Trip Details

my parents want more pictures of the trip, so here goes. i'll give a brief summary of each day as well. we headed out late on a wednesday afternoon. i had worked that morning.

THURSDAY

we got in at 8:00 AM Paris time. we took a shuttle to the hotel and put our stuff away and hit the road. i love public transportation! i wish it was more effectively used in the states. we only had 24 hours in paris so it was a whirlwind. i had been there before so i just swung april by all of the "must see" things. here are a couple pictures:

we went to a great cafe for dinner....this is a salad, believe it or not! that is all i'm really going to write about that day. the only funny thing that happened was that i walked into the men's restroom by mistake. it took a couple seconds too long for me to realize my misstep!

all in all, i really do like paris, but i'm just not super sophisticated. i would like to visit the south of france on a bike at some point....the man we sat next to on the airplane raved about it!

FRIDAY

we took a flight from paris to amsterdam the next morning. we could have taken the train, but we got special tickets from AirFrance with the 24 hour stopover in paris included in the price...so technically, this was cheaper!

my first impression of amsterdam was that it looked somewhat similar to Munich, Germany. (i hope that doesn't offend anyone from either place!!) my second thought was...there are bicycles everywhere!! that was when i knew i was going to like the country. side note: the weather the whole time was very good. that reminded me of chicago. we only got rain for part of one afternoon.

we went on a boat tour of the canals. there is such pretty architecture. that is something we learned about each other on the trip...april really comments on plant life and i comment on structures!

we took to many pictures to give you a good overview so these will have to suffice.

this was lunch on Friday...delicious!

my favorite part of the first day was definitely the Anne Frank House. i am so thankful that i read the diary again before coming on the trip. this is where she stayed for over 2 years until the Nazi's found her and took her to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belson. She passed away there from typhoid right before the liberation of the camp.

on a trip in college, angie and i were able to go to Dachau. it was a sobering experience. hopefully every trip you (or I) go on has some part of it that moves your soul....he Anne Frank house was the moment for me on this trip.

that makes me think that it would be a great blogging topic...all of my trips and the moments that stand out. i'll think on that.

all i'm saying is that this is a MUST SEE for amsterdam. read the book again before you come!

okay, tired of typing now. i will finish the trip either later today or this week!