La Gran Aventura Day 92: Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

This morning we slept in quite a bit. Everyone is tired. It was kind of a restless night. Ian woke up with terrible asthma. Betty had a nightmare and isn’t feeling well. I was going to take just the bigger kids to see Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum so Betty could rest, but then Betty decided to come. Veroniek made a delicious lunch for us. Sandwiches and veggies. She has been a wonderful host.

The trip to Amsterdam includes about a half mile walk to the bus station, a 20 min bus to Utrecht Centraal train station, and 45 min train to Amsterdam. Fortunately for us, the ticket machine on the bus was broken, so we got a free ride.

At the train station we were in a big hurry to catch our train. Alicia told me it was a bad idea to rush, but I didn’t listen to her. Turns out she was right because instead of getting us on the train to Amsterdam, I got us on the train to Amersfoort. That was dumb and lost us just about a half hour or 45 min.

Thankfully there was another direct train from Amersfoort to Amsterdam. From there it was a tram ride to the Rijksmuseum.

This museum is not overly huge, but it has some real gems. In particular, it’s got a ton of Rembrandt, who is probably my favorite artist that I know almost nothing about. It was great to get to know him better here. Of course the piece de resistance is The Night Watch, but there were so many other good ones. I love his self-portraits. This museum also has three Vermeer’s and a famous self-portrait of Van Gogh.

Unfortunately, the kids and Betty were totally wiped out. I had figured that with a total day of rest Monday and pretty light day of travel Tuesday they would have more energy, but they were just sacked. After the Rembrandt and Vermeer stuff we knew it was time to get home, but before that we wanted to see the Van Gogh. Betty was asking me why Van Gogh is such a big deal, so I showed her and the kids this clip, which describes it better than I ever could.

After that the museum was ready to close, so we headed back it was a beautiful walk through the city. It’s definitely got a unique personality. I loved it. Our final stop was the Anne Frank house. Alicia read her diary this past year in school, so it was cool for her to see the house.

Walking from there to the train station we had a good chat about sacred space. What makes a place sacred? I taught the kids a bit about what Mircea Eliade writes in The Sacred and the Profane.

The regular old everyday world is what he calls profane space. It’s like a sheet that spreads out in all directions. But every once in a while, something divine pokes through that sheet and opens up a door to the spiritual. Where that tear in the fabric takes place, that’s what we call sacred space. Very often we build a church or monument there. And often the divine is manifest in the midst of tragedy. That’s why places like the beaches of Normandy or the Anne Frank house are sacred today.

At least, that’s one way to think of it.

This was a good day.

Full pictures and videos here

La Gran Aventura Day 91: London to Vianen, Holland

Monday, March 11, 2024

This morning we woke up early, packed up our bags, and said goodbye to our new friends Grant and Emma. Our stay in London has been so amazing, but it’s time to move on. We are so grateful for Grant and Emma for letting us stay here.

We took the train from London to Utrecht, Holland, where we will be staying with a friend of my brother Spencer. Her name is Veroniek, and Spencer helped teach her the gospel when he was a missionary here. Veroniek actually spent quite some time in the States, and she and I met when I was in high school. Since then she’s been a good friend of our family. She and her two sons are really great, and we already love them.

Our train to Utrecht Centraal got us here a bit late, but we made it.

It was good to just have the afternoon free to just hang out at the house and relax. Betty and I also went to the grocery store with Veroniek. Betty loved just looking around at all of the things. You can learn a lot about a place by looking at their grocery stores. It’s interesting to me because in many ways every European grocery store looks the same, but they are all also unique to their countries. For example, the Dutch store had a million different things to make a sandwich with. Cheeses, sauces, meats, breads. They are very creative. They also have a bunch of candy -- and a bunch of it is black licorice flavored :( Betty loved that they had lots of fresh foods. The packaging of everything was also really small.

For dinner we had a traditional Dutch meal, where they put a grill on the table and each person grills up their own little pieces of meat to eat. There was a variety of dipping sauces and some little individual pans in which we could make our own little pancakes or omelettes. Apparently it’s a common dinner at Christmas time.

Our plan is to visit Amsterdam tomorrow.

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La Gran Aventura Day 90: Time to take a break

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Today we woke up, had some breakfast, and went to church at the East Grinstead ward. The members here were so kind and warm to us. River was happy to be in a church where all the kids speak like Peppa Pig. She did great with them, and they have an awesome primary here. The leaders all seem to be having so much fun. And they have a lot of leaders dedicated to the primary.

We also had a total miracle happen in church. Back when we were in Paris, Betty and her new friend Dinah had long conversations every night. On the last night, as they were discussing our trip to London, Dinah told Betty that she had a friend who lives in London, but that they had lost contact over 20 years ago. All Dinah knew was her name and that at one point she had worked in the London temple.

So when we were at the temple, we asked if anyone knew this sister. Nobody did. Then later that day we asked Grant and Emma, and they said “Oh yeah, she’s in our ward.” So yesterday we went to church, and she wasn’t there, but her husband was. His name is Tom, and he is so very kind and warm. He speaks with a thick Scottish accent that Betty can somehow understand better than she can the Londoners. Tom and I spent a while in the hallway just chatting. he had amazing stories about his first visit to Utah back in 1989 which included a temple recommend interview with David B Haight, receiving special general conference tickets, and meeting the wee old man who allegedly had the record for the most endowments performed. It was quite a conversation.

After church we came home, and we’ve just been resting since then. Betty is getting her pack ready for us to leave tomorrow. The kids have been playing ping pong and writing to their friends. River has been playing with a doll house.

We are so grateful for Grant and Emma and all that they have done for us.

I spent a bunch of time today just going over finances and working through some church stuff and just generally getting organized. I’ve worked out our itinerary for the next couple of weeks, and that gives me some peace. It’s tough to get down to Italy on the trains, but we’ll find a way to make it happen. This whole thing is harder than I had anticipated, but it’s been pretty amazing so far as well.

Thanks for all your prayers.

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La Gran Aventura Day 89: A Long London Stroll

Saturday, March 9, 2024

This morning I woke up early and I was able to do some work with my email and my journal and my photos. I’m really pleased with how some of them have turned out. While I worked, I looked out the window in this amazing view. Maybe tomorrow I can get some better photos of it.

Everyone else woke up about 8am.

Around 9am, Grant and Emma took us to the station, and we went in to London. We got off at London Bridge, and from there we walked along the Thames towards Tower Bridge. From there we walked over the Tower Bridge and past the Tower of London. After a quick pit stop, we walked to St Dunstan, which is a church that was bombed during WWII. Carlos Macia gave me the tip about that place, and I’m so grateful for tip. The sun was pretty harsh, it’s really the kind of place that would have looked better with more moody light, but I did my best.

From there we walked down to St Paul’s cathedral. It’s beautiful and majestic, but they charge an arm and a leg to go in -- so we skipped it. England is weird like that. It’s the only place I’ve been that charges to go in a church.

By that point the kids were really hungry, so we hunted about for a place to eat. We were hoping for fish and chips because we’d promised our fried Chris Condon that we would eat them. I figured the cheapest place would be in a pub, so we popped into one but after sitting down and looking at the menu we realized that it wasn’t going to fit into our budget. So we sleepily excused ourselves and had a quick meal at a coffee shop. About five minutes later we walked by a display of donuts at a shop called Donut Time, and we all simultaneously stopped dead in our tracks. They were the most delicious looking donuts we’d ever seen. So we hopped in there and grabbed some donuts. They were amazing!

All of that happened right around St Paul’s, and from there we walked to the British Museum. It’s free and pretty amazing. They have the Rosetta Stone and a giant head of Ramses II, who lived around 1200 BC and was likely the Pharaoh when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. We could have spent a bunch more time in that museum, but today was just about sampling in the city.

On this trip in which we are seeking out the sacred, it’s interesting to me that some of the most sacred experiences we’ve had have been in museums. The great churches have all been so prohibitively expensive that we haven’t been into them. I’m sure that will change as the trip goes on, but so far we’ve loved the museum/visitor’s center at Omaha Beach, the Louvre and the British Museum.

From the British Museum we walked down towards Westminster. On our way we paused at Leicester Square, right in the heart of the theater district. It’s got these beautiful statues of Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, Paddington Bear, Gene Kelly from Singin’ in the Rain, and Bugs Bunny. Those last two are weird choices because they aren’t British, but oh well.

After even more walking we made it to Westminster Abbey. Betty was really looking forward to seeing it because she’s a fan of Princess Kate, and that’s where she and William were married.

After that and some pictures of Big Ben, we made our way to the Victoria Station. It was a ton of walking (around 8 miles), but it was a good day. I loved seeing so many things that I’ve only seen in the movies. One day is certainly not enough to see London, but I feel like we gave the kids a good taste.

After so many days of intense travel, I think we are all looking forward to the opportunity to rest on the Sabbath tomorrow.

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La Gran Aventura Day 88: Paris to London, and the London Temple

Friday, March 8, 2024

This morning we woke up really early (4:45am) after a really late night last night (everyone went to sleep between 12 and 3am).

We ended up getting out of the house a little later than we had anticipated, but Dinah helped us out, and we were able to make our train.

I find that people around here -- especially in the train stations -- tend to look at us in one of two ways. Either they look totally annoyed or they are really kind. Thankfully, the kind ones stand out so much more -- like the British passport lady, or the guy at KFC the other day who gave us an extra order of fries on the house, or the cashier at the London market who asked us what we were up to and said how cool he thought it was.

The train ride to London from Paris was pretty uneventful. I’m just glad that we made it. I need to be careful about these early morning departures. I wonder if I should change our plans for Monday.

I think we all fell almost immediately in love with London. Our first order of business was to walk from St Pancras station to King’s Cross to see the Harry Potter stuff. At the entrance to Kings Cross they had an awesome open-air market where we bought some delicious sweet and savory pastries for really cheap. Then we went into King’s Cross to see Platform 9 3/4. It was totally underwhelming, and we didn’t even really take a picture (you have to wait in line for it). I’m telling you, it’s a waste of time.

We also went to the Harry Potter store there. That one was a little better. We got the kids butter beer and every flavored beans. We tried to warn Betty, but I think she didn’t get what we were talking about, and I don’t know what flavor she ate, but it was something nasty. She didn’t like the butter beer much either. But then again, she’s never been that into Harry Potter. The best part of the store was the wands. They had all of the wands from all of the characters, and the girl that was working that part of the store was really knowledgeable, and she was happy and even encouraged the kids to take a picture with their favorite wands.

After that, we hopped on the tube (subway) and headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. It happens only on Fridays at 11am, so our timing was perfect. It took some time to figure out exactly what was going on, but in the end it was pretty cool. I’m a sucker for tradition and respecting institutions, and this checked all the boxes for me.

We had planned to go on a big walk, but with the lack of sleep, the heavy backpacks, and the cold (not rainy but windy), we decided to scrap that and head out to Grand and Emma’s house. They are total strangers who responded to a request for a place to stay in London. They are faithful members and they live right by the temple in a beautiful, renovated house that was originally built in 1869. On the way to Victoria station we grabbed some food at a store (it was surprisingly cheap), and then we hopped on the train out to Lingfield, where Grant picked us up.

After a nice visit and a bit of a rest, we got dressed and headed over to the temple.

The London temple is the 2nd oldest in all of Europe. It was dedicated in 1958. Only the Swiss temple is older. It’s actually about an hour outside of town. It’s definitely showing its age, but it has a simple beauty about it that I’ve never seen in another temple. And the workers were just the best. Brother and Sister Reid helped us the most in the baptistry, and they are Scottish. They were so kind and warm, we felt right at home.

The baptisms themselves went well, and overall the kids were much more alert today than on Tuesday when we were in Paris. Ian, however, is the exception. He was really tired today. During confirmations he just couldn’t keep his eyes open. At one point he was snoring and at another I thought he was going to fall out of his chair.

I went in for baptisms with the older kids while Betty stayed in the arrival center with River. Then, we we all got out, Betty went in to see the inside of the temple while we stayed with River. The sun was just getting low, so I went for a stroll to take some pictures.

While there I met a young man named Chris, who was just baptized in the last year. He was so excited to be a member of the church, and he was warm and energetic about everything. We walked around and just visited. It was a great time.

In the evening we had some amazing macaroni and cheese that Emma made. She’s really skilled in that department. And then we just sat around and visited. This house is beautiful, but it’s also got no insulation, so it’s pretty cold everywhere. But we just sat in the sun room with the wood stove and visited into the night. The kids were exhausted and soon started to fall one by one. Ian was the sleepiest. I simply could not get him to wake up. I’m sure everyone will sleep really well tonight. Except River. She napped for probably 8 hours today. So I expect she’ll be up in the night.

It’s a good day. Our first impressions of London and its surrounding area is that it’s awesome. The people are warm, the food is amazing, the city is beautiful. I can’t wait to explore it tomorrow.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/g7WPszrff9aSr2t47

La Gran Aventura Day 87: Normandy and Le Mont St Michel

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Before I forget to mention it: Happy birthday Kimball! Today he turned 18. I’m so proud of him and love him beyond measure. We celebrated last night with a delicious cake. And today he was my copilot, and we had a great visit.

Now to today:

I’m currently on a metro train. Alone. It’s 11:59pm, and I’ve just had one of the craziest travel days of my life.

Since the purpose of this trip is pilgrimage and sacred travel, I have long wanted to include in it a visit to a place I consider one of the most sacred in all of Europe: the beaches of Normandy where the D-Day invasion took place on June 6, 1944. I’ve wanted to visit this hallowed ground since high school, and it felt wrong to do this trip with this purpose and not go.

The problem is, it’s not exactly on the way to anywhere.

Given the short amount of time we have in France, the train was simply not going to cut it. So I decided to rent a van for today instead. Ok, van is probably too generous a term for the seven seated BMW we got. It was pretty tight quarters but we did all fit.

First, however, I had to get the car. That meant waking up at 5:30am (after a late night) and then making the hour walking and train trip to the Gare du Nord (train station). When I got there, the rental office was closed, so I went to the Eurostar office and booked our train tickets from London to Utrecht (Netherlands) on Monday. Then around 8:30 or 9am I finally got the car.

From there it was another 45-50 min drive through the city to get back to Betty and the kids, who I hoped were waiting for me, but hadn’t responded to their messages.

Turns out, they were almost all asleep, except Betty, who was just getting breakfast. So I rushed into the house, woke up all the kids, and the day I thought would start around 8am, started at 11.

The drive to Omaha beach is really beautiful, and it went pretty smoothly, despite some grumpy and tired members of our family. It’s just long. About 2.5 hours if you take the toll roads -- which we did.

The drive was worth it.

After a brief lunch (packed with love by Dinah), we entered the visitors center.

The American cemetery, visitor’s center, and memorial were all amazing. We’ve been talking with the kids about D-Day for quite a while, and so I felt like they were pretty prepared to take it seriously. There is just no substitute for being in a place. My mom always says that she likes to visit us in our homes so she can picture where we are. I feel something like that here. The visitors center is small, but the exhibits are top notch, and they really give you a sense for what happened there. It’s also sobering to see rows and rows of graves.

Ian was in a pretty dark mood through the visit. I made the mistake last night of showing him just a half a minute of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. It was too much for him -- and he’s not usually phased by blood. I think being right where it all took place and seeing the photographs and other artifacts was just too much for him.

I hope we can talk about it soon. He wasn’t in much of a taking mood today.

As we were finishing up there, I had in the back of my mind that I really wanted to see Le Mont Saint Michel. It’s a beautiful and very famous monastery on an island about 1.5 hours from Omaha beach. It was one of those moments where I was looking at my watch and calculating in my head if we could go and make it back on time.

I decided to go for it.

It was amazing. We got there just at sunset, and the older 4 and I got out and walked a bit and took some pictures. I’m so grateful I had my long lens with me, and I hope the pictures will do it justice. The light was perfect, and we just enjoyed strolling. Betty stayed in the car with sleeping River in the car.

At some moment I had the thought: “I wonder how long it will take us to get back to Paris.” I had been under the impression that it was about 2.5 hours as well -- because I thought we could take a different route back. Turns out I’m an idiot, and the only way back to Paris was the way we had come. 3.5 hours. That meant we’d be getting back to David and Dinah’s around 10:30, and I’d be hard pressed to get the car back on time and catch the last train back to their house.

Oh, and nobody had eaten since lunch.

Things were tense for a bit, but thankfully we found a McDonalds with a drive through, ordered two 20 piece boxes of chicken nuggets, and we headed back out.

The whole time I was calculating in my head how we were going to get back in time, and the math just didn’t add up. At one point we had decided to just go all together to the train station, drop off the car, and go all the way back on the train, but I really didn’t want to add all that travel time for Betty and the kids.

Thankfully, Dinah came to the rescue again, and she found a place where I could drop off Betty and the kids and she could pick them up. And then I could continue on my way without deviating too much from my path.

The plan worked.

I was able to make it back to the train station in Paris, drop off the car, stress for a couple of minutes because I thought I had lost a credit card, take a pit stop (I’d been holding it since Normandy), and make my train.

Now tomorrow morning we just have to wake up at 5am so we can go back to the train station and go to London.

So, lessons learned:

  1. Traveling with seven is not the same as traveling by myself. We need to slow down or we will burn out before we leave London.

  2. Train travel is cool, but it takes up a ton of time. And it takes way more planning than car travel. In some ways we have freedom, but it’s nothing like the freedom we had when we were traveling by car.

  3. Kids are resilient. They just kind of take everything in stride.

I hope tomorrow goes more smoothly than today.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LQUcdRs1hZ3hcdbq5

La Gran Aventura Day 86: Paris, Je T’aime!

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

This morning we all slept until after 9am.  It meant we got out of the house later than we had hoped (11am), but it was worth it to rest.

Dinah and her daughter Hann made us some amazing crepes and mango smoothies. And we got to meet David. He seems like a really great guy. We are so grateful for them. This house is perfect for us.

Our first stop of the day was the Louvre. It was amazing and we had way too little time for everything. We did get to see the Mona Lisa, and a ton of Jacques-Louis David paintings. Betty really like the Greek and Roman sculptures. I think my favorite was Winged Victory. We were there for 2.5 hours and barely scratched the surface.

Just one thought on the Mona Lisa. The amount of attention it gets is absurd, and sparked a good discussion with Betty and the kids. Why, of all the beautiful masterpieces in this incredible museum, does it get the attention it gets? Masses of people. You can barely get close to it. It's certainly not the best or the most beautiful. It's just the most famous. And honestly, it's famous for being famous. In that way I guess you could say it's the Kardashian of paintings.

After the Louvre we did a long walk down the Tuileries and then along the Seine to Trocadero, where we got some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

From there we hopped on the metro and popped out to see Notre Dame. I wish it was open, but it was damaged in a fire a few years ago and is still being restored. But we got a picture.

Then we grabbed a croissant and a muffin and some banana bread and a cookie from a shop on the corner. And we hopped back on the train up to Montmartre.

Train travel has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. I’m so used to it, but the kids definitely aren’t. On the first train of the day Alicia had a hard time getting off at our stop, and she ended up having to push a lady out of the way to make it. A later train was so packed I thought I'd lose someone. Wall to wall people pressed hard body to body. We were literally squeezing on and a guy was stuck in the closing doors.

But we also had some really great experiences. One lady was super nice and let Betty and River sit in her spot. Then later one of the kids let another guy sit down -- he had a sore foot. So then when we got to Montmartre that guy showed us the way to get to the train. It was a nice circle of kindness thing. When we left that train the lady gave us the warmest smile and made a heart shape with her hands.

I had a vision in my mind of what the view from Montmartre would be like, and while the sunset was amazing -- it wasn’t quite what I had imagined. But it really was beautiful. We took a few pictures and we poked our heads in to the church, which is amazing, but they were in mass so we ducked back out. In many churches I’ve visited, they won’t even let you in if they are in mass, but there were lots of tourists around snapping pictures and just milling about. I didn’t love that, and I didn’t want any part of it. It's just too sacred a thing.

On our way back down the hill toward the train station Betty spied a Lebanese ice cream shop called Bachir. It was amazing. I had rose petal and a special kind of ice cream called fleur de lait, which is what mozzarella cheese is called. I have no idea how they made mozzarella cheese ice cream (if that’s even what it is), but it was super delicious.

River ended up having a little accident in her pants at the ice cream place, and since there are practically no public restrooms in Paris, we just decided to head home.

Oh, and on our way our kids got to see a bit more of crazy city night-life -- including a drunk lady who randomly stopped traffic and was yelling “Je n’aime pas!” (I don’t love!) and a sketchy guy who was getting ready to grab at Anahi before we noticed.

It was an exciting day!

Just before sleep I read these couple of verses from Isaiah in Book of Mormon:

2 Nephi: 22:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

I have such a tendency to freeze up when I face challenges. Whether it's paying a bill or making a tough phone call as bishop, or planning this adventure. Right now I'm a little stuck on what happens for us after London. But I'm trying to learn to lean into the challenge. So tomorrow I'm going to push forward and make more plans.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cXHxXiQqDR2Uf1sc8

La Gran Aventura Day 86: Versailles and the Temple

Tuesday March 5, 2024

We made it to Paris. The flight went pretty well. River got overtired and was a little whiney for a bit, but eventually she and Betty got at least a tiny bit of sleep. Not much, but just a bit.

Kimball (unsurprisingly) slept nearly the whole way here. The girls got some sleep, and Ian just stared blankly at the screen all night. I slept maybe an hour or two, but I feel pretty good.

Navigating the train station at the airport was a nightmare. It’s super expensive, and I couldn’t figure out what tickets to buy. Eventually, I decided to just get simple tickets from the airport to Versailles. It was still a bunch, but it didn’t make me want to punch myself in the face.

I’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.

It’s a pretty long train ride from the airport to Versailles, and we only almost lost one kid (Alicia) one time. She learned that she needs to be aggressive getting off a full train.

By the time we got to Versailles, everyone was tired. It’s only about 1.5 miles from the station to the temple, but it felt like more. River and Betty are especially beat.

But we made it there, and we dropped off our backpacks. It’s tough to keep the kids from napping. But I know if they do we will be better with the jet lag.

River was done walking when we left the temple, so I carried her here and then around the gardens. She was asleep most of the time. I feel like those ladies who balance the water jugs on their heads when she is like that.

Now we are just waiting in line to go into the palace. I hope I can get some more pictures. I didn’t get really any of the gardens. Maybe after we leave the palace I can get back out there.

Update: After the palace Kimball and I ran out to take some pictures of the gardens. I really wanted to see the Queen’s Hamlet. So we literally ran all the way out there only to find out that you have to have a ticket, so that whole part was a bust. But I think I got some good pics of the gardens.

When we got back to the palace, the girls were gone. They had become impatient and gone out looking for us. So we went back out and found them. Alicia was super annoyed, but we made the long trek back to the temple just in time for our baptism appointment.

In the temple the kids were so tired they couldn’t keep their eyes open. It was comical. Ian fell asleep so hard and fast at one point that he smacked his head on a bench!

The temple workers were so kind, and it was a joy to be in the temple. As we were getting ready to leave, it started to rain, and I went out and got some nice blue-hour pictures of the temple.

Finally, we took a bus out to Le Vésinet, where our new friends David and Dinah Sluss live. Dinah and her daughter Hann were so kind to us. The kids didn’t last long. Ian and Alicia didn’t make it through dinner without falling asleep.

It was a good and very tiring first day.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XvbtUDfg9PH6jgjr8