Florence, Italy

Rhonda and I spent four days in Florence, Italy.

Jani Celebration

These are pictures of the Midsummer night celebration called Jani. The Latvians celebrate all night with song, dance, and fire.

Purple

These purple pine cones are on the tree in our yard.

Groundbreaking

After two years of meeting with Latvians, Russians, Austrians, Swedes, Finnish, and Germans we finally got the loan and land to build our school. The groundbreaking took place on September 10, 2010. They promise it will be completed in one year. The lady in the red scarf is my Latvian translater. This interview was going to the Latvian TV station. Later the Russian business newspaper also wanted some quotes.

Estonia

This is a monument to the people of the Baltics who had to flee when the Soviets took over. These 100 suitcases represent the belongings of people who came to this port in Estonia but due to weight limitations of the ships had to leave everything they owned on the beach in order to board. There were so many people trying to leave before the Soviets arrived that the boats could only take people and not their belongings. The people only found this out when they arrived at the boat so they left everything sitting on the beach.

Brugge, Belgium

Here are a couple of the windmills that dot the landscape in Belgium.

Mosel Trip

The entire trail was paved with castles dotted along the trail.

Mosel River Valley

There are little villages all along the river. So you can ride a little then stop and have a drink, eat a meal or get a hotel for the night.

Mosel River Valley

More pictures from our bike ride.

Mosel River Valley

The bike trip took us through the wine fields of the Mosel River Valley. They put grapes all over the hills to the point that they cannot use machines to pick the grapes so they hire migrant workers. Most of these workers come from Poland.