Spring Break - A European Road Trip

Well, let me (Heidi) begin by saying a few words about our year here in the Czech Republic. Many people, both here and in the US, have asked me why I chose to live in the CR for a year and not a Western European country. There are two reasons. First, the CR is right in the center of Europe and I knew we would have an easier time accessing more places in Europe if we were in the center rather than if we were, say, in Great Britain. I also wanted to get a continental experience and not a British one - Britain, in my opinion, isn't exactly Europe, and I wanted to experience Europe from the inside - not from an Island happily separated from the Continent. Secondly, I do not speak a second language fluently, and Germany, France, and Switzerland required one to speak the language in order to come live among their people. Well, Germany, France, and Switzerland many not want us to live with them for a year, but they can't keep us from traveling and visiting and spending our money there. They are happy to oblige us on that account, nor do they seem to mind mocking the US dollar with their ridiculously high prices. But we're here and we have a (reliable?) car and the road beckoned us westward!

Our first stop was Frankfurt, Germany where we visited Christoph and Uta Gruss. 23 years ago, Christoph was an exchange student who came to live with Mark's family in Iowa. We've kept in contact with them through the years, so it was a pleasure to spend a few days with their family. They were gracious hosts, taking us to several historical places in the area.

First we visited the birthplace of Goethe, a 19th Century German Romanic writer. He wrote a version of "Faust" - and his last name is also a street in Chicago - the very street where Mark's Grandfather was born and raised.

Frankfurt has been an industrial city for well over a century and it is still the center of German commerce. As a result, it was pretty much wiped out during WWII and had to be rebuilt. Still, there are a few buildings that survived, like the one below. It is the church where the German state was designed on paper in 1848, though Germany didn't become an official, unified country until 1871.

More of "Old" rebuilt Frankfurt - my favorite part was all the church bells that rang for 15 minutes straight accompanying our walk through the city center.


Frankfurt is also rich in Roman history, as it marks what was the northern edge of the empire. As a result, there are many Roman ruins to be found. We spent the second day visiting several of these sites. The first one below is an outpost point - now reconstructed a bit and blended into a neighborhood park.


Mariana and Elise always seem to find the nearby bakery - here they are eating a cherry crumble bar in a reconstructed village with several really good restaurants!
Next we went for a 3K walk to see the Limes - (Leemus) - the northern edge, literally, of the Roman empire.



The Romans, like any good ruling empire, needed to keep out the Barbarians - hence the ditches. There was also a fence that separated the lands, or so we're told. However, if the Germanic Barbarians really did want to enter the Roman lands, that could be accomplished by paying a toll. Below is the landmark remains of the toll booth - the lane is the path going south into the Roman lands.

Since I am of German decent, I found it necessary to stand on that barrier and proclaim victory, seeing that the Roman empire lies in ruins and the German state is still standing, albeit someone humbled after this last century of wars.


Once you paid your tolls and entered the civilized world, you had to pass through the administrative fort and barracks of all those centurions trying to keep you out. Here are a few of the ruins, though the fort has been reconstructed a bit, I am sure.


All that is left of the Roman presence is the statue guarding the door to the fort-turned-museum. Still, we thought it looked pretty official - and a good backdrop for a picture!

We ended our time in Frankfurt with Christoph and Uta with a delicious home-cooked meal accompanied by great Rhine wine and a compilation of 40 years of music put together for Christoph's 40th birthday celebration - apparently that birthday here is the one to commemorate in style!

Next we drove into France - even though officially there no longer exists any border patrols between Germany and France, the French saw our Czech plates and waved us over. They were a bit surprised to see Americans driving a Czech car. After searching the contents of our luggage (apparently for contraband alcohol) they happily waved us into their country - and we then drove into Alsace and Lorraine, two provinces that have bounced back and forth between German and French control for hundreds of years, most recently during WWII. Our first stop was Verdun - a city most known for being a WWI site for Trench Warfare.
Verdun was actually the site of a Roman Fort and became a prestigious militaristic symbol thereafter for the empire who controlled it. Even Napoleon waged a battle here in his effort to rule all of Europe. That is one reason the Germans chose to wage war there again in 1916.


As it was actually a cold windy rainy day when we drove through Verdun, we didn't visit any of the major points of interest. Besides, you could spend several days here touring all the significant sites, including an extensive American cemetery.

We did, however, have time to visit our first French bakery and sweet shop!

The coffee eau claire was an amazing introduction to 3 days of French pastries!!!

We then headed to Paris, via Champagne and Reims. No - we did not drink while we were driving. But when we stopped in Reims to visit the cathedral, we did see a bottle of Champagne on sale for the small price of $40,000!! You'd have to be royalty, I think, to pay that much for a little bubbly, and considering the fact that the shop was right across the street from the cathedral where nearly every French monarch was crowned, the $40,000 price tag may have actually seemed rather reasonable!

Gothic cathedrals have beautiful stained glass windows - I think the ones in this cathedral are among my favorite of all the cathedrals we've seen so far.

I must say that I was quite humbled by the history of this cathedral. For a brief moment, I imagined all the grandeur and glory of a crowning ceremony, with the pipe organ accompanying masses of people in their proclamation of alliegance to the newly crowned king. I became quite a small person at that imaginary moment. I guess I've always been small compared to the grandeur of the French court. But it sure was fun to stand next to that alter and imagine history occurring...

Paris came next - and to be honest, I think Paris just needs to be experienced as words are not going to express how mesmorized we all were with the city of lights! All I can say is that some day, I'm going to rent an apartment there for two months in the summer so that I can take my time exploring and experiencing its sensuousness!

Here is a sampling of the many photos we took!!

Notre Dame

The Paris Opera House...it's stunningly beautiful inside, or at least what we were able to see from behind the rope sure was.

An open market with strawberries that tasted as sweet as they smelled and appeared!


One must have a beret when in Paris!!
I think this was once a hotel....I think it may have set the standard for the 5 star rating system....
The Louvre

And here she is - behind the glass. I was so overwhelmed to actually be in the same room with the original. For so many years I have just talked about European history - It was humbling to finally be in Europe - in Paris - in the Louvre. I just couldn't keep back the tears...
The Arc de Triomphe

And of course, the Eiffel Tower, during the day and in the evening!


One of our favorite things about Paris was the long, lazy dinners. The desserts, especially, were amazing!

As we only had 2 days in Paris, we didn't make it to Versailles. We'll just have to go back!!

One last family photo from the Eiffel Tower

I must say, Mariana wears her beret really well!

Our final destination was Switzerland. On our way there, we drove through the Dijon region of France, and WOW what amazingly beautiful countryside - expansive and rolling and green! I was deeply impressed. As a side note, we found the French people to be very kind and gracious. One older gentleman went out of his way to offer us help, even driving us to locate our car once we got off the train in the Paris suburbs. We loved France...hopefully some day we can go back.

The Swiss Alps - I don't think anything can compare to such natural beauty.

The above picture was the view out the window of the Backpacker's Hostel we stayed at in Gryon, the very village where Edith Schaeffer still lives, for those of you who are familiar with L'Abri, the study center Mark attended 22 years ago and the reason for our trip to Switzerland. Witness Mark in his glory...


Below he is showing the girls where he lived while studying at L'Abri.
It's been quite some time since I've seen Mark this light in spirit - dare I say he was nearly giddy?

The limitations of our camera are quite apparent as none of these pictures capture the splendor of this region. You'll just have to imagine...


We had beautiful spring weather. It was even warm enough to have lunch out on the patio in the village of Villars - a ski resort town for Europe's elite.


Perhaps the most spectacular part of our time there were the sunsets. I will leave you with these images. I hope that you have enjoyed reading of our European tour! I certainly have enjoyed putting it together, for it amazes me still that we were actually in all of these places!!

Happy Spring to all of you!