London, United Kingdom
February 10-11


Heather and I spent the weekend in London (we left the girls in Budapest with a babysitter from our branch). We took the Wizzair flight to London Luton, caught a train to Kings Cross station in central London, and from there we took the underground to Westminster, where we met up with some friends of ours from Budapest, Dan and Rebekah Thorstenson.
It started out a little drizzly, but soon it was just a little cloudy and 50 degrees, so very comfortable, particularly for February. After visiting Westminster Abbey (real name The Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster), where Sir Isaac Newton and Laurence Olivier are buried (to name a few), we walked through the park to Buckingham Palace (I guess they only have tours of the palace in August and September when the Queen is on holiday).
From there we walked to our Hotel at Picaddilly Circus, dropped off our bag, and then found tickets to Lion King at the Lyceum Theater. We walked through London's Westend Theater district past the Palace Theater where I saw Les Miserables almost 20 years ago (this makes me feel really old) and then arrived just in time for the Lion King matinee. It was pretty good, although I think my expectations were a little higher so I was slightly disappointed. But certainly I would go back with Katie, who would have really enjoyed it.
After the show we walked to the British Museum. Once we got in we found out that it would be closing in just a few minutes, so we saw what we could and then decided we would return in the morning. Dan guided us to the nearest underground station and an hour later we were still walking around London (it was a very comfortable walk, though, I must admit).
We stumbled upon St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren (who is buried there) in 1675 and where Charles and Diana were married. I found out that the idiom "Rob Peter to pay Paul" comes from the 16th century when funds from the treasury of Westminster Abbey (St. Peter's Church) were diverted to the treasury of St. Paul's.
We finally found a tube station to get us to Tower Hill where the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are situated. It really is amazing to view this area at night, immaculately lit up. We took an enjoyable walk across the bridge and witnessed a spectatular view of the Thames and the Tower complex in the background. We found a place to eat fish and chips on the river and after dinner called it a night.
The next morning we walked directly back to the British Museum and spent a couple of hours visiting the exhibits, particularly the ancient Greek and Asian rooms. After visiting the museum and viewing the "Elgin Marbles", we are really looking forward to our trip to Athens in March. The Elgin Marbles are a collection of marble sculptures taken from the Parthenon (and other buildings on the Acropolis) in Athens in the early 19th century, taken by Lord Elgin with permission from the Ottoman leaders that ruled Athens at the time. Then and now there is controversy surrounding whether or not they should have been taken. Considering the damage done by pollution and war in Greece, some argue that removing the items actually preserved them.
Also at the museum is the Rosetta Stone (found in Rosetta, a Mediterranean harbor of Egypt), which has inscribed on it the same passage in two Egyptian languages (hieroglyphic and demotic) and also in classical greek. Created 200 BC and found and translated by the French in the early 19th century, it has allowed for the understanding of previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writings.
From the museum we made our way back to the Tower Hill to view the area in the daylight and to tour the Tower of London. This is a wonderfully interesting complex of towers built near the bank of the Thames, with the main White Tower built by William the Conquerer in 1078. The other towers in the complex were built over the next few hundred years. Although it was originally the royal residence, it also housed some famous prisoners, including Sir Walter Raleigh, who actually was imprisoned in the Tower for 13 years, in relative comfort with his wife and family (He wrote The History of the World Part 1 while imprisoned in the tower).
But most interesting for me is the whodunit story of the mysterious disappearance of the two young Princes in 1483, supposed heirs of the crown after the death of their father, Edward IV. Richard III, the princes' Uncle, locked the two princes in the complex, soon after which they were never seen again. The boys were never seen again and the Richard III named himself King, the rightful ruler of Britain. Soon after rumours began that the Uncle had the boys murdered to take over the throne. He also claimed that the boys were illegitamate, and therefore, disqualified from taking over as rulers. The tower on the palace grounds where the boys were locked up and from which they subsequently disappeared became known as the Bloody Tower. Another theory is that the boys were killed by The Duke of Buckingham, Richard III's right hand man, to gain favor from Richard III. And finally, perhaps the boys were murdered by Henry Tudor (King Henry VII) to reenforce his hold on the throne (he was married to the Princes' sister, therefore, to maintain the crown, the brothers would need to be dead). To this day nobody is 100% certain what happened to the princes (foul play or not), but in 1674, while renovating an area of the White Tower, bones of two young males were found under the staircase leading to the chapel, supposedly the Princes'. The remains were removed and buried at Westminster Abbey. Although today's DNA testing could validate/disprove some of the theories, the bones remain where they were buried 300 years ago, since Queen Elizabeth II has forbidden any further disturbance of the grave.
Also on the Tower complex are the Crown Jewels, a fascinating display of the different exotic crowns of the different British Monarchs (including a 530 Carat diamond!).
After visiting the Tower of London we hopped on to a double decker bus and rode past St. Paul's again and got off at Trafalgar Square where we spent a little time in the National Gallery. Monet and other impressionist artists are currently on display there. We also saw Van Gogh's "Vase with 15 Sunflowers" there, although not overly impressive in my opinion (But I am in the minority, considering that another painting similar and also called "Vase with 15 Sunflowers" by Van Gogh was sold to a Japanese company for $40 million in 1987, now housed in a museum in Tokyo).
After this we jumped back on the Underground, back to Kings Cross Station and onto the train back to Luton Airport. We made it back to Budapest around midnight. I have to admit we really loved London (even better than I remembered it from the last time I was there, 10 years ago) and would love to go back there (although I was surprised how expensive it really is there - 1 GBP= $2, but everything that should be $1 is 1 GBP instead, effectively doubling the cost of everything). But we'll be back, I am sure.

Belgrade, Serbia; Brcko, Bosnia & Herzegovina; Osijek, Croatia
February 3-4, 2007

We decided to take a quick drive down south to visit Belgrade, Serbia (former capital of Yugoslavia and current capital of Serbia). We left early Saturday morning driving southeast from Budapest, crossed the border into Serbia 1 1/2 hours later, and then arriving in Belgrade another 1 1/2 hours. We were a little apprehensive at first of making the trip, but nothing was complicated getting there. There is highway all the way to the border in Hungary, so that was easy, the border crossing was a non-event, and Belgrade turns out to be a very beautiful city. Belgrade was ruled by the Ottomon Empire for hundreds of years, and like every other city ruled by the Turks, it seems, they destroyed most everything they touched (no offense intended, just fact). It was recaptured 3 times by the Austrians in the 17th and 18th centuries, each time captured by the Turks, and each time razed by them! We drove around for a little while until finding the old town where the walking district is located. Adjacent to this is Kalemegdan, a large park and complex which includes the Belgrade Fortress, which overlooks the Sava river (that flows into the Danube) and was an element of defense from the Turks and other invaders (didn't work very well, in my opinion, considering how many times this region changed hands!). The fortress that we saw has remnants of hundreds of years worth of destruction and rebuilding, each conquerer building or rebuilding after their own manner and the current military direction of the time. The fortress, however, was no match for the 1999 bombings of the city during the Kosovo war, although after 7 years, we couldn't identify anything that had not been rebuilt. It certainly is interesting to see a medievel fortress juxtaposed with relatively modern military tanks and vehicles. On the fortress grounds, we also came across this large monument recognizing france for something (can't be for any assistance for defence, so I still need to identify what the monument is for). We also saw the main government building which, guarding the front of it, had interesting statues of soldiers carrying their horses. I have to research the significance of that as well.
From Belgrade we drove west and crossed into Croatia before driving south into Bosnia & Herzegovina, where we visited this little town across the border called Brcko. To cross the Croatian/Bosnian border we had to drive across the Sava river (same river that the Fortress in Belgrade overlooks), which was a little bit spooky. Crossing it made me imagine how I would feel crossing the "bridge of no return" that runs between North and South Korea in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ (except it is a 2 lane road, not made of wood, crosses a big river, and despite relatively recent events, Bosnia is NOT North Korea...so I guess it is not really like the bridge of no return). We got through the Bosnian border pretty quickly (we were not sure what to expect) and drove around Brcko for a few minutes. Although we were only in the city for 15 minutes, we did manage to get lost for 5 of those minutes, driving on some side streets and being literally chased by a pack of dogs (ok, 3 of them, but they wouldn't let us move more than a few KM/hour and we wanted to get out of there as fast as we could). We drove back to the border station, smiled at the same border guards that welcomed us a few minutes prior as they re-checked all of our information before allowing us to cross back in Croatia. At some point we would like to go down to Sarajevo, but that will have to be another trip. The roads are not good to get there and some people argue it is not the safest trip to make. But I argue as long as we stay out of Kosovo it can't be that dangerous these days.
We ended the day driving an hour North of the Bosnian/Croatian border and spending the night in Osijek, Croatia.
Osijek, Croatia is a relatively small town in Southern Croatia, about an hour south of the Hungarian border. As every other place we visit in Eastern Europe, it was once ruled by the Ottoman empire, the Hungarians, and the Habsburg empire. For me the more interesting part of the history of this town is more recent, relating to the independecne of Croatia from the former Yugoslavia. Once Croatia declared independence in 1991, the Yugoslav army, supported by Serbian paramilitaries, began an invasion of the town, subjecting them to a nine month siege. As a front line city, it was exposed to periodic shelling throughout the war. Finally, four years later, in 1995, Croats claim victory and bring an end to the Croat-Serb conflict. It has been slowly rebuilt over the last 10 years and it is hard not to notice the "newness" of this city. The good news is that the old part of the city (Tvrdja) seemed to remain unscathed (at least from the mdoern war)and was a wonderful example of the military complexes of the 18th century. Its main central square (Holy Trinity square) contains the military command building, th3e magistrate building (a museum now) and a monument to the plague, built in 1729. The interesting part of this is that the Bubonic plague killed an estimated 50% of the population of the city in 1738, so the monument didn't do much for them (personally, I have to believe that the dates that explain this are wrong, as it seems way too ironic).
We stayed across the street from the Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul, a red brick neo-gothic cathedral. It was built in the late 19th century and finally completed in 1942, so relatively recent.
We walked from our hotel, past the church, down to the old city, strolling along Europska Avenue. It is along this avenue that incredibly rich lawyers and industrialists commissioned an ensemble of Art Nouvou houses just before World War II. Overall this city provided a different point of view from the many cities we have seen in Europe, since many of the sights relate to just the last century.
A pretty quick visit of 4 countries overall, but a different experience that what we have encountered before.

Frankfurt, Germany
January 16-18, 2007

Heather, Katie, and Ashley flew to Frankfurt to visit Chrissi Richards and her family while I was in Malta. They didn't miss me at all since they had a wonderful time with Rosie, Vanessa, Caroline, and Thomas!

Malta
January 14-17 , 2007

I went to Malta for a few days for work. It is a beautiful city, although I only got to see it for a couple of hours one afternoon, as the rest of the time I was at the hotel in meetings. Malta is an island (7 of them) archipelago nation (EU member) in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea just south of Sicily, East of Tunisia, and North of Libya. It had numerous rulers, from the Romans to Byzantine to Arabs (Arabic is most prominent in the modern Maltese language). In 1814 (as part of the treaty of Paris) it officially became part of the British Empire until its independence in 1964. It became a member of the EU in 2004.

Margaret Kryzynski Visit
Jan. 9-12, 2007

Margaret, who was in our ward back in Toronto and babysitter to Katie and Ashley, visited us for a few days. She was in Poland with her family (her parents are from Poland) visiting her Grandmother so she flew into Budapest for a couple of days to see us. Katie and Ashley were very excited to see her again! It also reminded us how much we miss our friends from Toronto. Hopefully others will come to visit! (I also threw in a picture of Ashley who climbed up onto the counter and got into the Nesquick)

New Year's Eve 2006

This was the extent of our New Year's Eve celebration...Just us, Grandpa Larsen, and a couple of noisemakers. Oh, and by the way, these pictures were taken counting down to 6:45 so we could put the kids to bed! It's midnight somewhere in the world...at least 15 minutes to midnight somewhere in the world.

Prague & Vienna ... December 26-27, 2006

The day after Christmas we drove to Prague to see the city in the Winter and so Heather's dad could see it. The weather was great, so it wasn't nearly as cold as it probably should have been. I would have liked to have seen the Charles Bridge covered in snow, but I guess it is better to trade that for an easy drive and relatively mild climate while strolling through the Old Town.
As soon as we arrived in the city we found a hotel located a block from the Old Town Hall Clock Tower, where a door opens on the clock every hour on the hour for the procession of Jesus followed by the twelve apostles. We walked from there through the old town to the Charles bridge, that crosses the Vltava river, disecting Prague. One of the 30 statues lining the bridge is of St. John of Nepomuk, a Czech saint that was executed during the reign of Wenceslas IV by being thrown off the bridge into the river. The tradition is to rub the statue for good luck and to ensure your return to Prague. What was interesting, though, as Heather and Katie waited in line to comply with the tradition, I noticed that instead of rubbing the saint's head, many of the people passing by were touching the saint's dog (you can see it in the picture at the far left). Not sure what supposed benefit comes from that, although I am sure that the folklore has evolved over time.
We made our way from the bridge to Prague Castle, the largest medievel castle complex in Europe. This is the exact opposite path of the one that we took last Summer, where we started at the castle and ended at the Clock Tower. So it was more uphill this time (although not as many stairs like in the summer), making it a slightly slower trek. We passed through the gates of the castle and eventually found our way to the main square within the castle walls where the gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral resides. Last summer the lines to get in were way too long to justify entering, but this time we were able to go right in. Although spectacular and eery as most of these gothic European cathedrals are, it is the same eery/spectacular you feel visiting St. Stephens in Vienna or the Cologne Cathedral (although to digress, that one is the most spectacular of all!), so I am glad we didn't spend the time last Summer waiting in line for entrance.
At this point it was beginning to get dark, so we retraced our steps back to the Old Town Square where the Christkindlmarkt of Prague was still open. For me, this was the best market we visited in regards to the ambiance. Between the church in the background, lit up from the light of a large, beautifully decorated Christmas tree, and the theater set up in the middle of the market, the atmosphere was thrilling. We walked around for a while before picking up some pizzas that we took back to our hotel for dinner.
The next day we drove back home, stopping off in Vienna to visit the Christkindlmarkt at Schoenbrun Castle. We didn't realize that they actually close down before Christmas to begin preparation for the big New Year's Eve party. We didn't know this until we had driven to the castle, parked the car, and walked to the grounds, only to find the castle courtyard filled with a number of deserted booths. But I guess we can go back next year!

Christmas 2006

It hasn't seemed so much like Christmas since the weather in Budapest has been so mild (particularly compared to our last two Toronto Christmases) but our home filled with decorations all month, the lights up around the city, and the Christmas Elf coming to our house everyday to remind the girls to be good helps us remember what a wonderful time of year this is. We also enjoy the many nativity scenes (around the house and around the Christkindlmarkts) reminding us of the real reason we celebrate. In Hungary they don't put up the Christmas tree until a day or two before Christmas but we boycotted this Hungarian tradition and Heather had the house decorated by beginning of December. Our house is perfect for Christmas decorations because the living room and family room are painted a deep red and the dining room a deep green. Perfect for Christmas, not so perfect the rest of the year, so we'll take advantage of this during the 4-6 weeks out of the year that we can.
After church yesterday (a one hour Christmas program) we delivered a few gifts to some friends before returning home to finish cooking Christmas Eve dinner. We traditionally have Beef Wellington, which was a little simpler this year because we decided to purchase the puff pastry vs. making it from scratch (last year Heather spent a week rolling that out over and over again...not worth the effort). Heather's dad arrived from New York around 5:30, (sooo great to have him)surprisingly without any delays or lost luggage (surprising because he flew through London). After a nice dinner we continued our tradition of reading Luke 2, which Katie sat through very well...Ashley not so much. Katie then began a rendition of the Christmas story utilizing her Fisher Price Little People Nativity Scene until Ashley swept in, stole the angel, and ended what started out to be a promising narration. We also continued the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, which, still unnoticed by Katie and Ashley, always seems to be pajamas. This year Julia and William sent them matching Christmas pajamas. At that point we were all tired, but since Heather's dad had brought most of our gifts that we ordered back in the U.S., we had most of the wrapping still to do, so we put the girls to bed and worked until past midnight.
Fortunately for us the girls still are not 100% comprehending the entire Christmas thing and don't wake up any earlier just because it is Christmas. Unfortunately for us, this is still around 6:30 every morning, so not much benefit derived here (although I guess it could be even earlier on Christmas morning once they figure it out!). We walked them down to the family room where Katie got tremendously excited and, as usual, Ashley just mimicked her, not quite understanding what all the excitement was about but dancing around like Katie evenstill. But once she sat down and saw all of the presents from Santa, Mom and Dad, their grandparents and Aunts/Uncles, both of them understood what was going on...presents! Katie and Ashley got way too much stuff (and for the fourth consecutive Christmas we pulled back a number of presents for the next event, since we had obviously overestimated their stash). Katie got a new bike from Santa and Ashley got the Dora the Exporer Casa and a number of Dora paraphenalia and furniture. We then proceeded to a breakfast of Eggs Benedict and caramel pecan rolls. We go to Prague tomorrow, so the rest of the day is for relaxing and doing nothing.

Vienna Christkindlmarkt ... December 15, 2006

We took a quick Friday day trip to Vienna with Heather's Aunt Jaki to see the city and, particularly, the Christkindlmarkt that is open in front of the Rathaus (Town Hall). Katie was in school, so we just had Ashley with us, which we thought would make it easier on us. We checked the weather on the internet and saw that it was supposed to be 43 degrees and sunny, so we anticipated it to be a pretty convenient day to make the trip. Unfortunately, the closer we got to Vienna the more we realized that the overcast clouds were not going away and the temperature was not improving to anything warmer than 30 degrees. It started out OK, but not much time passed before we realized it was cold! Fortunately Heather was smart enough to have packed enough warm clothes for all of us that it wasn't miserable until Ashley finally broke down and decided SHE was cold. We did our best to make her comfortable. I put my gloves on her feet and my coat around her. It was deja vu to Nuremberg, except this time it was Ashley instead of Katie. She still complained, so I took her into the Burgtheater, which is across the street from the Rathaus, and we waited for Heather and Aunt Jaki to finish their shopping. We were fortunate that Heather ran into some friends from Budapest because Heather didn't know I was taking Ashley into the theater to keep warm and I had both cell phones. So they might still be strolling around Vienna searching for us had they not ran into a friend from which to borrow a phone. Overall, the Vienna Christkindlmarkt is not nearly as interesting as the German ones that we have visited. The wares are not as exquisite or as localized as the ones in Germany, and the prices are significantly higher. From afar it looks the same (the booths, the decorations and the location in front of the Town Hall), but as you examine it more closely it become obvious that the German counterparts are a step (or two) above the Austrian (and I'm not just saying that because I am still bitter about the Austrian speeding ticket I got a few weeks ago).

Katie's School Christmas Program ... December 13, 2006

Princesses on Ice: Budapest ... December 7, 2006

Heather and Katie went to Disney's Princesses on Ice at the Sportsarena in Budapest. She eventually saw all of the princesses, although she burst into tears when the lights came up and the zamboni appeared, since she thought it was over and Cinderella had not arrived yet! "Where's Cinderella? I didn't see Cinderella!" Fortunately, it was just the intermission and Cinderella arrived shortly into the second act. Between staying up late on a school night and having a tub of "princess popcorn", we believe she had a good time. By the time the taxi arrived back at the house after the event, she was sound asleep.