I travelled to India with my daughter Bethany in 1997. We had an opportunity to visit India as part of Mennonite World Conference. Andrea and I decided we shouldn’t both go and that the other children were too young for this part of the world.
My trip with Bethany went through Amsterdam on the way there. It was about a 7 hour flight to Amsterdam and then another 11 or so hours to New Delhi. See my Asia Travel page for more on this trip to India. After the long flight back to Amsterdam, we took a few days to tour The Netherlands and flew home on day 17 or 18. We rented a car and drove around the large lake within The Netherlands. We stopped at a church in Haarlem where Mozart once played. We stopped at the birthplace of Menno Simons, Witmarsum and stayed overnight at a resort a few hours outside of Amsterdam. Since we were jet lagged we went to bed very early and got up so early, we just got in the car and went onto Amsterdam. So much for the pool and other amenities of the resort! We stayed near the Rijksmuseum after stopping by the Ann Frank museum. All in all it was a great trip and started a tradition within our family where one parent would travel with one child when they were in Grade 8. Andrea took Abby to Europe in the year 2000, covering many countries and including the Oberammergau Passion play.
In 2002, it was my turn to plan a trip with Will. He liked the idea of Italy and Greece. We saw the Vatican and Coliseum in Rome, climbed lots of clock towers, saw the leaning tower of Pisa, took a fast ferry to Greece, saw the home of the original Olympics, the Parthenon and saw preparations for the modern Olympics to be held in Athens in 2004. We also had a Mediterranean cruise that stopped at several islands and also Turkey, where we say the ruins of Ephesus. It was a great trip!
We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in Madeira and Lisbon, Portugal. I had purchased an old travel book on Madiera at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese festival library sale. It was an amazing place and a fantastic trip. We even took its famous “toboggan ride” down the mountain.
Five years later we took a cruise to the Canary Islands, Spain. We left from Malaga, Spain and took a day trip to Granada to tour a 12 century castle. Other than a touch of food poisoning, this was another great trip. It included a stop at Madeira and three of the Canary Islands. Each were unique and very interesting. We did this trip with friends, Steve and Marj.