New Adventures: A change of plan...

Dear Friends and Family,

Last you heard from us, we were recovering from a very
odd Christmas in south-eastern Spain. Those of you
who don't already know it may be surprised to learn
that we are now back in Oregon, and very busy! We
didn't want to make a general announcement until we
had visited with our parents, and that's why I didn't
mention that the evening of our camping trip beneath
the airplanes in Casteldefels (which I mentioned in my
last letter) we were both rather shocked by a
"positive" indication on a home pregnancy test! Of
course, Sarah didn't sleep at all that night, and as
soon as it was light she shoved me out the tent door
to go get another one, which gave the same indication.

As you can imagine, that was the beginning of a big
shift in our plans. Not only did Sarah soon begin to
feel too "out of it" to enjoy travelling, but we
suddenly had a real need to get back home and "settle
in" somewhere!

We had been staying in a small town called Santiago de
la Ribera, or "La Ribera" for short, which is on the
south end of a strip of coastline dominated by English
vacation-homes and resorts. There we encountered an
English bookstore in our quest for books on the
subject of pregnancy. The proprietor connected us
with an Englishman who manages rental properties in
that area (see www.casacomforts.com if you're
interested), and we stayed in a nicely furnished
apartment on the cliffs above the Mediterranean for
the last two weeks of our stay.

Since Sarah was feeling worse than she had before or
has since, we didn't do a whole lot other than take it
easy. The highlights of our time there included a 360
degree view of New Year's fireworks from the roof of
the apartments, building a sandcastle, and wading in
the Mediterranean. I took a few short trips into the
neighboring city of Torrevieja as well, and was
impressed by the huge street market, the expansive
public nativity scene, and the intricate sandcastles
built by "professionals" on the beach there.

When it was time to leave, we boarded another
inexpensive Ryanair flight, and as the snow-capped
Pyrennes range slipped beneath our plane, the fact
that we were going home finally began to become real
for me. I was sad, because it may be some time before
we are able to travel again, and of course it will
never be the same. At the same time I began to feel
the slightest twinge of excitement which has grown
ever since with the reality of being a father.

We arrived in the London night quite tired, but were
getting very used to going through customs and the
routine of international air travel, and so it went
smoothly. Since we were now somewhat familiar with
London as well we had an uneventful trip to our friend
Heidi's apartment where we "crashed" on the futon.

The next day was our only full one in London this
time. In the morning Sarah and I did some souvenir
shopping for family and friends, and then had a lunch
of "Kebab," one of our new favorites. Sarah was too
tired for anything else that day, but I decided to
take the "tube" down to the Imperial War Museum. My
mechanic's brain was set to whirring by tanks,
rockets, airplanes, and a miniature submarine. I was
amazed by the sheer size of some naval guns mounted in
front of the museum. They must have been fifty feet
long, and with a bore big enough for a child to crawl
into. Finally I made my way through the Holocaust
exhibit, perhaps the most complete and graphic of its
kind. It was very sobering, and I had a thoughtful
ride back through the rush-hour madness of the London
Underground.

That evening we had dinner with Heidi at one of the
ubiquitous chicken restaurants of London. Although
ours was unusual for its spicy Portuguese flavor,
there is an amazing number of fried chicken
restaurants in that area. The amusing part about it
is that most of them have names such as Southern Fried
Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, American Fried
Chicken, and sometimes Halal Fried Chicken...

In the morning we had a long metro ride all the way
across London to Heathrow airport, where we eventually
boarded our British Airways 747, which rolled out from
the gate promptly at the scheduled time. Heathrow is
a huge airport, and we probably taxied for 15 minutes
before rolling slowly to a stop where we sat, and sat,
and sat..... finally the pilot announced over the
intercom that a passenger whose baggage was on board
was not himself on board, and that we couldn't leave
with this situation and would go back to offload the
baggage. We then made the long taxi back to our
departure gate, where we waited for some time before
the pilot announced that instead of unloading the
baggage, they had located the missing passenger, who
would be aboard shortly! We eventually began moving
again, only to find that due to our delay we would
have to use a different, much more distant runway. We
must have lost our place in line as well, because it
was almost two hours after our scheduled departure
time that we actually left the ground. The pilot told
us that they had loaded on some extra fuel and that we
would use it to make up some of the delay, which we
apparently did, since we didn't arrive two hours late.
(I still wonder two things... did they actually fuel
the plane with all the passengers aboard? And...
does this mean that they don't fly as fast as
possible, even on a 10-hour flight? I wonder if
people would be willing to pay for the extra fuel if
they knew it would make the flight shorter?)

When we touched down in Seattle it was raining, and we
have been enjoying the wet Northwest weather ever
since. I have been looking for a job, and we have
been to our first doctor appointment. Sarah got to
see the baby "wave" to her on a sonogram! I was quite
jealous.

Well, that brings to an end our trip to Europe. We
learned a lot, saw a lot, and did a lot which will
stay in our memories forever. If we come to visit you
soon we may bore you with our pictures, which may also
seem to last forever. Perhaps it won't be too long
before we begin to feel the travelling "itch" again,
but for now our thoughts are on how to best prepare
for the new Radford which is scheduled to arrive
sometime around the end of August.

Please keep in contact! Now that we are back "home" I
should have more time for writing, and would really
enjoy more personal e-mails.

May God bless you and yours,
-Dustin, Sarah, and Baby Radford

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________________________
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New Adventures: Headed for some heat...

Dear Friends and Family,

If you read my last e-mail, you will know that we have
been heading steadily south since we arrived. We left
London via a flight to The Netherlands, and from there
went to Belgium, where I last wrote. Fortunately, we
are now in Spain, where the weather is much nicer, and
the keyboard has a recognizable layout!

We spent three nights in Brussels staying in youth
hostels. The weather was quite chilly, and in fact
there was frost on the ground one morning. While we
were there got some new shoes for Sarah, as the boots
(which were sent home) had been hurting her feet.
This was quite an improvement, as we can now be
comfortable walking!

In Brussels we encountered the first of many Christmas
fairs we´ve seen, and perhaps the most impressive.
They have three different cultures there, and all were
represented. It certainly felt like Christmas,
although from what we hear, the weather back home is
much colder! After a light-show on the wall of the
ornate guildhall in the middle of town (which included
a Santa flying through scenes from every European
Union nation... Santa looks a bit out of place
blasting along past Michaelangelo´s "David"), we
snacked on a Keilbasa and traditional hot mulled wine.

Our last full day in Belgium we took a day-trip to the
medieval city of Bruges, which is famous for hand-made
lace and chocolate. If you have ever seen a store
entirely devoted to hand-made lace, it is something
you wouldn´t forget. They can make anything from
elaborate shirts and parasols to tiny lace
butterflies. We also visited a chocolate museum
there, learning about chocolate from the beginning of
its history until the present, and enjoying an edible
presentation of filled chocolates being made right in
front of us. This was definitely a trip highlight for
Sarah!

The next morning dawned misty but not quite as cold.
We took the metro and busses as far south as possible,
then walked out to the Belgian equivalent of an
on-ramp to the equivalent of an American Interstate
freeway and stuck out our thumbs. We succeeded in
getting a ride after about 20 minutes of waiting. We
got out of town to a gas station on the freeway a few
miles down the road and had to wait again. I have to
note that European gas-stops along the freeway are a
bit different than ours. There can be nothing at all
there except the gas station and shop and little
restaurant. You can take a break from driving, get a
beer, and then get back on the freeway. I have
actually seen this happen...

Anyway, our next ride was with a truck-driver who took
us across the French border and into a tiny town just
on the other side. Unfortunately, I forgot my gloves
and hat in his truck. No one spoke English, but Sarah
successfuly bought us train tickets into Paris, and we
left about an hour later, having saved over $100 by
our short stint of, as they say "auto-stop."

We spent almost a week in Paris. Dragging in our
first night a bit late, we went to the¨"Woodstock"
Hostel, recommended in our guidebook. It was amusing,
with half of a Volkswagen "Beetle" with
bumper-stickers pasted all over it attached to the
wall in the lounge. We had a tiny room painted bright
yellow. It was inexpensive, but for the next day,
which was our two-year anniversary, we stayed at our
most expensive hotel to date, on the other side of
Paris. The day after we moved into our home for the
rest of our stay there, the Hotel Bonsejour. Our room
was probably the best in the place, with a tiny view
of the tip of a dome of the Sacre Couer Cathedral from
our window. Unfortunately, it was also on the 6th
floor (although here it would be called 5th, as they
count the bottom floor as zero), up a steep spiral
stairway 94 steps tall. Really interesting, but also
a LOT of work!

We made sure to see the "sights" in Paris, although we
also spent a good deal of time searching for crepes
(very yummy with chocolate/hazelnut "Nutella" in
them), finding a pair of jeans to replace some of
Sarah´s trousers, and looking for a hat to replace the
one I lost hitchhiking. The hat had to say "PARIS" on
it, but just happens to have earflaps and one of those
fuzzy bauble thingies on top.

Of the sights, we saw the "Arc de Triomphe"... what
a monster! Also on the list was the unmissable Eiffel
Tower, most spectacular from a distance at night, when
the entire thing is covered with lights and strobe
lights which make it sparkle on the hour. We spent
most of a day getting to and wandering around the
Louvre. It is so huge, we walked past innumerable
masterpieces, and missed entire wings full or
paintings and sculptures. Although we were ready to
pay the hefty entry price, the admission happened to
be free, most likely due to a noisy demonstration
going on in the lobby... very French??? Anyway, my
personal favorite was the "Winged Victory of
Samothrace," but of course we saw the (surprisingly
small) "Mona Lisa" and (surprisingly large) "Raft of
the Medusa." We also made a point of seeing
Michaelangelo´s "Dying Slave" and were dazzled by the
royal apartments of Napoleon III.

It was still quite chilly in Paris, so we hopped a
Ryanair flight to Barcelona, hoping to find warmer
temperatures. The flight was late at night, and both
airports were a very long way from the cities they
serve. This is, we have found, a hallmark of Ryanair.
We spent the remainder of the night in Barcelona,
where it was markedly warmer, if still not as warm as
we´d like, then headed south again, this time to a
small place south of Barcelona called Casteldefells.
Here Sarah got her first glimpse of the Mediterranean
(I couldn´t miss out on taking a quick dip), and we
camped for the first time on this trip. It also truly
rained that night for the first time...
coincidence??? Unfortunately, the campground, in a
nice area otherwise, happens to be beneath the takeoff
flightpath for Barcelona International Airport. From
early morning until midnight large jets fly almost
nose to tail directly overhead, making for a deafening
nonstop racket. There was no question of moving on
the next day.

We found our next stop, Tarragona, very nice. It is
built on top of and around the ruins of the Roman
capital of their Spanish province. The ruins are
impressive, and include parts of the largest Roman
circus in the world. We had a nice room there above a
restaurant for a good price, and stayed for almost a
week, basically relaxing. Travelling can be very hard
work. Sarah and I both got colds started there, and
needed the break.

We left Tarragona later than planned, headed for the
supposedly warm "Costa Calida." Our first day we
spent on trains, passing through Valencia to Alicanti.
It was an interesting place to stay, although we only
spent the night. Above the city is a fortress built
on the hill, probably (my guess) by the Muslim Moors
to defend against the Christians which were their
nearby neighbors. We also had at least three
belltowers which (out of sync) clanged out the
quarter-hours loudly. One played "Silent Night" every
fifteen minutes! Fortunately they quit at midnight.

We took a crazy bus through probably two hours of
stop-and-go roundabouts to overshoot our hoped-for
stop and end up in a resort town called Los Alcazares.
It is on the Mar Menor, a large saltwater lagoon with
water considerably warmer than that of the
Mediterranean.

Christmas Eve.... What a day! When we arrived, we
noticed that almost everything was closed. There were
bars over the doors and plastic shutters drawn down
over every window. It was like a ghost town! We
searched and searched for a place to stay, but not
only the supermarkets and shops were closed, but also
the hotels! Only one hotel was open, and above our
price range. We skipped it at the beginning of the
search, only to find ourselves too far away to return
later. To make a long story slightly less long, we
ended up staying in the guest bedroom of an old German
fellow who had tried to help us find a hotel! He
spoke almost no English, but chattered all night...
glad for the company I guess. He didn´t wake up by
the time we needed to leave Chrstmas morning, and we
had to climb over his gate to get out!!!!

What an unusual Christmas! We were starving when we
left there, and couldn´t find anyplace AT ALL open!
We finally happened upon an Italian restaurant which
opened two hours prior to their normal hour of 1pm so
we could have some breakfast! We feasted on a spicy
Italian meal... much needed! After an unsuccessful
wait at the bus stop (not many busses Christmas day!)
we decided to splurge and stay at the very hotel we´d
passed the night before. Topped off with a nice
dinner of Pizza (where are we anyway?) and phonecalls
to home, we had a decent, if very unexpected Christmas
day.

Today, with time to spare and relatively beautiful
weather, we´ve moved back a few miles to our original
destination, still on the Mar Menor, of Santiago de la
Ribera. We´ve found a nice hotel close to the beach,
and plan to stay a few days.

Sorry for such a long e-mail, but recently our time
has been very busy with the business of travel, and
internet has been difficult to come by. Hopefully
future e-mails will be shorter and more often.

Merry Christmas!!!

-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________________
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New Adventures: Arrived at least...

Dear Friends and Family,
I am typing from an awful remapped keyboard in
Belgium, apparently someone here is trying to get back
at me for something... perhaps just speaking English.
Anyway, I will keep this short, as it is painfully
slow to type anything.
We arrived without unusual event in London,
exhausted even though we had been fortunate enough to
have three seats to stretch out on for the entire
10-hour plane ride. We spent about a week in London
seeing the sights such as Big Ben, The House of
Parliament, St. Pauls Cathedral, The Tower of London,
and pharaohs and Greek gods galore at the fabulous
British Museum. Of course we also had a generous
helping of fish and chips, or french-fries (which are
both supposed to be eaten with a fork).We stayed with
a friend at her apartment in north London, and the
real highlight of our time there was meeting friends
of hers and seeing "real London" the way few tourists
are priveleged to.
We never did fully recuperate from jet-lag, but
decided to hop a short Ryanair flight to Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, on Wednesday. We arrived late, and
without a clear idea of where we were going to stay.
It was a nasty windy night and somewhere near
freezing. After the bus ride from the airport (which
was free thanks to the driver, who couldnt take the
large denomination which was the only money we had),
we walked 30 minutes to a Guesthouse, similar to a Bed
and Breakfast in the States, but without the
breakfast... Only to find no one home! We stood
freezing on the doormat trying to decide what to do
next, and finally ended up walking all the way back to
the bus station in search of a phone. By then we were
both tired and more than a little grouchy, so we got
into a cab, hoping it could take us to the nearest
youth hostel. The driver had no idea where one was.
Neither did we.
After sitting in his comfortable cab for half an
hour, during which the cabbie made numerous calls to
try to locate a place for us to stay, he finally
called the number listed for the same guesthouse we
had walked to earlier. The owner answered his mobile
phonbe, and informed the cabbie that we could stay,
and that the key was under the very doormat we had
been standing on!
The next day we rented bikes and spent the day
seeing Eindhoven in true Dutch style. This morning we
left our friendly Dutch host with an unpronounceable
name and took the train to Brussels, where we have
just gotten comfortable. The weather is quite cold,
however, and it is likely that we will continue south
soon. I will write more later, but from a more
comfortable keyboard. We have posted some pictures to
our Flickr account (available through the blogsite),
if you are interested.

Until then,
-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________________________
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We've gone High Tech!

Hi there everyone!

If you are one of those gadget and gizmo people, or
just spend plenty of time with your computer, you will
be interested to know that you can now have our blog
delivered directly via your RSS feed to your homepage,
mobile phone, or toaster! (ok... that would be a
very expensive toaster). I'm not a techie, but it was
very simple for me to "Syndicate" our blog and allow
an RSS feed to anywhere. If you are interested (or
have the least idea what this is all about), the blog
is now available via:

http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com/atom.xml

;-)

The days of technology.... wow.

-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________
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