Friends For The Journey

Bonjour! Hola! Hello!

Thursday—Which country am I in now? Oh, yeah, France. Ok, I’m on a FAST train to Madrid, Spain from Paris, France. We are sitting in our own cabin (4’ x 6’) right now watching the countryside slip by outside our window. We are supposed to cross the border into Spain around 2am, so I don’t think I’ll see that one. We have been eating dinner late (tonight it will be 10pm when we get to go to the dinner car). We parted with the Coll’s and Cook’s this morning after breakfast. Dennis and Dee went sight seeing around Paris, Michael & Joanne caught a flight to Rome and we rode a tour bus around Paris to pick up a few sights we missed during the week while we waited for the time to get on the train.

Today is Joseph’s 54th birthday. We all told him Happy Birthday, but never really celebrated. Perhaps we can have a small cake for him when we return. It has definitely been an adventure filled birthday. He just said he likes Europe. We (the 3 couples) have had a wonderful time here. Dennis seems very comfortable here and gets around well and of course Michael has been here before so he acclimated well. Joanne loves speaking French all of the time (since she is French-Canadian) and said she is really going to miss it. Dee had special training in spinal cord injuries a few years ago and really enjoyed helping Rebecca and said she will sorely miss her. Who knows what God has for us in the future? Last night we had our “Last Supper” in a lovely, old French restaurant. Wonderful food and fellowship (Sorry Jimmy, you missed it again).

Forgive me if I repeat any of this…the days are kind of a blur of activity. Sunday night when we arrived in Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower. We went to the top (I have pictures to prove it!) and looked all around the city and ate dinner late. We were going to go dancing (Joseph suggested it!) but by the time we finished eating it was 11pm and us old folks were just too tired!

Monday, Dennis led (?) us on a whirlwind trip to Le Louvre (the museum that houses thousands of paintings and sculptures by famous artists such as Rembrandt, Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci…paintings such as the original Mona Lisa). Incredible art. I don’t think the US has ever had or will ever have anything to match it.

Tuesday, we took a train to Chateau de Versailles which was built primarily by King Louis the XIV over about an 80 year period of time. There was gold everywhere and pictures in every room (walls, ceilings, portraits, etc.) of him. He was obviously into himself, big time! There were also pictures of Marie Antoinette (wife of Louis XVI who was beheaded) and their children. The big stable at that time housed 9,000 horses and the smaller one housed 200+ carriages. The original Mansion had 8,000 acres, but after the revolution was reduced to 800 acres. The gardens are beautifully landscaped and kept up. We came away from here feeling oppressed and weary. There was no sense of the Holy Spirit here at all, even though there was a huge church built within the Mansion. I can’t wait to share the pictures with you all.

Wednesday, we went to Notre Dame and Sainte Chappell, two beautiful cathedrals. One was built in 1120 AD. The architecture and stained glass is spectacular (I’m running out of adjectives to describe things!) Sainte Chappell was originally built to house the crown of thorns that was placed on Christ’s head. It is a small chapel, but the stained glass windows are breath-taking!

Well, I guess that brings us up to now…it is 3:41pm your time…9:41pm ours. It is dark outside now and we will be heading for the dining car soon. I love you all and miss you. Many times I think, “Oh, Jessy & Jimmy would love this” or “Sarah & Carlos would enjoy that” or talk about bringing Ruth or John or Mimi back with us sometime.

Jessy, thanks for keeping me up to date with Alexander. I can’t wait to see his new tooth. Tell him Mamaw is proud of the way he handled chicken pox and a new tooth at the same time! I loved your emails! Give everyone our love. We’ll be home soon.

Sarah, tell Michael I will be home soon and ready to do memos! Hope all is going well in the office. My greetings to all!

Ruth, press into the Lord during this time. Everything will turn out okay if you trust Him.

John, I hope your last week of classes is going well. Hang in there, you’re almost done! Good job!

Mimi, I hope you have a wonderful trip. Tell everyone hello for me. We will be at the Holbrooks the weekend of June 4th for Bethany’s wedding and Judith’s graduation and will see you then if you are still there.

Well, the train guy (?) just came in and put our bunks down, so I will sign off now.

Love,
Mom (Deb)

Europe 4.30.05

We had breakfast in our room this am. I don’t know if daddy told you, but we were totally surprised when we opened the door to our room. It is on the 9th floor. We thought we must be in the wrong room when we looked inside. The TV was on, so we knocked on the door and called out “hello.” It took us a while to realize it really was our room. After spending the night in a small train cabin where one person has to sit down for the other one to get up…it was quite a change. It was well worth it to save our Priority Club (w/Holiday Inn) points for this time. We got 4 free nights. It is an executive suite with a living room & bedroom and a huge bathroom w/a bidet. The executive of the InterContinental Hotels had a fruit plate & bottle of wine waiting for us last night when we returned to our room. We are going on the tour bus again today and to Avila and Toledo, Spain tomorrow I think.