Walking the El Camino and other European destinations: Melissa Reid Truax and Rebecca

Welcome to "Women of the Northwest," a podcast where we dive into the lives and stories of women who embrace adventure, curiosity, and the joy of discovery.

 In this episode, join host Jan Johnson as she sits down with Melissa Reid Truax and her daughter Rebecca  to recount their unforgettable summer travels across Europe.

From the bustling streets of Spain and Portugal to the tranquil beaches of the Mediterranean, Melissa and Rebecca share vivid stories of their journeys. Hear about their experiences navigating foreign cultures, tasting exotic cuisines, and the unexpected challenges they encountered along the way.

But it’s not just about the destinations—this episode explores the deeper connections forged through travel, the personal growth that comes from stepping outside your comfort zone, and the lasting memories created with friends. Whether you’re an avid traveler or someone looking for inspiration, these candid conversations will leave you eager to pack your bags and explore the world.

Tune in for tips, laughs, and heartfelt reflections on what it means to live a life full of adventure, all told through the lens of women who truly embody the spirit of the Northwest.

Subscribe to the Women of the Northwest podcast for inspiring stories and adventures.
Find me on my website: jan-johnson.com

Transcript

[00:01] Jan: Are you looking for an inspiring listen, something to motivate you? You've come to the right place. Welcome to women of the northwest, where we have conversations with ordinary women leading extraordinary lives. Motivating, inspiring, compelling. Okay, here we are, women in the northwest, our adventure series. I have Melissa Reed and Rebecca Reed here to tell about their adventures this summer and how much fun they had. So, because they were a real adventure, way more than I have done, I think, in my life. The best thing about Facebook, yellow pictures, right?

[00:51] Jan: Yeah.

[00:51] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[00:52] Melissa: Okay.

[00:52] Jan: Welcome, Melissa. Thank you.

[00:55] Melissa: Welcome, Rebecca.

[00:56] Rebeckah: Thank you.

[00:59] Jan: So where did you go first? You want to start?

[01:04] Rebeckah: We went to Spain, Portugal, France, Denmark, Switzerland, the Vatican. I always get stuck there.

[01:15] Jan: Italy. Germany. Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

[01:21] Rebeckah: Belgium.

[01:21] Jan: So if you count the Vatican as a country, that was ten countries in approximately two months this summer, and it was the Olympics, the Olympic Games in France. So we were there before they happened, and then we caught the tail end of them on the far end. And that was lots of stories about that, too. Very interesting. Oh, my gosh. And, of course, interrupted. There was the terrorism act in the northeast, in the Garde du Nord, that interrupted all of the train travel throughout Europe. And then there was that supposed upgrade to Verizon that knocked out Verizon for half the world. That happened while we were over there. And then there was arson. And the Berlin train station, we were trying to get there so the train from Switzerland wouldn't take us all the way there. We had to get off. That was an adventure, and most of it, resiliency. Where's the other path? What are you gonna do next? Yeah, well.

[02:13] Melissa: So where did you go first?

[02:15] Jan: We started off in Paris, and then we took a train up to Amsterdam, and that was with the kids grandmother, my mother-in-law. And you want to say something about that, Vic?

[02:26] Rebeckah: We went to the aunt Frank house.

[02:28] Melissa: What was that like?

[02:30] Rebeckah: It was a lot of stairs. A lot. A lot of stairs.

[02:35] Melissa: And you were familiar with her story?

[02:38] Rebeckah: Well, I haven't actually read it, the book, but I have heard about it, so my brother read the book in 8th grade, so I'm going to read that soon.

[02:48] Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. And now that you've done that, that'll make a lot more sense, too.

[02:53] Jan: Yeah. They were busy building a bicycle garage. I think that's supposed to house 12,000 or 20,000 bikes, because there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than there are people. Everybody has two or three, and they have to dredge the canals every year to get the bikes out of the canals because people imbibe and then ride their little bikes home and sometimes they don't make it. That was kind of funny.

[03:17] Rebeckah: We saw a couple sticking out of the mud and we were just walking by.

[03:21] Jan: And tourists lose their phones into the canals all the time, so don't put your phones in your back pocket if you're going to go on anything near a canal.

[03:29] Rebeckah: You dropped your water in the canal.

[03:31] Jan: Yeah, I dropped my water bottle in the canal. And here's another one. Don't fish it out. We'll get it later. Very friendly people, very nice, very organized, good public transportation.

[03:47] Melissa: And windmills.

[03:49] Jan: Oh, and the windmills. Did you know that those big, old-fashioned windmills, they actually turn in the wind? I've always wondered if they could. They look so huge, but they do. They're on a base over four ball bearings that are like cannonball, but bigger. I can't remember what the diameter was. And if they don't turn once every two weeks, they'll flatten them and then they'll never turn again, which is why we're down from, I don't know, the thousands they used to have to, I can't remember how many, but in the hundreds at this point, because so many have been flattened because they didn't turn. So that's part of the miller's job nowadays, is to make sure if the wind's not blowing in different directions and turns it itself, he's going to have to go out there and turn that windmill to make sure it's still viable. They still use them.

[04:33] Melissa: I wonder how hard it is to turn.

[04:35] Jan: Yeah, I can't imagine. I don't know. Can't be too hard if the wind. Although we know wind can be strong.

[04:43] Melissa: So what was. Tell me about your long walk.

[04:48] Rebeckah: That was a lot of walking.

[04:49] Melissa: How far was it?

[04:52] Jan: So it's the Camino de Santiago and you can walk, I think, the total thing. Well, so the camino starts from your front door? That's the whole idea. However, we did not start at our front door because swimming across the ocean would be a little bit tricky and would take way longer than we had. So we started in a.

[05:10] Melissa: And then you could, you know, be the first people to walk on water.

[05:13] Jan: Right, other than. Yep. Yep. So we took a train out of Paris down south into France, and started in Astrogate, which is a little town along the Camino. And it's a very well-known hiking path. People walk it all the time. The idea was Santiago, which is the Spanish version of James, one of Christ's disciples, made it all the way there. And that's where he did his discipleship. But at some point decided he was going to go back to Israel. And I don't know what he was going to do there. But Herod killed him. He had him beheaded. And so then his followers brought his body back to Santiago to bury it there. And that's how the Camino started. That's how the path started. And so the most popular one is the, the French way. And we. And I think it's. I think it can start in France. And it's 580 km if you do that. Or I should know this. Miles if you do that. Kilometers. Miles. We walked around 125 miles. A little more. Over 125 miles.

[06:16] Melissa: In how many days?

[06:16] Jan: In twelve days. And it was amazing. Rebecca's twelve. I am 50. Rebecca's young and strong and plays soccer. And I am a large lady. And it was quite an interesting time.

[06:34] Melissa: What kind of sheath did you have?

[06:36] Rebeckah: I had haka.

[06:38] Jan: They were blue. I don't know. They were good. And I walked the entire way in my cane sandals. And they were so comfortable and wonderful. I did put on socks one day when it was raining. I was worried about the rubbing, but for the most part I was just in my sandals. My canes.

[06:55] Melissa: Blisters.

[06:56] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[06:57] Jan: She got one on her little toe and I got one on each of my little toes and then one on my second toe as well. And they have this thing called compeer over there. And it's like stretchy silicone that you pop your blister with a big enough hole that it'll continue to drain. Or you can leave the thread in there if you use a needle and thread and then you wrap it in the compeer, which are, they're kind of like bandages, but little bandages. And then they're stretchy and it's like a second skin and it's wonderful. We just kept walking.

[07:26] Rebeckah: Yeah. They have pharmacies everywhere, too.

[07:29] Melissa: Well, that was probably. They probably learned that they needed to have those.

[07:33] Jan: Yeah. And we were quite thankful.

[07:35] Rebeckah: They have a lot of cats everywhere, too. Yeah. Very interesting. But it's like everybody owns the cat.

[07:42] Jan: Yeah. We have a lot of pictures of Rebecca with cats and Rebecca with cows. Yeah.

[07:50] Melissa: So how many hours a day did you walk?

[07:55] Rebeckah: A lot.

[07:56] Jan: We started. We usually tried to hit the trail by 08:00 in the morning. Some people get up earlier than that and we stop and eat, I don't know, ten, 3011 and then get going again. And usually we'd get to where we needed to be by four or five some nights. Not until six or seven kind of depended on the trail. The trail was different everywhere. It wasn't a hiking trail per se, that like, you know what you're getting and you're just gonna hike for a long while. I mean, we were on shale that was, you know, breaking, crumbling off under us. We were on roads. Roads. We were on like logging paths or logging tracks, you know, cobblestone. There was cobblestone.

[08:36] Rebeckah: You were in some fields too.

[08:38] Jan: There were some that the bushes were touching your shoulders as you walked through. I wish that I had a hedge trimmer or something that I could just do this for people. No, one thing I wish we would have brought, except they're heavy, so I'm glad I didn't. That was the thing. The first place that we stayed, we had a Portuguese Albergista. So the Alberques are the places that are dedicated to taking care and letting you sleep at their place along the trailhead. That's the word in Spanish. And this is the one that we started out at. Astorga was Portuguese. And she brought out her statue of Santiago and she said, what is he missing? And what was he missing?

[09:13] Rebeckah: His backpack.

[09:14] Jan: Yes, and he was missing his backpack. And she said, what did she say?

[09:18] Rebeckah: If you didn't have one, you don't have to either.

[09:20] Jan: Yeah, he didn't carry a backpack. Why would you carry a backpack? €4 gets your backpack anywhere within the next 45 km, which we did not want to walk more than 45 day. We were kind of happy around twelve, but some days we did up to 28, I think was our longest day.

[09:38] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[09:39] Jan: And so we would send our backpacks ahead, which meant we had to get to where our backpacks were at the end of every day. And that, you know, strategic. Yeah, I don't know.

[09:50] Melissa: Yeah. It's like I'm getting tired of whether I go that.

[09:53] Jan: Yes.

[09:54] Melissa: So how did you plan where you were staying?

[09:56] Jan: Every day we'd kind of look at what the map was and say, we think tomorrow we're going to get to here. And so we would call ahead or have our Alberta make a phone call for us and say, hey, can we stay at your place tomorrow night? And because we were traveling with a twelve-year-old and a 15 year old, we didn't necessarily want to be in the big Albergue because those can. Well, I think people settle down at some point, right? Because they're all tired and they're all walking miles and miles. But we were also toward the end of the path and the last hundred kilometers is where all the other paths start to kind of come in number one. And number two, you only have to do the last hundred or so kilometers to get your Compostela, your official certificate. And so that's where all the partiers come in, too. I mean, we had busloads of middle school, high school kids coming by us with their music on those last couple of days. And it got to where we actually didn't want to start at 08:00 a.m. because everybody kind of started at 08:00 a.m. we kind of want to just let them get ahead of us and not have to deal with them walking through. So those Alberques were not Alberques. We really wanted to stay in, so we just. We stayed in smaller places. So it was probably more expensive than it had to be, but it was worth it because you had your own experience, which is what the Camino is all about. Everybody has their own Camino.

[11:14] Melissa: So was a lot of a hilly or flatter kind of mixed?

[11:18] Rebeckah: Yeah, a mix of all of it, yeah. I was wondering, just walking downhill the entire time, that was not very fun.

[11:25] Jan: It was brutal, really. It was so steep, and it was so hot. And you're walking through dry riverbeds and.

[11:34] Rebeckah: Through rocks like, or in the ground.

[11:38] Jan: Yeah, yeah. Then there was the mud bog, and that we. I mean, it just was never the same for more than maybe an hour.

[11:45] Rebeckah: Sometimes you have to, like, walk through, like, a creek, jump from rock to.

[11:50] Jan: Rock, and it was all downhill that day. And by the time we got to the bottom, different muscles. Oh, man, we were aching. But we got into a place called Molina Seca, and that's where the end of the trail was for us that day. Some people did that and continued on. We were done, and thank goodness we had our bags there and had reservations, but they had. And it was because they had a river going through it where we knew some people swim. And you know us, we love water. Pacific Northwest. And so I had made sure we had, like, we were stopping there no matter what else was happening that day. And thank goodness, because it was incredibly hot. It was probably 105 degrees easily. While we're hiking down this hill with no shade, it was gross and hard. And then we get down there, and we see people in the river, but not really swimming in the river. They're kind of wading, and I'm thinking, is that because of the big current? Is it dangerous? Well, when we hit the water, Becca, why weren't there a lot of people in the water?

[12:46] Rebeckah: It was kind of cold.

[12:49] Jan: I mean, it was glacial melt cold hypothermic cold. And I think that's what allowed us, though, to continue on the next day, because we were all so sore and so hurting. And then we all got in this water.

[13:02] Melissa: It's like being iced.

[13:03] Jan: Oh, yes. Yes. And then back out to sit on the wall. That was so hot. And then the warmth seeps back into you and then back into ice. So I think that's what, the next day, we got up, and we. I wasn't sure we'd be able to walk the next day. And we all did. We just kept going. It was fine. Yeah.

[13:20] Melissa: And where did you find to eat?

[13:23] Jan: Not a field that way.

[13:24] Melissa: There are just places just along the way.

[13:27] Jan: Yeah.

[13:28] Rebeckah: Just like, little towns. You just walk like, a mile, 2 miles. You'd find another town, you'd walk more other town. But they're little. Little towns, and so. Yeah. And then they're, like, on the path, there's just little restaurants on either side of you.

[13:42] Jan: And they had this, like, egg thing, tortilla. And the first time they wanted to give us tortilla for breakfast, I thought, oh, that's not gonna be enough. We're hiking here. And then they brought it out, and it's this thick, fluffy, lovely. Looks like a piece of pie or cake. And it's potatoes and eggs and onions. A lot of times. Souffle, kind of like a souffle, but dense. Oh, they were so good. I've tried to recreate them, and I haven't done a great job yet, but I'm not done yet. We'll see. We'll see.

[14:14] Rebeckah: Some people were doing it on unicycles, the Camino.

[14:17] Jan: Really?

[14:18] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[14:19] Jan: There was one guy who claimed it was his second time. I will say I noticed him pushing more than he was riding, but there were four brothers who were doing it, five brothers who were doing it together on unicycles. And those young men, they were riding.

[14:31] Rebeckah: They were, like, riding uphill, but they.

[14:34] Jan: Had kind of fancy unicycles. They had brakes on them, and. Yeah, I think somebody was doing it.

[14:41] Rebeckah: On a camel, too. Or not a camel. A donkey.

[14:44] Jan: There was a young man with his girlfriend, and he was walking it barefoot, and she was riding the donkey he was leading. And they were camping out and trying to recreate Christ's journey, or Mary and Joseph's journey to Christ's birth in Bethlehem on the Camino. And they didn't catch up with us. We never did get to see them. But you hear all these stories about the other people walking that get passed along. There was one lady who was 82, and she was from the Canary Islands, and we heard about. I had heard about her a couple different days, and then the next to the last day, no, the last day, I ran into somebody from her small group. They were seven of them, I think, that had come together, and they weren't together. They just were from the same little village. And she just signed up along with everybody else. And so she'd gotten really bad blisters the day before, and the person I was talking to was saying, we told her she just needed to stay and wait an extra day, and we would wait with her. It was okay. We wouldn't mind. We just changed the plane tickets. We got this, and she looked at us and she said, are you kidding me? I have not taken care of other people's children all of my life and saved my pennies to walk on the Camino, to not finish up on the day. I'm going to finish up. You all are welcome to stay behind, but I'm walking today. And we got to meet her, and we even got to see her at Santiago de Campostella. Makes me kind of teary, which she finished. It was really cool. Yeah. So anybody can do it.

[16:09] Melissa: We had all kinds of interesting people on the way.

[16:12] Rebeckah: Yeah, definitely.

[16:14] Jan: You want to tell her about one?

[16:15] Rebeckah: The dude from, like, Switzerland.

[16:17] Jan: Uh huh. What about him?

[16:19] Rebeckah: He was very interesting. Yeah, I know. That's kind of it. Well, then there was that lady.

[16:25] Jan: Which one?

[16:27] Rebeckah: The lady that Miss Holly liked. Like, do you want to walk with her?

[16:31] Jan: Oh, from Australia? Yeah, there were a lot of people.

[16:34] Rebeckah: From Australia and a lot of people from Korea.

[16:38] Jan: Yeah. Apparently somebody from Korea went and did the Camino and then went back and wrote a book. And it's very popular, and it's such an amazing thing that if you are korean and you do this, you can put it on your resume, and it will. It's a bonus on your resume. It makes you look really good, and people are more likely to hire you. Uh huh.

[16:56] Melissa: Perseverance.

[16:56] Jan: Yes. Perseverance. Yeah. So they tend the ones that the Koreans that we saw all had silver umbrellas that were reflective, and they held their umbrellas, and they had a little podcast in, I think, of the book. As they were walking the piece that they were walking, they were listening to that section of the book, and they would take little side paths and do little things that, you know, we didn't know to do because the guy that did it from Korea did this, and so they do the same thing. And it was really an interesting cultural piece. That we didn't expect. It was kind of cool. Everybody gets their own camino.

[17:30] Melissa: Did you see very many people your age?

[17:33] Rebeckah: Well, there was this one kid that was walking in with his mom, and then I think there was, like, one other. And then there were all, like, the 8th, the 9th graders from Germany, but they were so. But not very many kids my age.

[17:49] Jan: I would.

[17:50] Rebeckah: I saw a lot of guys, but not a lot of girls walking in. So it was interesting.

[17:55] Jan: Yeah, I would send the kids ahead every day because, I mean, they don't need to walk with me. I'm walking slowly, and she was hopping, skipping, jumping, singing, turning, you know, cartwheels, basically, down the Camino. And I am just trudging. And I would get to the next little village and, you know, go to the first place that I saw because I'm always trying to catch up with the kids, see that they're okay, you know, because, I mean, we are in the wilderness, and I hadn't tripped over their bodies, so hopefully they're there. And they, you know, I'd say, hey, have you seen two kids, a boy and a girl, walking? Oh, yes. They came in, they were so polite. They said please and thank you. And they speak Spanish. I said, yep, those are my children. And they'd be. Oh, they just, ooh and aha. They were definitely. Especially the first couple of days before we got to where the huge groups were going through. These kids were the only kids that we saw. Once we hit that hundred-kilometer mark, then there were more. There were the big groups of kind of the young. Well, 8th graders from 9th graders from Germany and, you know, that kind of thing. But she was the only girl her age that we met. And there was one other boy that was as young as she was that we saw. There was also a family, a man and a woman with two children that were younger. They were eight and ten, I think. But that was like. That was it. Yeah.

[19:08] Melissa: You're brave.

[19:09] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[19:12] Melissa: What was your favorite food along the way?

[19:14] Rebeckah: Oh, they had, like, a special menu for us, and so it was like three courses for pretty cheap. And so it was like, me and, like, spaghetti and then a dessert. And they had good meat.

[19:30] Melissa: I liked that kind of desserts.

[19:33] Rebeckah: They had, like, something called santiago cake, and it was like the cake with brown sugar on it.

[19:39] Jan: And then it was almond flavored. It was delicious.

[19:42] Rebeckah: And then they had tiramisu and ice cream.

[19:48] Jan: Yeah, that was a pilgrims menu. So again, when you got. It wasn't all along the path, but when you got to that last hundred kilometers. Then suddenly, you ran into this pilgrim's venue I'd have been hearing about, was so excited about, and finally, there it was. So you had, you know, a couple choices for your first, and then you had the meat or the bigger, and then you had dessert, and it was €12, which was pretty reasonably priced, mostly. Yeah.

[20:10] Melissa: Wow. Wow. And then by the end of the days, where you just like, yeah, yeah.

[20:20] Jan: Mom was up washing out clothes with the castile soap, putting them up to hang to dry, and the kids are taking their showers and falling into bed, and we're all sleeping in the same room, sometimes in the same bed. You know, it was quite an adventure. We also. There was one day where this man galloped by on this horse, and the foal is following them, and then there's this gelding behind them, and there are two dogs keeping them all in line, and he looks like a young Antonio Banderas, except more handsome. And I took pictures as he walked by, and, I mean, everybody's just like, ooh, ah. And then we got up to the next village, and he's just sitting there, and he's got one. The mama horses, the jegua is tied up there, and the baby's kind of there, and the dogs are trying to keep everybody in line and keep the people away. And, I mean, it was just. It was quite the sight. And he said that he was a jazz musician. He sings. He was just back from New York at a festival there, and it was time to just give the horses some exercise and get the foal out for the first time. How old was the foal? Loved Rebecca.

[21:24] Melissa: That was fun.

[21:25] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[21:27] Jan: Do you remember how old it was?

[21:29] Rebeckah: No. It was small, though.

[21:31] Jan: Yeah. Probably, like, four or six weeks old at the most. It was young. Really. Yeah, it was young. It was really fun.

[21:38] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[21:39] Jan: Wow. Yeah.

[21:40] Melissa: So from there, then, where did you go?

[21:44] Rebeckah: I think we went to Portugal.

[21:45] Jan: We went to Portugal after that.

[21:47] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[21:48] Jan: And had the magical tuk tuk driver who grew up there and knows everybody in the capital, it seems, and all the tourist place, anyway.

[21:56] Rebeckah: And we went to a field that Reinaldo played on, like, grew up playing on, and we saw his house. Well, not. We didn't, like, go up to his house, but, like, we saw it from kind of far away, and that was fun.

[22:07] Jan: And Vedanta.

[22:08] Rebeckah: Hell, yeah. And then he took us, like, into a. There's this big restaurant, and there's, like, a block line waiting to go into.

[22:17] Jan: It, maybe two blocks.

[22:19] Rebeckah: And then he just takes us in through the exit, and then, like, we go back and watch them make it and stuff.

[22:26] Jan: Yeah. There are these women there. They. These particular ones. So a nata is like a custard filled cup, and it has a little bit of a crust around it. And they're these women whose job it is to fill 10,000 of these little tiny pie tins. Their thumbs are just gnarly. We talked to one of them who has been doing this for, I don't know, 32 years or something. And so as she talked, she just kept patting the little things, the little piece of masa in there, and getting it ready. It was pretty amazing.

[22:55] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[22:56] Jan: So if anybody ever wants that man's name or number, we still have it. And we. I think there have been eight or ten people that have gone and had a tuk tuk with him. Yeah. Just because we ran into people. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[23:08] Rebeckah: Cool. Yep. Kids.

[23:10] Jan: Yeah, yeah. He had a large family and just worked his little heiny off. I mean, gave a great tour. Yeah. That was fun. And then we went down into Seville and saw flamenco dancing.

[23:25] Melissa: Oh, good.

[23:26] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[23:27] Jan: And then to Granada, where we have. There were exchange teachers that worked in canby are back home. And so they came and took us. We went to the Alhambra during the day, and then they came and walked us around Granada and showed us all the little places here and there. And we had such a wonderful time. And they had just purchased a cave, because with climate change, they said this is the only reasonable place to live. And so they've sold their apartment and they have purchased a cave. And so next time we go to Granada, we are going to go sleep in their cave and stay in their guest room.

[24:00] Melissa: That you could buy a cave.

[24:02] Jan: I know, right? Yeah. Apparently, that's a big thing in that area. It literally. Yes. No. Or a heater, because it stays. You know, it's always the same.

[24:14] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[24:15] Jan: It does not fluctuate. Oh. Originally, we were going to go to Tarifa and cross in a ferry to Morocco just for the day, and then come back. But then I decided we just didn't have time for that. And that. I don't know, it didn't. It was so much better to be able to see Cabe, Juan Carlos and Cabe. And so we. They took us to a Moroccan tea house in Granada. And that was quite an experience, wasn't it?

[24:41] Melissa: What did they serve?

[24:42] Rebeckah: Well, I didn't get tea. I got lemonade, but it was like a Moroccan lemonade, so it had mint in it. And then they had little cake things that were good.

[24:54] Jan: And there were some gentlemen in there playing music on guitars the likes of we've never seen in our entire lives. Right. It was really amazing. And singing. It was great. Yeah, it was great. And we just happened to duck in there because, you know, we were thirsty and wanted a little coolness.

[25:08] Rebeckah: So let me choose an eye.

[25:10] Jan: Yes. Rebecca chose it. Several places we could have entered.

[25:15] Melissa: Good choice. You can highly recommend that.

[25:20] Jan: When you're.

[25:20] Melissa: Writing your travel blog.

[25:22] Jan: And then we went to Barcelona. We saw the Sagrada Familia and the architect's name was Gauri. And his intention was to make all of Christ's life visible so that even the illiterate could read his life story. And so it's this huge church. It's going to be the tallest in the world. They're just waiting to put on the 22 ton cross at the top. That will make it the tallest in the world. And it has mosaic grape clusters on the top of some of the spires. And when I first saw it, I thought, his name is Gaudi. That's just. It makes sense. Gaudi, because it was so gaudy. It was just. Oh, this is just. What is this mishmash? And then as they start. I'm glad we took a tour because as they started to explain it all, I mean, it just hits you. Oh, this is an incredible work of art.

[26:18] Rebeckah: It was like 100 degrees Celsius.

[26:20] Jan: It was hot.

[26:21] Rebeckah: I don't know. I really enjoyed it fully. But any statue, they had, like, hundreds of statues and each statue had, like, an actual model. And so, like, they even know who the donkey was. Do they have it all?

[26:34] Jan: They know the donkey that modeled for the donkey that Mary's writing on. You know, at the very beginning of the story, they even know who that donkey was and who owned it. The donkey's name. And. Yeah, and the light inside there was incredible. The stained-glass windows and as a light comes in and apparently it's different in the summer than in the winter, of course. And it was just. I could have stood in there all day. It was beautiful.

[26:56] Melissa: It's so beautiful. And I remember when we went to France, you know, I always played flute, you know, but we went to a concert in the school chapel, and the acoustics and I. So amazing. So, so incredible.

[27:10] Jan: Yes. What music did we hear back?

[27:13] Rebeckah: Vivaldi's four seasons.

[27:15] Jan: Where did we hear that?

[27:16] Rebeckah: In Venice, in the church. They composed it and wrote it and played it. Actually, I think composed and wrote are the same thing. And.

[27:25] Jan: Yeah, that was our big concert, was with all these four seasons, where it was first played by him, his orchestra. Oh, it was. Yeah, yeah. Not an orchestra. I guess it was just a few, but yeah, yeah. And then she's got her Pompeii shirt on. We went to Pompeii, which is very hot. Very hot and fascinating history. Right. And then we climbed Mount Vesuvius.

[27:54] Rebeckah: We can say that we have climbed an active volcano because we were in.

[27:58] Melissa: Good shape by that time. To be able to clarify.

[28:01] Rebeckah: It was so steep. People were just, like, laying on the path. Just like there was a really thin path. And it's like. It's, like, only thin enough for one person, but there are two lanes happening. And so you're, like, up against a cliff or up against another cliff. There's cliff on both sides, and there's rope and wooden as a railing. But that is not very. Most of it has, like, fallen off the cliff by now. So it was just a.

[28:32] Jan: It was exciting. It was the same path all the way up. That was all kind of gravelly, kind of crumbly. So saddle mountain. Yes, it was similar to saddle mountain. Uh huh. Except, no, not many switchbacks. Well, yeah, not many switchbacks. It was kind of more around. Yeah. But, yes, there was one big switch back, and Becca came back down to take a picture with us. And as she came down, she slid. So she walked up with bloodied knees. She refused to go down and see the medics. She said, I'm going to finish this first.

[29:02] Rebeckah: The volcano won't erupt for another 100 years.

[29:04] Jan: Though satiated its need for blood, we were a little put out when we got to the visitor center. That's not quite at the top, but close to the top. And there were people working there. And I said, you guys climb this every day? Oh, no, we drive. Look, there's our car. Oh, really? It just seemed unfair. But we were rather impressed, even with stopping on the way back down to have her knee cleaned out by the medics because it had gravel and stuff. I mean, it was. You didn't want to carry that all day. We still made it back down far before anybody else on our trip. And our bus made it back down.

[29:43] Rebeckah: Everybody else was late.

[29:45] Jan: Yes. But we made it up and back and had her knee cleaned out, and they had ice cream and, you know, because it was. It was easy. It was all for that. Yep.

[29:54] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[29:56] Jan: That'S right. Flex those muscles. Yeah, for sure. And then we went to Rome. And I did not know this, but in the coliseum, the base level, where they kept the slaves and they kept the animals, they only let I think twelve people in there a day. And I just bought tickets on get your guide. And I had those tickets. We had those tickets. So we were in this tiny, tiny group that followed our guide. And as we went, this guy with keys would let us in the next section and then close the other section behind us. I mean, we were locked down there. There was no getting out if something happened. But it was fascinating. Do you want to talk about that a little bit, Vic?

[30:34] Rebeckah: They showed a video down there.

[30:36] Jan: Oh, yeah.

[30:37] Rebeckah: It was like, through the tunnel that they walked through, like the tunnel. And so it was like a giant screen covering it. And then, like, through the screen, you could see the lights in the back. They just like. And then they showed, like, different gladiators.

[30:49] Jan: Walking and it was cool, a little bit scary.

[30:53] Rebeckah: And there was a cat door in the coliseum. They have a cat door for all the feral cats.

[30:57] Jan: Uh huh. Because they want the cats to be able to get in and out and go after the mice.

[31:01] Melissa: Oh, yeah.

[31:03] Jan: Of course.

[31:04] Rebeckah: We didn't see any cats, though.

[31:06] Jan: Well, they don't come out. It was way too hot that day for the cat. The cats were smarter than we were.

[31:10] Melissa: And I was at the coliseum.

[31:11] Jan: Yes, yes.

[31:12] Melissa: That's my memory of the coliseum was trying to cross the street. All of that traffic is not going to stop. And it's a wide street.

[31:24] Jan: Yeah. A little wild. A little wild. Well, and we didn't know that they had elephants and rhinoceroses and hippos that they kept down there. Really? Yeah. And what was the circle of life down there back? Remember?

[31:37] Rebeckah: Oh, yeah. The animals eat the slaves and the slaves eat the animals.

[31:41] Jan: Whoever dies today, that's near the meal.

[31:44] Melissa: Oh, what's on the menu thing? I don't know. Who's still around.

[31:49] Jan: Yep. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. And apparently, at one point in time, they had filled the coliseum with water and brought in naval ships and put sharks and jellyfish and things in there. And they had to fight on these ships. They were. They recreated ship, like major naval battles, but it was really hard to drain it out afterwards because of this all-underground area where the slaves and the hippos had to, you know, all that. So they ended up building a whole nother coliseum elsewhere that was designed just for these because it was so popular. People loved it for that costume.

[32:25] Rebeckah: That one isn't there anymore because it didn't survive. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[32:31] Jan: So that was interesting. No water damage, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And then we went to Florence. Yeah. What's your biggest memory of Florence?

[32:42] Melissa: Did you go to the Vatican?

[32:44] Jan: Oh, wait. Yeah. We would tell her about the Vatican.

[32:47] Rebeckah: It was cool. We saw the paintings and stuff. Yeah.

[32:51] Jan: And the guards.

[32:52] Rebeckah: Oh, yeah. They have the Swiss guards. Yeah. They were very colorful.

[32:56] Melissa: Yeah.

[32:57] Jan: And the Sistine Chapel.

[32:59] Rebeckah: Yeah, there was. They kept telling everybody, be quiet on the big loudspeaker inside the Sistine Chapel.

[33:07] Jan: Cause the guides are not supposed to be able to work in there. It's supposed to be silence. You can contemplate. Right, right. But, of course, there are gonna be four or five guides that are gonna do it anyway.

[33:18] Rebeckah: That was our guide.

[33:20] Jan: And once we were in there, the guide was. Everybody else was doing it, so she told us a little bit too.

[33:25] Melissa: And do they still make you wear a dress?

[33:27] Jan: Yes. They actually had. So for us, it was so hot. And our, you know, dresses below the knees are so hot. And sleeves. I really like sleeveless things, but I sucked it up, and I put it on because I knew we were going to need it. We get there, and they have plastic shawls that they'll just tie around you, and so you can wear whatever you want, and they will cover you up and make you, you know, acceptable. And I thought, oh, that's actually handy. Although I would not have been wanting to wear plastic in there. I was glad that I didn't have to do that. But that was a relief, because, you know, it used to be you'd just get turned away, and now they've. They've come up with a solution.

[34:03] Melissa: Yeah.

[34:04] Jan: Which I thought was quite clever. Yeah.

[34:06] Melissa: And how about any of the relics? He relics and bones?

[34:15] Jan: Mayonnaise. She can't eat mayonnaise.

[34:16] Rebeckah: That was in Portugal.

[34:17] Jan: That was in Portugal. Tell us why.

[34:19] Rebeckah: Oh, in Portugal, our tuk tuk driver took us to this church, and inside of it, there is this mummy, and its face looks like it just, like, splattered Pikachu. And afterwards, we went. We got, like, french fries and food. And with the food, the French fries, I always give you mayonnaise. And I looked at the mayonnaise, and I was like, I don't think so. So I don't really eat mayonnaise anymore.

[34:43] Jan: So we did see the mummified body of a woman that was related to, uh oh, now I'm not gonna remember which saint it is. The saint. The patron saint of Lisbon.

[34:54] Rebeckah: I don't. She was related. I think she was just.

[34:56] Jan: Oh, they just found her when they went down. And then we did. We did see the relics, and we went down into the mausoleum below the Vatican and got to see. I mean, just tomb after tomb after tomb of former popes.

[35:07] Rebeckah: And like the first pope's tomb was. He had his own wing to himself.

[35:12] Jan: That was cool.

[35:14] Melissa: And all kinds of jewels and pearls and things around you. Just left knuckle.

[35:24] Jan: Yeah, it was, it was something. Yeah, that was something. Yeah. Yeah. When we were in Rome, we stayed in the Spanish quarter. And the Spanish quarter, that was Rome, right. Was that Naples? That was that Naples.

[35:38] Rebeckah: That was when we went to Pompei.

[35:40] Jan: No, no, that was Amalfi coast in Naples. We stayed on the, in the Spanish quarter, which was just a little maze of tiny, tiny streets that would just suddenly just be done, you know. This one only runs one block. So the one that we stayed on ran, I think, three blocks and that was it. It was topped and bottomed. And then you went in different directions and we got lost and just had the most wonderful time. We never actually went. Well, we went into some catacombs in Naples. We went down underneath and saw the old city and the roman and the Greek below, which was really cool. But the streets felt enough like catacombs because they're, you know, really tall buildings and, and just, just twisty, not, not rounded, but just very geometrical except weird shapes. Right. Those polyhedron things. I don't know how they built that way, but that was fun.

[36:33] Rebeckah: What's the Amalfi coast?

[36:35] Jan: Oh, we got to see something on the Amalfi coast nobody ever gets to see. What was it back, you remember? Yeah.

[36:42] Rebeckah: Empty beaches because it was like rainy and we, there was, we were sitting on this, our bus sitting on this cliff just like looking at the water. And there's thunder and lightning and like thunder strikes, like right next to our bus. And our bus like moves like 5ft.

[36:58] Jan: The lightning was right there and the reverberation of the thunder jolted our bus. It was kind of scary except, you know, you're safe cause you're on rubber, right. And the beaches just cleared right out. It was amazing. We got to see empty beaches on the Amalfi coast.

[37:13] Rebeckah: But we got this swim on them too.

[37:14] Jan: Yep. I got this way before the weather kicked in. Yeah.

[37:18] Rebeckah: And they have like gelato, they have giant lemons that are like the size of like your head and they'll cut them in half and they'll empty them out and they'll put lemon gelato in it.

[37:31] Jan: And you can even eat the lemon rind because it is also sweet. It was incredible. Incredible.

[37:37] Rebeckah: The lemon rind was actually really.

[37:41] Jan: That was shocking. I wouldn't eat a lemon rind here. No, they were great. And then up to Florence. And in Florence, I think, I mean, it was interesting, the whole Medici thing and seeing their passage over top between buildings because they didn't want to walk, you know, amongst the people because they'd be harassed and then hearing about their secret passages underground.

[38:02] Rebeckah: Saw David. We also saw the Mona Lisa in France.

[38:08] Jan: Yeah.

[38:08] Rebeckah: And then the guy's self-portrait.

[38:10] Jan: Van Gogh in Amsterdam. Yeah. Saw some major pieces of art.

[38:15] Rebeckah: And then we saw the beaches. Normandy.

[38:18] Jan: Oh, back to France. Yeah, we spent a day in Normandy, which was really impactful, I think. But back to Florence.

[38:26] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[38:27] Jan: In Florence, they had a contest for the oldest gelato recipe, really, and it was a cream based one. And this particular gelato place was the one that won. So they're the only ones that are allowed to call it the particular term. And I don't remember the term, but boy, do I remember the gelato. It was so good. Wasn't that delicious?

[38:46] Rebeckah: Yeah, yeah.

[38:48] Jan: And we went to Cinque Terre and the kids got to swim there. So did I. We've discovered the difference between public and private beaches. Cause that's not a thing here. Right. Everything's public in Oregon. So that was kind of a shock forms.

[39:03] Rebeckah: Yeah. And in Venice, we went to the beaches and you can just, like, see through the water and little fish and the little crabs just like swimming with you. Yeah.

[39:16] Jan: And a gondola ride and just walking around and. I did not know this. I've heard that the water is coming up in Venice, but everybody that lives there has an app on their phone and it warns you when it's a boot day, you need to have your rubber boots on because it's going to be. There's going to be water up to your knees or, you know, up to your ankles. And they have. There are holes. I don't remember this in San Marco Square, except for maybe the water going down into cisterns. But now the holes are for the water to be able to come up through and not lift the big pieces of rock. And so at high tide, there are big puddles everywhere. And they've had to put hermetically sealed glass or metal down around the basilica in the doge's palace to keep the water out from getting in there, because the floors are just beautiful mosaics. Right. I mean, just all exquisite. And a lot of the doorways have. I thought it was just a super burglar proof thing where there's a piece of metal that slides down into the doorway, it comes maybe 2ft up, then you've got a lock on it. I thought, oh, those guys must be on vacation because, you know, it's August and that's when people in Europe go on vacation. No, no, no. That's to keep the water out. So it also is hermetically sealed. When you put it in there, something happens and then you lock it. So it's a real thing. I was really shocked by that. I'd heard that, you know, I just assumed it was just king tides. When the water really is coming up. Well, yeah, I mean, that makes sense. But no, just a regular high tide. And it was in the square and.

[40:45] Rebeckah: They set out tables so you can.

[40:46] Jan: Jump from table to table where the water's really high. Yeah, yeah.

[40:50] Rebeckah: The Murano glass was pretty too.

[40:52] Jan: Yeah, yeah. And we got to take the ferries of apureto out to. We stayed on the island of Lido, which is their barrier island. And so we got some of the Mediterranean out there and it was a definitely a different feel. And I'm glad that we did it. I hadn't done that before and it was really. It was really nice. Venice itself was amazing. Right. But then to be on the island of Lido was just. Oh, this is just lovely. Fewer people. Yeah.

[41:20] Melissa: What was your least favorite place to be?

[41:23] Rebeckah: I don't know. I don't know. It was all good.

[41:26] Jan: The apartment we stayed in in Venice, it had no air conditioning and it was, of course, right on a canal. And mosquitoes came in and we only had one fan, which was not big enough. It was a miserable two nights. Three nights. Yes.

[41:42] Rebeckah: Other than that, though, I really liked Venice.

[41:45] Jan: Yeah. And it was just the sleeping conditions. That's actually what got us into. I did not know this, but there's a museum. I mean, I've been to Venice a couple times in my lifetime. I've never been in the museum. That's off of the main plaza. It was phenomenal. They had the Fra Maro world map and I don't know if you've seen it or heard of it, but it is. It's about the size of a round dining room table, maybe six to seven to 8ft in diameter. And we just happened into this room and it was air conditioned and there was a place to sit and there was something to look at. And there was a guard right there reading a book. And I thought, this is. I told the kids, we're gonna just sit here for a while. We're gonna pretend like we're looking at that and we're gonna enjoy the air conditioning. Sit. So we sat there and as I'm just kind of looking at it because we're just sitting there enjoying the air conditioning. I realized, right, kind of in the center there's Italy. That's the boot of Italy, but it's upside down. What is this? And as I looked at it and I got closer, there was tiny writing all throughout. It was the world map from 1492, before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So it just had Asia and Europe and Africa on it, and it had it all from a different perspective than we've ever seen it. Right. That boot's always upside up when we look at these maps. And then, I mean, it had little sea creatures drawn. It was exquisite. And you really needed a loop. What is that called? A magnifying glass if you wanted to see it up close. And then they had an interactive exhibit where you could make it bigger on taking pictures of it. And I think we spent more time at that than anything else in the museum. We fought over that. All three of us fought.

[43:21] Rebeckah: I won the fight. We also saw the painting of the lady on the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[43:33] Melissa: Every time you see pictures of anything all relating to any of it, it's just always gonna be like, well, I was there. I saw that. Oh, it was just a whole different.

[43:43] Jan: Yeah, yeah.

[43:45] Melissa: Now an understanding of things.

[43:47] Jan: Absolutely. And the stories will come, and they'll have a real connection that will enrich everybody.

[43:52] Rebeckah: I wouldn't have tried another book report for the rest of my life. Just have one. Change the word a little bit every time.

[43:59] Jan: After Venice, we got on a train and went into Switzerland. We spent a night in Bern. We have friends from Switzerland, but they were in Utah this summer, so we did not get to see them, which was a little disappointing. Or not. Bern, Zurich. We were in Zurich, and then we went from Zurich. That was when we went on the train to Berlin, but we didn't make it to Berlin because they weren't going to go to Berlin because there was an arsonist at the train station in Berlin. So they kicked us all off, and everybody was told, you know, which train to get on next. Well, ours took us back to Switzerland, to Basel, which is, I don't know, four or 5 hours from where we were. So we backtracked, and then we had to go all the way back up to Hamburg to get over to Berlin. That was our longest travel day. That was quite a day. And you're very tired. But we met some really interesting people. Yeah. And then in Berlin, we hung out with Jimmy and Bea and throwing more the public transportation. I know our country is just huge, so it's harder to do it. But, boy, I wish we had. Yes, it's life changing. You can get out and do things. You can be more active because you're walking more here. We have to get in our car to go to Astoria. We could maybe ride a bicycle to a local grocery store, but it'd be hard to get stuff home, and I don't want to do that every day. And, you know, there. You do it every day because there are no preservatives in the food, and there's a grocery store nearby, and there's public transportation, and, you know. Yeah, I'm losing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And in Berlin, we got to see the part of the Berlin wall that's still standing. And we were stunned that it was only maybe five inches, six inches thick. Here's this little thin wall that held people in the and out for so long.

[45:43] Rebeckah: The part we saw had two different little walls, though. Yeah. Had one on this side, one on.

[45:49] Jan: That side, and then the river. So it didn't have to be a thick wall. It just had to be something that people had to scale. So you had a shot at them, apparently. I mean, it was. And the paintings on them. When Berlin Wall came down a year later, they invited artists to submit sketches, and then they all got a section of the wall about the size of our big picture window here to paint. A and the paintings were just incredible. But then I don't know what happened, and they had to repaint them. They got in touch with all the artists again, and all but 15 agreed, and I think they were 145 or something. All but 15 agreed to come back and repaint, and it was just stunning. There were so many different styles, so many different pieces, so many different messages about what life was in Berlin. A year after the wall came down, it was really, really. That was really a resting.

[46:36] Melissa: All these things that we never have experienced and never hoped to.

[46:41] Jan: Yeah, yeah. I'd never hoped to. Yeah, yeah. And then we went to Denmark. And in Denmark, you knew Simon. We went and stayed at Simon's house. Okay. Okay. We went to Simon's house, and poor little hop along. We do this entire trip, and she, you know, has skimmed knees and a couple blisters, and then she gets home and steps on a nail. It's just perfect timing. I mean, perfect timing. Let's just say that and call it good. Thank you, Lord. You waited. Thank you. Held it all off. But one of the incredible things in Denmark was we went to Tivoli, which is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, right? The precursor of Disneyland, Disney World, all of that. And Simon and I and his wife just went and sat at a table and drank water and just relaxed and enjoyed the gardens and the beauty and, oh, and watched an opera, and the kids just ran off and rolled roller coasters and ran around. They closed the place down. I didn't even see them until the end of the day when they were closing things down and kicking people out. And I'm thinking, will they find us? Are they okay? Are they still in the park? Did they sneak out somehow? And then pretty soon they show up with just huge smiles. And I think, you know, in our culture, we don't even a twelve and a 15 year old. You wouldn't necessarily. But the fact that they'd been on a Camino and they got to go ahead the first couple of days, they wouldn't. They were worried I was going to die, I think. And they're like, mom, are you okay? No. We're going to walk with you today, mom. I mean, yes, truly. But by the time that we got to Denmark, near the end of the trip, they were just off doing their thing, just as happy as could be. Independent independence.

[48:28] Melissa: Yeah, yeah. And that is a huge running thing.

[48:34] Jan: Yes, yes. Well, and after Denmark, we went back to. We stayed in clone and saw the cathedral there, which was phenomenal, and then went back into Paris. And the train ride into Paris was very different because we were going into the train station that had been terrorized. And so we had armed guards patrolling our train up and down, up and down, which gives it a whole different feel. Right? Yes. It was very interesting. I think.

[49:02] Rebeckah: So it was a bad paintball inside the train, so I liked it.

[49:06] Jan: Yeah. Yeah. But we had. I had. I thought for the last hurrah, I was gonna get tickets to Euro Disney. So I'd had these tickets since before we left, and then it was supposed to be 110 degrees. And I thought, no. And instead I returned the tickets. And what did we do?

[49:26] Rebeckah: We went to Aqua Bouleau barn.

[49:30] Jan: And I didn't realize it because. So in Europe and definitely in France, any voluminous bathing costume is considered very unhygienic. You were to have a one piece, tight fitting something or a bikini. And the guys are to wear speedos. And thank goodness Becca had an acceptable swimsuit and Samuel had on trunks, but they let him in. But I knew there was no way I was going to get in with my thing. Plus, you know, I didn't have it, so I just went up in a restaurant that had plate glass windows and kind of watched below and I could see wooden pool and it had like a ropes swing and air conditioning. And I had my books. I got to read for hours. And toward the end of, of when they were kind, I wasn't sure if I thought they might show up at some point. They ought to be hungry soon. The owner of the restaurant came up and shared with me that the four restaurants were extremely busy because there were over 8000 people there that day. I just let my kids run wild in a water park with over 8000 other people. And how was it, Rebecca?

[50:32] Rebeckah: It was fun.

[50:33] Jan: It was kind of a little bit.

[50:35] Rebeckah: I don't know. There were only a couple rides. The lines were kind of long, but it was still fun. We went on like a boogie board thing. Yeah. But then we got lost inside the restaurant because, well, not inside the restaurant, but the waterpark was like on the bottom floor and then above there was like a shopping mall thing and we got lost.

[50:57] Jan: But they found me. It turned out just fine.

[50:59] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[50:59] Jan: So the independence and the ability to look around and problem solve in your community was definitely in a different community.

[51:07] Melissa: Than what you're used to.

[51:09] Jan: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was a point where, I mean, several points where they were telling me, mom, we are going in the wrong direction. Mom, we're in the wrong, on the wrong side of the metro here. We need to be on the other side. I mean, they figured that out quickly, way faster than I could half the time, so.

[51:27] Melissa: Well, good thing you took them along.

[51:29] Jan: I know. Could you imagine I would still be there had I nothing?

[51:34] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[51:36] Melissa: Wow. Any last thing you want to share?

[51:39] Rebeckah: It was fun.

[51:41] Melissa: You would recommend it?

[51:42] Jan: Yeah.

[51:42] Rebeckah: There was a lot of good food. That was my favorite part, food.

[51:48] Jan: Both kids grew at least an inch, probably more in the two months we were over there. She's taller than me now and Samuel is significantly above us. It was. They ate well, they played well. We were all very active and healthy and we had a good time together. Jan, you know, when we're home, there's so many things that we have to do and just being on vacation on the road and all you really had to do was, you know, get to, yeah. Get to where your backpack is tonight, get to where you have the hotel reservations and. Yeah. And Marvel.

[52:19] Melissa: Things you have to do are still going to be there and it'll all come together when it comes together.

[52:25] Jan: Absolutely. That was a gift to us. We, we've been really busy and with sports and everything else going on in our lives to just be able to be the three of us and hang out. Yeah, it was fun.

[52:35] Rebeckah: Yeah.

[52:35] Jan: I've told them every day since we've been back, since I've had to go back to work. I just. I missed you guys. I miss spending time with you guys. I like you and I've missed you.

[52:46] Melissa: The best thing that could happen to come out of it all together, right?

[52:50] Jan: Yes. And the fact that we did it before either one of them had a cell phone, so mine was the only cell phone on the trip. And they read a lot and they journaled, and every day. Every day, whether they needed to or not.

[53:02] Melissa: But you're gonna be so glad to have that to look back. I journaled there from when I was.

[53:08] Rebeckah: Like, a paragraph every day, so I don't know how many dudes probably go back on it later and write more.

[53:14] Jan: But, yeah, hers is very artistic, too. I mean, she put in her postcards, she did her little drawings. It's quite charming. Yeah.

[53:21] Melissa: Well, thank you, ladies. This is really interesting. Now you're inspired me and think I'll have to start saving my money.

[53:32] Jan: I had always told the kids, you know, let's go to Europe sometime, mom. And I'd say, no, I will take you to Las Vegas. They have everything European that you can see the Eiffel Tower. You can go in a gondola. We're going to go do that one day. And then there we were. So never say never. Bad. Yes. Plan.

[53:48] Rebeckah: Yeah, it was fun.

[53:50] Melissa: Yeah. Well, now you have to start planning the next one.

[53:54] Jan: I have to pay this one for four years. Yeah.

[53:58] Rebeckah: When I turn 15.

[53:59] Melissa: Right.

[54:02] Jan: I don't know if we can talk this. That was the other thing. Every single day. At the end of the day, I thought this was such a marvelous day. Okay, tomorrow is not going to be as wonderful, and then the next day would be better. All the way to the end, where we're at the airport and they're taking their time getting us on the plane, and I'm thinking, we're in France. Are they going to go on strike? Is there more terrorism? Do I need to be worried? What are we doing here? They were waiting for the flash mob to show up and see us off.

[54:27] Rebeckah: It was like a giant mob of people dancing, and they had, like, those hoops, and they, like, spun themselves in it.

[54:34] Jan: Oh, my gosh.

[54:35] Melissa: And that itself would have been fun.

[54:37] Jan: It was phenomenal. I just sat there. One more thing. Thank you.

[54:45] Melissa: That's amazing.

[54:46] Jan: Yeah, totally amazing.

[54:48] Melissa: Well, thank you, ladies.

[54:50] Jan: Thank you.

[54:50] Rebeckah: Thank you.