So I wrote this earlier in the week planning on coming back to it to spruce it up but I have not yet, so here is a terribly unexciting recount of our trip :)
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Ok, we are back. Have been for 3+ days but I've been recovering. Three countries (or does Germany make it 4?) in 8 days really, REALLY took it out of me. BUT I knew you all would want an update so here it is (sorry I'm making you go to the photo blog to see pictures. . . but I know you'll do it for new 'bump' pictures. . .right?
We drove the "6" (ahem, 8) hour drive to Paris uneventfully on Saturday morning. We checked into our FABULOUS hotel and were quickly out the door to master the metro and check out Notre Dame. This is when we learned our first lesson "all subway stations are not created equal". I assumed we could just hit whichever was closest and it would get us home (relatively) easily. Ha. 3 change overs later we got back, had some dinner and hit the hay.
Sunday and Monday we spent sightseeing. Hitting up the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Sacre Couer, Arc de Triomph, and I'm sure there are a few I forgot. Paris is HUGE and even taking the metro everywhere there was a TON of walking. We didn't make it up the Eiffel Tower or into the Louvre, but we enjoyed a lot of time outside wandering the various parks and river walks. Much more our speed :) We even ran into some friends from where we are stationed by the metro at Sacre Coeur! Crazy! (There was also some minor, ahem, major, drama when I realized I had forgotten my camera charger! Thankfully we found a professional camera shop Monday morning, but it was a long weekend of worry!)
http://adaylate365.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up-paris.html
Tuesday drove the short (3 hour) drive from Paris to Bruges. Bruges is a beautiful medieval city in Belgium. The plan was to explore Bruges the first day and take a train to Brussels the second. I started having HORRIBLE foot pain on our last day in Paris and we quickly realized it just wasn't going to work. We ended up taking our time Thursday and enjoying the perfectly sized city. . .and all the Belgium beer (for Andy!) and chocolate we could handle. :)
http://adaylate365.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up-bruges-belgium.html
Friday we drove 2 hours to Keukenhof gardens in The Netherlands. The flowers were beautiful and it was HOT. Unfortunately we got there right at nap time so Jackson was NOT in a good mood. It was a little rough, but definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
http://adaylate365.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up-keukenhof-gardens.html
We continued on to Amsterdam, in rush hour traffic (really bad timing this day) and found our way-less-than stellar hotel. I made sure we had a quite room so you can imagine my surprise when a little after 7 am I started to hear a loud THUMP, THUMP, THUMPing sound. Eventually (15 minutes later?) I called the front desk and asked what the deal was. Of course, we were located just over the butcher shop! UGH. But was promised it would stop soon. I won't complain about the hotel any more, but it wasn't good. We did, however, enjoy seeing Amsterdam. It is a beautiful city with tree lined canals and streets FULL of bicycles.
We hit up the Ann Frank House, Dam Square, and oh yes, the Red Light District. The whole city was a great experience with a huge variety of people, not just the pot-smoking-hippies I expected :) **Nothing against pot smoking hippies :)
http://adaylate365.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up-amsterdam.html
We were ready to go the next morning and once I saw the sun peeking from the curtains we hit the door (trying to dodge the thump, thump, thump, of the butcher shop below). Our drive home was easy as well (thank goodness for portable DVD players)!
And that about sums it up. I'm not sure I conveyed well all the WALKING we did. It really was pretty much non stop all day-every day (ok, except for nap time). But for what was possibly our last trip before we leave Germany, it was pretty awesome.
