European Adventures - Part One

  Just so you know, the perfect place to break down is in Germany on a sunny autumn day when the leaves have just blushed red and orange, the weather is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and there is a lovely field by the side of the road edged with trees. Even more ideal, pack an abundant picnic lunch beforehand and bring plenty of good books, comfy coats, and great friends. Sounds unreal, right? This was our exact predicament, if you can call it that, last week on Tuesday, October 22.

A view from our lodgings in Lofer, Austria

  Tristan and I have returned home after the experience of a lifetime. We spent two weeks in Europe and visited the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. Every moment was an adventure and every moment of hard work that I put in at Chick-fil-A to afford it was absolutely worth it!

  The very first part of our trip began as soon as we landed in Prague. The Kinsky Palace was holding an exhibition of French Impressionists from the Ordrupgaard Collection in Copenhagen. If you don't already know, I adore the French Impressionists, especially Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. I have seen many of their works in Paris and Cincinnati, so this was a dream come true. The exhibition's last day was October 13, the day we arrived. We had hardly slept at all on our trip, so you can imagine how tired we were as we toured the exhibit (especially Tristan, who was quite a sport putting up with my artistic passion).

  The line outside the Kinsky Palace was long. We began to worry that they wouldn't have tickets by the time we got inside and in line to the ticket room. Thank God, they still had tickets. We walked up to the lovely Czech girl behind the desk and greeted her. Aunt Amy from our host family was there.  (For those outside the missionary community, we kids call adults "Aunt" and "Uncle" if they are our parents' friends.)  The girl asked if we wanted family tickets for two adults and children under 16. I told her that even though Tristan was 18, I was 16, so we didn't qualify for the family ticket package. She smiled at me and said, "Then you are fifteen, so I give you family." That was that.

With a Monet piece (part of the painting is cut out because the room was so crowded we couldn't get a full picture!)

A beautiful Renoir piece

I was quite taken with this piece of Degas

Posing with another Degas piece - notice the trend of me all over the art and Tristan spectating :)

  After the exhibition, we went out onto the Old Town square and experienced the famous Prague Astronomical Clock with trdelniks and ice cream. When I last visited Prague in 2018, the clock was under renovation and I didn't get to see it. That made this time all the more special.

Tristan had mango-strawberry and I had pistachio-blueberry. The mango was surprisingly authentic and delicious!

  Because it was Sunday and our host family's church met in the evenings, we attended the service after our quick tourist stint. Though Tristan and I were fading fast on our minimal sleep and the time change,  I made it through the service without falling asleep. Tristan, however, nearly fall backward in his chair when he nodded off from exhaustion and caught himself quickly.

  I can't tell you how good it felt to take hot showers, put on cozy pajamas, and curl up in bed after dinner. Wearing something not cotton to bed really makes it feel like fall. And it was fall! The weather had changed just before we came from rainy with clouds to sunny autumn with cool breezes and blooming roses. Tristan was obsessed with taking rose pictures by the end of the trip: roses and swans.

  All this, and the experience was just beginning.