Sunday, October 19, 2008

Amsterdam

Welcome to Amsterdam! Ryan and I waited until Alex was asleep and made a skeedaddle up to Amsterdam for the weekend. Don't worry, Madelyn stayed behind to watch the little feller. See next blog entry to see all the tricks she taught him while we were gone....

Soooo, we get to Amsterdam and decide that we should see the Ann Frank house.

We stood in this line

It curves around the building, and is just as long on around the corner. In case you were wondering... YES it was cold and very very breezey. My nose was frozen by the time we got in. Luckily we had some young college age whipper snappers behind us that were discussing their previous night in the Red Light district. I'm pretty sure that they were also working off the effects of visiting one of the local "coffee" shops. At least we were a entertained while we froze.

We took this picture of Ann Frank's house




We found out later that this is not the house. But rather a building later added. So let me amend the the caption. We took this picture of a building later built to hold the majority of the Ann Frank exhibit. Her real house is a couple doors down. Whoopsie. :)




As we were walking back to the hotel I spied this little boy with his grandma.


The little boy has a baby doll strapped to his chest!! AWESOME!! Now that is something you would never see in America.








The next day we decided to take a tour on the canals.


The hotel had a private boat for their guests. It was just us and one other couple. Very nice.






Here is one of the regular boats that tour the canal.


Eeekkk! Look at all those people crammed in there. Our boat was wayyyy better and they knew it. In fact they were so jealous that they drove by really close and really fast...... and.......




Ha Ha Ryan got wet


That there is some cold water. Still worth it though... our boat is still better.





We saw lots of cool stuff, most of which I can't remember, so here are a couple of shots.


These are 7 identical bridges all lined up down a canal. The picture doesn't do it justice, it was really pretty.







There are house boats that line some of the canals. Here is a look in one of those boats. These folks are pretty tidy. Some boats had garbage strewn everywhere, and dirty dishes in the sink for everyone to see. I don't think I could live on a houseboat where hundreds of people pass by everyday and look in your windows. Some "house boats" were nothing more that a flat bardge with a tent and some lawn chairs. CRAZY!!

We tried to take a picture Shawn and Ann style.

Shawn must have some crazy long arms for his body, cause we could never seem to get as good of an angle or picture as they are able to get.





We then went to the Van Gogh Museum. Can't take pictures in there so unless you wanted to see the massively long line we waited in to get into the museum... well you'll just have to take our word on it that we were there. Tip for future, always check to see if you can purchase tickets online. Almost all attractions have this option and you don't have to wait in the cold to get in. Then on to the flower market, which should be really called the flower bulb and trinket market.










Of course we strolled through the Red Light District. It was rainey and cold so we dind't hang out there very long. Funny... they didn't let us take pictures there either. To bad, we were thinking of some great Christmas card captions to go with those pics.
Oh, and we went back to the Ann Frank house.
This is the real Ann Frank house.









Now we have to go home to Rotterdam. See ya.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest 2008









Madelyn and I made a quick escape over to Germany for Oktoberfest. The prize of the trip --Madelyn was able to replace her long lost mug from the Hofbrau House.




One man's trash is Madelyn's treasure.





We met some folks from Texas and Holland. Apparently we are drawn to what we know.







These are our Oktoberfest buddies












Really big beers........ don't let the amount left in the glasses fool you. I was wayyyyy ahead of Madelyn.











Madelyn was proposed to.... looks like she will be staying here with me. YAY!!!







Not everyone was in liederhosen.








Woooo Hooo... drunkin bumper cars














Soooo many possible captions sooo little time.














A picture to make her daddy proud.







We missed our plane, slept in the airport, and what does Madelyn get a hanker'n for???? 5:00AM Airport Bratwurst.... ewwwww

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Windmills

We finally got to see some windmills!! We spent an afternoon at Kinderdike a town outside of Rotterdam. The town was rebuilt after a devastating flood in 1421, and renamed Kinderdike ("the children's dike") to reflect the discovery of a baby and a kitten on one of its dikes after the storm. The windmills are used to pump the water out of the area.





A true Dutch family!











Looky looky what Carlye found!










Clog feet!












A girl and her windmill










awww










windmill here...











windmill there...














windmills everewhere! ok, I get it....











I'm going home!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Un día en Den Hague...we're working on the language

The true events of the day as seen through the eyes of Madelyn: Our first adventure outside of our Rotterdam bubble took us to the royal city of Den Hague! We began our adventure by following our new navigation lady friend to the heart of the city. We walked through the shopping district to the Queen's Palace. We never expected to be invited in for tea and become hommies with the Queen, but we are just that amazing! Then we moved on to tour a "famous" old prison. The tour was in Dutch and because my Dutch skills are so amazing, I helped her through the whole tour. I'm a great cousin. After Carlye attempted to take a picture in a zone clearly marked by pictorial "no photography" signs, no language barrier there, just stupidity, we got yelled at and Carlye was put in the stalks! This adventure in the prison left us with a grumbly in our tumbly! We went to the Mexican food place she and Ryan had scoped out on an earlier trip to the area, and indulged in Holland’s finest Mexican cuisine. Once our bellies were full and we were recharged we headed out to find a miniature museum. But it was closed so in our defeat we found the beach. We enjoyed watching the sunset on our day of fun in The Hague:)

Carlye's side: I never realized my loving Aunt and Uncle could have raised such a fibber. We did not have tea with the Queen, but rather saw some "queens" while enjoying a Coke nearby. And as I recall the picture taking story somehow left out the Double Dog Dare issued by dear dear Madelyn. In case anyone is interested - No she did not come to my aid, but rather snickered in a corner. There was an interesting part of the afternoon where Madelyn decided to make friends with some stuffed figures in the open plaza. This may or may not have occured after margaritas, I'll let you decide. Enjoy our pics - we had fun!!





No, we are not tourist! We live here! Obviously!


My new friends! We could sit and talk or not talk for hours.



This was Carlye's attempt at taking a picture in a NO picture taking zone at The Gevangenpoort (Prison Gate Museum)









Apparently they are VERY serious about their "no picture" taking policy!






After out torture chamber experience we thought we deserved some relaxing time by the North Sea.






Dipping our toes in the refreshing Scheveningen beach waters

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Zoo Adventure

There is an arguement going on over here that we hope that you can assist us in settling. We can not decide who makes a better penguin. Please see the poll over to the right and help us settle this once and for all.











The Rotterdam Zoo is really nice. We started out in the Oceanarium.

Alex didn't waste any time getting to know the great white shark.

He then thought it would be a good idea to check and see if his breath was a s stinky as Jack's.


Nope... Jack still wins the stinky breath contest!






Ready to go explore the world above the ocean floor.







Still checking for breath to compare to Jack's, no winners so far. The fake animals were a little more cooperative than the real ones.






Global warming polar bear. Where's the snow!?!









Madelyn and I tried to get a picture together with the animals. One elephant was especially eager to get in a picture with us.








This giraffe was eager to get out of the picture, luckly we caught it before he was about to escape.




Alex the ladies man.