Our Summer Vacation in France

As I look down at the small bald spot on my arm, I am reminded of the fun times we had in France, more specifically, when Brody thought he was being funny and put his gum on my arm. OK, I put Ariana's gum on Brody's hand first. But, as was noted on a t-shirt a guy was wearing in France, "He hit me back first!"

Our trip began smoothly as we headed by rental car from Paris to Normandy and the D-Day beaches. Luckily, we never got stuck in the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe like Chevy Chase did in one of those Vacation movies. The roads in France are very well kept...no potholes in sight. But you never know if you are going east or west, north or south. You just have to know the next big town in your path. Fortunately, we had a map, Chris as the navigator, and Corey driving the 5 speed, manual transmission, diesel Peugeot.

In Normandy, we were all very excited to meet our friends, the Ferris family (Dessa, Peter and Duncan). Duncan and Brody had spent countless hours in Dallas playing war games, and here, at the site of the beginning of the end of WWII, the two of them could not be happier. For Ariana, there were beautiful sandy beaches that stretched a quarter of mile deep at low tide. And for the adults, there was the quiet French countryside, straight out of a Monet painting.

I shouldn't bore you with all the details, but I can certainly try. We visited several WWII museums, numerous German bunkers off of Omaha beach, Gold beach and others, the Pegasus bridge and cafe (where gliders landed at midnight to capture the bridge from the Germans), and we saw more tanks and military paraphernalia than I can even describe. Brody and Duncan know the name of every vehicle.

At Pointe du Hoc, the kids discovered hundreds of craters (from Allied bombs!) amidst the German bunkers and decided it was fun to run down and back up each crater as fast as they could. Unfortunately, Duncan didn't quite make it and crashed in one of the bunkers, leaving him scratched and bruised.

For me, as Peter noted, I was seeing GREEN by the time we left Normandy. Peter, who has GREEN running through his veins, is an ex-Marine who served as a fantastic tour guide during our 3 days in Normandy. Between him and the kids, we never had a shortage of statistics and facts about WWII. Luckily Dessa knew French, so we also had our own personal translator. Too bad she disappeared before Paris.

In spite of all the fun we had, we also all recognized the enormity of the significance of the events that took place on these beaches. Seeing the sea of crosses and Stars of David at the memorial site really made me appreciate how fortunate we are in America and how hard we sometimes have to fight as a country for freedom.

When leaving Normandy, we first had the pleasure of RE-visiting the Pegasus Cafe. That is the historic site where the infamous Brody Ladd left his coat for the 20 millionth time! Unfortunately, this time we didn't figure it out until later that evening.

Now we headed back to the medieval times (1400's). Mont St. Michel is a small island off the western coast of France, connected to the mainland by a man-made dirt pile with a road. It started with a small abbey on top, and over a couple hundred years grew into a small community. It has a kind of a Disneyland feel to it because everything looks like the set of an old medieval movie. The only difference is that it actually IS real. We got to stay in a hotel on the island. The highlights there were a tour of the Abbey as well as some adjacent museums of armor, furniture and torture devices of the time. The really interesting thing about this place is that depending on the tide and the time of the month, the island can be surrounded by water or can be completely dry. We happened to be there during a low tide period, so we had lots of fun playing nearby on the extensive sandy beaches.

We were warned by signs as we entered to beware of quicksand. So, being the quick studies that we are, we immediately started to search for quicksand. After building sand castles behind the island, we found the dreaded quicksand in a muddy area nearby. OK, so maybe it was not the thing to do, letting your kids dance around on top of quicksand pits, but it was really interesting to watch the kids making waves in the dirt as they danced and sang. I have the video if anyone is interested in more detail. Luckily no one sank deeper than about half way up their calf. And, of course, we had an ex-marine ready to save the day if necessary. Quote from Brody..."It was cool."

Finally after sadly leaving the Ferris family, we were off to Paris via the Loire Valley. Along the highway, we stopped for a picnic where the kids also picked apples from a nearby apple tree. They were a little too small to eat, but it was fun anyway. As a diversion for the day, we decided to stop at the Chateau Chambord in the Loire Valley. What a beautiful place it was...wow I wish I had that much money. All my friends and family would stay for free!

Paris was full of excitement and climbing (well over 1,000 steps). We climbed 700 steps to the second level (about 2/5 of the way to the top) of the Eiffel Tower. We also climbed almost 300 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomph. At the Louvre, we saw famous stuff like the Mona Lisa (still not really smiling) and the Venus de Milo who Brody said is in a funny Bud Light commercial. Who says ads don't work. We also had the pleasure of meeting our friends, the Ortiz family, in Paris one night for dinner.

At Versailles, we spent the entire day wandering through the grounds, having a picnic lunch and even rented bikes. The bikes helped us visit the outskirts of the grounds where we saw Marie Antoinette's "play" area called the Queen's Hamlet, a beautiful little community of cottages.

We concluded our trip the night before departure with a one hour sunset (which occurs at about 10:30 this time of year) cruise on the Seine River where the Eiffel Tower was alternately sparkling and lit blue.

Overall, it was a fantastic journey that carried us through the old French country side, into the heart of Paris, one of the most famed cities in the world, and through a vast array of military and regal sites. But most of all, it was a great time with friends and family.

My Good Old Days at Camp, From Ariana

This is the castle me and Brody went to at camp. The camp we went to is Summer Adventure Camp with Coach Mike and Mr. Radek. Right before we went to this castle, we went to a cave, and the cave was +5 degrees Celsius, and Brody had to wear a girl's jacket. We got lost in the castle.

The picture on the right is at the castle. We were getting into this big thing where they would put you when you did something bad. Coach Mike hung two jackets on my fingers.


The picture of the fire is when we had a sleepover at school. We made a really big one, and then it started to rain. So we danced around the fire with sticks with fire on the top while singing a little song. It was a rain dance to make the rain go away. We sounded like little Indians, although we were very different from Indians because we had made the fire from a match and we got the wood from the builders who were building on to the school. After, we went inside to watch a movie. We watched Shrek II. Then we went to sleep, but the French boys would not stop talking, and we finally went to sleep.

Prague with the Loops

Prague...Praha. One of the oldest cities in Europe. Like Krakow, its old town city center was untouched during the bombings of WWII. We got to visit Prague with the Loops - Charles and Lian (ages withheld for confidentiality reasons), Eric (9) and John (12). Our kids awaited the arrival of the Loops (mainly Eric and John) with great anticipation. Brody even likened the waiting to the anticipation he felt himself when we were leaving to move from Dallas to Krakow. The Loops stayed with us in Krakow for 5 days, doing all the usual sites with Chris (her 3rd or 4th time to many of these sites, since she seems to play tour guide while Corey works whenever we have guests from the states). Sometimes work ain't so bad ;-).

So we took the overnight train to Prague, just as we did to Budapest a couple of months ago. Sleep was not easy, but is always better than you can get in coach on the airplane. I'd say the average sleep was about 5-6 hours, which isn't too bad. But John had a real tough time sleeping, and in the process decided that it was his job to keep his dad up most of the night too.

But we were all troopers as we arrived at the train station at 7am and prepared for a full day of site seeing. We took a taxi to an apartment that we were renting for the two nights we would be there. It was spacious, clean and very close to the city center. One shower was the only downside, but that's no different than our apartment in Krakow when we have guests at the Ladd B&B.
Having done a little research in advance for a change, we had booked a tour guide who did a 3 hour walking guide with us through the old town. It was very inexpensive and was a great way to get acclimated to the city and get advice and what to do for the remainder of the weekend. With our guide we walked down the Wenceslas Square (pictured to left), kind of the main boulevard leading into the old town. We also walked through the Jewish Quarter where she told us a great tale about the Golem, a monster created to protect the Jews. And we saw the cemetery that was about 20 feet above street level because they have added graves on top of graves and just raised the headstones. Space was really at a premium when the Jews lived in the ghettos.



Another thing of interest on the tour was the upside down horse statue, just kind of a unique thing hidden in one of the buildings nearby. We also visited the Havelska Market, a great open air market that sold fruit, veggies and, of course, tourist chachkis.

On our second day, we primarily visited the Castle Quarter. To get there, we took the 500 yard stroll over the ancient Charles Bridge built in the 14th century and named after Charles IV, not our friend Charles Loop...though he is so noble too! It has an abundance of local artists selling paintings, wooden boxes and jewelry. It is adorned with large statues every 20 yards, and I think Ariana took a picture of every one.

In the Castle Quarter, we of course visited the Prague Castle, Royal Palace, and the St. George Basilica using an audio tour with a monotone voice and way too much information. To get to the top of the hill where all this was, we took a funicular (cog train) which are always deemed in the guidebooks as a treat for the kids. But we have now been on 3 of these in various European cities, and the kids think they are universally short and boring. Adults agree. But at least it keeps them from whining on a long walk up a large hill.

So, the big dud of the trip (there's at least one of every trip...other than the funicular of course) was the maze. The kids have always loved the mazes, so we headed straight there as soon as possible. Well it turns out it was a maze of mirrors, that only had one path through and took about 45 seconds. Ok, so we had a very good laugh watching each other stretch our bodies on the concave and convex mirrors in a room at the end of the "maze."

In the Castle Quarter, there was even more. We had bagels at Bohemia Bagel (twice!). We visited Golden Lane (pictured to right), a very old, narrow street with an Armory Museum, Franz Kafka's apartment, and antique watch and music shops. And, we tried to visit the Toy and Barbie Museum, but it was closed...woe is me.

And there was pain. Brody bonked his head jumping off the 4 person swing in the park (see left). And, Ariana had a nasty spilled caused by...well...walking! Unfortunately it was our camera that broke her spill and has not taken a picture since. At least the memory card was undamaged. Thus all the good pictures attached.

Thanks to the Loops for great fun and friendship!

Biking

I thought I would share with you a form of travel more mundane than our usual jaunts around the continent. Biking is quite an experience here. First of all, you have to haul your bike up and down 3 long flights of stairs to and from our 3rd floor apartment (called 2nd level here in Poland). And when I go with the kids, I end up hauling 3 bikes up and down. I get more exercise before I start than I usually get in a full ride around Whiterock lake. Then we begin to brave the streets and sidewalks of Krakow.

When was the last time you had to race a trolley down the street? Those trolleys don't stop for anything, and they love to ring their little bells (their version of a horn) when someone tries to mess with their schedule by getting in the way. And of course, don't change lanes too fast, or you will wind up in the trolley track itself--or lying on your back all scraped up right next to the track (fortunately has not happened to me yet). Those tracks are a rider's nightmare.

Riding around town reminds me of watching some of the racers in the Tour de France. Ok, I'm no Lance Armstrong (though the resemblance in that picture is uncanny), but now I know what they feel like when they ride through those old European towns with cobblestone roads. If you try to talk while riding on cobblestones, you will sound like someone is moving your chin up and down really fast like my grandfather Pancho used to always do to me.

But in reality, it is a great joy to ride around Krakow. Chris, the kids and I have biked throughout the year here, even during the "warmer" days of winter. We have continued our "tradition" that I started in Dallas of riding our bikes to Sunday school. Except here, we wind up at beautiful Isaak's Temple built in 1664. I love riding most along the Wisla River which passes by the Wawel castle, the most famous site of Krakow. It is so surreal to pass that and realize that I am living here and enjoying a bike ride in its shadow. We also love riding up to the Planty (the green belt around the city center), as well as into the Rynek (the huge market square only minutes from our place). The biggest challenge there is all those stinkin' tourists who are so busy taking photos, they don't see me and the family bearing down on them at 20 mph.(Most certainly agreed with by Brody!)

The last couple of weeks I have started riding my bike to work on occasion. What a treat to get up in the morning and ride in the cool summer air. The office is only a 20 minute stroll to the office on my bike, about 23 minutes faster than taking the tram, and I never have to wait, and never have to "miss" my bike, like I do the tram.

And last weekend, I made my first trek into the hills for a mountain bike ride. Only a 10 minute ride from our apartment, there is a beautiful tree covered ranges of hills (with probably 200 meters of climb). Out of breath after a big climb (which forced me off my bike to walk, it was so steep), I was making my way along the unmarked and very poorly maintained trails--of course. On a brief decline of about 20 meters, I went to hit my brakes, and to my surprise, found my front brake completely unresponsive. I had snapped my front brake cable. Well I made it back ok with a mixture of walking and constant braking with my still operating back brake.

So now, off to my next adventure, finding a bike shop ("rowery" in Polish) where I can only hope to find some sort of universal biking language with which to communicate with the shop's mechanic. Well, I can always point at the brake and say "nie dobre" (not good). Oh how fun life is in Poland!

Prince Charles Comes to Krakow!

Who would have thought that moving to Krakow, Poland would enable my kids to meet Prince Charles of England and his wife Camilla? Luckily, Prince Charles generously donated money for the construction of a new Jewish Community Center in Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter. The Jewish population in this area was desimated by World War II, but the area has a small core of holocaust survivors and younger Jews who have made Krakow their home. This center will help strengthen the bonds of this population.

While security kept Chris in the courtyard of the JCC (nothing personal I'm sure), the children were inside with their Sunday School teacher, Klaudia, to perform Israeli dances and sing a song for Prince Charles and his wife. Prince Charles evidently made a point of going to each table and talking with every child. This is easier than it sounds since they have about 12 kids in their entire Sunday School class. A little smaller than Temple Emanu-El.

Brody talked to Prince Charles about our time in Krakow, telling him that his dad worked for Sabre. Ariana had already told Prince Charles that her family would only be here for two years. While she didn't tell him Brody was part of her family, he somehow figured out that they were related as he later asked Brody, "So, you'll be here for two years, right?" Evidently my kids look alike.

Because Mom was stuck in the courtyard, she couldn't take any pictures. She was relegated to standing with other moms, peering through the glare of a window while they all said, "Can you see anything? I think I see your/my kid? Are they dancing?..." Luckily, some very kind photographers took my kids' photo with Prince Charles. What was even nicer is that they actually published them. The European Jewish Press published the picture of Brody and Prince Charles along with a great article. The Associated Press published a number of pictures on their website, including the one with Ariana and her friend Natalia to her left (your right.) Natalia not only goes to Sunday School with Ariana, but she and her two brothers go to the International School of Krakow with Ariana and Brody.

Barcelona is Muey Bueno!!!

Over Spring Break, we traveled to Barcelona, Spain with Chris' parents, Ray and Carolyn Ewing. We enjoyed strolling along La Rambla to La Boqueria, a colorful food market. We not only found food for breakfast, but fresh fruit too irresistible to hold off eating.

A walk to the other end of La Rambla found us at the Christopher Columbus monument, a marina and an aquarium. I think Columbus is saying, "The plane went that way."

The city also features amazing architecture, primarily by Gaudi.

His works can hardly be captured by photographs, but they are stunning in person. We went to the Sagrada Familia, a church he started in 1883, but which is still under contruction.

His designs incorpate aspects of nature, including a sanctuary whose supporting columns are shaped like trees with flower shaped skylights above for light. Even unfinished, it is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.

The entire family enjoyed the Museum of Chocolate. In addition

to exhibits discussing the history of chocolate, we saw displays

of scenes created entirely out of chocolate: Romans in chariots, soccer stadium, Barcelona buildings, etc. And the chocolate

treats at the end of the tour weren't bad either!

The kids really enjoyed being with their grandparents too.

As you can tell, Gramma Carolyn and Papa Ray kind of had

fun too.

Budapest Hungary with the Ortiz Family

Seven months into our adventure, we have now hit our 6th country, including Poland of course. With a long weekend ahead of us for the Easter weekend, we decided to travel to Budapest, the capital of Hungary, just south and east of Poland. With 98% of the population in Poland being Catholic, the whole country practically shuts down during Easter, so it was a good time to exit stage left.


First of all, we decided to take the night train to and from Budapest. So, we got a sleeper cabin that sleeps up to 6, but we just had the 4 of us. Brody and Ariana on the top bunk and Chris and Corey on the bottom bunks, though there was some switching of course. The train was certainly one of the highlights for the kids. It was like a travelling hotel, but no TV. Luckily they had Samuel and Vanessa to play with.
In the city, we hit some hot spots including the Turkish Baths, the Hungarian Parliament (missed the tour), the Opera House (chose to skip the tour), St. Stephen's Basilica, the Szechenyi Hill Funicular cog train, the Citadel, the Transport Museum, Buda Castle, Fisherman's Bastion, and the Labyrinth of Budavair.

Swimming and steaming with hundreds of other Europeans of all ages, in all sorts of bathing attire, in pools of natural, hot spring water that smelled a little like sulfur, was an experience that is hard to explain. I will leave that to your imaginations.

We also had a little bit of unexpected exitement. First, there was the lady who tried to leave the baths without paying and got into an animated Hungarian argument with the "bouncer," that almost turned to fistacuffs. Then, there was the drunk guy who fell down one of those long escalators that leads to the subway. Given his bloody head and wobbly exit, he likely awoke the next morning with a bigger headache than is expected, even for a drunk. What a good lesson that was for the kids in terms of "just say no" and "hold the handrail!"

Also unexpected was passing the Hungarian track and field team training on some cobblestone steps leading up to the old part of the city. One guy, the long jumper, was jumping UP 5 steps at a time and did that for 2 flights of stairs. The others were sprinting up and being timed.

Brody of course enjoyed the WWII bunker on top of the Citadel Hill that was used by the Germans, Russians and Hungarians at various points. Both Brody and Ariana enjoyed the train and boat displays at the Transport Museum. The parents enjoyed both Buda on the west side of the river Danube, and Pest on the east side of the river, especially the view from Fisherman's Bastion and the hike up to the Citadel, which overlooked the entire city. Fun too was our nice dinner out at a Hungarian restaurant where we had a violin player play "Hava Nagilla" and "If I Were a Rich Man" at our table. Brody and Ariana loved that and were asking for other songs like "Tradition," all from Fiddler on the Roof.

That's it for now. We have visitors coming from DFW this week...Chris' folks. They are staying for a month, and we will be travelling to Barcelona with them. Look for an update on that in mid-April.

Kosciuszko Mound and Ariana's Birthday

As usual, we have been very busy. Recent highlights are Ariana's birthday and our trip to the Kosciuszko Mound.


The mound is quite a treat. It is about 100 feet tall, dates back to the 1820's, and represents Poland's fight for independence. We took a trolley to a nearby area and then walked about a mile and a half up a beautiful tree lined, cobblestone, old street up to the base of the mound where there is an old fortress and church. From the top, we were greeted with the best full view of Krakow I have seen.


Ariana celebrated her birthday, not on the mound, but here at our apartment. Her birthday was on March 14 which is celebrated at her school as "pi" day (as in the number that starts with 3.14 which is March 14 if you look at it a little metaphorically). Chris and I had the pleasure of spending 4 hours with Ariana and 10 of her closest friends from her new Krakow community (France, Sweden, Germany, India, UK, USA, etc.). Par usual, Happy Birthday was sung to her in multiple languages, further feeding her impatience at digging into the chocolate brownie and ice cream that stood before her, as candles burned to the base. The theme was Hollywood Starletts, and all the girls played dress up and then designed new clothing styles with toilet paper and crepe paper. No different from the US, we served pizza and got the kids juiced up on sugar before handing them back to their parents with a party favor full of candy treats.




Enjoy the pictures, and talk to you next week after our Easter weekend trip to Budapest!

Polish Ladds do Dallas

For the first time in more than 5 months, Chris, Brody, Ariana and Corey travelled to their native homeland....Dallas, Texas. There were 2 goals.

1. reconnect with dear friends and family who have put up with these silly blog entries, and


2. attend Ryan Ladd's Bar Mitzvah in Austin

Both endeavors were abundantly successful.

Our friends created numerous events for the kids including a roller skating outing with Brody's Stonewall crowd, a bowling outing with folks from Travis, Elizabeth's roller skating party that was rescheduled to occur when Ariana was in town, and several sleepovers with their friends. All the while, these events allowed Corey and Chris to reconnect with their friends (the wonderful parents of our respective children). We shared hugs, stories, laughs and meals like we had never left.

As for family, we were in Texas for 14 days, and changed beds 4 times, staying in a hotel in Austin, at Chris' folks' house and at Corey's folks' houses. Nothing like a relaxing trip!

One of the highlights was "Christmas in McKinney," a delayed version of Xmas with Ray and Carolyn (Chris' folks). We spent a traditional Christmas day there with pancakes in the morning, presents, and then a huge turkey lunch, which Corey almost missed because of an urgent call from work (I guess no one else thougth it was Christmas in the middle of January). We ended up with lot of great Christmas and Chanukah presents from all the grandparents...so much so that we had to buy one new suitcase and borrow a big old one from Sylvia. Ok...we also take some of the responsibility for an extra suitcase ourselves as we indulged in some of the necessities you can't get in Poland like Peter Pan peanut butter, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, and such.

In Austin, we spent a long weekend that was packed with family and fun events. Ryan was a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday evening and did a fantastic job. That night there was a fun dance event that he had dubbed an I-party. Unfortunately, our kids pooped out from jet lag and too much noise at about 8:30pm. At least we got to enjoy the good food from Chuys! We also enjoyed some warm weather over the weekend and played some outdoor basketball and football (the American kind of football) in their yard with Corey's cousins and other family from around the country.

Check out the great photos. We had a great time and want to say thank you to all who hosted us, planned friendly gatherings, and generally made us feel so welcomed and missed. We really miss you all too and are grateful for all the friends and family that we have back in the USA.

From there...we left "home" and arrived "home" all in the same day, only 6,000 miles and many cultures apart!