we miss you!

While we all sleep in, eat American food, and enjoy air conditioning, Molly, Laura, Walter and James continue their adventures in France. Here's a pic for them, from our 24+ hour trip home.

We miss you guys!

When in Rome...

Be sure to bring water! (and suncreen, a camera, and 8 friends!)



We (Walter, James, Molly, Laura and I) are hanging out at an Internet Cafe, waiting for the rest of the gang to emerge from the Sistine Chapel. We started out touring St. Peters Basilica, (I dont know where the apostrophes are on Italian keyboards!), in two groups. You would have laughed to see us...Ty put Rick Steves audio guide of the Basilica on 2 iPods, and with a splitter, we were able to have four people listen to each iPod. So for about an hour, Walter, Molly, Laura and I shuffled side-by-side, an earbud for each of us, around the building, looking at the ceiling, floors, walls, the famous Pieta (Michaelangelo), etc. After the tour, we waited for Ty, Jenny, M & K to climb the dome (they saw us from the top), made dinner plans, then split up again and went through the museum leading into the Sistine Chapel. Yes, amazing.

Then emerging hot and sweaty, we each got 3 scoops of gelato, and checked our email, and now I need to dash off to meet the group again.

R

NEWS FLASH

Interview with the Americans in Venezia UNEDITED
(except for most of walterś comments)

1.) How many blisters do you have?

Ty: 5.
Rachel: "IIII don't have any."
Mere: "None. My flipflops are incredible."
Jenny: "Not many. But the bottoms of my feet are permanently black."
Rachel: "But my Chaco tan is working on building."
Laura: "Ummm.... ow?"

2.) How many times have you fallen down today?

James: "2."
Rachel: "I stitched up his face with superglue from the supermarket from the 2nd fall."
Walter: "Laura is keeping tabs. At least one in every major city, but I've lost count."

3.) Fav Memoire:

James: No Comment (humming the Chariots of Fire theme.)
Walter: The Coastal Walk.
Rachel: The one where Joey took us in the evening. Coastal walk in St. Andrews in the Evening."
Ty: Meeting Mr. Merkle at 12:00 without knowing that was the plan - by evolution."
Kathryn: "Probably finding GLORIOUS [with a tilt of the nose] Fraser plaid at the tartan mill right outside the castle."
Jenny: "Recognizing the Narnia lamp post before anyone told us it was the one."
Mere: "I don't have any memories. My brain is shot."
Laura: "My memory is stored under 9 different 4gb memory cards."

4.) Are my feet in your cheese picture?

Laura: "I hope not."

5.) Fav quote of the trip:

Kathryn: "Human dollars" [i.e. U.S. currency. snob.]
James: "Slainte. That's how you spell it!"
Jenny: "Americans are born on Pro-Plus [anti-depressent]." - Jonathon the ice cream man in Oxford.
Me: "I loooof you." - random Scotsman in Edinburgh.
Rachel: "What's on the American menu?" - Rachel.
Walter: "These ARE the public bathrooms." - Ty.
Mere + James: sausage!

6.) What's your favorite thing you've eaten so far?
-"A true Miltenberger question," - Walter.

Kathryn: "Shandy from Brewmasters!"
Laura: "DRINK."
Mere: "Digestives."
Laura: "Tea, tea, tea, tea, tea."
Mere: "Sausage."
Walter: "Fish n chips from the U.K.'s best."
Rachel: "those dry crusty cracker things we had last night at 1.30 in the morning."
Laura: "whatever that food was that we stuffed in our mouth at 2.00 last morning."
Kathryn: "the passion fruit gelato."
Jenny: "I'm waiting for my favorite food to appear."
Laura: "Whatever it was we ate in Great Hall of Hogwarts."
James: "Oh my gosh."
Molly: me too, prolly.
James: pizza.
Jenny: a sandwhich with fresh basil and cheese.
Mere: food food food food food.
[Rachel is practising eating tomatoes.]
Also, the 5 pound Mark & Spencer cooperative picnic feast near Trafalgar Square but greener in London.
All: blueberry cheese!!!!!!!! [screaming.]

7.) How many rabbits have you seen in Scotland?

Laura: "enough to make a giant's stew."
Me: "wallace & grommet's werebunny come true!"
Jenny: "enough to make the queen's cloak."

8.) What's your fav purchase?

Laura: original art in Venice.
Walter: the white hat and the blue sunglasses. Now, people will call me 'The Man in the White Hat and the Blue Sunglasses.'
Me: walter's hat. also, my fetching blue plaid beret."
jenny: original art in venice and...my designer gown from Scotland.
Me: Jenny's designer gown.
Jenny: my sister's birthday present. also...
Me: the Italian bag I haven't bought yet.
Jenny: the Italian bag I will buy tomorrow.
KJF: my dress.
Me: my ticket to Pocketbooks. Also, every taxi.
James: my sunglasses that age me five years.
Ty: gelato.
Jenny: my tickets to the Shakespeare play.

8.) WHAT is your favorite combination of gelato flavors?

Jenny: peach - all the way, right away, with a good attitude every day.
James: tuttifrutti - wait, no, tuttobosco, a frrruity flavor.
Rachel: chocolate.
Ty: lemon.
Laura: you think I can pronounce that?
Walter: strawberry and peach - MIXED. stirred, not shaken.

9.) How many scoops of gelato have you had today?

Walter: as a group?

...

...

51.

Jenny: "which is why we are still giggling at this hour."

10.) How many icecream men have told you that you sound like the queen?

All: sigh.
Laura: JUST one - - -.

11.) What is the best advice that you would give to someone going on this trip?

Jenny: cultivate a love for granola bars.
Rachel: bring 15 granola bars per person per day.
Walter: bring a roller suitcase.
Jenny: sleep.
Ty: yeah.
Laura: the way to cure jetlag is to sleep at least 6 hours immediately after you get off the plane.
Ty: walk it off.
Me: bring sunglasses that you LOVE.

12.) Do you know how to flush the toilet?

James: It depends in which country you're in.
Laura: flush? who flushes?
Mere: one of the funniest experiences was when a really well-dressed business man went into the women's and came busting out of the stalls.
... irrelevent.
James: I've done that before. It's really embarrassing.
Laura: buttons, light switches, what will they come up with next?
Ty: how many ways did you think there were to flush a toilet?

15.) Should you dip your feet in the Venetian Canal?

Jenny: only until a man tells you that rats and AIDS swim in it.
Me: I'm in trouble.
Laura: only in the moonlight. that way it's magical, and you can't tell what's in it.

16.) Which queue do you want to join?

Jenny: the one where you -might- escape a full-body pat-down.
Rachel: the one that has the most people.
KJF: priority.
Ty: I prefer to start my own queue.
James: if you see a queue, get in it.
Laura: I'm British now, I love queues.
Jenny: I must be British.

17.) What's your favorite foreign expression?

KJF: everything's going pear-shaped!
Jenny: POSH.
Laura: Cheers. It basically means whatever you want it to mean.
Walter: Prego. No one knows all the meanings of it.
Jenny: slainte!
Jenny: it's just spittin now.
KJF: I like ta!
TY: Cafe latte.
KJF: grazie!
Me: whatever I know how to say.
KJF: I like ciao!

18.) How many feet can you walk without taking a picture?

KJF: the world may never know.
Laura: it's never been documented.
Rachel: "where's meredith?"

19.) In what sitch can you not say prego/cheers/ciao/grazie?

Laura: when you want to offend someone.
Jenny: when a scary Italian dude is in your face.
Me: I haven't been in one yet.

20.) Where do you feel most comfortable using your Scottish accent?

Mere: in Italy.

21.) Who has the best Scottish accent?

Jenny: MOLLY.
Rachel: Gordon.

22.) Do you know what the exchange rate is?

Laura: uh-oh.
Walter: who's money are we talking about here?
Walter: "Sorry Dad - Molly."

23.) How many pictures do you have of you sleeping?

Rachel: ask James.

24.) How many times have you agitated the local officers?

Walter: gleefully raises a hand.

25.) How many modes of transportation can you take in one day?

Everything except apparition, obviously.

pictures!

This is for Hannah - just .0003% of the Venician glass beads on that particular square of shops!

Our very first Italian gelato experience! ...we are quite learned now. :)


on one of the many bridges. wish you were here. (then I wouldnt have such a hard time picking out a present for you!)


St. Markś Square. Meet back here at four o´clock.



Sunglasses...james´s are by far the coolest :) (those are Jennyś, not mine).
Today. Making sure itś as good as it was yesterday. (There are actually better/worse places to get it...fortunately the shop on the corner of the block weŕe staying has the best)
this is kinda what we look like today - wandering around looking at shops, eating...um..very very healthy food.
Getting lunch. Its often hard to decide what to get!

Since I'm on a roll, have access to a camera cord, and am waiting for the girls to return from their shopping, here are some more pics from Scotland. St. Andrews has been one of my favorite places so far!

Need i say anything? :)
Chariots of Fire beach.
with Joe and Anna and little Dan in St. Andrews. A definite huge highlight of this holiday!
sooooooo many shells! they broke as you walked along, because they were everywhere and you couldnt avoid them!

Swinging over the Scottish Seas. Very fun.
Ok...Iĺl try to limit myself to just one more pic...this is in Edinburgh..
This is what we did while everyone else was exploring great castles and cathedrals. And it was chilly in Edinburgh, so standing by the dryer was comforting!
Energy drinks. :)

The girls are home from shopping...Jenny and ty are off on their date, so we are going to have a powow and figure out what we want to do for our last evening in Venice!

:) r

Venice is basically our vacation from vacation. Yesterday we slept in, ate and kicked along the cobblestones near the canals. We all liked it so much we decided to do exactly the same thing today!

Being here is like strolling through a story book. Not only because of the vibrant colors and picturesque scenes - but because while breezing through exotic lands such as Venice you become overpowered by the realization of millions of stories all rushing past you. The tiny Italian boy skipping through a flock of pidgeons -the weathered-looking man who would be thrilled to sell at least a bit of his merchandise - the old, suited proffesor who happened to be walking past at two in the morning and tried to help us with directions two nights ago. I'm excited to be discovering more and more of Godś creativity as I peak into a few of the billions and billions of stories that God has poured into his ultimate story.

On a different note: We didn´t think finding a bathroom in Europe could get any more exciting, turns out, it can. I wish I would have saved my ADMISSON TICKET so I could prove it to everyone.

more...

It seems like each day of our trip is better than the day before, and sometimes I think ¨how much more rad can this get?¨ and it gets radder. Venice has been, as some people would say, ammaaaaayzing!
Hannah asked me to get some Venecian beads for her - and I thought that´d be easy enough. But there are MILLIONS of bead vendors and gazbillions of beads! I took some pics to show you, but I dont have a what--cha-ma-call it to transfer them here.

We´ve done so much stuff that I don't know what to highlight! I got dad a cool present... (But if i tell you, it wont be a surprise)...and am looking for neat things for the other family members.

We are off to see St. Marks now! :)

r

today in Venice

six flavors of gelato
broke the hotel key
smelled leather
successfully wiped the magnetic strip from my Visa card with hand sanitizer
can't wait to crack a local crustacean!

:) KjF

Wednesday, we think

Last night we ran like mad to catch an 11:50 train Edinburough. We made it! Mere & Rachel shared a sleeper car, as did Jenny and Ty, but the rest of us chose to sit. We arrived at 7:30, ate breakfast, left Jenny and Ty (they are staying in Edinburough tonight) ran to the next train to get to St. Andrews, rode it through the Scottish countryside, hopped on a taxi, and arrived at the Bernard's.

Joey Bernard took us on a tour to some castle ruins along the coast, and then to the beach. The very beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed! And we took LOTS of pictures. (Mostly of us running and leaping in the air!).

Then we walked around town, got lost, found the Bernards, and now we're back at their house, eating Digestives (crackers), crisps (chips), tea, brie, and oatcakes.

--James and Rachel for all of us

oxford

While you all were asleep, we were strolling around Oxford...which was smaller than London and we liked it a lot more. We spent most of the day looking at a lot of the different colleges (and took SOO many pictures - and this is only day 3!).

God did a rad miracle for us...Ty had emailed the Merkles, telling them we were going to Oxford, but he wasn't able to check his email again. Mr. Merkle had emailed back, saying he'd meet us at the Christ Church front gate at noon. Magically, in all of Oxford, we happened to be at the gate at noon, looking for the three-adventure-filled-Laura-James-and-Walter, who'd gone on ahead, and there was Mr. Merkle! (yes, Miltenbergers, we found the three- they were exactly where they were suppose to be!). Mr. Merkle got us into Christ Church [college] for free (it's usually 12 dollars!) (because he's a 'member of the house') and showed us all sorts of things. Then he snuck us, 3-4 people at a time, cameras hidden in our backpacks, into the Great Hall (a 'cafeteria') (where Harry Potter scenes were filmed) to eat lunch! Mr. Merkle took us to more places (C.S. Lewis lamp post, burn spot of Cranmer, Ridley, etc,) while Ty had a really good meeting with the Economics people. (so he and Jenny might get to live here some day!!)

Then we wandered around looking at more stuff, ate dinner at 'The Eagle and Child' where C.S. Lewis and Tolkein met a lot, climbed a huge hill, while meredith stayed on the ground and took pics of us jumping...and then we got in trouble for being on the hill!!...and we did other rad things I can't remember, and then piled back on the train and rode exhausted home to London.

We're still exhausted and loopy, but we're off now to see Westminster castle, etc, and then watch 'As you like it' at the Globe, then ride a sleeper train to Scotland!

:) R