London - Last Place before heading home to the States

We have been to London once before (when we were so young and carefree) that we weren’t too keen in doing the touristy things. We did see a couple of touristy places like the London Eye, but we mostly just enjoyed getting to know and hang out with Londoners as well as immersing ourselves in the London scene. On our first night, we were able to party with our British friends that we met 2 months prior in Burgundy. It was a super fun night. Then, the next evening we got to hear Paul’s (a friend of Lisa) band Afro funk. Afrofunk is a very cool and awesome band.

In one day we hit the following places: Piccadilly Circus, the covenant garden, Soho, Trafalgar Square, England’s National Art Museum, square of the parliament, Kensington garden - beautiful, and Notting Hill. For posterity’s sake, we did our last new europe tour, where we walked around London and saw the Big Ben, WestMinister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, House of Parliament and etc... In the midst of our tour, we heard the breaking news that Prince William and Kate Middleton were engaged. Man…it was the biggest news EVER…it was everywhere and people were lining up outside of the entrance of Prince William’s house. We went past it in our tour to get a picture of the guards…it was funny to see all the hoopla. We ended our last night of traveling at a pub in Brixton called the Rest is Noise, which was a cool place.

Traveling has been an unbelievable experience for the both of us. This adventure has stretched and grown us in countless ways. We want to thank all of you that have supported us through prayer and encouragement. Our travel days are not over. We have just begun... Next Stop: Australia and New Zealand - Here we come!!!!

Israel

Our first day in Israel started at 3am and did not end until 2 am the next day. To say the least it was a fun filled but jam packed day. It began with Miles picking us at the Tel Aviv airport at 3 AM and driving for about an hour to Ramallah, where he lives in the West Bank. Later on in the morning, we went to Jerusalem (the old city part) , where we saw the Western Wall (wailing wall), walked along the Via Delarosa, where Jesus walked with the crucifix; and the Church of the Sephlecure, where we had the unique opportunity to touch the stone where Jesus’ body was washed and the rock where the cross was placed on. We also visited a few old churches and an underground well place, where they used to draw water in the past. This underground well place was amazing because of its acoustics. We (Miles, Joyce and 2 fortunate tourists) were given a special performance by Joh, where she sang Amazing Grace for us. The walls of the cavern bounced her beautiful voice all around us creating a peaceful and serene atmosphere. Our ears were filled with her awesome voice and we did not want it to end. For me (Joh),it was an amazing feeling to sing there and hear my voice bouncing off the rock walls. At night, we went out to Tel Aviv for an incredible seafood dinner by the water and then later on met up with Miles’ friends and hit a local bar. And so our first day of Israel came to an end at 2 AM the following day. It was an awesome day.

The next day we proceeded towards the north of Israel, where we ventured towards Nazareth, the city that Jesus grew up. We went to the Basilica of the Annunciation, where the cave (where Mary received the message from the angel, Gabriel) is located and visited Joseph’s chapel as well. Then, we moved onto Tiberius, which is near the Sea of Galilee. We had a nice dinner by the Sea of Galilee. The following day, we drove off to Haiffi where we went to see the famous Bahai Gardens, which were amazing. Bahai is a religion that came after Islam. It is a combination of christianity, judiasm, druism, and islam. The garden has 18 tiers and the gardens are magnificently kept. From Haiffi, we went to Akko, an incredible city that is built within the ruins of the old city. We had a couple of drinks at a local Arab place, where there was traditional music playing and people dancing. The music was really great! We had the most amazing dinner EVER at Uri Buri. It was just INCREDIBLE!!! After dinner, we walked around Akko and stumbled upon an Arab Israeli wedding, where we were allowed to crash and had lots of fun.

The next day we went to see more of the Sea of Galilee, the church of the Beatitude and Capernaum. The church of the beatitude grounds were beautiful and had a great view of the Sea of Galilee. After enjoying the gorgeous view, we were off to Capernaum, the place that Jesus performed many miracles. It was unreal to see the ruins of the church and the area where he preached. It was also incredible to sit along the shore lines of the Sea of Galilee, where we could touch the water, the same water in which Jesus walked upon 2000 years ago. It was surreal to see the Bible come to life. AMAZING!

We got to walk around Ramallah where Miles lives, which was interesting. It’s a beautiful city but it is still in the midst of development. Since we had to go back and forth between the West Bank and Israel, we could see the difference between these two areas. At first, it was a bit daunting to go through the check points in order to pass between the West Bank and Israel; but we became accustomed to it – it is just a part of everyday life there. It is sad to see so much strife and racism in an area, where it’s the mecca for many religious beliefs.

We went to Jericho, which is the oldest city - it’s 10,000 years old. We got to check out the tree where Jesus prayed at and the montesary, which is up on a hill. Then, Joh drove us to Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada is an incredible place, where King Herod built a fortress on the side of a cliff. For many Jews, this place symbolizes the determination of Jews to be free in their own land. Then, we went to Eui, where we got to chill and swim in the Dead Sea. It was a really cool feeling to be floating no matter what in the Dead Sea.

We also got to visit three wineries in Israel which was lots of fun. We got to taste some pretty good wines and bought a couple of bottles as well. Then we ended the evening with traditional Arab food that was delicious.

On our final full day in Israel, we went to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and saw the star of David and the place that he was born. Afterwards, we walked some more in Jerusalem and also drove through the Mount of Olives. Miles ended our trip by with a fun BBQ. We were warned about how tough it is to get through all of the security at the Tel Aviv airport but thank God that we were able to breeze through it.  Thanks Miles for such a wonderful visit to Israel!

Siena and San Giormionni

 

Our final days in Italy were spent in the small town of Siena and a day trip out to San Gimignano.  Unfortunately, most of our final days were in the rain, but the sun finally came out on our last 2 days in Italy.

San Gimignano 

 
San Gimignano is a small walled in town with lots of medieval towers, which reminded us a bit of Cortona. It has cute churches, a great view of the countryside of tuscany, and several piazzas. A cool piazza is called the Piazza della Cisterna, named after the underground cistern in the middle of the piazza. San Gimignano is small enough town to see the sights and do lots of shopping.

Siena

Siena is a small city/town with lots of cool medieval architecture. We saw the Piazza Del Campo, the Tower, Siena's duomo (a large and beautiful cathedral), and the Piazza Salimbeni. Siena is famous for the Il Palio, a town horse race that occurs twice a year in the Piazza Del Campo. We also finished all of our Italian shopping. We ate twice at this fantastic sandwich restaurant/bar and had our last Italian meal at a chic restaurant. Our last Italian meal was delicious, where we had great pasta dishes, a yummy duck dish, a tasty dessert and awesome red wine. It was a great end to our last night in Italy. We were incredibly sad to leave Italy because we LOVE it. We miss you, Italy.

San Rocco - 9km outside of Siena

Oh my goodness, the countryside of Tuscany is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  We stayed at this beautiful villa called, Fattorini Caviorigni.  We want to purchase a villa outside of Siena, harvest olives and produce our wine here.  Seriously, it is SIC out here!  We had five days of utter bliss.  During our first two days here, we met an awesome mother and daughter, who were traveling around Italy and Spain.  We had great conversations with them over breakfast and dinner.  On our last day, we also met a woman, Susan, who was traveling for 6 months, and had a fun time with her.  Mainly, we just chilled here.  We did lots of walking and biking around the countryside area.  It was the perfect place for us to relax, read, reflect and slow down.

Cortona

 Love,Love, Love this small town in Tuscany!  Hands down, it has the best and most delicious food in Tuscany.  Every restaurant we ate at was amazing and completely affordable.  I know we’ve stated in other blog entries about how delicious the food is in every town but Cortona truly is the best out of all of them. The scenery is just as amazing as the food, and the town is incredibly serene.  We can completely understand why Frances Mayes and her husband decided to purchase a villa in Cortona  and made it their part time home.  We would too if we could afford it.  Basically, we just walked around the city and ate ALOT!
   One night by chance, we met Frances May's husband, Ed, and his three sisters at a restaurant.  At first, we didn't know who he was until his eldest sister asked us if we had seen Bramasole (the Under the Tuscan Sun villa), which we hadn't yet.  Then, she proceeded to tell us that Ed was the owner of Bramasole and the husband of Frances Mayes.  It was such a pleasure meeting them. They are really great people. They also directed us to a restaurant that has the BEST pasta and Tiramisu EVER!!! 

Perugia and Florence

Chocolate Festival in Perugia

Christy, Joyce and I traveled to Perugia from Florence. Perugia is known for it's chocolate and is a quaint town in Tuscany.  It's a small city and located up on a hill, so its a bit chilly.  There were loads of chocolate vendors from Italy, Germany, Spain, and all over Europe at the festival. The idea of the chocolate festival was born out of the Oktoberfest in Munich, where instead of lots of beer there’s lots of chocolate. It was loads of fun and we got to hang out with Kamalia and her cool friend, Hannah (an exchange student from London).  Kamalia and Hannah took us to a delicious gelato place called Grom, which was excellent!  It was a great day in Perugia.  FYI: Had the BEST pesto linguini pasta at Perugia…yummy goodness!!!

 

Florence

Florence is a nice, calm and pretty city.  This was our final big city in Italy.  The next couple of days were filled with touristy attractions.  Here are the highlights: The Duomo, climbed up the dome of the Duomo (which consists of 425 stairs), Ponte Vecchio, Uffizi Gallery (which holds all of the beautiful Renaissance paintings), and the Academia (which holds the stunning Michelangelo's statue of David).  We treated ourselves to an abridged opera of La Boheme at St. Mark's English Cathedral, which included a narrator, four singers and an amazing pianist.  We also did lots of shopping and scored some sweet leather goods (at least I (Joh) scored some really cool leather goods).  I finally got to go on a couple of runs around the city and it was amazing. I ran along the Ponte Vechhio besides the river and then around the duomo, which was so awesome!  We thought that Florence was a really sweet city.