England: London: Change of Plans

We just made it to London today. We were going to book our Round the World ticket today but at the British Airways counter the women asked us if we were sure we wanted to go to Turkey given all the news. We hadn't heard anything because we have been traveling for days. She told us that every single place we were planning to sight see there was bombed in Turkey! Istambul, Anatalya, Ismir & Marmaris and that it was the Western Tourists that were targeted. We were taken back by the whole thing and are changing our plans because they are likely going to try to continue attacking westerners.

This means that we are frantically having to e-mail our contacts in Kenya, Mozambique and Turkey and ask to change dates or cancel. We are in a holding pattern till we here back from them.

As for us we are wiped out and have been sleeping very little. Coralee has been sick and had a headache for about a week. She even lost her voice the last 3 days. It's starting to catch up with me too and I'm feeling feeverish as of this evening. I thnk we need rest but we have so much to do and only a short time to do it. Please keep us in your prayers.

Greece: Athens & Corinth

We tried to get on a train to Athens two days ago but they were all booked. They said that the second train that came an hour later would allow us to go on with our Eurail pass and we didn't have to book a seat reservation. So we took the risk and went for it. Although there were dozens of people standing and sitting in the isles in 2nd class, we had seats the whole way because all Eurail passes from the US are 1st Class!

When we got to Athens we mostly rested but we ended up staying up way too late watching a show on CNN "In the Footsteps of Bin Ladin." It was interesting and made us so disturbed that we prayed for an hour about the whole Muslim situation and how they want to Kill for God, sadly they are serving Satan of course!


The next day we toured the major sites of Athens. The Agora (Marketplace) was where Paul first preached in Athens after being rushed when his life was in danger when the angry mob of Jews in Berea. He started talking about Jesus in the Agora and eventually was brought before the Mars Hill Counsel of Philosophers. From there he gave his most intellectual sermon starting with the proclamation that he was going to tell them about the "Unknown God" that they had a monument made for. He says many famous verses in that speach: "...He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.'... "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." Acts 17:26-30


It was great being able to tour these places and think about Paul having argued with them about the Gospel and Christ's resurrection! We also toured the most famous site the Acropolis (UpperCity) and the Parthenon (Temple to Athena).


We finally ate at a wonderful Greek resturant. They brought out 18 different dishes and we got to pick 5 that we liked with coke & dessert. It was one of the funnest meals we have eaten and the only nice meal since Prague so we really enjoyed it.

Coralee has been feeling a little sick to her stomach lately so we tried to get home before dark and rested vowing that we wouldn't stay up late again watching TV. We did of course but we just decided to wake up at 8 am instead of 6 am.


Today we went to Corinth. We toured the sites and you can still see the remains of the Platform that Paul would have spoken to the crowds in the Agora. It's about as amazing as Philipi. We missed the bus by 5 minutes and were then going to miss the last train for hours so we decided to take a Taxi. It was a Mercedes and they only charged about $2.50 more than the bus would have and we made the train and were home by 3:30 pm. We both decided we should nap and go out again to Mars Hill tonight to see the view of the city. Well I'm supposed to be napping right now but on my way to find a Gyro I thought I'd update the blog. Then I realized that I gave the camera to Coralee so I can't upload any photos yet. I'll try to do it soon since they are pretty cool ones.

Greece: Thessalonika

Well, the day seemed to start farely well. We were up at 4:30am and at the airport at 6am for our 7:30am flight from Milan to Athens. Well at about 7am the delays started. I think our flight was delayed about 10 times before our flight finally left at 1:30pm. We got to Athens at about 6pm but our day wasn't over yet. We still had a 6hr train ride to Thessaloniki. We had a 5 star hotel booked in Thessaloniki which was the best deal of our trip and the nicest place we were going to be staying at. We weren't sure if a train would even get us there that night or if we would just lose our reservation. Well, we finally made it to Thessaloniki at 1:30am. Because we arrived so late the hotel was already booked so they upgraded us to the Delux suite. It was sooooo nice. I think it was twice as big as our old house! It had everything from fingernail files to bath robes. It was great although we were so tired we just about passed out so we didn't get to enjoy all the amenities as much as we would have liked. It was fun none the less.


Today we visited Philipi. It was a 2 hour train ride followed by a 30min bus ride to get there. It was really neat. Jason had actually told me it wasn't really that impressive considering all that we had seen in Rome but I was almost more impressed then in Rome. There were hardly any tourists and it was just so neat to be at the location where Paul founded the first church in Europe. We had a really good day over all but are pretty tired now considering that its almost midnight and we are still tired from yesterdays travels.

Italy: Cinque Terre, Pisa & Siena

We found the most beautiful place in Italy. It's a coastal area in the North West on the Mediteranian Sea. There are five small towns on the cliffs with a hiking trail that connects all the towns. The whole area is a national park and one of the towns is in may famous photos when you think of the Italian cliff towns.


Then we went to Pisa on the way to Siena. Although we had heard that there wasn't much there we were impressed. It really is cool and really is leaning alot! I did have to hold up the tower for a picture though.


Finally we came to Siena, the walled midevil city near Florence. It was bigger then we thought and we were suprised to remember that we booked a 4 star hotel! We really loved the change of pace after staying in mostly budget hotels so far.
Siena was fun, we climbed the main tower in town for some great views and went on a tour of the Tuscan Wine Country. It's very beautiful just like we imagined Italy to be in the movies.

Right now we're in Florence on our way to Milan where we are flying to Greece tomorrow. We've only got 4 hours for Florence and we spent half in the internet cafe! We're not exactly art lovers I guess...

Geneva & Nice

Well, we spent 2 days in Geneva. It was the worst hotel we have been in so far. Because our hotel room was so smokey we decided to go to the theater and see Superman Returns. It was great to see something in English.
Other then that we were able to see the Red Cross HQ and the UN. It was really neat.
We only had one day there so it was pretty fast.


We then had and uneventful trip to Nice France. Nice was much dirtier then we had expected. We were both fighting head colds so we spent the first day resting in our hotel. Coralee didn't leave the hotel room all day. It was great to get rested up. We are both feeling pretty good now. We did see the Med and it was really pretty. The water was georgeous. We also saw Monaco. It was a really neat wealthy soverign state. Well gotta go times up.

Swiss Alps

We have just spent 3 spectucalar nights in one of the most beautiful places on Earth! We are staying in Interlaken in the Swiss Alps. We are completly surrounded by mountains even at our hotel. The first day we took the gondolas up to a tiny town in the mountains and hiked about 1000 feet to another town. The views were spectacular its the Matterhorn all around us. The only bummer is that its been clowdy and the mountains disappear.

Also it rained on us so we are a little sick. Coralee and I waited too long to put on our ponchos so we got fairly soaked!

We got so soaked that Coralee had to use the hand drier to dry off so she could get warm again.

The last full day there we walked along the valley floor by the cliffs and the waterfalls. We went into one falls that is unlike anything we have ever seen. It was a falls inside the mountain winding between the cracks all the way down it was truly amazing. We did get a few videos of the power of the water and from inside the caves.

Well the internet is $20 per hour here so my time is running out. On to Geneva and then to the French Riviera.

Czech Rep.: Prague

Now were in the city that Coralee most longed to see, Prague. Everyone has said it's the most beautiful city in Europe, maybe in the World and I think that they may be right...

It really is a lovely place. Because the Nazi's took over Czechslovokia by anexing it, Prague was never really bombed like many of the other cities were.

The main sites here are the Castle (The Biggest in the World), the old bridge from the 1300s, the old city square with cool churches and a clock tower, and the Jewish quarter. You know that there is a Jewish meuseum that was begun in 1942. The Nazi's began collecting Jewish artifacts from all over the country and were preparing to open the mesuem after they has extreminated all the jews as a keepsake of their memory. We were stunned!


Well our favorite thing here has been the food. Both days we skipped lunch and had early steak dinner at the Titanik Steak House. We only paid $25 each time and ate like kings it would have been $100 at Pomona Valley Mining Company and Coralee swears that it's the best steak she has ever eaten!

Well we've loved Prague and the people have been friendly except in the stores and booths. I think that Communism must have destroyed their desire to excel at work and just have bad attitudes while working. Everyone off work is nice, friendly & helpful but look out for the workers. But overal it has been really nice here. Coralee thinks that the nicest people have been in Austria. I agree and also think the French were the second nicest!

Well we leave at 9 am for Switzerland tomorrow. Our train doesn't arrive till 11pm tomorrow so we will have quite a trek tomorrow! We bought lots of peanuts & pretzels for the trip.

Hungary: Budapest

We spent 2 nights in Budapest, Hungary. This was a former Eastern Block Country under Soviet occupation just over 15 years ago! In the above picture I (Jason) am standing in front of a Soviet Monument.



It was alot of fun seeing the sites and eating the food in town. The main attratcion is the Castle Complex across the Danube in Budda (We stayed in Pest, the city is actually two combined cities...) It's expecially beautiful at night as you can see from the photo. There wern't very many tourists either. It stopped raining too but the weather is still fairly cool probably only in the 70s during the day and in the 50s at night.

I really loved the Goulash, it's amazingly yummy! Coralee preferred the Turkish food we had there. Also because it was Coralee's Birthday weekend we went and had special ice creams.

Austria: Vienna (Coralee's Birthday)

Yesterday was Coralee's Birthday! It was alot of fun. We toured Central Vienna even though it was raining all day. We went to the Hapsburg Palaces and walked on the main shopping strip. Coralee bought a few really nice clothes for her Birthday for a good deal. I think they are the best clothes she has, she looks so lovely in them!


In the main square where the church from the 1200s is there were lots of "Statue People" covered in makeup and doing strange things to get money. The guy in the photo with Coralee made tweety sounds when he "spoke". Check out the video on Google Video if you want to hear a small clip of him.

We ended up going to dinner and had Weinersnichzel and Brautworst with Sowercrout! I love German food, lots of Vinegar!


Today the rain finally lifted and we saw the most famous site in Vienna, the summer hunting lodge of the Austrian Emperors. It's a mini-versailles style grand garden palace! Coralee loved it!


Well tonight we're going to a 10 piece Concert with a section of the Vienna Philharmonic. They are playing Mozart, Strauss & Beethoven. They will be acompanied by ballet dancers and are performing in a famous old building, the University Music Hall. Coralee is really excited as this is for her Birthday as well. I'll try to add a photo above after we go tomorrow.

PS - The hostel we're at has free internet so I was able to upload 1000 photos to Flickr and all the rest of our videos! My camera is empty again!

Austria: Vienna

We took the train to Vienna today. When we arrived it was raining and we arrived at the "Happy Hostel" fairly wet. Coralee had an umbrella and I had a Water Resistant Windbreaker so we were OK. This place is great, they have Free Unlimited Internet access so we can upload our 800 photos to Flickr & our 5 videos to Google Video!

Coralee's Birthday is tomorrow, August 4th so I'm planning to make the day special by going to a great coffee house for lunch and a fun Austrian Resturant for dinner tomorrow.

Austria: Salzburg (Pt. 2)

We've been in Salzburg for a few days now and we are truly mezmorized by everything here. It really is a magical place. Yesterday we went on the Sound of Music Tour. Coralee used to watch the movie with her mom and sisters and knew all the words when they played the songs on the bus. It was really amazing hearing how close the true story is to the movie. We went to the Lake, the abby, the church where they were married, saw the gezibo & went to the Garden & walked the parts of town where the kids ran around in the curtins...


Then after the tour we had real Austrian food with Apple Strudle with Vanilla Sauce for Dessert! It's one of the best foods we have ever eaten.

After that we watched the movie for free at a Youth Hostel at 8pm. It was really fun. Well today we walked around the town, ate more great food and struddle and just enjoyed the place.

We leave for Vienna tomorrow!

Austria: Salzbeurg

We arrived in Salzburg, Austria the place where "Sound of Music" was filmed and where Mozart was from. It is truly amazing here. The mountains are spectacular rising from all directions around the city. Our Bed & Breakfast is great too. It's on top of a hill overlooking the city and is surrounded by forest.



Last night we watched as a huge thunder storm approached. It was just like when Coralee was a kid living in the Mountains of PNG. It was a wall of rain just moving across the mountains. It was great. We stood there and just watched it for an hour. The weather here is definately much better then in Italy. Its nice and cool with a breeze.

It's a beautiful place to pray and seek God. It's neat how situations have come up where we have extra time to pray and read. We were praying the other day that we would be able to talk to some people as we travel and the next day we ended up sharing for hours with two different american couples. It was amazing to see God answer our prayers and send those people our way!

Well, thats about it for now as we haven't started sight seeing in Salzburg yet. We'll keep you all posted.