Cinque Terre

A couple of months ago, I was cleaning out my purse after church and found a mysterious envelope.  The envelope contained a generous sum of money and instructions that read, "Go see Mike".  Mike was still working in France where he had been for almost 3 months, and where we expected him to be for possibly another 3 months.  Immediately, I collapsed into a puddle of tears, humility, and thanksgiving.  I collected myself enough to call Mike and tell him about our unexpected and amazing blessing.  We were blown away and excited about planning an upcoming visit.  We decided to work out the details via email.  Shortly after our phone call ended, I received an email from Mike saying that I had called while his supervisor was in the room.  The supervisor heard me on the phone (crying) and asked if everything was all right.  Mike told him that he had been gone a lot over the past year and I was having a hard time.  The supervisor asked him, "Do you want to go home?"  Mike replied with an unequivocal, "Yes".  He was home 6 days later.

We are thankful that the giver of the money was obedient to God's prompting for them to bless us because clearly, it WAS a blessing from the Lord.  The money worked far and above what we, and surely the giver, were expecting.  We didn't just get to see Mike for a week or so of vacation, we got to become a family again.

The money's intended purpose was for Mike and I it spend some time together. We thought it appropriate to still use the money to that end.  This past week, some very thoughtful friends (Jennifer Eapen and her husband Paily) offered to take care of our kiddos for a few days so Mike and I could get away.

Simply put, we are so thankful for the friends God has put in our lives.  Whether by a monetary gift or a gift of time, thoughtfulness, and care of our children, we have been blessed SO many times over and this trip to Cinque Terre is just a manifestation of those blessings.  We stand in awe of God's love for us.

We hopped on a plane and as we rose into the cool temperatures and clouds over Germany, I could almost feel the Italian sun on my face.  We soared over the lakes of Switzerland and the snow-covered Alps.  I was constantly interrupting Mike's reading by pointing out something beautiful far below. 

We arrived in sunny Pisa (my 4th visit and I've never seen anything but a cloudless, blue sky there), and began to navigate the three different trains that would eventually carry us to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre.  (I say eventually because, as is not uncommon in Italy, there were some delays.)

The trains go through a lot of tunnels near the coast so our first glimpse of the Mediterranean was as we lurched out of the last tunnel and arrived at our stop.  Out my window I could see nothing but the sparkling water for just a moment before we came to a stop in the station.

We found our way to the hotel.  It was up the hill (as most everything is in the Cinque Terre), but honestly it wasn't nearly as tough a climb as the reviews indicated, so I was pleasantly surprised.  Then (at about 8:30 pm--late for us...), we went to find some dinner.  Mike assured me I wouldn't need my camera.  Mistake!

We went down to a restaurant in the marina (at the recommendation of our hotelier) just in time for the sunset.  Oh how I wished I had my camera. 

We were finally seated at the restaurant and ordered dinner.  There was some confusion in the ordering however, and we ended up with a plate full of mussels.  Neither Mike or I care for mussels and I was actually pretty nervous about eating them after hearing recently about some mussel food poisoning experiences.  We did eat most of them though, and again, I wished I had my camera to document our misfortunate mussel misunderstanding.  Much to my relief, we did not get sick. 

We had endeavored to hike the whole of Cinque Terre and experience each of the 5 towns.  We enjoyed our Italian breakfast and began our trek. 

The "recommended" way to hike is from Riomaggiore north.  We are so glad we did and that it was so very convenient.  The beginning of the trail was just a few minutes walk from our hotel.  The first part of the trail leading from Riomaggiore to Manarola was VERY easy.  It's called Via della Amore, the Love Walk.   The custom is to bring a lock and put it on the path somewhere to secure your everlasting love.  Mike and I don't need a lock for that.  ;)  It's a little hard to see, but on the right side of the picture, above the entry on the path, are two hearts with locks all over them. 

Here's a picture of Manarola.  We didn't get to hike from Manarola to Conilgia (nor did anyone else) because  a landslide had recently taken out part of the path.  Hope no one was walking there when it occurred!

We hopped on the train for the short trip from Manarola to Cornilgia.  There are 368 stairs straight up the cliff from the train station to the village and we felt every one of them.  This is a little church in town.

Mike in front of some vineyards.  We were actually going to hike across that expanse, but didn't know it yet.

It was a fairly easy trail at this point, shaded by olive trees and walking through the terraced grapvines.  The rock walls (like I'm sitting on) that create the terraces for the vines were built with no mortar and supposedly if you lined them all up, they would be longer than the Great Wall of China. 

The view above Vernazza.

For lunch I had a delicious tomato, mozzarella, and lettuce panini on foccia (makes your mouth water doesn't it?) and Mike had (can you guess?) a pizza.  We plopped ourselves down on some rocks in the marina to enjoy our bounty, but with some fear that we may not be able to rise again.  This was our view of the town while we ate.  While we were eating, we watched a man who had been snorkling show his female companion his prize from the sea: a starfish the size of his palm.  After refreshing our bodies with food and drink, we rallied our aching muscles and continued on.

The next leg of the journey was by far the toughest.  Thank goodness it was the last part.  I'm not sure I could have convinced my body to continue if there was more.  This was a bridge over a little inlet of water.  You can see our reflections on the rock.  Do our reflections look tired? 

Mike and I on the beautiful beach in Monterosso al Mare.  Our plan was to enjoy the beach after a long day of hiking.  But, although Mike was trying to do me a kindness by packing my bathing suit in the backpack before we left the hotel that morning, he failed to realize I had brought a 2 piece suit, not a 1 piece.  While there were a few Italian ladies enjoying the sun sans bathing suit top, there were none without their bottoms.  And of course it was that piece which I did not have.   

So it was back to the hotel for us to retrieve the other piece of my swim suit.  You might notice in the picture above the smoke rising into the air.  There was a fire directly behind Riomaggiore.  By the time we got back to the hotel there were two helicopters and one place dropping water.  I took this picture from our hotel window.  (That's smoke, not clouds.)

This was the other view from our window.  We couldn't see the ocean, but it's straight out thataway.

This is just down the street from the hotel. 

And here we are, back on the beach.  With my top and my bottoms on.

We were on the train as the plane swooped down for another load of water.  They made countless runs until the fires were under control.

I really wanted to go back to the place we were the previous night to watch the sunset.  But we were in Monterosso and that was all the way back in Riomaggiore.  The sunset was really NOT spectacular in Monterosso.  We were very close to a cliff and the sun vanished behind it when it was still really high on the horizon.  In fact, we had enough time to watch the sunset in Monterosso, pack up our beach gear, walk to the train station, ride to Riomaggiore, and walk to the marina with about 30 minutes to spare before we were able to watch the sun set for real.  It was glorious.

You can kind of see the line of purple that the sun is dipping into in this picture.  Some of that is Italy off in the distance, but some of it is smoke from the fires. 

This fisherman let me take his picture.  :)

This is a big mural on the wall near the train station.  It's supposed to memorialize those who toiled building the walls in order to cultivate crops.

Eating supper down the street from the hotel in Riomaggiore.  Pesto is one of the specialties of the region.  It was awesome!

Mike with his food.  It kind of looks like pizzas, but they were more noodle-ish in texture.  One was pesto, one was bolognese, and the third was olive oil and parmesan (and a side of fries...nothin' special about that).

Me with my plate of flat noodles with pesto and grilled veggies.  Yum!

Our last morning we spent at the beach, but as we had become quite familiar with the train, we decided to take the boat instead.  This is Riomaggiore.  You can still see some fires burning and the water-dropping helicopter.

This is the area where the landslide took out part of the walking trail between Manarola and Cornilgia.

Vernazza from the boat.

Mike trying to find his very own starfish.  The water was so crystal clear.  It was very cool to see the fish all around us.  We've never been in water like that.  We mostly just saw a few kinds of fish.  We also saw a flatfish skimming the bottom which was pretty cool.

I would like to go on record as saying that I have much greater love for rock beaches than sandy beaches.  I've never much cared for the beach other than in small doses because of the sand.  It is sticky and gets EVERYWHERE.  I feel like it follows me around for weeks.  Rocks on the other hand, are super clean.  You don't have to worry about stepping on your towel two minutes after laying it down and having it be dirty for the remainder of your trip.  You simply shake of the rocks and you're good again.  Ahh, so nice. 

Next to the seaside cafe where we had lunch.

All good things come to an end.  Mike and I had an incredible time, but were ready to get back to the kiddos.  Jen helped them make this sign.  So sweet!

Normandy,

Our second vacation in as many weeks took us to Normandy, France.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I kind of thought Normandy was a town or small area in France.  Rather, it is like a state or region in France's north west corner.  It's about a 7 hour drive (if you don't stop--which of course we did).  We arrived at our apartment in Bayeux around 4:30.  Then we ventured out into the drizzle and cool temperatures to find the Bayeux Tapestry. 

The "tapestry" is about 2 ft tall and 70 meters long.  It told the story (in numbered scenes) of William the Conquerer (the Duke of Normandy) and his rise to the English throne in 1066.  It was amazing to see needlepoint that was 900 years old in such great condition.  There are no pictures because they were not permited.  The tapestry was in a darkened corridor, behind glass and lit by some kind of suitable lighting. 

Then, we went into the beautiful Bayeux cathedral (which went undamaged during WWII).

The next day we drove another 1.5 hours west to the border of Normandy and Brittany to Mont Saint Michel.  It is a monastery built in the Middle Ages on a giant rock that sits in the middle of a tidal flat.  

Here is Ezra in the beautiful walkway that surrounds the cloister.

Don't worry.  Although Jonas looks frightfully close to the edge, there is a plexiglass wall separating him from a very long fall.

Mike and Jonas in front of Mont Saint Michel before our ascent.

Ezra, Jonas, and Judith in the cloisters.

There is one street in Mont Saint Michel.  As you can imagine, it's very crowded.  We avoided it on the way up by walking along the wall part of the way.  Here are me and Judith on the wall.  It looks like a long way up to the cathedral, but I guess the steps are spread out enough that it didn't seem too bad.

Inside the cathedral, monks were doing some chanting.  It was very cool.  I was thankful that we were allowed to explore their church and observe their worship.

Ezra and Jonas sitting on the wall above the tidal flats, eating a little snack.  All those steps make a boy hungry!

Out on the tidal flat Mike and the boys found a little crab.

Here's sweet Judith.  She passed out on the way to the car with her bagette tightly in hand.  The girl is serious about her food.

The next morning we went to the Memorial Museum in Caen.  It had free child care which the kids were REALLY happy about.  Oh, we were pretty happy about it too.  Our first stop was up to the cafe to have a cup of coffee that was uniterrupted.  Then off to view the museum.  We checked the kids out for lunch, then checked them back in while we finished up in the museum.

Here's Judith and Jonas outside the museum.

Here's a random roundabout near Bayeux.  I think that's a statue of Eisenhower in the middle near the arch.  In Normandy, it is definitely "cool" to be an American.  Normans have not forgotten the sacrifice made by the Allied Forces to liberate France.  You see the American, British, and Canadian flags flying everywhere.  It was nice.

After the WWII museum, we headed to Arromanches.  Also known as "Port Winston" this was a completely pre-fabricated port that they transported across the English channel and assembled right off the coast to create a landing area for troops and supplies going to the Allied forces.  Built to last just 18 months, there is much of it still visable off shore. 

Ezra wasn't concerned so much with what was in the water, but he really enjoyed the war machines set up in the area.

Me and Judith at Arromanches.  Although it was windy and chilly (but sunny), there were some crazies out in the water.  Mike was convinced that there would be no recreation at these Normandy beaches, but that was not the case.  Even at Omaha beach beneath the American Cemetary, there were beachgoers enjoying the surf.

Mike and the boys with a Higgins boat.  These boats carried many troops to beaches during the Normandy invasion.  Troops were seasick and miserable.  In The Longest Day (a book about the Normandy invasion that we read while on the trip) one seasick soldier remarked, "That guy Higgins ain't got nothin' to be proud of inventin' this G%$#@&* boat".

This was atop a hill above Arromanches where we could see the remains for the enitre port.  Of course I could not get it all in one picture, so I picked the picture where the water looks the prettiest.

Our next stop was the American Cemetery above Omaha beach. 

Jonas hugging a Star of David.

The Memorial and reflection pool at the Cemetery.  We were there around 5pm.  As we walked by a cemetary custodian he asked where we were from.  Mike usually tells folks we're from Texas so as not to let them know he's American military stationed in Germany, but I suppose he felt more secure letting this custodian (obviously American and possibly a veteran himself) know that he was stationed in Germany where he serves in the Air Force.  The custodian offered to let Mike join a few other guys (tourists) and help out when he took down the flag for the evening at 5pm.  Mike declined saying that since we was out of regs (not having shaved in several days) he would not be a very good representative of the military.  But I thought it would have been a really cool opportunity if he had known in advance that he could take part in that and had come better prepared. 

This was a huge map on the left side of the Memorial.

Ezra, Judith, and Jonas.

Mike took the boys down the Omaha Beach.  You can see a bunker up on the hill.

This is one of the many cool chateaus we saw all over the countryside.

Judith in front of our apartment.

We ran out of time on Thursday, so we had to hit Point du Hoc on our way "back" home on Friday (even though it was the opposite direction).

At Point du Hoc, US Rangers scaled this cliff under the rain of German fire to destory a large battery that was a threat to the landings at both Utah and Omaha beaches.

Mike and the boys exploring the ins and outs of destroyed bunkers and batteries.

This monument was a sword at the tip of Point du Hoc.  On the hilt of the sword is a summary of events (English and French) on June 6th at Point du Hoc.

Mike and the boys inside the bunker.

Judith trying to crawl into the bunker.

Ezra running up and down craters left by bomb shells.

Another cool chateau not far from Point du Hoc.

Such a great trip!  It was nice to see so much of American history in Europe!