Museums Galore!!

So today we got up early to go to the Louvre. The last time I went to
Europe, I don't remember having to wait in any lines for museums but for this trip, everything has had a long wait. We got there "early" and there was already a 4 hour wait! It probably didn't help that being the first Sunday of the month, admission was free. Luckily, I had read online about a Southeast entrance that was less popular and after going there, we only had to wait about 45 minutes. And while we were waiting, I got to pet a sweet little pug that was running around the grounds. He was so sweet and made me miss my little Thug-a-lug!!! I have officially become one of the crazy pug people at approach us when we have Thugsley at the airport.
Anyways, once in the Louvre, we went and saw all the major works of art. The museum is super long so we could stay there all day but we had other sites to see!

 

 

 

 

Bones, the Eiffel Tower, and Wolverine

Unlike Amsterdam, a lot of things (not stores but restaurants and cafes) are open really late. Our apartment is in an awesome location right in the thick of Chatelet Le Halles but this combined with Paris' up all night attitude sure makes for some interesting noises and sounds as my slumber soundtrack. Luckily, I am so exhausted, that the sound of clubbers cracking up at 4am hardly bothers me.

This morning we all woke up and made our way to the Catacombs. We had to wait for about 2 hours but it was really cool. Basically, it is where 6 million Parisiens have their bones neatly lined up in storage deep, under ground in the limestone tunnels. They were once buried in the Cemetery of the Innocents back in the day but the decaying bodies became a health hazard so they moved them underground.

After that, we had a quick lunch of moules frites which were delicious! The portions were huge and quite tasty!

From there, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We hung out for a bit and took some pictures before making our way to the Arch d'Triomphe and the Champs Élysées.

An itchy goodbye from Amsterdam- Bonjour Paris!!

So last night, we all got the worst night's sleep!! It was super hot and having the windows open (after having rained) left us open and vulnerable to an attack of mosquitos!!! These are super stealth, Dutch mosquitos that leave the itchiest, biggest, red welts I have ever had. I'm pretty sure we each have about 30-40 bites each! We look like lepers. I even awoke to the sound of Will swatting some of them with an old issue of my US Weekly magazine. It was a losing battle. While I loved Amsterdam, we sure did get an itchy goodbye. With all of our bites and our lack of sleep, we were a little bit ragged this morning. Luckily, we got itch cream and got to catch up on sleep on the train to Paris.

Once we got to Paris, we checked in to our apartment which is in the perfect location, right in Chatelet Les Halles. Here's our AirBnB apartment: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/903250
It's cute and roomy and has normal size bathrooms. :)


Since traveling and checking in already took much of the day today, we just roamed around the Latin Quarter and St. Germain neighborhoods, took in some sights from a distance, and had a delicious dinner.

 

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Location:Rue des Lombards,Paris,France

Anne Frank, winding down, and wind mills

This morning we got up early to go to Anne Frank's house, or the Annex where she went into hiding and wrote her diary. We set off on our bikes but just my luck, I got a flat tire on the way. Luckily there was a bike store about 2 blocks from where I got a flat so I was able to take my bike there to get fixed but it definitely put a kink in our schedule. They weren't able to work on my bike right away so I had to rent one of their bikes so I wouldn't just be sitting around wasting time. Anyways, I did that and we went to the Anne Frank museum where we had to wait 2 hours to get inside. It was totally worth it though because it was really cool. The Annex was really neat and everything was left just as it was originally. Unfortunately, photos weren't allowed.

From there, we had a quick bite to eat before heading to the one windmill that is in Amsterdam proper. It was a fun little bike ride and we got to get some Dutch scenery in. After that, we returned bike rental #2 and got my first bike back all fixed up and then we hit up the floating flower market again for a few more souvenirs before we made our way back to our apartment. We decided to head back together packed up and ready to go and just have dinner near our apartment. Today was also extremely hot unlike the previous days so after being in the heat all day, we are all so exhausted!! We went to a local restaurant and had a nice last dinner before we left. Tomorrow, we set off for Paris!

Random Notes About Amsterdam:
1. Everyone bikes and I love it!! Everyone also has a dog which has been great and they ride in bike baskets which is fun!!
2. Belgium is known for their fries but they actually kind of suck. Too meaty. Nobody beats McDonalds fries!

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Biking around town

Amsterdam is a really small city. While they have trams and buses, the entire city is totally bikeable. Everyone rides bikes everywhere. I absolutely love it!!! It's such a fun and practical way to get around and although there are little bridges over the canals, the city is so flat. So, instead of using public transport, we decided to rent bikes for the next two days that we were here. While I was a little nervous about riding bikes amidst all the trams (above ground), cars, and tourists, it was actually really easy because there were usually bike lanes.

After we all got fitted for bikes (and fitted is used loosely here since the shortest girls had to basically jump off our bikes to get off), we went to the Bloemmenmarkt aka the floating flower market. They are barges on the canals that sell all types of flower bulbs and flowers as well as other fun souvenirs.

After that we went to a restaurant for lunch called Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs. It is the smallest restaurant in Europe because it only seats 12 people. They already had premade reservations waiting before us even though we got there right when they opened so we just explored neighborhoods nearby while we waited.

 

 

 

And we missed our train... But we are finally in Amsterdam!

We got up early this morning to pack and leave for Amsterdam. We actually left super early because we needed to stop at the King's Cross station to take pictures at the 9 3/4 platform from Harry Potter. I've never seen or read any Harry Potter stuff though so I'm not really sure why this picture means.

Then we made our way to the St. Pancras train station to catch our train to Brussels where we'd switch to a train to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, we forgot that we would need time to go through customs since the U.K. isn't part of the E.U. So... we missed our train by literally a minute. This totally stunk because I wanted to get to Amsterdam by 2pm. Luckily they were able to rebook us to the next train to Brussels and our schedule was only off by an hour.

Belgian Urinal at the Brussels train station

Unfortunately though, when we got to Brussels, they weren't able to get us on the another high speed train to Amsterdam so we had to take the slower, inter-city train that stopped at Rotterdam. This delayed us another 2 hours. Eck!! All in all though, the initial mistake cost us only 3 additional hours of travel. It could have been much worse.

After arriving in Amsterdam late, we met the host of our AirBnb rental. It's two apartments owned by the same owner. One is on the first and basement floor and the other is on the 4th floor. The steps leading to the place are incredibly narrow and steep!! It's a little scary climbing up and down. Anyways, I didn't take any pictures of the place when it was clean but here's the link. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/754220
Overall, it was a fine place to stay. Good location, clean and nice enough. The bathrooms were sorting though!!!! In general, people in Amsterdam definitely don't waste any space.
By the time we got settled into our place, we didn't have a lot of time to do much because places seemed to close pretty early. We walked to the Central part of town and just went exploring. There were so many fun independent shops and cafes!! I was just adorable. The only crappy part is that like London, it was really cold and raining! Yuck! I definitely did not pack warm enough clothes because I was not expecting it to be so cold.

After walking around aimlessly looking for a place to get dinner, we settled on a cute Dutch restaurant. Will had the pork chops and I had the moules frites, which was delicious!!!

Now we are back, ready to warm up, dry off, and get some rest.
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