Trying to get them all in!

This castle is Neuschwanstein in Austria. I didn't get it in the earlier post when I meant to. We were there before we got to Italy. As we drove along a river, headed south from Berlin, through the Alps, there were several castles and fortresses up on the hillsides. It was just so incredibly picturesque! Looking at all our pictures now, it's a little difficult to tell which Medieval structure is which because we went to so many. The first city we visited in Italy, on Sunday, was Montepulciano.

This clock tower was built over 500 years ago and still the little "Punchinello" (from Punch and Judy stories) chimes the hours. The picture below was our first Italian meal. We often ate food just out of a grocery or bakery but generally had one meal a day at a restaurant. The food was freshly made and relatively quick. Beverages were usually the surprisingly expensive part and the selection of non-alcoholic beverages was limited. In this Montepulciano restaurant we started with bruschetta- yummy! I found out that not all bruschetta is tomatoes on bread. Bruschetta refers to the olive oiled and toasted bread then comes with a variety of toppings. My favorite is still the tomato one and Angela, although she's never been to Italy, makes a wonderful bruschetta!

More arrival in Italy photos

This is the name plaque for the place we stayed while in Italy. Below is where we barbequed while there. It's an interesting device. First you pile olive tree cuttings in the part under the chimney and get a good fire going. Once you have enough coals built up under the grate, you can push them over to the larger flat area then cook either directly on the rack which is really only good for large pieces of meat and vegetables, or you can use foil or a finer rack.
This next scene is one of the many beautiful fields of sunflowers all through central Italy. This one was right across the street from our lodgings. Bella!
This is our amazing, ever-enduring son who acted as our chauffeur. He drove as many hours in our week of "vacation" as he would have spent working- maybe more. The speeds were breath-taking. James kept to the speed limit (equivalent to 90-100 mph) but was often passed by REALLY speedy drivers. Surprisingly, we only saw evidence of one accident and that was just a fender-bender. That being said, it's a good thing James is an alert defensive driver! Sometimes accidents don't happen because some drivers are good at watching out for the poor judgement of other drivers.

This is where we stayed for a week near Castiglione del Lago in central Italy, in the Umbria region near the region of Tuscany. The 7 of us stayed in what would normally be 2 apartments, each with a full bath, small kitchen (only a cooktop and small refrigerator), dining table, beds, and couch that pulled out to a bed.
This is Nicholas and Louisa as we were headed from the front door back toward where we parked the car.
This is the lovely pool that the kids swam in every day after a lot of trudging around Medieval cities.
This was a view from one of our windows. We never went to Rome and Russ and I were glad. It is a big city, crowded and dirty. We loved the countryside with endless fields of sunflowers, olive orchards, and vineyards. Our hosts (owners of the Palazzo where we stayed) held a barbeque for us near the end of the week. What a feast! They are a couple probably in their late 30's or early 40's. They both work and rent out part of their house on the side. Nearly everything they served was provided from their own property. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and grilled zucchini were from their garden. They seasoned them with olive oil pressed from olives from their own trees along with herbs they grew. They also served a pig and lamb they had raised. Only the dessert, pastries from a local bakery, were not from their property.

Garmisch

Deedie drove us from her home into NYC so we could fly out of JFK. We were fortunate to have a direct flight from NY to Berlin where our daughter-in-law, Susanne, picked us up at the airport. We drove to their home and opened our suitcase to get out the items we had brought for them. They had gotten several expensive electronic devices from the "Apple Store" that couldn't be shipped overseas so we had brought them in our checked bag. We were horrified to find 2 out of the 3 items missing and our bag obviously gone through. We had expected our bag to be inspected for security reasons but were upset to find $1300 worth of electronics gone! We immediately started making phone calls and going on the internet to find out how to file a complaint. Fortunately, the airport is only 20 minutes away because we ended up having to return to the airport to file the claim in person.
We got the claim filed then returned to the house, re-packed our suitcases into one of the bags, loaded it in the car and set out toward Italy. Our first night on the road was spent in an Austrian town called Garmisch in a lovely little Alpine hotel accessed only by cable car.
The next morning, we drove to where our 2 grandsons had spent the week at Scout camp, then went to see a beautiful castle/fortress. That's in the top picture.(It's really bugging me that I can't figure out how to re-position my photographs when they don't download in the order I want them.) Anyway, after the second night, we loaded up the car, including a car-top carrier, to get back on the road to Italy.
Again, out of order, this is the ride back down from the hotel in the cable car. It was just too cool!

Phase two

From Toledo we drove straight to my sister, Deedie's, in northern Pennsylvania. They fed us an awesome dinner and we loved the breakfast al fresco on their back deck. Then we drove to a nearby park that included a field of boulders that were a really unique sight to see. They were, reportedly, the result of ice breaking up an outcropping of rock over a long period of time. So what is there now at the top of a hill in the midst of thick woods, is a huge open field strewn with boulders from large rocks to apartment refrigerator sized. (That's the photo at the top. I haven't figured out how to alter the position of pictures on a blog.) We went to another section of the state park and walked a trail along a stream to a lovely little waterfall. The picture below depicts my frustration with people and their careless attitude toward beautiful natural scenes.

Beginning of our trip

We left Sun City June 25, spent 2 days driving, the 3rd day got some things out of our storage place in Dayton, stopped off to sign papers at our insurance agent's, then drove on to Toledo in time for dinner with Victoria and the kids on Monday night. We were thrilled to be reunited with these wonderful people! We enjoyed the week with Victoria and I was, once again, amazed at how hard she works at being in shape- running, Zumba, spinning class (where you don't stop for half an hour and the workout is a killer!), and just general scurrying through life with 3 busy kids. She left on Friday to join her husband for a 10-day visit to Paris and we took care of the kids. Our first night after Victoria left, we were awakened at 4 am to lights flashing through the curtains. We got up to see what is pictured above. It was dark so the photograph doesn't show things well but there were several fire department vehicles and personnel scattered all over the parking area behind the townhouses. We decided to go back to bed despite the strong smell of smoke. Around 4:30 there was a persistent pounding sound which we realized was a gloved had knocking on our door downstairs. We got up and let two firefighters in to check to see if the fire from the next apartment had bre2ched the adjoining wall into "our" home. Amazingly, the children all slept right through 2 burly firemen in full gear walking into their bedrooms with a flashlight feeling the walls. The next morning they were excited to hear about it and disappointed that they missed it. We found out later that a young child, between 5 and 10 years old, had been playing with matches at 3:30 in the morning and started the fire. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the family had to find a place to stay and the contents of one room was thrown out onto the front lawn, charred and smelling strongly of smoke.
We spent the remainder of our time there with no incidents more major than skinned knees and were sad to part with the 3 kids. Such is the life of most grandparents these days. We live far from our grandchildren and just don't get enough of them.

Feeling the spirit

Not everybody acknowledges that there is a God, or that Jesus Christ lived and died and was resurrected, or chooses to feel the influence of the Holy Spirit. I find it interesting that children often feel the goodness in the influence of the Spirit because they have not hardened their hearts or closed their minds to it.

Russ and I are currently watching over Jeremy, Kadon, and Brooklyn while Victoria and her husband, Kevin, are spending a week in Paris following a conference Kevin had to attend for work. We often receive interesting things through e-mails and yesterday we spent about a half hour showing the kids some of them: pictures of unique roads in the world, a clever marionette, then we showed them a time lapse video of the Milky Way. We weren't speaking of anything spiritual. We didn't mention God. All I said was, "Look at all the stars!" as the panorama continued to flow across the screen. It wasn't exciting like a video game. It wasn't amusing like a cartoon. Yet they sat for the few minutes to watch, quietly awed. Brooklyn (3 years old) looked at me and gently smiled then reached out to hug Jeremy (8 years old). They, in turn, hugged Kadon (6 years old). Why? These kids do not treat each other this way all the time. Most of the time Russ and I are intervening to prevent serious injury, physically from hitting and kicking or emotionally from yelled out insults.

This morning I was playing songs from the church song book for children and Brooklyn pointed to a picture and said, "Is that Jesus?" When I nodded and said that it was, indeed, Jesus, she responded, "Oh, I love Jesus." Brooklyn is a very affectionate little girl so maybe someone could say that she just said that because she says things like that often. But why did she come over to where I was playing the piano and notice the picture and make that comment?

It makes me sad to think about how our Father in Heaven must feel about the billions of children that He cares so much about yet they ignore and even deny Him. I have been hurt when my children or even grandchildren have been irritated by me or in some way didn't appreciate me. I don't really dwell on it. I realize that everybody has bad days and, especially when immature, people can have wild mood swings depending on what is happening and how tired/sick/sad they are. But God has put so much effort into creating a beautiful world for us to learn in. He gave His only beloved Son and watched Him be hit, ridiculed, spit on, and eventually nailed to a cross after doing only good things- never anything to deserve mistreatment. I am grateful to my Savior, and to my Heavenly Father, and to the Holy Spirit for their love and guidance. They make me feel good. I wish I could share my "lamp oil" with everyone.