Random Ramblings and Ramifications

The Greek trip blessing all began with Brad being invited to teach for a week-long intensive course at the Greek Bible College near Athens.  Here is my man in action, along with Jeff Baldwin, our friend and Brad's interpreter for the week. 

These are all Brad's students for the week, along with the fam and Jeff Baldwin, who also happens to be the Academic Dean for the Greek Bible College.

Jeff and the students presented Brad with this bust of Aristotle for his week here...they also gave the kids replicas of marbles from ancient Athens...really cool...

I love this shot here on the campus.  Brad and Victoria are talking with Mrs. Helen, who was the unofficial Green Family Coordinator while we were there.  She loved on us, spoiled us, and kept us abreast of things all week...she was SUCH a blessing!!

The kids snagged this shot...LOTS of compact cars in Greece.  Point of interest about this type of car is that they are so small that they do not have to parallel park in such parking spaces...they can just pull in straight to the curb! 

The primary religion in Greece is Greek Orthodox, and this Greek Orthodox Church is just down the street from the Greek Bible College.  Only 0.3% of the population is evangelical. 

Inside, Greek Orthodox Churches are very ornate, as is this one, with many icons and other decor...

Our dear friend Myrto, whom we met in Cambridge, treated us to English tea one afternoon at her place, and Victoria helped her prepare the whole affair, even going to the bakery with her.  Myrto is a complete delight, and served our tea on china she brought back from Cambridge, and served us baklava and other irresistable Greek pastries.  We laughed and reminisced of our days in Cambridge...pure joy...

One of our fondest memories is eating dinner and spending the evening with the Mark Doebler family.  Mark is Dean of Students and a professor at the Greek Bible College, and does an outstanding job leading worship there as well.  His daughter Christina and Victoria are the same age and really hit it off...

While the girls were playing with the hamster...

the boys were outside having a massive Nerf gun fight.  My boys felt right at home...next to Caleb is Phillip Doebler and the blonde on the right in the white t-shirt is his brother Stephan.  They were great guys, and really made the boys feel welcome.  I learned that Greek and American 10-yr-olds and 12-yr-olds are VERY much the same...

Half of Catarina Doebler, Mark's wife, is seen in this photo...she prepared a FEAST for us, and was such a joy to get to know...did I mention she prepared FOUR different desserts for us?!?

Here's the adult half of the table, along with the two youngest Doebler boys...their family of seven seemed quite normal to us, but is not the norm at all in Greece, where the average number of children per family is 1.2...

 These slippers win for favorite new custom...while we were visiting the Doeblers, we slipped off our shoes, as is the custom, and they gave us slippers to wear around the house while we were there.  Our toes were so warm and toasty.  (Brad is in the pair that is stepping on my pair. :) )  We're thinking of incorporating this into winter life in Tennessee when friends come a'calling...

London Memories...

Daniel, quite the budding photographer, snagged this shot of Big Ben...

Here it is again with the Parliament Building to the right, along with two dashing young men...

The London Eye...takes just under an hour to go around one time.  Do you see the way the pods are perched on the OUTSIDE/TOP of the wheel?!?!?!  GUARANTEE only 4 Greens will be headin' up...

River Thames...

So, for the record, just how long ARE the buses over here?

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre...hard to tell, but it does have a thatched roof.  This one, still used today, is an exact replica and in the original location as the one in Shakespeare's day.  Cool.

This one gives a little better view of the stage.  There was a trap door both above and below the stage, which the kids found immensely intriguing, and then where the people are standing was actually (in Shakespeare's day) where hundreds of people would stand throughout the entire performance.  If the people didn't like the play or the performing of it, they would throw fish and rotten vegetables at the actors.  The one benefit the boys said for standing thruout an entire play would have been for better aim with the veggies!  :)

Mmmmmmmm....

So, we went to the Museum of Natural Sciences, where we had heard that they had the last remaining dodo (bird), in stuffed form, of course.  So, ladies and gentlemen, may Victoria present...the dodo!

Also in this museum is an extensive dinosaur museum (note tail over our heads).  Note of interest here.  We went to this museum on a school holiday (BIG mistake)...any guesses how many people had been thru that day?  500?  1000?  Are you ready?  We were told (by the lady up front with the people-counter) that by 1pm, more that 20,000 people had been thru, and we decided that they were ALL still in there when we were there! 

The kids loved this silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.  The mystery of this photo is getting it to face the right direction on the blog.  Oh dear. :)

This ranks as one of the best things of our ENTIRE trip...

Winston Churchill's wartime bunker underground.

Group hug before the Vintzels headed home...

Paris, Part Trois

We loved the narrow alleyways of Paris...walked along this one in the Latin Quarter to find lunch, and were successful at the very end...

...where we found a Greek gyro stand...DELICIOUS!!

Note the hanging hunk of meat from which they cut the meat for our gyros...

 

For dessert we had French pancakes (by special request of Tori Vintzel), complete with Nutella (Is there a more perfect food on the planet?) and bananas.  Scrumptious!!

So, these are some of the fountains in the courtyard of the Louvre.  There is a distinction to be made here.  We went TO the Louvre, not IN the Louvre.  Here's the story:  After arriving at 2:20pm (it opened at 2pm), we learned that the four hour (!) line had been cut off at 11am FOR THE ENTIRE DAY.   So, anyone arriving after 11am was not allowed to enter the Louvre that day.  SERIOUSLY?!?!?!  Who knew...  But...

...we still had great fun playing around the courtyards, like when Caleb took his turn to touch the top of the famous glass pyramid, which serves as the main entrance to the museum.  Or when, out of nowhere, a torrential hail storm struck, sending folks scrambling for cover.  It came about so suddenly that it reminded me of one of those cartoons where thousands of people dash for cover in mere seconds.  Hilarious.  THAT (the hailstorm) is my kids favorite memory of Paris. :)

So, we headed to the vast and impressive Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart of Christ) basilica, one of France's most important Roman Catholic Churches.  It is set high on a hill (the kids counted 228 steps up to it), from which one could see the whole of Paris:

It's a very common sight in Paris to see street performers of all varieties.  This guy was truly amazing with a soccer ball.  He was just outside the church on a raised column about four feet by four feet.  The things he could do in such a small space were remarkable...almost mesmerizing...  In fact, this guys won a VERY close second (after the hailstorm) for the kids as favorite thing they saw in Paris! 

WHEW!!  We're in the train station (the boys gave up their seats for adults) tired but happy before catching the Chunnel (Channel tunnel) back to London, to arrive home safely sometime after 1am (!).  What an unforgettable weekend in Paris! :)

Paris, Here We Come!

So, our adventure began when we caught the 4:25am(!) train out of Cambridge.  In London, we boarded the "Chunnel" (shown above), which is the affectionate name of the train that travels BENEATH the English Channel.  I'm not exactly sure what I expected to see (water?) or hear (bands playing?), but it really was just a long dark tunnel, which the kids found fascinating, but it put me right to sleep...literally...:)

First things first.  Upon arrival to the "City of Lights", there was a great chorus of young voices joined together into a rousing rendition of, "We're hungry.  THERE'S MCDONALDS!!"  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Yes, we ate at McDonalds in Paris. (Don't tell anyone.) But all new cultural experiences were not lost, as we noted that french fries are not served with ketchup in France, but with a special sauce similar to Ranch dressing.  You can see here that it is called, "Pommes-Frites Sauce".  I think that means, "We'll package this like ketchup and the Americans will think it is."

Such detail...carved into STONE...

Caleb took this picture.  As it's not our tradition, the lit candles in so many of these chapels/churches/cathedrals made a real impression...

Headin' down the Champs-Elysees, Paris' most famous thoroughfare...

Our good buddy, Winston Churchill.

We were struck by how ornate much of Paris was...

Our first glimpse of the famed Eiffel Tower...(the kids are reminding me as I type this that it took us FOREVER to walk to the Eiffel Tower from here.)  By the way, we are standing on a bridge over the River Seine, which winds thruout the city.

Speaking of Eiffel Towers, did everyone make it to the top?  We'll find out in the next exciting edition...