Thank you golf...

Sending this shout out to Timothy Wheeler, if it wasnt for you and your card game, interactions between groups of people who hardly speak the same language would be much less entertaining then they were tonight! Thank you nine hole golf for bridging the gap!

Ooooooh Belgium...

Where do we start with Belgium? The mussels in Brussels or the rouge in Brugge...(note: neither of those things actually happened but) We did however, enjoy some crunchy, slimy, can't hardly look at while eating, mussels in Brugge while touring around this quaint city with Phillip (our exchange student from years past who now lives in Montage). Greit and Phil took us all around Brussels and shared many beers and laughs with us. Note the photos with Phil, Greit and Manneken draped with Belgium flag.

Everything, even chocolate, is made in the shape of the little peeing boy called Manneken Pis. He is famous in Brussels and we went to see him along with everyone else. My favorite time in Belgium was enjoying a Belgium dinner with Philip's family. We met his brothers and his mom and dad. There were 4 languages spoken at the table and much of the time we had no idea what was being said. Philip's dad speaks primarily French, the others speak Flemish, English, Spanish and whatever else. We just smile and nod. We did beer tasting and I am afraid I may have given everyone my cold, since we shared the same glasses all around the table. Good times in Belgium. We are off to Germany....

Giant chocolate Manneken Pis eating a waffle of course

Anne Frank Huis vandaag! (Anne Frank House today!)

Amsterdam today! Sorry friends and family, but this blog does not end in “and then we got totally high on that amazing Amsterdamian hash!” This may happen tomorrow in the Hague, or when we return after our month of travels. Honestly there just wasn’t enough time to see it all, AND get stoned! We rode the train from the Hague to Amsterdam (beautifully scenic) in about an hour and got off at central station. We walked to the Dam Plaza, past one of the first stock exchanges in the world, and found ourselves surrounded by beautiful “palace”-like brick buildings. We then ventured out of the busy square into the more “typical” dutch-amsterdamian canal scene. GORGEOUS. Little bridges, beautiful architecture, thousands and thousands of...yes, that’s right, bikes. After walking around and getting our bearings a bit, it was time for Anne Frank! We got to the house a little early, saw the daunting line, and decided a cappuccino and chocolate croissant could perhaps fix our problems. While drinking at a local coffee shop next door to Anne, we realized Rick (steve’s that is) was just as brilliant as we thought. After reading up on the museum in his book, we surpassed the line of a couple hundred tourists, rand a bell, and bam were in.

I didn’t really believe people when they said the Anne Frank Museum will change your life, but let me tell you....life changed. It’s pretty unbelievable. They have just done a beautiful, simple, yet dramatic depiction of the annex. I was pretty afraid of “going there” because I knew how hard of a place it would be, and how even harder it would be to get out. But the theme of this trip is to “be there”, so yes, I went there; cried, grieved, recovered, and left feeling completely fulfilled.

After that rather incredible experience, we decided a canal ride would calm us down a bit. We hoped off at a beautiful park and ate the classic cheese and bread picnic for lunch, then hoped back on again for an hour long canal tour of Amsterdam ending at the Dutch Resistance Museum. Though a bit confusing walking through, the information was fascinating and definitely worth while.

We got back on the tram to the train station, left for Elizabeth’s and within an hour and 15 we were shopping at a local market for dinner. Our night ended with my mom and I making our “go to” dinner for the house. Wine, chocolate, and great conversation finished off a great second day in Europe!

Melissa

We are off!!!

Day one down...Warning, the content of

this post will be dramatically more crap-ish then future posts based solely on the fact that I'm running on my 31st hour with only about a 3 hour nap in the middle.
Lets start with the plane ride. Almost didn't make it because we were unaware that international flights boarded 40 minutes early. And when I say board, I mean everyone was buckled in their seats, ready for take off half an hour early. Pretty crazy. What also was crazy was that we snuck into first class. First class on an overseas flight was something I've never experienced before. Here are a few words to sum up the experience...individual pod. seared ahi. endless wine. movies galore, oh...and seats that recline all the way, blankets, pillows, socks, ear plugs, headphones, hot towel, foot rest, 3 course meals, once again ENDLESS DRINKS. The luxury of it all almost got to be ridiculous by the end. But we were not about to complain... :)

After the flight we found our way to the train terminal and, whoosh! We were off to The Hague. The ride there I fell in love. Green, lush, tall grass everywhere ;) We then found our way to another tram and thanks to the gps, were able to walk our way right up to Elizabeth’s front door. We met our other roommates, Jane and Graham, who were also staying with Elizabeth, and then made our plan for the day. We decided to go to Delft, a gorgeous little city fifteen minutes from The Hague. Rick Steve's suggested an award winning sandwich spot, so of course me and mom were there. They were also known for their pancakes, so yes, one apple pannekoeken please! From there we visited and old and new church (literally), both very beautiful and both very old, with a lot of history. From the market square to the beautiful bridges and canals, I quickly got lost in the fairytale beauty of it all.

3 o'clock, me and the mother run into a large wall of tiredness. We take a boat tour of the city, falling in and out of sleep on the way and finally decide (after the porcelain Royal Delft factory tour; a neat but not really "us" excursion) we were done. And only an hour and a half later (after getting rather lost on silly public transit), we were back! Exhausted, fulfilled, and ready for a shower. Bedtime tonight? 7:30pm. Signing off!

Melissa