Posted in Vacations and Fieldtrips
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Recently my family and I had the opportunity to travel around Europe for a month. We had such a fabulous time! I wanted to share with you some of our experiences.
First of all, I'd like to note that we, as Americans, take a lot for granted in our country. Like free bathrooms, grocery carts and grocery bags, large hotel rooms and having our own cars. We assume that everyone should speak English and that everything should be written in English-yet most of us only speak one language. Europe was very enlightening not just for me, but for my girls also. Let's start at the beginning.
We left Houston on a Sunday evening around 7:00. We arrived in Amsterdam about 11:00 AM their time. My first impression was that it was hot and sticky just like south Alabama! They must have been having an unseasonably warm day because later it became quite cool. We stayed in a nice hotel with adjoining rooms-something else that's rare in Europe. After a long nap, we decided to go on a walk. I was shocked at all of the bikes! There were just as many, if not more, bikes than cars. They had their own bike lanes and traffic lights. How wonderful!
One of our first stops was the Anne Frank house. I was disappointed to find that the outside had been totally changed. The interior was the same as it had been when the family was there. The girls and I had read The Diary of Anne Frank before the trip. Seeing all of the actual rooms and pictures was very moving. Also imagining that she (and many other Jews) had walked the same streets we were walking and possibly left out of the same train station we would later leave out of was very eerie.
Our next stop was the Van Gogh museum. I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of his. After looking at all of his pieces, I found several that I truly liked. Seeing them in person makes them really come alive. He was a very talented artist and I now have much more respect for his work. Upon entering the museum, the girls were given a questionnaire to complete as they walked about. The questions asked details about different paintings. This made them really pay attention as we walked through. At the end, they showed their completed answers and received a post card of one of the paintings.
A couple of days we went by the grocery store and picked up fruit, cheese, bread and water and had a picnic at Vondel Park. This is a beautiful, big park right in the heart of the city. It was a perfect place to pull out the water colors and do nature journaling.
The Rijksmuseum was another of our favorites. It's a large museum, but not too big and overwhelming. This is where the Rembrandt's are housed. I've never seen a more beautiful painting than Night Watch. The way he used light in the painting was unbelievable! It is so big! We all, including the girls, just stood in awe! There were so many details in the painting. What a talented man.
Our visit to Amsterdam also included a canal boat ride, visiting several shops and of course eating at delicious resturants. On Friday of that week we took a taxi to the train station and anxiously awaited our first trip on the European Railway. Next stop-Munich, Germany. |
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