Day 13: Europe

 Kasey- We got up around 7:30 and took our time getting up and to breakfast at 8:30. Breakfast was disappointing--only bread and hot chocolate. We snagged some bread and nutella spread for the road and headed out. We were able to park for free by the gardens because we got there after 7pm but had to move our car before 9am. Parking is sooooo expensive in Paris. I had done some research to find a pretty cheap parking garage but it was close to the outer ring. Directions of course never go as planned because of one way streets, traffic, road construction, etc, but we found our way to the garage and walked back up to the Louvre. We walked all over Paris--we figured out after that we walked more than 24 miles in 2 days in Paris. Waiting in line for the Louvre we pulled out some bread and some cheese bread we got from our Luxembourg hotel.

When we were paying for our tickets to the Louvre they asked me if I was getting a youth ticket for Emmy--the lady thought she was under 18...which would make me a sicko! The Louvre is massive, of course. There is so much to see--we actually did pretty well about going through lots of exhibits and then spent more time on the things we each liked to see.

 We spent about 3 hours there and enjoyed the Italian and French art sections. Emmy really likes Greek and Roman art, as well. I liked the Egyptian section. We of course saw the Mona Lisa and got as close as we could to it.

               *This picture looks like Kasey is by himself in here, when really this place was a zoo!

Emmy thinks Mona Lisa knows something we don't. We had fun interpreting some of the Italian paintings. We walked to Notre Dame afterwards and got some tasty flat bread with some good spices on top. It was really good. We met up with a tour guide outside the Notre Dame cathedral and did a tour of the Latin Quarter.
 

We are both really glad we did it. It was done by a local college student and he showed us a lot of interesting places including where a lot of protests happen, where the guillotine was invented, the main colleges, etc. We learned that the left and right banks are called that way from the reference of the way the water is moving and that Paris started on the island where Notre Dame is. We saw the Shakespeare and company building where local artists will work for a few hours a day in exchange of getting their room for free. We saw the oldest tree in Paris and the oldest Church.

 We went back to Notre Dame and did a tour there. 

Then we went out to eat at an Indian Restaurant. I like the Indian food better in the US. We eventually made it back to our hotel.

Day 12: Europe

 Kasey- So we had until 11am to have our car parked by the hostel which meant we only had a few hours to see Luxembourg City. Ya know, Luxembourg is a hidden gem. The main part of the city is almost on this plateau with steep ridges that are really pretty. We enjoyed walking around the city. We saw the Grand Duchy, Notre Dame of Luxembourg and saw scenic streets.

 
We made it back to the car in time, checked out of the hostel, and started to France. The whole time in Europe we didn't have any maps or GPS--just directions written out. That led us into some problems but for the most part we were able to get around with just a few delays because we would get a little lost. We got a little lost going towards France but we found our way to the main highway. We stopped in Verdun and did a little tour of the city.

 
The thing I love about Europe is how much history there is in each city. We went to the Battle of Verdun sites and man was that overwhelming. The Battle of Verdun in WWI was the largest battle in history--close to a million people died. The landscape is changed from all the fighting and we walked around a town that had been completely wiped out. It was interesting to walk the former streets of the town so you could see where the buildings were. We went to a fort and walked around there and then drove by a cemetery. You can spend a lot of time there, there's so much to see. It's tough to be there, though, and constantly be reminded about the worst parts of humanity.

 
We drove through the country side to Reims. I really enjoyed that drive. It was beautiful weather in the late afternoon and we just drove through small town after small town. This was my second time in France and like the first time we just kept singing the Beauty and the Beast song- "Bonjour, Bonjour!" In Reims we walked to the cathedral and saw a little bit around there.

So I was Dad's navigator when we were in Rome last time and I gotta say that it was one of my worst experiences in the car because we were constantly lost and just going around in circles. I did not want to have that same experience in Paris so I wanted to make sure we caught the ring around Paris and then park close to the ring for a few days. I missed it somewhere and when we came out of a tunnel we were right in the middle of things. I knew it could be really bad but it ended up only taking us about 20 minutes to get to our hotel. One thing nice about driving in Paris is that if you know where your hotel is in relation to the Eiffel Tower and Seine then you can figure it out. So we found the Eiffel Tower and then the Seine River- followed it to Notre Dame and then found the Luxembourg Gardens and there was our hotel. We seriously lucked out--it could have been bad. So we got to our hotel and we ended up being on the top floor and even though it didn't feel the cleanest it was fun to have 2 huge rooms and to be on our own. We got some baguettes and skyped with the family. It was really, really good to see Jimmer again. We were really happy to hear that he had been doing great with my parents. We went back to the hotel, watched most of I Robot completely in French. It was so nice to just sit there and relax, and then we crashed.

Day 11: Europe

Kasey- Well, I knew this day was another day of doing A LOT of stuff. Our breakfast was pretty good. The whole hostel experience was one of my better hostel experiences. We saw like 20 staff members so that made me think that the place has got to be clean! We got a smokin deal at the hostel- only 15 euros for the two of us. There was some confusion about the price but luckily I printed the email where they told me 15 euros. After checking out we went up to the castle just above our hostel and walked around the courtyard. The castle is now a hotel. Next time I think we'll stay there.

It was really pretty driving up that high and then coming down and seeing the Lorelei. We then drove back to Koblenz and then to Trier. Trier is also a gorgeous city. We parked and walked to Karl Marx's house and then to the Cathedral in the zentrum.

 There's another church right next to the Cathedral that Emmy really liked because there was more light that got in. The relic at this Cathedral is Christ's Holy Robe when he was crucified.

We got some curry wurst (it was ok) and saw the Porta Nigra which is the best preserved Roman gate north of the Alps. We went to St. Pauline's Church which is yellow on the outside and really pretty inside. Supposedly Napoleon didn't touch this Church because of how pretty it is. We walked to a Roman bath that had a good sewage and heating system. We drove to a Roman Amphitheater that could sit up to 20,000 spectators and then left Trier. Our next destination was Echternach, Luxembourg. I really enjoyed the drive from Trier to Echternach mostly because I could tell it wasn't that popular of a route, so we weren't driving through touristy towns.

 

   Echternach is the oldest town in Luxembourg and is a charming little town. We drove up to Vianden. This was a very pretty town. We went to the Castle and did a tour. They did a good job of restoring it and had a lot of cool medieval stuff.

 We drove to Clervaux and didn't stop but enjoyed seeing it. Our last stop before Luxembourg City was Esch-sur-Sure. This was a really pretty town that is nicknamed Little Switzerland. It was really empty. I don't remember seeing a single person. It's also a really small town. We hiked up to some castle ruins above the town, that was fun, it was a pretty scenic view of the valley as well.

 

We made it to Luxembourg City, ate some McDonald's, checked into our hotel and got two sprites at the bar in the hotel (compliments of the hotel), and watched a soccer game.

Day 10: Europe

 Kasey- The hotel we stayed at in Koln was pretty good. I didn't have any complaints with it. Monday morning we got breakfast at 8 and then hit up the town after putting money in the meter to our car. We walked around and saw a Gestapo prison and the 4711 house where cologne originated from. We tested the scent and thought it smelled... interesting, ahem.

 We went to the Cathedral which was HUGE. It was a really pretty cathedral. With all the cathedrals we went to, we thought it was fun to learn about what relics where at that particular cathedral. The one in Cologne is said to have the remains of one of the three wisemen. We were also impressed that the cathedral took over 632 years to build.

 We walked around Koln some more- went across the river that had all these locks attached to the fence, we couldn't figure out what they were there for. So we went back to our hotel, checked out, and then took off towards Bonn. There wasn't a whole lot planned to Bonn so when parking was tough to find we decided to just skip it after driving by Beethoven's house. For me, I can be satisfied by just going to a city and thinking about and imagining all the things that had occurred there and then appreciating the city. Bonn was Beethoven's birthplace and was also the capital of West Germany. We drove down to Koblenz, parked, and then walked to a store. We accidentally got carbonated water, fortunately that was the only time we forgot that Europeans love their carbonated water and paid attention more closely when we bought water. We walked to an old castle and the Deutches Eck which is where the Rhine and Mosel Rivers meet. It has a massive statue.

We really liked Koblenz; I liked Koblenz the first time we went which is why I wanted to go again. We did the Germany thing and got some bratwurst (I think we got it at the same place I got a brat my first time to Koblenz). We then walked into town more, got a doner kebab (it was a little dry but still good). We saw a statue of a kid that will spit water onto you and then went back to the car.

This next part was my favorite part of Germany- we drove along the Rhine river from Koblenz to Rudemshein am Rhein. This whole experience was just amazing with the steep hills right next to the road and vineyards all over them. Castles were above several quaint little towns with your typical German houses and Churches. It was really fun doing that drive. It's the perfect thing to do to really experience Germany. We stopped at several places along the way to get out and walk around or take pictures.

 
We drove up to the Marksburg castle and went into the outer courtyard. We walked around Rudesheim am Rhein which has a lot of nice stores and outdoor pubs. We got some gelato but it just wasn't the same as real Italian gelato. We drove onto a ferry and took that across to Bingen. We then drove up to our hostel in St. Goar. It was a pretty nice hostel I thought. It was Emmy's first experience with a hostel so she was nervous about doing it. We walked around St. Goar for a little bit and then went back. Emmy fretted awhile about bed bugs, sleeping in separate beds, and just being in hostels. I tried to make her laugh and feel okay about staying there. It was a funny evening and I think she was eventually fine with staying there...after she fell asleep :)

Day 9: Europe

 Kasey- So my planning wasn't very good with going to Church and seeing the members. We arrived in Brussels around 10 our first day in Europe and the next Sunday was General Conference, so things didn't work out too well with that. We left early from Mark's. This was another one of those days where we had a lot planned. We first drove through Cappelle, which is right next to Rotterdam and was my second to last city. I was only there for 6 weeks but had good memories from it. The only thing I really wanted to see was my old apartment and the Prins Alexander metro station.

 After Capelle we went to Kinderdijk, which is a pretty touristy place with lots of windmills. It was a pretty day, so that was fun walking around and taking pictures.
 

 We then drove through Belgium down to Maastricht, the oldest city in the Netherlands. Maastricht is a fun little city split by a river and has some neat Cathedrals.

 

We also saw the Helpoort, which is an old Roman gate.

 
We walked around the Roman walls and saw where D'artagne, one of the musketeers, was killed.

 The old Roman walls still look how I imagine they did several hundred years ago. It was interesting to imagine people coming through the gates and the battles that took place outside of the city walls. After Maastricht we said good-bye to the Netherlands and spent pretty much the rest of the day in Belgium. I had never been to these parts of Belgium because they are French speaking. The rolling hills are pretty and lush green with lots of little towns.

 We went to the Henri-Chappelle American Cemetery. I've always liked going to these American cemeteries overseas to ponder the value and price of freedom and appreciate and thank those who died in the wars. On my mission we went to a cemetery really close Maastricht and I overheard a little Dutch girl ask her mom what all the crosses were. Her mom replied that they were the graves of soldiers who died fighting for their freedom. That really touched me. I think about that experience whenever I go to military cemeteries.

 The next thing we did was went to several Battle of the Bulge sites, starting with Malmedy/Baugnez where the Malmedy Massacre took place. It's actually the scene that happens at the beginning of Saints & Soldiers. After that we drove to St. Vith and then Vielsalm where some battles happened and then to La Roche-en-Ardennes. That place also had a major battle in WWII. All these places were really pretty, but I especially through La Roche was pretty because it's a small town on a river in a steep valley. We then went to Foy and then Bastogne. Outside of Foy was a monument to the 101st Airborne Division.

  In Bastogne there was a monument from the people of Belgium to their American liberators. All day we saw really pretty landscape in the Belgian countryside, nice and quaint little towns, and lots of memorials to the events of the Battle of the Bulge. In each place we went to for the whole trip I had printed out a background that I found online, mostly at wikipedia. We read all about each site we went to before we would go and learn about the history which helped us appreciate it more. After Belgium we drove up to Koln, Germany. It was a pretty fun experience driving in Germany. The cars drove so fast. You'd see a little car in the rear-view mirror and then in a few seconds it would blow right past you. We had a lot of fun with that. So we made it to Koln and luckily found our hotel without too much trouble. A lot of the cities we drove around were really lousy at labeling the streets. All my prep had the names of the streets, so it didn't help us that much. We would often follow the directions as far as we could and then when we saw a map we would re-assess where we were and make sure we were going the right way. But yeah, luckily in Europe there are a lot of maps off to the side of the road.

Day 8: Europe

 So this was our second day in Den Haag. I kind of bought too many Groupons for Den Haag. We left Hans and Karen's place :( and ate at an Italian restaurant. We had such a good meal, I think that was definitely in the top 3 places we ate at.

 We then went up to the Peace Palace area and used another Groupon at a dessert place. This was also amazing. We had like 20 euros to spend for all kinds of really good European cakes, custards, etc. Because we were stuffed we just kept the desserts with us for the whole day and started eating them the next day.

 We took the trams around town, went through Gouveneurlaan which was a street we felt inspired to tract. We had so much success on that street. We found tons of people to teach and as far as I know, at least 2 people were baptized from that street. We visited Raja Remigius who is someone we tracted into on my mission. It's interesting, Raja is actually an exiled prince of the northern kingdom of Sri Lanka. It was fun visiting with him. He had recently been on a tv show that I saw an episode of and was on the cover of the British Financial times. This is my 2nd time visiting him after my mission and both times he's had these really good cakes that he knows I like, that he bought specifically for me.

 We then went to the area by my old apartment, we went by some old investigators places, went by my apartment, ran into the missionaries, went by the church and then more old investigators, unfortunately no one was home.

Eventually, we were pretty tired, and by then we were about done with Den Haag. We went to get our stuff and then went to the car. We drove to an Indonesian restaurant. I loved it! I wish we had Indonesian places here in the states...maybe we do, I just haven't looked hard enough. I wish I could describe it too. It's so good.

So we ate there, and then drove to the beach, we caught the tail-end of the sunset. It was really cold on the beach.

 
Afterwards we went to Spijkenisse, which is a city south of Rotterdam. We visited with Mark van der Donk and stayed the night there.

Day 7: Europe

 That's right... we're back to writing about Europe! Haha, my excuse is that I got a case of the first trimesters. I'm in my second trimester and feeling much better! So, without further ado...

 Kasey-
Den Haag, the Heavenly city! I served there for 6 months and absolutely loved it. We were on public transportation the whole time there and I just got to know the city really well. So we slept in pretty late because of how tired we were from the previous day. The place we stayed also had a computer in our room so we caught up on emails, uploaded some pictures and videos, etc. Our host, Hans, worked at the Judicial Ministry, he offered to give us a tour of his building. So, we did just that! It was a pretty cool building, full of really interesting architecture. It's an old bank and in a weird way reminded me of the bank in the last Harry Potter. They had vault doors for the bathrooms, and a glass area that went through the entire bank (as to give the impression that the bank was transparent in it's dealings.)

 We walked around the Centrum of Den Haag, saw the Binnenhof, Buitenhof. It's kind of strange, but the Netherlands technically has two capitals- Den Haag and Amsterdam, but the government runs out of Den Haag.

 We saw where John Adams used to live- it's said that his old apartment was the first U.S. Embassy. So we made it to the station and took a bus to the Keukenhof flower gardens. We really enjoyed it there! (This was one of my favorite places-Emily) It was a chilly day and there were some flowers that had yet to bloom, but everything else was great. At the windmill in the gardens there was this old Dutch choir in wooden shoes and traditional clothing that sang and danced- we thought that was cute!

 What's wrong with Kasey in this picture?

 

                                         With all the walking, Kasey's shoe became untied.

 

After being there for like 4 or 5 hours we headed back. Back in Den Haag we got 24 hour passes for the trams and went out to eat at a Surinaams restaurant. It was pretty good, I've had better, though. So it was weird to be outside at night time in the city, but it was neat to just sit on the tram with Emmy and think about being a missionary there 8 years ago. I really loved that city and loved the people. It was just fun to serve in a city that has such a strong international presence and it was so easy to find people to teach. I'm really grateful for all the cities I served in. I grew a lot in each one and it was fun to go back there and ponder my experiences there. Those experiences and those cities are very special to me.