Sandersconnection

So, I definitely know how blessed I am to even be in Europe, and over and over again I`ve gotten to do and see great things, but wow…I`ve totally been blessed again!

We left Friedrichshafen yesterday, where we stayed for free with one of Kate`s friends and her family, who fed us, took us places, and totally went above and beyond for us.  We went on to Zurich (or somewhere in the country outside of Zurich) where we are staying with someone Kate`s friend Emily`s family knows sort of…it was quite random and we were a little worried about it how awkward it would be.

We got to the train station and the husband was waiting to pick us up with a guy from Florida who is staying with him for 3 weeks.  He took us to his awesome house in the country looking over the swiss alps, where he showed us around and to our room, the pool, sauna, and more.  Then we sat down at the table while he went outside to pick fresh lettuce from his garden, while his wife came home and made homemade salad dressing for it. We ate that first, then they brought us seared pork tenderloin, some kind of awesome grain, broiled potatoes, and a sauce he made for the meat while we were sitting at the table.  Then she brought us apple pie she made.  Then they brought us swiss chocolate.  Then they asked if it would be OK if they took us to the alps tomorrow (today) and we could hike around.  Then they asked if we are OK with having fresh bread from the bakery down the street for breakfast.  We just stared all night long with our mouths open wide.  It was crazy!

Today they woke us up at 7 and we got ready, ate the breakfast of fresh bread and homemade jellies, and took off into the alps where we walked around a glacier and into a gorge.  I can`t even explain how great it all was on here…I`ll tell yall all about it when I get home, which will be soon!  I think we`ll stay here the rest of our nights, and they have something else planned for us in the alps tomorrow then I think we`re going to a glass factory.

I love yall!  See you soon!

Happy father’s day, Dad

I’m in Vienna now and will spend tonight and tomorrow night here before taking a train to Salzburg…our trip is almost over.

We had an interesting experience on a night train with no sleep, then we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and spent the day around Vienna, and now we’re going to sleep for a while!  Vienna is nice but there isn’t really a lot to see and do here, but we’ll do some things tomorrow and hopefully take it easy…today was our 25th day here I think and we need a slow day.

I’m sure this is too much information, but can I explain how unfortunate it is, especially for someone without lots of money who would rather spend it on food, to get diarrhea in a train station that charges 0.50 euros each time you use the bathroom?  Just so you know, it’s not fun.  I’d appreciate prayers too…I still don’t feel well.  Hopefully some sleep will help with that, but we’ll see how I feel in the morning.

I love yall!

I’m in Berlin now and will leave in a little over an hour for Prague!

Berlin has been great.  It’s so much cheaper than everywhere else we’ve been, has great food, gives you bigger portions, and we even got FREE water with a piece of ice in it! Yay!  It also has a ton of things I wanted to see, since WW2 is the part of history I really love.  We went to the Reichstag, Jewish memorial and museum, German History museum, Checkpoint charlie and the museum there, and saw the east side gallery which is where the largest segment of the wall still stands.  We all learned tons we didn’t know, but there are still some things we don’t quite understand about the wall that we’ll have to research when we get back.

The first night here we walked around our hostel to find food, and there was cheap food everywhere!  We finally just sat down at a place, and they had some MExican food!  Just what we’ve been wanting.  It wasn’t like our mexican food back home exactly, but we shared chicken nachos and I had a burrito!  We’ve also had bockwurst which I guess is similar to bratwurst? And we’re going to get a curryworst before we leave in a bit.

I’m excited about Prague because it’s my favorite from last trip.  We’ll stay there 2 nights then take a night train out to Vienna.

I’m praying for Aaron and Rachel and Liam today as yall travel down to GA.

I love you all!  See you in a few weeks.

I finally have internet on a real computer, and it’s free!

We took a train from paris to Bruges, Belgium this morning and just got here.  We’ve had some interesting experiences at less than perfect hotels and hostels, ugly cities, and more, but this place is perfect.  It’s beautiful, tiny, grass and parks everywhere, and I don’t even mind that’s it’s gray and rainy.  We found our hostel, this perfect quaint little place with FREE internet, free breakfast, they gave us free cards and a free map (costs money elsewhere) that are good for discounts at sites around the city.  They were SO happy and nice and helpful, which we rarely find anywhere.  There is a huge flat screen tv with movies, free towels…seriously, this is my new favorite hostel and my new favorite town.  I wish we were spending more than just tonight here (we leave early in the morning for Amsterdam).  Hopefully the city will really be as great as I think when we get out there in a minute when I finish writing.

Our trip has been great so far, and God has been good.  Sorry I don’t get to write much.  It’ s so cool to see other cities and people living there in different ways, but I do miss a lot about home (especially ice, free water, and free refills…and people who speak English).  We even met a Christian mom and daughter in line behind us waiting to go up the eiffel tower yesterday, and it was great talking to them about missions trips and stuff.

We have also really enjoyed eached other’s company and interacted well, but continue to pray that we will keep doing the same, become more like Christ daily, and be intentional with each other, remembering to pray together and point each other towards Christ in the things we do.

I love you all and seriously can’t wait to see you all again!  I wish everyone could be at WSS with us, but I’ll see the rest of you soon after.

Keep sending me updates, pictures (especialy of Liam please!), and any other news.  I love being able to hear about what’s going on back home with all of yall.

We’re halfway through as of yesterday; see you in 2 1/2 weeks!