Random Thoughts

This is us on the plane to Madrid getting ready for takeoff from JFK. So full of excitement and anticipation. 

I wish I could have had chocolate and burros or churros one more time.

We were in Madrid, Berlin, and Paris when each of those countries was playing in the World Cup. It was fun to celebrate and watch what a big deal it is in other countries.  All around us, every establishment of any kind had a TV on with the game showing as people came in from the streets to watch and cheer.  It was pretty exciting.

I'm glad I don't have to cook in a medieval kitchen.

When I look at the kind of amazing art that is part of Europeans' everyday lives, and then when I remember the blue devil horse at DIA, it makes me want to weep.

We are a very young country.

Even subways, elevators, street signs, and railings can be beautiful when beauty matters.

This is for Sean

For the very lazy or jet-lagged, this is how to do it.

Hannah on a playground in Berlin. 

For Europeans, WII is not very far away.  Cities that were bombed or occupied have a cultural memory that very much informs their daily lives even today.  It is everywhere in the buildings, streets, art, and lives of the people.  So much was destroyed, and it is very sad.

Ben said that now in Berlin the Russians have all the money and are the only ones who can afford to shop in the fancy stores on their version of Rodeo Drive.

A beautiful old church in Berlin that was bombed in WWII is being restored.  However, they are not replacing the roof that was destroyed.  The spire will have a hole in it forever.

In a little dive of a Mexican eatery in Berlin. 

Uncle Mike, this tiny scoop is a single serving. And it's 4,20€  And worth every cent.

We also just got served a single serving of ice cream on the plane ride home.  Mike would need to ask for about 10 of them.

I love old beautiful doors.  You can thank me later for not posting 653 pictures of them.

Hannah loves interesting sewer overs and took tons of pictures of them.  To each her own.

When riding the train during commuting times, I noticed that Parisian men dress as beautifully as the women do.  I saw more beautifully tailored shirts in a few short subway trips than I have seen in the rest of my life.

This would solve the "this is my pew" issue we are having in the church.  In medieval times you had assigned seats that were beautifully carved out of wood.  The end of each row had a different carving on it as did the dividers between seats.  The seats fold up, and underneath is a carving that represents the person to whom it belongs.  So for all the illiterate folks, they didn't have to read the names, they could look at the carving of a butcher or a farmer and know who the seat belonged to.

Near the top of Monmarte, we saw another Diwali.

The gardens behind Notre-Dame were really beautiful.  I wonder of Mike would make me a raised flower bed that had this stunning retaining wall.  I really really love it!

In the back of the cathedral, Notre-Dame, there is a little grounds keeper's shed behind a fence that had this hanging from it.  Seems a little incongruous. 

I took pictures of a bunch of plants that I would love to try to grow in my own yard.  They probably won't survive, mores the pity.

The Fernsehturm is a famous symbol and landmark on Berlin. 

The security is amazingly lax in European airports.  When we entered Spain, the customs agent didn't even look at me or my passport as he stamped it and continued to joke around with the guy next to him who was checking Lori through. When we flew from Spain to Germany, they didn't check or stamp our passports.  When we got off the night train in Paris, same thing--no checking.  When we left Madrid for JFK this morning, many layers of checking, many questions, and many times having our passports and boarding passes checked and rechecked.  Same when we entered the US at JFK. Long lines, tons of security checks.

There's a shrine to the Queen of Colors in Segovia. 

We chatted with the missionaries in Segovia, at church in Madrid, and at church in Paris.  At the airport when we left Madrid we were behind a group of them headed home.  It was fun to see their excited and scared faces and chat with the mission president and his wife as they sent them off.

This cool wall was inside a multilevel subway station in Madrid. It went up about 3 floors. 

Hannah's humanities teacher in Cedar City told her students that when they were looking at pictures of classic art, they should consider that many of the subjects are "clothed in nudity" and that there is nothing immoral about them.  I'm sure she was trying to minimize the number of parent phone calls accusing her of showing pornography to teens in school and calling for her head on a platter. 

We saw lots of pictures of people clothed in nudity this trip. And they were all beautiful. 

We also saw lots of pictures of people who had lost their heads. Most of them were John the Baptist. You can usually tell which one he is in classic art because he's the decapitated one. 

Germans love their parks and trees and are proud of how green Berlin is. Bart said that sometimes when you are just walking down the street or through a park you can see people lounging around clothed in nudity. They call them "naturalists" in Germany. 

I didn't take any pictures of naturalists. 

When we checked into the WA on Sunday night, some famous people had just checked out. Here's where they signed the wall in the lobby. 

They usually have them sign a piece of paper, and then the hotel transfers the signature to the wall in gold. There are lots of other signatures on the wall done in that manner. The door person said that  Steven Tyler just grabbed a Sharpie and went to town.  I asked if they wanted me to sign the wall. She just laughed--a little nervously, I thought. 

These guys are everywhere in Europe. Job security for Adam. 

While I loved going so much and seeing everything and learning so much history, I'm glad to be home and grateful for my country.