The Stoltzfus European Vacation

We have been quite busy since our last post. On our long flight to the US we had a 5-6 hour layover in Copenhagen, Denmark. We left the airport and did a walking tour of the city. Not only was it a good way to pass the time, we got to see a lot of the city as well.

 

 

We had a great visit in the US with our friends and family. We spent most of our time in the Lititz, PA area but did manage a trip to OH to check in with our friends there. While we were home we celebrated Ken's 41st birthday and Katie became a teenager!

 

The kids had a great time with their many cousins...

and we got to visit my grandparents (one set just celebrated their 67th anniversary!)














We returned to Lithuania in early July and picked up our dog, Dexter, from some friends who watched him for us. He had lost some weight and was not eating very much. We decided to take him to the vet to get a professional opinion on how he was doing. Sadly, it became clear that he needed to be put to sleep. It was so very hard to say goodbye to him, but we are thankful for the almost 15 years we had with him, thankful that he made it until we got back to see him again and thankful for our good friends Beata and Vidas and their kids who took such good care of him while we were in the US.

Within a few days we left Lithuania, this time for a family vacation. We left early on Sunday morning and had a day of driving ahead of us. We drove about 12 hours to Krakow, Poland. We checked into our hostel and made plans for our first day in Poland. Our original plan was to go on a rafting trip. Unfortunately the weather didn't agree with us. It poured, was chilly, and in the area of the rafting they were actually calling for snow. We shifted plans and toured Wawel Castle instead. http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/  We were in line for our tickets when I noticed that many of the attractions were FREE on Mondays. What luck - we were there on a Monday!

After Wawel Castle we drove to the outskirts of town to tour the Wieliczka Salt Mine http://www.wieliczka-saltmine.com/ Dylan later confessed that he thought this would be boring (Why are my parents dragging me to a salt mine???) but we all had a great time on this tour!

My favorite random picture of our vacation occurred in Krakow! We were walking through the Old Town area and we came across this sign:

Unfortunately we didn't have time for the Communism Tour...

On Tuesday we headed to Oswiecim, Poland to tour Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. We opted to buy a tour booklet and walk through on our own instead of the guided tour. We were concerned that the guided tour might be overwhelming/upsetting for the kids. It was a challenging day - we all have read books on the holocaust but walking through the grounds was sobering. This was not a "fun" vacation day but I'm glad for the chance to have been there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday we toured Prague. Katie has claimed Prague as her favorite city and it is easy to see why.

The buildings were amazing and the food fantastic.
Our favorite little snack was a delightful dish called Trdelnik. I'm not confessing how many we bought, but it was more than one!

A highlight of Prague for me was seeing the statue of Jan Hus that was in the center of the square. Jan Hus was a Czech priest who was martyred; he was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. This occurred before the Protestant Reformation. I grew up in the Moravian Church and we trace our lineage back to Hus!

 After leaving Prague we drove to nearby Turnov in the Czech Republic for a day of hiking. We had a spectacular day. Our hike took us through the woods where we were able to view many huge rock towers. Partway through our hike we came to an ancient castle, Valdstejn. We were able to tour the castle and that was fun for all of us (Prince Kenneth and Dylan really loved it).

Our next day took us to Herrnhut, Germany. http://wikitravel.org/en/Herrnhut 

Herrnhut is where the early Moravians settled on the estate of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

We had a great day exploring this little village. We were able to see Zinzendorf's grave in God's Acre,

the grave of Christian David (the Czech carpenter who requested that Zinzendorf grant asylum to the persecuted Bohemian Brethren),

the Moravian Church Hall,

and the Berthelsdorf church where the Moravians experienced a spiritual awakening that led to the first Protestant Missionary movement in 1732.

We went up into the watchtower (after requesting the key from the nice man in the visitor's center). We also bought some souvenirs at the Moravian Star shop. This was a very exciting day for me!

 Our last stop was Warsaw, Poland. We were all a bit worn out but did manage to walk around the town,

view the Barbican,

the monument to the Warsaw Uprising,

and eat some yummy pierogies.

We woke up on Sunday morning and drove back to Lithuania. A normal family would take a few days and rest, but not us. We packed up and moved to our new house! We rented a new apartment. It is closer to LCC and has a fabulous view out to the Dane River. We are all happy with our new home. We have found homes for all of our belongings and are feeling very settled in. No pictures at the moment, but I'll post some soon!

We are currently enjoying the last days of summer. We have been to the beach a few times and taken some walks. Ken is slowly starting to have some days at the office and I am organizing home school materials. We are looking forward to a new semester and all the business that entails! Thanks for keeping up with us during year 1, we are looking forward to sharing about year 2!