April 20, 2008--- Tonight at midnight my Eurail pass expires. It's weird to think about it and it feels like a big moment in my European experience. This weekend marks the beginning of the end. I'm ready. It's been great to see so much of the world God created for us, but now the creations I'd like to see most are the faces of family and friends back home. This past weekend was really nice though; I added my final two countries, Croatia and Slovenia, to my European semester abroad list. The grand total sits at 11 countries. Pretty awesome! ******************************************************** After a 13 hour night train (tiring!) we arrived in the seaside city of Rijeka, Croatia. Rain and large ferry boats greeted us. We didn't exactly know what lay ahead for our day-long adventure but ... read more

If Brugge's nickname as the "Venice of the North" is true it must be because of the charm of the cobblestone streets, the meandering quality of the waterways, and the unique little shops because Amsterdam has it beat by far as far as canals go. It is said to be 100 islands attached by bridges and marts. It was far more beautiful than I ever imagined. I stayed on a beautiful loop around the city that took me past bridge after bridge over canals filled with colorful pontoons, tugboats, and floating restaurants. It was all very charming. The route I chose took me out to the park next to the Van Gogh museum--called Vondelpark. I immediately saw lines of colorful attached homes as a backdrop to the famous "I AMsterdam" sign, the Netherland-ish equivalent of US' ... read more

March 28, 2008--While I went to Italy for eight days of break, I still had over a week left until my other classmates got back. The two girls I traveled with then haven't been very interested in travel, so I only went on one trip with them. On that trip with them I experienced a bit of Switzerland on a day trip to Zurich. Switzerland has so much to offer, but at least a seeing a little slice of it was nice, especially on the day I visited. The snow fell softly over the city, blanketing the bare trees and making the chilled city more magical. While strolling through the streets we experienced one of Zurich's claims to fame--the biggest clock face on a church tower. Since then I've decided to to take my adventures ... read more

Wow. A lot has happened in the last few days—some major sights and some major changes in our spring break plans. I’ll start with Rome, the sights. When we arrived in Rome we were all kind of tired and it was the middle of the afternoon before we were all settled in at our hostel. Hotel Colors was a fairly nice place- clean with a great little patio/balcony to eat out on. It was also close to some major sights. It only took about ten minutes to walk to Rome’s old castle located along the river. From there we could see the Vatican. The weather was warm and the sun was out, so we explored the moat/park area surrounding the castle. So serene. There were a bunch of young boys playing soccer there. We joked about ... read more

I just got done straightening up the “Torre del Pisa,” not bad for a day’s work. Pisa is the third major city of my spring break tour of Italy. This morning’s tour of Florence was gray and turned bright blue by the time we made it to Pisa. Florence has some great churches…especially the St. Maria Dom, where we went to a Catholic mass for a Palm Sunday reading. It was a Catholic mass, but just felt good to go to a church service. I really miss church. The only services offered in Reutlingen are in German. I’m craving sermons, hymns/praise music, fellowship, communion and special prayer time. It’s so important. I really need to work on making my own set apart time with Jesus while I’m out here. The Palm Sunday reading was read by ... read more