Day 28 Mother's Day

It’s hard to explain just how special it is to ride on the trains of Europe with a Euro rail pass in your hands. There is a joyous feeling when the ticket inspector comes to look at your ticket and he simply smiles waves and wishes you a good trip. Today was the first of our European train journeys and it was in First Class, as can only buy a First Class Eurorail pass when you are over 26 years of age. And even more exciting was being on a train travelling along at 250 kms per hour. Our journey from Brussels to Kiel via Koln and Hamburg was long, about 8 hours, but was also, if you look on a map, a very long way.

We arrived in Kiel, and with the help of a local taxi, finally found the ship the Logos Hope that Peter (our son) is staying on for a year. It was a Mother’s Day without presents for Wendy but the greatest present was to see her youngest child Peter. Family is one of God’s greatest gifts and a family reunion amidst an adventurous trip was very special indeed. Peter is well and enjoying his time on the ship. It has already been a delight to meet his many friends and to sense that he is enjoying and making a real contribution to the ministry of this wonderful OM ship.

Peter gave us an extended ship tour, which lasted over 2.5 hours. The ship, with its 9 decks is huge and wonderful. Though they are working still to get things ready it is also clear that much has been achieved. We sat in the newly completed dining room, which was large, spacious, almost flat and filled with light from its large windows that look out onto Kiel. Kiel has a surprisingly beautiful harbour and interestingly was the venue for the sailing at the 1936 Olympic Games. The size of this ship compared to the Doulos (the Hope’s sister ship) is quite extraordinary. The large auditorium, bookshop, café and interactive display areas are yet to be completed but are progressing. It is a very exciting place to be.

Mother’s Day with Pete, in Kiel Germany, on the MV Logos Hope! Wow!

Day 27 The Iron Harvest

With both of us having paternal grandfathers who served and survived the Western Front it was natural that our time in Belgium would involve a visit to Ypres. After a two-hour train journey from Brussels North we arrive at Iepes and nearly missed the station as the Flemish spelling confused us. Our visit to this town was nothing short of amazing. Within a 10 square mile radius of this famous town nearly 1,000,000 men in WW 1 perished. We visited the famous Menin gate where every night since the 1920s a service, which includes the playing of the Last Post, has been held in honour of the British and Commonwealth forces that died defending the town. The town is a delightful old town, but is actually a complete fake. The huge Gothic Cloth Hall, the largest secular Gothic building in Europe is in fact a recreation, as the tower and indeed the entire town, was obliterated during WW1, rebuilt, and then significantly damaged in 1940 by the Germans and again in 1945 by the liberating Polish.

In the afternoon we booked into a three-hour tour to visit WW1 sites. We visited the infamous Hill 60 and Caterpillar and sensed what it was like to leave a trench to hopelessly try and storm an enemy hillside position.
We were told of the incredible heroism of the Australian tunnellers (NB Richard’s grandfather was an Australian tunneller) who dug underneath enemy lines to lay explosives. We visited a crater caused by the largest of these explosions which our guide described as being an explosion of nuclear scale which caused an earthquake that was registered in the UK. This huge crater now contains a peaceful lake (which is 25 metres deep) is the most visible sign of this incredible devastation. We were hushed as we visited a Commonwealth gravesite and as our guide took us to a young man’s grave. We wept as we were told that after twenty months service on the Western Front and after being wounded a number of times he had cracked and tried to escape only to be tied to a post and shot by his commanding officer.

Later we met a tourist excitedly carrying a shell that he had just found. Our guide shocked this man, and us, when he told us that 7 people this year in Ypers alone had died as victims of unexploded WW1 ordinances. It seems that if you find a shell or grenade on your property you simple leave it outside your property… household garbage on the right, WW1 live ordinances on the left. Apparently the authorities will pick these things up within a few weeks and explode them at a special range. However if you find a left over gas shell they will add it to their 25-year backlog of gas shells that still need to be defused. They call this the ‘iron harvest’.

The futility and foolishness of war, and the longevity of the cost has never felt so real.

Day 26 Brusels by metro, tram and shank's pony

With a day to discover the delights of Brussels we decided to explore on our own rather than taking an organized tour. In the morning we walked down to the town and discovered the classic tourist places starting with the Grote Market described as the finest main square in Europe (a big call). The 14th century architecture was very impressive but the tourist groups with their flags and school excursions dominated the landscape. Around the corner another huge crowd had gathered to witness a small fountain in the form of a dressed up boy urinating. Apparently this famous statue has his clothes changed regularly and to be honest this is just the sort of tourist gimmick that we really do not enjoy. On foot we discovered the much more impressive Royal Palace and Park, and Central Station. After figuring out the Metro we arrived home for lunch and a delightful afternoon nap. However with the weather a balmy 26 degrees we again ventured out about 4pm on the tram to discover the real Brussels. Around the city the local tram took us through beautiful historic districts and a diversity of ethnic and cultural neighborhoods; Turkish, Moroccan, French speaking, Dutch speaking and who knows what else. By 7pm we found the incredibly impressive War Museum, a huge 19th century building probably financed by Belgium’s colonial plunder from Africa. It was astounding to see the locals in the scenic park in the front of the museum picnicking in beach gear at 7.30pm at night enjoying weather we would be proud of in Sydney. Just around the corner we discovered the European Parliament buildings, which reminded us of Brussels’ significance as the centre of the EU. In a nearby street we came across three local Irish pubs spilling onto the streets with probably 1000 or more, young professionals enjoying Friday night drinks. By 8.30pm we were starting to feel hungry and discovered a local restaurant serving authentic Belgium cuisine- in a rather unimpressive backstreet. With the help of the metro we headed home about 10.30pm only to get a deep desire for some Belgium chocolate. A walk to town uncovered hundreds if not thousands of tourists ( the same ones we saw earlier at the square ) dining in overcrowded overpriced restaurants still going strong now at 11pm. Finally we arrived back at our hostel with our chocolates at about 11.30pm. It had been an incredible day where, according to our pedometer we had broken our trip record… we had covered 26.5 kms on foot!

Day 24, 25 Planes, trains and automobiles

Three months without a car creates some very interesting and challenging modes of transport. Getting from New York to Brussels by public transport was not simple. We began our journey on Wednesday afternoon at about 4pm from our New York apartment on the Upper West Side. Firstly we walked up to 79th street and caught our favorite subway, the No. 1 line downtown to 34th Street and Penn Station. From there we caught the E line to Jamaica Circle, a slightly longer trip of about 50 minutes. From there we traveled for about 15 minutes on the sky train to the airport at JFK. After a number of rather ordinary American Airlines flights to and from South America it was a delight to board a British Airways jumbo at about 8.10pm to head for London. As we taxied out we experienced a huge traffic jam – as about 15 planes were lined up in front of us to wait in turn to take off. The flight to London took about 8 hours and with time differences we arrived in London at about 8am. Next was a tube ride into Kings Cross station, which took about an hour. After a couple of hours wait we boarded the Eurostar bound for Brussels. Two hours and twenty minutes later, and in another time zone, we arrived at Brussels South Station, on Thursday afternoon. Finally we got a taxi to our hostel – a very pleasant and trendy backpackers establishment quite close to the centre of Brussels. The good news about this trip was that the overnight flight meant we saved a night’s accommodation costs, which helped with our budget. The bad news of course is that we did not get much sleep.

Mark Twain believed the journey was as important as the destination and our little subway, subway, sky train, jumbo, tube, eurostar, and taxi adventure crossing three time zones, three currencies, a few languages, the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel was tiring but very memorable.

Day 21-23 You've got mail

Tonight is our last night in NY. We have had a great time and have and managed to cram in about a years worth of sight seeing into 6 days...my feet are killing me (Wendy). Here is a quick run down of the last few days:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The American Museum of Natural History
Central Park
Riverside Park
The Rockefeller Centre
The Empire State Building (with 5 million other people)
The Chrysler Building
City Hall
The NY Public Library (where we saw the original Winnie the Pooh toys)
The UN Building
The Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island
FAO Schwarz (an amazing toy shop)
The Apple Store
Fifth Avenue
Wall Street and all related buildings
Trinity Church
Ground Zero
We went to church at Redeemer Presbyterian Church New York
Times Square
Yankee Stadium (we saw the Yankees play the Mariners)
Brooklyn Bridge / Manhattan Bridge - we walked across one and back on the other
Chinatown
Grand Central Station (and even found the whispering room)
Broadway-which is the next street down from where we are staying.

We are sure there are more but just can't think of them. There are also lots of other places that we just happened to come across and had
a quick look at...like Tiffany and Co, Madison Square Garden and the Trump Building etc.
We have mastered the subway and learnt to measure distances in 'blocks' and to refer to the washing as 'laundry'. NYers have been extremely helpful and polite and despite the fact that they can never understand us when we speak, we have enjoyed our
interaction with them. The city is not terribly busy or noisy (especially after La Paz) and the traffic is nothing like Sydney...although we haven't been trying to get to work in 'rush hour'.
We have eaten hot dogs, pizza (it was terrible) hamburgers, NY cheesecake, French fries and onion rings. We are yet to try a bagel...maybe tomorrow... but mostly we have been buying food from
Zabars ( featured in the movie 'You've got Mail') a fantastic deli around the corner and we have cooked for ourselves.

Today we had coffee in the little cafe called Cafe Lalo where Meg Ryan was waiting to meet Tom (also from You’ve got Mail). It was just as cute and appealing as it looks in the movie. The movie was certainly shot on location around here and we are always coming across places that are familiar.

And to complete the picture tonight we are watching one of the 1000 cables channels and thrilled that Barack seems finally to have put the Democratic nomination beyond doubt.

We have always loved Americans and so we should not be surprised that so far we have loved our stay in America!

Day 17-20 The city that never sleeps

From South America, and Bolivia in particular, to New York was indeed a pleasant surprise. After 16 hours and three flights in transit we arrived wearily to New York near midnight. After an overnight in a hotel near the airport we arrived the next day at a small apartment we had rented on the upper west side of Manhattan. It has not let us down. We walked almost to town to get acquainted with our immediate environment, and then came back to pay the bill and settle in. But it was too exciting to sit in our rooms so we braved the subway and arrived downtown to check out Times Square. Wow! Wow and did we say Wow!.

Hunger finally got the better of us so we ate at a famous hamburger joint called Juniors. After a mix up with our order we fortunately received only one dinner, which was more than adequate for both of us. Dessert (New York Cheesecake) was put in a doggy bag and has been enjoyed over the last three days. And after all that we bought half price tickets to a play staring God himself ( Morgan Freeman). After the show we managed to find our way home at nearly midnight in a packed subway train. And all that was just day one!

Since then we have explored Central Park (wow!) and the Upper West Side, seen where John Lennon died, eaten from the famous Zabars deli and visited the Bronx to watch a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, where to be honest the locals seemed more preoccupied with food and drink than the game. We then explored Riverside park, (home of Wendy’s favourite scene in the movie ‘You’ve got Mail’), visited the Met (one of the most famous art galleries in the world), the Apple store, the famous toy shop FAO Schwarz, and had more wonderful home cooked food courtesy of Zabars. New York is wonderful, exciting, and friendly and did we mention – very very cold!

Day 15,16 A city on top of the world

La Paz , the City of Peace, is certainly an extraordinary city. It is quite true to say that firstly La Paz literally takes your breath away, for at an altitude of about 3800 metres above sea level this is the highest city in the world. Altitude is simply not much fun, we will be quite glad to get back to sea level. Interestingly in this city, the rich people live down the hill and enjoy a little more oxygen and the poor live on top of the hill and enjoy the view, but less oxygen. La Paz is a city of 1.3 million with a poor satellite city on top of the hill where another half a million (soon to be a million) people live. The city is build around a huge basin and is surrounded by an extraordinary range of snow-capped mountains (which are over 6000 metres) which serve as a magnificent backdrop.

Two things stood out. Firstly with no public transport, and as most people don’t own cars, people travel in mini buses. These mini buses, each individually owned and financed by micro finance are the method of transport for hundreds of thousands of commuters each day. Each van has a driver, and another young man, who hangs out the window or door to hawk for business. From our three star hotel, in the centre of town, the noise of these young men hawking for passengers sounded like a great cacophony of chanting or speaking in tongues. Traffic, like elsewhere in South America, was chaotic but the chanting seemed to rise about all else. Red lights, road lanes and road rules seemed to be only advisory, rarely adhered to.
Secondly, to help the situation the government has added a feature to help pedestrians cross the roads – zebras at the crossings. Our experience was that these ‘zebras’, probably made crossing the already busy road even more dangerous. But they were fun to watch.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. A place of contrast, extremes and some very real challenges. With its first ever, indigenous president newly elected, and close allies in Venezuela and Cuba, we can only hope and pray that Bolivia may look forward to better days.