HOME SWEET HOME!

We made it!  We are back in Indianapolis in time to give Shallie some love, throw in laundry, repack our bags and head to my 50th high school reunion in Dayton, Ohio!  (Go, Alter Knights!)

Just wanted to say “Thanks” for following along on our trip through Europe!  Sorry for any misspellings, grammatical errors and the like—I literally recapped our day (as quickly as possible) early each morning, and pushed PUBLISH!  No time was taken to go back and edit (obviously)!  And all the food pictures and church pictures—what can I say?  The Diedam family is full of foodies and has a deep history in church renovation!  

What wonderful memories were made with family and friends on this EUROPEAN VACATION!  Oh, the sights we saw!  Thanks again for joining us on this journey!  It’s good to be home!

Much love,

Jani and John

A STOP IN BRUSSELS—NOT!

We’re almost home!  An overnight in Brussels, a flight to Chicago, a flight to Indy, and we will be HOME SWEET HOME!  

Well, that’s how it was supposed to look!  But after three delays, we finally boarded our flight to Brussels…and it was CANCELLED!!! 😳😳😳

We were rebooked on an early flight tomorrow and got checked into a hotel near the airport!  Hoping for smooth sailing tomorrow, as I have a 50th high school reunion to get to!!!

LAZIENKI PARK AND OUT AND ABOUT IN WARSAW!

We set off this morning on a mission—to walk all the way to Lazienki Park, where we were to see lots of peacocks!  It was a beautiful morning for a stroll!  We walked past churches,

and castles,

stopped at a pharmacy,

had a bit of breakfast and a fabulous cup of Java,

went inside a cathedral,

(chandeliers are a thing in Poland cathedrals!),

decided to foregoing confession this time,

saw anti-Putin signs, (couldn’t agree more),

and, finally, made it to the park!  We saw the Frederic Chopin monument and walked and walked and walked!  The park was beautiful!  We kept looking, but didn’t see one peacock.  John even had his bird app playing the peacock call—all we attracted were mourning doves! 😂

We spotted a charming cafe, Trou Madame, in the middle of the woods and decided to stop for a drink. (Only water this time!)

Further into the park we came upon Lazienki’s Palace on the Isle. (But still, no peacocks!)

Our goal, after the park, was to walk to the nearest (not so close, we soon learned) Hop On Hop Off Bus to take us around the city.  After walking halfway there, we ducked into this cute restaurant and had a wonderful lunch!  

And then the rain began!  (And we forgot our umbrellas!) We Ubered it to the closest Hop On Hop Off Bus stop, but for the life of us, we could not figure it out!  John is usually good at this stuff, but even he was clueless!  Where oh where was the bus route sign at the bus stop?

Couldn’t find it, so we looked at the Swietokrzyski Bridge,

and the Mermaid Statue and fountain,

and the river boat and the Stadion Narrodowy, 

and called it a day!  We went back to our hotel room and chilled until dinner!  Our vacation is winding down (we are winding down!) and tomorrow we begin our journey home!  (It must be time, as we were craving Mexican food!)  Fajitas, a Margarita and a beer was the perfect meal to celebrate a phenomenal journey through Europe!  CHEERS!

WARSAW’S PALACE OF SCIENCE AND CULTURE, OLD TOWN, TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, AND FABRYKA NOR BLINA!

John had coffee this morning with an old work buddy, who told him there were three MUST SEE’S in Warsaw!

First, was the Palace of Science and Culture.  We hiked to it from our hotel, took the elevator to the thirtieth floor, where we saw panoramic views of the city.  The palace was erected in the 50’s, during the time that Warsaw was being rebuilt after the war (it’s the older looking building to the left of the modern looking building!).

Some of the skyscrapers reminded us of Dubai!  When we looked closer at the one pictured above, we saw window washers—just like we used to see in Dubai!

Outside, we discovered the where the Ghetto Wall had been.

Next on the list of MUST SEE’S was Warsaw’s Old Town.  So our walk continued!  We walked by beautiful fountains, 

through beautiful parks,

by ruins,

by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (sound familiar?),

by street signs with incredibly LONG names (!),

by a beautiful cathedral (where we stopped to go inside, of course!),

and past many a statue,

until we, finally and at long last, reached Old Town!  It was charming!  The streets were filled with people, music and laughter!

We had lunch at a cafe where we got to sit outside and enjoy all the festivities! (And John got to enjoy all the sausages!)

Dieds expanded his wardrobe yet again at Warsaw’s Hard Rock Cafe! (Yes, he was a Happy Camper!)

After putting in over 5 miles that afternoon, we were grateful that our dinner destination, Fabryka Nor Blina, was close by!  What an awesome place!

And what an amazing dinner we devoured! 😂

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed after dinner drinks (and popcorn, they served POPCORN!!!), and thought about what to do in Warsaw tomorrow!  We definitely will get in the third MUST SEE—a walk through Lazienki Park.  Ahhhh, another great day was had by all!