in a hotel just 5 blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, so we checked in, showered off again, and changed clothes and went for a moonlight walk on the beach. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and a beer and then walked around the city until about midnight. We hit the sack for our 5 am wake up call on Sunday to make it for our early morning flight back to Frankfurt.

We had a wonderful trip in Israel and really felt very fortunate to see everything we did. We crammed in as much sightseeing as possible and truly feel blessed to have been there.

Oslo

First and foremost we would like to thank the Brusevold family for hosting us on our recent trip to Oslo over Thanksgiving weekend. Jan and I went to UT together, and at the Scharnell wedding this last summer, he was kind enough to invite us to come visit him and his family for the holiday.

We flew into a small airport about an hour and half south of Oslo right along the coast. As we came in for the landing we were rewarded with some beautiful views of the famous Norwegian fjords and their rocky coastline. We took a bus to the central station in Oslo and met Jan and Hope there. They gave us a brief tour of the city as we walked to the ferry to catch our ride to Jan's parents' home for dinner. We boarded the ferry and chatted away during the 20 minute commute over the fjord to the area where they lived. Jan's mom picked us up and ushered us home to a meal she had prepared for us. Not just any meal mind you, but a Norwegian specialty...moose. It was delicious, and we had a wonderful dinner sharing time with everyone.

On Saturday, we woke up and Jan and Hope took us to Oslo to tour the city. Oslo was filled with excitement due to the visit from Barack in two weeks' time to collect his peace prize. We saw city hall where the ceremony takes place (pictured above). We toured the Nobel peace prize museum, which was very interesting and had a wonderful exhibit on the transition from the time of MLK to the time of Barack. Each of us won a Nobel peace prize while we were there, only ours were better than Barack's because they were filled with chocolate.

We saw the royal palace and the impressive new opera house. We saw Norway's parliament building and the University of Oslo. Then we took a boat cruise around the harbor, which dropped us off at different points of interest. We toured the viking ship museum, the Con Tiki museum, and the Fram museum (which is the first ship used to explore the poles in 1892). We went at sunset to the Vigeland sculpture park with its numerous nude statues showing different stages in the circle of life. From there we went to eat a nice dinner and then headed back to the Brusevolds to try to take in the OSU/OU game for Shea. Unfortunately, we didn't get the game, but luckily it wasn't a bad game to miss.

On Sunday morning we were invited to a wonderful breakfast at Jan's cousin's house. She lives in an apartment near the Brusevolds so we were able to walk through the neighborhood and get a good sense of the area to take some splendid pics of the harbor. From there Jan and Hope went with us back into the city where we toured the Christmas market, visited the Norway World War II museum located in the Akershus Castle, and then did a few minutes of shopping. Shea and I then jumped on a bus back to the airport to catch our plane to Frankfurt.

We had a wonderful visit with the Brusevolds and really appreciated their hospitality over the holiday weekend. It reminded us of home, and we are thankful to have such great friends.