Only In Europe

We had a good trip on Sunday to complete our journey to Hungary for our staff conference. We travelled through 5 countries in one day. Only in Europe can you do that by car. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary. The amazing thing too is that, as of last December, all of those countries are part of the Schengen Zone--meaning that we did not go through any Customs or Passport control the entire trip down here. Much fun.
We did discover, unfortunately, that McDonalds is much most countries other than Slovakia. We passed one as we entered the country and passed another on the way out a couple hours later. Disappointing when you depend on McDonalds stops to keep the kids happy and fed while travelling. Oh well, it was a gorgeous drive anyway--with lovely low rolling mountains and a decent speed limit.

On The Road Again

I'm writing this from our hotel in Lower Silesia (southwestern mountainous region of Poland). We are in fact a little outside the small town of Ustron and well up on a mountain. We are on our way to our annual staff conference, called CONNECT, in Sopron, Hungary. This is our first time back at staff conference since the summer of 2005. We are very excited about seeing old friends, getting encouragement from fellow church-planters, and having a generally refreshing time.
We left our apartment at 10am today and arrived in Ustron at about 3:45pm to conclude a generally good and fun drive with the family.
When we stopped at a bar and grill to ask for directions to our hotel, we were invited back to a "garden party". So we went back after checking into our hotel, dropping our stuff off, and Renata getting her long-awaited and much-enjoyed massage. The food was terrific. I had my standard kielbasa and fries, but this time i also tried, for the first time, grochowka (gro-hoove-ka)--bean and sausage stew. Absolutely marvelous. The kids had a terrific time playing in the very large yard which included a sandbox. Maja's first time in a sandbox. We're still shaking the sand off of her.
Will keep you posted on the rest of our trip.