*** Update: Unbelievable!  We have already reached our goal for houses in Kenya!  Thank you so much to all who have donated.  If you were wanting to join the cause but haven’t, you still can…just click here!  There are an abundance of needs in Kenya and we’ll have little trouble finding somewhere to put your help to use*** 

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Our Switzerland stay had run its course and it was time to head to Germany….the land of beer, bratwurst, sauerkraut and more!

Train Mishap:  We needed to catch the earliest train towards Munich so that we had time to stop off and see the castles of Neuschwanstein in route to meeting a friend at the Munich train station.  We arrived at the Zurich station early so we jumped on our train to relax and grab the perfect seat 15 minutes before departure.  For some reason the train started moving shortly after?  This is Switzerland…the land of clockwork.  Trains are precise; rarely leaving late…but never EARLY!  We jumped to the far window and noticed we were one platform over from where we were supposed to be…too late to get off now!

So we’re on the wrong train….no problem.  We’ll just get off at the first stop 5 minutes outside of Zurich and catch one of the many trains heading back into town…wrong.  We happened to jump on the commuter express train to Bern which made no stops for the next hour and we were headed in the complete opposite direction from Germany…oops.  Since we didn’t have tickets for this train we’d have to explain what happened to the ticket checker and hope he was merciful and wouldn’t make us pay for two tickets.  Then we’d have repeat this explanation and hope for mercy once again on the way back to Zurich.  Well, we got extremely lucky — and Taylor missed the opportunity to work her southern charm — as these were the only two trains we took in all of Switzerland that never checked for tickets!!

So all in all we really only lost two hours, but this was going to shorten our castle visit for sure.  When we finally arrived at the castles on the correct train we had less than 2 hours to see them so our only option was an exterior visit.  We hustled to lock up our bags, jumped on a bus, and literally ran up the hill to see one of the most famous castles in the world.  Our visit was short, but we were definitely glad we could still fit it in our schedule after our mishap.  The most interesting nugget of information we found was that King Ludwig was a romantic dreamer and had the castle designed by a painter rather than an architect, which explains the unique, fairy tale look.  In fact, it’s said that the Disney castle is modeled after this one.

Neuschwanstein, aka the “Disney Castle”

View from Mary’s bridge

The gorgeous view of Hohenschwangau Castle.

After a hectic day, we made it to Munich on time to meet a new friend.  Taylor used to work with Erin Gray at Camp Timberline who now lives and works in Germany.  She’s got a German boyfriend named Benedict (Bene) who lives in Munich and he was gracious enough to house us and show us around his city for 3 days.  It was great to have someone who knew the city so well to be our guide.  Straight from the train station he took us on top of building rooftops to see the city skyline and point out the important areas of Munich.

Rooftop view of Munich with the Alps lurking in the background

On day two we drove all over the place with Bene.  We started out with the traditional Bavarian breakfast of white sausages and pretzels (delicious!).

Bavarian breakfast. Mmm…white sausage & pretzels

We then drove to Dachau for a sobering tour of the first concentration camp the Nazi’s ever built.  It was absolutely fascinating to hear and talk about WWII and Nazi Germany with an actual German peer.  Bene had amazing stories about his grandparents, the war, and some insight into what it’s still like for him at times as a descendant of the not-so-distant Nazi past.  Taylor recently read “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom so concentration camp life was fresh in her mind and it was interesting for her to see the real thing.

Dachau entrance reading “Work sets you free”

The crematorium ovens

The Dachau memorial monument

We headed back to Munich and did the classic tourist stop at the Hofbrauhaus for some Spaetzle (mac and cheese with fried onion on top) and German beers.  On Taylor’s family trip to Europe 12 years ago she had been sick on the “Munich day” so it was exciting for her to get to experience the things she had missed out on so many years ago, and this was at the top of her list.  The Hofbrauhaus is a cool place with a lot of history, but it’s not exactly the local’s place as it’s definitely a huge tourist stop.  Bene grew up in Munich and had been there only once in his life before we went.

Beers at the Hofbräuhaus with Bene (look how excited he is!)

Pretzel face!

Nothing like a German band playing while you have a few

We took a stroll around town and then through the beautiful English Gardens where we made a mandatory stop at the man-made surfing wave on the river in the middle of the city.  We headed out for dinner at a local’s place where I ate (more than) my fill of Schnitzle (something similar to chicken fried steak).

The Munich surfing wave

The English Gardens

On our final day in Munich Bene had to work, but he made the suggestion that we take a day trip to Salzburg, Austria.  This had never crossed our minds but we took him up on it…and man were we glad we did.  What Taylor failed to  realize was that a 2 hour train ride would take us to the “The Sound of Music” mecca.  Salzburg was a perfect day trip.  We walked around the beautiful city and visited many of its churches, but what made it so great was how many scenes from the movie were shot here.

The old Salzburg castle on the hill

Terrible backdrop for a city

“The Sound of Music” is quite possibly Taylor’s favorite movie of all time and she was like a kid in a candy store once we arrived.  We weren’t about to pay for the actual tour, but we found all the famous spots ourselves.  We raced around town as I got to watch my wife reenact all of the scenes in their original locations.  I must say, it was pretty cute to see how excited she was all day.

The Asian Van Trapp family singers?

Overlooking the “Do-Re-Mi” steps

“You are sixteen going on seventeen….”

We returned to Munich for one more night of Bene’s gracious hosting (he made our Germany trip so much more personal and relaxing) before our flight the next morning to Greece!  Italy and Greece were the top two countries on our list for Europe when we made our original plans (almost two years ago now!) and it’s crazy to finally be going there now.  Not only are we stoked for Greece, but we’re going to be spending the next 3 weeks traveling with our good friends Chip and Lindsay from New Zealand!  I’m not sure if I’m more excited to be around them or to NOT hear Taylor sing her “Chip and Lindsay” song anymore :)

We’ll send more your way from the Greek Isles!

To see the entire Germany/Austria photo album click here.

If you’re interested in supporting our work in Africa click here!  A huge thanks to those who have already donated!

Back to our travels…

We took a long train ride from Venice to Lucerne, Switzerland and we honestly were not prepared for the beauty that we were about to encounter.  It was, hands down, the most gorgeous train ride we’d ever been on!  The Swiss Alps…welcome to Switzerland.

We went straight to Lucerne because we had plans to stay with some of Taylor’s family friends.  Nancy is from the States and used to work with Taylor’s mom, but she married Bernhard who is Swiss and they now live in Lucerne.  This was a highly anticipated part of our trip for Taylor since a visit to their home 12 years ago is what initially got the travel gears turning in her head (to read how click here).

Nancy and Bernhard were the most adorable, hospitable, and welcoming couple.  They live in an amazing house on a hill overlooking Lake Lucerne and all of the splendor that surrounds it.  We spent 3 nights having a blast and being spoiled to death by our personal tour guides.  Hopefully they enjoyed our presence as much as we enjoyed theirs!

Nancy is the perfect combination of Aunt Paulette and Sharon Balmer!!!

Here are the things we packed into 3 days.  On the first evening we took a stroll from their house into the city along the lake and got a city tour from the resident expert, Bernhard.  That night we had our first Raclette dinner (cheese melted over new potatoes).  We’d already fallen in love with Lucerne by this point and it is now #1 on our list of places we would choose to live outside of America.

Switzerland is absolutely littered with gondolas.  They’re everywhere you look, just beckoning you to take a ride to the top of any peak.  Our second day was reserved for Pilatus, the massive mountain that towers over Lucerne.  It would have been an ideal mountain to hike, but since we were in Switzerland so early there’s still too much snow.  So we got our gondola fix as we took a couple different rides all the way up to the summit.  It was a magnificent day and the views from the top were spectacular.  On our way back down we stopped and had dinner at a cute mountain side restaurant with great views.

Adorable chapel halfway up Mt. Pilatus

Us on top of windy Mt. Pilatus

Dinner on the mountain side

Day three was spent hiking around Mt Rigi.  It was another beautiful day with spectacular panoramas.  After the hike we had lunch and drinks at a restaurant right on the lake followed by a steamship ride back to the house.  That evening we had the quintessential Swiss Fondue for our “last supper” with the Schwaningers.    We’ve loved the cuisine here…cheese, cheese, and more cheese (and followed by a little chocolate, of course – we ain’t complaining!).   We were in mourning over having to continue on our travels because we’d felt so at home with our friends.  We were so thankful for the conversations we got to have and the stories we got to hear and share.

Us with Bernhard and their son Eric on the hike

Typical Swiss home with Mt. Pilatus in the background

Not a bad post hike option

We felt like we were back in Queenstown with the steamships on the lake

From Lucerne we were off on our own again, unfortunately, and headed a few hours south to the town of Interlaken.  I visited Interlaken while in Europe 11 years ago as it’s known as the adventure capital of Europe (much like Queenstown).  I actually went canyoning and bungee jumping here for the first time ever.  We weren’t interested in these activities this time around, as we’d gotten our fill in New Zealand, but made our way there to hike and experience the mountain countryside instead.  There are tons of day hikes all around the Alps in this area.  Unfortunately we only got glimpses of the ridiculous peaks all around because the weather was a bit spotty.

Day one had the worst weather so we hiked close to town to a nearby peak with good views of the city between the two lakes (inter-laken).

On day two we took a train up to the mountain town of Lauterbrunnen.  From there we hiked a beautiful 6 hour loop that included tons of waterfalls throughout the valley.  The clouds were still covering the highest peaks, like the Eiger, but we came to hike and we were able to do that on both days so we couldn’t complain.

Next we headed back north to Zurich where we had plans to stay with another friend for two nights.  Cecile was a friend we met back in Queenstown.  She was in New Zealand to go to English school, but now she is back working in her home country.  We spent our one, full Zurich day walking around and admiring the city and we loved all the clock towers and churches situated right on the water.

We went out for dinner our final two nights in Switzerland to get our last tastes of Swiss cheese.

Post dinner with Eric and his wife Sahar

Last fondue dinner with our friend Cecile

As much as we hate to say it…Switzerland is giving a STRONG case – and challenging our beloved New Zealand – for the most beautiful country in the world.  I’m not sayin…but I’m just sayin.  The difference is that Switzerland is so GREEN!  It’s hard to not be shocked by the beauty when you’re looking at a pristine lake below vivid green fields with bright yellow flowers nestled underneath a gorgeous snow-capped mountain all encased by a perfectly blue sky.  It’s like our eyes just switched to HD mode!  Throw in some cows with their Swiss bells clangin around in front of a typical Swiss home with their shutters and Swiss flag hanging off the porch and it’s not even fair!  It’s stupid beautiful here.  That statement makes no sense…but it makes perfect sense.  Switzerland for sabbatical number two????

We’ll think about it a little more on our way to Germany!  Catch up with you there.

To see all pictures from our Switzerland album click here.

No need to worry.  We aren’t in jail, we aren’t in the hospital, and we haven’t run out of money (yet).  We’re okay…shoot, we’re great!

But in about one month we’re going to be in Kenya, Africa (Taylor’s first time!) and we plan on serving there for about 10 days.  As you all probably know, there is a never-ending need in Kenya, and Africa in general.  I’ve spent a couple summers in the past serving in both Kenya and Uganda and this time we’ll be meeting back up with some old friends from Kenya to work together.  We’re so excited to take a break from our travels—which definitely feel overwhelmingly selfish at times—and work to serve others with our hands…to get dirty, to sweat, and to put our God-given talents and abilities to use.

In 2007 Kenya went to a general election whose result was contrary to the expectation of many voters which thereafter sparked violence across the nation.  At the end of it all, over 650,000 people were displaced from their original homes and over 2,000 lost their lives.  To date they still have loads of families living in IDP Camps (Internally Displaced) and little has been done about the problem.  We’ll be partnering with an organization that works with the community, churches, and individuals like ourselves to provide a roof on the heads of these suffering families.  Our biggest project will be building relocation homes for those affected by the political riots with a focus on homes for widows and orphans.

The OSHA-approved framing

This is where we need your help!  These homes we plan on building are basic, of course, but they provide shelter and safety to families in need.  The cost of construction (wooden framing and tin roof) is right at $400 per home.  Our goal is simple…one home each day.  You’ve followed our blog faithfully, you’ve hopefully enjoyed our story, and we’re hopeful you want a piece of the story for yourself.  Taylor and I met through the Invisible Children organization whose motto has shown its power to us…“a whole lot of littles make a lot.” We’re hoping to raise a total of $4,000 and we think it’s attainable.  There are no gifts too small.  If $5 is what you can offer…it will be well used in Kenya.

The roof is the most expensive part

Any money that you donate to our Kenyan cause will go directly to the work on the ground.  It will not go to us or be used for any of our personal expenses.  We say that because we feel it’s important to make clear.  We need help funding the work…not the workers.

If you’re interested in teaming up with us we’d be extremely grateful, as would our Kenyan counterparts.  Enough people have been reading this blog to raise $4,000 fairly quickly because everyone’s “little” will add to a lot.

The final product…picture us in the background :)

So that your donations can be tax-deductible (and because it’s difficult to coordinate fundraising while out of the country) we’ve set it up for you to donate through our friend Judy Pitt’s non-profit organization called Kaze Yaki.  Judy is the woman that I went to Kenya with originally way back in 2004 and she’s been back yearly to serve there.

Here are the 3 easy steps to donate (MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THREE!)

1.  Click Here (or type in the address: https://kaziyake.donortools.com)

2.  Enter the amount you’d like to donate at the bottom (you don’t have to have a paypal account!  You can use a credit/debit card on the next page)

3.  VERY IMPORTANT!!!  Judy needs to know your money is specific to our project so:

You Must Send Her An Email: (jpitt@wkre.com) looking something like this:

“My name is _________ and I just donated $___ to Michael and Taylor’s work in Kenya.”

Done… now wasn’t that easy?

We’re excited to be able to join with you in this and we look forward to showing you how your help has been put to use on the ground in Kenya!

Thanks so much for reading and considering.  Tales of Switzerland coming soon…

Michael and Taylor

We left the Amalfi coast headed north to take on the Tuscany portion of our Italy adventure.

Funny Story:  From Sorrento we took a train back up to Rome for a night before we caught an early morning train further north to Florence.  We stayed in a dingy little hostel right near the train station for cheap.  But we got lucky as we had a 5 bed dorm room all to ourselves for the night…so we thought.  As we were sleeping we were awoken at midnight by the lights coming on to notice an elderly man coming in to our room with his luggage.  Our dorm was now a room of 3…and our new roommate was AT LEAST 85 years old!  Now this was a first.  It was quite odd as he made tons of noise getting ready for bed and mumbled to himself in Italian.  Taylor was a bit freaked out as she said to me “Michael, I think he’s crazy and is going to kill us.”  I reassured her that I was certain I could take him if it came to blows.  By the looks of his stuttered shuffle across the floor he didn’t exactly “float like a butterfly” anymore.  What he did do was snore the night away, just as you’d expect any 85 year old man lying on his back to do (smacking him with a pillow just didn’t seem right).  In addition to the snoring he made at least five bathroom trips in the 6 hours we were in the room with him.  We couldn’t stop laughing at random moments the next day asking ourselves “What in the world happened last night?”

Back to our travels.  We arrived in Florence midday and only had about 24 hours to see everything we wanted to see.  But first things first, we had another friend to meet!  Sophie is a CSU student who happens to be studying in Florence for the semester.  She used to be a camper at Camp Timberline (where Taylor worked for a few summers) and was always Taylor’s favorite kid.  When we found out she was in Florence we made it a point to meet up.

Hanging out with Sophie in Florence

It was so great seeing her.  First of all, she’s hilarious and had us laughing the whole time, and second of all it was just the dose of home we needed.  We ate lunch together and got caught up over burritos.  Burritos…no big deal.  Wrong.  Big deal.  We’ve been craving American style burritos (like Qdoba!) for the last 10 months.  When we were introduced to this place in Florence that had AMAZING chicken burritos we ended up eating there 3 meals in a row (and a fourth a few days later)!

There were only a few things we HAD to see in Florence starting with the Duomo.  The Duomo was one of my favorite churches from my time in Italy before and I realized why upon seeing it again.  It’s such an iconic church in Italy because of its unique exterior and the way it dominates the city skyline.  You can find the dome from almost anywhere in town.

The Duomo

Dominating the skyline

The Ponte Vechio is just a really cool looking bridge that is iconic to Florence.

Ponte Vechio

Some would say the Uffizi museum and the David statue are a must see in Florence as well.  We were prepared to skip them because we just can’t handle paying so much to see a statue or tons of paintings.  That might be borderline blasphemy, and may the Lord smite us if it is, but that’s the honest truth.  Luck would prevail once again as we unknowingly showed up in Italy at the perfect time.  It just so happens to be cultural week meaning that all government-run museums, ruins, etc are all free!  In Rome we got to go into the castle of San Angelo for free (something we wouldn’t have paid for), we got to do Pompeii for free (something we would have paid for), and in Florence we got to go into the Accademia to see Michaelangelo’s famed David for free!

So in 24 hours we felt like we’d done what we wanted to do in Florence and were ready to move on to the highly anticipated Cinque Terre region.  For those who don’t know, Cinque Terre is basically 5 cliffside towns on the northwest coast of Italy all connected by a gorgeous hiking trail.  Unfortunately there were some really bad mud slides in November that damaged a couple of towns and wiped out the trail between them.  Couple that with a 24 hour train strike and we were in a bit of a pickle as to how to see all 5 towns in the two days we had.

But we found a way to make it work.  Our first day there we took the train from the town where we stayed, Riomaggiore, to the far end and hiked between Vernazza and Monterossa where we grabbed dinner and returned before the strike began at 9pm.

Vernazza (the worst hit by the mud slide)

Classic Travel Story: Way back in Leon, Nicaragua we did a volcano boarding trip and met a Swiss couple there.  We briefly discussed how they would be back in Switzerland when we came through (about 9 months later!) and we should try and meet up.  Taylor and I were just talking about how we should contact our Swiss friends Martina and Elias because we’d be heading to Switzerland soon.  All of a sudden, we didn’t need to contact them anymore, because Martina was walking right by us in the tiny town of Monterossa in Cinque Terre!  We couldn’t believe we just happened to be in the same small town at the same exact moment for the second time, completely randomly, in 9 months.  These sorts of things just happen when you’re traveling.

Surprise reunion with our Swiss friend, Martina!

The next day we did an out and back hike because of the train strike.  From Riomaggiore we headed to Monarola on the “Lover’s Lane” section of the hike.

Our town – Riomaggiore

Lover’s Lane

From there we then bypassed the coastal track (because it’s washed out) by climbing up high on the mountain before descending back down to the town of Corniglia.  The mountain hike was magnificent as it offered views down towards the towns that you just don’t get from the coast.

Hiking along the mountain trail through vineyards

Our favorite town – Manarola

In Corniglia we ate our classic, cheap Italian lunch (tasty bread, flavorful cheese, and a few slices of pepperoni) on a balcony overlooking the Meditteranian before returning back home.

So we managed to see all 5 towns and do a good bit of hiking all while timing it up well with the train strike so that we weren’t really affected.  In fact, it actually made things better because it split up the hiking days and forced us to take the mountain trail.  What an incredible 2 days!

From Cinque Terre we took a train to Lucca, which quickly became our favorite small town in Italy.  While riversurfing in Queenstown I took a couple down the river who raved about Lucca, Italy when I told them we were traveling to Europe.  When I found out it was just outside of Florence we decided to give it a chance…and we’re so glad we did!  This town is basically an old, walled-in city.  The old walls are still in fantastic shape and there’s even a walking/biking path (4 km around the city) on top of the wall!  There’s hardly any cars inside the walls and all the locals get around by bike.  It’s fantastic…and totally our type of town.  We rented bikes and rode around the wall taking in the sites of the town from up above.  We at lunch, read books, and relaxed in the sun perched high up on the wall.  Then, if that weren’t enough, we took one more late night stroll on the wall because it was a beautiful night.  It was an adorable town!

Favorite city in Italy – Lucca

Not a bad afternoon

From Lucca we headed east to our final Italian destination: Venice!  We decided to stay at a hostel on the mainland instead of on Venice island as it was far cheaper and only a ten minute bus ride away.  When we arrived our first evening we headed straight into Venice to see the city at night.

The following two days consisted of us walking around Venice and allowing ourselves to get lost wandering through the canals and neighborhoods.  I wouldn’t say that we “did” a ton in Venice other than that, but we had a very fun, romantic, relaxing time there to conclude our Italy stay.

Rialto Bridge

St. Mark’s Square

On our last evening we closed out the country in true Italian fashion at a small restaurant with the most amazing, cheap pizza/calzones and $1 glasses of wine…Italy at its finest.

One last taste of Italy

What an amazing country!  We’re sad to leave it behind, but we’re off to the mountains of Switzerland.  We’ll be visiting the Swiss family that got the travel gears turning in Taylor’s head 12 years ago!

To see the entire photo album click here.