November 30, 2009
Cheers!
If reading our blog gave you enjoyment, you are invited to click on the link below to read the new blog. Elliotts Weblog will not disappear, in case any of you want to read about and see how we spent a year of our lives. But to continue to follow Elliott events, through the eyes of Maria, go to
November 25, 2009
November 24, 2009
Poseidon at Versailles
Some statues were bronze, others not
Cathedral at night
Welcome to my little getaway...
Sumptuous hall at Versailles
Gilt in the Apollo room - Versailles
Egyptian Offering
Six sphinx at the Louvre
Upkeep on Versailles (Louis said it was ‘murder’…)
Marie wanted a little pond out back
Insider the pyramid shaped entrance to the Louve
Statue of Charlemagne in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame
November 15, 2009
You cannot underestimate how important significant relationships are for your happiness. When you move, one of the biggest losses is the network of people you leave behind, such as close friends, acquaintances, the cashier at the local grocery, the postal carrier, the tailor you see about twice a year, and other miscellaneous persons you recognize by sight like the teachers at the school your kids attend. These familiar faces or intimate friends, are the ones that make you light up when they arrive, chuckle with you when times are good, lift you when you are depressed, and generally journey through life with you. It’s hard to leave the places that are comfortable, but it is altogether demoralizing to leave persons you know and love.
Thus it was that we found ourselves in a new house in a new town in a new district in a new country in a new CONTINENT. (Not to mention a new driving pattern – that’s the topic of a different and earlier post…) We didn’t know our way around, didn’t speak the local lingo (the Queen’s English or any other British dialect), and besides didn’t even have someone of whom to ask the simplest directions. But bereft as we perceived we were, we knew that God was with us and caring for us. Sure enough, within a short time we began making some friends, mostly local folks and a few other Americans. These are the people – increasing in number with passing time, who made our stay in the U.K. bearable at first and after awhile, even downright pleasant. As we prepared to leave, eleven short months after moving there, we were surprised to find that these folks (and yes, a couple of places, too) had found their way into our hearts.
Before Mass at Church of the Immaculate Conception-Stroud
Below are many that we were able to share our time with in Britain. Due to technical problems with computers, we lost photos from October through November, 
and so some of our companions may not be shown. However, we loved and were grateful for all who we met and who came to visit and were so much the better for having lived and journeyed with them. (Click on photo link below to see our companions in the U.K.)
(We thank you for sharing in the journey as you followed this blog. While there are no plans for more posts, you never know… If you happen to be in Virginia or nearby in Washington, D.C., be sure to let us know and come by and visit. Cheerio!)
November 9, 2009
We saw many lovely things in England and Europe; however, there is much beauty in Virginia where we live now. In the season of Autumn when the leaves change colors, our state has some very beautiful foliage. One of the touristy things to do is take a drive on the Skyline Drive. Or you can simply drive through the mountains on a variety of routes as we did a couple of weeks ago.
First Baptist Church in the Town of Washington, Virginia
Beautiful yard in Washington, VA
View of fountain and the Inn at Little Washington, Washington, VA
Produce stand near Sperryville, VA
"Old Glory" flies proudly in Sperryville, Virginia
John and Maria in Sperryville, VA
View near Thornton Gap, Virginia
View on the way home (near Sperryville, VA)
In the Autumn, our children have been playing soccer for years (yes, for our non-U.S. friends, “football”). This season, J.T. and Brad both played. The following are photos of their team in the tournament.
A Trinity Vasity member is in the air
Brad taking control of the ball
A final note, the boxes are decreasing in the Elliott home. Could the end (of the unpacking) be in sight?
One can always hope.
November 6, 2009
What a challenge! This post was in the making since we got to England. It’s a treatment of the most famously fearful issue of all when you go to Britain, – DRIVING! So shall we have a go at it? To start off, let’s say that it is not just driving on the other side of the road that causes panic to well up. There are ever so many reasons to want to shut out the terror by closing your eyes. This is a great solution unless you are the driver!
When you first begin learning to drive (not in the U.K.), it is traumatic,tricky, and tense. But after awhile, you begin to relax; the muscles learn new postions; reflexes become refined; and the synapses drill the connections in the pathways that create memory patterns in the old gray matter – you L E A R N T O D R I V E !
Now move to the U.K. where they drive on the left side – many experience universal feelings of agitation.
“Oh, my ___, that car is coming at us on the wrong side of the road!”
A normal drive in Britain
And again, “What in heaven! That isn’t a road, is it; it’s about as wide as a footpath!”
The road is as wide as the pavement (sidewalk)
Its really jolly when you try to navigate as you drive along and ask, “Where are the street signs? What no sign? Oh, you mean that plank just below the eaves of that building: THAT’S the street name? RIGHT!”
High Street
Or the ever popular, “What do you mean I can’t turn right; you have to go left to turn right? It’s a what? A roundabout?”
Warning - Roundabout ahead
All of these thoughts go hand in hand with first traffic experiences in Britain or any other U.K. country. If you never did it, you may wonder if it is that bad. Crikey, there’s no paralyzing distress quite like it!
Since a picture is better than a 1000 words, it may make you feel “lurgy” if you are able to put yourself in the scene (lurgy = ill). But never fear, even Maria was able to forge through the process and get it all sorted in her head, eventually. Most of these crazy car shots were taken by her anyway. Though not while driving … usually.
Cheerio! (photo link below)
October 22, 2009
We see our parents usually once a week or more and chat by phone – all a great blessing! Also we are living the life of the People of Praise here in Northern Virginia; last week, we celebrated our 38th anniversary by welcoming three single sisters who made the covenant and answer God’s call to live it out in the context of this community. It is exciting when something like that happens; the praise and worship that day were so strong, it almost seemed alive and about to take off in flight. It is good to be home.
John is still hard at work providing for the family. Other than his day-job, he is always looking for ways to improve the home: installing / moving light fixtures, choosing carpet to “finish” the carpetting job, plugging leaks in laundry rooms, ordering samples of ceiling tiles for a room with cruddy, old ones, and finding creative ways to discipline [read train] the children. He belies the thought that transition is an exhausting process by maintaining the momentum around here.
Maria tries to be hard at work, but finds life “back on the ranch” to be hectic. For her, the transition from U.S. to U.K. and back again felt overwhelming – mostly the “back again” part. She does feel exhausted a lot, and yet has attempted to keep up with the schedule (did I mention it is hectic?) In our part of the country, extra-curriculars occur after school for the most part, involving driving, which in our vicinity is sometimes called “beltway bashing” or “rush hour” both of which are mis-nomers for sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for part of your day. No way to live, but many of us do. However, today’s project will be emptying boxes to try to make a dent and move from the plateau we have been on – liveable but still not settled. She is glad September with the yearly start of school, three family birthdays, and annual women’s retreat, is now history, and soon October will be too. “Let the unpacking be finished!” is her cry.
Jane is a senior (like Upper 6th form) at her school, and has just this week begun to actually drive on her own. It was a great moment in our family’s life – when the children can now be driven by one of their own to events. Extra driving practice is needed in this busy (all right – HECTIC) area of traffic patterns, with nary a roundabout in sight. [In the U.S., we have the unsightly and restrictive system of traffic lights at major intersections rather than the sensible and practical system of roundabouts as in the U.K.] She is busy applying to colleges (universities), and working very hard on her substantial curriculi. Still, she finds time to keep up with her sisters and many friends across six time zones!
J.T. and Brad attend the same school, and they also work very hard in addition to playing soccer (football for the enlightened) and the tournament time is fast approaching. J.T. just had a week of a flu-like virus, but not swine flu according to the symptoms which were much milder. Praise God, no one else got the bug. The boys are very happy to be back in the U.S. with their friends and customary activities although they do miss the ones they made in Britain.
The weather has been up and down, with five days that everyone informed us must be like British weather as it was chilly (40′s) and drizzling or raining 90 % of the time. We said it was actually better in Britain… 
And it’s usually a lot better in Virginia in the Autumn as well. This week has been sunnier and seasonable – low 60′s in the day time.
Kristin and Kathryn are doing well in Dinkytown at the U (of Minnesota), “studying hard and making us proud” as we like to say. Kathryn has a blog too. It is http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ellio244/3101newsfall09/ She is doing it for coursework, but it is still interesting. Kristin is delighted to be working hard on her minor studies in music.
If you are new to this blog, be sure to go back through and look at some previous posts. You can do this by manually moving down (which would be chronologically backwards), or by clicking on one of the groupings to the right such as “Recent Posts,” “Categories,” and “Archives”.
Cheers!
October 20, 2009
About the “hundred spires”, according to CzechTourism.com, at present, Prague has over 500 towers. It is well maintained and indeed a beautiful European city.
Continuing on from the last post, we dropped off Kristin, Rose, and Jonny at the Vienna train station at 5:30 p.m. and began the 185+ mile drive to Prague. This was the one leg of the trip for which our GPS was not going to work; that map had not been available to John during the planning process. Also, the language in the Czech Republic is Czech, with many also speaking Slovak. John had spoken German to get us around the other places we had been. But hey, we had a regular map of Germany and Austria, there are road signs on the highways, and English is an important world language. How hard could it be? We soon found out.
First, the weather changed and became dark more quickly than expected as the sunny skies gave way to rain and night began to fall. A few brief stops and after crossing the Austrian border, the signs were in Czech which had not only unknown words, but unknown letters (they look the same but have small marks drawn above them similar to apostrophes or accents) that convey sounds unlike the Roman alphabet we use. Výborně! (Terrific!)
Finally, about 10:45 p.m., we got to the city – Joy! But the streets are narrow and compact (see the photo above). Because of this, in the old city near the Castle where we were staying, most roads run one-way. We weren’t sure where we were and couldn’t see the street we wanted. So we had to drive a large circuit around the city to get back to that section of town. This time we got closer according to a small map we had; we even drove by some police men, but oops! Passed it again. So we once again traversed the circuit.
The third time’s a charm, right? As we got closer to the correct area, all of us were keeping an eagle eye out for Janska Street. But little did we know that there was only one way to approach it from a street that dead-ended at some steps at the end of Janska. It had gotten to be about 11:25, and unfortunately, the police we had passed before were now approaching us with flashlights and making signals for us to stop. We realized that they were the guards for an embassy on one side of the road . . . the United States embassy (irony of ironies) ! We were attempting to begin what seemed a lame explanation when a man rushed up to our van from the other side of the street. He asked if we were looking for an apartment on Janska Street. Feeling like part of a third-rate spy film, we said, “Yes,” and he motioned us to follow him. The police let us go, and relieved, we drove off, after the disappearing man. We were unable to park close to the apartment, so we gathered everything we could into our tired arms, and stumbled up the cobbled road into a dark alley. Maria was giggling from exhaustion, John was ordering people to move along, and the children were obeying just to end the journey and go to bed. When we arrived at the end of the street, we entered a door into an empty hallway, and the man gave us a key to private apartment door amongst many in a courtyard ahead. Soon we were in our destination which had furniture and appliances, but nothing else – no food, soap, or even toilet paper. Still, we had the essentials and knew that the next morning we could get money and food. But our Prague adventure had begun!
Truly, the most challenging city had been saved for last. The lack of language, different currency, being in an apartment with no food (versus a bed&breakfast), and not really knowing what we ought to see, made this even more ambitious. We awoke somewhat tired and grumpy, but John and Maria forayed out finding a bank, exchange, and grocery close to our place. The weather promised to be sunny and hot. So we planned to do as much as possible and still have fun. The day was devoted to seeing the Prague Castle, a huge complex with many different parts. [Be sure to look at the pictures for an idea of what we saw.] Hours later, we left, had lunch, and Maria, Kathryn, and Jane walked around the city, while the gentlemen went back to rest. During the walk, the gals realized that there was going to be a concert that evening of George Gershwin music performed at the Spanish Synagogue in a different part of town. They hurried back to invite the fellows, who proved uninterested. Also, it had begun to rain (pour would be a better term). So the Elliott women changed and hurried out to walk in the rain to find the Synagogue, armed with a local map, and with determination, arrived just in time to sit before the music began. It was a beautiful, melodious, and skillful presentation of Gershwin’s best – listen to a short excerpt later in the photo link.
Other highlights of Prague were seeing the Church of our Lady Victorious where the Infant of Prague is located, experimenting with local cuisine, and simply shopping. Just walking through the town yielded entertainment: streetside musicians, itinerant artists, Bohemian architecture and shops, and very lovely sights. All in all, we did enjoy Prague even if we did feel a little run-down at this, the end of our vacation. (click on link below)
October 12, 2009
Our next stop in Austria was Das Stift Klosterneuburg. In wanting to explain what a stift was, I decided to google it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the best example of a stift may be the one of the few (only one) left, ie. the one we visited. A stift is an abbey/monastery, but it is also much more. [For a quick tutorial, go to http://www.lifearoundthecollar.com/about/what-is-a-stift ]
When we knew we would be going near to Vienna, we couldn’t help but think of our old (as in, “of old”) priest friend, Dom Elias Carr (or Father Matthew Carr, as we used to know him). He is an Augustinian canon at the Stift Klosterneuburg. Joyfully, we found he would be there when we visited and that he had some time to spare to show us around the monastery, it’s wonderful grounds, including the marvelous, medieval to modern museum with sacred art, historical artifacts combined with state-of-the-art interactive displays and architecture that is both ancient and new. It was a real treat for us, especially as Dom Elias honored us with a personal tour, not only of the museum, but other parts of the facility.
Since we were quite close to the (Blue) Danube river, some of us walked there during some free time in the afternoon, while the rest stayed back with Dom Elias to relax. Those folks got the best of the break-time, when Dom E. was able to turn off the alarm and provide them with an up-close-and-personal view of the VERDUN ALTAR.
Enjoy our photos of this day (by clicking on the link below), which was our last (sniff!) with Kristin, Rose, and Jonny. They would head on to Italia from this point on, while we would finish out our trip in Prague.
Ciao!
October 10, 2009
Our journey was now to take us to a new country, Austria, the two destinations: Salzburg and Klosterneuberg. The time with Kristin, Rose, and Jonny was growing short, but the adventures continued.
Matthew 5:13 (four languages)
First we drove 118 miles to Salzburg. We passed through Berchtesgaden, a town near and beneath the Eagle’s Nest – mountainous hideout of Adolf Hitler in WW II; and we arrived at Salzburg at the Institute St. Sebastion hostel. After checking in, we headed back to try to see the Eagle’s Nest. But it was not to be, for as we approached Obersalzburg, a town in the mountains above Berchtesgaden, we encountered heavy fog as we drove up a steep and winding road. Then, we discovered that the last bus up to the site had just left. We tried again in the morning, but this time the elevator that carries visitors the last 400+ feet up to the chalet that once was Hitler’s retreat, was not functioning. The delay was going to be a minimum of two hours, which we decided was unacceptable; and again the day was quite overcast as it had been the day before.
Instead, the Elliott tour bus headed down to the famous Salzbergwerk (otherwise known as Salt Mines) in Berchtesgaden. In ages gone by, salt, the critical and coveted spice, was highly valued and special. Now, though considered commonplace, it is obviously still basic in the kitchen. The pictures will show you how salt has been and is still mined today.
The Elliott/Brand salt-mining tour commences
"Train" that carries the visitors through the mines at the ready
But the tour through the mines was more than just interesting; it was an adventure, starting with the ride down the wooden chute into the dark depths of the next level.
This is the way miners go to work
W A A A - H O O O !
The “high point” (haha) of the tour came when we approached a large expanse – the subterranean Salt Lake. The visitors climb aboard a simple wooden ferry and glide to the other side in darkness, punctuated by an eerie light show on the walls and ceiling. The feel is that of crossing the river Styx as it is being piloted by the boatman, Charon. Yes, it was just a little creepy.
Salzbergwerk subterranean lake
A quote by Charles de Lint comes to mind here:
The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.
After we emerged from the salty depths and enjoyed an outstanding lunch at a local Greek restaurant, an afternoon of delights began with progressive visits to some sights associated with the musical film, “Sound of Music”. First we went to the Schloss (remember – Castle) Helbrunn Palace, not to see the inside, but rather to tour the gardens as did many other visitors. The selling point here was the hilarious plethora of trick fountains. These were created by the Prince Archbishop Sittikus who, with his towering sense of humor and wealth, was indulging his love for hospitality and jokes by filling his gardens with surprises to which he treated his guests. One commentator called his property “Wasserspeil” or Waterpark (containing over 130 moving figures powered by intricate, 17th century water power), it was a “Baroque Disneyland”. Our young, delicate and sweet-voiced tour guide had an iron thumb which she mercilessly used to engage the hidden waterworks mechanism that fooled us time after time with the unpredictable showers. John knew that this was going to happen, but in the spirit of the Archbishop, kept us all in the dark until we discovered by experience the nature of the place. (humpf!) Each spout appeared to be based on a different trick, so the guests were kept jumping and hastily avoiding the surprising sprays that seemed to come from ever varied locations, short videos are included later (see the link below).
At the end of this misty migration, the reward for our perseverence was the glass gazebo exactly like the one used in The Sound of Music for the song, “Sixteen going on Seventeen”. Next we drove to the Mirabell Gardens, location for several scenes from the movie from the one where Maria runs through an ivy-covered tunnel to the steps where she and the children climax the song “Do Re Mi”. Finally, we experienced a very brief visit to the Nonnberg Abbey, oldest convent north of the Alps by walking up a local lane with a wall on one side which revealed a terrific view of Salzburg. At the top of this lane was where the Nazis parked outside the “Convent” near the end of the film. Also, we attempted to recreate the scene where the children in Sound of Music came to find their beloved Maria at the Convent gate. We hope you enjoy all the pictures we have of this delightful place. (as usual, click on the link below…)
