This Small Life: Germany and Beyond

So I was hoping Paul would take on this post of telling you about his trip since he was the one who went on it. But he is spending his free time with one of the many Steves we know. Drinking coffee and playing cards. Sweet, huh?

So I'm going to do my best to interpret the pictures for you.

But alas, as I was editing the photos he has returned with a love/peace offering of a piece of ice cream cake. It's got that middle layer of cookie crumbles. Yum. I shall let him post.

So...Here's Peter doing homework in an airport. It's always an interesting experience when you help a third grader with his work and end up learning stuff. Kind of like you could go back and re-do third grade and it might benefit you. So on this trip I learned about the design process, I'm less convinced that Peter did though. The important thing is that we got all the homework done, but it was pretty raggedy looking from all the travel.

We had an extra-long layover in Munich...to the tune of 11 hours...after a 9 hour flight...that we didn't sleep on...so we did our best at site-seeing. This particular picture is just opposite from St.Peter's Cathedral. Instead of taking a picture of said Cathedral, I got a picture of Peter standing in front of a street sign that if you look very closely says "Peter's Street" (in German). Sorry about that, like I said, we were tired. The Cathedral was neat too though.

Just down the street from the Cathedral is the "Neues Rathaus" the new townhall. It's only 137 years old, the old town hall is 701 years old (thank you wikipedia). And thank you Europe for reminding us of how short our history is on this side of the pond. The townhall features a clock with a bell chime and dancing figurines that go to work at 11 am. Tons of people turned out to watch, and we were two of them. In hindsight it was kind of like going to Disneyland and riding "It's a small world after all". You feel like you should do it to get the full experience, but at the same time it's a bit lame. I'm sure it was mind-blowing in 1874.

After the clock tower we headed to the art museum. My newest sister-in-law, Coleen, recently told me that my favorite artist would likely be Peter Paul Rubens...because...you know...Anyway, it turned out that the Munich art museum has a massive collection of works by Mr. Rubens. I was only vaguely familiar with his work before, but he is probably in my top 5 favorite artists at this point. His paintings contain some interesting religious themes, the art work is great, but mostly I like him because his paintings are so huge that I don't know anyone who could fit them in their house.

Several of them wouldn't even fit on your roof.

Alas, my favorite artist is still Rob Gonsalves.

...but I digress. The picture above is not from the art museum. Rather, it comes from the Technology and Science museum (the Deutches museum). It was pretty awesome.

And here's Pete playing a giant xylophone made out of 2x4s.

After that we were pretty well beat and so we headed back to the airport.

Interestingly, of all the things we did in Munich, Peter's favorite was riding the subway.

We had lunch one day with some new friends. I asked for the chicken, and they gave me chicken...gizzards.

This is called the House of the Seven Sleepers. Peter immensely enjoyed climbing all over the ancient ruins. Here he is featured walking in front of some tombs.

Here is a traditional breakfast. It's what you get pretty much everywhere.

An egg, tomato, cucumber, bread and tea.

Peter ate the bread.

Here I am at the ancient city of Ephesus. Just behind me is the most magnificent and famous structure in Ephesus, the library of Celsus. But you can't see it...because I'm standing in front of it.

Trust me though, it's great.

This one is especially important to me (Stacey)

because it has palm trees.

Hinting that the weather is warm and the beach is not far off.

Peter ordered the potatoes because he thought they'd be a safe bet.

It didn't work out so well, they were cold

and drenched in vinegar.

So I ate them instead.

Ruins at St. John's church in Selcuk.

If St. John's basilica were standing today it would be the 7th largest Cathedral in the world.

The building was completed in 565 AD.

And thank you Asia for reminding us of how short our history is on this side of the pond.

Fresh squeezed orange juice For The Win!

I kept trying to get him to climb up there and lay down in the tomb and close his eyes.

I don't think he knows what fun is.

What's in T you ask?

Only the tomb of the Apostle John.

You mean THE John?

The one who wrote the gospel of John?

The beloved apostle?

Yep, that's the one.

And that deserves a special sort of pose.

No apostles buried here, but it still got a special sort of pose.

That column just looked like it needed a statue on it.

Roman Aqueduct.

Place where I kind of got a little bit lost with Peter.

Cute little dolmus rider. (that's Stacey's comment)

This is our room in the luxurious Hotel Paris. Peter kept asking why it was named Paris...

There's the library of Celsus. Peter was less than impressed.

It wasn't that good for climbing on and it was thick with tourists.

See the "C" he's making with his hand? That stands for "Corinthian", because that's the kind of column that it is. Which I didn't know. But he learned last year. Thanks home-school education.