Ashton and I left Hallie and took off for Europe at the end of August and spent 3 weeks in Europe. It was fantastic! We missed Hallie so much though, but it was wonderful to spend time with just us. I couldn't think of a better time to go. The more kids that come along, the harder it will be. Ashton was in between jobs, we don't own a house so we weren't paying for housing that whole time we were gone. Conditions were perfect.
We flew into Paris, went to the beaches of Normandy where Ashton's grandpa Buswell was a commanding officer during D-Day, flew to Milan, took a train to Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, then on to Rome, up to Venice, took a night train to Munich. From Munich we went to Fussen and Salzburg, Austria. Rode the Chunnel to London, and then back to Paris to fly home.
I loved Paris a lot more than I thought I would. I learned a lot at the beaches of Normandy tour...history came alive for me. Milan was kind of dumpy but held my most treasured cathedral of all we visited. Cinque Terre was quaint, colorful, and warm. Pisa was still leaning. Florence is the home of the most beautiful sculpture my eyes have ever beheld--David by Michealangelo was inspired by above. Also, the gelato was amazing as well as this Tuscan soup I had, it was the best soup I've ever had in my entire life. Rome holds something from every period of time which is incredible. The vatican would have been cooler if people were more reverent there. Venice is a port for all people. Bavaria and Austria has the prettiest country of all the places we were...it was so green and lush and I love the mountains there. London was busy and all in ENGLISH which was so nice.
I love to run and in every city we would put on our running clothes and run to all of the sites in a few hours and then after we had gotten all cleaned up we would go back to the places that we wanted to spend more time at. It was a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time for no money.
Here are some experiences that I wrote in my journal that were meaningful to me.
We didn’t go to the Uffizzi, but we did to go the Accademia and saw the Michaelangelo’s David. That was both our number one favorite thing about the whole trip. I don’t know why but it was so beautiful. David was just standing there in the soft white light. His intestse, yet calm eyes, the smoothness of the marble. Everything about it. The feeling you get when you see it. It is just simply amazing. Who knew you could love a sculpture so much?
After Rome we went to Venice. It was so nice and quiet there. No cars, no buggies, no scooters, not bikes even. Just pedestrians. We went on the most beautiful run. We took a boat the the end of the grand canal and ran all the way back. It was beautiful. I loved the colored buildings and the water. And again, the weather was wonderful. We spent a Sunday there and decided that we would go to church. So we looked up a church and a time. One that we knew we could actually get to. We took a train to a town called Padova. We had drawn a map for ourselves of how to get from the train station to the chapel and followed our map. The time we had was 10:50 am (although to find out later that they only post sacrament times not the time church starts and they had sacrament last). So we almost make it to the church when a guy, around our age, is stopped in a parking lot asks us if we need a ride to church. We say yes and hop on in. We asked him how he knew and he said that we just looked like we were going to church. I was wearing a skirt and flip flops and Ashton was wearing shorts and a polo with tennis shoes. Giole was his name. He had taken a church member to the train station and saw us on his way there and thought we looked like we were going to church and then when we were still headed that way on his way back he knew. I think that he was just in tune enough with the spirit that he knew. And it is wonderful and strengthening to know that the Lord knows us wherever we are in the world and helps us and he never stops taking care of us. My testimony was strengthened that day. Giole is soon getting married to Miriam and his sister and her husband were also there at church. Giole sat behind us and translated to English for us and then invited us over to dinner. (Ashton had kept saying that he was hoping someone would invite us to dinner). He gave us a ride to their house and made us cabonara, which is spaghetti with egg and nutmeg and parmesan and cream mixed with cooked bacon or ham. We really enjoyed our time with them and are grateful to them for their hospitality. We hope to be that way to people who cross our paths as well. That was such a wonderful day!
The next day we took a train to Fussen the next day to see the castle that Walt Disney fashioned his Disneyland castle after. It was so beautiful. And it was in the most beautiful spot. Up on a cliff in the mountains of Bavaria. All the mountains and the trees. While we were waiting in line to go into the castle Ashton saw some people who he thought were Mormons. So we decided to talk to them and tried to find out where they are from. Ashton decided that if he could find if they were Utah then he would almost certainly know that they were Mormon. And sure enough they were from West Jordan (Ashton could see their garments under their white shirt). We talked a while and went through the castle with them. Their names were Brett and Stacy Wall. They were on their 30 year wedding anniversary and Brett had served his mission in Germany. Anyway, they took us to lunch and I had some delicious raising pancakes with applesauce. And it was so yummy. They asked us if we wanted to ride back with them in the Mecedes that they rented. So they took us on the romantic road through all these little Mideval towns and then on the Autobahn back to Munich. Those towns were so cute and the ride on the autobahn was crazy. There were all these cars zooming past—lamberghini’s—I don’t even know how to spell that. We decided to meet with them the next morning and go with them down to Austria, Salzburg, to be exact. We met with them at their hotel and then they took us to Dachau Concentration camp. That was a sobering experience. It is amazing to think of how many people died under the reign on hitler and how horribly people were treated. And how wonderful it is to think that people are now free.
It is still sobering to think that the Lord know who we are, wherever we are and that there are people who do good things all over the world.
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