TraveLiedtke

Anniversary Weekend in Miraflor

2010-03-14T19:34:00.001-07:00

So we spent our 11th anniversary in the Nature Reserve Miraflor. We'd originally signed up for the treehouse, but when we arrived at dusk and went to inspect it, there was mouse poop everywhere, and the bed was a single--really a thin piece of bowed foam on a plank. We opted for the only remaining cabin available, a concrete jail cell decorated solely with a photo of Che Guevera.

In spite of the wind, and the chilly evenings, we had a lovely weekend exploring the highlands of Nicaragua. We went on a couple tours of the surrounding organic cooperative farms, the local school (where there were 40 horses lined up outside, waiting for their students to return), a coffee laboratory, the surrounding tropical jungle, and a 150 foot strangler fig tree--hollow on the inside--which Fritz climbed along with another tourist girl.

Abran's Beneficio de Cafe in Esteli

2010-03-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

If you love coffee, and good storytelling through photography, check out the new story on Fritz's photography blog, to learn about a local coffee processor in Nicaragua!

The Tisey Reserve and the Eccentric Sculptor Alberto

2010-02-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

Tisey, Nicaragua, is a Reserva Natural, near Esteli, in the North. It’s an area encompassing 9,344 hectares of mountains and valleys, trees and rivers, and farms and farming coops.

Our friend and guide, Carlos, took us on a day-long trek through part of the Reserva, beginning with breakfast at a coop where they grow organic vegetables with organic fertilizer made from the waste of the organically fed cows and goats, which produce organic milk, from which they make swiss-style cheese. From there we made the several-kilometer trek to Alberto’s farm, on the side of one of the hills, where he lives with his siblings on their family farm, where he was born in 1944. Growing coffee, tropical fruits, and other comestibles, they live off of what they grow, and sell the excess for income.

You can read the whole story, and view lots more photos of the eccentric and intriguing Alberto Gutierrez, a sculptor who carves into the hills of his farm in Nicaragua, at Fritz's Photo Blog.

Here are some more photos of our adventure in Tisey:

It was quite a hike, up hill and down, and Shannon did it without complaining, even though she was a bit sick.

Do you want to know what Nicaragua is like?

2010-02-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Nicaragua is-

Waking up at five in the morning with the roosters and all the other tropical birds.

Rice and beans.

The smell of burning garbage.

A lime right off the tree. Or an orange. Or lemon.

Blackouts most evenings, but they only last 5 or 10 minutes.

Dollar pineapples.

Passengers sitting sidesaddle on a bicycle in front of the rider.

Dust and manure.

Fried chicken so hot you can't touch it, and incredibly tasty, for $2.

The way to say that a person is carrying extra weight is to say that they are more beautiful.

The singing swish of vulture's wings, flying low overhead.

If you're moving, you're sweating. If you stand still in the shade, the breeze takes care of you.

When you hear the ringing of little bells, you know the popsicle cart guy is coming down your street, and you can get your fix for a quarter.

Fried sweet plantains.

A dozen mandarin oranges for 75 cents.

Overdubbed american TV shows.

Crickets and dogs barking at night.

El Salvadoran Pupusas, hot off the grill, with cheese inside.

Hola from Esteli

2010-02-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

Special deal for our readers, coke with free spaghetti!!!!

(as seen in our local supermarket)

We've settled in up in the highlands of Nicaragua, where the days are hot but the breeze is fresh and the evenings get refreshingly cool. I even needed my sweatshirt the other night!

The town we're staying in is called Esteli. It's a busy town of about 100,000 people, and it has a sort of rough-and-tumble wild west feel to it, partly because it is just a lively place and partly because of the caballeros (cowboys) roaming through. This is a big agricultural area, and there are lots of cattle ranches, tobacco and coffee farms, as well as lots of vegetable farms around here. This is also a region that produces a lot of leather goods, and there are more shoe stores here than I have ever seen in one place.

We spent the afternoon of our first day here, and the morning of our second day, looking for a place to stay. We'd spent the night in a decent little hotel, but wanted someplace a little homier and with a kitchen, and were willing to commit to a month if we could find a place we loved. We found a british ex-pat woman who had a room for rent in her place, and checked that out. We didn't fall in love with it, but she showed us a few other places she knew about and also helped us make an appointment with a real-estate agent who works with apartments for rent. We met Dona Violeta the next day and she took us all over the place, on foot and by taxi. We saw some humble little Nica style apartments and a huge empty home out in the country. Nothing seemed quite right, though, until she showed us the Hotel Cuallitlan. This place is two gorgeous garden courtyards surrounded by little casitas. Here is the front of ours:

The only little problem is that they don't have kitchens. Well, no problem after all, because the proprietress, Dona Marisela, has done this a time or two! She set me up lickety split with a kitchenette on our front porch. The fridge is inside the house. We negotiated a good price for our month stay, and are enjoying the peace and beauty of this place immensely so far.
A couple views of our house for the next month.

The courtyard and neighboring casitas. Mango and lemon trees included!

We've started language school, and both feel like complete idiots most of the time while in class, although we know we'll make progress. We speak spanish quite a bit with taxi drivers, the folks who work at our hotel, and pretty much everybody we can. Had quite a conversation with a guard outside the cultural museum today, of which I understood about 10 percent. We were asking directions to a church and some other things. His answer was quite lengthy, but he had a strong accent and was pretty much unintelligible. I feel like I can make myself understood, as long as I don't want to talk about anything else besides directions and how much something costs. Not quite true, but my vocabulary is limited enough that it's pretty frustrating.

Esteli doesn't feel as poor or as desperate as some of what we saw in and around Granada, but we still struggle with being rich Americans in a poor country. The per capita annual average income is about what we are spending on housing alone for the two months we're here.

We've been getting settled in, lots of grocery shopping at the markets and tiendas, and walking around town. We are about a 5 minute taxi ride from the center of town, and it costs just about a dollar for both of us. Interestingly, shared taxis are the norm here, so we never know where exactly we might be going en route to our destination, but it's never more than a minute or two out of our way. We both have some writing projects we are working on, and between those and the language school and figuring out life here, I think we'll definitely keep busy.

We miss you all, our friends and family, so would love to hear from you as you have time.

-Shannon

One week in

2010-02-10T06:38:00.000-08:00

We've been in Nicaragua a week now, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. We enjoyed Granada, but the heat guided our move up to Esteli, where we arrived yesterday. It's still quite warm here, but the breeze is cooler, and it cools off much more at night, so we sleep a bit better.

I learned yesterday that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western Hemisphere, coming only behind Haiti in that category. We've been faced with some of the poverty- lots of beggars and heart-rending stories. That, and the fact that civil war is a pretty recent memory make this a complex and difficult place to know. I was walking down the street yesterday, and walked past a pretty teenage girl sitting on a chair on the sidewalk. As I glanced down, I got confused for a moment when the foot that I saw on the ground looked like it belonged to a store mannequin. It took my brain a few moments to register that it was a prosthesis, most likely for a limb blown off by a land mine. Those kinds of stories aren't uncommon around here, where the fighting was most intense. In fact, there are local wilderness areas that are popular hiking destinations, but the guidebooks all point out that you need to make sure to stay on the established paths, no bushwacking, as there are still landmines left out there.

So it's a complex place, and sometimes I'm not sure what we're doing here. It's hot, and uncomfortable, and not as pretty as home. In addition to that, I'm being faced with uncomfortable truths I'd rather not think about, regarding wealth, poverty, and the responsibility of us who claim to be followers of Christ to do what he said regarding the poor.

This hasn't been an easy trip. It's certainly nothing like traveling around europe, or visiting a vacation spot in Mexico. That said, we start language school today, and we're going to travel around town looking for a spot to rent for the month. We'd like to settle in a bit and see what we can learn. Learning spanish is an important part of this trip, but there may be even more important things to learn while we're here.

settling in

2010-02-05T09:11:00.001-08:00

So here we are in Granada, Nicaragua. It is the morning of our second day here, and we are still trying to get the hang of things. Granada turns out to be a pretty little town. There are plenty of travelers here, but tourism is a fairly new thing in Nicaragua, so it has a nice feeling to it. Sure, there are expat sports bars and Irish pubs (I think there are Irish pubs everywhere in the world!!), but the town is an old Colonial city, and has a look and feel I've never seen before.

As you walk around town, the buildings are classic colonial style, meaning huge doors with iron bars on them which open into big tall front rooms (often 17 ft high) leading into open courtyards within. It's fun to walk around and look into people's houses, because the courtyards always look like mysterious secret gardens inside. Houses are concrete cinder block, painted all kinds of lively tropical colors. Our own house color would fit in quite well!

Below is one lovely garden we peeked into. Fancier than some, but they are all pretty nice.

Yesterday evening we walked to the town square, a big open park near the cathedral. Here is a picture of the park and cathedral both, with the volcanic mountains looming up behind. It is very pretty here.
We are staying in a lovely, family owned guest house. The couple that own it are very friendly and we're enjoying chatting with them quite a bit. We are on one of the rooms up on the second floor that they have turned into hotel rooms, and have a little outdoor kitchen to cook in. Our room isn't fancy, but nice enough and the view from the table on the balcony is nice. There's a lime tree growing in the courtyard and I see sun-soaked roof tiles and a big blue sky. Bits of coconut trees are sticking up over the roofline.

I haven't yet mentioned the single most challenging thing about being here. It is hot. Really hot and humid. The weather report this week is for temperatures from 95-100 all week, and I don't know the humidity, but it is high enough to feel fairly sticky. The thing that is different about being here, though, is that we haven't seen an air conditioner yet. In all of our other travels to hot places, (Thailand, India, Taiwan) a/c is really common, in almost every shop and definitely in people's homes. Here we have fans. Fans are better than nothing, but we are feeling pretty melty and the heat makes it hard to sleep. I am not complaining, but it is certainly making us consider heading up into the mountains for much of our trip here. So far we are pretty groggy, headachy and just kind of feel gross. I'm sure we'll adjust, but we weren't expecting it to be this hot. We've already booked the place we're staying for the next couple weeks, so we're kind of stuck here, but after that, we are looking for someplace cooler.

Alright, enough whining. We are probably going to head up to a lake not far from here for the day tomorrow for some swimming, then Monday we are going to start language school. I am pretty intimidated about speaking spanish with folks, although Fritz is just jumping right in. His blog post about our Spanish being a competition cracked me up, since his Spanish is so much better than mine. He has been chatting people up left and right, while I have to practice sentences in my head before I am brave enough to spit them out. I am sure I'll get better as we practice and study, but I am feeling very rusty. French would come a lot easier right now.

We love that you are reading along with our adventures and would love to hear from you!! We miss all our friends and family, and hope you keep us in your prayers and thoughts!

-Shannon

On the Road Again

2010-02-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

So I’m sitting on an American Airlines flight between Dallas and Miami, on the way to Nicaragua, reading Nexos, their Spanish-language in-flight magazine. After twenty minutes, my head is already spinning, as I try to recall the meaning of words I haven’t studied in 20 years. I made my way through a third of an article on Mexican basketball, and am pretty proud of myself.

It’s not like I haven’t been practicing. Since returning from Thailand two weeks ago, I’ve spent about twenty minutes a day with a Spanish CDROM from my mother in law. Even last night, fighting hard to stay asleep (why is it so hard to sleep when you know you have to get up at 4:15 am?), I found myself practicing Spanish in my head, then telling myself to shut up and go to sleep.

We’re headed to Nicaragua not just for the 95-degree weather and beans and rice, but more importantly, to immerse ourselves in studying Spanish. But the idea of four straight hours a day of Spanish class—one on one with a tutor—has me a little nervous. First of all, I haven’t been in real school in twenty years (I went back and got a fine arts degree 8 years ago…). I also haven’t studied Spanish in twenty years, since I took a year in high school and two in college. And, honestly, at 38, I’m finding that my mental cognition is not quite what it used to be.

Two years ago, Shannon and I spent nine days in Zihuatanejo, Mexico with her family, and a close friend, Melissa. I’d been in Mexico the previous couple of winters for a week of sunshine, but had a hard time getting out more than an hola here and there. But in Zihua, the minute we arrived at our lodging, I started talking with the clerk in Spanish, asking if he could give us a quieter room. For some reason, the Spanish just flowed out of me (in a halting, pathetic sort of way), and I took every opportunity I could to speak Spanish. In fact, one day, exchanging money at the bank with my friend Melissa, the teller helping me told me that my accent was much better than Melissa’s. This managed to piss off Melissa to no end, considering that’s she’s fluent in Spanish, and has lived in Central America for years at a time. I, on the other hand, walked out of the bank glowing.

Encouragement from bank tellers aside, I’m far from fluent. And what’s more, my wife eats languages for lunch, and has a brain like a magnet. Every country we visit, she picks up on far more words than I—even surprising our Slovak hosts once by pulling a complete sentence out of nowhere: Dyacuyem za shetko (Thank you for everything). She dreams in Latin names for plants. She aces her nursing school tests using words like hydrochlorothiozide, hydrogen ion gradient, and gastrocnemius. She learned rudimentary Spanish on the job at Waremart selling video rentals to Mexican farm workers. And now I have to go up against her, head to head in one-on-one Spanish study in Nicaragua.

Maybe a little friendly competition will do me good.

***

In some ways, this is a different sort of adventure than we’ve undertaken before. We’re viewing Nicaragua more as a place to live for two months, rather than just a place to visit and explore. Exploring will happen, to be sure, but our two primary goals are: Spanish, and writing.

This past summer, I re-read a book by my friend Rolf Potts called Vagabonding, something of a bible on the art of long-term world travel. He spoke of his experience of living in Laos long term, in order to write a book. This got me to thinking about where in the world we could live on, say, $12,000 a year. A person could save up that much, and then go take a year off, having time to be the person they didn’t have time to be in their normal workaday lives.

Our criteria included: sunshine, affordability, and the ability to get along without having to learn an entirely new, entirely foreign language. This last criterion ruled out SE Asia. And then we landed on the idea of Central or South America. We thought: why not study Spanish? We’ve always wanted to. We’ve never had an assignment or vacation that took us anywhere Spanish-speaking other than a few days in Spain and a few vacations in Mexico. We ruled out Mexico (pricey, and too many run-ins with Montezuma’s Revenge), Argentina (too much accent), and Costa Rica (too touristy). After reading further, we landed on Nicaragua: just as beautiful as CR, just as safe (according to the UN), but far cheaper.

And that landed us on this American Airlines flight between Dallas and Miami. Away from home and nursing school (Shannon took her NCLEX test yesterday, and we found out today that she passed) and work (although I always bring my work with me, in the form of a camera), we’re looking forward to learning the language, having time to think and write, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and seeing what memories we make to take home with us.

Hasta luego, amigos!

2010-01-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

After much technical difficulty (I've already tried to post this twice) I think I'll finally be able to provide some pictures for the 3 people who are faithfully reading our blog.

Thailand was great. Hot weather, warm water, good food, and a great time with friends. Iven and Kashmira live in a pretty tough neighborhood, working with people who lead difficult lives. It was a privilege to be able to head off with them to the sunny beaches of Koh Maak island! We spent a week lazing about in hammocks, swimming, snorkeling, eating and reading. Not bad!

Fritz learns to cut a fresh coconut for drinking. You just have to watch out not to spend too much time under coconut trees, because when those suckers come down, somebody could get hurt. I'm really surprised we don't hear about more falling coconut deaths in the world.

Our beach bungalow, hammocks included.

Fritz and Iven in the back of a pickup truck taxi.

I'll post more pictures, and a narrative about the rest of the trip when I've got things a bit more organized.

Oh, the good life.

2010-01-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I hate to brag, but we really like it here.

We are on the tiny island of Ko Maak, and it is stunning here. We've spent the last couple days lazing about in hammocks, swimming, snorkeling, reading and eating fantastic Thai food. Oh yeah, and an hour Thai massage is about $10. The only negative is the very real possibility of getting beaned by a falling coconut. Well, it wouldn't be a bad way to go!!

We are having a great time with Iven and Kashmira, and are learning more about their very difficult work in Bangkok's red light district. We're pretty excited just to hang out and encourage them and listen to their amazing stories about life here, as well as praying with them about their work. They are expecting a child in less than two months, so they are in for some big changes soon. They are good people, and it is a privilege to spend some time with them in such a place.

It's wednesday here now, and it looks like we'll be staying on the island until friday, maybe saturday, then returning to Bangkok for some shopping and big city life. We're looking forward to seeing Iven and Kashmira's real day-to-day life, as well as meeting some of their friends and neighbors.

On an unrelated note, I finally got permission to schedule my nursing board examinations! I've been waiting on a paperwork jam to clear up, and now it has! Yay. I am excited to get this over with and be a real nurse. I guess I'll have to start studying!

Love you all,
Shannon

From Thailand

2010-01-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

I am writing from a little internet cafe on the island of Ko Maak, a ways Southeast of Bangkok. Sorry no pictures today, but we're using strange computers and no way to load our pix-- may not be able to until we get back to Bangkok on Saturday. Today is our third day in the country, and we've had a great time so far, although I've already gone one round with, um, travelers belly. It is hot and muggy (not unexpected, but a shock to a winter-conditioned body). We are staying at a fantastic collection of beach-side thatched huts next door to our good friends Iven & Kashmira.

I'll recap our last couple days:

Flight- we left thursday morning portland time, and had uneventful flights to Sea-Tac, then Seoul and on to Bangkok. We lost friday in the flight west, and landed early saturday morning in Bangkok. Our friend Iven picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel for a few hours of sleep.

Day 1, Saturday: We got up, joined our friends for breakfast, and met up with some friends of Iven & Kashmira for a 3 hour van ride to a wedding on the coast. We didn't know anyone there to start with, but had a nice time and met lots very friendly and interesting people. Fritz took some beautiful photographs of the beach-front wedding. We stayed at the resort where the wedding was held overnight.

Day 2, Sunday: We hired a "Song Tao"(a pickup truck with benches along each side) for the 2 hour ride to our ferry terminal. Dusty and sort of wild, but fun. We caught the ferry, and headed to our island. We had a tough time finding a place to stay, as it is high tourist season, and didn't like the first place we checked out. We ended up at a sweet little family run place away from the main beaches, hiding out in the jungle that costs about $18 a night. We set up house and will probably stay there several days, though things are flexible at this point.

Day 3, today: Slept in, worked out, went for a swim, and headed into town. We found some dirt trails and went for an impromptu hike. Now we're checking in with the wider world on the internet, and will grab some lunch and some Thai massage in a bit.

I'm kind of hot and spaced out, so I'm not too poetic with the writing, but I'll get back to you all with more thoughts and hopefully some pictures later.

-Shannon

Heading off again

2009-12-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a long, long time since we published anything on this blog. Oh, just checked, and it was June 2008, when we'd just got back from Europe and I was starting Nursing school. Well, I'm done with that adventure now, having graduated last weekend!!! (Don't I look happy!)

It's time to travel again, and this time we are going to Thailand for two weeks, then Nicaragua for the months of February and March. We're pretty excited to be on the road again, ready for some adventures and thinking time outside our daily lives. We both are going to try to do some writing, take lots of pictures, learn some language, eat some good stuff and stay healthy.

Stay tuned on this blog for the updates!

Testing

2009-08-11T16:22:00.001-07:00

Been a while, just checking I still know how to use this thing.

Reentry

2008-06-06T17:22:00.001-07:00

Our week of reentry hasn't been as difficult as we had anticipated. However, it has been one of much reevaluation of our lives and priorities. After 3 months of living a different life--one full of adventure, good food, a frequent sense of wonder, an abundance of time, and a conspicuous lack of stress--it is hard to return home. Fritz knew it would be, and didn't want to come home to a dark and rainy climate, a messy and cold house, and a city that we know well enough that it no longer offers much wonder.

But we are hard-pressed to complain, really. To most of the world, our life is a dream, a fantasy, and we are absolutely blessed in every way. But still, our thoughts are nagged by what we had, and we want to keep open and expanded this space that was created in in our minds and hearts in Europe.

We have been working this week to sit down to meals, together. It makes us talk, it stops us from jonesing for constant entertainment and distraction. It makes us focus on enjoying good food. It helps us breathe. We just went shopping, and didn't concern ourselves too much with the cost of good cheese and quiche. I don't know how this works itself into a household budget, but our values have changed: we want to eat good food, not consume it. As someone has noted: Americans are not materialists, they are consumerists. Europeans are materialists, because they enjoy what they have.

We want to be more generous. We want to lavish hospitality on those that enter our home, not skimp.

We want, somehow, to live in the moment. We did this for 3 months, rarely worrying about anything, rarely thinking about what comes next to the detriment of what is currently happening. Of the list, this seems the most difficult goal to attain. I have been working on this for years: slowing down, not worrying, trusting the Lord, being present. But it is a constant process of reminding myself: slow down. Don't rush. Be here.

Use less fuel. We returned home to a nation in uproar over $4/gallon gas. Big whoop, America. Europe pays $8-10/gallon (at least, with our current exchange rate), so it's still relatively cheap here. But more than cost, it's what we were more attuned to while traveling: the changing weather patterns people complained of in Provence; the smog everywhere we went (including visible, from the air, toward the north pole); the broken ice floes in the arctic; the wealth and power wielded by those in control of oil in the Arab world. We work very hard to use as little gas and oil as possible, but we want to use even less. Somehow.

And finally, love. We had a wonderful time together as a couple in Europe. We spent much of every day together, and rarely were short or cross. In fact, to Shannon's frequent embarrassment, we did a lot of kissing (if the Parisians do it, why can't we?). We felt like we were on a honeymoon. We had time and space for each other. We learned more about chivalry and service. We communicated well.

God called us on this trip, and we thought he wanted us to go and bless other people by serving on the mission field. In the end, it turns out he wanted to serve us a little bit, and also to help us serve each other. We are blessed.

Fritz and Shannon, June 6, 2008

Travel Tally

2008-05-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

We are in the last leg of our journey, spending 4 days making our way home. We leave Morocco, head through Ceuta to Algeciras, through Gibraltar to London, then to San Francisco to Portland. Please be praying for us as we travel; it’s a long road, and can be exhausting. But we’ve had a good week in Morocco, spending some time with friends here, encouraging them. We’ve both been a bit sick, but are now feeling better.

We've been working, before and after our time in Morocco, in Algeciras, Spain. There we have been working with OM Artslink alongside the local OM team. It's been great, and we feel like we knew these people well after only a few hours together. Fritz has been photographing what they do (making art, leading a bookmaking/life-story workshop with local women, etc.) for OM. And Shannon jumped right in, cooking, setting up, etc. It's been a delight.

It’s been a wonderful journey, and Fritz could keep going, but Shannon is ready to go home. And it’s a good time to do so. We’ve met so many wonderful people on this trip, rested, ministered, served, photographed, worked, cooked, vacationed, toured. Don't forget to check Fritz's blog, to see photos from all these places (www.fritzphoto.blogspot.com).

Here are some fun numbers we came up with as we reviewed the past 3 months:

The Tally

Countries and the number of times we’ve visited them (colonies and enclaves listed separately):

England 2x
France 2x
Austria 2x
Slovakia 2x
Hungary 1x
Spain 3x
Gibraltar (Britain) 1x
Ceuta (Spain) 2x
Morocco 1x

Languages Used:

English
French
Chinese
Spanish
German
Slovakian
Hungarian
Arabic
Italian

Beds (Different Places Stayed):

Munsie-Rodman Family, Hazel Grove, Manchester, England
Carnegie-Brown Family, Old Maids Farm, Brompton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, England
York Bed and Breakfast, York, England
Manna House, London, England
Paris Apartment (converted 16th C. horse stables), Paris, France
Drouet Family, Nantes, France
Plaster Family, Paris, France
Nesca Rt. Ctr., Torremolinos, Spain
Sebo Family Cabin, Blatnica, Slovakia
Nameless Soviet Era Hotel, Budapest, Hungary
Sebo Family Home, Bratislava, Slovakia
Mercure Hotel, Montpellier, France
Gite Coume, Plavilla, Languedoc, France
Mas de la Senancole Hotel, Les Imberts, Provence, France
Wycliffe Hospitality House, Algeciras, Andalucia, Spain
Hernandez Family, Cabo Negro, Morocco

Modes of Transport:

Planes
Trains
Automobiles
Bus
Underground

Trolley
Ferry
Canalboat
Bicycle
Foot

Favorites:

England: Hiking the Yorkshire Dales
Paris: Hanging out until 2am over dinner with Parisian friends; Musee d’Orsay
Western France: Mt St Michel
Torremolinos, Spain: Sunshine and Birdsong in the Garden of Casa Nesca
Slovakia: Barbecue and Home Winery Tour
Hungary: Budapest’s Schezenyi Spa
Languedoc, South France: Hiking the countryside, Hill Towns, Wine and Pinochle, and the All Night Bird/Frog Serenade
Provence, South France: Hill Towns, Bories
Algeciras, Spain: The First Communion Parade
Morocco: Riff Mountains to Chefchaouen

Overall Favorite:

Getting to know people from all over the world (English, Welsh, Irish, Zimbabwean, Filipino, German, Dutch, Finnish, Singaporean, Chinese, French, Slovak, Hungarian, Moroccan, Nigerian, American, Canadian)

Things we missed most about America:

Plentiful public drinking fountains
Free wifi
Shannon’s bicycle

Thing that surprised us the most:

Squatty-potties in France

Thing that most annoyed us in Europe:

The exchange rate on the weak US Dollar

One thing we wish America would adopt from European culture:

The leisurely, multi-course meal, with more cheese.

Pierced in Carcasonne

2008-05-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to pierce my nose since I was about 15. Not sure why I never got around to it in my younger days, but of late the idea has come up again. I love being in my thirties, and I feel like I am turning into myself, if that makes any sense. I wanted to celebrate this great time in my life and this amazing European journey, so in Carcasonne, France, I searched out a tattoo/piercing shop and had it done.
Fritz tells me I squealed like a little girl, but I don't remember that part. It was pretty startling, though.

Since the last time we wrote, from Slovakia, we have been spending time in the south of France with our dear friends Jeff and Joanne Peterson. They are a great couple with a relaxed attitude and a fantastic sense of humor. Jeff had us in stitches a number of times. Here they are in the medieval part of Carcasonne.

We traveled around and saw much of the Languedoc region, as well as Provence. The weather was good, and the poppies were in bloom. We went to markets, visited tiny villages, ate good food, enjoyed the wine, and did our best to speak french.

Here is Fritz in Roussillon, a town famous for its ocher pigments, mined out of the hillside next to town. (You can view his photos of the town, and others, at his photo blog: www.fritzphoto.blogspot.com.)

This was the head of an ad hoc reception committee in the town of Beziers. I had to include him because it is such a sweet story. Our friend Joanne is in a wheelchair, so we had parked in the handicap spot. This fellow came along and started talking to us. As you may know, I speak some French, but I am certainly not fluent, and at first I thought we were in trouble for using the handicapped parking, even though we had a real reason and a permit. After a moment, though, I realized that he was just explaining very thoroughly to us that because it was Saturday, we did not have to pay for parking, and he was very concerned that we might pay when we didn't have to. He went on to tell us all about the town of Beziers, where we should go to visit, and pointed the directions we should go to see various things. I understood about half of what he told us, but got the gist of it all. Then, as we were setting off, he strode into the crosswalk and raised his cane like the sword of an avenging angel, stopping traffic so that we could all pass safely across the street.

We thanked him and said our goodbyes, but his warmth and kindness was exemplary of what we received all through the Languedoc region. People were kind and welcoming, and seemed amused, not annoyed, with our shabby French. Provence seemed a bit more tourist weary, but still friendly. If your ideas of France are formed by what you have heard about Paris, this felt like a whole different world, and we recommend the southern countryside wholeheartedly.

This weekend we are back in Southern Spain, pitching in on an Arts outreach project with OM's ArtsLink, and we leave Monday to visit some dear friends in Morocco for the week. We return home to Oregon on the second, and I have three weeks to get everything situated before I start nursing school at Linfield School of Nursing, in northwest Portland.

Slovakia & Hungary

2008-05-08T02:40:00.000-07:00

This has been one exciting week. We arrived in Slovakia friday afternoon at our friend Monika Šebova´s house in Bratislava, the capitol city. We were quickly whisked off for a weekend in Central Slovakia, up in the high mountains. We stayed in a beautiful village called Blatnica (pronounced blatnitsa). We had a quiet weekend, just resting and walking and puttering around. Monika´s boyfriend Roland made us some fantastic food. He is Slovakian, but has Hungarian roots, so he made us real hungarian goulash over the fire, and other specialties. They each have a dog, both bichon frise breed, so we had some fun canine company for the weekend.

On Monday morning, we returned to Bratislava, only to leave again for a nights stay in Budapest. Roland lived there for 10 years and offered to take us there and let us wander around while he had some meetings for his business. Monika ended up taking the day off and came with us too! I never thought much about Budapest, nor did I ever expect to go there and it was a delightful surprise. We were there for about 20 hours, some of which were unfortunately spent sleeping. We really loved the town, but only got to see a small part of it. We spent lots of time walking around and looking at the sights, and stumbled upon a fantastic Art Nouveau building that is one of the loveliest buildings I have ever seen. I cant remember when it was built, but it had fallen into disrepair when the 4 Seasons Hotel chain bought it and restored it to its former glory. Someday we will come back to Budapest and maybe we could stay there for a night.

Hungarians are big on going to communal baths or spas, so we took the opportunity to go check one out. It was right in the center of town in an enormous park- kind of like central park in New York. It was so much fun. The spa is in this huge old rambling building that has been very well cared for. Lots of light and beautiful tile. There are 3 or 4 saunas, a steam room, a cold bath, a hot bath, a lukewarm bath and a therapy pool. And that is just indoors. Then you go outside and there is a sunbathing area, another hot pool with tons of massaging jets, a cool pool for lap swimming, and a medium temperature pool for just dinking around in. There is a circular area in the middle where huge jets of water get a fast current going, and you can race around in a circle just bobbing along and trying not to get pushed into the people around you. Many of you know how much I love to swim and be in the water, so you´ll know that I was in heaven. We stayed about 3 hours, but I could have stayed all day.

After Budapest, we came back to Bratislava, and spent yesterday exploring central Bratislava´s old town. Much smaller than Budapest, but absolutely lovely and we really enjoyed ourselves. We found a shop that sold old books and Fritz found a gorgeous old woodcut print that he bought for a souvenir. Fritz took a lot of pictures of the beautiful old buildings, and I imagined that I was living here in the early part of the century. Some areas had no cars, so it was easy to imagine that I was in another era.

In the evening, we had a great time with Monika, Roland and Monika´s parents, Imrich and Daniela. We had a barbecue outside in the clear spring evening, and stayed up late into the night drinking wine, talking, eating, and watching ice hockey (Slovakia´s favorite sport!). Imrich, a talented musician, serenaded us with jazz standards and then showed us his wine cellar. He, as a hobby, makes in impressive array of delicous wines in his basement. We talked about the long relationship between Monika´s family and mine, and basically enjoyed ourselves to the hilt.

Today we went to see Devin castle. It was a beautiful ruin on a high hill above the confluence of the Danube river and the Morava river. Pictures are better than words.

Monika and Roland together.

Tomorrow we fly back to France. We are going to Nice, to be exact, to meet our good friends Jeff and Joanne Peterson to have some relaxing time in the sunny south of France.

My Office in Spain

2008-05-01T04:02:00.001-07:00

Fritz’s turn for a few thoughts.

As Shannon mentioned, it really has been a wonderful week of rest, prayer, reflection, writing, editing, and ministry here on the Mediterranean coast. I’ve enjoyed it immensely, and feel refreshed and ready for the rest of our travels. The Lord specifically led us here, and now we see why. If we’d kept moving and adventuring continuously on this trip, it would have been too much. As it is, we feel rested, ready, and like the Lord has had plenty of time to speak to us about a number of things. Plus, we’ve had some specific opportunities to counsel and care for some people here, which has been a real joy.

We’ve been talking about how to rearrange parts of our life back home, so it doesn’t feel so cluttered. Specifically we’ve been talking about our house. The idea came to us to move my office from the crammed 10x12 foot upstairs room, where I run 2 businesses and my artwork, and which often spills into the living and dining rooms. It is always cluttered and piled with stuff do to and stuff to arrange. We’ve decided to move it downstairs into the ‘new’ room I built some time ago, tripling my space. I’m really excited about this. Room to spread out, room to work, room to breathe.

Speaking of offices, this has been my office in Spain:

The view is great, the breeze cool and lovely, the light wonderful.

Shannon and I have always had the desire to run a hospitality house. It’s something of a buried desire, one we don’t have time for and barely room for. It’s something we submit to the Lord and wait for his timing on. We’ve always wanted to have a house and space in the country in which to host people, give them rest. A retreat, private, open for people to come and be quiet, reflect, pray, hear from the Lord. A place for people to be refreshed, and from which they can return to their normal lives and ministries with new strength, insight, and direction. I’d not only enjoy hosting, but also designing and building and caring for such a place. And Shannon is an excellent hostess and cook. Being at two such places now in Europe has only intensified this desire. But we’ll continue to give it back to Jesus, and see when and if he desires for this to become a reality someday. We’ll see.

The Dogs of Spain

2008-05-01T03:58:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of dogs in Spain. I’m not sure what they’re here for, maybe they are all watchdogs. The Spanish dogs don’t really seem like pets, the way people treat them. In the neighborhood where we’re staying, there have to be at least 30-40 dogs almost all locked behind high walls, though a few are free to chase me as I walk to and from town. From time to time, they all start barking and howling and baying all at once. It’s not clear what sets them off, but they all get into it together, and then their owners come out and yell obscenities, shoot guns, and kick the dogs. Quite lively. Many of you know my sister Andrea lived in Sevilla (Seville), Spain for a year a while back. I remember her saying that dog poo all over the sidewalk was one of the quintessential characteristics of Southern Spain. Now that I’ve been here, I quite agree-I‘ve stepped right in that particular characteristic! Here is one of the dogs of Spain: Cora--she’s a sweetie, owned by the folks who run the retreat center we’ve been staying at. She’s an anomaly, cared for and loved and well behaved; although she, too, likes to howl on occasion. But we can shush her with a few kind words.

All complaining aside, we’ve had a lovely time staying in Torremolinos, on the Southern Coast of Spain. We are up in the hills a ways, a bit of a hike from the town center and the beach. That’s fine, because we have had a fantastic time resting, praying, reading, thinking, writing, and just spending time with God, each other, and the great people who have been here. There are three other guests besides us, and along with the hosts, we’ve had a lot of fun and some really fantastic times of praying together and encouraging one another. Here’s the whole bunch of us at a potluck dinner (or as the Brits say, American Supper):

I am realizing a lot more about some of the anxieties and ways of thinking that make my life hurried, rushed and stressed. As I prepare to be in school again, especially the condensed nursing program that I am entering, I would like to be able to bring a better mindset to it so that I don’t turn into such a basket-case. I am really working on not always needing to be distracted by books, movies, music, food, etc. I am trying to be clear minded, completely present, and to learn to just rest in the love that Christ offers me. It’s hard work for me, but this week has been a nice time to reflect and identify some of my weak areas. I’m not picking myself apart- not at all! It’s just nice to identify where I might need extra help and ask God and my family and friends to help me in those places. Here’s the garden where I’ve been doing all this deep thinking:

Tomorrow, we leave for Bratislava, Slovakia. There we’ll be spending a week with our old friend Monika Sebova, who lived with my family as an exchange student when Andrea and Carmen were in high school. We are staying with her and her parents, and they are going to help us explore Bratislava, and then they said we’d go to Central Slovakia to stay in a house they own up in the mountains. This is the part of the trip that starts to feel pretty exotic. I’ve never been to central Europe before, and I don’t speak more than two words of Slovak. I know Monika and her family will take care of us, but there will be plenty of times where we’ll be wandering about on our own. I guess that sort of adventure is the whole reason we came on this trip!

Today is May 1st, and we return home on June 2nd, so we’ve just got one month left on this journey. I am excited about the rest of our itinerary, but I’m also beginning to feel excited about returning home. I have a lot to look forward to, and I am getting pretty excited about school, and also about riding the Seattle-to-Portland bike ride again in July. This year, I won’t be riding alone! My dear friend, Melissa Toucet will be riding with me, and I think it will be a blast to ride together. Despite my best intentions, I just haven’t had much chance to ride bicycles while on this trip, so just like last year I’ll be on the “not-quite-enough-time-to-do-this-properly“, accelerated training program. Oh well. I learned last year that if I just keep turning those pedals, I will arrive in the end.

Well, how’s that for a hodge podge of thoughts! I’ll sign off for now.

Accepted!

2008-04-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

The good news from here. I just got an email from my dear friend Melissa who is managing things on the home front for us saying I have been accepted to Linfield School of nursing for the term starting June 23! I am still waiting to hear from OHSU to see if I have a choice between the two schools, but either way, I´ll be starting school in June. It´s such a relief to not be wondering any more.

Our Favorite Airport

2008-04-25T02:26:00.000-07:00

And yet more from Fritz, with some interlocutions and amendations by Shannon:

Did you know that Portland, Oregon, has the best airport in the world? That’s our official opinion. Here’s why:

- It’s pretty, for the most part. The new award-winning (and, incidentally, copyrighted) design lets in lots of natural light, and feels roomy. (Seattle has a nice food court that’s light and roomy, and has good art. But that’s all we can say for it.)

- It’s easy to get around. Admittedly, as airports go, it’s not terribly large. But still.

- There’s no smoking indoors.

- Getting into the city is cheap and fast. For around $2, you can buy a MAX ticket that takes you directly from the airport into the city in about 20 minutes. I don’t think you can beat that anywhere else in the civilized, non-Socialist world. (Shannon says I should simply say: We haven’t seen anybody beat that anywhere that we’ve been.)

- Free WiFi! Is that brilliant, or what?

- Best of all, in our opinion, is that the vendors are required to sell their goods at street prices. Most airport vendors charge you whatever they want, since, once you’re locked safely in the prison of the airport, you have no other options. But not Portland. Your burger or coffee or book costs the same there as it would at the same shop elsewhere in Portland. Travel to San Fran or Madrid or London, and even if the exchange rate didn’t double the price of anything, you’d have a hard time enjoying your lousy meal with the taste of gall in your mouth.

- And you don’t pay tax in Oregon.

- Last but not least, Oregon is the most beautiful place in the world. Or would be, if it didn’t rain all the time. And wasn’t cold and dark in the winter and make you want to go to Mexico or Spain every January.

Dreams in Europe with Rick Steves

2008-04-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

Fritz here.

Our last night in Paris, Shannon and I both dreamt of meeting Rick Steves on our travels. We have not seen, spoken of, read, or in any other way been exposed to Rick Steves the past several weeks, so why we should both dream of meeting him on our travels on the same night seems rather odd. An omen? Stay posted.

Nantes

2008-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

We're back in Paris for a quick night before we fly out to Spain for a week and a half of relaxation. We've been staying in Nantes with our good family friends, Monique and Patrick Drouet.

Before I talk about Nantes, though, I want to show you this:

Remember in the movie Ratatouille? It's a real shop in Paris. They sell rat traps and poison.

And now back to Nantes. We know the Drouet family from way back, when my sister Andrea went on an excursion to France that included a family homestay and a bicycle trip around the french countryside. This is that family! There have been visits back and forth for many years now, and when we wrote to say that we would be in france, they welcomed us with open arms. We had a fantastic visit of 6 days, and we saw all kinds of amazing sights and ate fantastic french food. (Beaucoup de fromage et vin.) We have a lot of fun together, and even though they speak almost no english, we communicated fairly well. I dredged up my rusty french from high school and got up to speed fairly quickly.

Here we are having fun with our after dinner tea. They have a lot of tea. (More than me even!) Sorry that it's blurry.

Here are Monique and Patrick, in front of Mont St. Michel, one of the 7 wonders of the world, so I am told.

Here's Mont St. Michel by itself. We were lucky enough to have sun that day. It's amazing, and if you get a chance to visit it, I recommend it. The tiny village at the base is really touristy, but the whole setup is so beautiful. I walked around gobsmacked the entire day.

Monique and Patrick have two grown kids, both with partners and kids of their own. It was fantastic to see them all again after all these years and to meet the new generation. I am exhausted from speaking french and translating everything for Fritz, but it was worth it!

Tomorrow we leave for Spain, and I'm not sure whether or not we'll have internet access, but I'm looking forward to lying low for a while.

Toodling in Versailles

2008-04-21T06:41:00.003-07:00

Here's a photo of Shannon in Versailles, as we toodled around on rented bikes. That was fun.

Thanks to those of you who were praying for our travel needs. After about 6 hours of research, I (Fritz) was able to find some better prices on flights, which was encouraging.

We've also been encouraged by little ways we've seen God move here in France while we've been here. A conversation here, a book given there. Our Christian friends here in Paris were just telling us about their Bible study this past weekend, and how God was doing some unexpected and beautiful things in a couple people's lives--people we met and chatted with last week, and for whom we've been praying a lot this past week. Pretty cool. Thanks for joining us in prayer for France and for our time here.

Typing with a French Accent

2008-04-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Fritz. Did you know that the British have a different keyboard than the Americans? Some punctuation here and there different or missing, the Enter key pushed further to the right so you hit a punctuation mark rather than Enter. But then you go to France...and it's really different. Whole letters are moved around. They have twice as much punctuation. The @ symbol is hard to find and requires a special key to get to. The place where a letter should be under one finger is a bunch of punctuation. Whew!

If we talk we have an accent. If we type we have an accent. We just can't win!

This is zhqt q sentence zould look like if I typed nor,qlly on this keyboqrdm pretty funny; huh§ Sounds like I hqve q funny qccent even zhen typing: You should try reqding this out loudm I bet it zould be auite hilqrious1

paris so far

2008-04-12T04:34:00.001-07:00

The eiffel tower at 7:30 in the morning.
I was walking past Notre Dame at 8:00, and heard the bells chiming the hour.
Creepy and beautiful, in the Jardins des Tuileries.

Paris so far:
We’ve been in Paris for 5 days, and have 4 more to go.
We are living in a tiny apartment in the Marais neighborhood of the Rive Droit (the north side of the Seine river). The apartment is about 12 ft square, but it’s tall and they’ve added in a loft with a desk, a closet and a sleeping platform. Downstairs is a microscopic kitchen, bathroom, and sitting area. It’s small, but perfectly adequate. (Although I have no idea how our two small suitcases have managed to produce all of our junk spread out through this place!) This neighborhood, the Marais, is the old jewish quarter, but has of late become a hot spot for nightlife and fancy little boutiques. Interesting mix. We’ve been shopping at all the local little food shops. there are great bakeries, cheese shops, kosher butcher shops, fruit stands, wine shops, and everything, all quite close. And we found a chocolate shop the other day. Oooh yeah. There’s a fantastic Falafel restaurant a block away, and lots of the pastry/bread shops sell fantastic quiches and sandwiches that are great to take on a picnic in the parks.
We’ve had some great times here. We’ve done a lot of wandering around, poking our noses into shops and watching people. We also got a delightful surprise the other day when we got a call from Rob Plaster. We didn’t know Rob, but he and his wife Nichole live and work here in Paris, and are friends of dear friends of ours, Rich and Joyce Swingle. Apparently Rich told Rob and Nichole that we were in town and they called us up and invited us out to lunch. We spent a fantastic time eating together and then went back to their place for coffee and great conversation. We left, but they invited us to a movie with a cinema discussion group that they oversee, so we joined them again that evening for “Penelope”, which I loved.
Yesterday we went to Versailles. After getting on the wrong train and figuring out how to get onto the right one, we had an uneventful trip out there. The chateau itself is, well, … it’s huge. We didn’t go inside, because I think it is sort of menacing, or even obscene. The grounds, however, are a different story. When I came to Versailles in 1996 with my family, we rented bicycles and cruised the grounds and had a great time. Fritz and I decided to do the same thing. It was sunny (though chilly) and dinking around Versailles on cruiser bikes yesterday was dreamy. We dawdled and poked along, taking our time and going down every alleyway that looked interesting. We stopped for sandwiches and later got strawberry ice cream. After we turned in the bikes, I spent some time journaling and Fritz went out and took pictures of the tourists. All in all, a satisfying day.
Today Fritz is shopping at the open air food market, and I’m home catching up on laundry and blog responsibilities. Plus some reading and eating of chocolate. Later, we’re going to the base of the Eiffel tower to join a group for a bicycle tour of the highlights of Paris. Yay, more biking! The rain is supposed to roll in tomorrow, so we’ll probably focus more on indoor pursuits from now on, like the Musee D’Orsay and the Louvre, along with some browsing at the big department stores. I have also found a museum on the history of textiles and fashion, which I’m going to try to see before we leave here.
I have found that my French is unbelievably rusty. I thought I’d do alright, but I find I am struggling to understand people. I can make myself understood OK, and I can understand most of what I read if I go slowly. Oh well, after Paris, we’ll have at least three more weeks in France. Next week we’ll be staying with our dear old family friends, the Drouet Family, in Nantes. Andrea first stayed with them on a short exchange trip back in High School, and we’ve been visiting back and forth for many years. We’ll be staying with Monique and Patrick Drouet, the parents, who don’t speak much English. Their kids, Jerome and Geraldine, both speak English pretty well, but are grown up and out of the house. Last time I stayed with the Drouets, it was with my family, and Andrea was there to translate. This time, I’m on my own. Thankfully, the family is generous, kind, and loving, so if there are misunderstandings or language frustrations, they will likely be forgiven. They are so much fun, so whether or not we can understand one another, I know we’ll have a good time.

London

2008-04-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm having some technical difficulties with the pictures, and Fritz is never around when I need him, so I'm going to do a picture-less post.

We've been in the London area now for just over two weeks. We've been staying at the fabulous Manna House in one of the suburbs of London, Bromley. Manna House is a hospitality house run by Operation Mobilisation, a christian Missions and Aidwork organization. Their world headquarters are here in England, and Manna house is a place where the workers can stay for a minimal fee while they are here for conferences, business, or vacation. Fritz and I ran the place while David and Judy Stump, who are the regular hosts, went on vacation to visit some friends in South Africa. We've met interesting, wonderful people from all over the world. Our main responsibilities were to cook, clean, and wash sheets and towels after people leave.

Those responsibilities didn't take up all our time, so we've also had many excursions into London by train, and looked at a whole host of museums and botanical gardens and walked around a ton. I went up to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, which was great, and I'm told has as good a view of London as the London Eye, which I didn't do because it is freaking ridiculously expensive. When I get the picture thing figured out, I've got a couple good pictures, but when I'm in town I mostly walk around gawking and forget to pull out my Camera.

I went to Harrods yesterday. Wow. It was fun to wander through. The food halls in the basement put New Seasons SERIOUSLY to shame. They even have bulk liqueurs and whiskey, along with high end nut oils and fancy vinegars that you can put in elaborate glass bottles to take home.

Today I was tired of the city, so I rented a bike and went for a ride. It was my first venture out on Britain's roads, and it was quite a lively, and sometimes harrowing, experience. I did 25 miles, but it took forever because I had to stop every mile (or less) to check my map. Not only do they drive on the left side of the road here, but these towns are all from the middle ages and no one had thought of town planning back then. Roads can change names 2 or three times in the space of a mile, and not all streets have signs saying what they are. It was pretty frustrating at times. I was never actually lost, but I THOUGHT I was lost several times. I've got the bike for the weekend ( a really nice LeMonde) so I'll probably go out again tomorrow- armed with better maps- and try to get more out in the countryside. I'm not sure if there is any around here, but I'll do my best.

It's time for me to cook dinner for tonight's crowd, so I'm off to boil up some Pasta.

Hiking in the Dales

2008-03-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

I'm so far behind on this blog now that I'm going to fast forward a bit just to catch up. Here's the pictures from our amazing day hike out of the town of Reeth in Swaledale.

If you go over to Fritz's blog, you can see a few more photos of the day. (www.fritzphoto.blogspot.com)

After a few days in Yorkshire, Mary drove us to Thirsk, the actualy town on which the fictional town of Darrowby is based, in James Herriots books. We spent several hours in the James Herriot Museum, which is in his actual clinic/house. I took tons of photos, but they'd only be of interest to rabid Herriot fans like myself, so I'll spare you those.

After Thirsk, we caught a bus into York, and spent a couple days there. York was great. We spent lots of time walking around checking out the sights. York was an important Roman town at one point. The emperor Constantine was actually crowned there. Also around year 1000, the Vikings moved in and it was a big Viking trading center. We took a walking tour around and it was fascinating. I have great pictures, but I can't get them to load properly, so you'll all just have to wait a bit for those.

After York, we took the train into London, and we've been here for a week. Big town. I'll post about London next time.

Shannon in York

2008-03-25T09:11:00.001-07:00

Today Shannon is adventuring by herself in Central London while I take care of Manna House. So I'm sneaking on here to post this photo of this pretty girl I saw in York, while on a walking tour:

Yorkshire

2008-03-22T02:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm finally keeping my promise and posting about our time in Yorkshire. First of all, let me just say that the Yorkshire Dales were as cool as I wanted them to be, and I'd love to someday spend more time up there.

After Manchester, we were invited to stay at Old Maid's Farm in the village of Brompton-on-Swale by Grant and Mary Carnegie Brown, friends of Dave and Linda in Manchester. They had never met us before, but Linda had said that we wanted to visit the Dales, and they welcomed us warmly. Mary met us in Clitheroe, at the Open Arms International Banquet, where we were working, and drove us two hours back to their home.

We got there well after dark, but this is the view we had of the house the next morning. The place is beautiful, and old stone house that Grant and Mary have been fixing up. Our favorite part was the giant kitchen, and the Aga cooker that kept us all warm.

I'd heard of Agas before, in books, but I didn't really get the concept. It's a big oil burning stove that is just on all the time. It's actually fairly efficient, and keeps the kitchen warm all winter long, which in an old stone house, is a great thing. It is ready to cook or bake anytime. To make a pot of tea, you just open up the lid to the burner on the left, put the kettle on, and in no time the water is boiling. Same thing for the ovens. I think there were three different ovens, each having different heat, so you can bake in one, and keep something warm in another one. As you can see, it's also great for drying your clothes.

This is the view from the kitchen into the dining room and entryway.

We had a great time with Grant, Mary, and Cameron, Kate and Tom, their three kids. It's a lively household, and lots of fun.

(Here's the family, out in the wind- Tom's missing because he was playing at a friend's house)

The first day we were there, Grant drove us over to Easeby Abbey, a twelfth century abbey that had been torn down by Henry the 8th because of church power struggles.

This is the 11th century parish church on the Abbey grounds that Henry 8 apparently had no problem with.

Inside the church.

I loved the decoration on the walls.

The abbey proper. It was a windswept, rainy, stormy day, and the old ruined abbey was lonely and haunting and beautiful, in all the right proportions.

We walked into Richmond after the Abbey. It's a fairly large town right on the River Swale, where Swaledale gets its name. (A dale is apparently a valley- so swaledale is the Swale river valley) We poked around and then headed back to the farm for a big dinner with the family. (The kids had friends over that night- it got pretty lively!)

Next post: Hiking in the dales, James Herriot museum

pictures from Buxton

2008-03-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some supplemental pictures to the last post, from our train trip up to Buxton.

My first English train journey. I was so excited! The countryside is really beautiful, alot like Oregon, but with really old buildings and stone walls.

The folly up above Buxton called Solomon's Temple.

It was windy up there, but so beautiful. We were having a great day.

Manchester

2008-03-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

When I last wrote, we were still pretty exhausted from our travels. We're feeling much better now, and have been having a great week visiting with wonderful friends. Dave Muncie and Linda Rodman work with the UK branch of Open Arms International. Fritz met them last year on his trip to Kenya. I had not met them, but they gave me a warm welcome when they picked us up Tuesday night from the airport. We stayed with them Tuesday through Friday and had a great time.

On Wednesday, we rested up in the morning, did some walking, and then went errand running with Linda. She showed us around her neighborhood and we went to a couple of shops in a nearby village. They live right on the edge of Manchester, so it was just down the road and we were in the country. Here's their sweet, very English back garden.

After errands, Linda took us up to a canal where she walks. The canal system goes all over England, and was built originally for moving freight around the country. Unfortunately, it was built only 25 years before the steam railway was invented, so it quickly became obsolete. Now people own or rent "narrowboats", and take their vacations slowly motoring up and down the canals. Apparently, the boats only go about 3 miles an hour, so it's a perfect way to slow down and enjoy the countryside.We walked in the wind and mud for a long time, and saw a few hints of spring.Overall, though, the weather is stormy and rainy, but hasn't been bad enough to keep us inside. The following day, we took the train to a nice little touristy town called Buxton, and spent the day walking around. We had our first pub meal. (not very good--have any of you tried mushy peas?) Then we found a walking path up through horse and sheep fields to a folly. A folly, which I learned the other day, is essentially an artificial medieval structure that noblemen in the 1800's erected to make it look like there were ruins and castles on their land. The one we went to was called Solomon's temple, and was just a little turret with a stairs going up to a crenellated walk on top. It was beautiful, but breathtakingly windy, and we came down off the hill pretty quickly. We walked back into town and went back on the train, then joined Dave and Linda for a fantastic dinner (Linda is an amazing cook) and afterward we went to their church home group. Met a great bunch of people, and enjoyed a good discussion.

Yesterday, our last day in Manchester, Dave drove us around the countryside, took us to a beautiful country inn where the Queen apparently likes to stop for tea, and then we all went to Clitheroe for the Open Arms International fundraising banquet. Fritz took photographs for the event, and I ended up coordinating the all-volunteer catering crew. It was hard work, but I got to see people I haven't seen since our India trip in 2004, and I got to meet lots of Fritz's friends from last years Kenya trip. There was a very good speaker, a Kenyan pastor who talked about what has been going on in Kenya of late. The situation has been tragic, but it sounds like things are beginning to improve.

The only unfortunate part is that we had to leave rather quickly, as we were getting a ride to Yorkshire with our hostess up here, and we didn't get to say a proper goodbye to David and Linda, who showed us generous love and hospitality in a very busy time for them. I hope I get to see them again some day, and perhaps return the gift of hospitality.

Next post: Yorkshire

Traveling is sometimes yucky

2008-03-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Alright, we've arrived in Manchester, and I finally have time to sit down and post. I've uploaded a fresh batch of pictures- mind you I'm still learning how to use my new camera, as unfortunately mastery of photographic prowess is not something you can achieve by osmosis.

To begin with, let me just say that I love to travel, except for the traveling part. What I mean is, I love being new places and meeting new people, trying exotic foods and beverages and having experiences I never would at home. But I hate flying. I don't hate it with a passion, because when I'm flying I don't even have enough energy or soul to muster up any passion. Waiting is not my forte, and basically air travel is all waiting, plus bad food, cramped seating, bad smelling air, dehydration, and constipation. I do it though, for all those reasons I mentioned above.

Secondly, I'd like to introduce you to the third member of our traveling party, Mirabelle. Here she is resting up after bravely facing the TSA security screening at PDX. I just want to mention here that Mirabelle was provided by my wonderful crew at New Seasons, Jarod, DeeAnna, and Nikki, who thought we needed more companionship.

So our journey began at two o'clock in the afternoon on Monday. We were (for good reason) pretty excited.

We had a quick hop up to Seattle and settled in for our unfortunately long 4 1/2 hour layover. Only we quickly found out that bad weather in London had delayed our flight, and we ended up with an 8 hour layover.

Here's Fritz in the most boring room in the world:

And here, he is sharpie-ing in the annoying yellow stripes on his new shoes. Yes, we were bored.

Mirabelle decided to throw a fit. (Note to the New Seasons Crew: Maybe do a background check or at least a psychological profile before choosing peoples traveling companions)

After the epic layover in Seattle, we had a 8 1/2 hour flight to London. We left at 11:00 pm and flew through the night. I got an hour and a half of sleep. Blech. When we arrived in London we had, of course, missed our connecting flight to Manchester. Had to finagle a new flight, and received a lecture about booking all our flights together instead of separately. Blah, blah, but they didn't charge us to change, thankfully.

So once we arrived in Manchester, things improved greatly. We were received by very kind hosts, and have been resting up and exploring the neighborhood. They've just come home and need to use the computer, so I'll sign off for now and tell you more about Dave and Linda and our wanderings in Manchester soon.

Am I a nerd? Why, yes!

2008-03-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

We don't leave for a week and yet my little turquoise suitcase sits in the kitchen, fully packed. There's a few last little things to throw (actually cram) in there, but basically I'm ready to go. Does this seem a bit obsessive? Well, maybe, but I wanted to make sure everything fit! Now I know. It does, but just barely.

It's so hard to pack light for a trip of three months. I just bought a new pair of shoes today to take the place of two pairs I was planning to bring. They are very cute, and quite comfortable. It's a win-win situation: I get to take one less pair of shoes, and I had an excuse to buy a new pair! I sound like such a high-maintenance kind of girl, but I do love shoes.

So we're down to one week before liftoff, and apart from the packing, I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for this. I am excited, thrilled, but nervous too. I don't want to sound like a pop psychologist, but it is hard to step out into something over which I have very little control. I do love travel, and I've done quite a bit, but 3 months is a long time to be away for a homebody like me. I'm sure I'll be alright, but that might be after a homesick crying session or two. We'll just see how this goes. Thanks to all of you for loving us and praying for us while we're doing this crazy trip. And thank you too for praying about our finances. Some things have come through and we've got enough to begin with.

The countdown continues...

Preparing to go

2008-02-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

Well, friends, we're heading out in just under three weeks. We're leaving behind our beloved orange house to go vagabonding. Vagabonding, by definition, that means we don't know what we'll be doing, and when we'll be doing it, or where. We had plans, and many of them fell through. We can't get ahold of people we had hoped to stay with, and everything is up in the air, and sometimes I'm fine with that. What we do know is that we're flying to Heathrow airport on March 10, we've got a couple of service work/missions gigs in the UK and Spain, and then we're flying home to portland on June 2. I imagine that we'll visit the UK, France, Slovakia, Spain and Morocco, but the way this trip is going, it's all pretty flexible. There are other missions opportunities that we've heard about, but nothing is for sure. This is such an adventure for us.

We think this trip was God's idea, and since we believe that, we have to believe that he's got the details figured out. Sometimes I'm able to relax into that, and sometimes, not so much. I've traveled a lot of places in the world, but never for more than a couple weeks. I'm nervous, excited, a bit stressed. There are so many things I have no control over. I guess that's part of the point. We've been working on our packing lists and wondering if we'll need everything we're taking. What items of clothing will be dumped in Paris? What will we wish we had in Slovakia?

Please join us as we travel around, look at things, talk to people, get grumpy at each other, eat good food, drink wine, take pictures, etc. We'd love to have you along for the ride.

Love,
Fritz and Shannon

p.s. prayer requests

-our finances- two words: "jacked up". Please pray that they become less so

-connections: we know that God has people for us to hook up with, to stay with or to encourage, or just to get to know. Pray that it all happens as it should.