Vienna

June 20, 2019: We arrived in Vienna last night after a long day of travel with many delays. Our flight leaving NY was delayed 3 1/2 hours. We had planned to spend our lay over in downtown Dublin but the time was too short now. Julia threw up in the Dublin airport. Our flight to Vienna was also a few hours delayed.

We made it to our hotel which is an apartment with beds for everyone. We went out for a walk and to find some dinner and didn't turn the lights off until almost midnight. Today everyone slept in and we woke the kids up around 9 to get going. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day. We noticed the streets were deserted and no shops were open. We quickly learned it was the Christian holiday called Corpus Christi Day. We checked out St.Stephans Cathedral and climbed to the top of the tower for a viewpoint over the city.

We then went to the morning exercise of the famous Lipizzaner horses at the Spanish riding school.

We were able to see them practice balancing on their hind legs but they don't generally do their famous jumps in practice. After, we wandered around the gardens for awhile then headed home for a little nap. In the afternoon we set out towards a water park on an island on the Danube. It was a neat place for kids to mess around with water cannons, locks, etc.

We noticed lots of people swimming in the "new Danube" and so the kids went for a nice 30 minute swim. The last part of our day was a stop for a ride on the famous carousel that is featured in the James Bond movie. The area has been built up a lot since James and I were last here and is now a full amusement park. We stayed for awhile and did a lot of rides. The kids had a ball and we had to run home from the subway in a complete downpour.

Holland on our own

August 6, 2018: Well. The car is packed and we head home tomorrow. Hard to believe it has been 8 weeks for James and the girls and 7 for me. We have had a fun time the past few days exploring Holland. On Saturday we took the train into Amsterdam and explored the city. We were surprised to find out that it was the gay pride parade in the city that day. Things were so busy and chaotic but it was so much fun. We wandered around the 9 streets area, and out to the canal that the parade was on. The canal was absolutely packed with people partying on boats and on all the streets lining the river. It was such a fun atmosphere. We wandered through flea markets, and went to a diamond factory for a tour. The kids each got to hold a diamond, examine it through the magnifying glass and take a turn polishing it. In total we spent about 6 hours in the city before heading back.

Sunday we went for a long bike ride from Pamela's house. We went east into the farming areas and rode all around the canals to see old windmills. In total we bike 20 miles. It took us 5 hours to do the ride including water breaks, a stop at the windmills, and an ice cream break at the end. It is such a beautiful county and amazing how much infrastructure is in place for biking. We were on bike trails almost the entire time and you feel so safe. It is really cool.

Monday we did a lot of cleaning, laundry, packing and organizing. The car had to be scrubbed from top to bottom to return it tomorrow. When we had most of our tasks completed we drove about 30 minutes to a farm where you can see them make cheese and clogs. It was such a cool farm and they are the nicest people. We had to wait awhile for a few tour buses to pass through so we killed time looking around the farm at the cows and horses. The kids were happy to pet the calves and baby chicks. We then had a demonstration of how they make the clogs and the guy doing it was so nice that he gave us the demo shoe. We saw how they make the cheese and then we wandered around in the gift shop and bought a few souvenirs. After dinner and final packing we took an evening bike ride.

It has been an awesome summer of travel and hopefully the kids will remember some of it.

Holland with Pamela

August 3, 2018: We arrived in Wassenaar on Tuesday around 5pm. Pamela and her family live in a beautiful house in a suburb of the Hague. The kids played in the yard and we caught up. We had a fantastic dinner outside once Ate got home from work. One Wednesday the touring began. We all got onto bikes and biked into the Hague. Our first stop was "Madurodam", an attraction park that has the majority of Holland's main buildings in miniature. It is actually a war memorial opened by the parents of Dutch WWII hero, George Maduro. The kids had a ball checking everything out. Then we biked into the center of the Hague and Pamela introduced us to poffertjes and pannenkoeken (dutch mini pancakes and crepes). Delish lunch!! The kids watched the guy make the mini pancakes and they tasted sooo good!

We biked into Ate's office to pick him up from work so he could bike home with us. The square outside his office had recently had a sand sculpting contest and we got to see the work. Thursday we biked about 25 minutes out to the beach. It was a beautiful ride through the dunes. The beach had lots of naked people and the kids could not get over it. It was a strange thing to witness. We biked home after a few hours at the beach and then we went for a boat ride in the canals.

Ate has a small boat and took everyone for a ride in the canals around Leiden, which is the university town in the next town over. We rode around, the kids jumped off and swam in the canals, and we picked up pizzas to eat in the boat. It was a really beautiful way to see the town and we were so lucky to have that opportunity.

Friday Pamela and her family left for their beach vacation. We are staying here until our flight on Tuesday morning. We hung out with them in the morning and then just had a quiet day at home. We felt extremely grateful for good, old friends and the chance to have a local's perspective on things around Holland for a few days.

Belguim

July 31, 2018: Monday we got off the ferry in Calais around 2pm and drove into Belgium. It was only a 1 hour drive to Ypres, the central location of a lot of WWI fighting. We made a quick stop at the tourist office and then headed to the Passchendale museum. This was a great museum and a perfect intro to the war for the kids. We each had an audio guide and they got to see a lot of artifacts and a short film. There was also a great trench system to walk through. After our visit to the museum we went back into the center of Ypers and got some food and then went to the Last Post ceremony. Every single night at 8pm local buglers from the fire brigade play in the Menin Gate, which was the gate at the edge of the city that tens of thousands of men passed through on their way to the front. This ceremony has been taking place every night since 1928 to honor all of the men who lost their lives.

Tuesday we went to see a few more historical sights before leaving town. Hill 60 was a small hill that saw a lot of battles and changed hands between the Germans and the Allies several times. It is still pock marked with craters from shellings and there are bunkers in varying states of decay. In typical fashion, James found several pieces of shrapnel and one shell casing. Amazing that these items are still at the surface after more than 100 years. We then went to Tyne Cot cemetery where 12,000 British soldiers are buried and lastly to the German cemetery. We drove north to Holland after that.