An Amazing Two Weeks....

Although Skyler and I tend to have similar opinions on most topics, our interests are not always in line.
 - He loves sports, any sports, and he's good at every one of them. (Although he'd never tell you that.)
 - I, on the other hand, am seriously lacking in the coordination department. I bowl gutter balls, can't golf to save my life, score for the wrong team. You get the picture.
 - I love the theater and music. Going to a musical (especially on Broadway) is my idea of a good time.
 - Sky would rather be dealt a swift kick to the head - unless it's Les Mis. (Although he's always a good sport to join me when asked - still he'd rather stay home and watch the kids.) 


Thankfully we both have one main interest in common - we love to travel.  If we had unlimited funds and no responsibilities, you would find us traveling the world.  But since that's not the case, we jump at what chances do come along.

When Skyler's parents told us they were heading back to Russia, our wheels starred turning.
 - It was soon going to be our 15th anniversary.
- We could fly over and back for less than $100. Total. Seriously! (Love airline miles!)
- And my wonderful mother said she would adopt my 6 kids while we were gone!
How could we pass that up!?!


Because we were using miles points, we had to book about 10+ months in advance.  It seemed so far away at the time, but it flew by. Before we knew it we were packing our bags and waving goodbye!


On to the good stuff...sorry in advance, this is going to be a VERY long post.


LONDON
We started out the trip by flying into London for a couple of days. I had spent a summer term abroad in England while I was at BYU, so I was very excited to show Skyler why I loved it so much! At the time we booked there was no talk at all of a 'Royal Wedding' - yet we found ourselves smack in the middle of all the hoopla (We arrived on April 27th and left on the 29th - the day of the wedding)!  London was definitely more crowded than usual, but it didn't detract from our time there.  It actually made it more memorable. The excitement in the air was almost tangible - it was amazing to be there to see history in the making.


We started out the day by taking a bike tour of many of the major sites - Big Ben, Westminster, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and many others.  It was the perfect way to start out the trip.

(I got a kick out of the fact that they went to the trouble to bring in American soil to put under George Washington's statue because when he left he stated that he didn't want to set foot on British soil again!)


There is so much to see in London and we had so little time - but we packed in everything we could. (Below: London Tower bridge, Kennsington Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, The Wedding frenzy surrounding Westminster - people had been camping out there for days just for a glimpse of the royal couple. Also, I found it funny how many buildings with beautiful old architecture were butted up right next to very contemporary - and often very ugly - buildings!)

The next morning we had a typical English breakfast...

Yep - those are beans!  Also, we discovered a little too late that the hot chocolate was served unsweetened! We remedied that after a very bitter swallow of chocolate! Yuck!


The next day, we enjoyed a tour of the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels.  The tour guide, called a 'beefeater', was hilarious and kept us laughing the whole time.  The picture in the bottom right is where Anne Boleyn was killed. Amazing history within these walls.

We then met up with my cousin Alisa, her husband Corey, and their darling kids.  They live about an hour outside London and traveled in to have lunch with us!  It was so fun to see them and get caught up.  Their kids are adorable and made me homesick for my own kids back home. It was so great to see familiar faces in such a foreign setting!  Love you guys!

Sky then took off to go tour Wimbledon and I went off exploring.  I soon realized that I had Sky's ticket to his Wimbledon tour and spent the rest of the afternoon navigating my way out there. Without any phones or way to contact him it was a gamble that I'd even find him. But after multiple tube and bus rides, I caught him just before he was about to leave - whew. Good thing too, or he wouldn't have had these pictures to remember it by!
(Lemons to lemonade - right?)

Although I hadn't planned on going out to Wimbledon, it really was a neat place. Skyler loved it - the highlight of the London trip for him!


That night we went out to enjoy one more view of London. It is so pretty there at night all lit up! It was the night before the wedding and the crowds were unreal! All we could do was laugh as we made our way down the sidewalk outside Westminster packed in like sardines. It was something else! We found a little corner that gave us some breathing room and a good photo spot for Sky to snap a picture of me on this 'historic evening'. Then we went back in and toughed out the crowds! I've never seen anything like this in the States - especially not for a wedding!

 The next morning we got up and took a train to southern England.  Goodbye London.  We'll miss your funny signs, your great transportation system (the tube), your Wedding Mania.  We won't miss our tiny room (we were trying to stay on a very strict budget - and this was one of our largest rooms the whole trip. Ha!). We also won't miss almost getting plowed over on multiple occasions because we would forget to look the OPPOSITE direction to see if a car was coming - can't tell you how many times that happened! But thanks for putting reminders on the road - when we remembered to look!

We spent a few hours in southern England before we boarded a cruise ship for the next few days of our journey.  We found a cute little restaurant and watched the Royal Wedding on the television while eating Sticky Toffee Pudding - sooo Yum!  I couldn't get over the name of the restaurant though....The Slug and Lettuce - seriously!  The food was great, but with a name like that does anyone ever order a salad? So funny!

 AMSTERDAM...
We boarded the ship and it took us to Amsterdam for 24 hours (afternoon of the 30th to the afternoon of the 1st).  At the time we booked we had no idea the day we arrived there was a HUGE holiday - The Queens Day!  A friend of mine warned me before we left to be prepared for one giant, crazy party.  How right she was. I have never seen so many people in my life!

People were packed into every possible space. And everyone was wearing orange. The canals were swarming with boats filled with people dancing and partying.  With all the alcohol and other items being consumed (uh hem) I was shocked that people weren't falling off left and right!

It was quite the experience! We were walking around in a state of complete shock.

Such unforgettable sights - all we could do was laugh! It was very...um....entertaining.


We did manage to get some sightseeing in as well. I loved the canals and the architecture.

The next morning we made our way to Keukenhof Gardens.  We decided we couldn't leave Holland without seeing the tulips.  So glad we went - It was GORGEOUS! It was decidedly one of the prettiest places we have ever been.

Every kind of beautiful flower imaginable. And of course tulips, tulips and more tulips! The pictures can't even begin to do it justice.

Sky learned how to walk on water and became a blushing bride on the same day!

We loved our time there and would go back in a heartbeat! True paradise.

It was a day for the unforgettable as we then went to the Anne Frank House. What a sobering experience to walk through the home and through the hidden rooms where they hid for two years until they were discovered.  Reading her words and internalizing what life was like for them left us with such a sense of awe and respect.  How heartbreaking that only her Father survived in the end.  Her life was certainly not in vain, though, as she has become such a strong voice reminding us of the ordeal the Holocaust was for so many.

We then said goodbye to Amsterdam and boarded the ship again. Amsterdam had provided us with more extremes imaginable in less then 24 hour. Mass chaos, peaceful tranquility, and harsh reality.  Absolutely unforgettable.

The next day was a day at sea. We were very grateful for the down time since we had been going nonstop - out late, up early, and miles and miles of walking everyday.  Jet-lag hadn't slowed us down yet, but we needed a day to crash.  We spent some time exploring the ship and ate three full meals for the first time on our trip!
Our cute waiter and waitress were darling.  Her name is Aurora and he simply goes by Shrek (if he had green skin he'd be a great look alike)! Between their two names, I felt like I was on a kids cruise with Sleeping Beauty and Shrek!

The next day we docked in Copenhagen, Denmark and we said goodbye to our ship! The first thing I noticed was the HUGE amount of bikes - Everywhere!

We decided to take a canal tour that we could hop on and off of in order to explore different parts of the city.
I loved the architecture there! They use so many different colors and the canals added so much to the beauty.

We saw Hans Christian Andersen's home and the statue of the Little Mermaid. We wandered inside - and accidentally got locked into - gorgeous city buildings (but look who's elevator we found!) We loved the beautiful palaces and their stunning grounds.   

My favorite of all, though, was going into the church that houses the original Christos.  Beautiful.

It was a very full day and we were exhausted by the end - but so worth it!


Bright and early the next morning we hopped on a plane to Stockholm, Sweden.


We dropped our bags off in our, um.....room. We had a good laugh when we saw it. There is a reason this place is called 'Hotel Micro'! It was worth it though - great location, tons cheaper than anything near by, and spotlessly clean! Neither of us wanted to get on the top bunk so we snuggled up on the bottom one! Ha! (By the way, I was standing 'outside' the door when I took this picture - notice the door frame - that's how small it is!)

We then bundled up and headed out on the town! It was our one cold day, but it didn't slow us down. Stockholm was SO BEAUTIFUL! Definitely my favorite as far as beauty and architecture.  You'll have to take my word for it because my pictures don't do it justice at all!

We spent some time at the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa was a very elaborate ship built 400+ years ago.  Unfortunately (or rather fortunately for us) it capsized and sunk on it's first voyage - after only 20-30 minutes out! It remained at the bottom of the ocean for about 333 years and remained amazingly well preserved.  It was finally found and there were painstaking measures to bring it to the top and restore it.  It was really quite an amazing site and definitely one of a kind.
(The pictures in the middle, bottom left, and top right are of the actually ship, the other three that show the painted ship are of a replica they made to show what it would have originally looked like at the time it sailed.)

My absolute favorite part of Stockholm was the Old Town.  It was so charming and wonderful, I could have spent a week there and loved it!

We were sad to leave Stockholm, but very excited to get to Russia and see Skyler's parents!


On a side note - Skyler and I got a kick out the large warning signs they put on all of their cigarettes. Unfortunately they are completely ignored. It seemed like 2/3rds of the people didn't get the message yet! 

On to Russia....

It was so amazing to see Mom and Dad and understand a little better what their life is like there.  This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The chance of us ever getting back there is so small.  We loved getting to see what day to day living is like there.


We took a day and went to see all downtown sights: The Kremlin, Red Square, and of course my personal favorite - St. Basil's Cathedral (so amazing and gorgeous!) 

It was amazing to see the contrasts in Russia.  The whole Red Square area was very nice with some amazing architecture.  Other parts of Moscow seemed to be falling apart.  Most people live in huge high rise buildings (many of which are in great disrepair). During the warmer months many people escape the city to go to their Dacha's (little summer cottages).

They also took us to the 'Mafia Mall'.  Supposedly the Mafia men like to buy their daughters a 'store' of their own when they get old enough to take on a job. (It is also thought that the stores are basically 'covers' for some of their shady business dealings.) The place was beautiful.  Marble everywhere, gardens, pillars, designer stores.......and NO CUSTOMERS! It was nuts - we literally saw maybe 2 or 3 people who didn't work there. When we would walk into a store the people working there would look at us like we were aliens, as if they couldn't imagine what we could possibly be doing at a mall. The prices were unreal as well.  Hundreds of dollars for a T-shirt, thousands for a coat - no wonder it was deserted.

Later they took us to the Russian equivalent of Walmart. What a huge contrast!  The place was much bigger than a typical Walmart here.  People were packed in like sardines, and it was just a normal day!  There were 98 checkout stand...yes 98! And even more amazing was that EVERY SINGLE ONE had a line of at least 4 or 5 people. And that's totally normal!  I would not want to be there on a busy day. Crazy!

Our last full day there was a huge national holiday.  Comparable to a Veteran's day, but much bigger. Russians hold their Veteran's in very high regard.  They lost over 26,000,000 lives in WWII and those who are still around are highly honored. The little old men walk around all week in their uniforms being congratulated by those around them.  We took a picture with one man, he was so happy for the attention. It is also a great honor to be in military school there.  We saw many of the young boys in their uniforms out and about preparing for the festivities.

Our time was winding down, so we spent our last evening together doing what had become our favorite pastime over the past few days....eating and talking.  Mom and Dad have discovered a unique Russian ice cream treat that Dad refers to as 'Silver Bullets'.  After dinner each night we each got our Silver Bullet and sat around visiting. YUM! I wish I could find them here - sooo good! 

We were very sad to say our goodbyes. The time had flown by far too fast.  We loved seeing Mom and Dad and getting familiar with what their life was like in Russia, what an experience! We tearfully said our goodbyes, but knew we'd see them again in a couple of months in Provo. Thanks Mom and Dad. We love you!

Our trip had come to an end.  And though we were sad to leave, we were very anxious to see our kids again.  Although they had so much fun living with my Mom they'd just as soon have us stay away for a month! Ha! 
It was good to be home at last. 

The trip was everything we could have hoped for and it was so nice to get 're-acquainted' with my fantastic husband. It has been a wonderful 15 years and there are many more wonderful years to come. Love you Sky!