Luxembourg - Echternach and Larochette

Oct. 20-21,

Hello! Well we left Trier, and headed for a small city named Echternach, which is in the tiny country of Luxembourg. We met up again with Jennifer and Jeff and kids, walked around the little town for a little while, and found a pizzeria where we all had dinner. Later we headed back to the little, old (but still pricey) hotel for an evening of conversation and the enjoyment of listening to massive snoring on the other side of a paper-thin wall. Reminded me of the good old 100 Mile House days of listening to Dad snore at night - no matter what room of the house we were in.

At the crack of 9:00 the next morning we started our day, and after breakfast, we visited the local abbey museum, which houses the most amazing Illuminated Bible from the middle ages that you can even imagine. The pages were large (probably about 11x17 inches) and were incredibly beautiful. They had page after page displayed under glass, each a magificent work of art. Definitely worthwhile seeing!

Sophie and the others REALLY love Italian gelato. Kim said that Sophie's cone was too large, but I thought that she could handle it.

The whole happy gang (except me), outside of the Abbey museum, which was an abbey palace built in the early 1700s.

The kids wanted to go swimming, but this was all that they could find.

One of the pages of the Illuminated Bible. Each page was incredibly beautifully.

This was the actual gold and ivory jewelled cover of the Bible.

Later that day we drove to Larochette, Luxembourg to visit the ruins of a castle way up on a hill above the town. As you'll see from the photos below, it was spectacular.

The interior of one of the only intact buildings in the castle.

A photo of the town, taken from one of the castle walls.

A decorative carving on the stone wall inside the castle. If you look carefully you can see the archer with what looks like a cross bow.

The entry-way to some underground passages or rooms. There was a fence around the staircase leading down, so we were not able to access them.

A great photo of Kim beside one of the crumbling walls.

Sophie overlooking the town below.

One stone had a cross carved in it. Very cool!

Next stop, Luxembourg City!

Jimy

Guten Morgen, Deutschland!

Oct. 20, 2009

Hello again! Next stop on our holiday was a half day in Trier, Germany. What an amazing city. Having visited Trier on our school Europe trip, I remember thinking that "this is one place that I want to bring my family to!" For a brief history lesson, Trier was captured by the Romans in the 1st Century A.D. and named Augustus Treverorum, and basically became the capital and residence of the Western Roman Emperor Constantine in the 3rd Century! Constantine built many amazing buildings that are still there! Although we frequently hear about how far north the Romans controlled, it's amazing to see so many Roman structures mostly intact, in GERMANY! Notably, we visited the huge black gate (originally one of 4 surrounding the city) named the Porta Nigra. We also really enjoyed seeing Contantine's Basilica (his throne hall), the Roman baths, and numerous other notable places in the city. It was a great afternoon! Below you can see Kim and the kids in front of this amazing Roman gate.


Here are the kids in front of a central monument in the main town square. I can't remember what it is called, but there is a tradition that supports the idea that the apostle Mattias (who replaced Judas in the book of Acts) has his remains buried in the city.

Here the kids are posing in front of one of the smallest cars in Germany! Although it looks like a crazy little Italian car - its actually a BMW!

Isaiah enjoying his time in the main town square. This part is very German in its look. Makes for a beautiful city!


Emma and Sophie decided that they wanted hats. They said that they were cold, but this seemed a little excessive!

Emma and Sophie resting in the gardens in front of the beautiful Governor's Palace. Behind the Palace you can see Constantine's Basilica.

The remains of the huge Roman baths. This place also has long, intact underground passages and rooms that were only discovered and excavated earlier this century.

A closer view of the huge Basilica. Amazingly, it has survived nearly 2000 years due to its construction with hundreds of thousands of small bricks that are only and inch and a half high! These made the structure not only really strong, but hard to destroy, and useless for building material (which became the fate of many castle stones around Europe).

The kids relaxing on Constantine's foot. Pretty big guy!

See you in Luxembourg!

Jimy MacJohnson

Our Holland holiday!

Oct. 19

After the 2 days of being in transit from Edinburgh to Holland, we were finally ready to enjoy the break! We stayed for 4 wonderful nights with Jennifer and Jeff, in their home in Wijk bij Duurstede (yeah, don't ask me to pronounce it). For those who don't know, Jennifer is my niece, who was more like a sister when we were children. However, as life happens, we hadn't seen Jen and Jeff for more than 10 years - when Kim was pregnant with Sophia! Fortunately, they made us so welcome, and we enjoyed ourselves so much, it was like we'd never missed a beat! We absolutely loved their kids Persephone and Patrick, and all 5 kids were inseparable when we were together! Jennifer, of course, outdid herself making amazing dinners, with an apple pie that even rivals my own dear Mother's - yes, it would have made you proud, Mom! Jeff was the perfect host, and an amazing tour guide as we spent our time visiting Utrecht, Echternach, Larochette, and Luxembourg City. I really liked Jeff's easygoing manner and his knowledgeable explanations for the kids, that didn't come across as confusing, AND didn't make Kim and I feel stupid. Maybe if this university professor gig doesn't work out, his Ph.D in Medival History will come in handy as a tour guide!

Here is our first set of pics. These all were all taken in our first day in Utrecht.

It would be very strange not to start with a photo of a windmill. This was actually closer to their home village of Wijk bij Duurstede.

On the way to Utrecht, we passed several beautiful estates. I think that I could live here quite comfortably.

This sign is for Kim's mom, Wilhelmina - it's nice to have a street named after you!

A nice little canal and pathway between quiet streets in Utrecht. Lots of nice places like this.

Here are Jeff and Jennifer and their beautiful children!

Patrick and Persephone waiting for the adults to be ready to go!

Our kids - goofing around as usual!

Isaiah and Pepe and Sophie became great friends over the week.


Our family in the cloisters of the Utrecht cathedral.


I love photos like this. Two great friends (most of the time).

Just a short video clip showing me driving on the "funny" side of the car (and eating some very tasty Cheetos). I didn't know that Kim was taping me as I was developing some good material relating to the GPS that we bought. It actually was the BEST thing that I have purchased yet on our trip. "Duchess" as we call the polite English lady's voice, is very patient, and made finding our way around almost stress-free.

October holiday at last!

Oct. 16, 17, 18th

Hello! It's finally the October holiday! What holiday? Yes, it's true, while Canadian kids are still hard at work, we get a week off to rest after the first half-term. Before anyone thinks that this is unfair, please remember that we started school 3 weeks earlier than anyone else!

Anyways, the break started off really fun, as we participated in a ceilidh (pronounced "cay-lee") - which is a gathering where people listen to traditional music and participate in a bunch of folk dances. It was a LOT of fun. This one was held at the local university, and was put on for the international students at the school, and hosted by our church. It was high action, had many sweaty bodies, and a series of sometimes almost violent dances. Due to university regulations, this ceilidh was "dry", but some of the older kilted guys said that regular ceilidhs are even more fun when everyone has had a few whiskeys to loosen them up. I think that we'll have to try this - all in the desire to build cross-cultural bridges of course!

Emma and I made a great partnership - even if I had to keep looking around to see what I was supposed to be doing!

Emma during one of these dances - although it only looks like about 10 people at this event, there were easily over 100 university students, and another 20 or so from our church and the community.

On Saturday we drove for 8 hours to the English port town of Harwich in preparation for taking the ferry to the Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) to begin our visit. Nice countryside, but nothing too notable to take photos of on the way - except this nuclear powerplant of course...


Finally at the ferry. It was HUGE on the outside, and had 7 levels for vehicle traffic. Inside though it was cramped and the 6 hour trip seemed very long. Oh well, at least it stayed afloat!

My patriotic son ready to save a life!

Isaiah loved being outside. I think that he was looking for icebergs.

A great moment with Isaiah. Difficult to look natural when you are trying to take the photo yourself.

That's it for now! See you tomorrow!

Jimy MacJohnson

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oct. 11, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family in Canada! I hope that you are all enjoying the long weekend (we don't have Thanksgiving in Scotland, unfortunately). But we do have a lot to be thankful for. For those of you who know the unbelievable red tape that we had to go though just to get here, you'll understand how thankful we really are. Thinking back to the last 5-6 years of talking about this with our kids ("when we go to Scotland..."), I really am amazed at how perfectly we have been situated. Our little community of Currie is one of the nicest and quietest areas just outside of Edinburgh, and Calum and Helen's house is beautiful and very convenient to both amazing walking areas and the main bus route into the city. Add to this my actual job at Craigmount High, though not as easy as my job at Langley Fundamental, it IS one of the better state schools in Edinburgh. I have found the staff to be great, and the vast majority of the kids to be pleasant and welcoming. We're also thankful for the new friends that we've made, particularly at our church. Currie Baptist is really friendly, and about the same size as our church in Richmond. In fact, we have just come back from a wonderful "tea" - a.k.a. DINNER - at one family's home. Our kids are also fitting in well, and although they miss their friends back in Canada, they are making new ones, and getting involved at their schools. Isaiah plays both on a community football team and for his school, and Sophie is the only girl on her school team. Emma enjoys the freedom of being able to leave the school campus at noon with her friends (she needs to enjoy it while she can... not so next year!), and Kim is getting involved with the school PTA as well. As for myself, I just came back from a 3 day, 2 night retreat to this beautiful old estate in the very west of Scotland. I went with 3 groups of 1st year students and had an awesome time gorge walking, caving, mountain biking and kayaking. The roads were long, narrow and bumpy, but we went through huge treeless hills, and along long lochs to get there. Definitely worth the trip. I'll add a photo below of this place.

Anyways, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. After this week we are off to Holland (and Belgium and Germany) for a week, and are going to enjoy spending time with Jennifer (my niece) and Jeff, who we haven't seen for 10 years! We are also hoping to see some of Kim's Dutch relatives, who will be close.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks! By the way, did you know that if you double-click on any blog photo, you will see it full size on your monitor? Just in case you want a better view.

We went to a place called Dean Village in Edinburgh, and on this old stone wall there was carved "Glory to God for all His Blessings". It was barely legible, but I thought that it was very cool and very appropriate for Thanksgiving!



We visited Dean Village with our goddaughter Nathalie and her husband Graham. We had a great time; it was fun spending the day with fellow Canadians!

We walked across the Dean Bridge through extreme wind, not realizing how high it is with such low stone walls on the sides (not more than 4 feet high).


Along the Waters of Leith, there was this cool old mineral well with this gazebo-type structure above it. Very picturesque.

The same thing, only you can see how neat this looks as you come across it coming down the trail.

We finished this day at this local lake. Don't know the name - Swan Lake?

We didn't tell the kids how much damage a swan can do if they peck you. It made for better photos!

I caught Isaiah red-handed! Boys need moving targets!

One of the local university buildings where Harry Potter was filmed. We haven't seen any of the movies, so we'll take Graham's word for it.


This was the Benmore estate that I stayed at in western Scotland. Amazing, with plenty of room for visitors. It was originally one of the summer estates of a wealthy brewer in Scotland in the 1800s.

Emma blowing out her candles for her 12th birthday. Can anyone tell what is missing?

Isaiah in his football kit on the way to a game. For a boy who likes ice hockey better, he is playing 4-5 days a week! No wonder the kids become so talented here!

Bye for now!

Jimy Macjohnson