Day 8 - Malaga


Our next port was Malaga, Spain. When we got off the ship, we saw that there was about a mile walk along the dock to shore. There were no car rentals at the cruise ship, so Daddy and Grandpa took a taxi to the train station while the rest of us waited at the dock. After awhile they came back with a car, and we left. We wanted to go to Alhambra, which was a castle and palace of the Moors. As we began driving we took the wrong road, because our GPS was in walking mode and would not let us get on a freeway. The road we were on was through the mountains and was very windy. Here are some pictures of the mountains:



Finally we arrived at Alhambra, which is in the town of Granada. Alhambra was a castle that was built by the Muslims (Moors) when they were ruling Spain. It was captured by the Spanish in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It is where Columbus went to ask permission and funding to come to the New World. When he came up to the castle, he said that he saw the Moorish king leaving and the Spanish flag go up the pole. We could not go in the palace because they only let a certain number of people in a day (mostly tour groups), but we walked around the gardens and castle. They would not let you walk on most of the walls and towers, but you could on some. There were good views of the town from the walls.


Part of the gardens


The castle. The little walls were houses added later.


Stephen and I with a cannon

Here are two panoramas that I took here. You can click to enlarge.




After the castle, we drove back to Malaga, but this time we took the highway, which was much quicker and straighter, though a little less scenic.

Day 7 - At Sea

On the day at sea, we mostly played Empire Builder (this is not the same edition). We don't get to play it much because it usually takes at least 4 hours to play, and we don't play games much at home.


The game board

This is a game where you have to build a railroad track, and you pick up natural resources where they are produced and deliver them to cities that are willing to pay for them. It is a good entrepreneur game, because you learn basic business principles like it takes money to make money, and there are disaster cards that can spoil your plans. You have to spend money to build your track, other players can lock you out of cities you want to go to, and you can rent their track. You also learn some geography and where natural resources were in the 1800's when railroads were the primary means of transporting goods. We also had another bridge lesson with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner.

British Rails is very similar to Empire Builder, except that the board is of Great Britain. It can be helpful for learning about the geography and natural resources of Britain.

Day 6 - Cagliari


On this day we went to the town Cagliari on an island called Sardinia, which is right off the coast of Italy. We did not have anything that we really wanted to do in the town, so we did not get up very early. After we ate breakfast, we got off the ship, and decided to walk up to the castle on top of the hill, because that was really the only interesting thing there. There was not really a whole lot to see in the castle, it was pretty big, but there were really only four walls. The castle had a good view from the wall, but where we spent the most time was going to a museum inside of the castle. The museum had things from the island that were collections that people on the island used to own. There collections were tapestries, lace, dolls, and a couple of suits of traditional outfits. After we saw that part of the museum, we went down into the basement, where there were models of the castle and the town from 3 different time periods, and cisterns from the Roman empire. After that we went back to the ship, ate lunch, and went swimming (there was a water slide in the pool), then we ate dinner.Joshua, Rachel, and Stephen in the pool

The water slide was a lot of fun!

This castle has a lot of steps

The model of the castle in the museum.

A suit of the full-sized clothes.

Handwoven donkey blankets

Mommy and Daddy walking at the wall of the castle.

The dolls were dressed in clothes like they used to wear.



Blogging the Reformers: Aonio Paleario

Aonio Paleario

Read the introduction here.
This is from my reading in History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne

Aonio Paleario was an Italian Reformer in the 16th century. He was born in 1503. In 1520 he went to Rome to study Homer, Virgil and the like, and in 1536 he published a poem in Latin. He began reading the scriptures and discovered the doctrine of justification by faith. He married, and had two sons and two daughters. Some monks formed a plot against him to convict him of heresy, but he defended himself and was declared innocent. Thirty years later he was arrested again for heresy. He was accused of denying purgatory and for saying that Christians are justified by faith alone (Sola Fide). He was hanged and then burnt in Rome on July 3rd, 1570. Many people forget that there was a small Reformation in Italy because it died out and we do not see fruits of it today.

Blogging the Reformers: William Tyndale

William Tyndale

Read the introduction here.
This is from my reading in History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne

William Tyndale was born around 1490 in England. He was ordained as a priest in 1521. His main desire was to translate the scriptures into English. He once said when debating a clergyman, “If God preserves my life, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than the pope himself.”1 The bishops in England rejected his translation because they did not want the people to be able to read the Bible. He fled to Germany and finished his translation of the New Testament there. By 1526 there were more than 20 editions of it in England. In 1535 he was betrayed in Antwerp, Belgium by someone who pretended to be a Christian. He was convicted of heresy for believing that Christians are saved by faith alone. After being defrocked from being a priest, he was martyred on October 6th, 1536 at less than 50 years of age by being strangled and then burnt. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England's eyes!”2 Soon after these words were partially fulfilled, although Henry XIII was not saved. Soon after Tyndale's death Archbishop Cranmer presented Tyndale's translation of the Bible to Henry XIII to ask if he would allow it to be printed, though without Tyndale's name on it. King Henry agreed, and thus came the first legal Bible in English. William Tyndale had great effects on the Reformation because his translation had great influence on the English people and on the Geneva and King James Bible translations.

1 As quoted in J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) volume 3, book vii, p. 214
2 As quoted in Ibid, p. 225


Tyndale's Martyrdom from Foxe's book of Martyrs

Book Report on The Pioneers


by Joshua Horn

The Pioneers contains two of Ballantyne's shorter stories. The first is The Pioneers. It is the tale of Reuben Guff and his son Lawrence as they travel on voyages of discovery in the northern wilderness of Canada in the 1780s. They first go to explore the wilderness with their faithful Indian friend Swiftarrow. Their adventure is cut short when the discover a Indian settlement which was destroyed by smallpox. In 1784 they set off again with the 'King of Pioneers' Alexander Mackenzie, one of the great explorers of Canada. They travel up a great river to discover whether it leads to the Pacific Ocean. They sail along the river in canoes amidst many dangers from ice, the natives and their own men, and they finally discover that the river leads to the Arctic Ocean. Several years later they go on an even more hazardous journey on the Peace River through the Rocky Mountains. They courageously ascend the river braving many dangers and hardships. This story does not contain as much dialog as some of Ballantyne's others, but it is still interesting as it tells the real life adventures in this oft-forgotten chapter of history.

The second story in this book is called, Fast in the Ice. It tells of a voyage of discovery to search for the North Pole. The commander of the Hope is Captain Harvey, and his crew includes his nephew Tom Gregory, Davy Butts, Sam Baker, and many other wonderful characters. When they arrive the the Arctic regions they have many adventures and Ballantyne tells how God protected them through their dangers. Their ship gets stuck fast in the ice during the winter, and they have to live through temperatures at times 60° below zero! They meet with Eskimos, hunt bears and walruses and fight hunger. Finally after many dangerous times the ship comes free in the summer, but the next day it is crushed in the ice and sinks, leaving the men stranded in the Arctic. Ballantyne tells much interesting information about the 'floes' and icebergs, the lives of the Eskimos and how they hunt the wild animals. This story was very interesting, and I would definitely recommend it.

Buy The Pioneers
Read online:
The Pioneers
Fast in the Ice

Day 5 - Pompeii


On Day 5, we took the train from Naples to Pompeii. Naples is a very dirty city and there was a long walk to the train station. When we got to Pompeii, we got off the train, got tickets and went in. Pompeii was a resort city for Rome, meaning that the Roman citizens had vacation homes there. Pompeii was destroyed in 79 A.D., when the nearby Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii was a very perverse city when it was destroyed. People would just throw their trash into the streets, so they made the fountains overflow to wash out the streets. Because of this there were sidewalks for pedestrians, and large stones were placed in the streets for people to cross the street, and the chariots could go over them. Like in Rome, there were temples to everyone they could think of.

The people in Pompeii probably did not know the destruction was coming. There had been some earthquakes, but there had been earthquakes before. They probably started that day like they would have started any other day. They ate and drank and were merry, not knowing that they would surely die.

We walked through the streets and looked at some of the buildings. Many of the houses were well preserved, and in some you could still see mosaics. Pompeii had it's own amphitheater, and a house where they trained the gladiators. It was very much like Rome because it was a Roman city. Here are some pictures:

The entrance to the city


Mount Vesuvius as seen from Pompeii



Me giving a talk on Pompeii


Pillars from the temple of Jupiter



Ancient Crosswalks


An original drain


Pillars from one of the temples


Daddy in Pompeii

Day 4 - Rome


On Day 4, we docked at Civitavvechia and took the train into Rome. We got off the train, and took the metro to the Coliseum. (We had gotten a pass so that we could take any bus, or metro in the city, and one round trip train ride.) After we got off of the metro, we walked to the Forum, which was right across the street. At first we could not find how to get into the Forum, because we did not know that we had to get a ticket. We finally found where to get the tickets, and there was a line so we had to wait.

Inside there were ruins and a lot of temples. The emperor would make his father a god after his death, and build a temple to him. This progressed until they would make anyone who died a god, like the temple to Romulus was built by his father when Romulus died. The first thing we went to was the Senate Building, which was where the Senate met, and the senators made oration. Next we went to an arch, which was dedicated to Servetus, who was a successful general. The Romans tried to terrorize their subjects, so on the side of the monument there were carvings of people being taken away by Roman soldiers to be executed. When he fell out of political favor, the government decided to rewrite history, and so on the arch they crossed out that it was dedicated to Servetus, and put instead that it was dedicated to the basic principles.

After that, we saw the place where the common people went to discuss things, as opposed to the place where the Senate met. After that we saw a swamp where people would throw in their offerings to Julius Caesar when he was a god. They had a memorial there to a knight who drowned in it with his horse while trying to get a piece of gold for the emperor. There were a lot of stones all over the place from the buildings that have fallen down. We went to the place where Augustus Caesar was buried, and there is an the altar there. Around it were flowers and money, which people had throne recently, because the religion of Rome has not changed. People still worship the emperors, just like they did a long time ago.

After that we walked up to the royal gardens, and the emperor's house. It was built under the gardens so that it did not mess them up. Just one room, for example the dining room, was as big as our whole house! On the same hill, archaeologists had found and dug up where they think Romulus first started the colony.

That was the end, and the exit was blocked so we had to find another exit, which we did, but that one was blocked too. We finally found an exit, and there were a lot of stairs to get down because we were on a hill. After we got down, we had to wait for Daddy, because he had rented an audio tour to tell him what things were and what happened (there were literally only 2 interpretive signs) and they took his drivers license to make sure he gave it back. After he got back we went to a sandwich booth to get lunch.

Almost as soon as we were done with lunch it started to rain. It started to downpour, and we went into the Colosseum. Our grandparents were tired of walking so they did not go through the Colosseum with us. In modern stadiums they use the same design that the Romans used because they could empty thousands of people from it in 20 minutes. Even though we might think that the Romans were primitive people, they were not. They had pulleys to raise the stage, and if they wanted to they could flood it, and then stage a sea war. After we went through the Colosseum, we got back on the metro, then on the train, and back onto the cruise ship.

Some of the pillars from the temple of Saturn


The arch dedicated to the Roman General


Zoomed in so that you can see where it was edited (4th line down on the left)


The temple that Roman Catholic churches are modeled after (notice the three rows)


Daddy talking about the place we were at


The arch the Romans built to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem


The Colosseum(this is not how it would have looked; this is the "basement" of the stage)

Day 3 - Livorno, Italy


On the third day our port was Livorno, Italy. When we got off the ship we rented a car from a place that was right next to the cruise ship. We had to rent two small cars because they did not have any vans for 7 passengers. We decided to drive to through the Tuscany valley. Daddy, Mommy and I were in one car and Grandpa, Grandma, Rachel and Stephen were in the other. We had a GPS. They were following us, but we got separated when we were driving through a tunnel because Grandpa was looking at the map. After waiting for them to catch up with us and deciding they took the wrong fork coming out of the tunnel, we started driving into the Tuscany valley. In the Tuscany valley they grow olives and grapes. We stopped at a town called Volterra, because we saw a castle on top of a hill. It was a midieval village and when we got to the castle, we could only walk around it because it is used as a prison. We walked around the village, then decided we should head toward San Gimignano, since that is where we told Grandma we were going. When we got there, we saw Grandpa parking the other car! They did not remember that we were supposed to meet them there, but providentially they had asked someone about a castle, and they said that this was a good one. They had been lost for awhile and kept stopping to ask directions. Once they pulled into a driveway to turn around, and then the gate closed behind them! They had to go ask the owners to open it, in Italian (Grandma knows a very little Spanish and even less Italian.)

San Gimignano is a walled midieval town. It had 72 towers at one time, but now less than 20 survive. We first ate lunch in a "real" italian restaurant and most of us had spaghetti bolognese, but Stephen tried pasta with wild boar sauce. We all like Mommy's spaghetti better! Then we walked around the town, and saw the towers and the medieval castle. We also went in some of the shops. After awhile we started driving back. We wanted to drive by the leaning tower of Pisa, but when we got there we did not have time, so we stayed on the highway. We did get a picture of the top though.


Castle at Volterra




The countryside


Towers at San Gimignano


Us in the medieval castle

Day 2 - Cannes, France



Our second stop was Cannes, France. After breakfast we got off the ship and onto a small boat called a tender to take us on the short trip to shore. After we arrived Daddy and I left the others at the port and began walking to the rental car place to pick up the car. After about a mile walk we found it. We then drove back and picked the others up. We wanted to drive up to the French Alps. Unfortunately, we were having problems with our GPS, so we had to figure out how to get there on our own. After wandering around for some time, we finally got on the right road. The Alps were very nice. We kept driving on a windy road through the Alps until we saw a castle on top of a hill, so we decided to stop there. It was a midieval town and castle named Entrevaux, which means "beginning of the valley". We climbed up the hill to the castle while Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the bottom. After a very steep walk we finally we arrived at the top. It was a fairly nice castle, and there were good views of the surrounding countryside. We did not have time to walk through the town, but we did get a good view of it from the castle. Finally we went back to the car and drove back to Cannes. We dropped off everyone but Daddy and I at the port, and then we looked for a gas station. Finally we found one, and then went to drop the car off. The gate was a foot from the ground when we arrived because they were closing when we got there, but they let us in. Then we walked back to the cruise ship.


The Alps


The Castle


Rachel and Stephen walking up to the castle



Walking



The back entrance of the castle


The town from the castle. The cathedral can be seen on the left side of the picture.

Memorial Day 2009 Flyer


Click here for more information

Day 1 - Barcelona

The cruise left from Barcelona. At Barcelona, there is a monument to the discovery of the New World which has Columbus on top of it pointing out to sea. The monument had four murals on the sides, and four statues on the sides. Then we went to the Maritime Museum, which was near the monument. The maritime museum was inside the old covered shipyard (about the thirteenth century), which the King had built to build his royal ships. Some of the building was modern, but there were parts where you could see the original timbers. Out in the courtyard, there was a recreation of the first Spanish submarine from the 1860's. It was shaped like a fish, and had two lookout holes on the sides. Inside the museum, was a history of the Spanish navy and fishing boats. They had many models which they made in the back part of the museum. It had exhibits on each of the capabilities which a ship needs, the designs which were used, and how they were modified to work better. They also had a full sized model of a galley, which was a ship that was propelled by oars, and the oars were usually manned by slaves and convicts. They also had a lot about the discovery of the world, and copies of the maps which the explorers made. It was interesting but it was large, and by the time we were done my feet were tired.

Cruise Update

We are now on the cruise ship. We have gone to a lot of places. We have seen Rome, Pompeii, and many castles. We are enjoying it. We do not have time to write long post, but we will try to when we get back.

Yesterday we were docked at Malaga, Spain, and we rented a car. We drove to the castle where Ferdinand and Isabella drove back the Moors from Spain, and also where they commissioned Columbus to go to the new world. It was a nice castle, but they only let you go on a few walls and towers.

Here is a picture of us walking in Pompei.