Final Days in Europe, Prague, Back in USA

We have completed the European part of our journey!  We drove 10,339 km driven (6,425 miles) from June 8, 2013 when we arrived in Prague from Greece until July 25, 2013 when we finished back in Prague.  That's like driving round trip from Boston to San Francisco + a couple hundred miles!  Full itinerary for our entire journey listed near the bottom of the post .  

We spent 4 nights in Prague before trying to fly back to the USA on July 29.  But a cancelled flight extended our trip to July 30 and that is when we arrived back at the grandparent's house in the United States (Dallas, Texas).  Note: the map above is a pasted together visual (2 pictures) of google maps because google wouldn't accept all the data on one map....thus the multiple points A, B, C etc

Prague

We left Paris July 11 and traveled to Normandy, Provins, Amsterdam, Dortmund, Copenhagen, Schleswig, Hamburg, Berlin, and Auschwitz without staying more than 2 nights in any one place. So, by July 25 we were most definitely ready for a rest!

So, for the first 2 days we did a whole bunch of nothing.  Sleeping, home schooling, going to the park....it was a welcome rest after the go, go, go of the previous two weeks.  

Notice AJ hopping off this playground apparatus.  It was a hot day and this piece of equipment was scalding hot!  Even S with her long pants couldn't sit there long....

But the swings worked fine...

And the slide was in the shade (notice the photobomber?)....

One of our last evenings in Prague, we went to a cultural evening of dinner and dance.  We had a TON of fun!

I look at this picture compared to some of the pictures from early in our trip and realize the kids have really grown....and Rachel has really REALLY grown!

We all got up and danced at various points of the evening....

One of the absolute funniest things that happened was AJ getting up and starting to dance the Haka.  This dance is from the native Maori of New Zealand where they beat their chests, bulge their eyes, and stick out their tongues.  AJ did the Haka when we were in New Zealand and we thought it was hilarious....but for him to do it on this night 6 months later was just sooooooo funny.  I think Rachel got a video of him doing it but I'll have to post that later.

This picture is near the end of the evening and you can see AJ was fading fast!

Charles Bridge

We came back to Prague because we really enjoyed our time here to start our trip (plus, we saved a lot of money dropping off the car in the same city where we rented it).  But when we were here in early June, the Charles Bridge was closed due to flooding / heavy rains the previous week.

So, on the last full day of our journey, July 28, we headed to the Charles Bridge...

There are many artists on this bridge doing different kinds of drawings....

and its a great place to just stroll....

...and take in the beauty of Prague...

Favorite Moment in Old Town Prague

Finally, we headed to the Old Town.  One of my favorite parts of the trip was sitting on this bench and taking a wonderful trip down memory lane.

Rachel and I started this conversation asking "What were your favorite moments of the journey?"  As parents, it was heartwarming to hear each girl explain their favorite parts of the trip and realize what they chose weren't the touristy places.  They talked about serving Jesus Christ in Guatemala, El Salvador, Kenya, and Tanzania.  They spoke about the relationships formed and the sense of life which permeated those times.  

I remember being invigorated, not tired, near the end of our month in Africa after working long days with kids in Kenya and Tanzania.  It dawned on me that the reason we were all energized is that more than any time in our lives we were doing God's Will....thus the joy, thus the energy, thus the complete satisfaction.  Other than the 2 day safari, there was nothing we did for ourselves in Africa.  We were focused on Jesus Christ and spreading His Word; so to hear the girls talk about those times as their favorite times was a wonderful moment for us as parents.  

We changed gears and asked them about their favorite moments in each country.  We didn't get through every country from our trip, but I took notes on what everyone said that day and posted it at the end of this note.  

Finally, the 'big bubble' guy from June was still doing his thing on this day at the end of July so the kids had fun with the big bubbles....

The tourists lining up to watch the old clock do its thing on the hour...

Logistics / Travel Tips / Saving Money

One of the things we wanted to teach the kids with this journey was 'stuff' wasn't important and we have too much of it.  So, each person got one backpack.  That's it for over 8 months of travel!
We picked up the $30 Walmart special black suitcase for the Kenya / Tanzania portion of the trip to carry all the supplies we needed for our vacation bible school.  We planned on leaving it in Kenya but thought it might be wise to have one extra bag; it came in handy to carry things we used in apartments throughout Europe + a few momentos we got along the way.

The smaller bags to the left served as day packs and one served as our medicine bag.  The black backpack was our 'technology' bag....and then the other items are AJ's carry backpack and car seat (with handy roller which was nice for airports)

Here is what it looked like in our minivan....

It was tight quarters, but it worked!

The iPhone really came in handy using AT&T's International Plan.  We actually VERY rarely used the phone part (as in talk time) and if I had to do it again I would drop the $40 a month fee we paid to get 40 minutes of international talk time and just pay the higher per minute rate.  We only had 1 month where we used all 40 minutes and most of the other months we used less than 10 minutes.

The data plan was great, and there were times that the personal hotspot was the only internet connection we had (Queenstown New Zealand and Guatemala come to mind).  The personal hotspot worked everywhere we could get a connection which is the opposite of what the sales guy said when I set up the plan in December.  Of the countries we visited, Kenya is the only place I can think of right now where we had no 3G connection.

The iPhone also served as our GPS system using Google Maps.  If I had to do it again, I would have purchased the TomTom Navigation App for Europe, New Zealand, and Australia (the primary places where we rented cars).  That purchase would have allowed us to save data usage but more importantly operate without a 3G connection.  With Google maps you had to have some kind of internet connection to get it started but then it would somehow still work even when out of 3G range.  However, if something ever happened and the route was lost (as happened to us in the middle of Croatia!) then you are out of luck.

Also, we learned quickly using Google Maps in New Zealand that if you don't have some kind of power source in the car, your iPhone battery is going to run out fast.  When we arrived in Prague on June 8 we almost turned this minivan in for that reason....the power source in the front of the car did not work.  However, it is not easy getting minivans!  What we ended up doing was threading the computer power cord to the far back seat where there was an operational power source, and it worked out (that's why the computer is between the two front seats with the iPhone plugged into the computer for power)

Saving money on airline tickets

By far the most expensive part of our trip were the airline tickets.  30% of the entire cost of our journey were the airline tickets.  We learned a thing or two that saved our family of 6 at least $5,000 in airline costs

1.  Book within 3 months of the trip.  Anything longer and the rates will be higher....but if you book less than 2 weeks out you will pay MUCH more.

2.  Book the tickets yourself, especially if you have a large family.  Most of the $5,000 we saved was because I started changing routes and times and dates AND most importantly how many people we were buying tickets for.  A travel agent would never spend that much time doing what I did, but it was through that process that I saved the $5,000.  See #3 and #4 for specifics...

3.  When searching for airline tickets just search for 1 ticket to get the baseline price.  Then start adding other tickets until you get to the number of tickets you want.  What I learned is if you try to buy 6 tickets ALL AT ONCE (or even 4 or 5 tickets) you will get MUCH WORSE prices.  On the most expensive legs of the trip, I split the tickets into two separate itineraries with Rachel and 2 kids on one set of tickets and me and the other kids on another set of tickets (all on the same flights...triple checking that for sure before purchasing!).  That process saved a huge amount of money (at least $4,000) on the trips to New Zealand/Australia and then later Israel/Africa/Europe.

4.  If you are flying on one airline the entire trip, GO TO THAT AIRLINE's site before booking the ticket.  For example, figure out the flights on one of the major travel sites and then go create a flight plan on the airline's site with the same flight numbers.  I have done this in the past on USA flights and typically save the 'travel site' booking fees which vary from site to site (but can add up when buying tickets for 6 people).  Well, I did that for a flight on Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Kusadasi after we decided to change plans on our Turkey / Greece tour.  The USA based travel site quoted us $1,500 for six tickets....but when I went to Turkish Airlines the ENTIRE cost for the six tickets was $250.  That was one of the best deals I have ever received....so always check the airline's site because you never know just how much money you might save.

5.  Buy tickets on Wednesday or Thursday.  This tip holds true for domestic travel in the USA as well because airlines typically announce their weekly sales on Tuesday, competitors match on Wednesday and Thursday and then the sales are taken away by the time the weekend comes.  The worst time as an individual to buy a ticket is anytime on the weekend as you will get the worst rates then.

Hotels / Accommodations

We primarily used www.Booking.com to reserve our hotels and apartments.  We mostly stayed in apartments whenever we were in a city more than 1 night as it significantly reduces costs when you have your own kitchen.  Also, with a family of 6, you basically have to get 2 hotel rooms in a regular hotel which quickly becomes cost prohibitive.

We were VERY surprised at the availability and costs for apartments across Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.  It was easier than we imagined staying on budget even in large and expensive cities like Rome and Paris.  Be sure to read the reviews from other travelers as that saved us more than once from making really terrible bookings....but also to set expectations if the reviews don't sound so great.  Our place in Florence and in Omaha Beach didn't have the greatest reviews but because we didn't expect much we ended up being pleasantly surprised (especially the place on Omaha Beach which must have had a major renovation recently).

For us, having the ability to cook was a major factor in our bookings.  If you get a good rate but you have to go out to eat, you will not save as much money as paying a little more for a place with a kitchen and cooking most of your own meals.  Since we had a car, we always checked to see if they had parking (not all places do, especially in big cities).  We also learned it is important to check to see if the apartment is a PRIVATE rental (ie no 24 hour check in desk).  These places can be great but it is important to communicate via email or text as to when you are going to arrive.  It is also smart for private rentals to bring your own toilet paper, especially when you have 3 daughters!

The other surprising thing was the availability.  We made many of our reservations on the fly or just a few days before arriving in a city so we could maintain flexibility in where we would be going.  In New Zealand we reserved only 1 place before arriving.  Everything else we reserved while in country.  We did the same thing in Australia.  In Europe we booked the first 3 weeks before leaving the States but did the rest as we traveled around the continent.  I know that is not for everyone as some people like to have everything planned out exactly, but it worked for our family....so if that is your style, it can be done even in the height of tourist season.

One other thing, there is a chain in Europe that is a very inexpensive but an adequate place to stay (including breakfast).  When we needed 1 night in city we would look to the Ibis chain of hotels as we could get 2 rooms and breakfast for about $100 total (even in a place near Paris).

Services

As mentioned in previous posts, we used www.TripAdvisor.com quite a bit and found their App to be helpful in large European cities.  Rick Steve's Apps were absolutely fantastic as well in Europe.

We did 2 major 'tours'....one in Israel and one following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul through Turkey and Greece.  Those tours were quite expensive as well, staying in 4 and 5 star hotels and were 'go, go, go, go'  I won't say I regret doing those tours as we learned a lot and saw a tremendous amount.  But if we ever do something like this again (10 years from now maybe when AJ is 13 and the baby is 10?) I think I would plan those parts of the trip differently.  Also, there were parts of the Greece 'Footsteps of Paul' tour that I thought were weak.  If we did that again I would just focus on Philippi, Athens, and Corinth.  


Heading Home (kind of)...

The morning of July 29 we headed to the airport ready to return to the USA after 120 consecutive days of travel (we were at the grandparents house for Easter after the Central America part of our trip in Feb/March)

Thank goodness we got there 3 hours before our flight time because the flight was cancelled, British Airways only had 2 people working to change all the flights and it took them (literally) one hour just to find 6 tickets on one flight for our family....plus getting accommodations for us.  But it all worked out, the airline paid for everything including taxis, and the hotel was surprisingly upscale.

The only downside was a 4am wake up the next morning.  But we made it back to the USA and through the longest passport control / customs lines we have ever seen.  The 'Welcome' sign in the background is the one in Dallas.

The girls and Rachel have been serving at a music camp at my parent's church in Texas over the past week.  We will start our journey back to New England in mid August visiting extended family along the way.

We didn't start the blog until after the New Zealand / Australia / Fiji portion of our journey, so I am going to be posting pictures and quick comments on that part of the trip between now and the time we arrive back home in New England.

Until then,

God bless

Full Itinerary of our Journey

December 16  Leave New England Home, drive to Dallas, TX for Christmas @ grandparents.
December 30 Fly to New Zealand
January 1 Arrive Auckland, New Zealand (Stayed with Norman & Bo Hensley Family in Howick)
January 4 Rotorua
January 6 Taupo
January 8 Wellington
January 9 Kaikoura
January 11 Christchurch
January 12 Queenstown  (Day trips to Arrowtown, Wanaka)
January 18 Greymouth, Pancake Rocks
January 19 Wellington
January 20 Waitomo Caves
January 20 Auckland / Howick, (Day trips to Hot Water Beach and The Waterworks, Op Shop)
January 25 Fly to Australia
January 25 Sydney, Australia (Stayed with Thierry and Sophie Blanc)
January 27 Newcastle
January 28 Coolum Beach (spent much time this week in Noosa surfing and serving @ Op Shop)
February 5 Agnes Water / 1770 (Lady Musgrave Island tour on Great Barrier Reef)
February 6 Coolum Beach
February 7 Nelson Bay
February 8 Sydney (1 night in city, 2 nights at Thierry & Sophie's home)
February 11 Fly to Nadi, Fiji
February 11 Outrigger Resort, Coral Coast Fiji
February 14 Fly to Dallas, TX

February 21 Fly to Nicaragua
February 21 Managua, Nicaragua (met Compassion Intl. child we sponsor)
February 23 Bus to El Salvador
February 23 San Salvador, El Salvador
February 24 Chapeltique (building home with a team from our church)
March 1 San Salvador
March 3 Bus to Guatemala
March 3 Served at Hope of Life International (near Zacapa, Guatemala)
March 12 Guatemala City
March 13 Fly to Dallas, TX

April 1 Fly to Israel
April 2 Tel Aviv, Israel
April 3 Caesarea (Mt Carmel, Megiddo, Nazereth)
April 4 Sea of Galilee (Capernaum, Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Mount of Beatitudes)
April 6 Dead Sea (Masada, Qumran, En Gedi)
April 7 Jerusalem
April 12 Golan Heights, Kibbutz Afiq
April 19 Fly to Kenya
April 19 Nairobi, Kenya (Serving at Missions of Hope)
May 4 Maasai Mara (Safari)
May 6 Nairobi
May 7 Arusha, Tanzania
May 9 Moshi (Mt Kilimanjaro)
May 10 Ruvu Remiti (Serving Maasai Tribe)
May 17 Arusha
May 18 Nairobi, Kenya (Joska shoe delivery)
May 21 Fly to Turkey
May 21 Istanbul, Turkey
May 25 Kusadasi (Ephesus)
June 1 Cruise in Aegean Sea (Patmos, Crete, Santorini)
June 3 Athens, Greece (Corinth day trip)
June 5 Kalambaka (Berea, Mountain Top Monasteries, Thermopiles, King Philip Tomb)
June 6 Thessolaniki (Philippi day trip)
June 8 Fly Czech Republic
June 8 Prague, Czech Republic
June 11 Vienna, Austria (Salzburg, Bratislava Slovakia, Rajka Hungary)
June 19 Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
June 21 Pula, Croatia (Rovinj, Piran Slovenia)
June 24 Bologna, Italy (Venice day trip)
June 26 Pompeii
June 28 Rome
July 2 Florence (Pisa)
July 6 Lyon, France (Geneva Switzerland)
July 7 Paris
July 11 Omaha Beach (D-Day sites)
July 13 Paris (Versailles, Provins)
July 14 Amsterdam, The Netherlands (St. Niklaus, Belgium)
July 16 Dortmund, Germany (Starlight Express)
July 17 Copenhagen, Denmark
July 19 Schleswig, Germany
July 20 Hamburg (50th Wedding Anniversary for Werner and Elke Lau)
July 21 Schleswig
July 22 Berlin
July 24 Auschwitz, Poland
July 25 Prague, Czech Republic
July 30 Fly to Dallas, TX USA

Favorite Memories (from our trip down memory lane discussion July 28...through Tanzania)

New Zealand

S – Daddy jumping on trampoline + rope course + canoe boats on first day + glow worm caves

H – Home school reports we gave in Queenstown

V – Bo/Norman, ropes course, Hot Water Beach, ferry to south island, Queenstown

Rachel --  Museum w/ Bo & Norman w/ woman doing poi dance

AJ – playing with Rachel and toys at Bo/Norman’s, doing the Haka

Andrew – Queenstown, Op Shop, The Waterworks

Other: Smell at Rotorua, S catching fish on fishing boat, Shotover jet, AJ getting upset in Rotorua thinking the bubbling mud was hot chocolate and he wasn't getting any

Australia

S –  Getting up 21 times the first day we surfed

Andrew – First day in Australia w/ kangaroos, fireworks, shrimp on the barbie + Lady Musgrave island, Koala in parking lot

V – first day, lady Musgrave, Sophie & Thierry

H – Op shop, David Bussau, surfing

Rachel – Everything mentioned above, AJ bitten by goose!

Fiji

Everyone said learning about baby.  Reef walk.  Egg toss.  Pool area.  Getting pearls.  AJ said surfing and drowning (huh?). 

Nicaragua

Meeting Darlin

Rachel – joy of Darlin’s mom…story of praying for our family

V – painting nails

S – seeing Darlin smile

H – doing her nails

Andrew – her smile and hearing her talk about wanting to be a lawyer and advocate for kids like her.

El Salvador

S – Vienna getting engaged to Oscar.  Chickens for thank you gift.  Playing uno w/ kids.  Climbing trees with kids.  Uncle Richie crying.

H – Home visits and people coming to Christ.  Elderly grandmother lady.   Making relationships with kids, building house, getting to know adults / relatives from church.

Andrew – the prayer that had a physical feel to it.  Might be one of my top memories of the entire trip.  Watching kids get to know adults from the church.

Rachel – doing devotions, playing UNO with kids, Pastor Isidro, AJ picking up Spanish

V --  Relationships with people on the team. Hugo remembered us.

One of the pastors talking about setting a vision for the girls coming back with their husbands and for AJ coming back as a missionary. 

Guatemala

H – Working in Kelly house, making connections with kids with special needs.  Working in rescue center.  Michelle and Erica.  Going to church.  Getting ice cream

S – Smily baby.  Little baby in rescue area.  Kelly’s house & working with Erica.  Ohio team and going to devotions with them.  Kids at orphanage and making relationships there.  Mildred crying when we said goodbye (blind and has tumors in spine)

V – Seeing Ulyss walk for first time.  Making relastionship with Erica and Hugo.  What Ulysses said when we said goodbye.  Carlito waving arms

Rachel – Eating beans for breakfast.  Watching our kids & seeing them excel in areas that we wouldn’t have predicted.

Andrew – Interacting with Ohio group via devotions and worship

Israel

S – interacting w group, burial sites, garden site.  AJ driving cars on tomb.  Eran getting Laurel the Jerusalem bag, seeing where prophets of baal happened, floating in Dead Sea

H – tour guide.  City of Dan.  Garden tomb, Caesarea, Caesrea Philipi, Yad Vashem

V – Masada, world’s oldest arch, Dead Sea, temple of the holy goats

Rachel – Qumron caves and the Dead Sea Scrolls, caves where David hid in Ein Gedi, Capernum and getting a sense of how far he traveled.

Andrew – Showing kids where we were in Golan Heights, Baptizing V, giving girls their purity rings, Stairs of Teaching…seeing the places where the stories of the Bible happened. 

Kenya

S – Hand clapping skit people and getting to know them.  Having kids play with hair and braiding.  Doing VBS at area 2 w/ kids from Joska.  Meeting Willington.  Delivering shoes to kids we worked with

H – Gloria, Joska and delivering the shoes, teaching skits, VBS week

V – Shoe delivery, Momma Julianna
Andrew & Rachel - Seeing the girls lead, the feeling of really knowing we were doing God's Will and being energized as a result even though the days were long.

Tanzania

We all agreed the week with the Maasai tribe was certainly the most unusual week of our journey.  The kids were all very concerned about that week when we planned the journey, but afterward they each said it was one of their favorite weeks.

  

That particular part of our journey is detailed in one blog post (because we had no internet until we got back to Arusha).  We learned so much that week and experienced God's grace in many ways. I love the post because of the audio of the evening worship services (youtube video in the post...if you read it, hit play on the audio before reading).  I'll never forget that experience as the stars were just incredible, God's presence was everywhere, and it felt like we had stepped back in time 2000 years.  

http://tsfga.blogspot.com/2013/05/tanzania-maasai-week-week-to-remember.html  (opens in separate window)

Please leave a comment below (or email me a comment to post) before heading off to the Tanzania post ;)

Other Favorite Photos from our last days in Europe...

AJ used my shoe as his gas station for his cars...