Harvey Travel Arts

This is the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium.  Cute, isn't it?  Brian and I went a year or so ago.  It was originally built for the 1958 Expo World's Fair.  Each of those metal balls are actual rooms and there are several stairs and an elevator inside to get around with.  Because Brian and I like weird architecture, we thought it would be fun to explore this place.  Unfortunately, so did lots of other tourists.  There was a fairly long, slow line to get in and it was rather crowded.  Not to mention, the people working there were not very friendly that day.  The bubbles were filled with tourists and we only got to see a small part.  If I sound like I'm complaining, I probably am.  I am human.  I distinctly remember that day and how we almost let the crowds and rudeness steal our joy of seeing this really cool, funky place.  What is stealing your joy today?  Don't let the little things get you down.  God wants us to give thanks in all circumstances, and I am thankful for ou

I'm so excited!  Brian and I went to Barcelona over Thanksgiving.  It was our last major trip while living in Germany (the second time around) and we had a blast that long weekend.  At the same time, our focus was elsewhere; so much so that we didn't upload the photos until today:  February 11th!  I tried looking for them before; even while still in Germany.  Brian said that he thought he had loaded them, but I just wasn't finding them.  I looked for them again last week when I remembered that we didn't have the photos and we finally relocated the memory card they were on and here a couple of of them are, just to get you started.  There was a lot of crazy and fun architecture in that city!  So in honor of that, here's the view of something quirky from the bus we were on.  

I was flipping through photos of our trip to Dover Castle and came across some that give a little bit of perspective to the type of fortified location it had.  Dover is known for its cliffs (the White Cliffs of Dover) and thus gives it a bit of strategic advantage during a battle.  Looking down one can see that there is a built up area of defense in the top photo.  The castle buildings themselves are surrounded by built up areas, too.  I don't think I'd want to climb up to an area and see the below tower peeking down on me.  I probably wouldn't have made it this far in the first place.   Reflecting on this makes me think about the defenses we put up as people.  Emotional defenses, and sometimes physical defenses.  We don't want others to get too close, or we've been hurt in some way and feel we need protection.  Oftentimes this will manifest itself as a distance (i.e. not sharing what's really going on in our lives) or simply not being available to answer a