Warning: This blog is depressing. We did the trip to Dachau on December 25th, and the trip to Prague 5 days later. Throughout our travels in Europe, we have taken time to visit reminders of human-kinds occasionally destructive nature. In the Netherlands, we visited the Anne Frank House, and witnessed the fear, the intimidation, and the spying that infected every day life of those people living under the Nazi regime. In the Munich suburb of Dacchau, we toured the Dacchau Concentration Camp. In Prague, we witnessed the destruction that continues today due to the Holocaust. It should b [View Full Entry]

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I am a left-handed woman sitting on the right side of the vehicle driving on the left side of the road. It has been 146 days since I have driven a vehicle. I have had the luxury of going anywhere and everywhere on public transportation. All that changed with my new job. So, another new worker and I decided to split the cost of a car; at £387 per month, including insurance, it was a steal. Which brought to mind all sorts of images of an old car trundling down the idyllic suburban streets of Woking. Monday morning, we made our [View Full Entry]

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The time: 12:30 a.m. The date: the first day of January, 2008. The locals, rather than the tourists (for once) crowd the streets, with many fireworks in one hand, and bottles of champagne in the other. Used mortar tubes litter the streets and the bridges. Every few steps we hear another explosion. This is Prague (Praha in Czech). Prague was the destination for the 2nd part of the trip. At the border between Germany and Czech Republic, we switched from a modern German train, to a slower Czech train. We were entertained by a woman named Sonia, who loved to talk—and [View Full Entry]

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We took a couple of side trips while in Munich—it is the perfect place to tour some of Germany’s beautiful countryside—and what better way to do it then by train? December 23: Füssen and Neuschwanstein Castle We traveled just 2 hours southwest of Munich to get to Füssen. Soon after leaving Munich we began to see snow—by the time we arrived, there was heaps of gorgeous, glittering white snow to greet us. Füssen is a little mountain town near the Austrian border. The town is a tourist destination in its own right, even if we did not go to visit Füssen. [View Full Entry]

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It's a new year, and with a new year has come a new job for me--I will no longer be making the hour and a half trek from Reading to London everyday (I have to take the slow train, unfortunately--the fast train only takes 25 minutes). I officially qualified as a social worker at the beginning of December. Right before I left for Munich I interviewed for a new position only 45 minutes away from Reading. So--while I am still doing Child Protection work, it will be in a slightly different position. And I get to earn a few extra pounds [View Full Entry]

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Kilos of pretzels, soup, and cookies consumed by Felicia since we arrived in Germany 3 days ago: 50 Kilos of sausages, sauerkraut, and lager consumed by Jason since we arrived in Germany 3 days ago: 100 Litres of mulled wine consumed by Jason and Felicia since we arrived in Germany 3 days ago: 200 Wandering around in German Christkindlemarkts (Christmas markets): priceless. We arrived at our hotel in Munich around 10pm. Fresh off the plane, we knew we didn’t want to go far. Especially because it was really really cold. As we walked out into the night, we turned around in [View Full Entry]

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King James I started the Troubles when he conquered Ireland, threw the Irish Catholics off their land, and replaced the Catholics with Scottish Protestants. The Irish responded by killing thousands of Protestants and wiping out an entire Protestant village. Later Oliver Cromwell arrived, conquered all of Ireland and killed many Catholics in the process. Between 1969 and the Irish Republican Army (Catholic terrorists) and the Ulster Freedom Foundation (Protestant terrorists) set off many bombs and killed more than 3,000 people. Let me first start off by saying that every trip from here on [View Full Entry]

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Which plant is Amsterdam famous for? A) Carrots B) Tulips C) Ferns D) Marijuana E) All of the Above Which of the following items cannot be found in an Amsterdam coffeeshop? A) Food B) Marijuana C) Water D) Coffee E) All of the above can be found in an Amsterdam coffeeshop Which of the following was an influence upon Vincent Van Gogh? A) Impressionism B) Japanese graphic art C) Realism D) All of the Above To clear up any confusion right from the beginning, The Netherlands refers to the country. Holland refers to the two largest (among 12) provinces in the [View Full Entry]

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The game is called “les boulle”; Americans may know it as bacci ball. The players throw one small ball the size of a ping-pong about 20-30 feet, then with the bigger balls (usually shiny metal); They try to land their big ball next to the small one. The other players try to get their own close to the little, and also they try to knock their opponents’ balls farther away from the small one. Who ever has their big ball closest to the small one at the end of the game wins. It is usually played by elder men on the [View Full Entry]

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“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” -- Winston Churchill Today is Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom (also observed in the rest of the Commonwealth) and in the U.S. as Veterans Day. All week, everybody in the office has been wearing red poppies to commemorate the end of World War I. In York this weekend, nearly every person we encountered wore their poppies. People laid poppies on the grounds of Yorkmins [View Full Entry]

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