Claire Evans World Tour: our one year old has traveled to 12 states, now she'll travel to 12 countries too. Woah.

Eastern Europe Trip Planning!!

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Still trying to figure out how to have a perfect map with 'pins' online to show our itinerary... But as the trip nears (only 3 weeks away now) I am trying to book our last few places, to get a handle on this massive trip... I think our itinerary is as follows:

1. Munich, Germany- renting a car to put some serious mileage on it!
2. Innsbruck, Austria- one of my favorite places on earth, seeing my brother for 3 days!
3. Salzburg, Austria
4. Bled, Slovenia- looks so beautiful!
5. Ljubljana, Slovenia
6. Trieste, Italy (and Slovenian coast)
7. Rijeka, Croatia
8. Zagreb, Croatia
9. Heviz, Hungary (or somewhere on Lake Balaton!)
10. Budapest, Hungary then through Slovakia en route to
11. Krakow, Poland
12. Auschwitz, Poland
13. Brno, Czech Republic
14. Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
15. Schwaz, Austria- watching my brother play baseball again, then he can complete our figure 8 trip with us our last 5 days
16. Vaduz, Liechtenstein
17. NE Switzerland
18. Stuttgart, Germany
19. Frankfurt, Germany
20. A couple Reformation sites en route to
21. Berlin, Germany
22.lastly driving back down to Munich to fly back to San Francisco... via
23. LONDON, UK!

Whew, I need a nap just thinking about this itinerary!!! But it is going to be a grand adventure. Three generations together and visiting my brother. Can't wait!!!

London Bridge Is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down...

Wanna hear a funny story I forgot about til last week?  So, back into the 60s, I think, the London Bridge was falling down.  So somebody put it on the equivalent of eBay, and an oil millionaire idiot in the States bought it for millions of dollars.  They moved it to AZ, and it's now an attraction at Lake Havasu.

The only problem was that when it was assembled, the Americans realized it wasn't London's beautiful and famed Tower Bridge, which we saw this summer.
But instead, a boring looking cement bridge.
Oops.  Our boat tourguide in London got a lot of laughs out of this story, whereas we Americans slumped a little bit lower in our seats:)
Burly wasn't impressed.  This is how he spent much of our drive, out for the count.

Bungy-Jumping in Corinth Canal, Greece

What a way to celebrate our independence day half a world away, hucking oneself off a 240 foot bridge?! This canal was started by the Roman Emperor Nero (sound familiar?) and then was worked on by 6000 Jewish slaves (it's 90 meters tall and 4 miles long, connecting the Ionian and Aegean Seas. It was finally finished just over 100 years ago. After seeing ancient Corinth, we opted not to go to Cenchraea in favor of bungy-jumping. 6 members of the group did it, I wish I could have too. Maybe in South Africa?! It was voted best bungy jump on The Amazing Race.

Amber modeling the shirts Zulu Bungy sold

Becky's perfect jump; she went waist-deep in the water, no one else did.

Los getting ready to go



I love this photo. You should've heard him laughing, it echoed throughout the canyon like the wicked witch of the west. If I could figure out how to attach the video, I'd put it on.


Christina caught us smooching after he finished, I was so proud, vicariously living through him.

Los, Becky, Emily, Amber, Susan and Tyler exulting post-jump.

Ancient Corinth

Our last full day, we went over to the Peloponnese, separated from the rest of Greece by a ship canal Los bungy-jumped into. The Peloponnese is where many Athenians and other Greeks vacation, and would be worth going back to, as we were only there a day. Our guide says she loves Nafplio, a Venetian city in a stunning area, note to self. The Olympics were here for 1000 years BC, in Olympia, as well.

We visited ancient Corinth:
Temple of Apollo (5th c.BC)


Lecheon Road, the main thoroughfare to the port at the time. One thing that I take away with me is reminiscent of the idea that in 'heaven, streets are paved with gold.' What we value will be something we walk on... Here streets and gutters at times, are made out of marble. In the states we pay through the nose for classy marble, it is definitely high class; there, it's used as gutters. Amazing difference, and illustrated perspective to me.

The Bema, where Paul was for trial.

Kavala, Greece

Kavala (formerly Neopolis, a port Paul came to) is the northern most point in Greece that we reached in our journey, we had a great meal here, and wandered around to check out the Roman aqueduct from the 1st-2nd century AD.



Our friend Mark (fraternity brother of Los) and another buddy climbed up to the old castle, check out the view from there!

We loved the Greek coast line, full of quaint little beach towns and ports like this.

Philippi and Lydia

There are only so many ruins you can see in one trip, if you know what I'm saying. I had hoped that I would have some special interaction with God at Ephesus, Philippi or Corinth, but for whatever reason (100 degree temperatures, ants, distraction...) I didn't. They were special places to see, but nothing I saw was life-changing. What they did do, however, was put what I read on a page into context; and for that I'm grateful. Some people are primarily cerebral learners, and wouldn't gain from going to a place. I, on the other hand, am a very spatial and kinesthetic, I have written before about how BEING in a place, and engaging my 5 senses, tremendously helps paint a picture of what was going on.

Here we are at the ampitheater in Philippi.

Byron is a Seattle Opera singer, and performed a piece from the marriage of Figaro for us:)

An ancient basilica

potential prison where Paul was

Agora

Ancient strip mall (the shops of the Agora)


Men using the ancient bathroom


In Lydia, named after Europe's first Christian convert, a WOMAN. This is the river where she was baptized. There is a church erected there, just for baptism purposes. We went in there for a little while, the cool air was refreshing, and the acoustics were so good that we had an impromptu singing session...

Paul's Journeys and our journey...

So much life has happened in the past few weeks- I'll try to catch up and end our Greece photos now. Here are a few shots from the roads along the Grecian coastline; I don't have any good ones, but it is full of amazing vistas. It was amazing to think how Paul got so far without a car and freeways, or even a good pair of Nike's and Gatorade. Berea, for example, was up in the hills a good distance from Philippi.




This was from a little 'beach' stop. Our guide was so great, in letting us be her first ever group to stop at a beach town for a handful of hours, as well as the first group she took to bungee jump.

I took some notes during the week, while she'd give her little 'lessons' on Greek Mythology, history and various cultural and agricultural facts. She pointed out Marathon and Delphi, and places of significance as we journeyed. I think she had a doctorate in Archaeology (big in Greece), but she knew a ton about every subject. At first it was awkward to listen to her, because her voice was such a high pitch (I wonder if it's only American ears that prefer low pitched voices?) and we kept asking her to turn down the mic on the bus. However, she became quite endearing to us all throughout the 5 days.

Thessaloniki

We spent two nights in Thessaloniki (the second biggest town in Greece at 1 mil.) and almost all our group liked it much more than Athens. It was cleaner, less congested, and had a nice waterfront/nightlife. Here are some photos from a night out.


Aristotle Square

Aristotle was Alexander the Great's tutor



There was some Miss World pageant and I was stalking the contestants

The White Tower (also called Tower of Blood, since it used to be a prison and decapitated heads were hung up on it during the Ottoman Empire). Thessaloniki had a lot of cool preserved architecture, like the Arch of Galerius (who was the Emperor before Constantine), which was constructed right around 300 a.d. Galerius used to persecute Christians, and when Constantine legalized Christianity, he turned some of Galerius' stuff into churches. We toured the Hagia Demetrios, which is one of the oldest remaining churches.

Alexander the Great- good or bad, he was kind of a big deal in history. Thessaloniki is named after his sister. Nike means victory, and the region is Thessaly.

They turned old Greek boats into floating bars.

We met a pug there too, named Hercules. He wasn't nearly as cute as Burly, but cool name.

Meteora Monasteries, Kalambaka and Berea

These remarkable Orthodox medieval monasteries were "built upon the rock," to preserve their way of life during the Ottoman Empire, when Muslims were taking over parts of Greece.







2nd C. b.c. Egnatian Way next to the new road in Berea



Steps of ancient synagogue preserved, perhaps where Paul preached from