Fall Break: Amsterdam

Amsterdam wasn't really on my list, but I'm so glad the cheap flights came up and we went!  It was soooo fun.  The first day we basically stayed in enjoying the views from the house and watched movies.  We really needed a chill day.

Here is what I loved about it:

1.  Gorgeous Home Away VRBO type accommodations.  LOVED this place so much.  Such incredible views.  Right on the canals.  Modern, comfortable, inexpensive relatively.  Perfect!  We were there at the same time as a huge concert and hotels were so expensive.  We really lucked out when we found this place.  I would plan my whole trip around staying there.  Home Away was a little different than Airbnb.  People live there are on on vacation and you stay in their home while they travel somewhere else.  So their food, closets, etc are full.  I really didn't know how I would like that. But it was actually really great.  These hosts were so kind and even left some fresh flowers and basket of goodies for us.  It was fun for Soren to have toys.  The views of the canal were just incredible.
2.  Farmers Markets--I love European standards of food.  We had some really great Poffertjes, which are similar to little pancakes but somehow better.  Crepes, amazing cheese, and Indian food.  Amsterdam is known for its Indonesian cuisine apparently.  Stroop waffles!  Potato chips on a stick.
3.  Loved all the bikes!  It was drizzling off and on most days and we should have dressed warmer.  So we didn't really want to bike.  But it looks so fun.
4.  I learned what pot smoke smells like.  Ick.  Its legal here.  At night in certain areas you really can't get away from the smell.  My kids were amused that we let them look inside a Cannabis store.  Why not?  Get the curiosity taken care of supervised by us.
5.  Anne Frank House.  This was really incredible.  Its probably been 25 years since I read the book.  And it was pretty moving to be there in the exact location and to see how they managed.  What a very sad time in history.  Its always incredible to me that the Holocaust happened.
6.  We found some fun rides in Dam Square.  Really one of them was the best ride I've ever been on in my whole life!  So much fun!
7.  We found the cutest boy at the farmers market.  I am tempted to track down his info and send it to Skye's modeling agency.  He belongs in a boy band somewhere.  He really was the cutest boy we've ever seen.  Funny story.  Jared and Grandma are talking to this boy who is working with a traditional Dutch street organ that is at the farmers market.  The organ is on a cart and moves the length of the market and people give donations for the pleasure of hearing the music play (lol).  It is kind of a charming operation.  So Grandma starts talking to him and taking pictures of him.  Elise is off buying some records.  Jared starts talking to him.  Then after a couple minutes he says he has to go to keep up with the cart.  Then Elise shows up.  Suddenly he stays and talks some more.  Jared reminds him that he'd better catch up with his cart.  And he says it doesn't matter, they are going to be there all day.  Lol.  Love teenagers.
8.  The canals and cute tall houses!  I loved the whole look and feel of Amsterdam.  It was just a fun city.  Small and easy to navigate.  Plenty to do and also just nice to not have SO many things that you feel like you have to see.
9.  We used Easy Jet to get here from London.  It was like $25/ticket!  Insanely cheap and actually very good.  Included our carryons and our baggage was not charged extra.

I would have liked to visit the museums.  But I got vetoed.  So someday I'll go back and take Monet and we will ride bikes and go to the museums.

One of the pics Grandma took of the cute boy.  Lol! 

All the cute dogs in Amsterdam!  Definitely missing Annie with this one.

Fall Break: London!

Our London itinerary:

Day 1: arrived by train from Southend Airport and went straight to our Airbnb in Russell Square to drop our luggage.  Napped--SOOO tired.  Ate food.  Explored Picadilly and Oxford circus at night.
Day 2:  Tower of London, London Bridge, Thames River Boatride , Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Wicked
Day 3:  Shopping at Covent Gardens and National Gallery for the girls, Magic stores and toy stores for dads and kids.  London Eye.  Matilda

Day 4 we flew from Luton to Amsterdam!

This was a very short visit to London.  I would have loved a few more days.

London Tips:

•  We use T-mobile that works well internationally and has data.  Lots of places have WiFi, but we liked being able to do the maps when we were lost, which happened a lot.  
• We got some rail tickets that allowed us to save 1/2 price at the Tower of London.  It can't be metro, but rail.  So this would be a good thing to do the same day as arriving from the airport by train. 
•  We used some cards too to swipe in and out of the subways.  I would highly recommend those!  At our station in Russell Square they had a man who worked there full time and helped us to figure out what the different options were. Bring lanyards for the kids and a sharpie to write their names on them.  My kids were constantly losing theirs.  And it's really hard to remember which cards were swiped in when you go to swipe out, etc. so we wasted some money with not having them marked.  They charge you if you swipe out but not in, etc.  We also used those cards on the ferry to the London Eye from the Tower of London.  It was a little confusing to figure out which cards to get.  I read this info beforehand and am still confused.  So it was helpful to have the guy in the station to guide us.
• At the Tower of London see the armory and the Crown Jewels first.  Then head to the Tower that has all the famous stone carvings from past prisoners.  We spent too much time looking for the cool stuff and my kids got tired.  We should have just hit those few things and moved along.  But don't skip the Tower of London it's so cool!  
• The museums are free and I wished we went to the British Museum.  It has the Rosetta Stone and some really cool Egyptian artifacts.  We heard the science museum is incredible but we didn't have time.  
• With a few more days we would have loved a daytrip to the Cotswolds and Bath.  
• At a lot of the sights you just really walk past.  Like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.  They are quick.  
• Jared and I loved the Churchill war rooms and the museum.  But we didn't bring the kids when we went back because of limited time and we didn't think it would be an easy day for Soren.  
• We bought our Wicked theater tickets at the box office and the Matilda tickets from the half price ticket booth in Piccadilly I think it was.  We paid about $30/ticket.  

We had a great time in London.  Our flights for this trip were so cheap, but SO long.  They were about $150 cheaper than our spring break flights (Only $450!) .  I wish we'd just paid a little more for direct.  When all was said and done travel time including airports was like 20 hours.  So it was just long.  And our arrival time made it a little tricky too.  We were sooooo tired.

But it was still fun.  We were excited that our friends, the Rusts, were able to join us!  They make everything more fun!  Elise had a blast with Skye.  Miles and Kalob were doing magic the whole time.  Gordon is always so cute with Soren and the little kids.  And I love having Deb along!

I was so happy to have Grandma Nancy come too!  Only sad thing was that the first day of the trip we were taking a photo and she tripped on a slick paver and hit a curb hard.  We could HEAR something.  We thought it was her knee and it didn't sound good.  But she said it was her shoulder and that she thought it was her rotator cuff.

She hopped up and smiled for the photo.  She took 1 ibuprofen and it seemed to help a little, even though she knew something was really wrong.  Yikes.  So amazed at how positive she was even with that pain.