A Peek at our Itinerary

I have been writing letters to the kids the last few days. When Will stayed with my parents earlier this summer, I sent him a letter that he loved. After he received it in the mail, he went on and on about how happy he was to get it. Since we probably won't be talking to the kids while we are gone, and I know the postcards will take awhile to arrive, I decided to leave a stack with my parents to give to the kids each day to read. I made it seem like we were writing it that day and that it arrived in the mail. With each one, we not only tell the kids we love them and are thinking about them, but I tried to include a little bit about what we are planning to do that day. Here are some excerpts from the letters that Will will read aloud each day. If it seems "simple" that's because it is written so a five-year-old will understand it.

Sunday, August 9th: Yesterday we got on an airplane before dinner. Can you believe we are still on the airplane? We had a long way to fly so we slept and ate on the plane. First we will stop in Germany, and then we will go to Greece. We are staying in a hotel in Athens on the side of a mountain. Can you believe there is a swimming pool on the roof of our hotel? It gives us a nice view of the city of Athens. Today we will probably take a long nap. If you are reading this in the morning, it is almost time for us to have dinner.

Monday, August 10th: Today we are going to take a tour of Athens, Greece. We will get to see the old and the new parts of the city. It is amazing that some of the buildings here are over 2500 years old!! Would you believe that people have been living in this city for 4500 years – it is one of the oldest cities in the whole world. We are going to see some beautiful churches, the huge stadium where the first Olympics were, a palace, and some gardens. We will be going to the Acropolis, too. Will, that is the city I showed you in the book that looked like the city in the Hercules movie. Do you remember that? We can see parts of the Acropolis from our hotel. The Acropolis can be seen from almost anywhere in the city because is it is up on a big hill. The word acropolis actually means “high city,” and Athens started out as a fort on that hill. Many of the buildings up there are falling apart because they are so old and have been in wars, but we can still see parts of the temples and statues. It will be fun to show you pictures that we take. The weather in Athens is not that different than at home even though it is far away. It is pretty hot here in Athens, but it is dry, too.

Tuesday, August 11th: Today we are going to ride a bus to another city and sleep in a different hotel. You can look at the map and see where we are going. We are going to drive through the Greek countryside. We will go through a town called Levadia. There are a lot of farms here with mountains all around. There is a castle in Levadia and we hope we get to drive by to see it. After that, we will drive through a town called Arachova where they grow walnuts and olives. Finally, we will arrive at Delphi. Delphi is a famous city. The ancient Greeks used to think it was the middle of the earth and the universe. They also believed in an Oracle who was supposed to be at Delphi. Will, do you remember Hercules talking to the oracle in the movie? Way back then, people asked the oracle about everything such as who to fight, where to build a city, and how to be great. They talked to the Oracle kind of like we pray to God. We hope to walk around and enjoy the old buildings and statues and see pretty landscapes. Hopefully, this stop will be relaxing for us. We will sleep in a hotel here tonight.

Wednesday, August 12th: We are still visiting Delphi today. Mama read that it is best to visit it early in the morning, so we are going to do that today. By the time you read this, we might already be done and on our way back to Athens on the bus.

Thursday, August 13th: We woke up in Athens again this morning. Sometimes we don’t make plans for the day, we just let the day take care of itself. Maybe that is the kind of day we will have today. There are still some things in Athens we want to see, and we’d like to do a little bit of shopping, so that may be what we do today. Did you know that here in Greece it is eight hours ahead of your time there in Texas? That means if you are reading this at 8:00am, at breakfast in Texas, it is 4:00pm in Greece and almost time for dinner. It has been weird having a time change, but it is also strange because the people here eat dinner much later than our family does. Most people start dinner around 9:00pm – that’s past your bedtime. Then they stay up really late. We are back at the hotel on the side of the mountain again for one more night.

Friday, August 14th: We are really excited about today. When you read this we will probably be on the cruise ship getting comfortable in our new room. The ship is like a floating hotel – there are bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a few restaurants, and even stores on the giant boat. Our ship is called the Navigator. Dinner should be quite tasty, but it will take a long time to eat it. We will probably walk around and see what else is on the ship.

Saturday, August 15th: Wow! When we woke up this morning we were in a different city. The place we are visiting today is called Nafplio. It is still in Greece. We are going to see a big fort and castle today. The walls are really strong – it would be really hard for armies or pirates to invade this castle. It has also been a prison. I think we will get to see the inside today, and if we do, we will take pictures so you can see what it looks like.

Sunday, August 16th: Today we are visiting an island called Santorini. Will, do you remember what an island is? It is land surrounded on all sides by water. This is the place Mama and Daddy have wanted to visit all along and the reason we wanted to come to Greece. We saw a picture like the one below and thought it would be a beautiful place to see.

A long, long, long time ago, Santorini island was round because it was the top of a mountain. The mountain was actually a volcano that erupted and caused the center of the island to sink. We will be going to a village called Oia (pronounced “Ia”) where most of the buildings are white with
blue doors and windows, the churches have blue domes, the streets are made of cobblestones, and many of the buildings are built into niches or caves in the rock. Most of the villages in Santorini are really high up on cliffs because a long time ago pirates would try to rob the people. Building the city really high made it very hard for the pirates to win. We are really excited that we are going to learn to cook some Greek food while we are here. Mama and Daddy enjoy
taking cooking classes when we travel. It teaches us new things to cook that we can make when we get home. That is one way you can taste what we are tasting.

Monday, August 17th: Today we are visiting a different country. It is called Turkey. The place we are visiting is called Kusadasi. It is near a place called Ephesus and that is another place we are going today. Did you know that in the Bible, Paul wrote a letter to the people of Ephesus? Do you remember reading the Alice in Bibleland story about Jesus’s disciples? One of them was named John, and he was a very good friend of Jesus. John brought Jesus’s mom, Mary, to Ephesus to live. It is really neat to be in a place that is in the Bible, and we can’t wait to show you pictures. There are beautiful columns that were hand-carved, and there is an enormous theater that is in really good shape for being over 2000 years old. It used to hold more than 25,000 people. That is a lot!! It used to be used for music concerts, plays, and talks. It was also used for gladiator fights. We are going to get to see the theater and some houses that very rich people used to live in a long, long time ago.

Tuesday, August 18th: We are back in Greece today. This time we are at an island called Rhodes. There are many castles and forts on the island of Rhodes because 2000 years ago, pirates came here a lot. Some of the castles were even built in the Medieval Times just like we read about in the Magic Treehouse story. We will be on a tour part of the time we are here, and hopefully we will see several castles. That seems to be the easiest way to see as much as possible without getting lost. We are going to visit the Acropolis at Lindos in the morning. Do you remember what acropolis means? It means “high city.” A lot of cities in this part of the world had Acropoli as their forts. Our tour will take us to the small fishing village of Haraki for lunch, then we will drive near the coast and probably get lots of pretty pictures. We are going to visit the Palace of the Knights (see photo below) and a museum. There should be plenty of time for Mama and Daddy to explore the old town on our own before we have to be back on the ship. Will, look at the picture of the castle here. I’ll bet you could teach Granddad about the crenels and merlons like you learned from Jack and Annie. The crenels are the gaps, and the merlons are the solid parts that the sentries hid behind. We can’t wait to take pictures of real castles to show you.

Wednesday, August 19th: Do you know what is neat about a cruise? Every night we sleep in the same bedroom, and every morning we wake up in a new place. The boat moves during the night while we are sleeping. It is fun to be able to visit new places without having to pack every day. Today we are visiting another Greek island. This one is called Mykonos. We are going on another tour, but then we will have time to explore on our own. Do you remember watching the show about Mykonos? It was a Travel Channel show that we watched together. We are going to a bakery that has been in business for 400 years, and we will probably get a little treat to taste. There are lots of windmills, white houses, and pretty churches to take pictures of. Did you know Mama likes to take pictures of churches when she travels? Maybe we will have enough time to see the beach before we leave, but it won’t be as much fun as when we are at the beach with you kids.

Thursday, August 20th: Today we are still at sea, but in the afternoon we will be in Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul is a unique city. It is the only city in the world that is on two continents. Part of the city is in Europe and part of it is in Asia. Isn’t that neat? Mama and Daddy enjoy a song about this city. The song we like has words that are a lot of fun to say even if they are hard to read:

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

...So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That's nobody's business but the Turks

Mama will probably be humming that song all day. It is a song that is hard to stop singing once you start. Today we have a lot of exciting things to see. We are going to see a really, really old museum. It has a lot of pretty art of Bible stories in it. The place Daddy is really excited to see is called Hagia Sophia. It is an enormous church that is awesome because of the marvelous dome. It is one of the largest churches in the world, and the inside is spectacular! Can you believe we will get to see a building that is 2500 years old and is still being used? Something else we are going to see is the underground cistern or water tank. It is extremely old, too, but was rediscovered when a man noticed everyone putting buckets in the floors of their homes. They lowered them to get water and fish from underground. Our last stop will be to the Grand Bazaar. It is like an outdoor mall, but one of the biggest in the world. We hope to have time to find the spice market, too.

Friday, August 21st: Today is Friday. We got off the boat at around 2:00 AM – that was about the time you were going to bed last night. Lucky you! We didn’t go to bed at all. That might sound like fun to you, but we are really TIRED! It is a good thing we have such a long way to fly so we can get some sleep. We got on an airplane in Istanbul and flew to Germany again. After a while there we got on another plane and flew back across the Atlantic Ocean to Dallas. You know where that is! Do you know what that means? We are almost home! We can’t wait to see you kids. We have missed you so much and we have so many hugs and kisses to give you. It is a good thing we had two backpacks and the suitcase – we needed all that room just for all the hugs and kisses we’ve been keeping for you.