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May 3, 2013

Grand Finale

Well, we did enjoy Paris!  Its art wrapped up our art history lesson perfectly. Its food satisfied our appetites. Fortunately, and following a pattern typical of this trip, we arrived with weather perfect for each day and its activities.  In this case, the first good, warm spring weather.  The cliché Paris in Springtime is, well, you know, and as a bonus made us really happy to be coming home during this season. We ended up leaving our ascent of the Eiffel tower until the last day.  The Elevator door opened and the first thing we noticed was the lighted board above the windows that shows the major cities of the world at their bearing from Paris, along with the distance to that city and the height of its tallest tower.  “Hey!  We’ve been there, take a picture.”  There too, and there, and so on all the way around the observation deck.  This silly, unexpected exercise brought it home that we really did go all the way around.  We enjoyed the view until they were closing down for the night and we had to catch the last train to our apartment.  A perfect wrap for this travel around the world project! It all feels a bit overwhelming, so it may take us a week or two to process and be able to write some follow up posts.  Please continue checking our website!  We will let you know when we have finished up.
Written by in France, The Big Dad 0 Comments
April 22, 2013

Budget Air Travel

Once upon a time mortal travelers could afford Eurail Passes.  Almost any mode is cheaper now and many times air is the cheapest of all.  Ticket buyers beware, though, it may not be so simple.  Poking the ‘buy now’ button feels good when the price is 15 Euro. But wait, there’s more…taxes are another 15. If you want to bring a 15 kilo bag that is another 35.  Still, you can fly point to point for around $100 usually.  Not bad! Except that you will embark from a farmer’s barn 40 miles from the nearest town.  The good news is that they will have syphoned all the fuel from his tractors.  It will definitely be enough to fly for at least an hour and allow you make a safe landing at one of the many available WWII auxiliary fields between you and your destination.  Busses will be staged there and for about the price of your airplane ticket they will take you on to the city that you thought you were flying to.  This is good because flying over all the sights so high up there and through a tiny little window the size of an ipad would suck.  It is nice to see some of them through a great big bus window and from ground level which is much closer. Also you get to push and shove for your seat, but that is no big deal because it only cost 15 Euro. xoxxoXoxxoO 🙂
Written by in Logistics, The Big Dad, Travel Tips 0 Comments
April 21, 2013

Yep, Yep, Uh Huh!

We’re tired.  Sarah is tired of wearing the same clothes.  We packed what we needed, remembering that whatever went into each pack had to be carried all the way around the world.  No one considered that wearing the same few clothes for six months would pretty much render them rags.  Rebekah is wishing for her own room where everything has its place and everything is in its place. It is really hard for Levi to gain access to the book or two a day that he consumes.  The “unreasonable” expectation that they be published in English isn’t helpful. Just one little Swedish book and some persistence would probably last him the rest of the trip. I wish that I could make Sarah a consistent cup of coffee each morning and I wish I wasn’t such a grumpy pants.  Our trip has been wonderful and we finish it off in Paris (our last stop). We are mentally prepared to enjoy that city (dangit!), but I am sure it will be with a longing eye turned toward our flight home. IMG_2091 Photo flying away from Sweden…    
Written by in The Big Dad 1 Comment
April 16, 2013

Fika

In the kitchen on our first evening in Are, Therese says, “In Sweden we drink coffee. All the time we drink coffee. Do you guys drink coffee?”  Of course we drink coffee.  We’re from Washington.  In our family, at least, we mostly drink coffee in the morning and then let the caffeine fade out of our systems for the rest of the day. It’s nice to have God’s Gift for the Morning able to do its good work again each day.  In Sweden they also have coffee with breakfast, and after dinner.  Maybe even with lunch.  Fika comes mid-morning and mid-afternoon.  These are the times that you have a cinnamon roll and then seven!! different kinds of cookies with your coffee. If you want to do it the traditional way, put a sugar cube between your teeth and suck the coffee through it.  I always thought filter coffee was made by a drip machine, and who knew that Pastor Phil’s Christmas cookie party isn’t the only event that could send me into a sugar coma. Anyway, when in Sweden, do as the Swedes do, and as you might imagine, we are now immune to the effects of caffeine.  I guess we will have to do some sort of detox before we return to home and to work! IMG_1867
Written by in Sweden, The Big Dad 0 Comments
April 12, 2013

Fredagsmys

Yah, pronounce that one!  It goes like this: free udugs myeese and means Cozy Friday.  Fredagsmys is another tradition we may need to import.  It amounts to a mix up of family night and taco Tuesday. Our friends Tobias, Therese, Filip, Jakob and Oskar taught us to observe this tradition, and here is my recommendation:  If a Swede offers to make you tacos, accept with as much enthusiasm as you are capable of.  They are going to be filled with the usual stuff made of avocados, vegetables and dairy products.  The ingredient that the Mexicans are not able to include, no matter the level of authenticity, is moose.  In our experience, as of this last Fredagsmys, ALL excellent tacos are made with moose!

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Written by in Sweden, The Big Dad 0 Comments
April 10, 2013

Snow Famine?

Not so much wherever we go!  It didn’t snow in Thailand or Malaysia, but we have a perfect record of being snowed upon in every other country.
Written by in The Big Dad 1 Comment
April 9, 2013

Follow the Leader

Arriving in a new city with no expectations and no responsibility is a fun change.  Sarah’s sister, Amy, hosted another wonderful vacation from self guided tourism for us in Hamburg, Germany. We didn’t have to find the cool restaurants, coffee shops, flea markets or landmarks on our own. She met us at the central train station so we didn’t even have to find her apartment. If we aren’t careful we might find ourselves taking all inclusive cruises!  Thank you, Amy, for showing us a great time in your wonderful city!
Written by in Germany, The Big Dad 0 Comments
March 28, 2013

Internet Inversion

We decided not to spend money using cell data on this trip and so have learned something interesting about hardwired/WiFi internet service.  The more modern a country is the more likely it is that we will have all sorts of trouble finding usable internet.  Thailand and Malaysia were fine.  Every little thatched bar on the beach has free WiFi.  Israel has free service everywhere including on public transportation. That socialist country is so capitalistic that unlimited cell data, voice and text plans are about $15/month now.  Greece was easy and fast even though they can’t get their ferry captains and vegetable growers to go off strike and get to work.  Italy, thbbthbbt! “I know, let’s charge for WiFi and a sitting fee, if you don’t want to carry out into the rain, and the food and include service on the bill.  Maybe because we provide internet service (pay) they won’t notice the service they paid for was non-existent and we can enjoy a new revenue stream.”  And, if it actually went fast enough to send an email, maybe they would be right.  England is so forward thinking and security conscious that you have to give all your passwords, citizenship and social security info and the middle names of your children to get signed on.  Of course they then confirm it all by texting you your sign-on info, so if you aren’t using cell service, tough luck. Oh wait, maybe that part was Italy too.  Whatever!  You may have noticed that we’ve been able to post regularly for the past week or so.  Want to know why? We went into the former eastern bloc.  In the Czech Republic internet is free, fast and stable.  Woohoo!
Written by in Czech Republic, The Big Dad 3 Comments
March 28, 2013

Diesel Rant

We’ve had the opportunity to drive a whole quiver of cars that are unavailable to us in the USA.  Some blame it on California, others the evil oil companies and still others those pesky (republicans/democrats).  I just call it IMG_1628-001 frustrating that we do not have a wide range of diesel powered cars on the market at home.  Our favorite is the —Ford Fiesta!—.  Ford is supposedly building their cars to fit comfortably all but the top and bottom 2.5 percentile worldwide and evidently, even I am average when it comes to riding comfortably in a pocket car.  The Europe spec cars look good, drive around all nice and zippy like and the 59 mpg diesel consumption is a big bonus.  Go Ford!
Written by in The Big Dad 0 Comments
March 25, 2013

Bath is Beautiful

Bath is beautiful.  I followed Sarah around all day. The scenery was nice also. They (Rebekah and Sarah) went to charity shops, a fashion museum and then revisited the charity shops again.  Actually, Levi and I didn’t follow to the fashion museum.  We went to a pub to read the paper and have a drink.  Oh yeah, we kicked some pigeons around.
Written by in England, The Big Dad, What d'ya wanna do today? 0 Comments
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