Last week was our second whirlwind-see it all-make the most of your time-trip, this time starting in Amsterdam, trekking down and across Belgium, through Luxembourg and ending in Cologne Germany. It think taking the train is the best way to get a feel for a certain country's landscape, and so that's how we hopped from city to city. A map of our travels is in the column to the left.I was weary of Amsterdam after hearing horrid reviews of it smelling like pee and being one big chaotic party. We arrived to a large city encircled with romantic canals that spun out in a fan shape around the center of the city. We spent most of our time just walking up and down the canals admiring the unique architecture of the buildings. English seemed to be spoken everywhere, and was the first language out of every mouth we encountered. I guess they are just used to so many tourists not speaking Dutch.
We did know when we had made it in to the red light district however (by the slight smell of pee!), but we toured this area around lunch time and the city had done an amazing job of cleaning up all the trash and remnants from the night before. In our search for sugar packets from famous coffee houses, I was disappointed to learn that coffee houses in Amsterdam take on a new meaning.....they don't only sell coffee, so if you want to enjoy a cup of Joe, you better be prepared to enjoy the smell of pot as well. Don't worry we didn't subject our son to any of that!
The Amsterdam Hotel vending machine had a Doritos package for sale. We haven't had Doritos in so long that we were delighted! The label for the "Cool Ranch" doritos was interesting.... "COOL AMERICAN"
My favorite site of this city was the Anne Frank house. The line was long and wrapped around the outside building just to get in, but it went fast and was well worth the wait. The museum was nicely done, took you through a bit of their story and then through the actual hidden bookcase staircase and up in to the rooms where they lived for 2 years. It was quite moving.
2 days in Amsterdam and we headed down the coastline to Brugge Belgium. Along the way I
was expecting fields of wild tulips but didn't see any! Brugge was a medieval town, known as the Venice of the North. We took a boat ride along all of the canals one afternoon to give us another perspective on the quaint little town. The town was built around 2 town centers, and the street from our hotel to the town centers was lined with the best shopping (clothes) that I have seen anywhere! Ryan made out with a nice casual sport jacket and I got a couple shirts. It was great! Cruising the streets we were often passed by horse drawn carriages touring people around - Chance loved to point out every horse that would klop by. One morning we walked to the edge of town and found windmill after windmill lining a long street and park area. Each windmill was built atop a man-made hill and they were dated from the 1700's. Really neat to see.
No trip to Belgium would be complete without having REAL Belgium waffles, straight from the source. But in Belgium you won't find them on any breakfast menu! They are sold at kiosk stands all day long and are so sweet tasting you don't need any syrup. For dinner one night Ryan had a Belgium waffle topped with fresh strawberries and ice cream, what a treat!
From Brugge we headed inland to Bastogne. The Ardenne's countryside was my favorite. We had to take a bus there and the trip was really beautiful, passing under canopies of the Ardenne forest that would open up to rolling farm lands and tiny villages with a church and about 30 charming houses. Bastogne was a sleepy town, not much to do there but go to the Battle of the Bulge Museum. The church was a recognized site, since it housed the hospital during the WWII battle. We walked the 2.6 km trek up hill to the museum in the evening to find it closed but we were able to climb atop the US memorial there and see the town and surroundings in its entirety. When we asked the hotel staff to call us a cab so we could go back in the morning when the museum opened, she laughed and said there was only one taxi in the whole town, so we had to walk it again! We decided it would have been better to spend the money on hiring a guide to take us around this part of the country, I think it would have meant more to have history interjected into what we were seeing.
We then hopped over to Luxembourg, next in line to Zurich in our choice of living. We wanted to stop in and see how this town compared to Zurich and see if we had made the wise choice - we did! Upon arrival it was a very large city, filled with cars and Parisian architecture. We landed at the hotel and then made our way in to the old town......which then made the city redeem itself. The city is built over a huge river valley. An ancient castle was built along both sides of it and casemates (tunnels) ran thru the walls for miles and miles. You could tour these but they wouldn't allow strollers and just before we had arrived Chance zonked out.....so we took a pass and found instead a cafe in a charming courtyard that had a small symphony playing. For dinner we found a taste of home at the nicest Pizza Hut we have ever seen, with a full menu of food I never knew a pizza hut could offer. Chance danced the night away to the sounds of the symphony as we sat and watched in the outdoor courtyard tables. We bought a compass while in Luxembourg and wow does that make a difference in finding one's way about a city!
Last on the list was Cologne Germany. Our energy was fading rapidly! The 3 hour train ride took us through the amazing German countryside of wide sweeping river valleys sprinkled with wineries and great valley towns dominated by one large central church visible from every angle in its valley. It reminded me a bit of the Swiss landscape and train rides. So green and lush too. My favorite thing were the window boxes in all the houses and the crosses on every accessible cliff side. I'd find myself searching for another cross hidden way above each hilltop. Cologne was not our favorite, but again it was our last stop on a fast paced trip. We arrived in the afternoon, got rid of our bags and then headed to the Chocolate factory which was cool. Afterwards we stopped for dinner, winded our way thru old town back to the hotel and crashed. Morning brought a late breakfast, a lunch, and then a flight home to meet Pappy who was awaiting us in the airport, having arrived at the same time off his flight from Paris. Chance went tearing off the bench he was sitting on toward Pappy as soon as he caught site of him. It was really neat to watch.
My favorite site of this city was the Anne Frank house. The line was long and wrapped around the outside building just to get in, but it went fast and was well worth the wait. The museum was nicely done, took you through a bit of their story and then through the actual hidden bookcase staircase and up in to the rooms where they lived for 2 years. It was quite moving.2 days in Amsterdam and we headed down the coastline to Brugge Belgium. Along the way I
was expecting fields of wild tulips but didn't see any! Brugge was a medieval town, known as the Venice of the North. We took a boat ride along all of the canals one afternoon to give us another perspective on the quaint little town. The town was built around 2 town centers, and the street from our hotel to the town centers was lined with the best shopping (clothes) that I have seen anywhere! Ryan made out with a nice casual sport jacket and I got a couple shirts. It was great! Cruising the streets we were often passed by horse drawn carriages touring people around - Chance loved to point out every horse that would klop by. One morning we walked to the edge of town and found windmill after windmill lining a long street and park area. Each windmill was built atop a man-made hill and they were dated from the 1700's. Really neat to see.No trip to Belgium would be complete without having REAL Belgium waffles, straight from the source. But in Belgium you won't find them on any breakfast menu! They are sold at kiosk stands all day long and are so sweet tasting you don't need any syrup. For dinner one night Ryan had a Belgium waffle topped with fresh strawberries and ice cream, what a treat!
From Brugge we headed inland to Bastogne. The Ardenne's countryside was my favorite. We had to take a bus there and the trip was really beautiful, passing under canopies of the Ardenne forest that would open up to rolling farm lands and tiny villages with a church and about 30 charming houses. Bastogne was a sleepy town, not much to do there but go to the Battle of the Bulge Museum. The church was a recognized site, since it housed the hospital during the WWII battle. We walked the 2.6 km trek up hill to the museum in the evening to find it closed but we were able to climb atop the US memorial there and see the town and surroundings in its entirety. When we asked the hotel staff to call us a cab so we could go back in the morning when the museum opened, she laughed and said there was only one taxi in the whole town, so we had to walk it again! We decided it would have been better to spend the money on hiring a guide to take us around this part of the country, I think it would have meant more to have history interjected into what we were seeing.We then hopped over to Luxembourg, next in line to Zurich in our choice of living. We wanted to stop in and see how this town compared to Zurich and see if we had made the wise choice - we did! Upon arrival it was a very large city, filled with cars and Parisian architecture. We landed at the hotel and then made our way in to the old town......which then made the city redeem itself. The city is built over a huge river valley. An ancient castle was built along both sides of it and casemates (tunnels) ran thru the walls for miles and miles. You could tour these but they wouldn't allow strollers and just before we had arrived Chance zonked out.....so we took a pass and found instead a cafe in a charming courtyard that had a small symphony playing. For dinner we found a taste of home at the nicest Pizza Hut we have ever seen, with a full menu of food I never knew a pizza hut could offer. Chance danced the night away to the sounds of the symphony as we sat and watched in the outdoor courtyard tables. We bought a compass while in Luxembourg and wow does that make a difference in finding one's way about a city!
Last on the list was Cologne Germany. Our energy was fading rapidly! The 3 hour train ride took us through the amazing German countryside of wide sweeping river valleys sprinkled with wineries and great valley towns dominated by one large central church visible from every angle in its valley. It reminded me a bit of the Swiss landscape and train rides. So green and lush too. My favorite thing were the window boxes in all the houses and the crosses on every accessible cliff side. I'd find myself searching for another cross hidden way above each hilltop. Cologne was not our favorite, but again it was our last stop on a fast paced trip. We arrived in the afternoon, got rid of our bags and then headed to the Chocolate factory which was cool. Afterwards we stopped for dinner, winded our way thru old town back to the hotel and crashed. Morning brought a late breakfast, a lunch, and then a flight home to meet Pappy who was awaiting us in the airport, having arrived at the same time off his flight from Paris. Chance went tearing off the bench he was sitting on toward Pappy as soon as he caught site of him. It was really neat to watch.
