Hammond World-Wide Tour 2011 Part I

Exactly one month in Europe...


We've now been here one month and feel like we've done so much already. We started by flying in to London and spent 5 days with some family friends in their cottage in a little village called 'Henley on Thames'. Our hosts were SO generous; we are so grateful for all they did for us.
Rather than going over every single thing, we can save some of your and our time by just including some highlights!!

London, Henley, Oxford, U.K.

Across from the Parliament Building and Big Ben in London

Our lovely cottage in Henley. So quaint, but really modern on the inside. It was incredible!
Our last day in London we rented bikes (for 1 Pound all day) and had a blast going all over London!
Henley on Thames


This is the old Oxford castle.

Rome, Florence, Venice, Italy

Italy was AMAZING. So beautiful and absolutely incredible. We first went in to Rome where we spent two full days running around from the Coliseum, The Pantheon, Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, Treve Fountains and more. It was lovely.


The Pantheon at night
Top of the Pantheon. We thought this one was fun...

Sistine Chapel ceiling. They say to not take pictures, 'but everyone was doing it'... so we did too..

Next we went to Florence and spent a couple days there. Florence is really cool- a little mix of Venice and Rome all put in one beautiful little place.




Lastly we went to Venice. Venice is an absolute MUST SEE... But only for a day or so. We're so happy to have gone there and experienced it, but feel like we definitely see it all in a short period.

Berlin, Germany

Germany was.... thought provoking. We were only there for a couple days, but after all that we learned, it was almost enough. So moving. We took a bike tour of WWII history sights. It wasn't quite what Craig had hoped for (he wanted more meat), but still very, very cool. We saw everything from the Wall (ya, ya, ya, NOT WWII), to the Topography of Terror (SS sight) and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was a wonderful learning experience. To learn and see WHERE things happened was inspiring... in maybe a twisted way... Maybe after letting it settle for a bit, we can edit this to express our take-aways and experience.

Did you know that there were 44 attempts to kill Hitler? 44 TIMES?! Crazy! This led him to believe he was some sort of God-like figure. Terrible, terrible. This is where Von Stauffenburg was murdered. He led one of 44 murder attempts on Hitler's life. His story was made famous by the movie Valkyrie. In fact, in the movie it shows the square just like this.
Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was very modern and critiqued quite a bit. It was really modern, but in a really weird way, was very thought provoking and moving.
This doesn't look like much, but in the 30's was the Jewish quarters and the square where the ONLY successful protest took place during Nazi rule.
Megan reading the atrocious horrors performed by the SS. This gave a very moving history of the SS and Nazi Germany.

We considered taking a picture straight down at the ground, and although this is just about as random, this shows better the surrounding area. This is the site of Hitler's bunker and right about under that red car, is where he took his own life, quickly leading to the unconditional surrender of the Nazi's leading to peace in Europe. Ultimate sacrifice by so many for it to all end by a coward 8 meters under the ground right here. So sad and so wasteful.

Lastly, of the wall. Although perhaps not as documented or publicized as Nazism, the USSR really was a horrible regime. Socialism is not the way, nor will it ever be and we can only pray our country derails from its move to a government that eliminates accountability and agency from its citizens.

We are absolutely loving Europe. We have been in Prague now for nearly 3 weeks now. Stay tuned for the images and experiences from here! We love and miss all of our beloved family and friends back home!

Mucho Amor.