Stonehenge, Adventure, Quirky Cottage & Preparing for Home

We packed up for one final move before our return flight to the States.  We all agree it’s so strange how “normal” this lifestyle has become.  Packing our bags has become second nature and we have a system down for loading the car with a year's full of gear. We’ve stayed in roughly 80 different places this past year – from hostels, to campervans, overnight trains, apartments, concrete bunkers, houses and villas.  We all agree that our accommodations have definitely impacted our experience in each location more than we would’ve anticipated.  It’s interesting the things that we begin to look forward to (and dread) as we can sense home around the corner.  Until our London apartment, we hadn’t stayed in a place with carpet for 6 months - and that was only one night.  We had a two or three month stint where we never had a shower large enough to turn around in without accidentally bumping a temperature nozzle and either suddenly scalding or freezing ourselves, not to mention the hand-held shower heads that don’t stay mounted.  There’s lots of remembering and processing happening among us as we continue to watch slideshows at night of the countries we’ve visited.  And so we rented a car and headed to the English countryside to see what God had in store for us there.  It was awkward for Dad to be sitting on the right of the car and driving on the left, and took a bit of getting used to again.

We stopped along the way at Stonehenge to see this historical site and all that it had to offer.  It is a fairly large facility and there were a fair amount of cars in the parking lot, including some campervans. The history here remains largely unknown with the Heritage site largely dedicated to speculation on what and who built the monument. They believe that it was a temple of some sort, and recent excavations have confirmed it was initially a burial ground as over 150 remains have been found. 

Visiting Stonehenge!

Not quite sure what these Star Wars guys were doing at Stonehenge, but they sure attracted some goofy looks!

Fourteen and oh so strong! 

As we drove the narrow windy paths to our cottage, we’d occasionally have to pull to the side to let oncoming cars pass, as we couldn’t both fit on the road at the same time.  It felt a bit as if we were driving in a Pac-Man maze.  As we approached an intersection there was a tractor pulling several hay-bales turning onto our road, Dad pulled over to stop and allow the tractor space to enter the road.  Then we heard it - the hissing.  

Nothing like a flat with no spare - at least they speak English here.

When he pulled over, the tire hit something and the air quickly leaked out.  The farmer got out of his tractor, smirked, motioned where we should pull the car aside to, kept smirking, climbed back in his tractor and drove off!  We had no idea what to do as we were in the middle of nowhere and had no cell coverage at this location.  We started unloading our bags from the car planning to walk until we could find coverage or our accommodation, whichever came first; meanwhile hoping to uncover the spare tire.  We soon learned that this car didn’t have a spare tire!  Stupid French cars!  (Ironically, this rental had an offer for tire insurance (the first of all our rentals), which we, of course, turned down.) Upon a bit of wandering around, we discovered our accommodations were within sight, in fact basically across the street!  The hedges prevented us from seeing anything until we entered the gate. We carried our bags into this unusual 500 year old English cottage and for the first time on our trip, our kids got settled in their rooms without any squabbling - better late than never we suppose.  Dad prayed for God to send us some angels and went out and introduced himself to some people walking their dog.  These people ended up being new to the neighborhood and happy to assist us.  They helped Dad get through to the car rental company (which required standing in a specific spot 100 feet away to get a signal) and she drove Mom to the grocery store as we had no way to get food until we had a vehicle.  The next day, a repair company came out and fixed us up.

Our quirky 500 year old cottage in Somerset, England

A typical stone wall in Somerset with stones tilted sideways and left jagged on the top

We spent our time discovering random quirky aspects about the cottage, taking hikes, playing poker, riding scooters and bikes, visiting the nearby city of Wells for it's market and church, having fires, and continuing to watch slide shows of our year, and prepare for returning to life in America. Each day Mom would have a few questions for everyone to journal about and we took some personality-type tests which identify spiritual gifts and your love language (Gary Chapman's work if unfamiliar).  The boys would squawk at the questions each day, but by the end they admitted they were worthwhile and helped them think about things they otherwise would not have.

Breakfast with frilly hats... only in Somerset!

Beautiful hikes

Make-shift Smores around a bonfire

Hill leading down to our cottage

Most public hikes took us through fields of grain and livestock!

Somerset is well known for its wool

Poker nights - thanks Uncle Ray!

Our final day we did a small hike up to The Tor, which is a mid 15th century tower with little knowledge as to why it was built. It provides a great view of the city. Each family member was to write a letter to every other family member explaining what we learned about them on the trip and why we were glad that they were with us. At The Tor we exchanged the letters and each spent 5-10 minutes chatting with the person individually. The boys really got into this and put a lot of time into their letters and it was quite sweet.

Our final family outing of the year - a hike to The Tor for family letter exchanges

Pano from The Tor

We have experienced an incredible year and are so thankful for the opportunity. We sacrificed a great deal to make it happen but we felt we had to be obedient to God's calling. We didn't fully understand why or how we would do it all, but looking back at this point is overwhelming.  Our marriage has grown and turned a major corner that would have never occurred without this trip and our boys have all grown closer in unique ways. SJ... well..., we are not quite sure how this will affect her but one thing is certain, she may be the toughest 4 year old on the planet and her comments are always right-on, it just takes everyone else a few minutes to figure out what and where the context of her memory is!  Mom & Dad aren't really ready to go home but know it's time and, honestly, it seems like we just hit our stride, but our own bed will be a welcome place.

Wrapping up London

Tuesday we’d planned to go to the Greenwich Observatory Museum to straddle the Prime Meridian, since we’d straddled the Equator in Ecuador, but we could tell that everyone was just needing a quieter day.  We crossed the street of our apartment building and headed to Queen Elizabeth’s Olympic Area.  With the summer Olympics just around the corner, it was interesting to see where the last ones had been held and all that goes into hosting these amazing games.  The pool area was amazing and the boys were in awe at the diving platforms and the fact that the floor of the pool could be adjusted to change the depth of the pool.  We crossed the park to the Veldrome and bike area which is unique in that it is the only bike park to have four types of biking available (BMX, velo, mountain and road). 

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Pool

Our youngest was in need of a nap and Dad’s feet were aching after two ten plus mile walking days, so some of us headed back to the apartment to rest, while Mom and the middle boys remained at the Olympic Park to do some events with a program that was going on that day.  Not only was this area the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics, but also the location of the 2015 Paralympic Games.  We did a make-shift curling course and learned some judo moves, but the highlight was playing Paralympic basketball.  The boys enjoyed racing around in the wheelchairs and were surprised at how quickly they could spin them around, but they also learned how challenging it is to have to stay seated in them and not be able to run after a stray ball.  Honestly, this ended up being a highlight of their time in London as it gave them a broader perspective on life and they asked if we could recreate it at home so others could experience it!

Practicing Paralympic Basketball - a great experience!

Learning judo moves together

Tuesday evening we headed to Piccadilly Circus where we had pre-theater dinner reservations to celebrate Mom’s birthday.  We had an amazing Italian tapas-type of meal that just kept coming.  The grand finale of the evening was tickets to Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theater.  Mom had hoped to be celebrating her birthday in Italy, but when that didn’t work out due to the rental dates of the villa we stayed in, she immediately requested Phantom tickets.  We’d originally kept it a surprise from the kids and would hum the theme song and do goofy things trying to get them to guess, which they finally did at one point in Florence.  While we were in the villa we’d watched the movie in order to provide some background to the play.  Mom had seen this musical in middle school and loved the songs, unfortunately some of the story had gone over her head, and watching the movie had us a bit concerned about how certain aspects might be portrayed, while of course it gave us many interesting topics to discuss.  We were all grateful to have the background to the story, our seats were amazing, the singing and actors wonderful, and everything about the show was highly enjoyed by all.  During intermission, a family came up to us and asked us if we were enjoying it better than the catacombs in Rome – they’d been on a tour with us several weeks before and remembered us – too funny!  And it turned out the father was the CIO of a money management firm in Australia and was taking a 6 week leave to travel with his family.  It is amazing how much more outside the USA people recognize the importance of travel and family time with most work places not just accommodating but actually encouraging. All in all it was a wonderful birthday celebration and memorable experience as now we all are humming the tunes and SJ downloaded the music to her iPad.

Dressed up for the theater in Piccadilly Circus

Outside Her Majesty's Theater pre-show

Inside the theater during intermission, right after the chandelier fell

Wednesday we started our day with tickets to the London Dungeon.  This unfortunately, was one of the worst things we’ve done on our entire trip.  It was warm, muggy, dark, over-crowded, a bit too scary and inappropriate at times, and an hour experience that once started, we couldn’t get out of.  No one enjoyed it and we all just wanted out.  Afterwards we tried to improve our attitudes by having fish and chips, which excited some while making others nauseous.  We followed this up with a ride on the London Eye, rising up with great views over the city.  Then the boys finally had their time to visit the London Film Museum, which hosts cars and memorabilia from James Bond films, they were all giddy over the vehicles and running from one car and movie clip to the next, with our oldest (who’s made it his mission to watch all of these movies on our travels) explained them to everyone.  Afterwards we headed to the London Bridge and Subway so the kids could grab a bite to eat as they were headed home for the evening.  Once they were settled in the apartment, Mom and Dad had a great last date night celebration and early-18^th Anniversary celebration meal. 

G overlooking London while riding in The London Eye

Check out the group of good looking next Bond characters!

The London Bridge in the background

We all really enjoyed London (except for the Dungeons) and agree that there was still so much we wanted to see and experience that we didn’t have time for and we hope that we will get to return in the future as it’s such an easy flight from the States.  We also didn’t have a bad meal while here!

We all thought this was funny, as Dad was slightly addicted to '2048' while in London as a way to zone-out from the many responsibilities facing us at the thought of returning

The 'Last' time he'll exit the Underground with his Oyster card - it will be strange to go back to traveling in cars all of the time!

Moving on to London

To be honest, we weren’t all that excited about leaving Italy and spending our last 10 days of our trip in England.  The one son who insisted we include London on this trip, had somehow forgotten about this, and everyone we mentioned our travel plans to told us how miserable the weather and food were in England.  Knowing our return to the States is around the corner, it’s impossible to not be aware of the “lasts” while trying to make the most of each day and having to start scheduling certain things for our coming home.  We flew into London and were surprised by how much easier getting SIM cards, money and figuring out public transportation were in an English-speaking country!  It was so, so simple.  We were also surprised by the heat, and much to our kids dismay, we felt it important to be true to our trip purpose and not skimp by taking cabs to our accommodation, but take the Underground and then walk with our packs, ‘One Last Time!’

Our last backpacking hike from a train station to our London apartment

We stayed on the outskirts of the city to save some money, and were in a fun area where the summer 2012 Olympics were held.  Once again we had no A/C, which shouldn’t have been a problem for typical London weather, but we would quickly learn that during our time in the city they would experience unusual heat.  But our apartment did have the most amazing Vitamix blender ever, and we were all so thrilled to get to have smoothies every morning!  So as usual, we take the good with the bad and make the best of it! 

We’d been craving Mexican and found a place nearby that looked good.  Unfortunately, ¾ of the way into our meal we’d had two kids in tears, been given a free balloon and three free adult drinks.  The people were sweet but just couldn’t figure out the food, and we realized that once again travelling is exhausting.

Sunday morning we got a later start than planned, and headed to Hillsong’s London campus for a great time of praise, worship, and message of being salt and light in this world full of change and turmoil (crazy that in the last month Australia took a week to figure out who won their election, the British voted to leave the EU, terrorists attacked Nice, Americans are killing each other, and there's a coup in Turkey).

Hillsong London - love knowing we have a place to worship as we travel!

Great worship at Hillsong

No one was overly interested in visiting museums, so we planned to stop into the British Museum quickly, as it’s free, to see the highlights.  However, once inside, everyone started getting excited and connecting memories of our travels and we ended up staying until the museum closed and still didn’t make it to all of the pieces we’d hoped to see.  We were in awe of the fact that the items were on display without cases, and even though there were signs requesting people not to touch, it just felt like being so close to some of these things was a more personal experience.  Some of our favorites were the Code of Hammurabi, the lion hunt reliefs from the city of Assyria/Ninevah, learning about the Greek Parthenon and observing some of its artifacts displayed here.  However, the kids were disappointed that many of the things they'd hoped to see from Night of the Museum were either greatly exaggerated or not on display at the moment.

Inside the British Museum - fun for all of you Night at the Museum fans!

G in front of the Rosetta Stone - the key to deciphering hieroglyphics

Truly amazing depiction of an ancient lion hunt

Kids with their stone friend from Easter Island

Upon exiting the museum, we learned the story behind the red telephone booths scattered around the city.

Famous London Phone booths

In front of a replica of the Greek Parthenon with actual sculptures of the frieze in the background

Maybe these are the headless Parthenon guys - the actual statues that were on top of the Parthenon

We walked to Trafalgar Square where we sat down and Mom read to us about its history and had a competition to find Britain’s smallest police station and searched for the nose on the Admiralty Arch.

Trafalgar Square 

Great Britain's smallest police station

We found the nose on the Admiralty Arch - riders on horseback would rub this for good luck when passing by

We continued walking towards Big Ben and the Westminster government buildings and ended our day with dinner along the Thames River.  We learned that Big Ben's official name is the Elizabeth Tower, to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, but most people still refer to it as Big Ben.

On bridge over the Thames River with Big Ben behind

Excited to see the London Eye near where we had dinner

Monday was Mom’s birthday, although we weren’t truly celebrating until Tuesday night.  We headed to Buckingham Palace and saw parts of the Changing of the Guard through the hoardes of tourists before walking through Hyde Park towards Kensington Palace, Princess Diana’s former home.  We toured Kensington Palace and learned some of the history of British royalty as well as the importance of the fashion/style and all that the women represent.  Afterwards the kids played in Princess Diana’s Memorial Playground, which has a Peter Pan theme with a pirate ship and all.  

Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards

Can you spot G?  Awesome trees in Hyde Park

Kensington Palace

Then we wandered around Notting Hill and the Portbello Market area before taking a cab (much to our kid’s dismay the only one that fit our family was a mini-van) to Camden Town.  Here we wandered around the truly unique Camden Lock market, which is held on multiple levels of old horse stables.   Everything started closing and we grabbed a quick hamburger and tried to find dessert there and back at the mall near our home, but we were minutes late to everything, so no sweets for the birthday girl. 

Camden Markets were fun to wander as they are in old horse stables

Umbria - Week 2 (with Visitors)

The last few days of our second week in the Villa brought Ray & Lisa to visit for 3 nights and it just could not come fast enough. SJ asked everyday during the first week and their arrival was hugely looked forward to by all. With one full week of down time, we spent a day making a grocery run and planning what meals we would have while they were here. We hadn't been in a location to truly host any of our visitors this whole year, and we were excited to make this special.  During our grocery run, we decided to check our the town of Orvieto, which was the largest town around and about half an hour away. Orvieto is known for having the most beautiful Duomo in all of Italy.  Given the size, we were skeptical, but once we parked and began walking we were enchanted with this town and its beauty, and the Duomo was amazing.

Orvieto's Duomo

Amazing columns with mosaic and gold-leaf detail at Duomo

Small shopping area in town

We found a few quaint shops along the way and even a high end butcher where we (over) purchased some steaks for our first meal with our guests. The plan was to try our hand at cooking them in the wood-fired oven. The next night it was homemade pizzas, which we already felt we were good at, and the final night would tried our hand for the first time at homemade gnocchi and roasted pork dish which we studied at our Florence cooking class and the kids insisted we teach to Ray and Lisa. PHEW - good thing we started working out again!

The night before they arrived Dad presented the boys with a gift of Widow's Mite he had purchased back in Jerusalem.  They were quite taken with the coins and really wanted to buy their own, but they could not afford them on their budgets.  The Widow's Mite is a small copper coin referenced in Mark 12:42-44 where Jesus explains to his disciples that the widow's small gift amounted to more than the large sum put in by others because she gave from her heart. Dad encouraged the boys to keep this coin and live generous lives utilizing all their gifts, both financial and otherwise.  

Widow's mite gift for the boys

With our meals purchased and planned, we did not venture out too much with our friends, but rather continued enjoying our new-found routine of working out, relaxing by the pool, cooking and watching slideshows at night. Ray and Lisa were gracious enough to go with the flow.  Getting some adult conversation was more than welcome.  The weather got a bit cooler and one day the adults escaped for a couple of hours to a local vineyard and sampled some wines and explored a nearby village hoping to find some dishwashing soap to no avail.  The kids enjoyed having some new faces around. Ray held poker class 101 with the boys and we put the "chips" he brought to good use. Mom enjoyed some girl time and loved having a female to take walks with.  

This week, while to some extent, was more of the same, had a different vibe with our guests and continued fertilizing the seeds of home that are growing.  We miss good friends and were thankful for Ray and Lisa's generosity of time and money to join us for a few days of memory making and fun. 

Adult time!

Wine tasting with friends

Poker with the boys

More sunsets

Girls playing Dutch Blitz 

Meat anyone?

Making whole-made gnocchi

Amazing feast of Gnocci, roasted pork and caprese salad

Happy birthday mom!

We will miss this view and have great memories of our time at the villa!