A Child's Gift

Dear Adi, 

You gave me a gift tonight. A little plastic dolphin whom we named Pebbles. But tonight you and your brothers gave me so much more. You gave me perspective. Sure I may be searching for the man I will someday marry, my other half; your future Uncle. But tonight I realized this is all for the experience. Life is one huge experience, and someday I'll get to help my kids live out their dream experiences. They are it. They are the reason I am looking for a man who will be a good father to them. Yes, his first duty will be as my husband, but our shared duty will be to our children. They are the reason we'll fall in love and bring them into this world. They are why we're trying to find the best way to go about our own experiences. So we can someday teach them. Thank you Adi for reminding me who my real goals are. I can't wait for the day when my children meet you. I'm proud you will be their older cousin.

Love, Aunt Melinda 

London

Me, Maddie, and Millie by Tower Bridge

Last Thursday we took the chunnel from Paris to London. We stayed in one hotel for one night, then moved to the one we are in now. We have been to the British Museum, the Wallace collection, National Gallery, Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Stourhead.

Paris

We spent a whole day traveling from Munich to Paris, we were in the bus from 7:30 am to 8:45 pm, with four stops, one every 2 1/2 hours. We didn't go anywhere once we got here, just went to bed. The next morning we met early and went to just walk around Paris to get our bearings. We took the tram, and metro into the heart of Paris and walked to Notre Dame (and went inside), by San Michelle, and through the Louvre complex.

Notre Dame

Munich

We got to Munich late and didn't go out onto the town that night. The hotel in Munich only had free wifi in the lobby of the hotel. We were in Munich for three full days, a whole day longer than Vienna! The first day we went to the Alte Pinakotek and Neue Pinakotek. (The Old and New Painting Galleries) They were some of the longest museum visits we've seen so far, but we saw some amazing paintings. Here are a couple:

Austria

We spent most of today on the bus, driving to Vienna, Austria! We left the hotel around 9 am, boarded the bus about 10 am , and got to Vienna around 7 pm...so it was a long day. They said it would be like 4 hours...lies! It was like 8! It's supposed to be like 8 from Munich to Paris in a week....but if it goes anything like the last bus ride, it'll be 12! haha Once we got out of Venice and surrounding cities, we were in the middle of the Alps - and it was AMAZING!

I couldn't get enough pictures of it. The mountains are beautiful and a welcome sight to my Utahan heart! :D They were like Utah mountains, but just taller and a TON greener, and they went for miles and miles. There were also a lot of cute, picturesque little Austrian towns in the middle of the Alps. Ah, Austria is BEAUTIFUL!

Venice

After our adventures in Florence, we headed out on a bus to Venice. On the way we stopped in a little town called Padova. We went into the Scrovegni Chapel to see Giotto's frescoes there. (Tasha - Giotto's Entombment was here). These frescoes are nothing like the ones I say on the slides in class - they are WAY better! I don't even have the words to describe them. They were breath-taking and I wanted to just lie down on the floor and stair up at them all day. They were way better in person. AH! I love this! We also couldn't take any pictures, so you will just have to Google Giotto to see them.
    When we got here we had to take what is called a "people mover" which takes you over the water to the other island. (It's really called that - my ticket even says People Mover on it.) And then heft our luggage over a couple bridges and walk quite a ways to get to our hotels, since the buses couldn't drive on the normal streets.

Florence

On our first full day in Florence we went to the Uffizi Gallery and a couple other little museums. We went to the Duomo - the main church in Florence. We climbed to the top of the bell tower (414 steps to the top) and looked out over the red roofs of Florence. Then it started to rain, so we headed town. While we were on our way down, and I was on the level with the bells on it, the bells started chiming. It was really loud, and scared me half to death, but it was awesome to be there while they were ringing. It was like being in Notre Dame and hanging out with Quasimodo. My feet still hurt after everyday, and every  morning...but every painful step is worth it! Florence hasn't been my favorite so far, but it's great at the same time.

Civita & Orvieto

On our bus ride to Florence, we made a couple fun stops. We made our first stop in the middle of the beautiful Tuscan countryside in a little town called Civita (said: Cha-vee-tah).

It is a little town with the current population of 9. It used to be a booming town, but it quickly became overcrowded, people moved to another town nearby and the town started to decay. Civita is up on a mountain with a large (and steep) road/bridge leading up to it. It is a cute, picturesque little town.

Roma!

Here's the troop. 30 girls. 1 guy. 

Yesterday we packed, weighed our bags, and left for the airport.  It was a 1.45 hour flight from Athens to Rome (which I already knew because my second layover on the way to Athens, was in Rome...been there done that!) The only bad thing about the flight was that my ear wouldn't pop for the next 2-3 hours, it was painful! That had never happened to me before, and I hope it doesn't happen again.

Navlion, Epidarus, Mycenae, and Corinth!

Today was spent almost entirely outside of Athens. We went to Navlion, a little sea-side town with a large fortress on a hill above the town. 900 stone steps lead to the top of it. And yes, I climbed them...would I say that I'm out of shape? No, but I do lie sometimes.