Thanksgiving and finishing Europe posts and all in between

Well, I finally finished my Europe stuff... sorry it took so long. I had a few problems along the way when I typed it and went to save and the internet didn't work at the moment and I lost it all... figures! So, I can't figure out how to put a picture on our name... if that makes sense... I found out we don't have a setting that we need and I don't know how to get it there. If anyone has any idea what I am talking about, help me. I read somewhere that I need a java update but didn't quite understand it either. I thought I was pretty computer savvy until I read all that stuff. Since we have been back from Europe, I have been subbing for all grades to try to make some extra money. I actually really like it but I am also glad that I can come home and not have to worry about the kids, but it also makes it harder to discipline when you aren't going to be there the next day, but I do like it, except for those rowdy and disrespectful classes every now and then. But imagine what it would be like if I was not in Idaho and some intercity school... much worse! I also have my schedule all figured out for next semester since I am going to start classes for nursing. I am really excited about starting school again (sort of - mixed feelings). But now that I know my schedule I will be looking for a real job soon, so hopefully something comes up. Luke has jut been trying to catch up on his job since he has been gone so much (he was gone the week before Europe for a conference and was in Florida last week for a conference). But he is still loving his job and I like it because it is great benefits, he loves it, and it isn't too demanding!
Thanksgiving was great for us! We spent it with Luke's family and had a great time. I forgot to take pictures so I am going to put on some pictures of when we were in St. Louis in August. Enjoy!

back to Paris... and HOME

This is the last post I am going to make about Europe and then I am done. I don't think I am every going to post something this long ever again. But I don't think I will be taking a trip for 3 weeks ever again either (or at least not an as exciting one). So, we were in Paris the night before we left and it was really the most frustrating night of the whole trip because we got there around 9:30 pm and even though we had already been there, we knew where to go but once we got off the metro we had to find the right bus because otherwise we didn't have any idea where to walk. We talked to the bus driver but he didn't speak English at all (we were more out of downtown Paris so not as many people spoke English) and we were trying to ask him if he could take us to our hotel but we thought he was saying he was done for the night, so we were all confused. After about an hour we finally found a girl who spoke English and helped us and we found our hotel. It was frustrating and by far the most lost we ever were on the trip, even though we weren't lost just needed a bus!
The next day we get to the airport and and find out our plane is delayed by like 8 hours (and they have known this for like 2 days so why didn't they just find us another plane). So, we have to stay at the airport forever and wait in a line to get checked into the airplane (they wouldn't check our bags until the plane in India had left). When we finally get to the guy we ask him why we are delayed and he acts like we are the first people who have asked him the question even though we are one of the last in line and we know we aren't the first. It was really annoying... NEVER FLY AIR INDIA! We find out around dinner time that some of the check in people gave some people vouchers for dinner but we never got any.... figures it was that stupid man! So, eventually we get on the plane at the time we are supposed to be arriving in the US (like 9:30 Paris, 1:30 US), so of course we miss all of our connecting flights, and we tried to get that arranged with the stupid man, but they said they had to take care of that in the US. So, now we are hoping they will take care of that and we don't have to worry about it. When we arrive in Newark it is 10:30 US time and it takes us around 3 hours to go through customs, get our bags and figure out how we are getting back tomorrow. Luckily, there was someone at the Air India desk and the arranged for a hotel and the flights to get home the next day. The dilemma was our flight was at 7 am and we didn't get to our hotel till 2 am and we had to leave the hotel by 5 am... so not much sleep in the last 36 or more hours... it was so much fun... and we still had to drive home to Idaho from Utah once we landed, but we made it back and thanks so much to my friend Rachel for picking us up at the airport... THE END!

Heidelburg & Frankfurt, Germany

When we first arrived in Frankfurt we heard about all the train & metro strikes that were going on around the area and our hotel was about 30 minutes away on a metro so we decided not to risk it and stay right by the central station. It was an expensive hotel, the most expensive one we stayed at the whole trip. We wanted to see a castle and the closest one to an hour away by train so we left and decided to tour this castle. It is pretty famous and it was beautiful but it was more of ruins than anything and I wish we could have seen a castle that was still up and running like it would have been in the medieval times or something like that. I guess that is for our next trip to Germany (if you want to know what castle I would love to go to it is Ludwig's castle or Marksburg... or go along the Rhine River). It was still a really neat castle and they have the biggest barrel that holds the most beer in that castle. It was neat, but if it was me, I would hold juice or milk... not beer. haha! The city was also beautiful like all of Germany was, except it was foggy, of course. The next day we were back in Frankfurt and went to the Frankfurt Temple which was beautiful. Everybody knew where that Mormon temple was. It is funny how people know the temple and call it their temple. We met a very nice girl, Janina, who knew great English because she lived in the US for awhile, but she was very nice and showed us how to get back to the train. We went to a Jewish museum until we had to leave to go back to Paris. I couldn't believe our trip was coming to an end. It was nice that we were able to go back home but I was sad our trip was going to be over soon, but I was not at all looking forward to flying back on India Air. The museum was really neat because Luke and I never understood how much the Jews were persecuted early on and not just during World War II. It was very enlightened but we didn't get many pictures because it was just a museum. Then we headed back to Paris on a long train ride.

Freiburg, Germany

We came to this city because we thought there was a temple here... well it turns out as we are asking directions they tell us we are not in the right town and that we are in Freiburg, not Freiberg... who would have known there was such a minor difference, oh but that town was about 5 hours away. So we decided to make the best of it in a cute town we were in. We had learned that "SCHLOSS" meant castle in German so there were all these schloss all over the map and since I am pretty much obsessed with schloss we had to go. Well, we started up this huge hill and found tons of stairs that were supposed to lead to a schloss. We climbed over 500 stairs to get to the top of this area and we only found another tower thing that has another 300 stairs to climb, and it was only a look out. Well, we made it that far so we decided to climb even farther and see the pretty view. There is a picture of Luke and me and the background (it isn't very good of the background but you can sort of see it). It was quite foggy around the area but there is a better picture the view. Just look at all the gorgeous buildings. Germany was one of my favorite places of all, not only because my ancestors are from there but also because their buildings are quite unique compared to the rest of Europe. Each country has its own style but Germany is the most unique of any. It was neat and I loved it! We found this cool store that sold lots of different kinds of gummy bears and gummy treats. We bought a few bags for some of our relatives and man did it make our bags so much heavier, good thing it was towards the end of our trip. I also made good friends with the big bear you see. I wish I could have taken him home with me, but not possible.

Bern, Switzerland

First off, you can see the cool trains that we rode on to get everywhere. Some of them were super super fast and it was way fun to travel on them and I wish they had them here in the US. I think it would make getting around much easier and cheaper. We weren't in Bern too long but we did get to see some cool things. Bern had some crazy construction going on with there metros so it was harder to get around the town, or at least until we figured it out. There is a famous clock tower in Bern that has a bear and some other animals dancing around the clock at every hour. The landscape again was beautiful and there is a picture of what we saw from our hotel room. It was amazing but unfortunately it was way foggy the last few days we were in Europe. We went to the LDS temple in Bern and it was beautiful. We also went to a cool spaghetti factory that had dang good spaghetti and everybody had wine. Of course we don't drink wine (and everybody over there was always shocked about that) so we got sprite in an old fashioned bottle and drank it in our cool wine glasses. Later that night, there was a curling rink by our hotel and I absolutely love curling... it is just awesome (I took a class my last semester at USU). So we watched that for an hour or so and loved it. The next morning we were walking to the train station and I saw this cool sign with "Wittwer" on it. It was totally awesome so we had to take a picture! Switzerland was beautiful and we really enjoyed it!!! It was also a fave and we would love to go back to that country and climb the Alps!

Geneva, Switzerland

We move onto Geneva... Switzerland was a beautiful country and they sure do keep it nice. It was the cleanest place we went to and beautiful landscape. We tour the city, but of course most of the places/museums that we wanted to go to were closed (figures). We did go to the UN which is located in Switzerland (and it is considered international territory, so in a way we went to 12 countries... kinda). We thought it was a free tour but really it cost 8 euros. I was a little disappointed after that becuase how great could a tour of the UN be that we had to pay for. But really we learned a lot and were very happy we went in the long run. There are lots of pictures of the UN (the flags, the paintings on the walls tell a great story but if you want to know it, ask me... it really is good). background is where Yasser Arafat was when he The picture with Luke and a lot of chairs in thewas considered a terrorist and not allowed to come into the United States. So we were in the same room as him, just not at the same time. The picture with me and the HUGE chair was made to make a point about land mines and trying to ban them from all countries and make them illegal. It makes a strong point and one I happen to agree with. We also learned about what the UN is actually there for and we learned a lot of things that we didn't know before. It was really interesting!
We toured the rest of Geneva and saw some interesting sites like larger chess boards in parks. A clock that is made completely of flowers (one of my favorites), the Geneva Lake and guns used in the Reformation of Geneva. There is also a funny picture of and exit sign but it says way-out in english... it is just funny how the European signs look. We also were walking by a zoo and met some people that got locked into the zoo. We chated with them for awhile and Mi was from Vietnam but had lived in Europe since she was 18 and Will was from the Arizona and they met and married. It was fun to make some friends and they even bought us dinner that nice. We are glad for their friendship now!

Florence, Italy

Onto Florence.... we were only there for a short time and of course the famous museum with Michelangelo's The David was closed (it seemed that every time we were in a city and wanted to go to certain sites, they were always closed on that day... Vatican City, Geneva) but we did get to see a smaller replica that was still big. Florence was a very nice city, but not a lot to do, but it was like the Italian cities you see on the movies. It was a lot of fun. We walked around the city and saw a cathedral, the oldest bridge in the city and it was gorgeous with all its shops on it. There were sculptures all over the city. There was a square with tons of famous sculptures. It was pretty neat and the art is amazing like it is all over Europe. It really is amazing at the talent and art that is over there, but what is even cooler is that it is so old!

Vatican City

I won't say much about the Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica because the pictures speak for themselves. Although I will say that St. Peter's Basilica was amazing.... it was humongous and beat out all the other churches in Europe.It was amazing to look at such a famous place. I know it doesn't mean as much to me because I am not catholic, but it was still amazing and so neat to see, especially because in a way all churches broke of from this religion (kind of... too long to explain what I mean exactly). We learned that the Vatican City is actually its own country, so technically we went to 11 countries and not just 10 countries. It really was amazing and the architecture and art of the painting was amazing. Unfortunately, they don't let you take pictures inside of the Sistine Chapel (which people still did and I told them off... you bet I did) but luckily most of the pictures are online.... amazing though!





















(people rub this saints feet as you
can see from the worn feet)


(The weird acorn thing deals with fertility.)




Huge hall of maps in Vatican





























(in the last picture, it is the dome of the basilica, the letters you can see by the dome were bigger than people, just to give something to judge the size of this church)