Amsterdam!

We took a train to Amsterdam this morning after letting ourselves sleep in a little. The train ride was about 3 hours. I listened to my music and watched the Belgian and Netherland countryside pass by. We finally pulled in to Amsterdam around 2 in the afternoon. We found our hotel and took a tram there. It's amazing how the trams and traffic almost dance together as they both are able to move down the road without really getting in the others' way.

We made it to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised. It's almost like a hostel. We have a small room with a double bed and it also has a sink in it. Our toilet and shower are downstairs and are shared. There's free breakfast every morning though. And everything is clean. They gave us like 3 towels each. And we have a window. The pillows are a little too hard, but overall we were pleasantly pleased. And there's free internet (although it is a bit slow, which is the reason for the delay in posts.)


We dropped off our stuff and jumped back on the tram to see more of the city. We had already ridden through the main part, so we went back and explored that. We found our ornament rather quick which is always nice. We walked through central Amsterdam completely before really doing anything.

For some reason I found this really funny as I pictured someone doing this


Apparently Doug has a store here. Sells cosmetics and the like


The Dam Square. Apparently there were two settlements and when they decided to link them, they built a dam. So now that's the name of the square, and there's a monument too.


The Palace




This is their mall. A MALL! Sheesh!


We ran into this little fun exhibit. It's called the Amsterdam Dungeon. It's a fun house that tells the "dark" side of Amsterdam's history. The slave trade, the Spanish Inquisition, the Plague, ghosts, etc. Cast members were dressed and in character as they told some of the history. It was really fun. It ended with the world's shortest roller coaster. You would have thought we were going on a ride like Space Mountain (we were hoping), but it just lifted the car up to a rail above, which led to a five foot ramp down, then we turned back and forth on a platform, then dropped down a maybe ten foot ramp. And that was the end of the ride. We were kinda bummed about that, but enjoyed the walk through. They had a fun mirror maze too that they made a closed circuit until they finally opened a door up so we could go to the next room. Clever.


We were hungry after that and it was already 6. Amsterdam isn't known for any specific foods (I looked it up). It's kind of like America where the foods that they have have been brought from other places. We went to an Italian restaurant. Doug got pizza and I got tortellini. It was really good.


We walked back to our hotel because our tram tickets had expired and it wasn't that far. Plus, you get a better feel for a place when you walk it. We loved all of the canals that consume the city. This was the best shot that we got since the sun was setting.


By the way, now that we're even farther north, the sun takes forever to set. It looks like 5 o'clock for 4 hours, and then twilight sticks around for another hour. It doesn't get really night time dark till about 10:30. So strange. Almost like time stands still.

We like Amsterdam so far, but we're not here for the things that people normally come for. We don't care to try pot, and the Heineken museum would be awesome if we drank. And neither of us are interested in the Red Light District either. The city itself is charming, it's just a bummer that it's known for so much crap that's in it.

Brussels: Waffles, Chocolate, Fries, and Beer!

Today we traveled from Paris to Brussels. We were only staying for one night so we got to Brussels at 9 in the morning to make the most of our day. It seems that the rainy weather has been following us all over Europe. It was raining when we got to Brussels. We walked to our hotel through the city. Luckily, it was close enough, but Brussels is rather small.

We stayed at a Marriott and it was amazing. It was nice having a King size bed again! We were really early so they put us in as a priority and told us it'd be ready in about an hour and a half. We left our bags with them and went out to see the town.

I read up on Brussels while we were on the train and found out about its places of interest. It was more about the food than anything. Belgium boasts of the world's best chocolate, fries, waffles, and beer. So we had to try them all (except for the beer).

We headed to the Grand Place, which really turned out to be quite grand. It was only about a block from our hotel too. The architecture in the square was absolutely amazing. I loved all the alleys leading to it too.


Grand Place (square)






We ate at the cafe at the base of this building








We decided to go for some waffles at a cafe in the square. I also got a cappuccino and when the waiter brought it, Doug thought it looked so good that he got one too! And it really was good coffee. And came with sugar, and a biscuit. Cheaper and better than the cafe in Paris :)



The view from our table


Waffles! Eaten with sugar. There were four kinds. It came sprinkled with powder, then he brought a plate with white, brown, and darker brown. We put all three on top!





We also found the people much nicer in Brussels. And it helped that everyone we encountered spoke English. Which was refreshing.

After we ate we walked around the streets near the Grand Place. We got our ornament and enjoyed the atmosphere of the place.

We went back to our room and it was ready. We both took a nap since we had been up early and traveling. We only slept till 2 in which we still had plenty to do around Brussels (in the paper that our eurail gave us with our tickets, Brussels was noted as the second most boring city in Europe).

We were hungry so we decided it was time to try the fries. They double fry them for you. Instead of scooping them out of a heater like they do at McDonalds, they fry them again before they serve them to you. This means that they're doubly delicious and very hot. You can also choose which sauce you want on top. We went with ketchup. I still don't understand the mayonaise thing...




They were quite good. Different, but I can understand why people say they're the world's best.

We walked down to Brussel's most famous statue (seriously, google it, this is it), the Manneken Pis.




A bit anticlimactic if you ask me. But oh well, we saw it, got a picture, and moved on :)

We found a chocolate museum that went through how chocolate is made. It also let you try some for free. So we got our chocolate fix in. The master chocolatier also gave a presentation on how he does chocolate molds. He did the presentation in both french and english, easily switching back and forth. The whole building smelled wonderful.








We went back to our hotel and I finished the book I was reading on my kindle. Doug went and got us Pizza Hut and we ate in our room while watching t.v.

We decided to go see a movie since we had finished up our site seeing in Brussels. We saw Transformers 3. It was ok, but I still like the second one best. At least it was entertaining though! We went to bed kinda late, and left for Amsterdam in the morning.

Although we were only there for one day, it was definitely enough. I loved Brussels and felt satisfied with our visit. It was a nice relaxing day instead of trying to cram a lot into it. I think we made a good choice. Plus, our stomachs were really really happy :)

The Christiansen's Invade Normandy

If you know me then you know I am a history buff. Rochelle was graceous enough to let me take her on a 1 1/2 train ride then a 40 min bus ride to the Beaches of Normandy. Normandy is kind of like a provence of France, thus going there we found a whole new feel of what French Culture is like.

A Church on the way there, this one is in the city of Caen.

We Made it!!!

One of many Bunkers lining the Beach, this one had a MG (Machine Gun) mounted to the top and was used as a flank defense for the bigger bunkers.

From the inside of the bunker looking up at the Turret house.

Walkway leading down to the entrance

A View down the beach from the bunker

A larger bunker, one that can be seen in the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan" This one would house multiple units. As well as spotters for Artillery, that would be stationed farther inland.

An entrance to the bunker

A few of the paths leading to the beach had mini memorials of those who died for their countries.

We were on Juno Beach, Omaha was a little too far for us to reasonably make it to and from Paris in a resonable time. Juno was a landing site that the Canadian landing force was in charge of taking on D-Day. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword Beach were all names given by the Allies to coordinate between 12 countries with US and the UK and the helm.

June 6th 1944 the 1,332,000 Allies with 380,000 Axis defending, The Allies were able to defeat the Nazi Atlantic Wall and push back the Axis to which many would claim was the turning point of the war. Estimates of 120,000 allies and roughly that Axis fell during invasion.

Thank you to those served and to those who fell.

Chateau Versailles

Today we took a train out to the Palace of Versailles. Doug and I were laughing because we both had the picture that it was out in the country in the middle of nowhere. It's not. It's still in the city. With the gardens being so big it is on the edge of the city, but still. Not what we were thinking of. But when is it ever how it is in our minds?

We were really impressed with the palace's exterior. It was huge!







Inside was kind of less than we had expected. Mainly because the tour was only through about a sixth of the palace, and because of the French Revolution, most of the original furniture was gone. The decor, paintings, and crown moldings were amazing. Absolutely stunning. And it was cool to see the lay out of the apartments of Louis XIV and the door where Marie-Antoinette escaped in 1789.

The Chapel that Louis XIV built




Amazing molding, painting, etc.!


The ceilings!






Hall of Mirrors! Loved this room! So pretty and majestic! I hope God has a throne room like this (but it'll be 1000 better)







We especially enjoyed the gardens. It would have taken about 5 hours just to walk through the gardens. It took a half hour just to walk to Marie Antoinette's estate. We enjoyed the lake there and ate crepes. I had a chocolate one and Doug had a nutella one. They were recommended to us by our American friends, but I didn't really care for them. It was like a warm thicker tortilla with chocolate sauce. I'll stick to pastries :) We laid in the grass for a while too and just relaxed for a bit. Fish came to eat some of our crepes, which Doug fed them. When we went towards Marie Antoinette's estate we stumbled on a little village that reminded me both of Disneyland's fantasy land and Belle's village in Beauty and the Beast. Loved it.











































One thing that was always hard in school was history classes that only worked from one angle. I mean, there's european history and there's American history, but you only ever cover what's going on in one part of the world and get that whole timeline. I like putting them together. Like we were talking about how we found it interesting that America declared its independence before France did. Maybe the french got the idea from us since it was only a few years after our war ended.

We were at Versailles for about 4.5 hours. We ran out of time really, but our legs were so tired that we were okay with leaving. We saw a dark rain cloud rolling in and got caught in it right as we made it back to the metro station. Then it started pouring. We were dry, but it'd been a while since I'd seen rain come down that hard. I loved it.

We took the metro back, which took about a half hour, and then got some chocolate mousse and a baguette from the grocery store. We were both pretty tired so we went to bed rather early.