I have been spending a lot of time with the grandchildren on the model railroads but they always ask about the big trains. “Papa we saw big train today and it was very interesting”. So I found a place in Bryson City, NC that is a scenic railroad ride. They had just added a steam…
During our visit to Portugal we also had the chance to visit Fatima. It is very close where Renato’s home town. I was surprised to see how big the area was and there were so many people. Nana Sue has been there before and she said that the entire square was filled. You can see…
On Friday we drove to Tomar and arrived at Isabel and Jose’s house (Renato’s parents). They welcomed us and made us feel at home. They live in a very small village outside of Tomar. There house is a 3 bedroom house with Isabel’s recently passed away mother’s house next door, and her Isabel’s mother’s mother’s…
Nanna Sue and I are now visiting Portugal. There is a very special festival in Tomar, Festival of the Trays, that we will be seeing on Sunday, more on that for a later post. We flew into Lisbon, a lovely city just in from the Western Side of Portugal. We stayed at a small hotel in the…
I recently visited Altoona PA with my daughter Erin. We were there for a family reunion with the Wolf family, from my mother’s mother’s side of the family. While there I took the advantage to check out a train museum and the famous horseshoe curve. The museum was fantastic and I learned the history and…
We walked into the city on Monday night and found a great restaurant with a Polish band playing. Mikey practiced his “clinking of the glass”. We enjoyed some polish dishes. We had some wine but with an earlier experience with Polish wine, we opted for some Italian and Australian wine. Nana Sue showed us a…
Off to the salt mines to see the oldest continuous working salt mine. The mine operates 24 hours a day and has been working for 700 years. It is mainly a place where tourist’s visit now and they have over 500 employees just supporting all of the tourists. We dropped down into the mine in…
We arrived at the Archbishop’s Residence in Krakow on Monday and I was surprised that we were received by Cardinal Stanistaw Dziwisz. Cardinal Stanislaw was part of Pope John Paull II’s life throughout his involvement with the church. He talked about Krakow, blessed us, and gave Mikey two candy bars. Mikey was thrilled to death.…
One of the joys of this pilgrimage is to be with my family and my grandson, Michael Murry, who we call Mikey. Mikey has been in a great mood the entire trip. Not that he hasn’t had a few meltdowns but was a joy to be with. His Aunts took very well care of him,…
On Sunday we visited Auscwitz. It was a very somber day for a Sunday. The day started off with light rain and very cloudy. We arrived at the camp and learned that there were two main camps. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau. We first started at Auschwitz I which started out as a…
papa carney 