Seminar at The London Mennonite Centre

On Saturday we had our first Autumn Cross-Currents seminar. These are one day seminars that are at the Centre which most have an Anabaptist related topic to them. This one was called: Walking Alongside: Alternative Methods of Nonviolent Accompaniment in Israel/Palestine. Three different organisations sent a representative to talk: 1) Christian Peacemaker Teams 2) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine Israel & 3) International Solidarity Movement.

Things went very well but I was tired after a day of cooking and serving food. It's good to meet the people putting on the seminars as well as the participants.

John and Naomi Lederach from Goshen, IN are here for three weeks to do a project for the LMC. It's been nice having them here. Naomi was one of my nursing instructors at Hesston College and we had several classes under John at Hesston.

The next few blog entries will be more of our trip to Slovenia.

From Vienna, Austria to Piran, Slovenia

After a day and a half in Vienna, we caught a train (with only 30 seconds to spare!) and headed south to Slovenia. Here's Weldon & Jenny relaxing. They were slumming it with the Shirks as they had a rail pass that was good for first class but we didn't so they decided they wanted to talk with us on the six hour train trip so they came down in the world to coach.
Here is some of the beautiful countryside we saw on the train ride. I'm not sure if this is Austria or Slovenia. Both are very green with lots of mountains.
After arriving in Ljubljana, Slovenia, we took a bus to the airport, rented a car and drove to the coast to a Hotel just outside of Piran.
Here is Hotel Fiesa where we stayed for two nights.
Here is one of the fishing boats right outside of our Hotel. We were right on the coastline. We could hear the lapping of the waves all night long. That makes for great sleeping.

Vienna, Austria

Ed and I took off on Friday morning for the airport and flew to Vienna where we met up with Weldon and Jenny Martens who had been in northern Austria for the last 5 days. We strolled around Vienna getting a feel for the flavor of Vienna. We had a nice pasta meal and headed for bed for a full day of sightseeing the next day.
It was unseasonably cold but we made the most of it. This is the outside of the Opera house. And this is the inside of the opera house. The bust of Mozart along with a number of others are in the lobby area.
Here is Weldon and Jenny at the end of the tour in the performance hall.
A beautiful cathedral in the middle of the city.
Vienna has lots of museums and statues.
We were really tired at the end of the day but had a great meal at a restaurant recommended by the hotel we were staying at and had lots of good conversation with old friends. Vacations don't get much better. More to come.....next....Piran, Slovenia.

See you in a week!

No we're not trying to pretend we are in Colorado!

Even though the summer here has been cool, now that late September is here, it definitely feels like Autumn. More of a crisp in the air.

I haven't needed to cook for a group in awhile and today was my first in awhile. Our Bridge Builders department had a workshop today and I am tired! Ed and I are leaving for a week. We will meet Weldon and Jenny Martens, who have been in Germany for a week, in Vienna on Friday. We will take in Slovenia as well so we are excited. We can only be away for a week but it will really be nice to catch up with old friends.

So I won't blog for another week. See you then!

Last day of our Wales Trip

I realized that I didn't put up the pictures of our last day in Wales the end of August. This is the Berkeley Castle. The oldest Castle in Britain to be lived in by the same family for nearly 900 years. History: Where King Edward II was murdered; where the Barons of the West Country gathered before Magna Carta; where Queen Elizabeth hunted and played bowls....
This ancient building, and the family who live here, have been touched by almost every major historic event throughout the last millennium: the Battles of Agincourt, Flodden and Cullodden, the American War of Independence, the first American Thanksgiving, and Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, written for a Berkeley wedding.
Berkeley College in California was named after this family or something like that.

There was a butterfly house close by which was a part of the grounds.

Flash to the past...

Harper Industries, where Ed was Sales Manager in Harper, sent one of their sales managers and the engineering manager to an outdoor maintenance show near Windsor, England where they were showing some of their lawn maintenance equipment. It's a fairly short train ride from London so Ed took the train to meet them there and play at his old job. It was mostly equipment like lawn mowers, lawn vacs, etc. Here though is a company that make STURDY outdoor exercise equipment. I think it's great!

I think it's great that they don't always use a sexy looking girl on the demo pictures, instead using this stud.
I'm glad Harper Industries never made Ed wear things like this when he went to shows. They look like circus parade Marshall's.
And of course they all have to stick their heads under the hoods.....or bonnet as they say here.

Watching American Politics

JUST SOME OBSERVATIONS

It has been interesting following the United States' presidential campaign in another country. What I have observed is that if the rest of the world could vote, Barack Obama would win in a landslide. They seem to sense that Obama would have a better sense of how to treat alliances and global institutions. Even after being here just a short while, I felt some anti-Americanism mostly due to the US international policies....a feeling that we don't really listen to the rest of the world but instead use a heavy hand to push through American agenda. Here is an excerpt from Jonathan Freedland, an editorialist for the Guardian which is the main newspaper in London & Manchester, UK.
"Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for."
He goes on to say that it will look bad if Americans vote against Obama because of his color. "For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality."
He goes on to say...."what does this say about America"......that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest us (the world), and make no mistake, we shall hear it."

Visitors from the U.S.!!

We had a nice three day visit from Heber & Cheryl Ramer from Harper, KS. Heber works at Harper Industries where Ed used to be before we moved to Colorado. Heber was attending a show for HII in Windsor and Cheryl came along. They tacked on a few days to spend with us. This was taken on the last night. Cheryl & Heber had gone on the London Eye, then we ate, then walked to Trafalgar square to take in the atmosphere. It was a bit windy and cool but generally it was a really nice evening.

We'd love to have more of our friends come over. Give us enough warning and we can reserve one of the guest rooms at the London Mennonite Centre on us.

Wales: Day 3

After the botanical gardens, we drove to a town called Tenby. We just sort of closed our eyes and picked a town on the coast. Here we are on the beach looking out to sea with this huge rock and an abandoned castle. It was fenced off and no one was allowed to get to the building so we couldn't explore it.
This is taken from the same spot as the previous picture, just 180 degree turn around. It's the town up on the hill. You can see the people climbing the steps down to the beach area.
We walked out to the large rock and walked around and through these cool cave like areas. Shells and mussels were all over the place.
This is a shot of that rock from the wall that surrounds the city of Tenby.
Another shot of the city and beach from the wall.

A view of Tenby from the hill where the old coast guard tower is.
We walked around the streets just looking at the shops.
People lining up for fish and chips.
This is a shot of our B&B/Hotel we stayed in. The Shoreline.

South Wales: End of day two & first part of day three

The roads that we travelled from one beach to the next were like this one. If you met another vehicle you just had to pull over enough to pass each other. Usually it wasn't too bad, but now and then instead of hedges on both side which give way, there were stone walls. Sometimes it was difficult to enjoy the drive.
The last stop of our second day was to this castle.
On day three we visited a botanical garden. Ed took many, many pictures which I won't even try to put on the blog. Just know that it was beautiful. A typical English garden.

At the end of touring the gardens we could hear this wonderful choir singing. I'd always heard that the Welsh could sing and this proved it.