Road Trip to Amsterdam

3/14/14

Day 1: Our friends, Jayde and Nick, asked if we wanted to take a road trip.  I of course was all for it so I jumped on the computer and found a Groupon sale for the Park Inn Hotel in, what I thought was Amsterdam.  It was only $89 per night with breakfast so we booked our rooms, filled up with gas, and headed to the Netherlands.

I have to be honest, I never ever thought I would be able to travel to Amsterdam.  I guess I never envisioned a time when all these places would be accessible to me, so while I imagined how cool the canals would be and how I might end up trying one of their famous "brownies", I did not think it would ever happen.

It only took us 6 hours to drive from Germany to the Netherlands and it was a very pretty drive.  Since it was March, it was still a little cooler but Spring was already happening so the colors and landscape were looking lush.  Our hotel was actually about 10 minutes away, with shuttle to Schiphol Airport and train station.  From there, it was a 20 minute ride to downtown Amsterdam.  That really wasn't bad and it gave us a chance to us public transportation.  In the States, we never had to use public transportation so we weren't great at it but it wasn't difficult.

Our hotel

Our room

Great decor!  I loved the colors.

The the trains!

Public transportation.  Woo hoo!

Amsterdam train station

Our first day, we took the train to Amsterdam and just ate dinner at a traditional Dutch restaurant.  It was much more expensive than we anticipated but for the most part it was alright.  The novelty was better than the food.  My pork medallions were so under cooked, I couldn't really eat them but they were so bland, a little more cooking wouldn't have helped.  The beer was good though and at least our stomachs were full.  After dinner, we walked around and then went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Day 2:  After a very good breakfast full of delicious sausages and plenty of fresh fruit, we headed to downtown Amsterdam.  When we walked from the train station across our fist canal, we saw that they had water bus tours.  We thought that would be a good way to see the city and it's canals.

Our water bus tour

View inside our water bus

The buildings in Amsterdam were pretty amazing

I could spend some time in one of these places!

Just love those windows!

I think we saw most of the canals

One of the things that struck us most here was how many people rode bikes.  It's like everyone rode.  They had parking garages for bikes!  Thousands of bikes a day are parked at these places.

Just one of many parking areas for bikes

After our boat tour, we went shopping for cheese.  It's one of the yummiest things they have in Amsterdam and they take their cheese very seriously.  Almost as seriously as their flowers!

Just look at those tulips!

Cheese, cheese, everywhere!

Such a selection...

Cheese AND wooden shoes! ;)

After our cheese frenzy, we went to the Anne Frank house.  The line was pretty long but it moved quickly.  I think the Anne Frank house was our favorite part.  It's hard to imagine a young girl having that much intellect and depth...I can't imagine what an amazing woman she would have become.

Just a small idea of the lines

The Anne Frank House

After the house, we did a lot more walking, drinking, and eating.

Around Amsterdam

Bikes all over

Day 3: On our last day, we had breakfast and headed home.  We never did eat the brownies.  It was everywhere and actually, after first thinking that Jayde and I might eat some, the smell alone gave us head aches and we just weren't up for it.  Over kill I think. We had a great time and really loved all the sights but I think I won't be going back to the Netherlands until Tulip time! :)  It was terribly expensive and the food was pretty average.

Jack, me, Nick, & Jayde

Valentines Weekend in Prague

3/14/14

Day 1: Jack and I took the train to Prague for our first trip together in Europe.  We had only been in Germany for about a month.  We finally got our house and immediately took our first chance to travel.  Since we hadn't gotten our International Driver's Licenses, we couldn't drive.  Even if we had them, we weren't used to driving in Europe and I think were a little afraid of the idea of it.  We have definitely gotten past that!

It was our first Valentines together without our kids so we wanted to take our minds off not having them with us any more and to make this a special weekend.  All our friends who have done a lot of traveling kept talking about Prague, and how spectacular it was so off we went!

Vilseck train station

Some random train stop but I loved the architecture.

Captain Jack reading a book

Jack & me sending our kids a pic of their parents and wishing them a happy Valentines Day

Our hotel

Our room

The neat patio on the roof of the NH Prague

A clock projection on a really old wall

Our Valentines dinner

Very nice little place with GREAT food

Random pub with good beer

We liked all the people parts coming out of the walls

Beer and Jack

Next pub

More beer & Jack.

Actually I think we spent our whole first night tasting the Czech beer and eating bits of food at each pub we went to.  Czech has the very best food we have eaten anywhere up to this point.  Their stuffed potato pancakes were unbelievable.  They were savory and stuffed with beef and veggies with delicious gravy.

Day 2: The next day, after the most amazing breakfast we have ever had, we went out to explore the city.  We took the metro for 10 minutes into Old Town.  When we crossed the Charles Bridge, it made us speechless.  Still, up to this point, this was Jacks most favorite thing to do and it is etched in our memories forever.  To walk, hand in hand, with my high school sweetheart across the Charles Bridge in Prague...there are no words.  After so many years of working and building our lives together, we are just learning to quiet down and really enjoy these moments.  The privilege we feel with living in Germany and being able to travel to new places is immense.

Heading toward Charles Bridge

Prague

My handsome Jack

The anatomical clock

Irish pub!

Don't pretend you aren't going to order beer!

More food.  More beer.

This was a terribly confused bar

Most confusing bar EVER...we left after one beer. Irish pub with mostly Che Guevara stuff and some Brazilian sports memorabilia....What the what?!?

This was O'Che's...labeled as an Irish pub but furnished with Argentinian stuff and apparently lot's of love for the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara..

Great little Spanish Restaurant

They had the best hot chocolate I've ever had!

So most of what we were looking at, we had no idea what it was.  I hadn't done as much research up to this point so I was just enjoying the architecture, food, and beer.  We pretty much ate and drank our way through the city.  It was pretty magical.

Day 3: We picked up a few treasures from Prague in our hotel lobby and then went back to the train station to make our way home.  On our way to the station we stopped at one more place to have lunch.  Oh how we loved the food in Prague...

Our lunch place

Our treasures from Prague.

We ended up catching the right train but once in Germany, took the wrong section.  Apparently, the trains here can unhook and continue on it different directions in mid travel...we ended up back in Amberg and took a taxi home just so we didn't have to wait for another train.  We still loved this experience and plan on going back to Prague many times...only from now on we will drive!