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I am WAY behind on blogging. I guess it’s a good thing we come home in 2 months so I can catch up. It was nice having my parents come visit. We spent a fair bit of time at home relaxing after the trip to Israel. Went grocery shopping, did laundry, etc. We also tookContinue reading “Zaanse Schans and Keukenhof”

On Monday we packed up and went to the airport. A shuttle driver from our tour company picked us up at the hotel and took us to the airport. He never asked us which flight, just dropped us off. So, we assumed there was only one terminal. We were about 3.5 hours early to theContinue reading “Flight home”

Sunday started out strong. We went to the Dome of the Rock, which is also the historic site of the Temple of Solomon. We weren’t told a dress code beforehand, but right as we were about to get off the bus, the tour guide told us that women had to have at least 3/4 lengthContinue reading “Last day in Israel”

In Israel, our church follows the Jewish tradition of Sabbath on Saturday. We went to the BYU Jerusalem Center for church. The BYU Jerusalem is a campus of Brigham Young University where students can go for a semester abroad. It is a beautiful building with a gorgeous view of Jerusalem.

Israel was definitely the highlight of the trip. I have wanted to visit Israel since I was a child, and this visit was the top of my to-do list during our year abroad. I had tried without success to find a tour guide in Israel. I had contacted at least a half dozen people. AllContinue reading “Israel (Part 1)”

The highlight (for me) of Jerusalem was the religious places in Jerusalem. On Friday we got to see the last supper room, Gethsemane, and the garden tomb (among other things).

The second stop on our cruise was Kusadasi, Turkiye: welcome to Asia! This was my first time in Asia, so it was kind of exciting for me. We took an excursion to the ruins of Ephesus where Paul preached. The ruins in Ephesus were in better shape than those in Greece, but I don’t knowContinue reading “Kusadasi, Turkiye”

The first cruise stop was the island of Santorini. We didn’t really know what to expect. Even the shore excursion was unknown. Side note, normally I’m not a paid excursion kind of guy: just find some locals and do our own stuff. However, I was pretty nervous with with the 5 kids. So, we gotContinue reading “Santorini, Greece”

Saturday we went to the Acropolis and Mars Hill in Athens. We also had some authentic gyros and Greek baklava.

When we came to the Netherlands, we decided we wanted to see as much of Europe as possible, culminating in a Mediterranean cruise. Well, the kids are out of school for the 2-week May vacation (actually the last week of April and first week of May), and cruise prices were way cheaper than in theContinue reading “Big Adventure: Greece, Turkiye, and Israel”