Day 17: Amsterdam

We awoke and enjoyed a nice European breakfast. Our first destination was the Anne Frank house. "The Diary of Anne Frank" is possibly Amelia's favorite book so this was a very fascinating stop. It was quite poignant and sad to see this home and hiding place.

From there we had a quick lunch then stopped by the ancient Mennonite Church here in Amsterdam that was built in the 1600s.

Our final stop was at the Van Gogh museum, which was a wonderful museum that thoughtfully told the story of Van Gogh's life, his art and influences. I thought it was outstanding.

Even though we didn't put in a huge day, we were all exhausted by 3:30. We will finish the day with dinner and no more adventures. While there is much more that one can do in Amsterdam, I think we are officially done. Tomorrow we travel home!

Beautiful house boat across from the Anne Frank house

Doggie bike ride

Love those Amsterdam bikes!

Day 16: On to Amsterdam

This morning we caught a train to Amsterdam. This time it was a slower train with some annoying passengers, but it was interesting to watch the countryside.

An amazing thing about Amsterdam is the volume of bicycles!! They are everywhere and have dedicated roads and traffic signals. It is estimated that there are 600,000 bicycles in this city of less than 800,000. Unfortunately we almost got barreled over a few times because we haven't really figured out the elaborate road system yet.

Wading in a public pool that is a skating rink in winter

We have been going pretty hard so we decided to take it easy today and we took a canal tour in a boat. I really liked it personally. Amelia and the Phils fell asleep. This confirmed that it was a relaxing choice.

We walked the city a bit and had a nice dinner with some Dutch specialities. Tomorrow will be our last vacation day before heading home!

Day 15: On to Brussels

This morning we got up early to take the TGV to Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. Yesterday was the last day of school for all of the French children so today is what they call "La Grande Sortie" which means "the great departure." Basically on this day all of France is heading out on vacation, so it's not really a great day to head to the train station. Fortunately for us, however, we were taking the train north and therefore using the northern train station, so it wasn't too bad as most people were going to points south and east.

We had a quick train ride, stored our bags and began walking into town to visit La Grande Place, an ancient and very ornate town square of Brussels. The kids were very excited to discover that waffles are a big Belgian speciality, and before long they were devouring some heavily-topped waffles. We saw two bridal parties at the ancient town hall and got some lunch in the square. They were cleaning up some giant party mess in the square and we assumed that there had been a huge watch party the night before when Belgium had played Brazil in the World Cup.

From to there we began walking toward the apartment where Gwen and Phil lived for a year in 1969-1970. On the way we saw the royal palace (Belgium still has a royal family) and some other cool landmarks. Before too long, we arrived at 85 Rue de Throne. The building was relatively unchanged since Gwen and Phil lived here and it was very fascinating to think of them, so young and living abroad at this modest boarding house. We were glad to hop on to the Metro to check in to our hotel as it was getting hot out and we had already walked quite a bit.

I had noticed a flyer for something called "The Smurf Experience." We came to Europe when I was nine and a singular pleasure that I had was enjoying all the Smurf merchandise that was available at that time, when the Smurfs were very popular in the US as well. Well, the Smurfs are alive and well here in Belgium and it turns out that the Smurfs were also originally created in Belgium. Obviously, in order to have a unique Belgian experience I was going to need to visit the Smurf experience!

The Phils (Grandpa and Phillip) took a hard pass on the Smurf experience but the rest of us were game. It was a bizarre and deeply satisfying adventure that culminated in a virtual reality where you felt like you were riding a Swan into the Smurf village.  Weird and...wow!!

We finished our day with a lovely classic Belgian meal of moule frites (fries with mussels). It was delicious.

Day 14: Last Day in Paris

Our last day in Paris gave the kids some insight into rush hour on the Metro. Let's just das that things were... a little crowded.

We headed straight to the Louvre and had a very low amount of crowding, which we were awesome. We saw some of the famous stuff and selected a few other favorites. With 300,000 works of art, you definitely need to pick and choose!

Napoleon's Dining Room. Since the Louvre is also a former castle there are historic rooms to visit.

From there we headed to a smaller museum called L'Orangerie. In this museum are the huge Monet waterlily paintings that surround and fill two rooms. We were looking forward to this as earlier in the week we had seen the actual ponds that inspired Monet at Giverny.

We finished our last day in Paris by wandering the streets and enjoying some of the fun street kiosks. The kids bought some special souvenirs. Phillip, ever the good sport, bought a Tete de Veau poster that featured a large calf head on a platter. Apparently he isn't too traumatized by the Tete de Veau evening!

For dinner we had a great evening meal with Neal, Janie and all their kids and grandkids.  Then it was time to pack up and head north in the morning.

Day 13: Versailles

Jonathan and I enjoyed an evening away with a great view of Notre Dame.

We met the kids and it was time to visit Versailles, the opulent home of three French kings. The palace is astonishing and "over the top" barely scratches the surface in terms of description. The kids were fascinated but we had concerns with Amelia's foot and Phillip's recent stomach flu. They did well despite the long lines and endless walking. Grandpa wisely took a rest day.  The weather was cooler so that was also a big help.

Great cooperation with the signs...

On the way back we briefly visited the Eiffel Tower. We did not go up because the lines were very long but it was fun to look up at. Our trip home had some various screw-ups and escapades and a failed attempt at finding bubble tea. By the time we got home we were all exhausted and Amelia had heat rash from her awful boot. Paris has been lovely, but home is starting to sound good too!


                                       

Day 11: Monsieur Tete de Veau

We headed straight into the city and to Musee d'Orsay, a famous converted rail station and home to many Impressionist paintings among other things. Certainly the crowds were out, perhaps more than usual as we later learned that several of the other museums were closed on Tuesdays, likely funneling a lot of traffic to Orsay. But we enjoyed our time there and then headed to a favorite tea room of Phil's called Angelina. We had some lovely food such as tart d'onion and finished it off with some masterful pasteries.  Sadly, Amelia and Jonathan who were trying to take a shorter walk to the restaurant to spare her the walking ended up mixing signals and taking a extra long route.

A group of us headed from there to  Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. Then we all had a rest before heading to another of Phil's favorite restaurants "Bistro de la Port d'Oree." Here we received a magnificent French meal with multiple courses and elaborate dishes. The menu featured many curiosities such as Tete de Veau which literally means veal head and I think is known in the U.S. as head cheese. Phillip, being ever the adventurous eater, ordered and gobbled down the Tete de Veau, much to the shock of the wait staff and the rest of us. The head waiter was very impressed with this adventuresome American teen and labeled him "Monsieur Tete de Veau." A long walk back to Neal and Janie's helped a little with digesting the feast.

Day 10: Giverny

We slept well and were happy to awake in Paris. Today's plan was to head to Giverny while we still had the rental car. The famous home and gardens of Claude Monet are located in Giverny which is outside of Paris about an hour. No one was too excited to get back into the cramped car and fight Paris traffic again....

Our arrival in Paris brought two unwelcome factors that many visitors to Paris know well: crowds and heat. Giverny was no exception. The home and gardens were beautiful but it was a bit difficult to soak in the experience when faced with a sea of hot humanity. Nevertheless, it was beautiful and the water garden and lilies were a particular highlight.

 Later that evening we headed into the city. We headed to downtown and visited Notre Dame. Once again, there were significant crowds. Of all unbelievable coincidences, Jonathan ran into some friends from the Cleveland legal community. How two random acquaintances from Cleveland could run into each other at Notre Dame de Paris was incomprehensible to us all! They also were vacationing.

We then went to a Creperie and enjoyed crepes before a beautiful stroll in Paris and the trip back to Neal and Janie's.

One unfortunate note... Poor Amelia has been handling this trip with a stress fracture to her navicular. Just yesterday it really began to bother her. She has been getting around with an orthopedic boot which is hot and uncomfortable and even that is not helping her discomfort too much. We are hoping that things won't be too awful for her as we walk all over Paris.

Day 9: On To Paris

We slept well and attended the Mennonite Church in Montbeliard with the Pignard family. The church is interesting because it is a large French Mennonite Church and also because many of our ancestors are from this very region. They announced our name at church and afterwards people with the last name Rich and also the last name Witmer came and greeted us.

We shared another lovely meal with the family. Mrs. Pignard (Beatrice) had invited her parents to the lunch and her father brought various genealogical documents and photos. Her parents' last name is Lugbill which is the same last name as grandpa Phil's mother. We discovered that Phil and Pierre, Beatrice's father, are fourth cousins and he had a photo, taken in Canton, Ohio, of Christian Lugbill, who is Phil's great-grandfather. Christian Lugbill immigrated from Montbeliard to Ohio
in 1872. Apparently the photo from Canton had been sent back to France at some point.

We greatly appreciated the hospitality of the Pignard family and had a lovely stay. After lunch it was time to head in the car and leave for Paris. After a hot, long drive with lots of traffic delays, we were delighted to arrive in Paris and greet our friends Neal and Janie.

Day 8: The Jura

We slept well and enjoyed another lovely meal with the Zurchers, then headed into the Jura where we met Elsbet's brother, Hansuli Gerber.

The Jura is an old range of mountains that are weathered down similar to the Allegheny mountains. Many early Anabaptist lived there and Hansuli had agreed to show us the Anabaptist bridge. Early Anabaptists had worshipped there in secret underneath the bridge to avoid being captured by the authorities.



Afterwards he took us to a working farm where they also serve lunch. We ate Roshti, which are fried potatoes that are very common in the region. They must have been about a million calories but they were really good.



We then drove to Montbeliard where we met up with the family of our French exchange student, Mathilde. We were very warmly greeted by the Pignard family. They treated us to a special Alsacian treat of tart flambe. It was amazing!



A fun highlight was the fact that while we were visiting France was playing the World Cup. Every time France scored a goal you could hear cheering from all of the houses in the area! France won the game to advance.

Day 7: Switzerland

From Maria:
Today we awoke to our beautiful setting in the Alps. I tried to capture a photo but my phone just couldn't do it justice. But here's a taste:

We enjoyed a European breakfast and headed further up the mountain in the cable car. The girls decided to try a zip line (!!) and some low tricycle bikes that you can ride down the mountain. Phillip had gotten somewhat queasy from the cable car and I'm a two-feet-on-the-ground kind of gal, so we went for the hiking option and it did not disappoint. We were treated to some wonderful views and wildflowers. A special highlight were some very happy cows, complete with cowbells. One laid there and periodically rubbed her head in wildflowers.

Down the mountain did have some stressful aspects as 1) it was ridiculously steep and 2) the tricycle vehicles would come careening down the path. Soon enough, some of those careeners were Jonathan, Amelia and Charlotte. Grandpa Phil, meanwhile, shouted  greetings from the gondola above. Charlotte did not enjoy her tricycle ride and had a small collision but everyone else liked it.

After lunch we said goodbye to our beautiful mountain spot and headed to Bern.               

Bern means bear in German and there is a family of bears that lives in the downtown. We enjoyed watching the bears and marveling at the gorgeous turquoise river.

Then a scenic drive to the home of some Swiss friends of Phil: Elsbet and Eric Zurcher. They were incredibly kind and treated us to a European meal. Since my kids usually wolf down their meals in about six minutes, I had given them fair warning and they did a great job with our 4.5 hour meal.

It was another great day in Europe.

Day 6: Up the Mountain

We started the day with a drive to Zurich, where we toured Anabaptist historical sites.  We visited the Grossmunster church on the Limmat River, where early Anabaptists started Bible studies.  We visited the street where Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock in 1525.  We also visited the site of the house where Grebel grew up, pictured below.

In the top right corner of the picture is an inscription about Grebel.

We then ate lunch by the Limmat and admired the swans.

We drove from Zurich to Interlochen and then up to Grindelwald, high in the Swiss Alps.  Our GPS was excellent notwithstanding a few twists and turns.

!!!!

We stopped on the way up for coffee and a nice view.

At Grindelwald we hopped on cable cars for the ride up to our guesthouse, where we had a relaxed evening watching the clouds pass by the mountain peaks, looking at wild flowers, and listening to the many many cowbells.  The guesthouse is primarily accessed by cable car so once those stopped around 5pm it got very quiet and calm up on the mountainside. The views below are from outside our guesthouse.