No Place Like Home

It feels like I have seen the world, and or at least a good part of it these last weeks. Janis and I dreamed of traveling Europe and we decided to start pursuing that dream during our three week vacation this year.

Our destination was Spain and all the countries along the way. We left July 8 with a borrowed tent and car full of dry and canned goods, as well as everything else one might need when camping.

There is so much that could be told, but perhaps it would be too much to tell it all. So I will mention some of what we saw and some of what we experienced, and how God was as ever our guard on every side.

We traveled through Lithuania and on to Poland where we saw the ruins of Hitler's Bunkers. Janis had heard about the original cobblestone road that led to Hitler's Bunkers and so we got the full experience by traveling through the seemingly middle of no where forest. The road was in surprisingly good shape, but our car was a bit too low for the road at times and we scraped bottom a few times. Ugh!


The walls were at times a yard or more thick it seemed and seemed so little damaged despite having been blown up when they left the place. It was impressive, but in a sad or morbid way, knowing the grief that was caused through this man.Here you can see some of the inside of the walls and how they separated when the building was blown up.

We then spent the evening in Gdansk,Poland a truly lovely city near the sea. I had only ever heard bad things about Poland and so it was good to see with my own eyes what it is like

It was amazing to see how God continually cared for us. One of the first times we saw this in a very overt way was when we went to our first camping grounds. That was in Germany and we hadn't yet had a chance to get any money yet (euro). We figured it would be no problem to pay with one of our cards. However, they would not accept either of our cards or US dollars and so in the end they said we could stay for free and that it would their gift to us. We were in shock and so blessed, we were so tired from a poor night of sleep the night before and amazed by God's obvious provision.


We spent one afternoon in Amsterdam, Janis had wanted to show me the houses there. It was so interesting to see the funny, crooked houses. They are smaller at the street level and get increasingly bigger and are so slanted. It is a wonder they stand, even the windows are crooked. It must be their style. That was really the only nice thing about Amsterdam, in other respects it is sin city.

The other cities in Holland were charming too, they have immaculate gardens and we were impressed by the canals and water flowing through everywhere, making their gardens seems very lush and exotic.

We spent a good deal of time in France in our driving to and from Spain and were able to see many adorable cities. We were blessed to have a GPS system with and so we were able to go on some of the tiniest roads imaginable, which put us in the villages of France. I must say that I think France and Germany have the cutest small towns of any of the countries we passed through.




Some of the highlights of France were getting to see St. Michel, a monastery situated on an island surrounded by the sea. Normandy, with it's truly amazing cliffs and arches on the coasts of the English channel. The Pilat Dune, an enormous sand dune, or mountain which is taking over the forests where it is located. (This this was huge and very hard to climb, but the kids had a blast running and rolling down its sides. We even got to attend a Catholic service the one Sunday we were in France, and were pleasantly surprised to see how well attended it was and how involved various families were in the service.

We will always remember the French bread, and how it truly is a national food. Everyone has a loaf or six loaves under their arm. French pastries are delicious, and expensive!

One of the miraculous stories of our trip occurred in France. We were in Bordeaux, a large city compared to most that we were in France. We were tired and it had been a very long, hot day in the car. We were excited to finally get somewhere and eager to walk around a bit. There was a very impressive fountain there, and then we went to McDonald's to use the Internet for a bit. We were in the city several hours. As we approached our car about 3 hours later, I gasped in shock, seeing my window wasn't there. I thought, "Oh no! Someone has broken our window and stolen something." But there was no glass, and I realized in horror that I had left my window all the way down, for all that time. We were in total shock realizing that our car had been truly protected by the hand of God, not one thing had been touched! Wow!

As we drove southward the weather got continually hotter and by the time we reached the middle of Spain it was about 105 degrees. Spain was not quite what I had anticipated. I hadn't realized how dry it is there. We spent 6 days in Spain, driving through the middle, southward and then back along the coast. The plains were scorching and brown, and reminded me of Montana, where I used to live with my family. Nothing grew there. Then further on there were olive groves, and more olive groves, everywhere olive groves. We visited some towns in Spain, Toledo and Barcelona. But mostly we enjoyed our drive alone the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Janis loved jumping the waves and we had a blast together in the warm waters there. Also the fruit there was superb. It is all local and you could tell the difference! I even got to eat a locally grown avocado! We did a bit of hiking in the Montserrat mountains, and it was fun to see Janis awed by their largeness. (He hadn't seen such large mountains before).

Coming home we drove through the Pyrenees mountains along the road where Tour De France goes. We saw some very cute French houses, and were amazed at the stone roofs they have there. We drove back through Italy too, and even had the chance to see Mont Blanc. The tallest mountain in Europe.

All together we were in 10 countries, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. We were challenged by hot weather, and sometimes uncomfortable living situations. We learned about ourselves and each other, and how we are for real. That is when we are tired, and hot and cranky! We saw fantastically beautiful places and barren ones as well.

Coming back through Germany, we got the chance to visit our friend Tobius. It was the first time in two weeks we got to sleep in a house and we ended up staying two nights and enjoying the cute city of Bieberach where Tobius studies. We ate lots of good Italian ice cream in those two days were were there and enjoyed not having to drive anywhere for a short while. Altogether on this trip we drove apx. 6,500 miles.

But in all I have seen I can say there is no place like home. I can't tell you how excited I am to be in my own home, in Latvia. We drove all night the last night and got home at 6 am. It is rainy and wet, cold and muddy here in Latvia. But who cares? At least I understand Latvian, and can speak it too.

I always thought Latvia was expensive, and gas at about 5 dollars a gallon seemed outrageous, but we have nearly the cheapest gas in all of Europe! Seriously! We are blessed. I guess it takes going to far away places to sometimes realize that what is closest in the most dear.

This is us when we drove into Latvia. We were really excited, even though we had been driving all night.
















Try looking at this link for more pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/9181336@N05/4Yoy4f