The End, But Not Finished
A cat and a dog fight. And a rat sees them, and the cat catches the rat.
-Landon
This is our last post! I can't believe it. It has gone so fast for all of us and we all had a great time, I think. It has been 4 mouths and 5 days! I have learned that a lot (of the country's that we have seen) of people don't speak English at all. But it has been a fun and long journey through Europe and Iceland! I have seen a lot of castles in Ireland, Scotland, and England. They were a lot of fun to see and explore. I think that every castle that we went to, Landon always had a lot of energy, Bria too sometime. ;) I have missed you all and will be glad to see you all again!
~Elizabeth~
The above comments are what happens when children are given the freedom to add their thoughts to a blog post. Such is what I came back to after a quick trip to the gas station to vacuum out the car. Thanks guys.
And here we are, the last evening in a home on this side of the Atlantic. We completed our goal. Surreal would be the word of choice for this evening and including the past 4 months. My mind is a whirl of checking items off an imaginary list of things to do as we pack up. It is hard to know what to let behind (a sack of clothes) and take with us (souvenirs of course). Yes, we caved and acquired a small pile of, to us, interesting tidbits. Although that small black, smooth pebble I threw into the hold bag this evening I am not convinced anyone will remember where it came from. I could be wrong, some of them have minds like steel traps for some of these kinds of details.
It is difficult to decide what is my take-away from all this traveling. For certain we met lovely, interesting people from every country we were in. I am not surprised by that, simply another treasured memory to recall with a smile. And hopefully some budding friendships that may stand the test of time and not be erased by the distance apart. And it would be marvelously fun to be able to see some of these acquaintances in PA sometime!
No one of us is able to make a firm decision about which country they would choose to return to if given only one choice. I think I narrowed it down to 6. Lol! Every place has its charm so how is one to make a choice? But if anyone reading this is considering a Europe wedding trip I would certainly recommend the Pickering/Whitby/Scarborough area of England; or Assisi, Italy; or Dingle, Ireland; or Iceland.... OK, I better stop, there are too many places to suggest.
Ah, I am forgetting, I should write about our final destination of sight-seeing today. For the most part, this day was focused on cleaning out, reorganizing and packing bags but in the middle of the day we did make an arrangement to walk to the nearby museum in this small town of Coupvrey, France, (I think I got that spelling right) Maison Louis Braille. Yes, this the hometown of the man who wrote the reading system for the blind called 'braille'. It was quite interesting. The kind gentleman who gave us the museum tour spoke Frenchified English but that was certainly better than my comprehension of French. We all agreed there were numerous times when we nodded our heads as in complete understanding of what he said while truth be told, had no idea what we just heard. The kind gentleman spoke haltingly at times having nothing to do with searching for the English word, rather he did appear that he might have been exceedingly more comfortable seated by a crackling fire with a hot water bottle at his feet, a poultice on his throat and a cup of camomile tea in hand. He apologized a couple times for his indisposition. I felt a bit bad that we had interrupted his day, clearly the only loony tourists out there at this time of year. But he loved his subject, was warmed quickly by our interest, and readily wrote and read braille for us although not blind. Fascinating he was, in short, the most Dicken'sy type character I had ever met, complete with quirky mannerisms, impeccable manners, and a unique niche in the scheme of life.
We each got to try our hand in writing Braille, he pulled out some unusual books with different types of writing for the blind, and we saw the Braille family's living quarters. I loved the sink! (see below) I thoroughly enjoyed it all and recommend the museum to anyone who might find themselves in this tiny French town, Coupvrey, almost a suburb of Paris, France.
And that folks, is our last point of interest to share about.
Now on to the airport...
