Switzerland

Switzerland! A land of cheese and chocolate (two things we both greatly enjoy)! While Switzerland was one of our fastest countries to date, we hit it hard and enjoyed buying a ridiculous amount of chocolate bars in that time period. ;) Just kidding…but not really: we visited three cities in a week. (And…the chocolate was for energy, of course!) 

Our first day in the country, June 2nd, was spent exploring Geneva! We had found a flight from Madrid to Geneva for 25€ a person, which turned out to be a fourth of the price of a train, not to mention much faster! We stayed in an AirBnB again, which was great. As we've travelled through Europe we've really enjoyed staying in AirBnBs; you get to meet the locals! Additionally, in Europe, a private room through AirBnB is often cheaper (or close in price) to an eight bed dorm in a hostel, and we will always choose a private room over a dorm. 

Geneva is a fairly walkable city and we stayed close to the city center, so we first headed to Parc Des Bastions to see the Reformation Wall. John Calvin, William Farel, Théodore de Bèze and John Knox were at the center of the wall and are all important figures of the reformation. From the park we walked to the Geneva cathedral, the Jet d'Eau and the U.N. Building. The highlight of the day, however, was the Patek Philippe museum. Anyone who knows Nicholas knows that he loves watches. You can buy him a watch for every anniversary, birthday, holiday and special occasion and he will be thrilled! The museum explained the history of watch makers in Geneva and why it became such a popular form of art in the area. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest family-run watch/clock companies (and most expensive brands in the world— $5,000,000 for a few of it’s luxurious watches). The museum told the story behind the name/brand and has an extensive collection of clocks and watches dating from the 1500s to present day. We spent three hours in the museum but could have easily spent five; unfortunately, we arrived a little too late for that. 

The next day we took a train to Zermatt, a town famous for its proximity to the Matterhorn. The ride through the mountains to get to Zermatt was spectacular. Upon arrival, we met two American students who were interning in France and had a 3 day weekend, so joined them for dinner, spent a little time walking the town and went to the grocery store and bought snacks for the following day. 

Sunday, we hiked! We started out at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 7:30 p.m. While hiking, we listened to our brother Matt in Oklahoma preach God’s word. There is nothing better than hiking in God’s beautiful creation and hearing the Word from our brother back in Oklahoma. As many of you have read in our previous blog, our Oklahoma church family had a huge impact on Nicholas’ and my relationship today and we have continued to listen to our pastors preach, even while on the other side of the world…thanks to podcast! God continues to use them in our lives to be an encouragement, which is truly awesome to experience. Our hike led us 22 kilometers through the mountains of Switzerland, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it feels like it is when most of it is uphill! The scenery was beautiful and the views, stunning. We had a lot of fun!

On Monday we took a train to the historical city of Bern. Sadly, after hiking Nicholas got sick (pushing our bodies so much definitely wares on them) so we didn't do anything the rest of that day or the next even. It poured rain almost the entire day though, so it worked out that we took a rest day. One thing we did do was go to the grocery store. We have burned out on eating at restaurants, so have started going to grocery stores for our meals. We've been able to buy a lot of salad kits, soups and sandwiches, which has been such a nice change from all the "restaurant food." Plus, it is much much cheaper! We did the math and figured we are spending about $5-8 per person a meal, instead of a minimum of $20 per person a meal at a restaurant. 

The next day, June 7th, Nicholas was feeling much better, so we walked the old city. We saw the clock tower, cathedral, went window shopping, and finally went to Einstein's house. Learning about Einstein and his life was really interesting; neither one of us knew much about him, so enjoyed our time at the museum, even though it was small and mostly reading. 

Like I said earlier, Switzerland was a fast country! The natural beauty was wonderful.  We did a lot of active things and were also able to spend some time catching up. The next day we headed off to Germany, but that's another blog!

Thanks for reading,

Cheers,

N + K

Sunny Spain

When you think about Spain, what do you think about? I think about tapas, the architect Gaudi and sunshine! Nicholas thinks about bullfights, ethnic food and bright colors! We experienced (almost) all of these things and more during our week in Spain. (We decided to skip the bull fight.)

Traveling to Spain from Italy was one of our longer trips. We took a train from Malcesine to Marseille, France (10 hours), stayed in Marseille for the night and, finally, flew to Barcelona the next evening. We were able to find a flight that was considerably cheaper than taking a train or bus. We made it to our hostel by midnight and quickly headed to bed. Unfortunately, we had some pretty terrible roommates, so we didn't sleep exceedingly well, but, such is life in a dorm room. 

On May 26th, our first full day in Barcelona, we started our day by heading to La Sagrada Familia! I had visited Spain and the cathedral during my European trip in high school and was excited for Nicholas to see it! Sadly, when we arrived, tickets were sold out for that day and the following three (we were planning to be in Madrid by that point) so we were unable to visit. We snapped some pictures of the outside of the cathedral and decided to find some lunch. I had been looking forward to some tapas, so we found a good, local spot and had a yummy lunch. After that we took the metro and walked to Parc Guell. By the time we had finished exploring the park it was time for dinner, so we headed to the San Fernando Market. This was probably our favorite part of the day! Both Nicholas and I love markets; the bright colors and smells are always interesting. We bought a vegetarian burrito "bowl" for dinner. It was delicious! Even beat out the tapas we had eaten earlier in the day. 

Our second day in Barcelona we slept in a little, did some housekeeping (organizing pictures and whatnot) and then checked into our AirBnB. Afterwards we headed to Montjuic, an old fortress, and then Font Magica. The light and music show at the fountain was a lot of fun! We were surprised at how bright the lights were and how well the fountain moved with the music. If you ever find yourself in Spain, this is a must see show…and arrive early to get a good seat.

May 28th we boarded a train for Madrid. Little did we know how exciting our day would become! 1.5 hours into our trip the train slowed to a stop. It sat on the tracks for a bit, reversed, pulled forward, reversed and stopped completely; our train had broken down. We sat on the tracks for 3 hours at an old abandoned station; finally a second train met us on the tracks to transfer the goods and passengers to continue our journey.  However, the people from the train that met us had to get off their working train and board our non-working train and wait to be rescued themselves (we were told this is how they do it in Spain).  Surprisingly, those individuals had no complaints and just did what they were told.  It was unfortunate that neither Nicholas or I spoke the language as we would have loved to know what everyone was saying. The second train took us 20 min down the tracks and again slowed and stopped, this time, in the middle of no where. Everyone on board moaned and grumbled and as the conductor ran back and forth, we all assumed the worst; our second train had broken down as well. Eventually it was confirmed, and we sat for another 1 and 1/2 hours waiting for a third train.  This time, there was talk of busses coming to pick us up, which would have led to a hike to the road 1km away, through a farmers field.  However, they told us another train would be coming to meet us on the track again.  Amusingly, we all had to jump off, walk down the tracks and board the new train.  Our first stop was at a little town with a bunch of angry people waiting at it…with the malfunctioning of the train, there was no way for them to get to their destination since there is only 1 train that goes each direction.  Here the ticket master got off and brought back some sandwiches and waters for all the passengers, which was nice.  We were off again and this 3rd train took us about 400km out of Madrid and dropped at another station, where they rushed us through security and onto a 4th high speed train. Luckily, for our troubles we got 1st class seating! I was able to email the train company and we got our entire trip refunded, which was about $100, so that was nice! One of our fellow passengers said she had been riding the route for seven years and only once had a train broken down. Two in one day was unheard of! It was an adventure though, and that's what's great about traveling! Our AirBnB host, Marissa, was incredibly sweet to us when we arrived (late), which we were so grateful for. 

Our next day--Monday--we had planned a day trip to Toledo. One of the reasons we wanted to visit Toledo was so that we could spend some time with new friends! While in Vietnam we went on a cruise to Halong Bay and met a Spanish couple, Cruz and José. They both are history teachers and have lived in Toledo the last two years. They kindly offered to show us around the city when we came to Spain. The high speed train ride was only 30 minutes and Cruz picked us up from the station. We stopped for some breakfast and then began our walking tour! Cruz showed us all of the old walled city, from the square where the Spanish Inquisition burned people to the beautiful old cathedral, she was very knowledgeable of the town, due to history being her expertise. We had beers and tapas for lunch, and José met us for dinner at one of their local favorites. Dinner was amazing! For 11€ a person we got: a drink, tapas, appetizer, entree and dessert! It was so much food and incredibly delicious. More special was the company though; we truly enjoyed getting to see our new friends again.  It is always a blessing to see familiar faces and experience sweet hospitality from those we meet again on our travels.  It was sad to say goodbye, but it was a fun day trip and we were so thankful to José and Cruz for the time.  We headed back to Madrid around 6:30 pm, watched half of a movie, and crashed for the night. Traveling is hard work, guys!

The next day we predominately rested; we did venture out to visit a market (which was completely closed) and a park. We decided to wander the botanical garden in the park, which was fun and filled with beautiful flowers! 

May 31st was our last full day in Madrid, so we went out to sightsee and explore. Our first stop was the Royal Palace. Probably the most interesting part was the royal armory, which boasts one of the largest collections of armor and weapons in the world! Nicholas was pretty excited about that. On the way back from the palace we randomly ran into a movie premier for The Mummy, so decided to stick around to see Tom Cruise! We waited for about 30 minutes and he arrived. I was too short to actually see him, but Nicholas did, and we got pictures and videos! Who knew...go to Spain, see Tom Cruise! For dinner our AirBnB host took us to one of her favorite Cuban restaurants (she was originally from Cuba, had lived in the U.S. for 20 years, and then moved to Madrid). We then walked through some of the city center together, which was great because we had gone to places we had not been to yet. Marissa was very sweet and very helpful to us and we enjoying the time we had to spend with her. 

June 1 we had a late flight to Geneva, Switzerland, so slept in and did some window shopping in the afternoon. Nicholas wasn't feeling well that day, and one thing we've learned is that if you don't feel well, don't push it; you'll only end up feeling worse. Thankfully, it was a short-lived bug. 

Well, friends, that concludes our time in Spain! It was too fast and we felt like we barely saw any of the country. I think we say that in every blog post though! 

Hope you're still enjoying following our adventures! 

XOXO

N & K

Italy, Part 2

Finally, part 2 of Italy! We like to keep people in suspense (hence my saying it again); just kidding. We actually are often tired and want to rest instead of blog or, like this week, have technical difficulties! But without further ado, the rest of our Italian adventure. 

On May 20th Nicholas and I left Florence and took a train to Venice. It was sunny when we departed and pouring rain when we arrived in Venice; not the most pleasant first impression. We took a water taxi (the public transportation system) to our AirBnB and were amazed to realize that our "taxi" was going to take a full hour to get to our stop! The nasty weather slowed everything down considerably. Our AirBnB host picked us up at the taxi stop and walked us to our accommodations. Luigi, our host, was very kind, if not a little quirky.  He was very particular about how you closed the doors and making sure we knew what direction to turn the keys. He even had Nicholas practice for him a few times! Like I said, though, he was very kind, and we had a nice stay. After the rain stopped and the sun came out we decided to walk around a little bit and visited the Bridge of Sighs, which is the oldest bridge in Venice. We realized we were staying about 10 minutes from Marco Square as well, so enjoyed listening to the live music and looking at the cathedral. We were feeling romantic (it was Venice, you know) and decided to have a glass of wine at one of the old restaurants in the square. We sat down, looked at a menu, and realized the LEAST expensive item was 18€! One glass of wine was around 45€! I think I said, "Run, before the waiter comes back!"  Sorry, but backpackers spend that much in a day, not on one drink! For dinner we stopped at the grocery store and bought some soup and salad for dinner, which was nice. 

Our second day was a full one! We wandered around Venice, trying to see as much as possible since we didn't have a lot of time there. We visited the Jewish ghetto, walked to an original paper mache mask shop to buy a souvenir (Venetian masks are famous), located the spot where the opening scene of the movie The Italian Job was shot, saw another famous bridge, and purchased Orchestra tickets for that evening. Lunch was an adventure as well. We had spent a decent amount of money of some authentic masks, so one had 8 euros left and were on the other side of the city, so had to get creative with our meal. We went into another grocery store and bought lunch meat, bread, chips, yogurt and even a bar of chocolate. We spent EXACTLY 8€ and had a great makeshift picnic! That evening we went to the orchestra, which has turned out to be one of our favorite events to date. Nicholas and I both love the performing arts, and the music was beautiful. 

The 22nd we bid farewell to Venice and started out for Malcesine  a small lakeside town on Lake Garda. A small backstory; when Nicholas and I were dating, I told him that if we got married, the one place he would have to take me before we died was Lake Garda, Italy. I had seen a picture in high school and have dreamed of visiting since then. While planning this trip I completely forgot about our anniversary (bad wife moment, I know), but Nicholas didn't, and asked where we would be on May 23rd. Amazingly enough, Malcesine was the place. God perfectly provided a romantic anniversary trip for us without me even knowing! Getting to Malcesine via public transport is a little taxing (it took us 8 hours by train and ferry), but completely worth it. It is, by far, the most beautiful place I have ever been, exceeding all expectations I had. Since it was our "almost anniversary," we decided to splurge for dinner and found a lovely lakeside restaurant right on the water. The food was delicious and, surprisingly, extremely affordable! Nicholas had a mussel chowder and I had fish. We had wonderful time talking and spending time together! 

The next day we slept in a little, had a nice breakfast (provided by our BnB, which was great) and then decided to visit the castle in town. We had some beautiful views of the lake and learned about the area itself. We then did some shopping; we bought a small oil painting and a Italian leather coin purse for Nicholas. We had made reservations for dinner at a restaurant called al Vas in Brezone, another small town 10 minutes from Malcesine  It was one of our best meals to date. We had scallops for our appetizer, Nicholas had an ostrich fillet wrapped in bacon with asparagus and I had balsamic glazed steak with wild mushrooms. For dessert we chose flambeed crêpes suzette. It was an amazing meal and we enjoyed each other and our food for three hours! (We're getting good at eating like Europeans!) All in all, it was an amazing day. 

The next day we started our journey to Spain, but I feel that Italy will be my favorite European country. It was beautiful; full of kind people, gorgeous scenery, wonderful food and interesting history. It's one of those places you never forget and always want to return to. Until next time Italy, until next time. 

Love,

N & K

Italy, Part 1

Italy was absolutely spectacular and a place Kaitlyn and I had both anticipated visiting on this trip!  One reason being the history and another the food; both seem to be talked of often!  Plus, there is a very romantic feeling that seems to go along with the thought of Italy, thus we were excited to experience it for ourselves.

Our trip began in Naples. It was easy and cheap to fly into from Athens and the city of Pompeii was only an hour commute, which was a must see on our list.  Naples is a large city known for its creation of pizza. Our flight arrived in the morning, so of course, after settling in, we headed to the old city for lunch to try a famous restaurant named Saborro Pizzeria.  (In case you were wondering, the pizza in Laos was still better…much better) After lunch we visited the cathedral and relaxed a little in the afternoon. 

We slept decently well that night (always something to be grateful for) and headed to Pompeii the next morning. Kaitlyn has always wanted to visit Pompeii; she remembers reading a National Geographic article about Pompeii and being intrigued as a child, so this was a very interesting visit for her. Upon a arriving, we both were amazed. We have visited many ruined cities, temples and building on this trip, but Pompeii is something totally unique. It is a HUGE city, with the buildings only missing roofs. The streets, walls, floors, temples, arenas, homes, gates, fountains, shops etc. are so well preserved and vastly spread out it takes your breath away. We also were able to see the cast of 12 people who had died in the eruption. It was very sad and moving. There is one figure in particular who is sitting against a wall with their knees drawn up to their chest and covering their mouth with both hands. We couldn’t even imagine the terror they must have felt as a cloud of toxic gas, ash and heat ascended upon them and suffocated them. 

The next day we traveled to Rome. We took our first distance train in Europe, and so far the Italian trains have been the nicest! Even the super-budget tickets that we bought included a table and plug-in for each seat. Handy when you’re constantly struggling to charge all of your electronics. ;) We stopped for lunch on the way to our AirBnB and discovered some really good chicken burgers at a restaurant owned by an Indian family; even better than Chic-Fil-A!  There is only so much pasta and pizza a person can eat before they need something a little different but still cheap, so chicken burgers it was. Our AirBnB turned out slightly different then we had expected. It was an apartment that had three rooms that were all rented out and a shared bathroom. We met Leah, a nursing student and fellow believer from Arizona. It is encouraging to meet other Christians while traveling; sometimes all the drinking and swearing at hostels gets a little discouraging. We rested for a bit that afternoon (in case you’re wondering, resting usually means napping) and went for dinner with Leah. Our meal was average, but we decided to buy a bottle of wine at a different restaurant to enjoy while getting to know our new friend…needless to say, the wine and conversation was amazing! 

The next day we went to a baptist church, met  and then did some sight seeing. Kaitlyn had mapped out a route that allowed us to walk to all of the main sites and then take the metro back to our AirBnB. We saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Leah spent the day with us as well, which was a lot of fun!

The next day we spent the majority of our time at Saint Peter’s Basilica. In the morning we went on the Scavi tour, which is a tour that goes underneath the basilica to a roman cemetery, the heart of the basilica and, supposedly, the tomb of the apostle Peter. (Like in Israel, we visited with the knowledge that it may or may not be the actual tomb, but it was very interesting none the less.) The history of how the basilica was built is incredibly interesting and the tour well worth the time and money. One note, if you are interested in going on a tour like the Scavi tour (or something else), sign up early online; spots are limited and the system is very specific in their requirements. We climbed the basilica dome and were able to explore the church while avoiding the insanely long line. ;) Inside the the church is the Pieta, a sculpture of Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus. It is the only work of art that Michelangelo ever signed. After our day at the basilica, we met Leah for a last dinner before she headed to Athens. We celebrated with some amazing gelato and a final bottle of wine. We greatly enjoyed getting to know her, and hope to visit her in Arizona someday!

Our final day in Rome we went to the Vatican. It’s much larger than I (or Kaitlyn) expected, and we spent a solid 4 hours in the museum. The Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight, and Kaitlyn enjoyed all the different art, particularly some 16th century tapestries. Dinner that night was our best one in Rome. I had a ravioli dish and Kaitlyn had gnocchi. We shared an excellent bottle of wine with great food, accompanied with a sweet conversation and a whole lot of romance. :) 

We headed to Florence the next morning. On the way to the train station, we witnessed a pick pocketing failure…two Italian girls boarded the bus and went right to the back where a group of American travelers were sitting.  A few minutes later, the bus erupted in yelling (both Italian and English), sitting in the front of the bus, we were unaware of what was transpiring until the girls got off the bus and things quieted down.  The group started talking and we heard them say things like, “I’ve never had that happen before” “she had to go into by bag and find my wallet” and “talk about super stealth” etc.  Thankfully most Italian people don’t care for pick pockets and were there to recognize what was happening and start to make a scene in order to prevent the pick pocketing from being a success.  The American girl was lucky enough to recover her wallet, but learned a lesson of awareness that day.  From our previous travels and things we have read, Kaitlyn and I try to be very careful with our belongings; never setting them on the floor, leaving them unlocked, setting things on the edge of tables, etc. We also listen very carefully to our gut; if we have a bad feeling about a situation or person we leave as quickly as possible. This was the day of interesting situations…Once we arrived in Florence we ran into another questionable situation. We were exiting the train station and a man approached us while saying, “Hey, english? English?” while trying to step close to me and touching my arm. I put my hands up in front of the backpack (I carry a front facing backpack) and Kaitlyn turned around immediately and started yelling “No! No!” After Kaitlyn started getting loud he quickly walked away. Before this trip we researched how to avoid thieves, and one of the suggestions is to make a scene and refuse to speak to them. Most thieves don’t like attention. 

Back to Florence! We checked into our AirBnB and quickly realized it was not quite what we had expected. “Janky” is the term Kaitlyn likes to use, and I tend to agree with her. Sockets falling out of walls, cracked walls and flooring, dismal wifi, a rather disgusting bathroom, a bed from the 1800s, and some really strange wall art accompanied by the lingering smell of wet laundry greeted us. Sometimes, cheap is not always best. We also realized we had roommates. Thankfully, the three Canadians across from our room were awesome, and we had a lot of fun chatting with them. Having cheap accommodation that smelled like socks also convinced us we needed some gelato, so off we went for some exploring and a tasty treat. 

Day nine in Italy Kaitlyn had booked us a wine tour. We took a bus into the hills of Tuscany and visited two wineries, one family owned and one that was a bit larger. At each stop we had several glasses of wine and sampled breads, cheeses, olive oils, sausages and balsamic vinegars. It was fun! Wine in Italy is always good, sometimes cheaper than water, and we’re pretty sure we drank more in two weeks then we usually do in a year. ;) We had a late dinner that night, which proved to be unwise, because I got a nasty bout of food poisoning. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it was a feverish and miserable night. I also don’t think I’ll be eating Carbonara anytime soon.

Because I was sick that night, we took the next day pretty easy. We slept in, relaxed, worked on blogging and finally walked around late afternoon before going to a market for dinner. The market is special because it run by chefs who are teaching; because of that, all of the food is extremely good and much more affordable than it would be in a restaurant. We had a simple pizza and some potato soup since my stomach was still queasy (I know…Pizza on a queasy stomach…but hey, when in Italy pretty sure there are 2 remedies for sickness…pizza and wine), but thankfully it all sat decently well. 

The next day we had a train taking us to...Venice! This post is getting a little lengthy and we still have six days of Italy to tell you about though, so you'll have to wait for part 2 of this blog.

Lots of love,

N + K