Day 15 and 16 - Off the Ship and Into the Bath

We arrived in Southampton England early on the 15th morning of our vacation.  The energetic ones, my parents, elected to wake up way before dawn and escape the ship for an early ride into London for a return flight home.  Tina and I decided to sleep in and spend a few days exploring the southern English country side.  Good sons might have gotten up early to bid their parents goodbye.  I preferred to have sweet dreams and best wishes for them on their flight home! :)

We still had to get off the ship by 8 in the morning and figured we'd take a cab the 3 miles to the car rental facility from which we'd rented a car.  Feeling confident about the universal acceptance of credit cards, we didn't bother getting British Pounds.  As it ended up none of the cabs would accept credit card and we couldn't get back onto the ship to exchange US Dollars for Pounds.  Throw in the fact that the bank at the port didn't open until 10 and we were in a bit of a pickle.  Guess who walked 3 miles to the rental car facility leaving Tina at the port with all of our luggage.

That was OK too ... except I hadn't been precise in my car reservation as to when we'd be getting there.  They didn't expect us until mid-afternoon.  So I ended up sitting around for an hour after walking for an hour and when I finally got back to Tina she was more than worried about what was taking so long.  As it would end up her worries were only beginning.  Driving on the right hand side of the road with a ton of round abouts scared the living day lights out of her ... even though she had an excellent driver who adapted quickly to driving on the wrong side of the road and going round and round and round on circular roads that seem to lead nowhere.  :)

Regardless of all of the above, we finally made it to Stone Henge by somewhere around noon.  This is one of those places that seems to be on everybodies "to visit" list, and justifiably so.  As with a lot of monuments around the world they've had to restrict access to getting right next to the monument, but it's still an amazing place to visit.

The Mysterious Stone Henge

The Happy Tourists

A View From the Other Side

The Nearby Indian Burial Mounds

After a couple of hours we drove the rest of the way to Bath England to spend the night.  Bath is a beautiful city originally established by the Romans and renowned for it's warm spring baths.  We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town which allowed us to walk into the city and avoid driving, even though someone was excellent at driving on the wrong side of the road by that time but somebody was scared to death of riding with said excellent driver!

The City Of Bath

The B&B Tasburgh House

Downtown Bath England

We spent the next morning exploring more of downtown bath and the Bath Abbey. 

Stain Glass in the Bath Abbey

Graves Inside the Abbey

But before leaving town I had to take a couple of pictures of my favorite sort.  On that particular day I got a beautiful picture of the best looking American and a gorgeous little local girl in Bath England.

The Gorgeous American

The Beautiful Local Girl

Day 14 - A Sobering Day in Belgium

The ship docked in Bruges Belgium on our last day out at sea.  All 4 of us had signed up for a tour to the field made famous by the WW I poem entitled "In Flanders Field".  Belgium is a country with so much history relating to WW I, which is by and large a forgotten war compared to WW II.  But the visit and tour served as a sobering reminder of just how tragic WW I was to the people who lived through it.

The tour started with a visit to Tyne Cot Cemetery.  An organization known as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, funded by all the Commonwealth countries that participated in WW I, maintains all of these cemeteries and does an excellent job of it.  It is hard to comprehend all of the people who died in this cause and how many of them were placed in unnamed graves.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Graves of Those Still Remembered

Tina and Dad

The next stop was at the Menin Gate Memorial which is dedicated to those soldiers who were known to have died in the area but who's bodies were never found or identified.  

Menin Gate Memorial

America didn't get involved in WW I until 1917 and never ventured into Belgium.  That's why all the memorials are to the British Empire, including England, Australia, and New Zealand.  

The real sobering part of the visit was to the "In Flanders Field Museum".  

WW I was so devastating in that it was the worlds introduction to the beginning of weapons of mass destruction.  Most of the participants went into the war expecting the same type of single shot rifle wars that had dominated the world before. But WW I introduced grenades, poison gas, and artillery, along with submarines, tanks, and warplanes.  These weapons led to a 4 year bog down in Belgium that saw neither side making major advancements.  As with most museums we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

The final visit was to the cemetery next to the medical bunker where "In Flanders Field" was written by the Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He wrote it shortly after presiding over a funeral for his friend, fellow countryman, and fallen soldier Alexis Helmer.

In Flanders Field

For those who might not be able to read that, here's the original poem.  You could also ask my Mom to recite it to you since she remembers having to memorize it back in high-school.  (I think it was only a couple of years old at that time.)  :)

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

And just as one last reminder of the prices paid by those who went before us, this cemetery also has the grave site of the youngest identified soldier to die in WW I,  a soldier who lied to get into the army and died at the young age of 15.

Day 13 - Bammin' in Amsterdamin

The next stop was Amsterdam where Tina and I did a tour which ended up going through the Ann Frank Museum which is housed in the building she and her family hid out in during WW II.  It was a bit too strenuous of a tour for the parents to take so we went it alone.  We started out by visiting a windmill which are historically preserved structures in Amsterdam.  The bull sitting out in a field by the windmill served as a good security force.

 

Downtown Amsterdam is full of a whole series of canals with "house boats" lining most of them.  These are not typical "house boats".

And then we were at the Ann Frank house.  Unfortunately they don't allow any pictures inside the house, so we were limited to a picture at the front entrance to the house from the main street.  It was a sobering visit to remember what the Frank family went through and that Ann died in a prison camp just a month before liberation believing all of her family had died when her father in fact had survived and spent months looking for her after the war.

Day 12 - The Kiel Canal

We'd never heard of the Kiel Canal, but it's an engineering marvel given that it was started in 1887 and took 9000 workers to finish it by 1895.  It cuts off a significant amount of dangerous waterway from having to go around the treacherous entry to the Baltic Sea and makes for a much safer and shorter passage.  You can see in the map Stockholm, where we first started out trip, and Rostock, which was our last stop prior to the canal.

Looking back on the canal.

Looking Back at the Canal

The Germans, along with most countries along the Baltic sea are big believers in wind power.

Wind Power

And then we were into the locks, watching the back gate close behing us.

The Marina at the End of the Cana

The Closing Lock

And then we were out ... saying goodbye to the Baltic Sea and into the North Sea. 

Goodbye to the Baltic Sea

We Interrupt This Vacation Posting ...

So I'm still trying to make time to finish the vacation posts, but too many people have been asking me for an update on the house.  Soooooooo ... vacation posts will be temporarily delayed.

A couple of weeks after we got back we finally got our tiles and pavers laid on the pool area.  Tina picked out all the colors and we were both super happy about the end result.

Tiles and Pavers Installed

At the same time they went ahead and graded the yard again ... or at least the parts that don't still have coquina rocks on them.  At least it's starting to look like a bit of a yard again.

A "Kind Of"A Yard Again

And then finally, on the infamous Friday the 13th of September 2013, the pool itself was finished, filled with water, and finally started looking like a real pool.

A Filled Up Pool

It's ONLY been 13 months since we started the project, and we still have a lot of work to do, but I think Tina's somewhat overreacting to how long everythings taking.

A Happy Wife

And of course I reserved the right to be the first person to take a swim ... and it felt mighty mighty good!

The First Swim

So with a promise that I'll try to finish the vacation pics soon, so long for now.

Day 11 - Joy a Many in Rostock Germany

Rostock is a city in the very northern part of Germany on the (... ... ... wait for it ... ... ... this is going to be a shocker ... ... ...) the Baltic Sea!  My parents decided to take a tour to Berlin, which included a 4 hour bus ride there and a 4 hour bus ride back  Tina and I were wayyyyyy too lazy for that.  We were originally a little bit sad to find out that no stores are open in Germany on Sunday.  However, churches, restaurants, and festivals keep on going.  (More on the latter in just a moment.)

Once again, the architecture and the mixture of new and old is just amazing.   The sense of history we have in America is just nothing compared to the rest of the world.

So even being there on a Sunday, we were fortunate enough to be there on the weekend of the Hanse Sail Festival.  This "small" town of 200,000 people attracted upwards of 2 million people to this festival for the weekend we were there.  And it's no wonder why.  It was a typical Germany festival of rides and food and beer ... and beer and food ... and beer and beer ... ... ... Did I mention beer?  Anyway, Tina and I had a great time walking through the festival and enjoying the festivities, including the mens singing group that we saw when we first started walking through.

But ... shocker ... shocker ... I always find myself attracted to the kids of a city as much as the local sights.  That was no different in Rostock.

And then this little cutey.  There was a bit of a fight while we were watching because the little boy in front wanted to walk the dog.  However, this girl was insistent that she was better at it.  Having raised 4 girls, the little boy didn't have a chance.

Day 10 - Awaken in Copenhagen

We decided Copenhagen offered a good walking experience so we didn't sign up for any tours.  Besides which my business partners step-son, Justin, lives there and we wanted to go by the shop he works at and visit for a while.  To say the least it was a great walking town.  I ended up taking way too many pics and liking more than I should probably post, but such is the case.

The port we docked at was right next to the Gefion Fountain.  The fountain depicts the mother, Gefion, who was told by the King of Sweden that she could have all the land that she could plow overnight.  So she turned her sons into bulls and proceeded to plow a whole lot of land overnight.  Awwww ... those were the days when mothers knew how to raise their sons.

Gefion Fountain

As it seems with most big cities in Europe, the architecture is impressive.  We also ran into a faceless street performer who was truly amazing, albeit he didn't allow pictures after he got going.

After a bit more of a walk than we originally anticipated, we made it to Justin's shop and had a good visit with him.

After a stop for lunch, on Justin's recommendation we ended up at the Botanical Gardens.  Tina and I have always been big on visiting gardens, greenhouses, nursery's and things of that sort, but the Botanical Gardens at the University of Copenhagen was just stunning.  This is where I went totally crazy with pics, but trust me ... I deleted far more than I'm posting here.  Here's a sampling of the outside garden areas.

So after an hour or so of walking the outside areas, we finally made it to the greenhouses.

Of course our animal friends also caught my eyes.

But I had the prettiest animal in the whole park walking with me along the way.

Throughout the day also, Copenhagen was a great place to people watch.  And nobody seemed to mind me catching pictures of them.

And this last picture (I promise) of a little girl helping her father fish.  Wayyyyyy too cute!