God Bless 2-year-olds

God bless the 2-year-old who hasn't learned yet what it means to lie.

Lili came home from kindergarten with a hole in her sweater. We found out she had been playing with scissors. Mmmmhmm.

When Sabine asked "What was it that you wanted to cut?"

Lili answered "A sweater!"

Onwards and Westwards!!

Marseilles, France

We went on a boat!

It was a ferry really and took us here, to the fortressed island and setting for the famous "Count of Monte Cristo".

We managed to make our escape from the island although we didn't have to climb into any body bags (for those of you who know the story).

This is actually the view from our balcony and that is Notre-Dame de la Garde.

K.

The Spectacular Lives of the Rich and Famous

Cannes, France

Home of the Cannes Film Festival

I'm on the red carpet!! Nearly blinded by all the camera flashes hurrying to get my picture.

This was our hotel.

Eze Village, on our way from Nice to Monaco.

Stopping for a pose at Eze Village.

Monaco, France

Monte Carlo.

Lots and lots of large fancy boats parked in the millions of marinas around here. Soren's idea was to bring the Seeker over here.......

Tribute to Monaco's Formula1 race track.

More big boats.

The castle. There were placards everywhere throughout the city for Princes Grace. Princes Grace this and that. I think they're a little proud of their connection.

Nice, France

Sweet waterfall we found.

I'm in Nice, I'm in Nice!

It was cute, Soren sat for a long time with his t-shirt on because he didn't want to take it off and show everyone how white he was. You can totally see his rockin' farmer's tan in this photo.

There's our waterfall up there.

K.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Adventure

So as you know Soren and I began our journey right here in Germany. After picking Soren up from the airport in Frankfurt, we spent a few days around Stuttgart and one day in Untersteinbach (very small village close to Stutti which holds some history for our family). I'm not sure how much Soren enjoyed Stuttgart, I think he might have been a bit bored. And I tried to take him to Onkel Otto's for a XXL Schnitzel, but he didn't want any part of that. But it didn't take us long and then we were off to Venice!

(These are only photos from our second day in Venice. Not the first day when it poured cats and dogs!!!)

Piazza San Marco, Venice

And then we were off by train to Verona.

"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."

It is said that touching Juliet's right breast will bring good fortune, thus the man in this photo fondling poor Juliet.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?" Juliet's window.

Juliet's wall where you can write the name of the person you wish would fall in love with you. Swoon!

Beyond the Montagues and Capulets, Verona is also home of the third larges Roman amphitheater. And after all these years this Roman amphitheater is for the most part, intact. It is now used for operas, concerts and plays.

I can't remember what was being performed but these were some of the set pieces from the latest performance in the amphitheater.

Leaving Verona we headed out on the train, destination Nice!

The Last Stop

Don't worry, I'll get to the photos and the stories about my travels with Soren, but first, I'm so happy to be 'home' again!! Let me tell you, we had a great time these last few weeks of traveling. We saw a lot, and did a lot, and met a lot of cool people. And having Soren here was awesome. But it was like heaven on earth to sleep in my bed last night, take a shower and not sweat again as soon as you step out(it was THAT hot where we were the last 3 weeks) AND to put on clean clothes. As much fun at it was and as much as I love that I had the experiences and saw what I've seen, I'm glad to be back.

And I don't think that I have ever been so happy to do laundry before!! No more questionably clean clothing for me. The entire contents of my rucksack went into the wash first thing today. Yippee!

But let me tell you, saying goodbye to Soren yesterday was hard. I think also because I knew he was going back to Seattle and I wasn't. I know that it will be only two more months now but it was hard not to start crying yesterday. But then as I drove with Stephan from the airport to the house here it felt wonderful! I mean great to see Stephan, excited to see Sabine and the girls and just so familiar to pull up in front of the house and step inside the front door. It felt like coming home. And it was really wonderful to see Sabine and the girls today(I came home too late last night). The girls had really missed me over the holidays and I realized how much I had missed them. I guess that they both talked about me, wanted to know when I was coming again and Lili even talked about 'her friend Kaija'. And all day today she was almost literally attached to me. Playing, reading, and just constantly wanting to be up in my arms. After sitting on the sofa reading a couple of books she looked up at me and asked 'do you want a Lili too?' Awww. And then later she told me that she has a brother named Soren too:) How cute is that.

Well its late here again, and since I'm still trying to recover from all this crazy traveling, but don't intent to make a habit of waking up at 12:30 (like this morning, er, afternoon), I should get to bed.

K.

Its been a while since my last post but it seems like we have just been on the move so much the last several days. Or weeks. I don´t have much sense of time anymore. But we´re still having a great time even if it is INCREDIBLY HOT around here. I now understand the reason for the Spanish siesta. Whew.

Since I last wrote Soren and I have been to Marseilles, Avignon, Lourdes, Carcassone, Barcelona, Alacant, Granada and now Seville. Writing all that down I almost can´t believe that we´ve just been to all those places.

I´ll see if I can give you a quick summary about what we´ve been up to.
In Marseilles we took a boat ride out to a couple islands and had a great view looking back at what is a beautiful city.
In Avignon we saw the famous bridge....´At the bridge of Avignon...´ Or rather half of a bridge, because that´s all that is really left after the rest fell in the river.
In Carcassone we visited what may be the most beautiful and biggest castle that I have ever seen. Somewhere I read that it was also the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle.
Lourdes was very interesting even if we had pouring down rain for the whole day that we were there. And in spite of the rain there were pilgrims everywhere around the famous Grotto.
Barcelona was big but very cool. We heard lots of great history about the city and saw some great art in the architecture, sculptures parks etc.
Alacante was a very small beach town. We spent some time at the beach, walking the markets and enjoyed our first night out in Spain. And ate some delicious Spanish food. Mmmmm, paella.
Now we´re enoying ourselves in Seville. Flamanco capitol of Spain and second largest city for bullfighting. Today we visited the third largest cathedral in all of Europe. Very impressive. Last night we took a tapas tour and met some great people and enjoyed a lot of delicious tapas and some sangria too.

Well I have to give someone else a chance at the internet now so I´ve gotta go but I´ll write again when I can.

Lots of love.

K.