jonathanharden

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

home, finally!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Amsterdam

Well...we arrived here on the night of the 22nd. Our train ride was supposed to be filled with 3 changes to different trains and 4 total rides each of 2 hours in length. When we arrived in Cologne, Germany over the loudspeaker of our train was the voice of the conductor. He kept saying in German "bla,bla,bla Duisberg...blah blah blah Amsterdam". He said this numerous times and I knew we were supposed to connect in Duisberg, so this worried me. I asked this younger looking girl who was exiting if she spoke english. She did and told us that our train had been re-routed and we needed to exit in Cologne and catch a different train. She was a great help, as she told us the track number and everything! We made our train and arrived in Amsterdam 1 hour later than we were scheduled to. This worked out just fine.

Yesterday, we went to the Vincent Van Gogh museum, which had ALOT of amazing works that I had never seen before. He really was an amazing artist who lived a short and tragic life. After that we got some lunch and then headed over to The Secret Annex, aka The Anne Frank House. This house was of amazing design, and has been modernized into a museum. The secret annex is bigger than you may picture it, if you have read The Diary of Anne Frank but it is actually small if you think that around 10 people lived there for 2 years, having never left!!! Anyhow, it was great, and the city is neat. There are canals running everywhere.

We all missed Thanksgiving very much, and I hope everyone had a great day. I miss you all, and I may be coming home a little earlier than expected. We will just have to see.

-Jonathan

Monday, November 20, 2006

Interlaken

Well, we arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland last night. Our hostel is great, and HUGE. The city's name translates to '' between the lakes'' as it is between to lakes and under the giant shadow of Europe's highest peak, Jungfrau. The city is the home of Europe's extreme sports including paragliding, which we all did today. It was amazing, but I can't post the photos as the computer here does not seem to have USB access.

We leave on Wednesday, and soon after that I'll be home! I miss you all, and hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving! I will miss it alot, so I hope you all enjoy it.

Love you all, and miss you,

J

Friday, November 17, 2006

Sorry again

Well...

It was always hard to find time to post. Now that Heather is here, it is even harder! Spending time with her is obviously amazing, and so it makes it hard to step away and write on this blog. Sorry to all those who have missed my correspondence. I hope I can tell you al little of what all we've done.

So...we took a tour the day following my last post. We visited the Vatican grounds, but decided to return the following day in order to devote a full day to the museum and Basilica. So we rode a bus on a tour of the city. We learned alot of history and saw many beautiful things. We visited Trevi Fountain, and saw all the other main sites. For our last full day in Rome we went to the Vatican museum and to St. Peter's Basilica. It was all amazing! We saw the Sistine Chapel, and a ton of other art. The interior of St. Peter's is incredible, and Michaelangelo's La Pieta is amazing in person. The church's beauty and decor are indescribable. That took the better part of the day to do all those, and then on the way home we visited the Spanish Steps. This is actually where Tom Cruise is staying right now before his dumb wedding, if anyone cared.

Then...we checked out of Rome and flew to Palermo in Sicily. We then took a train to Cefalu. This is the city where Heather's family lived prior to immigrating to the United States. It is a BEAUTIFUL town on the north coast of Sicily in the Meditteranean. We were supposed to spend 1 night here, but when we arrived we decided to stay 2 nights. Later that day, I received a phone call from the airline saying that our flight back to Rome on Friday was cancelled. We then decided to stay 3 nights in Cefalu because it is beautiful and it was very affordable!

Our time in Cefalu has been great and relaxing. It has been about 70 degrees each day and sunny. The town is small, but great to explore and has an "old Italy" feel to it. I would recommend it to anyone!

Tomorrow we leave, train back to Palermo, fly back to Rome, and then train to Florence. After Florence for 1 night, we train to Interlaken, Switzerland. We will be staying there for 3 nights and then will travel from there.

I hope to update as regularly as I can!

Hope the update was good!

Here are some photos. One is of Heather and I outside of the Colloseum. Another is from the inside. Another is Heather at Trevi Fountain. On of Heather and I outside

the Vatican Museum. One of the light coming into St. Peter's. 2 of La Pieta. 1 of our view looking into Cefalu. the tan building with towers on each end is Cefalu's cathedral. Cefalu at night, from our balcony. Lastly, Cefalu from above, on top of "La Rocca".

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Roma!

Hmm...where to begin. Ryan and I had a night-train that was terrible. We were in our couchette sleeping car with 4 other people, the lady below me snored like a freight-train and also decided that 2am was an appropriate time to blow her nose for about 30 minutes!!! This was the loudest nose-blowing you have ever heard in your life. Now...on to the good part!!!!

I greeted Heather and Lindsey at the airport. Actually, they greeted me, as they snuck up behind me!!! It was more than great to finally see Heather after all this time. Words really won't do it justice. Not surprisingly, I haven't found the time to write until now. Today we went and toured the Colloseum and the Palatine hill. The Palatine hill was where Rome was founded. All of this was very old and very interesting. We had a great day, although it started out raining. It was just partly cloudy for the rest of the day, but I was with Heather so a little rain would never matter. Hope to post some pictures soon, but we are planning on going to the Vatican tomorrow. Should have plenty to post after that!

Take care!

Oh yeah, Heather wanted to write on here.

Bongiorno! It's Heather reporting live from Roma, Italia. The flight from Memphis to Amsterdam was TERRIBLE! Of course, I actually ended up having THE ONLY seat on the plane that didn't recline. Everyone else on my row could recline. No not me, mine was broken so I flew 8 hrs 40 mins at a ninety degree angle. Maybe slept an hour. Besides that the flight attendants were super mean. The layover in Amsterdam was not bad. The airport was super nice with lots of shops. The connecting flight to Rome was only 2 hours which I slept mostly minus having my first glass of Italian wine. We didn't even have to go thru customs after landing so my seeing Jonathan was not dragged out!! We waited maybe 15 mins for our luggage and walked thru one door and there was my Jonny with his back to us looking at the arrival monitor. He was, of course, mad because he had a sign with our names and some gerber daisies! He is the best! We took the train back to the central train station and walked to our hostel, which is really more like a hotel. It is nice and private. Ryan popped a bottle of champagne for us to celebrate our arrival. Then we walked around and went to dinner. >However, Italians don't eat dinner until around 9 but the restaurant did open at 7. We were the only ones there until about 8. Dinner was so good. Lots of pasta, spinach, and lots of vino! We went back to the room and played Catchphrase and opened another bottle of wine. It was truly a fun night....very relaxing for our first night. Today was the Colloseum, Palentine Hills, and the Roman Forum ruins. It was very cool seeing all the history. We all had gelato after our siteseeing. I hope all is well in the States. I miss everyone! I wish you all could be here with us...especially you ,Mom. You would love the food and wine!

Ciao for now!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

nice est nice!

that translates to nice is nice. (the first nice is pronounced neese) it is the unofficial capital of the french riviera and it is beautiful here. we came here hoping to relax and see the meditteranean and we have done just that. we sat by the water for about 2 hours today just relaxing. we ate a fench breakfast, then went to the beach. we then went back to our nice hotel room, then headed to the supermarket to get groceries!!! we will be cooking in our room to sav money. anyhow here are my pics of nice!

pics - one is of the beqch obviously. 2 are of me and this photo upload is really for all those that like looking at my face, i.e. heather!!!!!! the last one is for heather too, since i know she loved the beau rivage casino in biloxi!! just reminded me of her.

munich!

well i do not have long and this keyboard is really re-arranged. this keyboard makes my life difficult. the a key is where our q key is and punctuation is all different as well, among other things. munich was great, although we only had & night there due to ryan's credit card woes. we went on a city tour and to dachau, the longest concentration camp during hitler's reign. it was a very strange feeling, standing in the steps where thousands stood at attention for hours on end just for others amusement. the pictures will not do it justice, as the standing ground was massive. definitely an amazing place to visit. we took a night train to nice, france which is where we are now. it is about 70 degrees and sunny. it is a very beautiful and relxing place and we are staying in a hotel that is chep and very convenient. we leave tomorrow night so i can meet heather at the airport!!!!!!! i am so excited! i cannot wait to see her face!

love you guys!

the pics: the first is of the field where prisoners stood at dachau. one is of the gate of dachau. it translates to " work will set you free". one is of the "world famous" hofbrauhaus. one of munich's famous beer gardens. we had a beer there and it was good. last pic is of the glockenschpiel, the famous clock in munich's center.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Vienna Today

Well, we got up and met John in the city center, Stephensplatz. He showed us all around the historic sites of the city, as he used to be a tour-guide. We saw several very impressive cathedrals, and HUGE palaces. The architecture in Vienna is very impressive and there are massive buildings with great historical importance. Although it drizzled most of the day, we had a great time seeing alot of Vienna's history. The cathedrals were awesome, and in one there were 2 skeletons that are supposed to be the martyred bodies of 2 early Christians. They were dressed in old looking clothes, but also had armor, or some other formal garments on. Overall it has been a nice time and very easy-going. Everyone has said this is the start of winter, and that winter in Vienna is terrible. It has been windy and rainy, and I would have to agree. But that hasn't meant we have had a bad time. Actually, I think we have had a nice time. Last night we watched Mississippi State beat Alabama, and then watched Tennessee lose to LSU. John has a TV internet feed that is set in his brother's apartment in Mobile. It allows him to watch anything that comes on Mobile's cable television! Now we are watching NFL football. Kind of a nice change!

Take care

Photos - 1st one is a palace. 2nd pic, the one with the crane over the building is a part of the Hapsburg palace where Hitler spoke over an enormous crowd during the 2nd World War. 3rd is the inside of a cathedral that was very ornate with alot of gold. 4th is one of the skeletons, and last is the inside of the 1st cathedral during mass.

jonathanharden

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

home, finally!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Amsterdam

Monday, November 20, 2006

Interlaken

Friday, November 17, 2006

Sorry again

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Roma!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

nice est nice!

munich!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Vienna Today

jonathanharden

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