Florence

Florence is Stephen's favorite city in Italy. It is so full of culture, art, history. We saw the typical tourist things....Michaelangelo's David, The Uffizi Gallery (full of famous paintings/sculptures), the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge over the Arno River). In the evening we all went our own ways, some of us ran across an orchestra/choir singing along the riverbank, some of us boarded a boat for a jazz concert, some of us went to the Ponte Vecchio and heard singing street performers, and we all enjoyed the beautiful sunset over this gorgeous city.

Boy is it hot in Italy - 110 degrees today. We spent the day at the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. I think Jason really enjoyed the Forum, he took at least 100 pictures. We were so hot by 2:00 pm, that we headed for the Trevi Fountain. We rounded the corner and the fountain was glistening as the water sparkled over the white marble statuary. What a welcome sight. We spent over an hour enjoying the water, the people and of course ..... gelato!

The Kids have arrived

It is our dream come true to have our children in Italy with us. They started arriving around 8:30 a.m. As soon as everyone had arrived (around noon), we took off to see the Vatican, Navonna Square and the Pantheon. Of course gelato ice cream was a must. Dad bought the first gelato for everyone! It was very hot today, they say it got up to 98 degrees. Rome is still my favorite city in all the world. The little side streets (Trattoria's) are something to behold. Flower boxes, wrought iron gates, plants, little trees, side walk cafe's, street violinists and cobblestone walkways cannot be beat in Rome. There is nothing like it in the world.

Germany continued

Castles are just everywhere you look in the Black Forest regions of Germany. We did a lot of castle tripping this week as we went on a treasure hunt for them! Steve would drive and Jayna would read the map suggesting every 10 minutes that we stop so she could get a picture of one or two within sight!

The Medieval town of Rothenuburg Ob Der Tauber was the most complete, gorgous 14th century walled city you have ever seen. German Christmas stores were everywhere. Walking the old city wall was commonplace as people used the walls to get from one section of the town to the other. Stephen ran into a gentleman who had lived in Rothenburg all his life and he told Steve the "must sees" that are behind the scenes. Thinking that Rothenburg was the ultimate medieval city and we would find none others that could compare, we reluctantly wandered 20 minutes down the highway to a city called Dinklesbuhl that was almost "too perfect". Each building had a fresh coat of paint on it - in pink, yellow, blue, green - all different colors with gilded rooflines and cobblestone streets all tucked inside a medieval wall.

More Germany

One of the highlights of our Germany experience was finding the little village that Stephen's family heritage had its beginnings - Potsbach, outside of Kaiserslautern. We certainly could understand why the Beutler's settled in Lancaster Pennsylvania, the two areas looked very similar. We found the Beutler name in the city records and were very surprised that John Beutler (1732) fathered a child when he was over 70 years of age named Peter, which is the Beutler that migrated to America.

Germany

Last week we thought that Switzerland was our favorite memory, this week we would say that Germany was our favorite.... Just can't make up our mind as to what is the most impressive...castles? Medieval cities? the Alps? Hummmm.... hard decision. Check out this picture of Heidelburg - can you see the castle in the background.

We saw so many castles, I won't name them all for you, but here is another castle that was absolutely stunning - Ludwig's Castle, which is the castle that Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's castle after. I would say that this castle was indeed a "fairy tale" castle.

Another fabulous castle is the Hohenschwangau castle on the Austrian border in the Swiss Alps. This castle was decorated from the "dark ages" with knights in shining armor -- you could almost see the "damsels in distress".

We took a Rhine River Cruise and saw about 25 castles along the river bank. Some of these castles are still lived in today.

Switzerland

Switzerland was absolutely breathtaking. The scenery, the cities, the friendliness of the people has been very delightful. Our favorite memory was the trip to the Jungfrau mountain - to the top of Europe!

This is a picture of the Jungfrau mountain that took us 2 hours to get to the top. the ride there was incredible. cold, but incredible.

Huemoz Switzerland is where Stephen studied philosophy during his graduate studies under the great philosopher Frances Schaefer. The school is called L'Abri. Dr. Oz Guinness and Dr. Rokmacher (from the Netherlands Dept. of National Art) were also professors at that time.

We arrived at the around 10:00 a.m. at the chalets (see picture) that are used for the study of philosophy of religion in the little Alpine village. Lectures are still being offered by resident teachers and every Wednesday a lecture was given by a guest philosopher/theologian. There were many tapes of various philosophy scholars available for independent study as well. It is a wonderful place for thought, theological reflection, and biblical study. After this experience however, Jayna decided to leave the philosophy and theology to Steve, she would concentrate on her grandchildren and gardening!