Easter in Holland

After we had finished frolicking in the tulips (actually I wish there was more frolicking and more tulips...haha...just kidding) we continued our long Easter weekend exploring Haarlem and Amsterdam. Really it was more exploring of Amsterdam...the extent of our Haarlem experience was mostly just sleeping...or trying to sleep as we attempted to drown out the rowdy party-goers that passed by our window into the wee hours of the morning! Seriously, it was the strangest thing...Haarlem was quite a sleepy town while we were there...not that many people around, not much even open, but every night around 3 or 4 am I would wake up to what sounded like a party going on just outside! I swore there was a bar right below our room, but when we checked, it was all just little shops...so I guess it was a moving party roaming the streets every night. Aside from that, Haarlem turned out to be the perfect place to escape the busy overcrowded streets of Amsterdam each evening and was an easy commute by train (which saved us the hassle of trying to park in Amsterdam). We didn't get to explore much of Haarlem since almost everything was closed on Sunday and Monday (including the Corrie Ten Boom House which I've heard is a must see...maybe next time), but we did enjoy two nice dinners there...including some yummy Mexican! Here are a few shots of Haarlem...

On Saturday morning we jumped on the train and headed for Amsterdam (only a quick 15 minute jaunt)...as soon as we got off the train we were greeted with the thousands of bicycles. It's amazing to see how many people in The Netherlands ride bikes...especially on cold rainy days like the ones we spent there.

We decided since it was so chilly, now was the perfect time to take one of the canal cruises in the covered boats. We bought our tickets and patiently waited in line while more and more people started pushing their way in front of us on the tiny little dock. So many that by the time we boarded the boat there were no seats left...urg! Pushy Europeans...didn't they learn it is rude to butt in line! The canal cruise was nice and the sun even decided to make an appearance. Autumn's favorite part was running up and down the aisle while her new little boyfriend chased her around. Pretty sure someone has a crush :o)

We learned on our cruise that real estate (especially along the canals) is very pricy in Amsterdam, so you end up with super tiny houses like this one...

Or houses "falling" forward like this one (it's subtle, but if you look close you can see the one jutting out towards the top)...where they try and take advantage of every last inch possible.

We passed the Anne Frank house and this beautiful church...

And great little house boats like this...

Overall, I really enjoyed the canal cruise...I think it's a great way to see the sights in Amsterdam...especially on a chilly spring morning. After our cruise we found some lunch and then set off on Rick Steve's walking tour of Amsterdam. Here are some pictures from our walk...

We headed back to Haarlem for the night, but were up early the next morning to head back to Amsterdam to go to Easter service. One of my favorite memories was during the Easter service, the choir had just finished a song and Autumn started clapping and shouting "bravo"...ha! It was the cutest thing ever :o) We spent the afternoon exploring more of Amsterdam before heading back to Haarlem for one final night. On our way back to Brussels we had planned two stops...Delft for some lovely hand painted pottery and Kinderdijk for the windmills. The blue pottery was beautiful...although quite pricy (like this one that was 12,595 euros...better start saving my pennies...ha)!! We bought some of the knock offs as they were much more reasonably priced.


Our trip to Kinderdijk was a bust though as the Garmin said we were one minute away, it instructed us to "turn right and board ferry." Considering it was cold and raining and Autumn was sleeping we opted to not board the ferry and headed for home. We'll save the windmills for a nicer day :o)

Overal it was a lovely trip to Holland. Hopefully we'll make it back for more tulips and more windmills....and if we're lucky some warmer weather and sunshine.

Click here to view all the photos from our trip.

Flowers, flowers, everywhere...

We headed to The Netherlands this weekend to visit Lisse and the famous Keukenhof gardens. As soon as I learned we were moving to Brussels and started doing some research, one of the first things I knew we just had to do this spring was head to Keukenhof for the famous tulips. Here is the blog post that inspired me...you can see why this was on my travel "to do" list I'm sure :o)

We had planned to go the weekend of the flower parade just as they did in the post, but when we found out our friends Liz & Matt and their cute daughters Grace & Audrey were going over Easter weekend we thought we'd tag along for the fun! Keukenhof is only a little over two hours from here and a relatively easy drive so we headed out early Friday morning and we're in Lisse by lunch.

And as soon as we neared the park the flower fields sprung to life! Here is a picture of some beautiful purple hyacinth...

I was excited and ready to see more! Once we got in the park we found our first of several pairs of wooden shoes for our two cute models to try out :o)

After a quick bite to eat we set out to explore the park. There were flowers everywhere and the tulips that were blooming were quite amazing. Unfortunately I think we were a few weeks early for the full tulip display in all it's glory, but we truly enjoyed the flowers that were there. And a greenhouse in the center of the park had tons of different varieties of tulips...more than I even knew existed...some that were taller than Autumn was! I tried to get a picture with her next to the crazy tall ones, but she wasn't in the mood :o( We wandered around for a few hours enjoying all the park had to offer (including a playground and petting zoo) until we all decided we were tired, cold, and ready to head to Haarlem and our hotel. Here are some more pictures of the park...totally unedited...can you believe the color of some of these flowers...it was striking!

Click here to view the full Keukenhoff album.

The flowers were a great beginning to our first spring here in Europe and left me craving more! So much so that if the weather is good in a few weeks we just might head back to see the flower parade and some more tulip fields :o) Maybe we'll even bike through the fields as I had originally planned. Come on sunshine and warm weather! :o)

More to come on the rest of our 4 day weekend in the Netherlands...next up Haarlem, Amdsterdam, and Delft. Stay tuned...

Rebels without a cause!!

So I guess technically we have been living in Belgium illegally for the last 5 months since our US passport expired and we had yet to be cleared for our Belgium ID's. But FINALLY after several extremely long visits to the Brussels commune office we are legal again!! All I can say to anyone planning to move here (or probably most other foreign countries)...do not, I repeat, DO NOT, come here without a Visa! We had plenty of time to get Visa's while in the US before we came, but Jacob's company was just not on the ball and told us not to worry about it. Thankfully they did provide us with help while we were here to get it all sorted it out with the commune...and I'm not sure we would have been able to do it without her with all the red tape and hoops they make you jump through. But it's over now and we can rest easy again without the fear of being deported :o) I can't wait to hold that Belgian ID card in my hand!! All that's left now is to pick them up on Tuesday. The funny thing is, even though we are just getting them we have to start working on the renewal process for them in early May...since they will expire at the end of July! That's how long it took to get these stupid things...so long they are almost already expired...ridiculous! Oh well...it's always something...

On the fun side though...now we can travel freely throughout Europe without the fear of someone noticing our passports are expired. Where to go, where to go...:o) For now we're planning...

The Netherlands (Haarlem, Keukenhof, Amsterdam) this weekend

Switzerland, Austria, Germany (we think) end of April

London beginning of May

Italy and Eastern Mediterranean cruise end of May

Woohoo!! I'm so excited!!

My Birthday in Barcelona

I cannot believe I'm 34 years old. Seriously...it feels like I just left my twenties...now I'm almost half way through the 30's. Wow, time does fly! But what better way to say goodbye to another year of life then to take a long weekend in Spain...Barcelona to be exact. We headed out last Wednesday evening on the lovely Ryan airlines...seriously if they weren't soooo darn cheap, I would never, ever use them (ok, maybe I would if I was still in my twenties and not traveling with a soon to be 2 year old!). But despite the stress of getting on the plane and having to fight to sit together in the teeny tiny rows, I guess it's not all that bad. If you plan to use it though be sure your carry on luggage is REALLY small!! They are super stingy about it and if it doesn't fit in their ridiculously small container at the gate (much smaller than the actual overhead bins are) then you have to check it at the gate and pay 50 euros. Trust me...it happened to us :o(

We arrived in Barcelona about 9 PM and hopped on the A2 bus and headed to our hotel just off the Ramblas (thank you Rick Steve's for the great recommendation on the bus and where to stay). We didn't stay in one of his hotel recommendations, just the area. We stayed at the NH Duc de la Victoria and it was perfect. Easy access to the airport, close to tons of shopping and the beach, lots of places to eat...it suited our needs perfectly.

On our first day we headed out to explore...in the rain :o( The good news is it rained for a few hours and this was all the rain we saw all weekend. It was absolutely beautiful the rest of the trip. Here are a few shots of the Ramblas I mentioned...it is a strip of shopping leading down to the beach. The flowers were amazing...and so cheap! There was also a huge market that we went to for breakfast every morning...it was HUGE! There were fruits, veggies, seafood, breads, pastries...pretty much everything you could ever need. I would love to live here and have access to it all the time.

Then we spent some time down at the beach. It was great listening to the waves crashing and watching the surfers out in the cold water trying to catch a ride. All that was missing was the sunshine :o)





We wandered around for a bit and decided to take a gondola ride across the bay...it had great views of the city...and check it out...the clouds were parting and the sun was making an appearance.


The next morning we decided to take Autumn to the aquarium...we had heard Barcelona had a great one so we had to check it out. The best part was the large circle aquarium that you stood on a moving walk-way to travel around while oogling at the sharks and sting rays and other giant fish.

Jacob was especially interested in what this strange fish was...I've never seen anything like it!

Autumn's favorite part was really just playing on the moving walk-way :o)

It was a great aquarium and I'm glad we took the time to check it out. That afternoon we headed over to the famous Basilica de La Sagrada Familia. An amazing cathedral that has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be completed for another 30-40 years! This is the work of the famous architect Antoni Gaudi, whose imprint can be seen throughout Barcelona. Pictures don't even do this thing justice (and we didn't even see the inside). It is so massive and yet so intricate and detailed it truly is like no church you have ever seen. I think it's somewhat unfortunate that it is still under construction because the cranes and equipment everywhere take away from it's beauty, but I guess that is the price you pay to achieve a masterpiece.

On our last full day in Barcelona (also my actual birthday) we decided to do the City Bus tour. We got to see some other famous Gaudi sights, including Park Guell. And it was huge....I pictured just a small area with some benches, but the park was enormous...and even Gaudi's house was located here. We wandered around for quite awhile just taking it all in...so long that the rest of the bus tour was spent on the bus...we didn't have time for Hop on, Hop off after that stop. Here are some pictures from the park.





That night we found a great little Mexican restaurant Rosa Negra, for my birthday dinner and then we're off to the Art Museum up on Mount Montjiic to see the famous illuminated magic fountains. It was a spectacular music, water, and lights show and a perfect way to end a great birthday!



We really enjoyed our trip to Barcelona. It was a relaxed, but enjoyable weekend together!

Click here to view the full Barcelona album.

More Wild Boar Please...

I know, I've been kinda MIA, but there just hasn't been much going on lately...we've been busy as usual, but with all the normal stuff so not much to write about just yet! Things are about to start getting VERY busy though...we head to Barcelona next week for my birthday then a few weeks later we're off to the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam and to see the beautiful tulips at Keukenhof. Then my sister Erin and her husband Andy come in town. Then Jacob's parents are in town. Then we're taking a 12 day vacation somewhere...we're still thinking Turkey and Greece, but for some reason I can't seem to get it booked. We are close, but I'm still stressing over if it's really what I want to do during that time. Part of me is thinking maybe we'd be better off just hopping in the car and driving to Italy via Switzerland. We shall see...we need to decide soon! Our airfare has already doubled in price since I started planning :o( I'll try to keep the blog posts coming wherever we end up though so you can all travel along with us!

And our fun adventure last week was an invitation to dinner at Mr. & Mrs. Cousin's house. They own our building and we've only ever had short conversations while passing in the hall...so they invited the three of us to join them for dinner. We took the two flights of stairs down to their apartment and were greeted with kisses at the door...I'm still getting used to this European greeting...it's so hard to know how many kisses to give, etc, but we managed...and it's actually kind of fun...makes me feel like I fit in here. Mr. & Mrs. Cousin were joined by there grandson Thomas who they informed us is learning English...so he was here to practice. He didn't say much all night so I'm guessing his English lessons are going about as well as my French...ha! Their apartment is similar to ours except VERY fancy. The floors were covered with oriental rugs...one overlapping the other...pretty much covering every inch of parquet. They had little trinkets and items everywhere that I assume they've collected with years and years of traveling. Jacob and I were concerned about Autumn getting in to all their lovely possessions, but luckily they had a dog so she was so preoccupied with him and the pretzels they offered us to get in to too much trouble.

We all sat down at the table for dinner and our first course was some type of pureed vegetable soup. I really don't know what it was, but it was delicious! Autumn took the opportunity to create a sculpture out of her soup bowl and silverware. Seriously I wish I had a camera because it was quite a sight...forks standing straight up out of the bowl as their tines were wedged on the rim, spoons all around the outside...ha...it was really pretty clever. Luckily they have many grandkids...and even some great grandkids so they didn't mind the mess she left behind. Our second course was wild boar with baked pears...we think they even shot the animal themselves...we saw pictures later :o) Again, it was scrumptious and we gobbled it all up! (Ok Autumn didn't...she had a few noodles we had brought for her and then was down chasing the dog around again...oh well). For dessert we had some type of jello-ish custardy thing. Ha...I know there is a better word for it, but you get the picture. Not my favorite, but not bad. After dinner we chatted a bit more...they are quite fascinating people and have lived a wonderful life from the sound of it! Jacob and I especially liked the story Mr. Cousin told about how he was forced to quit skiing at 81 or face having to use a walker for the rest of his life. Haha...I sure hope I'm still that active at 81! We think that probably puts them in there late 80's or so. Anyway...we all enjoyed ourselves immensely, but it was time to head home and get Autumn to bed. Hopefully we can return the gesture some day and have them to our house for dinner. I am quite certain though it will not be as nice or as delicious at the one they prepared for us!