Netherlands

The canals

Tiniest house.  It is barely wider than the doorway going only a few more inches to the right where the brick wall goes out a bit before the windows.

We were not there during tulip season, but I did snap a picture of the museum.

Free samples ...yum!  Their cheese is packaged so you can take it on the plane.  I got to bring some home for the family.

2 Dutch Girls

Anne Frank Monument...we were not allowed to take pictures inside

Dessert waffles...amazing!

Ten Boom watch shop- We took a tour of the house, but cannot post pictures online.  This was one of the highlights for me.  I am currently reading The Hiding Place by Corrie TenBoom.  What an example of living a life for Christ.  Her father, sister and her never could have done what they did if they had not already been living a life dedicated to God and serving him.  Her life has been such a challenge to me.  The house is in Haarlem about a 15 min. train ride from Amsterdam.  

Corrie Ten Boom house

Canal

I thought there would be more windmills, but I did see this one!

Cheese and bacon pancake

Mini butter and sugar pancakes

Switzerland

Lake Geneva- It had a water-ski course and a ramp...how much fun!

The famous fountain

On one of the tourist boats that take you across the lake.  I believe this was free.  We just rode it across and then came back.

The flower clock...this reminded me of the one near Niagara Falls

Cheese fondue...I have to admit I was really disappointed this night.  I was so hungry and we had been waiting to eat fondue in Switzerland.  They put so much alcohol in the fondue that I could not even eat the cheese and ended up eating bread and butter for dinner.

Josh's dinner

We took a tour from Geneva over into France to see the Alps and Mont Blanc.  We stopped here on the way because of the exquisite views.

Here you can see a little dot of a hiker on the snow-capped mountain.  This was quite a temperature change from Greece where we had been .  104 deg. F to 30 deg. F with 40 mph winds!!

We met a girl from China who is living in Denmark.

A video glimpse of the Alps

We got some hot chocolate at the top of the mountain.  We were between 12-13,000 feet above sea level, and that morning had started down at the lake.  

We grabbed lunch at a little place that served cheese and cinnamon soup.  It was different, but good.

Our tour took us through some more beautiful scenery and to a place where we could hike to an ice cave.

Inside the ice cave

A little video

The next day we took a train to Basal and dropped Josh off since he was taking classes in Europe for the remainder of the summer.  Brenda and I looked around, but since it was Sunday there were hardly any restaurants open and it was very expensive, so we ate at McDonald's for lunch and dinner before catching our overnight train to Amsterdam...not really our favorite!!  However, we were given bathroom codes since we ate there and were able to "get ready for bed" there.  

Greece

Monday we flew from Rome to Athens on EasyJet airlines.  In Athens we did laundry walked around a bit and ate cheap and good food!  I got two gyros and my friends split a platter for two.  My gyros were 2 euros each.  Dinner for 4 euros?  I'll take it!  We did notice that most of the restaurants in the area closed around 7 or 8.  Some still had drinks after that time, but there were not a lot of places for food.

Josh and Brenda got a tray for two the first night.  It came with tons of food and was cheaper than most places we went.

Tuesday we went on a Walking Tour of Athens.  This was another free tour and then you tip the guide at the end based on how well you thought the tour went.  We went to the Parthenon/Acropolis and some other places.  We stopped at a little roadside stand and got a gyro.  One cool place we stopped near the end was the steps where the Apostle Paul gave his speech to the Greeks about the unknown god on Mars Hill.  It was cool to walk up the exact same steps he walked up.

The steps

Mars Hill

  I learned that the word Marathon comes from the name of a place in Greece.  There is also a lake named Marathon.  There are a couple of stories about where it gets it's name, but they all revolve around a man running quite a long distance (from Marathon to Athens to bring news about a battle) and then when he arrived he shouted Nike! ( which means victory) and then died out of exhaustion.  We also stopped at the Olympic stadium where they began in the 1890's.  The ancient original games were located in a different site and only males were allowed to participate.  To ensure  this was the case all the games were done in the nude.



We saw the place where democracy was born and where coins were first used.  We also watched two different changing of the guards.  This was in front of the government estate equivalent to the White House.

Overlooking part of the city

We were able to get a tram to the Mediterranean Sea as well.  It was just 1.20 euros each way, but the bus was quite crowded.  I am assuming this was because it was quite hot and many people wanted to visit the beach.  When we got there the water was beautiful!  The beach was made of little stones so it was a bit harsh on the feet, but the water definitely made up for it.  The beach was quite crowded, but hey it's the Mediterranean!

 For dinner we went and got two more gyros at the same place we went the night before.  We also stopped at a little bakery for dessert and a Carrefour (grocery store) for a few snacks to keep on hand.

Wednesday we boarded a bus for our two day tour of Delphi and Meteora.  We rode out into the countryside of Greece. Meteora means "middle of the sky" or "suspended in the air".  There are six monasteries built on these amazing sandstone rock pillars.

In Delphi I got grilled feta with vegetables...one of my favorite dishes on the trip!