We left for Birmingham on Friday, with tears in or eyes as we kissed our youngest 3 children goodbye and hugged Mimi & Grampie’s necks. What an adventure this has been so far! Our first leg was delayed an hour and we were nervous we wouldn’t make our connection in Chicago. But all was well, and after an 8 hour flight to Munich, we decided to go explore the city during our 7 hour layover. Now I (Rachel) am not usually the adventurous type who wants to do something where too much of the unknown is involved. I like to know where we are going, what we are doing, how long it will take, you get the idea. Unexpectedly, the clerk behind the information desk handed us an all-day train ticket pass for the 3 of us, so I followed Scott’s leading, exchanged a little money into euros, and we got a taste of the (very efficient and reliable) German public transportation. After multiple train and bus rides, and getting just a little turned around, we made it to Dachau, a concentration camp that served as a model for other camps during World War II, where over 200,000 Jews lost their lives. What a sobering place. We were able to spend brief moments in quiet reflexion and explain some of the horrors of that place to Anna, despite being rushed to get through it quickly due to our time crunch. Seeing the barracks, standing in the gas chambers and peering into the crematoriums left us with such a sense of heaviness, sadness and confusion over how humans could behave in such a way toward other humans. May we never, ever forget.
Time quickly got away from us, and suddenly we were rushing back, hoping desperately we would not miss our connecting flight to Kiev. It was a nail-biter for sure. But thanks to getting through security in 4 minutes and customs in 10 minutes, we were soon waiting for our flight with plenty of time to spare. I’m so grateful for a chance to explore Germany, even for a few hours, and to see some of the beautiful country side, architecture and people as we traveled through.
We arrived in Kiev late Saturday night, and Natasha was waiting for us - a site for sore eyes for sure! She settled us into our very comfortable and surprisingly nice apartment in downtown Kiev, with a few groceries to get us started in the morning.
Time quickly got away from us, and suddenly we were rushing back, hoping desperately we would not miss our connecting flight to Kiev. It was a nail-biter for sure. But thanks to getting through security in 4 minutes and customs in 10 minutes, we were soon waiting for our flight with plenty of time to spare. I’m so grateful for a chance to explore Germany, even for a few hours, and to see some of the beautiful country side, architecture and people as we traveled through.
We arrived in Kiev late Saturday night, and Natasha was waiting for us - a site for sore eyes for sure! She settled us into our very comfortable and surprisingly nice apartment in downtown Kiev, with a few groceries to get us started in the morning.