Dieter's ITL videoclip

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Last Day of Europe :(

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 – our last day of 6 months of European travel.

A fantastic cholesterol blood-vessel-clogging English breakfast was enjoyed by all, including the black pudding (blood sausage). Stew was tactfully vague in explaining the contents of the black pudding to Karannina and Alexander. On the plate (photo) there are sausages, bacon strips, a fried egg, grilled mushrooms and tomato and black pudding. A large scoop of baked beans often accompanies this protein-packed breakfast, but not on this day.

I did the number-crunching activity of adding up the cost of the souvenirs in order to determine if we were within the limit. It is amazing how buying a magnet at one site and a book at another site, and a gift at another site, etc., can add up quickly within 6 months. After this task was complete (not my favourite activity), I listened to Stew and Jan explain the lives of their 4 children - dynamic people. Meanwhile, Dieter and the children took turns using the computer to put finishing touches to the blog. Dieter helped to clean sun-room roof with Stew. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and perfect for this activity.

We worked at completing our final packing in preparation for the early drive and flight for the next day.
Jan, Alexander, Karannina and I enjoyed a last ‘Sorry’ game. Message to Jan: We have found in our game cupboard a ‘Sorry’ game in our game cupboard – exactly the same version that you have, except newer, and the directions are written on the cards. This was very exciting to discover!

A tasty curry chicken meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all and now we have a recipe called ‘Curry at Stew and Jan’s’. We then had a time of blessing and prayer and bible reading from Colossians before going to bed. We are allowing a level of excitement and anticipation to develop about ‘going home’.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010: Haggis and Sorting Shells

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 (Alexander): We wake up, have breakfast and have the normal: toast and cereal then head off to the coastal path. Here we find clear Quarts and smoky Quarts crystals in the rock. After we walk to the seals. Here we find tons and tons of fossils. From there we head back to Stew's place. For lunch we have Haggis which is lamb meat ground into tiny balls stuffed into a lamb's stomach. We do our journal, then playing DSI, then supper, then more DSI, then off to bed.

Dad and I breaking rocks to find crystals.

Top of the world - beach combing my way of life.

Castle ruins.

top of hill at coastal path

collected shells

why is grass here in my shirt but not on the beach

higher shore rock

lower shore rock

sea anemone

spider rock

limpets, barnacles

high riding

flowers

Stew and Jan with Haggis.

sorting shells

Monday, June 28, 2010: Garage Painting, House Destructing, Executing

Monday, June 28, 2010 (Alexander): Today is down day. We have a breakfast of cereal then we did some cross-stitching, then some journal work. Stew and Jan ask daddy to paint the garage. So daddy painted the garage while we have fun on www.miniclip.com/games/rubble-trouble/en/ destructing buildings with different tools (missiles, cannon balls, nitro, wreak ball, est...). For lunch, we have Wensleydale cheese. Nina, I, Wallace and Grommit love Wensleydale. After we have fun executing the dead headed roses there are a lot of heads rolling. For supper we have taco salad. We ended the day by watching soccer Brazil-3 vs Chile-1

Wensleydale cheese

Wallace and Grommet's favorite cheese

daddy painting the garage

Sunday, June 27, 2010: (D)

Sunday, June 27, 2010 (Dieter):

Saturday, June 26, 2010: Inverness to John O'Groats and Back

Saturday, June 26, 2010 (Sandra): I would call this a landscape day. We enjoyed the stunning beauty of the northern interior highlands, the farthest eastern point of John O'Groats, and then the coastline of eastern Scotland. A simple granola/yogurt breakfast got us started. The green scenery of the rolling huge hills was amazing. The rolling, curving 'single carriage' roads with passing places were quaint. We saw stone wall ruins and endless miles of stone fences. We stopped and watched a sheep-herding competition. The border collie dogs are so intelligent. Beautiful beaches dot the coastline along the northern and eastern coastlines. Another stop included the demonstration of police dogs at a local animal shelter. The dogs are trained to attack the right hand of the suspect. At one stop Karannina and I picked little daisy flowers and I made her a daisy crown to wear. Throughout the day we developed the habit of screaming whenever we drove over a cattle grid which caused great laughter. Sheep, sheep, and more sheep are everywhere. However, we see no lamb or mutton in the grocery stores and very few items of clothing are made of wool. What happens to all these sheep? We need to investigate. It was rather disturbing to see a Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - a place where it seems they are dismantling the nuclear waste place. We did not do any beach combing nearby for obvious reasons. Scottish people are well known for their whiskey and we saw many distilleries that could be visited by tourists. We listened to the Gaelic radio station and the music sounded similar to the music we hear from the eastern coast of Canada. The day ended with terrific football - a game between U.S.A. and Ghana, with Ghana winning!!!

Mag, the bearded boarder collie.

Alex discovering little creatures.

Picking wild daisy for the daisy crown.

Mom's work being displayed on the Northern Beach of Scotland by the two most beautiful women of the Schönwetter clan. That's what dad says.

The police dog demonstration at the animal shelter.

John O' Groats' - Northern most point of Mainland Scotland.

(Karannina's perspective): Today we spend 10 hours on the road traveling from Inverness to John O' Groats and back taking two different routes. First stop we were able to see a sheep dog (border collies and bearded border collies) contest. A dog with the shepherd's commands using a special whistle is to get the dog to drive three sheep through an obstacle course. One of the dogs that I was able to pet, bit me on the hand (it wasn't that bad). Mag, the bearded border collie, was so focused on wanting to round up the sheep, that when I petted her, she bit me. Next stop we got to see what a police dog's job is: the dog found the hidden objects (cell phone and a wallet) in tall meadow grass based on smell. The dog was also instructed to attack the assailant on the right arm preventing the assailant from attacking. This was part of the animal shelter exhibit. The next stop was John O' Groats. We took a family picture of sign post on the most northern part of Scotland. What was really funny is that there is a person who makes money from tourists by guarding his sign, taking pictures for tourists. Otherwise the sign is vandalized. We were able to take a picture without paying for it - thanks to another tourist. While Alex and dad do the beach combing thing, mom and I buy souveniers; I got a cross-stitch puffin bookmark that I need to make. Sheep, sheep, and more sheep and their lambs, lambs, and more lambs. We had Scotish strawberries and ice-cream for supper. We drive back to Inverness and watch the USA-Ghana football game - yeah, Ghana wins 2-1! Ghana has a really good goalie who saved most of the shots that USA made

Friday, June 25, 2010: A Sad Day

Friday, June 25, 2010 (Karannina): This is a very sad day as we need to leave all the new friends we made at Iona who are dispersing all around the world. As we go down to the ferry, we wave goodbye and give hugs to the many Iona volunteers. At the mainland, we say goodbye and give hugs to the friends we made before we separate, some leaving by bus, bike, and car. We begin our journey to Inverness, a big city near the Loch Ness. Apologies, I did not see any monsters in Loch Ness. But dad claims he did (he's trying to trick me - I think he has been driving too much and the sun is burning his brain). The landscape is very similar to the drive to Iona - the landscape is very enchanting, with the beautiful deep lochs along the route. We watch the Brazil and Portugal game (soccer) in our hotel in Inverness. Finally tv again after one week of no technologies.

Alex super sleuth discovers an ancient carved stone with a symbol of the trinity.

Waves of goodbye as the ferry door closes.

Yorkshire longhorns.

Got to do some more beach combing Dad!

Resurfacing of the single carriage roads.

Yum, jellyfish...

Bye to Iona and the enchanted Western shores of Scotland.