Athens, Here We Come

One thing we find completely delightful is the fact that here in Greece folks utilize their rooftops...there are actually staircases leading up to the roof.  They are also very trusting...there are no rails of any sort...on this particular day when Brad and Victoria were up on top of the academic building (I snapped this shot from one of our two balconies), there were students relaxing, reading, etc. up there.  I really think I could get used to that...beautiful view, refreshing breeze, inviting sunshine, renewing quiet...not a bad combo...

Yours truly blogging away from above menioned balcony...

On Saturday morning, the Bible College hosted several youth groups from nearby villages for several hours of fun, games, food, and worship...we hung around and had absolutely the BEST time, even though many of the youth didn't speak a word of English!  This has been a new experience for the kids to be in a culture where English is not the first language.  They have done brilliantly!  A cultural note here:  The youth groups came from 12 noon to 4pm.  First, for 2 hours were the games, then LUNCH AT 2 PM!!  Lunch BEGINS anywhere from 2-3:30 pm here in Greek culture, then supper begins anywhere from 8-10:30pm.  For all my late night friends, now HERE is a culture you could seriously get into!!  They are a late night culture and S-L-O-W to move in the mornings...

Yes, water balloons were involved...see our adventurous Daniel...

For lunch that day they prepared souvlakis, and we gobbled them up!!  Daniel is eating souvlaki, and Brad is eating souvlaki on pita (also known as a gyro) with french fries, tomatoes, and a delectable sauce called tzatziki, which is made of yogurt, cucumber, and garlic.  I could drink the stuff. It's that good.  For weight reasons, it is certainly a good thing that we are here short term...

After the youth group celebration, we headed into Athens, and THIS was our first view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon, just outside the metro...again, my emotion surprised me...

The Acropolis rock was an easily defended site and has been in use for nearly 5000 years.  It is essentially an enormous rock right in the heart of Athens that boasts 3 contrasting temples and a monumental gateway.  More on this to come, but here is the Parthenon, one of the world's most famous buildings.  The Parthenon was completed in 438 BC as a temple to Athena. 

 This would be none other than the Acropolis Museum, as the words so plainly depict...

Dinner was at an outdoor cafe.  Our friend Robert came with us into the city centre to help us find our way a bit.  He's a great guy from Bath, England, and offered to spend a couple days with us showing us the ropes in Athens...what a guy...

We were feeling adventurous for dinner...Victoria tried the stew, Daniel tried spicy cheese balls, Caleb and Brad just couldn't pull themselves away from the pork gyros (with the tzatziki sauce), and I, well, I tried none other than yogurt and honey, which, I might add, was quite tasty...

...and here it is...yogurt and honey...mmmmmm....

We have just hooted and hollered over Brad's "cup-ette" of coffee.  There was about 3 swigs of coffee in this cup.  He wanted to say, "No, I'll have the adult-size cup, please."

So, we went for gelatto afterwards.  I keep asking exactly what gelatto is, but no one seems to know...at any rate, it was sweet, cold, and yummy, so we were happy...

Just as we were getting back on the metro to return home, we caught this glimpse of the Parthenon by night...beautiful, really...

Gorgeous Greece

Our first full day here in Pikermi, Greece, we decided to take a family walk down a pathway near the Greek Bible College, where we are staying and where Brad is teaching.  We discovered all kinds of things...like this heavily laden orange tree...  (Their fruit is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!)

  

...lots of beautiful blooming bushes...



...and the boys favorite... this type of tree with itty-bitty (1-cm long) pine-cone-type appendages that they discovered if they ruffled the branches, the pollen would douse everyone walking behind them.  They found this GREAT fun, and we all came home bearing plenty of pollen to prove it...

The village of Pikermi is just a few minutes from Rafina, a coastal village, so our first afternoon we headed down to the seashore.  Our friend Jeff insisted we borrow his car, and we were off...(I was so thankful that they drive on the RIGHT side of the street here, unlike our Irish driving adventure!)  We were struck how the buildings here look like we'd thought they'd look in Greece...mostly all white-washed with the rocky, hilly countryside looking just like it does in books...we were not disappointed!

The most interesting thing we saw today was right here on the beach.  This gentleman was an octopus fisherman, and he took the time to show the kids the steps of cleaning an octopus (right in front of our very eyes - Egads!, as my daddy would say), which includes squirting the ink (and innards) into a bucket of water...

(Side note:  note the ship in the background...this is a port town, and it is not uncommon to see ships such as this in the harbor, some of which carry passengers to one of the many Greek Isles...)

...then "beating the fire" out of them with what looked like a small cricket bat to tenderize them.  The octopi still had reflexes as they were tenderized...they weren't the only ones cringing at that point...

We ended our day with dinner by the beach with Myrto, our friend from Cambridge; Jeff Baldwin, the headmaster at the Greek Bible College, and Robert, another friend from Cambridge.  We ate souvlaki gyros, which is a SCRUMPIOUS typical dish, along with a Greek salad (no lettuce), which can be seen in the foreground.  The feta on these salads was fresh, and so yummy.  I didn't think I was a feta fan, but how wrong I was!  I could NOT stop eating the stuff!

Our first day ended with loukoumades, a traditional honey-dipped pastry, similar to beignets, and equally as yummy.  The kids have been great at trying new foods--even ones they can't pronounce and don't know exactly what is...we are REALLY enjoying Greek cuisine!!

Amazing Amsterdam

AND BEYOND...so, this is the first entry in the "and beyond" portion of the blog "Cambridge Capers and Beyond"...we are on a plane headed to Greece, by way of Amsterdam...and we are so humbled, grateful, amazed, and thankful to be going...the entire story of how we got to this place is nothing short of miraculous.  God is good. 

So, we ended up with an unexpected 8-hour layover in Amsterdam, and decided to take advantage of it with a city tour!  In the words of the British, "It was brilliant!"  We were SOOOOO thankful we decided to explore a bit...here's some of what we saw: 

1. Windmills - this one is 400 years old.  There are around 1000 windmills left today of the 9000 at one time.

2.  Wooden ice skates - These belong to family members of the farmer we visited, and are hanging from the rafters.  We learned that most all the canals in the country freeze over in the winter and that ice skating is a national past time...cool.  The wooden ice skates fit OVER your regular pair of shoes.

3.  Wooden shoes and Cheese - we visited this farm where they make fresh (we met the cows) cheese and also MAKE wooden shoes --  REALLYY?!?!?!  So, the kids had fun trying on a pair and holding 10 year old gouda cheese, which, by the way, they told us is called, "parmesan." Oh...of course...

4.  Beautiful boat-lined canals - Since 1/2 the country is BELOW sea level, they have a 24/7 "Pumping-Water-Out-Party" with these enormous water pumping stations, which we learned everyone in the Netherlands has the opportunity to pay special taxes for (our tour guide Hank said with a grin.)

5. "I AMsterdam" is the official city motto. In "Museum Square" are these enormous letters of their motto.  I like how this photo captures our children's personalities a bit...as for me, I'm just thankful that the "d" was extra wide to accommodate both

 Tori and my hips...ahem...

6. - Anne Frank's house - Probably the highlight of the day was getting to see Anne Frank's house. See the middle building with 3 windows across with BLACK on the bottom story?  This entire structure is the house where she and her family were hidden during WWII. 

6 1/2. - This is the church that was just one-half block from Anne Frank's house that she mentioned in the book, from which every quarter hour she could here the church's bells chime.  I couldn't believe how moved I was to put sights and sounds to her story... 

Home At Last!

Well, we did, in fact, make it home...(we laughed that this is the first outdoor photo in four months WITHOUT the blue coats!! :)  We came home to blessing after blessing bestowed by friends...beautiful (and leafless) lawn and flower beds, fresh flowers inside and out, food for days (literally), oodles of visits, calls, and cups of tea. :)   How blessed and thankful we are for our friends!  The kindness shown to us was humbling...overwhelming...appreciated. A heartfelt thanks to all...

The kids were so happy to be reunited with Bullet, our dog!!  Another sweet surprise left for us, since Victoria's cat Snowball was hit and killed by a car while we were away, was this adorable calico kitten, which Victoria named Butterfinger.

36 hours later...

...we're still in process of heading home...yes, volcanic ash DOES make a difference.  We had our shuttle scheduled to pick us up at 3:45am yesterday morning (Tuesday May 11) in Cambridge to come back home....all was well until midnight the night before, when they changed our flight FOR THE NEXT MORNING due to the ash.  That 's when the fun began.  Our flight had been cancelled and completely rerouted through a DIFFERENT airport in London, and for several hours later.  The shuttle service was closed by that time, and they were supposed to be at our doorstep within 4 hours.  To make an unbelievable saga bearable, let me just hit the highlights at this point:

1.  Six and 1/2 hour flight delay
2.  Two hours sitting on plane on tarmac before taking off
3. Two extra hours in flight.  Because of the volcanic ash, we had to fly over GREENLAND (!!) --an extra 1000 miles--over a safe zone...well, our plane and every other plane from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, etc. who wanted to head this way had to travel the same narrow "safe pass" (hence the two hour wait on the tarmac, waiting for our turn in line.)
4.  Three hours in the airport after landing because we were targeted as an "Agricultural Alert", and we thus were sent where they send the likes of live farm animals entering the country and contaminated soil samples.  Oh dear.
5.  Redirected (WITH OUR 23 PIECES OF LUGGAGE!!) incorrectly to the line of folks who wanted to keep their luggage with them overnight.  Tried to check it in and were told they were closed for the night (it was then close to midnight).
6.  4 hours sleeping at hotel.
7.  Item left inadvertantly on shuttle.  Di and boys on retrieval committee.  All Di's ID with Brad and Tori --(OOPS)....CHAOS ensues with plane leaving at 7:30am.  Now 7:12am.
8.  3 fervent prayers and buckets of swet later, Di and boys run like crazy people thru airport and jump onto plane as it is leaving the ground...
9.  Person to pick us up in Nashville cannot pick us up at new time.  Brad calling everyone we know--and some people we don't--to find lucky winner.
10.  Wait...I think Joey Jenkins may have just won...

We are now in Nashville (almost home!), and over 36 hours--and counting-- from when our journey home began...WHEW!! We should be home soon!

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...