While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and published some of our own.

Because it was so useful to hear from those who have gone before, we want to share some of our recommendations for YOUR trips abroad. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just many of the great things that come to mind when we look back on our year.

Sorry there are no helpful comments here, but we wholeheartedly recommend all of these places and activities linked below (we DID have some disasters and some less-than-ideals, we just left them off the list). If you want the full story, feel free to email us and we will talk your ear off!

GENERAL TRAVEL

AirTreks Round-the-World Airfare

Renault Eurodrive Lease/Buyback Program

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor CityGuides App

HomeAway Rentals

Holiday Lettings Rentals

AirBnB Apartment Rentals

Rick Steves Audio Europe

ICELAND

Iceland Camping Card

Hotel Keilir, Keflavik

Northsailing Whale Watching, Husavik

FRANCE

Hotel Esmeralda, Paris

Le Manoir Quinquis, Bannalec

Cro Bique, rental in Beynac-et-Cazenac

Font-de-Gaume Cave Paintings, Les Eyzies

Beynac Castle, Beynac-et-Cazenac

Transmanche Ferries

ENGLAND

Broadhembury Campground, Kent

Dover Castle, Kent

Farriers Arms Pub, Kent

London Eye

Tower of London

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Helm Lune Cottage Rental, Bowness

Holiday Inn Maidstone, Seven Oaks

Car train through the Chunnel

BELGIUM

Maison Antoine Frites, Brussels

European Union Visitors Centre

SWITZERLAND

Chalet Im Batzenboden, Wengen

Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

CROATIA

Montona Gallery Pizza, Motovun

Perfectly Charming House, Viganj

Antony Boy Camping and Windsurfing, Viganj

Jadrolinja Ferries

ITALY

L’Arcobaleno Apartment, Rome

Il Sorpasso Ristorante, Rome

MOROCCO

Riad Safir, Meknes

Rough Tours Company, Sahara

TUNISIA

Novotel, Tunis

GREECE

Hotel Phaedra

TURKEY

Villa Blanca Rental, Davutlar

Ephesus Archaeological Site, Izmir

Perge Archaeological Site, Antalya

Flintstones Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Red and Rose Valley Trails, Goreme

Sedef Restaurant, Goreme

Hitchhiker ATV Rental, Goreme

Sahkulu Place Apartment, Istanbul

TANZANIA

Nomad Tanzania Safaris

RWANDA

Solace Guesthouse, Kigali

Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali

Meze Fresh Burritos, Kigali

MALAYSIA

Petrosains Science Museum, Kuala Lumpur

Novotel City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

THAILAND

Thailand Elephant Conservation Center

Sojos Cafe, Chiang Mai

Khaomao Khaofang Restaurant, Chiang Mai

Free Burma Rangers

Medici Restaurant, Bangkok

Navalai River Resort, Bangkok

Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

VIETNAM

V’Spirit Cruise, Ha Long Bay

Hanoi Charming 2 Hotel, Hanoi

CHINA

New Day Foster Home Guesthouse, near Beijing

Huanghua Great Wall of China

Olympic Water Cube Water Park, Beijing

Xian HQ Apartments, Xian

Mt Huashan Hike, Xian

Terra Cotta Warriors, Xian

JAPAN

Japan Railpass

Sakara Kyoto Guesthouse, Kyoto

Sakara Gion Machiya Rental, Kyoto

Musashi Sushi, Kyoto

Hiroshima Memorial Park, Hiroshima

Andersen Kitchen, Hiroshima

Toyota Plant Tour, Toyota City

Pepper Lunch, Tokyo

KOREA

Cozy Residence Apartment, Seoul

… AND SOME ORGANIZATIONS WE HAVE GROWN TO LOVE

St. James Muswell Hill, London

Friends of the Lakes District, Kendal, UK

Lakes Christian Centre, Bowness, UK

St. Paul’s Cultural Center, Antalya, Turkey

World Relief Rwanda

Sonrise School, Musanze, Rwanda

Akiba School, Nairobi, Kenya

Light and Power Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

The Ocean Church, Tanzania

Kenya Connection, Kenya

Dave and Lucy Chaves, Nairobi, Kenya

Christ Church Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

International Justice Mission Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Grace International School, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Free Burma Rangers, Chiang Mai, Thailand

New Day Foster Home, China

HAPPY ADVENTURES TO YOU ALL!

We have taken lots of pictures this trip and here are some pictures of my family (and me) taking some of the pictures you see! :)

]]> https://hearingtheechoes.com/picture-taking/feed/ 0 https://hearingtheechoes.com/the-bunker/ https://hearingtheechoes.com/the-bunker/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:35:21 +0000 https://hearingtheechoes.com/?p=1821

We built a stick fort called ”The Bunker”.  It had an outhouse and everything.   It is called ”The Bunker”because When W was breaking down a tree I called to H get in ”the Bunker” because the Bunker is the most protected point in our stick fort.”

I built an outhouse next to the Bunker which is a tiny place with a piece of wood going around to put your thighs on.

We were in Wengen, Switzerland in the Alps when we found some woods and went in it, and it was a two day process.

 

 

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A few days ago ,in Switzerland, we hiked from Wengen down the mountiain Lauterbrunnen where we went to Trummelbach Falls. Trummelbach Falls Is a . waterfall in a cave. We took a elevator (also in a cave) to the first waterfall. The waterfalls were amazing! There were lots of puddles because of the spray coming of of the waterfalls. Some of the waterfalls were not entirely in the cave but they were still amazing. Here are some pictures:

]]> https://hearingtheechoes.com/trummelbach-falls/feed/ 0 https://hearingtheechoes.com/feast-of-yielding/ https://hearingtheechoes.com/feast-of-yielding/#comments Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:24:20 +0000 https://hearingtheechoes.com/?p=1754

Our journey today included: a ride up, up, up on a gondola, lunch (PBJs, salami and ham with butter), some family arguments, an hours-long stroll across a small jag in the Alps, a train ride, coats on then coats off, the sun on our face, and blue in the sky.

But — our journey today was dominated by mostly 360-degree views of MOUNTAINS that seemed to get bigger and bigger and more vast and more magnificent as we neared on the trail. So distant. So powerful. So over us. So scary. So intensely beautiful.

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This screen shot memorializes a crucial dinner prep moment this week in Switzerland. We were aiming high — cheese fondue! — but we needed help with a translation on a food package.

H kindly typed in the French — and voila! — “Pour the contents ….”

Dinner was saved.

JUBILAUMSSCHAU is another new word for us. It means something like ANNIVERSARY SHOW … and, in the case of our Swiss community here in the Alps, it’s the annual COW CUP.

Cow farmers bring their best cows in to town. Each cow is paraded in front of a pair of white-jacketed judges. And championship cows are awarded giant Swiss bells — like the ones pictured above.

Here’s a minute’s-worth of sound from the scene — as moos mixed with traditional Alps tunes.

Cow Cup by jimwildman

We were in the thick of heart-exploding beauty today.

Here are four shots of “our peaks” presiding over the day — from sunrise to sunset.

This is the scene from our World School table today in the Swiss Alps — including some bananas, a handwriting workbook, a dry erase board with coordinates, S’s Bible and devotional book, salt and pepper shakers, a map, a beloved stuffed animal, some pencils, and a pocket knife.

Art of Language class this week has been about reading AND THINKING — traditionally called reading comprehension. The boys read short passages, then answer not-obvious questions and draw conclusions about what they’ve read.

Yesterday, H explained how he worked through a particularly difficult multiple choice question — how he eliminated answers that were obviously not correct. “It’s called ‘slashing the trash.’ Mrs. Russell taught us that last year.”

“Yeah, I learned that, too,” W said from another room.

Mrs. Russell was H’s fourth grade teacher. He rolled his eyes when he explained how their class had “worked so hard” on it.

WAY TO GO, MRS. RUSSELL! This week’s “Slash the Trash” moment reminds me that our boys’ education is not won or lost in one year of iffy teaching ….

Plus — thankfully, there’s this — the work of a far greater teacher.

there’s this:

Good Morning, Swiss Alps!

The view from H’s window:

Sarah and Jean treated us to pure Swiss dinner fare this evening: a meal of RACLETTE.

Artisanal cheese was heated up inside a table-top grill, then poured hot over boiled potatoes … and sweetened with vinegar-heavy baby corn and onions. The adults enjoyed Swiss wine, made from grapes grown just a few miles away.

Here’s how the meal was (gratefully) received:

Thankfully, our hosts have GRACE in spades. We had a good table laugh about the cheese smell … then some of us cleaned our feet on a nearby sofa:

Making memories.