Traffic Test

"Signs, signs, everywhere are signs. Don't do this, don't do that. Can't you read the signs?"

All of you older people should recognize those song lyrics. At any rate European countries are filled with traffic signs. And it isn't until you rent a car that you really notice how many there are and that you have no clue what some of them are.

We though we would help all you potential travelers out by having a traffic sign test, so number your paper from 1 to 26 and don't cheat! Some pictures have two signs in them so watch the numbers on the side. I started you with an easy one and yes some are blurry, it is hard taking pictures from a moving car.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.
8.

9.

10.

11.

12.
13.
14. another easy one
15. OK, this isn't a sign, but what do the shark teeth on the road mean?
16.
17.

18.
19.
20.

The sign above comes before a place like this.
21.
22.
23.

24.
25.

26.

Garth and I sure wish we had asked about some of these signs before Rob and Anita dropped us off at the car rental. Below are a list of the answers:

1. This sign tells you where each lane will be going. Some of these can get quite complicated with 5 or 6 lanes. They also paint big arrows on the street.

2. No stopping on the right side of road. If there wasn't an arrow, it would mean both sides.

3. You are leaving Riel or any other city/village.

4. No parking on which ever side of the street the sign is on.

5. No bikes allowed.

6. Round-about ahead. There are tons of round-abouts and we decided we really liked them, the traffice keeps moving, no sitting at traffic lights.

7. Some cars will be turning left.

8. Do not enter

9. Bikes and vestpas can enter.

10. You are on the main road and there will be a road entering from the right but they have to yield to you.

11. There is parking to the right.

12. 50 km speed limit.

13. End of 30 km speed zone.

14. Bike path ends.

15. You are entering a main road that you have to yield to.

16. Bike path.

17. Beware of pedestrians.

18. You are on the main road and everyone yields to you.

19. No parking, you should have gotten this right, it is the second time I put it in. Garth and I were very complexed by this sign. We didn't know if it meant don't not enter or what.

20. The car on the right has the right of way. The road narrows to slow down traffic and only one car can get through at a time.

21. Bikes will be coming from both directions.

22. Dead end street.

23. Yield

24. One way street

25. Caution children at play.

26. Construction zone.

Add up your correct answers and see how you did.

0-8 correct you shouldn't drive in Europe

9-13 You would probably drive as well as Garth and I did here. No accidents but a couple of confusing times.

14-19 You must have driven in an European country before.

20-26 You are European or more likely you cheated!

Another day in Northern Holland

We took one last look Hindeloopen and headed north again though a few more small villages and then headed across the Afsluitdejk. It is a dike that was built so they could drain Ijsselmeer Lake but the enviormentalists had a fit so now there is just an expensive dike and road that connects one side of the Netherlands to the other. It is 30 km long and takes you right to Den Helder were you can catch the ferry to Texel, the largest of the northern islands.
Here is our little rental car that was perfect for us. We are in line to get on the ferry and were one of the last cars to make it on.
We crammed our car on with everyone else and then headed up stairs to use the restrooms before we got to Texel. The ferry ride isn't very long not even 20 minutes, just like every thing in Holland, nothing is too far away unless you get caught in traffic.
We headed right up the center of the island to De Cocksdrop. The sun was out but with the ocean breeze, the temperature was just right. We stopped at a little place for lunch and sat out front to eat but they had plastic along the side of their property and so there wasn't any air movement. Luckily the food was really good so it made up for the heat. We have really missed Anita and Jip explaining the menus to us and several times have been surprised with what we ended up getting. Like yesterday when I thought I was ordering a roastbeef sandwich and ended up with two pieces of bread with sliced roast beef on them and three fried eggs on top of that.

After lunch we made our way up to the lighthouse and went to have a look at the North Sea. Texel is famous for its white beaches and sand dunes and we were able to see them from here. Here is our first look at the North Sea. Everyone on this island was on bikes but just a few of us and the whole island catered to the bikers. It really would have been fun to ride around on, just like all of Holland. The country is made for bikes with all the bike paths and it is all flat - no hills! When we first got to the island, I wished we had rented bikes, but when I saw how far everything was and how hot the sun was, I was glad we had our air conditioned car. We stopped at another beach and had to climb all these stairs to the top of the sand dune to get to see the beach. I was anxious to take my shoes off and wade in the water but when we got to the top I changed my mind.
We assumed that we would see the beach just right there a few feet below us but, how wrong we were! We could bare even see the North Sea. We could see the trail the people were taking to get out to the beach but it was looked like was at least 2 miles away!
And what surprised me even more was that the people were hardly carrying anything with them. When we go to the beach we have the whole family loaded down with "stuff" and we only have to walk a few feet. These people were going on a trek and not taking anything! Our last shot from the top of the dike looking at all the bikes that had been left by the beach goers.
We didn't want to get back too late because Rob had to come pick us up so we decided to head home. The traffic was just crawling along as we got off the ferry. On the left side of the road was a maritime museum with a big ship and submarine out front. The guy a head of us was looking at it and at the same time stepped on the gas just when the guy in front of him slammed on his brakes. We had seen our first accident and it wasn't in Paris. Garth couldn't wait to tell Jip. The poor guy who hadn't been paying attention had demolished the front end of his car and the guy in front of him sure wasn't too happy, but he didn't have much damage.

I navigated us to the freeway, around Amsterdam and we were headed south to Eidhoven. We were quite proud of ourselves and our ability to get around, we did wish we had asked Rob and Anita the meaning of the traffic signs before we left though. I thought I had mapped out our route all on one freeway when I realized that what I thought said A35 was actually A25! Leave it to my bad eyes, we had gone out of our way about 60 km and were on the other side of the country, right back where we had been the day before! I have to hand it to Garth, he didn't even get mad at me or say a thing about the extra hour we had to spend in the car not to mention the expensive gas we had used. When we got back to Eindhoven, it was pouring and we had to return our car and move our luggage while trying not to get too wet. Not the best way to end a great trip.

Friesland

Saturday night when we returned from France, we realized that Garth had only two days left and we didn't have any plans. Anita volunteered to have Preston stay with them and let Garth and I go off on our own. Anita and I spent the rest of the night looking into cheap flights to Sweden, Berlin, Rome, Hungary, and anywhere else we could, but with no luck on such short notice. Next we looked into trains but they were too expensive and took too much time. Next we looked into renting a car which also was difficult because everything is closed on Sundays. We finally did find a car, so the next morning Rob took us to Eindhoven and we picked up our Ford Fusion and headed to the northeast part of Holland or Friesland. Rob had only been there as a child and Anita had never been there so they weren't able to give us too much direction, just some names of towns to visit.

The lady at the airport gave us directions on which roads to take to get us to Friesland and we headed out. We figured that if Garth's Uncle Paul could rent a car and get around in Europe we could too. We decided not to rent the navigation system with the car because we didn't even know what address to put in it. I think Anita and Rob were a little worried if we would do alright and so were we. We got a little lost just heading out of Eindhoven but finally got headed in the right direction.

WARNING: if you don't want to look at lots of pictures of scenery, you may want to skip our next two blogs. I think Preston was really happy he didn't come on this trip; Garth and I loved it but I don't think it was a teenager's idea of fun.

While I was busily scanning the map for the names of the towns we had been given I lost track of where we were and I thought we were further than we were. For the next twenty minutes we tried to get back on the road we had been on before I freaked out.

Eventually, we made it to the first town Anita and Rob had suggested, Giethoorn, or Green Venice. The village is built around canals and it was so beautiful with all the houses and restaurants and bridges.
There were lots of Dutch tourists and people floating down the canals in their boats and it was really fun to watch and to be where there weren't any American tourist. It is so easy to get around in the Netherlands because almost everyone in the country speaks English.

From there we avoided the freeways and just stayed on the small roads and made our way towards the coast. All the land we drove over was the polders or reclaimed land and it is filled with canals and lakes. At only one lake did we see a couple of people water skiing though. Otherwise people were just quietly moving down the canals with some occasional barges, too.

Next we made our way to Stavoren which is on the coast of Ijsselmeer Lake (it used to be called the Zieder Zee before it was enclosed with a new dike), it is the large body of water that divides the Netherlands in the north and is all fresh water now.

From there we avoided the freeways and just stayed on the small roads and made our way towards the coast. All the land we drove over was the polders or reclaimed land and it is filled with canals and lakes. At only one lake did we see a couple of people water skiing though. Otherwise people were just quietly moving down the canals with some occasional barges, too.

Next we made our way to Stavoren which is on the coast of Ijsselmeer Lake (it used to be called the Zieder Zee before it was enclosed with a new dike), it is the large body of water that divides the Netherlands in the north and is all fresh water now.

The road went along the coast and I thought we would be able to look out on to the shore, silly me! There is a dike along the coast. Garth is standing at the top of the dike and if you look in the background you can see all the sheep that cover the dikes keeping the grass cut. We never realized that most of this small country is taken up with farms and animals. As far as our eyes could see was green with agriculture. We just thought it was funny to see the sheep all along the dikes with gates every once and a while to prevent them from wandering too far on the dike.
I had to go down and feel the water to see how cold it was because wouldn't you think it would be cold? Well it was actually pretty warm, at least much warmer than Havasupi and we swim in that.
On the road again...... just wanted you to see the difference in the dike on the left and the polder on the right. That is another small village off in the distance on the right.
We stopped at a little village called Balk and had lunch. The canal ran right through the middle of town so we just watched people float while we at. All the canals and lakes are connected so you can just go forever from one side of Friesland to the other.

We finally made it to our next destination - Hindeloopen and where we would spend the night. It is a very small village and but has a very large harbor with a lock to the canals that go through the it. As we walked around we saw a lock and the man in charge had just hung his wooden shoe out to be paid and then opened the lock for the boats. You can see the pole with the shoe tied to in on the cement.
A view looking down into the village.
We walked along the dike and the shops and got a recommendation for a bed and breakfast for the night. There were a lot of people here, most all on bikes, and I was wondering if we would be able to find a place to stay in a village so small, but it was no problem. Most people were camping or staying on their boats.
The bed and breakfast we stayed at was just behind the church and we got the "garden room" which of course didn't come with air conditioning or a toilet or shower in the room but it was great none the less. You had to "mind your head" when you walked up the steep stairs but we enjoyed it and there was a nice ocean breeze all night.

We walked every street in the village at least twice by the end of the night but we loved it. There were only about 6 restaurants in the town and one was a Mexican one called El Paso, we decided not too try it. We'll stick to Mexican food in Arizona or New Mexico - we're a little picky. We opted for just a huge bowl of ice cream and was so great.
Just more pictures from our walks.

We walked out on to a pier to get a different view of Hinderloopen and there some girls who were still jumping into the water off the pier and it was probably after 9:00. You definitely wouldn't have caught me doing that - way too cold!
We sat on the dike and watched a beautiful sunset. If finally went down after 10:00. I have a whole series of photos of the sun going down but I just gave you the first and the last.
Since the sun had set, we walked around the village again checking out how things looked in the dark. Don't we look good! There is nothing better than a vacation.
It didn't look as thought the water in the canals even moved, they were so still. Around every corner it was another idyllic site. So many place looked like the Van Gogh paintings of boats and harbors.
You can see that the bridges light up and reflect in the canals.
Finally, we decided it was time to return to our bed and breakfast since we were the only ones moving around in the village; quite a difference from a couple of hours ago. Most stores are closed on Sunday and all stores and restaurants close early every night. Stores close at 5 or 6 and most restaurants close their kitchens at 9:00. That caused some adjustment for us.

Heading Home to Holland

After a long day in Paris, no one was anxious to go back to the hustle and bustle. We had seen everything Garth and Preston wanted to see, so I guess I will have to come back to the Musee d'Orsay (where the Impressionist paintings are) another time. We decided to stop at a couple of places on the way home. Our first stop was at Chantilly. They have a grass horse race track where they have a big horse race every year with 3 year old Arabian horses. There is also the Chantilly Chateau (castle). It was a beautiful chateau and so different from the ones we had seen in Germany and Belgium.
Here is proof that Garth is secure in his manhood, he actually put the flower behind his ears himself and he is thinking of turning in his Chevy Avalanche for a Mini Cooper next year. What will be next, will he give up his favorite chair and sports?
It was a long walk to the chateau and we decided we just wanted to walk around the gardens, not inside. Well, did we get ripped off! Most of the gardens were being redone and there wasn't anything to see.

Naturally, Jip and Preston were drawn to the mote to check out the fish in it. If only we had had some bread to feed them instead of just rocks.
We walked and walked and couldn't even find a place to stop and have a drink that wasn't a complete rip off. We figured that in a few years it would be a good place to come visit when the trees had gotten big but they definitely shouldn't have charged us 5 euros to get in. I guess we should have figured something was up when there was hardly anyone else around. Here's the view of the master's house
and here's the view of the servant's house.
It really was a pretty chateau and so we had to take a few more pictures before we left because Preston was just dying to have his picture taken.

We made another stop at Ghent, Belgium and we were so impressed with this city. My guidebook said that it was a medieval city that hadn't been touched by tourism yet. Well we agreed with that because there was a lack of souvenir shops, but the day we were there it was packed with people. Every town and village has a fun fair one weekend in the summer and this was the weekend for Ghent's fun fair.
Everywhere we turned there were beautiful sites - amazing buildings, churches and food booths. We didn't go in any churches because as I have told you, Preston is done seeing the inside of them.
There were street performers and several large stages set up with performers at them, many of which were really good. It was great to hear these bagpipes echoing through this ancient city.

These pictures of Garth and I are from the same bridge just looking different directions from it.

Right in the middle of town and just down the street from the french fry shop was this amazing old castle. Garth said there were tons of castles just like it in England, but I am always impressed by the endless number of castles here.
We had to make a snack/drink stop and went to this shop that was recommended to us by a young girl we met on the street handing out fliers. I'm not sure if you know that french fries were invented by the Belgium's and not the French as was mayonnaise. After getting a "snack" (it was more like a meal) of french fries which come complete with mayonnaise (I guess they felt as though their two great contributions to the culinary world needed to be put together and they are quite good), we headed down to take a look at the castle.
Garth is still working on his french fries and would continue to do so for quite some time because look how big they are, as we all did.

None of us felt the need to spend 8 euros to go wander around inside so we just looked from the entrance.

Then we headed back along the canal bank towards the car.
I don't think I've ever seen a city like this in the US before. "Toto, I guess we're not in Kansas any more."

By the time we got home we were all tired and glad to be out of the car but it had been a great trip to France.

Paris

Friday morning we got an early start because we had about a half hour train ride into Paris. The train station was just across the street from our hotel and we got our all-day transportation passes and just had to wait a few minutes for the train. Everyone was still moving quite slowly this morning and you can see how Garth's ride was on the last video below. Anita and I had our route all mapped out and we switched to the subway and were headed for the the Arc de Triomphe when the subway stopped and a lady near Anita told her we all had to get out of the car. There was construction at the next three subway stops and there was a bus that would take us to where we could get back on the subway. By the time we got to the Arc de Triomphe, it had taken us over an hour and Anita and I saw how we could have taken the train almost to the Arc and then just had one short subway ride and saved ourselves about 1/2 hour. We decided not to tell Garth and the boys.

The Arc was built by Napoleon to celebrate all of his military victories. All the battles he fought and cites that he conquered are inscribed on the walls. The traffic around the Arc is crazy and Preston and Jip just watched for an accident to happen and checked out all the expensive cars.
This picture was taken while I quickly walked across the street with cars headed my way, thus the tilt of the arc.
We walked to the Trocadero and got our first of many shots of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like a dreary day but actually it was perfect. It was warm but not hot because the sun wasn't shining on us. The only place it was really hot was in the subways where there isn't any air movement and lots of people.
All around the Trocadero (and the Eiffel Tower area) there are Africans selling Eiffel Tower replicas, large and small. It is hard to walk around without being accosted by them. "Three for 1 euro." they say as they shake them at you. After a look at the base of the Tower and the lines to buy tickets to go up it, we decided to head to Notre-Dame. While we were waiting at the subway station, several of the African sellers came tearing through the station and ran down some stairs to hide. Garth, Preston and I had no idea what was going on but Anita informed us that they are illegals and that the police were after them. It was kind of exciting to watch but the Africans all got away.

We had another long subway ride that ended in a bus ride also because three subway stops were closed for construction again. We were a bit frustrated that there was no information given to let you know that there were closures ahead. At any rate we finally made it to Notre-Dame. The cathedral is quite impressive (I guess that is why it's so famous), with all the intricate work done on the outside. You can just see the excitement on Garth and Preston's faces! Yesterday at Versailles we had over heard a girl saying that she couldn't hold her camera steady because she was shaking from the excitement of finally being there. I don't think that is the case with Garth and Preston right here.

A shot from the front doors looking strait up the towers.
Of course, the most famous part of the building are the rose windows. They really are amazing. The building is the most beautiful at night though.
From Notre-Dame we walked over to the Louvre. This was the city palace for the kings and queens, and at times it was hard to remember to look at the building along with the works of art because it too is a work of art.
Here my amazing child is balancing the pyramid on his nose! Jason would be so jealous.
So what do you look at the ancient Greek statues or the ceiling?

Here are just a few of the famous painting/sculptures in the Louvre that you might recognize. The Winged Victory.
I'm sure you can guess this one. The picture is bad because of the glass in front of it or at least that is my excuse. Jip and Preston had gotten to the room before Anita, Garth and I and they said that the room was empty and they just walked right up to the painting. But the huge room that houses the Mona Lisa was full when we got there. Jip and Preston assured me that they would get me up to the front of the crowd to take a picture. Instead of going ahead of me, they pushed me from behind! Needless to say, there were some unhappy Muslims as the boys forced me into them from behind.
Some of you might not recognize one of Michelangelo's slave sculptures.
Preston wanted to know just what made the Venus di Milo so famous, just what do you say to that? I don't know. I guess I should have explained that great art is made because usually the artist did something new, developed a new style or had a special technique or unusual skill but I just looked and said, "I don't know." Good answer, former Art Master Presenter.

After a little rest and a drink we made our plans for the rest of the day. Anita and Jip decided to head back to the hotel and Garth and Preston and I headed for Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. We made it with no interruptions on the subway and while we were waiting in line to take the tram to the top of Montmartre Hill (it is a very steep climb and we had already walked about half of Paris or what seemed like half of it) we noticed this book camp that was going on next to us. If you can see, the guys are doing push ups on their knuckles and on the cobblestones! We also saw a guy doing squats while he climbed the stairs. We decided that we didn't ever want to be in that good of shape.
When we reached the top you can't help but be impressed with the Sacre Coeru, it is so much whiter and cleaner than the rest of the buildings we had seen in Paris and the views of the city were breath taking. There were lots of people sitting on the stairs watching street performers and there was even a couple taking wedding pictures and in their tux and bridal gown and the crowd cheered for them. We saw them again later back at the Eiffel Tower. Paris is definitely a people watching city.

I went in to look in the church (knowing Preston's aversion to the inside of churches and since Garth had gone to find a bathroom) and found that they were having mass. It was so beautiful to hear the Priest and congregation singing in Latin. I felt lucky to have timed it right. I did end up talking Preston and Garth into checking it out.
Views from the highest stop in Paris.
Our next stop was dinner and then we headed back down the hill and looked for a crepe shop. Even though we'd had crepes for dinner, Preston and Garth wanted a dessert one. They make them right on the street and are quite expert at it as you might well expect. You can check out the video below and see the guy make one and finish Preston's with cinnamon and sugar on top. Preston loves those the best.
We then headed back to the Eiffel Tower to catch a boat ride down the Seine and look at Paris at night. We had to wait until 10:00 for all the lights to be on and while we waited we watched the police chase more of the Africans. You could tell the police didn't want to catch them just chase them away. But we watched two Africans run into the subway followed by two policemen and two Africans came and set up shop right were the others had just left. It was just a game for them all and it amused us to watch. The police could easily have caught the illegals since they were on bikes but they didn't want to you could tell. Not at all like Sheriff Joe in Arizona.

As we waited we watched the lights come on on the Eiffel Tower and I continuously took pictures of Preston as the night got darker. It really annoyed him, so I kept taking more and more. There are the European Union stars on the front of the tower and the blue lights were such a pretty color on it. On the hour there are white twinkling lights that go on for about 5 minutes. You can see the video at the end of the blog. When Preston took the video the middle section wasn't working but later at 11:00 they were all on.

We had a great time on the boat tour and watching the Italian family whose mom was yelling at the dad and didn't make it a pleasant trip for any of them. We had no idea what she was saying but she didn't let up and never let the dad get a word in edgewise. Her boys were laughing in back of her but didn't dare let her see. Garth decided that the Italian language is really beautiful and wished his mom had yelled at him in Italian and he wouldn't have minded.
Preston and I had played around with our camera trying to get it to take good pictures at night. We took lots of pictures but on a moving boat it was had have it on a setting where the shutter stayed open longer because everything moved and blurred. We ended up with just a few good opens and unfortunately none of the prettiest building, Notre-Dame.
We went under 27 bridges and all of them were unique and beautiful. Garth declared Paris a beautiful city at night, I guess that is why it is called the City of Lights. We were really glad we had waited until late to take the boat ride.
Just a couple more pictures of the Eiffel Tower all lite up.
We headed straight to the subway station and then to the train station and didn't have to wait but just a couple of minutes for each. We were back at our hotel in about 1/2 hour. It had been a tiring but fun day. Paris is just full - full of people, food, sites, art, tourists, buildings and cars - I guess that is why it holds such a special place in so many peoples heart.

The Eiffel Tower's light show.



The making of crepes.




Garth's train ride in.

Monet's house and Louis XIV's palace

Again we hit the grocery store for breakfast and can you see why Garth is so tempted by the pastries? Of course they had to be part of our breakfast along with some croissants, cheese and good juice today. We packed up our food and decided to head just a few minutes to Giverny and find a nice place to eat. Anita was right Giverny is a beautiful place and we found a great little spot for our meal.
We just had one unwelcome visitor that absolutely wouldn't leave us alone.
Here in Giverny, Claude Monet lived for over 40 years. The house was really interesting because each room was a different color and they were very bright colors of blue, green and yellow. I asked on of the docents if they were the original colors and he said they were. It was filled with Japanese artwork and photographs of Monet in his home with the same paintings hanging on the walls.

Most of Monet's really famous paintings are of the gardens and landscapes here and the actual landscapes and gardens are as spectacular as his paintings. It was exciting to be in places that were so recognizable in Monet's work.
Monet had numerous huge painting of this lilly pond and the Japanese bridge in the background. If you are a Monet fan you can almost see some of his paintings in these next few pictures.


We sat in the gardens for quite awhile and I have about 100 pictures from different spots but I won't make you look at them all. I forgot to add the picture of the boat that he painted so much and without redoing all the pictures of this blog, I can't add it. I guess you will have to come and look at all my pictures when I get home if you want to see it. This is an action shot of Preston and Jip, not much action though.

From Giverny we headed to Paris with a stop just outside at Versailles. This huge summer palace was built by Louis the XIV and every inch of it is excess, from the extravagant gates and courtyard that lead to it, to the ornately decorated rooms, furniture and ceilings, to the expansive gardens in the back. Here we are just entering the first set of gates and you can see how far away the palace still is. It was the hottest day we had had in Europe and the lines to get in were so long and in the sun! Because it was late in the day by the time we got to the ticket booth, the tickets were half price. At least that was some consolation after waiting all that time.Here Preston and Garth are standing facing the palace with the main gate and courtyard behind them. In this picture you would think that there was no one but us at Versailles but you couldn't be more wrong! There were tons of people and the most rude ones were the Japanese. I had forgotten how rude they can be, but after being pushed by their undisciplined children and even the adults, it all came back to me.
Just one of the many elaborate ceilings in the palace.

This was the room Preston had been waiting to see. Can you guess the name? If you guessed the Hall of Mirrors you are right. It was here that the treaty for WWI was signed.
This is a statue to Napoleon and behind it is the famous painting of Napoleon crowning Josephine as empress.
This is the back view of Versailles at the first level of fountains and gardens.
Here you can see Versailles way in the background and we are just at the end of the first grass path on the second level of gardens.
This was as far as we could walk today because it was just too hot and too far. There were golf carts that you could rent to get around the gardens but we didn't ever see where. That would be the only way you could possibly see all of the gardens. As you look behind Garth there is an emince amount of water and the water goes in a cross cutting through the trees. Louis XIV used to bring full sailing ships into the water here and watch battles each other.

This shot is looking out at the gardens from the first level where Preston was standing a couple of pictures ago.
One last shot of the backside of Versailles. After Preston had walked through Louis' bedroom he said he would have started a revolution too if he had seen the king's bedroom and the waste of money it was. It really is something beyond any one's imagination at the scale and ornamentation of the place. Louis almost bankrupted the country by building it. It was used for 200 years and then during the French Revolution it was ransacked.
From Versailles we headed to our hotel room which was on the other side of Paris towards Euro Disney. Anita had told us that the rooms were newer, nicer and cheaper over there and it was easy to get into Paris because there was a fast train. I had booked the room and had know idea if this would be the case of our room. When we set the navigation system in Anita's car it told us it should take us 26 minutes to get there. I guess the system wasn't considering the amount of traffic around Paris. Over an hour later we finally arrived at our hotel and it was in a dumpy area but at least the rooms were nice and clean and the staff was very friendly.

Since it was still a little early (10:00) we decided to head to Euro Disney and watch the fireworks that go off at 11;00 and get a treat. We ended up at the Disney Village and had an ice cream and waited for the fireworks.
It was really weird to be in Euro Disney were it is just like Disneyland and Disney World and we had just been at Giverny and Versailles earlier in the day. Disney is Disney and just the same no matter where you go in the world. The fireworks didn't end up going off until 11:30 and by the time we got back to the hotel it was late and we had a big day tomorrow, Paris!
We were trying to figure out the best night setting for our camera, obviously we didn't find it. Scott, where are you when we need you?!

Normandy

We drove to the grocery store not far from our hotel and bought a breakfast of yogurt, pastries (Garth is obsessed with them) and juice. We had quite the discussion on the juice and Preston finally won and Garth bought double the type of juice Preston had chosen. Well, the juice was terrible and Preston would only drink one swallow and we ended up with lots of nasty juice and Garth complaining that Preston owed him some euros but at least the pastries were great.

We started our day at the Museum of Peace. It was a huge museum recounting the events that lead up to WWII, the battles of WWII and the cold war. It was very well done and they had great original footage from WWII and the French Resistance. There were lots of artifacts, guns and machinery and even a Soviet Mig. More of an international perspective was given on the war and the cold war and it was good have. We spent four hours there and then headed to the D-Day beaches.

The beaches are so beautiful and serene; it is just so hard to imagine what they were like on June 6, 1944. This is Omaha Beach, it is very lush and the vegetation is thick and the cliff is steep and the soldiers had to get through that as well as all the German defenses. When they came ashore, it was low tide and so they had to go that much further to the Germans but the plan was to drop the soldiers out where there weren't as many booby traps and mines. Doesn't make much sense to me because they still had to go through them but I'm not a military analysis.
A map of the landing beaches.
The beaches are now used by tourists and beach lovers again and Preston was pretty shocked to see a topless bather. She was only about 12 or 13, so there was nothing to see but he still couldn't believe it.
Here Garth, Preston and Jip are playing at coming ashore. Garth is the leader so he sent infantry out in front of him to protect him. We decided Garth was no Tom Hanks!
After we hiked down and back up from Omaha Beach, and it is a hike, we went to the war cemetery. It is the largest US military cemetery outside of the United States, over 10,000 men and women are remembered there.

We met a People to People tour (the tour I had gone on 30 years before) and I talked to a few of the girls. I explained that the friend I was with was from my home stay 30 before. They were pretty amazed and said that their home stay had been the best part of their trip also. I encouraged them to stay in contact with the families because you just never know what might happen.
There are over 9,000 graves and over 1,000 names of men and women missing in action. It really is quite moving to be there and even though there are a lot of people everyone is quiet and respectful.
We spent a lot of time looking at the head stones and where all the soldiers were from and the day that they had died. Most of them did not die on D-Day. The ones that were really sad were the soldiers that died after the war was over or just days before it ended.
It is a huge cemetery and maybe you can get the perspective from these shots.
We finally made our way to the visitors center and the museum they had there. It was just devoted to D-Day and more of what Garth was looking for. Unfortunately, we aren't very good at the realizing how late it is here because the sun stays up so much longer and we only had about 20 minutes in the museum before it closed. We were sad we hadn't realized that before because we easily could have gone down to the beach after the museum closed.

From there we drove to Pointe du Hac were the Army Rangers used the grappling hooks and ladders to scale the cliffs to take that strategic point. They started with 225 men and ended up with 90. This is the only place where the bunkers and gun emplacements built by the Germans are still in place and you can see the craters left by the shelling of our ships and planes. Here Preston is throwing a grenade from one of the gun emplacements.

You can see how big the craters are even after 60 years of erosion.
Preston was "killed" in this crater. It must have been so scary to have the Germans and had all these shells coming at you or to have been the Americans coming up over the top of the cliff to face the Germans in these thick cement bunkers.
Preston is pretending to be enduring the shelling. You could walk around underground in some of the rooms that still survive.
These two don't look two scared. Anita and I commented numerous times how scary it would have been to have your son in that WWII and fighting there, and that if we had been Germans, both our boys would have been in army at 16 years old or younger. This is looking down on to Utah Beach.

You can see all the craters in the background. Garth said that today we wouldn't have missed that many times, just a couple of bombs and the whole thing would have been over.

One more look at Utah Beach. It is after 7:00 and look how high the sun still is in the sky.
We ended the day at the beach with Preston wishing he could shoot off this big gun.
From here we had a two hour drive to our next stop so we could visit Giverny and Versailles the next day. We had a hard time finding the hotel and by the time we did all the restaurants were closed (most close earlier than in the US). The hotel manager told us of a McDonald's and a Buffalo Grill that was open until 11:00 so we quickly drove over there; we had two "starving" boys. The McDonald's wouldn't serve us because we were too late but Buffalo Grill let us in and the employees ended up staying an extra hour. They never rush you at a restaurant here and will let you sit as long as you like, never bringing the bill and pushing you out. Preston was so excited to have ribs but he soon realized it is better to have American food in America and eat like the Europeans do in Europe.

Belguim and France

We got an early start to beat all the traffic in Belgium and we made really good time. Our first stop was in Brugges, Belgium. It is a medieval city and is beautiful. We were all amazed when we stepped out of the car but especially Garth. It was early and there weren't many people around yet. The day was perfect and we had a great time roaming around this town. They call Brugges the Venice of the north because of all the canals that run through it. Jip is so excited to be here can't you tell. At one time Brugges was one of Belgiums most important cities for trade and shipping.

More beautiful pictures of this city.
Preston is trying to Garth's picture stance here.
Here they are together doing the stance.
We had a wonderful time wandering and being surprised at the view we found around each corner.
In one of the many churches in Brugges, is the only statue of Michelangelo's that left Italy during his life time. It isn't his best work, but it is pretty darn good, and would fool me.

More great buildings.
Another one of the churches.
We took a break from the city and went to the History of Chocolate museum. It was interesting and I didn't know that chocolate was introduced to Europe from Cortez when he conquered the Aztecs. Seeing how much Preston and I love chocolate, it is a stretch to think that Preston is really taking a bite out of this chocolate egg. The museum was narrow and we didn't like the rude Dutch kids that pushed their way around. Even Jip and Anita were annoyed at them.

We took our leave of Belgium and headed to France and the Normandy coast. We stopped at a rest area and Anita said that we had to be close to the ocean and when we climbed over the hill - there it was! It was such a clear day that we could we across the English Channel and see the white cliffs of Dover. I'm pointing to them and even though they aren't visible in the picture, believe me they are there.
We had to cross the Port de Normandie bridge to get to Caen where we would spend the night. The bridge is fairly new and was amazing but it was hard to get a picture of because we couldn't just stop and get out for photos.

After checking into our hotel rooms we wanted needed to feed our ever hungry boys and decided to head to the coast. We ended up driving to Coruseulles sur Mer for dinner. This is the spot where the Canadians landed on D-Day. The tank greeted us right by our parking space.
The tide was out so we were able to walk way out on to the beach. This beach is named Juno Beach and there were monuments all over to the Canadians. The Canadians were the first of the Allied forces to make it a shore that morning.
The beach is so beautiful that it is hard to imagine that men fought and died here.
After our walk on the beach we found a little place for dinner and then walked through this beautiful little town.

Cold, rainy Holland and a concentration camp

As all my faithful blog readers have noticed, we have been gone the last week and I haven't had time to blog at all. So now we are back and I have six days to catch up on.

Last Monday was a cold, rainy day and since we were leaving Tuesday morning for France we didn't want to do too much. We ended up going to the only concentration camp in the Netherlands. Vujht was actually more of a transportation camp to move Jews and resistance fighters to other camps in Germany and Poland but they had over 4,000 people held there and it was also a work camp. A lot of the camp has been restored and there isn't too much of the original camp left. In the barracks they slept two to a bed to stay warm sometimes and while we were there we could relate to that, I was freezing. The guard towers and fence were original.
They had ovens to cremate the over 700 people who died there either from disease or at the hands of the Nazis.
This is a memorial to all the children who were taken from their parents and put to death. The parents were told the children were being sent to a nicer camp but they were all just taken and put to death. The youngest was just 2 months old.
It was quite a sobering experience, so Anita tried to make the day a bit happier by stopping by the house where the new puppies had been born just 10 days before. The couple who owned the dogs had a farm and dairy cows that they showed to us also. It was nice to see but the smell was really strong.
That afternoon Rob took Garth golfing again and Garth was hoping he would redeem himself a little bit. The first time he went he played awful; he claims it is the wooden clubs and he is used to sweating the whole time. Monday he did a little better but not much. Rob has been giving him a hard time ever since.

After dinner, we took the dogs on a walk through the moors that are near Anita's house. It had finally stopped raining but was very cool. It was beautiful walking and the dogs were so funny to watch rolling in the mud to stay cool. They were covered with mud. Finally, we stopped at a pond and Anita threw sticks into the water to have them swim and wash themselves off.
On the way home we had a beautiful sunset almost like an Arizona one but in Arizona we don't have any Medieval church towers in the background.

Wet and rainy Amsterdam

On Saturday, we had a busy day planned, so we got an early start and headed to Kinderdijk so Garth could see it. It was a cold and rainy day and Preston decided to stay in the car and sleep while Anita opted for a hot drink in the coffee shop. I walked out to the windmills with Garth and luckily it stopped raining right when we wanted to take a picture. As we walked we noticed that a guy who owns one of the windmills was putting the sails on and it looked like he was going to start it turning. It was really windy and the rain came at us sideways and soaked our pants. As we headed back, sure enough the windmill was turning and by the time we got into the car there were two mills turning. There is a short video of it at the end of the blog; I couldn't get it to download right here.
Next we stopped in Vreeland, a small village Anita had lived in when she worked in Amsterdam. It was absolutely beautiful and the rain held while we walked around and had scrumptious pastries. There is a river that runs through the village and a man is in charge of raising the bridge for each boat that comes along. Since it is summertime there are a lot of boats going along. The man holds out a wooden shoe on a fishing pole and the people on the boat put money in it to pay for the bridge being raised.

Here we are standing on the bridge that had just opened. Vreeland is an expensive place to live. Lots of people with money don't want to live in the big city anymore but need someplace close enough to commute to Amsterdam, so it is filled with expensive cars and the houses are expensive too. We saw several houses that were selling for $3,000,000.
Next, we found a place to park the car and took the train into Amsterdam. It only took us a few minutes to ride the train in but it was much easier and cheaper than driving into the city.

Here our tour guide, Anita, is explaining about the memorial to WWII soldiers and the ceremonies that are held there. Next we stopped for a drink and were glad we inside when the skies opened up and lots of people came running in to get out of the rain. Garth was really glad to get a coke anyway but he wasn't too happy to have to pay to use the restroom. But it would be that way all day - nothing is free in big cities.
This is the palace and one of the many churches in Amsterdam. This church is the one the royal family uses for weddings and baptisms.
Amsterdam is built around canals and we loved walking over them and were fascinated by the buildings along them.
I loved the white outline and decorations that were on many of the buildings.
Because Amsterdam was built on very soft soil, many of the buildings are leaning and sinking. Sometimes you can see that whole streets are leaning.

Garth is trying to push this building back up, even the door frame and windows are leaning. Notice the small iron bar just a few inches off the ground. Those were built because they had so many cars fall into the canals when people were trying to park them.
Our next stop was the flower market. It was beautiful and since the rain kept starting and stopping the flowers were wet and smelled wonderful. Garth and Preston were especially interested in everything here!
We stumbled on to this little park that had a recreation of Rembrandt's "Night Watch"made 3-D out of bronze statues. It was really cool. We didn't go see the actual "Night Watch" so this was the next best thing.

The "Night Watch" again with the a statue of Rembrandt in the background.
Our next stop was a chocolate bar and Preston wanted a milkshake. It was the best shake I have ever tasted and he didn't want to share much. There were little frozen chunks of chocolate in it and it looked pretty cool too. We were glad we made this stop because while we were waiting the sky opened up again.
More cool buildings.
Notice the on and off again of the umbrellas and the sun, that was the kind of day it was. I would just start thinking the rain was done, fold up my umbrella and the rain would start all over again.
We walked through the Red Light District early in the afternoon but there were already quite a few "ladies" ready for work. Here Garth is just at the end of the area. Preston was just blown away with the "coffee shops" that had the smell of pot coming out of them and all the stores that sold drug paraphernalia. We stopped at a store that sold magic mushrooms and Preston wanted a sweatshirt from there. The sweatshirts looked like Mario Bros. mushrooms and so Preston thought he would be able to wear it to school. We both had headaches by the time we got out of the area.

Our next activity was a canal ride. We sat right in the front and the boat captain took good care of us, making sure we knew right where to take our pictures. Actually, we made Preston get up and take the pictures. The sun came out and made the ride even nicer.
Below are a few pictures of our boat ride. This tower was built in 1620.

If you double click on the photo below, you should be able to see seven bridges all the way back.

One of our last stops was Anne Frank's house. I had reread her diary just before we came and so everything was semi-fresh in my mind. I had been here 30 years before but I didn't remember much of it. They had added some nice videos of her father, and Meip (one of the people who helped hide them) and quotes from the diary through the house. Preston and Garth weren't too thrilled to go through the house but we all ended up being glad we had.
We headed back to the car and since most of the traffic was gone we drove back into Amsterdam and drove around the Vondelpark which is to Amsterdam as Central Park is to New York City and Hyde Park is to London. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gough museums are located near the park. We were too late to go into the museums and I decided to save up for all the museums in Paris next week. We found a close parking place and quickly took a walk in the park, then drove down one of the most expensive streets to shop in Amsterdam and headed home. Overall, it was a great rainy day and we loved Amsterdam.

This is the video of the windmill, Garth was just a little excited.

Garth made it!

Early Friday morning (6:00am) Rob and I went to Brussels to pick up Garth. It is about an hour drive if the traffic is good. We made it by 7:15 but Garth didn't clear customs until about 8:15. While Rob and I waited for him, we tried to guess what nationalities the people arriving were. Rob said you can tell the Americans because they wear Hawaiian shirts (like Paul Rowley I think). I said, "No, you can tell the Americans because they wear baseball hats and no one else does." The hats really are a dead give away for Americans and I told Rob that Garth would probably be wearing one. Well he wasn't but he had his in his suitcase.


Before I left to come over here, Garth's biggest worry was washing his clothes. Pretty sad that a 54 year-old doesn't know how to do his laundry. When we saw Garth he had on all new clothes and shoes and I told Rob that maybe Garth hadn't washed anything and just bought all new clothes when his were dirty. We found out that Garth just had to get comfortable "traveling clothes"(reminded me of the Sound of Music). He was glad to be off the plane and we were glad to have him with us!

After Garth took a little nap and we had some lunch, and Anita decided that Garth needed some ex cerise so we went on the bike ride I had done before to Popple, Belgium. The pictures aren't great because it is awfully hard to ride a bike on cobblestones and take clear pictures at the same time.
It was a cloudy/rainy day but the rain had stopped and so we headed off. Garth was a little slow on his bike but we gave him the benefit of the doubt since he hadn't really slept in the last 24 hours (he never can sleep on the plane).
A neighborhood in Popple, Belgium.

Of course, we stopped to have a drink, but before we had a chance to drink much it started to rain and we had to move inside and wait out the rain. Anita and Rob ordered some bitter balls, a popular Dutch snack, for Garth to try. They are breaded balls that have been fried and are filled with a kind of meat paste. They are very hot, just ask Preston who burned his tongue the first time he tried them.
Me just riding through the Belgium countryside. Notice the jackets and jeans? I don't think anyone in Mesa are wearing jackets and jeans outside. It isn't really cold, just cool - or just perfect for us!
I had told Anita that when Garth got here he would choose spots and want his picture taken right there. This was the first of those spots.
This was the second of the spots. This picture was specially taken for Garth's dad, Ralph, Garth wanted him to see the beautiful rows of plants and the almost black soil; the picture of Garth isn't too good, that is if you want to see his face.
Garth decided I needed my picture taken in this spot. The church tower of Goirle is in the background.

After much discussion between Rob and Anita on the way to go, we arrived at the cheese shop. I had been there before with Anita to buy cheese and she had asked about us being able to tour their shop. It is a family owned and run business. They make all the cheese themselves from the milk of their cows. The cows only eat grass so the cheese is better and they don't pasteurize the milk so that is suppose to make it better also. All I know is, is that it''s some dang good cheese!

They hard already made the cheese for today but she showed us what they do and where the processes takes place. Here she is showing us the cheese made that morning that has just been pressed and is drying a bit before it is placed in a salt water bath for several days.
This room has the temperature and humidity closely controlled and the cheese is aged and dipped in wax. The different colors of wax designate the type of cheese it is.
Garth had to buy his own "special" cheese. As we headed home, it started to rain again but we still went on a short tour of Goirle.
And of course we had to ride by the park with the windmill.
All and all, another great day in the Netherlands and we are glad to have Garth here with us for the next 12 days!

The Wreckless Rhine River

We started our morning as planned and checked out the shops where we had window shopped the night before. But the first shop we went in had everything we wanted so it was a one stop shopping experience and the store owner was great and gave us extra discounts too. Preston and I had plenty of time to make the Rhine River cruise. Anita drove the car along and planned on meeting us in Boppard about two hours up the river.
On the river we met both the families who we saw at the restaurant the night before. The young couple from San Diego had traded houses with a family from Germany and were there for a month. Oh, the advantages of working from your home!
This part of the Rhine is filled with castles and small villages along the banks. The most famous rock on the river is called the Loreley. At this point the river is the most dangerous with a rocky bottom and swirling currents and whirlpools. There is a legend that an enchanting mistress would sing and the sailors would be spellbound by her songs and crash their boats in the river, never to be heard of again. We didn't hear any singing though.

On our cruise were lots of Japanese tourists and they pushed their way to take numerous pictures of the rock and every castle and village. Preston and I laughed when a young couple asked someone else to take their picture with the Loreley behind them. Then they stood straight and ridged and just before the shoot was taken they held up peace signs.
Preston had to copy the Japanese couple but he did a pretty weak impression. This town is St. Goar and we disembarked to run up to the castle and check out the cuckoo clock.

Anita met us at the dock and walked with us to the largest free hanging cuckoo clock. We were there just minutes before 11:00 so we hung around to see it go off. We were a bit disappointed on the amount of movement on the clock and the weak sound.
From there we said good-bye to Anita who was going to shop and Preston and I headed up the hill to check out the ruins of the Rheinfels Castle. We had to be back to the boat in just 50 minutes so we had to walk really fast to get up there and back and have any time to look around. The walk was just about straight up and Preston doubted several times whether we would make it or not; I never doubted.
When we got to the top we realized that we could have had Anita drive up us to the parking lot and saved ourselves a lot of time and effort, oh well the exercise was good for us. We made it with about 10 minutes to check out the labyrinth of ruins that made up this castle. Once we got there Preston was really glad that we had made the effort.
We definitely wished we had more than 10 minutes to look around; we could have spent hours checking out all the rooms, halls, stairways and walkways but we didn't dare miss the boat. It would be a great place to play hide-n-go seek.
The views of the Rhine from the top were also great.

As we started back we found that there was a train/tram that took you right to the dock and we opted to ride all the way down for just €4, plus it assured us that we would make it to the boat on time. We ended up having to wait 20 minutes for the boat to arrive and we were mad because we could have looked around in the castle more and walked down easily.

This is a view of Rheinfels castle from the boat as we sailed away.
Here are just a few pictures of castles we saw on our way.


We ended our river trip at Boppard and Anita was there waiting for us to get off. Preston and I were laughing because we followed a man and woman pushing a baby stroller with their dog in it! Preston wanted us to be the last ones off the boat and make Anita nervous that we had missed the boat, but luckily I'm not that mean.

Boppard is a larger city and Anita had been there for quite some time and had scouted it out for us. She had found a great Christmas shop that she and I loved, while Preston was less than enthusiastic about it. He did like the hat he found at another store, that made him look very German, but since it was €60 he decided he really didn't need it.
He decided he wanted Italian food for lunch and we found this great Italian restaurant and it was in an even greater building. We ate outside across the walk and gawked at the building the whole time.
I made Preston get up and take a picture of the building and in the process he took a picture of Anita taking a picture of him.
Finally, we had to take our leave of Germany and head back to the Netherlands. It was only suppose to take us 2 1/2 hours to get back but we hit a lot of traffic and so it was over 3 hours. It still blows me away that in three hours from Anita's house you can be in Paris, Germany or Luxembourg and in three hours from our house you can be in Mexico or St. Johns.

Enchanting Eltz

We took our leave from Tante Anny and Oom Wim and headed for Germany. We had had three days of sunny warm weather and I guess we were bound to have a cloudy rainy day.

It rained hard all the way to Germany, but as we got closer to our destination the rain stopped. This is a view of the German scenery that I thought looked like the Van Gough painting of the wheat field if it just had some crows in it.
Our destination was Berg-Eltz or Eltz Castle. Walt Disney received his inspiration for the castle in Disneyland from this castle and we could see why once we got there. It is over 830 years old and still owned by the same family. It is way out in the woods and surrounded by a small river. We had to walk close to a mile down a really steep hill and were worried about having to walk back up it. As we rounded a bend and finally got a glimpse of the castle we were amazed.
A tour guide Rick Steves (who has videos and guide books that I watched and read before we left) said it was the best castle in all of Europe, and as we approached it we were in agreement.
Check out the novel way they used the bathroom in the picture below. They had small rooms that hung out away from the castle and they had rain gutters from the roof that ran down to the bathrooms and cleaned them out and washed everything away when it rained.
Every time we turned a corner, the views were amazing and I wanted to take another picture. I drove Preston crazy. The family that owns the castle now are the 33rd generation to do so. All the furnishings are original from the 14th and 15th centuries. Of course, we couldn't take pictures inside.

We had to stop and have a drink and something to eat and we needed a picture because it's not every day that you eat in a castle.

After we left Berg-Eltz we drove up the Mossel River and then down to Bingen on the Rhine River. We passed one picturesque village after another. I couldn't believe that there could be so many. It was really interesting that while Luxembourg and the Netherlands were only a few miles away, each country had developed so differently - language, architecture and food. Here is a view of a village on the Mossel River.
We decided to stop at Bacharach, another small village to eat and the spend the night. We couldn't have chosen better. Each way you turned there was another amazing building. The streets were pretty deserted and we wondered if there was anyone there.
One of the many gates into the city.
More amazing streets and the church. We found a little bed and breakfast to stay in and thought we were the only ones there. The next morning though we were surprised to see how many other guests there; it was so quite we thought we were all alone.
We had dinner in a small restaurant and realized how many Americans there were around. There was a family from Massachusetts and one from San Diego. This building was said to be one of the best examples of this wood architecture in Germany and was the setting for lots of movies. I don't remember Jason Borne running by it though.

There is a huge difference in the way the German churches are compared to the ones we have seen in other countries. Preston has declared that he has seen enough churches already, that he will look at them from the outside but doesn't need to go in them, and we still have 2 1/2 weeks left!
After dinner we did some window shopping, the stores close at 5 or 6, so we weren't able to shop then. But we planned where we were going to shop in the morning and what we were going to get. We didn't want to spend much time shopping so we could make the early boat on the Rhine River tour. After window shopping, we just walked around. We found a tall tower up on a hill and climbed about 9 flights of stairs to the top and the views were definitely worth it.
View of the Rhine River, the church, the bombed out church ruins and the village of Bacharach.
Preston doing a Hitler impression. No he isn't smoking, that is the way Anita said the Dutch imitate Hitler,
One of the main sources of income are the vineyards that cover the hills along the Rhine. They are only planted on the sunniest sides of the river so they alternate between which sides are planted on. Preston thought this picture would be cool looking off the tower down at his feet, and he was right.This is the castle for Bacharach that has been turned into a youth hostel. You can see just a few of the grape vineyards.
Just another gate into this amazing village.
This beautiful building is just a painting shop. There are quotes and sayings written all over the building - tidbits of wisdom.

Marvelous Maastricht

I have had a request (from Lonica) that I take more pictures. So much to Preston's dismay I have tried to do so. I think he will be glad when Garth gets here this Friday so there is someone else for me to take pictures of.

We started the day out, Tuesday, by dropping Jip and Jeske off at the train station because they had to go home. Jip had to say good-bye to his girlfriend who was leaving for the next three weeks, and Jeske had to go to her mom's.

Anita, Preston and I started the day with a city tour of Maastricht. We went on the English tour and were the only three in it. Our tour guide, Francis, gave us a special tour since we were the only ones.

Maastricht was founded by the Romans 2,000 years ago on the Maas River, so it is very old, has been through lots of wars, yet is still very pretty along the river.
The streets are small like all medieval cities and cars and parking bikes in the old city is band. As you can see Preston is enthralled. Maastricht has some of the best and most expensive shops in the Netherlands after Amsterdam, the princess was there just last week shopping.
There was an old water mill that was built by a knight who never came back from the crusades and it is still used today. The baker only uses spelt flour and grain and was so surprised to hear that I make spelt bread.

These are some of the old city walls. There were three different walls built around the city, each expanding as the city grew. They were used the most to try to keep the plague out of the city.
Maastricht is the home to numerous universities and technical schools, so there are lots of students. But while we were there they were all on vacation luckily. The bridge in the background is the Old Bridge .

After the tour was finished, we went outside the city, to a place where Preston and I took a tour of casements underneath the city that go for 200km. Anita was worn out from translating and driving so she took a nap, plus she has been on the tour bunches of times. The only tour we could get was in Dutch so we didn't get too much out of it, but the casements really were amazing. They were started to get limestone to build the city and then they were used for defense. Finally, in WWII they were used to store the art works from the Rijksmuseum (all the old Dutch masters including the Rembrandt's and Vermeers) and for the citizens to hide during bombing raids. Napoleon had been there and left his autograph on the wall along with hundreds of other people. Some people had drawn pictures or made carvings, and they had built a church and a bakery down there.

After our tour we went back to the city to check out a few sites we had missed on the walking tour. This is the square in the middle of the city.
Preston "thinking" on how he wishes Jip was still here and he didn't have to spend the next two days alone with just his mom and Anita.
Anita has a friend, Truus, from grade school that lives in Maastricht so we went by to see her. Her house looks just like all the others on the outside but the backyard is quite surprising.

She and her husband built a ladder and platform on the top of their roof that you can climb to the top and have a great view of the city. She said they sit there a lot and look at the stars and city lights.
Rooftop views of Maastricht.

This is Preston, Anita and Truus out on one of her three garden spots where you can sit. She and her husband are getting ready to leave for Indonesia this week for a month.
To get to this garden you have to go through her window and if you notice, they have made a climbing wall on the outside of their house.
The best part of her backyard is the tunnel that is part of the same casements that we had toured earlier in the day. It was kind of creepy going down there with all the spider webs, the tight quarters and very little light but we managed.
These casements had been used to store wine and some of their neighbors, who also have found ways down into them, still use them for storage.

They even had some artwork in their tunnels and this one is of Dionysus, of course god of wine.
We ended our last night in Ulestraten with a real Dutch meal. Tante Anny had worked all afternoon and fixed Hutspot with Rookworst, even though they usually eat in the winter, Anita wanted us to try it.
It was very good and I think Preston ate about half of it. It is just potatoes, carrots and onions cooked together with some herbs and a sausage cooked on top. We had a nice time telling Tante Anny all about our day. Oom Wim had had a meeting and didn't make it to dinner.
Preston was especially thrilled with dessert (we have dessert every night) because Tante Anny gave him a double helping of strawberries, cream and cake! We had a wonderful time staying in Ulestraten and are trying to talk Tante Anny and Oom Wim to add Phoenix to their world trip next year, so we can repay their hospitality.

Lovely Luxembourg

Today we visited one of the four smallest countries in Europe. One that is over looked but is an absolutely beautiful place and a country I would visit over and over again if we lived anywhere remotely close by.

We took the freeway through Belgium and again learned how stupid the Belgiums are - bad roads, ugly buildings and confusing highway signs. We went through the Ardennes to Bastogne and into Luxembourg. The landscape had changed to large rolling hills and we went through small villages every few kilometers. Each village had buildings painted bright colors of red, orange, blue, and yellow and I do mean bright (of course no pictures).

Our first stop was just along the road to take a break and have a drink! The woods are thick and lush and Luxembourg is said to be the land of the fairytales.
The first village we stopped at was Esch-Sauer. It is built along cliffs and is absolutely beautiful!
There was a river that wound through the village and a castle dating back to 927 AD on the top of the hill that you could hike up to.

The castle is in ruins but you can climb up the turrets and have a great look at the scenery. The kids found a cat that blended in with the rocks and liked watching it run around. Preston also had to try to throw rocks into the river way below and was successful a couple of times before Jip found the sign that said no rock throwing. But we just stupid American tourists, that only speak English, right?
Another look from one of the torrets. There is lots of hiking trails all over the country and lots of people camp also. You can see why with all the forests and hills. My kind of place!
When we got to Luxembourg City, we were in awe at the beauty around us- lush green trees, amazing buildings, a small river, everything neat and clean and still a bright blue sky. We loved the city as soon as we arrived!
We had barely been out of the car and the kids were already acting as though they had walked forever!
We got there just in time to take a tour of the casements that are under part of the city. They were used for hundreds of years to defend the city by the people of Luxembourg, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch and the Germans. Luxembourg's history is filled with them being conquered by some other country. We had to walk up and down over 400 uneven stairs through the casements.

When we reached the bottom we went out where the river is and there are beautiful walks along the river. This is a picture of the largest stone bridge in all of Europe.
Here Preston is pretending that the sound of the cannons is deafening which it would have been. The close quarters would have been terrible to have to fight in, especially with the smoke and noise.
Anita and I had a great time trying to get the timer to work on my camera, which it eventually did.
Notice the reflection of the clouds in the river below the abbey.
After having Preston sneak back and but more more money in the meter (they monitor the parking pretty closely and we were only allowed 1 hour because parking is at a premium), we took a break in the main center of the city and had a drink or ice cream and can you believe that we went to McDonald's!

After our rest, we just wound our way around Luxembourg City and went wherever it looked interesting. This little street had a Gothic arch across it and was so narrow, it was hard to believe cars could go down it.
We eventually found the oldest part of the city that has been designated a historical site by UNISCO. The kids were worn out with walking, so Anita and I marveled at the beautiful sites around us and went to all the places along the old wall you could look out.
Eventually we talked the kids into coming and looking at the gardens down by the river and the reflection of the abbey into the river. I don't think they were too impressed though.
We walked around the wall until we got back to where we'd parked the car. It was so beautiful and Anita and I hated to leave but the time had expired on our meter again so we thought we should leave.
After one more drive around the residental area of the city, we headed home - the fast way on the freeway. Poor Anita had to drive the whole way and was completely worn out by the time we got back to her aunt and uncle's house.

First day of our road trip

Sunday morning we (Preston, Anita, Jip, Jeske and I) got an early start and headed to the southern most part of Holland. Preston brought his DVD player which kept the kids entertained.
All of the Netherlands in going vacation right now and I was amazed at the number is small cars pulling small trailers that we passed on the road. I don't think anyone will be left in Holland to run the country and work.

Anita has a Tante (aunt) Anny and Oom (uncle) Wim that live there and we will stay with them for the next few days. They live in Ulestaraten, a small village. They welcomed us with the Dutch flag flying in front of their house. We had drinks in their beautiful garden in the back, (stopping and having a drink several times a day is part of our life now) and planned what we were going to do the rest of the day.
Tante Anny decided that she would come with us and be our tour guide so we wouldn't get lost. First off, we headed for Margarten, a US WWII war cemetery. It is the only one in the Netherlands and is the resting place for over 8,300 soldiers. It is a very moving place and even the teenagers were somber.

Both Presidents Clinton and Bush had been there on Memorial Days. It was in a beautiful place and so well taken care of.
This part of the Netherlands is actually hilly and Tante Anny took us through a tour of picturesque small villages. While we traveled, she pointed out the influences of the French and Germans on the architecture and the castles which are everywhere. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

We went to Vaals which is where three countries meet and the highest spot in the Netherlands (I think about 800 meters, not as high as Mesa). We grappled for position and got our picture taken where some of us were in the Netherlands, some in Belgium and others in Germany.

There was tall tower you could climb and look at all the different countries. Preston isn't seeing much though with his eyes closed! This is a pretty touristy place so there were lots of people. On the way back we stopped for a drink and the place we stopped also had Belgium waffles which Preston had been anxious to try. They were great and I would highly recommend them to you all. Of course, the ones in the states aren't the same so you need to come to Europe.

As we continued our tour we stopped at a small castle that is still being lived in. It had a mote around it with HUGE catfish in it.

The boys thought it was great to throw rocks in and watch the fish go after them. I gave them a granola bar to fed to the fish and we had a feeding frenzy on our hands.
From there we found a village with a chair lift and alpine slide.
The slide was short and you got to ride back up and take the other track down and then ride back up again. It was a metal slide and faster than the ones in Park City and Durango I think. Preston got going too fast both times down and fell but just walked away with a burn on his elbow. It was lots of fun.
Tante Anny and Oom Wim's gorgeous backyard.

While we were gone, Oom Wim was suppose to be working on a barbecue for us to have when we got home. There was tons of food and when he started up the grill - the gas was gone. It made me feel better after all the times I had run out of gas on Sunday dinners. We ended up having to cook everything on the stove or in the oven, but it all turned out great.
For our entertainment for the evening, Preston juggled and Oom Wim, Jip and Jeske all tried.
We hit golf balls and tried to hit the fry cooker (they have special cookers for french fries which are a part of most meals). Then we had a cherry pit spitting contest.

Finally, we went inside for a piano recital. Preston played his recital song, Jeske played a song, Anita played and Oom Wim showed everyone up and played anything you could hum. All the girls sang around the piano while he played and Preston and Jip just looked on - not the singing type. Oom Wim reminded me of my Grandma Long and how she could play the piano and improvise. It was a great evening and day!

A Nice Day For a Bike Ride and Golf

While Anita was off helping two Golden Retrievers delivery their pups (she has three Golden Retrievers, two of which she is training for hunting competitions), Preston headed to Weert to play golf with Rob and Anita's brother, Paul. He hasn't played much this year and was a bit nervous that he wouldn't do very well, which turned out to be the case.

I asked Wouter and Jeske to take me on a bike ride and by the time we were done we had gone about 20 km, to Belgium and back and through the center of their town Goirle. It was a great day for a bike ride and Holland/Belgium are the places to do it - it is all flat and they have beautiful bike trails.
My tour guides took me to a little place in Belgium where we stopped and had a drink.
The town of Poppel, Belgium was as picturesque as the rest of the area we are staying in. You can see the church steep in the background.
Another shot of Poppel.

This is one Goirle's main streets. It doesn't look like Mesa at all and there aren't anywhere near as many cars on the streets or illegals standing on street corners looking for work. We ended the tour with a stop at a park with a windmill and a lot of ducks, deer, chickens, rabbits and goats. Note the typical Dutch houses in the background.
Along with my tour, I got Dutch lessons, of which I am a very poor student (can't seem to remember anything or make the correct sounds) and an in depth explanation of the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands from the roads and bicycle lanes to gas prices and housing styles. I was well educated by my two teenage Dutch guides who can both speak English while I can only say please and thank you in Dutch.

Tomorrow we are leaving for five days to see Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. We will stay with Anita's Aunt who lives close to them all. Lucky us!

Game, Games, and More Games

After three days in London, there was tons of wash to do for eight people and I had to plan our trip to Normandy and Paris for when Garth gets here, so I spent the whole day at the computer. Meanwhile, the kids all started in on games.
Preston has had a great time playing computer games and board games with all the kids. He was amazed that they all play the same games and have watched the same videos. The Internet really has made the world a small place. They spent the morning on the computer, the afternoon at the table with board games and ended the evening with football (soccer).

We were glad to see that they even play Settlers, of course, the development cards are in Dutch which make them a little hard for us to read. Last night, I would have had my first victory in Settlers if I had played smarter on my last turn, but Preston ended up winning. Preston maintains his winning record. Oh well, maybe I will win tonight. We even taught them a few of our games like Indian Poker.

Last of Rainy London

Wednesday we (Preston, Wouter, Maxim, and I) decided to try to make the walking tour again while the others opted for shopping at Harrod's. We packed up, ate, and checked out and headed for Trafalgar Square again. This time we made it but it was raining and the guide wasn't sure but was optimistic that the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace would still occur, they rarely cancel it. It wasn't raining too bad as we waited to start the tour, but by the time 10:00 o'clock arrived, the rain was coming down pretty hard and the tour guide had to change the tour so we wouldn't be out in the open too much.

We went to the Horse Guard and were able to watch the guards change there. As they passed us, one of the guards lost a button and Preston had his eye on it and as soon as they passed he ran out to get it. He was beaten by on old lady from Canada and was so mad as she pushed her way in front of him. The rest of the tour he contemplated pick-pocketing her, mugging her and finally took all our money and tried to buy it from her, to no avail. Needless to say, it added to his bad image of Snowbirds. Our tour then we headed down to Buckingham Palace to see if they would still have the guards changing. As we walked, we passed some of the band and the guide got us excited that they would still have it but a minute later he changed his mind and said they were going back to their barracks.
We left the tour and meet Lonica's good friend, Alyson Rogers, who has been in London this summer with her husband. We looked at Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria's fountain and then headed to the British Museum. By now we were all thoroughly soaked and ready for some indoors activities. We were disappointed that the walking tour hadn't been able to go on the regular route and thought that Harrod's would have been a better choice.
The museums are the best value in London - they are free! The price also means that there are lots of people. We saw a friend there though, one of the girls that we shared our room with at the hostel.

Preston is pointing to the Rosetta Stone. The stone was much larger than I thought probably 2 1/2 feet by 3 feet and had tons of people wanting to see it, like most of the Egyptian part.
We were amazed at the huge artifacts that the British have taken and couldn't imagine how they transported them across deserts and oceans to England more than hundred years ago.

After the fast track tour, provided by Alyson, we all sat for a minute (which we later regretted) before heading back to the airport. We just had a short walk to the subway station, a short subway ride to the train station and had to run to make the train back to the airport and sprinted as soon as we hit the airport. We had only 40 minutes before our plane left and still had to check in. Anita and Rob were waiting for us and I'm afraid we had them worried. Both Anita and I had to have our bags searched because I left a water bottle in the bottom and she hadn't pulled out her toiletries which took more time. So Anita and I had to run what seemed like miles to the gate through crowds of people and then we stood and waited in line for 15 minutes! It was late by the time we made it back to the house and we all had sore legs but had had a great time.

A Day on the Big Bus Tours

The day started out with a bang. As we walked to the subway station, Rob suggested we walk through the little park on our way. Preston was the last in the group and we heard a big groan/scream come from him and all headed back to see what was wrong. As we looked at his new black jacket, we all started to laugh - a bird had found his mark. I thought we were going to have to pick Rob up off the ground he was laughing so hard. At any rate we all were in a good mood as we headed for our bus tour, except for Preston who was bemoaning the state of his jacket because he likes to take good care of his things (I had a hard time believing that when I know how he takes care of his bedroom).
We were planning on making the "free" walking tour that came with our bus tour but we were just a few minutes late arriving at Trafalgar Square and had missed it. \We frantically tried to catch a tour we thought was our but it wasn't. So we just headed for the bus. It had just finished raining, so we decided to sit on the top of the double decker bus. Everyone was excited as we passed #10 Downing Street, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and rode across the Thames. I was snapping pictures and we were all having a great time. About 5 minutes later that all changed for me when my camera battery went DEAD! The rest of the day as the sun shone on all the beautiful buildings (it was our only sunny day), Preston would say, "Mom, did you get a picture of that it looks so great! Oh yeah, I forgot - no camera." And to think I brought him to Europe!
We rode the bus all over the city, getting off at Westminster Abbey to tour it. It was really amazing, especially Poet's Corner where so many famous English writer are buried. We hit the gift shop where Preston bought a small replica of the Abbey and had to carry it around for the next two days.
Here is the last of my pictures before my camera died. I was sick the rest of the day! We had a great boat tour as the sun was going down, of course no pictures! The Thames winds through the city and we went from the Tower Bridge to Millennium Pier (near the Houses of Parliament). We went back to Leicester Square for dinner and then head back to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament to see them with all the lights on. We were rewarded for our efforts; the buildings were beautiful.

London Here We Come

We made it to London yesterday after a car ride, plane ride (yes, we did have to walk outside to get on the plane), train ride, subway ride and some good old walking. We all carried backpacks with everything we needed for three days so as soon as we hit the city we started site seeing.


Of course first we had to have lunch and we had our first English fish & chips. Preston was too impressed since the skin was still on one side of the fish and he had to pick out bones. From there we headed across the Tower Bridge (I have great pictures, oh well) and ran into typical English weather, we were poured on but it was fun. We headed to the Dungeon (an attraction that all Anita's teenagers wanted to see) where we saw all kinds of Medieval means of torture and the disgusting medical practices, plus Jack the Ripper, the plague, the burning of London and Sweeney Todd. There were a couple of rides too. It was pretty gross but the kids (including Preston) loved it.

From there we decided to find our hostel, check in and leave some of our baggage. We seemed to time it just right and every time we were inside it stopped raining and as soon as we started walking it poured. After a few wrong directions we found our hostel and dried off, played games and rested while they fixed our room mix up. It is in on a quite street in Kensington and from our window it looks like the Mary Poppins scene when they dance on the chimney.

From there we headed for dinner and found a great Italian place where the owner cooked our food and entertained us with mind teasers. He talked about football (soccer) with Rob and the boys and told us that the Chelsea football stadium was nearby, so after dinner we went and had a look. From there we headed to Leicester Square (the theater district) and to Piccadilly Circus and watched a guy limbo under a 12 inch high stick - truly amazing! It was fun looking around at London, watching the double decker buses go by and try to understand what they are saying.

Today we do a city bus tour and a Thames river cruise.

Church, Birthdays and Windmills

Here is Anita's family that we are staying with: Rob, Wouter (14), Anita, Jeske (12), Maxim(16), Preston and Jip (16). Preston is in the new jacket they gave him for his birthday today. They all sang and congratulated him and we had a delicious cake. This was his third day of celebrating his 16th birthday; Preston is indeed spoiled! Last night we had a barbeque with Anita's brother and some of her friends and an Australian exchange student. The food and company was great.

This morning Anita drove us to Eindhoven to church. I love visiting in other wards and this one was especially nice, very international. They had an English speaking Sunday School class taught by a man from Sierra Leon and two women who came and talked to me that were Colombian and wanted Jason's address to write to him. It is great to know our church is the same no matter where you go in the world.

This afternoon we drove to Kinderdijk where they have 19 windmills that were built in the 1700's that have been preserved. There was one we could go into and see how the people used to live in them and how the windmills worked. Most of the other 18 had people living in them.

It was a beautiful place and we walked along the canals and watched the clouds which made for perfect Vermeer pictures until they opened up and started to rain on us.

We made it back to the gift shop and the rain stopped of course. For a great Dutch experience, I would highly recommend Kinderdijk. Tomorrow we head to London for three days and rain is forcasted for the first two, we hope not!

Preston and I made it

Tuesday morning Preston and I started out our long plane flight to Brussels. We met our friend Terry Jorgensen in the airport and he gave us some last minute advice on getting my 4 oz. bottle of contact solution through security - just put it in your pocket and walk through! Our plane was 30 minutes late in taking off and with only 45 minutes to change planes in Philadelphia I was a little worried but we made it with a few spare minutes. Preston didn't sleep at all the whole way over despite the new sound reduction headphones he bought before we left.
We ended up getting into Brussels an hour early at 9:30am and they didn't have a gate open for the plane. So they had to bring stairs out on to the runway and buses to take us to the terminal. But once we got through customs we only had to wait a few minutes before finding Anita and her son Jip. Jip is Preston's age and is such a fun young man and he and Preston have had a great time together already. It was so great to see Anita again after six years when she last came to visit us.

Anita and Rob (her husband) live in a small picturesque village. This is the view out their kitchen window. Doesn't look at all like Mesa! It is really a nice house and we are very excited to be here for a month! Our room is upstairs with an outside entrance and we have look at this every time we leave our room! I think I'm in a fairyland each time I go outside.

The first day here we didn't do much, just try to get adjusted to the time difference, shop at the grocery store which was fun and plan our trip to London next week. If anyone has suggestions let me know. Jip and Preston played computer and board games and were surprised how many of the same things they did. Jip speaks great English so communication isn't a problem.

Last night we went to Weert (Anita's home town) to Anita's brother's birthday party. It was fun to see him again and meet lots of new people. Today the weather is beautiful and we rode bikes to Jip's school and had a look around. Then Preston and Jip took the train back to Weert to play basketball with Jip's old friends. We will meet them there tonight and bring them back after a party for one of Jip's friends who made the Dutch national basketball team. Should be fun.