Amsterdam with Americans

After England, Tabatha, Karla, and Boyd caught a flight to Amsterdam where I picked them up after work and we got to experience Holland. We all went out and about in Haarlem and grabbed a bite to eat at Wilma & Albert’s because they wanted an amazing meal and I had to delivery. Nobody was disappointed. We also got to experience the wine bar at the market as well as the local pubs around here. On Friday, while I worked, Tabatha, Karla and Boyd went to Amsterdam. They did the Heineken experience which is just a blast as well as looking around. We met back up in Haarlem and prepared to experience the nightlife the city has to offer. We ended up at a club around 1am and danced the morning away. Karla looked so much more natural in her original dance atmosphere rather than college night at Goobers. I am glad I got to finally experience that side of the city. I couldn’t live here for 6 months and not go out. We caught the 6am train home and slept a large portion of Saturday away but still managed to go out in the afternoon and enjoy another great meal at Wilma & Albert’s.

On Sunday we drove to Friesland to see where Karla came from. The drive North was very neat and interesting to see how the population gets thinner the farther North we went. We also travelled over the bridge that connects North Holland to Friesland. We met up with some of Karla’s friends from her days before America and went go-kart racing. Mark has always told us about these Dutch go-karts so we had to finally experience them. Karla’s cousin Johann also met up with us. We all met him from back in the day when we drug him to the rodeo in Lovington so it was good to see him again. Him and Karla had a show-down over who was the best driver. I clearly wasn’t, and it also explained a lot about how Karla drives to this day. We left Karla there so she could spend a week with her friends and Tabatha and Boyd had to prepare to fly home the next day. I was so happy to spend time with all of them and to see Karla in her original habitat. We also decided that we will have to make big trips every so often, but hopefully there will be no luggage issues, ash clouds, or airline strikes.

Club Paradisio in Amsterdam

Me and Karla at 6 am on the bus ride home

Karla and I out to dinner

Me and Karla at the club

I have no idea where pictures of Tabatha and Boyd are.....

Madurodam

Welcome to Madurodam! It is a neat little village that shows the highlights of all Holland in 1/25th of the original size. It is so cute! It is like a miniature country with mini people and mini cars. This is the dream land for any model builder. They have ships, planes, houses, towers, flowers, cheese, horses, trams, busses, and the high speed Thalys train. They have it all!

When you walk up the first thing is they give you an idea of where you’re located in comparison to the rest of the world. I love these signs; I always think they are fun. I also learned mom and dad are approximately 9,000+ km away. I waved, I doubt they saw.

The next famous Dutch boy…Hans Brinker the boy who stuck first his finger, then his whole arm in the dike so that it wouldn’t break and flood Haarlem. Yup, Haarlem. If it wasn’t for little ol’ Hans, Haarlem wouldn’t be a town.

Madurodam was opened in 1952 as a war monument and a charity foundation. One of the initiators was Mrs. Maduro. Mr. and Mrs. Maduro wanted to erect a monument in memory of their only son, George, who died of typhus while in the Dachau concentration camp. The Maduro’s met Mrs. Boon-van der Starp who wanted to raise money to help support a sanatorium who helped students with tuberculosis recover. The costs of running such an institution are high and she had heard about a miniature English city who’s revenues were so high the owners were able to make large donations to surround hospitals. An architect was approached about helping to build the miniature city and drew up some plans for a scale of a happy Dutch city to be 1:25 of the original size. Everyone that was approached about this project was very enthusiastic about it, including the mayor of The Hague who donated the piece of land in the ‘Scheveningse Bosjes’ in the form of a long lease. Students from the Delft Technical University helped to clear the land and so began Madurodam. The visitor center was built in 1996 and the Schipol airport received a complete renovation in 2003 to include space for the planes to taxi via magnetic fields. It is pretty cool!!!

The detail they have in all of the buildings/models is amazing. This church looks just like the real thing, just 1/25th the size! It had mini stained glass windows and everything. I'll have to track down the real one....

Below, the little people are trading cheese the traditional way in the Gouda market. I have no idea how cheese is traded today, but I'm sure they have a much more "sophisticated" way than this. I would love to see this done though! The mini people just work so hard!

Kelly and I had to take a picture next to the Frans Hals Museum. The real museum is located in Haarlem. We have not yet been, but maybe with our next visitors. The museum contains works of art from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century along with works from Frans Hals himself. It looks to be very interesting!

Its not the Netherlands if Anne Frank's house is not part of it. They have mini representation of it at Madurodam. Such an important piece of history cannot be left out!

The famous Dam Square. I don't know how many times I have walked around, and around, and around this square. The Royal Palace is also there along with the church we have not yet been inside. One of these trips.....

Since Kelly and I are being offered this amazing experience through work, we figured we better take a picture with the creation of our livelyhood. The offshore rig in the North Sea. It was a pretty big model and to imagine it as 25 times as big is very difficult! I would love to visit one, someday!

So, its official. Tulip season at the Keukenhof opens next week on March 18th. I cannot wait to go see the gardens. This year's theme is "From Russia with Love." The pictures on the website make it look pretty spectacular! The official opening will be on March 17th by Mrs Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of the President of the Russian Federation, in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands. I would love to see Princess Maxima!! She is my idol! Sadly, though, duty calls and we must work that day. Definitely plan on hearing a review about the place next week though! I'm so excited for tulip season! Here is a picture of the mini version:

If its this pretty out of plastic and glass I can't wait for the real thing. Luckily the tulip fields are not too far away so it will give a whole new meaning for taking a cruise through the country side. Yay tulips!!!

Tomorrow I will finish telling about our Sunday tour of The Hague. After starting it off with Madurodam, it had to be a good day! I was just so happy Kelly and the girls like Madurodam so much. I am 2-0 for good travel reccomendations.

A Historical Sunday Funday

After a late evening rocking out to Q.E.D. none of us really wanted to get up Sunday morning. We wanted to get on the road about 9:30 but I don’t think we left until about 10:30. Such is life. It’s nice to have a bit of flexibility. We figured since it was still early, we better t go to the Anne Frank house before the line gets long. We figured a cold, rainy Sunday in February there wouldn’t be a line. We were wrong. The line went out the building and around the corner, half way down the block. Well, we were going to see this piece of history no matter so we go to the back of the line. It moves at a slow but steady pace but it does get longer faster than people are let in. We’re glad we decided to bear the line. It did take about an hour or so but we didn’t completely freeze. The “fun” part of standing in lines: people watching. I found a car that if I follow it, will take me to Texas. I don’t know a lot about mechanics and what not but I’m pretty sure this car can’t swim.

You aren’t allowed to take pictures in the Anne Frank house so I have no evidence that I was there (besides the ticket stub I threw away) but it was such a great experience. This was the 2nd time I’ve been to the house but it was still emotional and humbling. I’m really glad Kelly and Stu got the opportunity to see it and experience a small part of history.

When the Germans found the hiding place, they cleaned everything out. When Anne’s Dad, Otto, came back after surviving Auschwitz he said that all the rooms should remain empty as a memorial to his family who all died in the concentration camps. There is a glass building built up and around the house so you can’t see it from the outside which is disappointing, but at least it has been preserved. The tour takes you through all of the rooms and artifacts left behind such as the actual diary and other hand written letters. It’s amazing the insight that she had at such a young age and going through such difficult things in life. Compared to what those people had to go through, our society has become a bunch of “sissies.”

Well, being the sissies that we are, we were hungry after the Anne Frank house. We were walking back to Dam Square to catch the tram over to the Heineken Brewery when we came upon a Dutch pancake house. Well, we are on a mission to make sure Stu gets to experience all things Dutch, so we decided this was a great lunch place. I love the simple Dutch pancakes with cheese and ham but I thought I’d get a bit crazy and order the Mexican Pancake. It wasn’t bad, I don’t think I’d order it again, but it had a nice kick and lots of veggies.



We finally made it to Dam Square where I’m walking with a map in my hand looking at it when we see a giant crowd of people standing around. Well, I decide to walk around the crowd towards the tram stop that we need and I get yelled at by some clown looking man. “YUP! YOU FOUND ME. I’M RIGHT HERE. THE SEARCH IS OVER!” I was, to say the least, a bit embarrassed and confused. I just got yelled at by a clownish man in front of a crowd of people for wondering around slightly lost.

Anyways, we get on the right tram and head off to the Heineken factory. This was our first time using the trams because usually we just walk (and get a workout in). The weather was cold though and the factory was pretty far away from everything so we figured we better suck it up and figure this out. It wasn’t too bad. You can get a day pass for unlimited rides for €7 or for €7.60 you can get a strip that has 15 “slots” on it. Each ride, though, uses 2 “slots” per person. We had 30, that’s good enough for what we needed to do. We even have some left over for the next person. They don’t expire in the calendar year. Each tram you get on, the driver stamps them and away you go. We arrive at the brewery with little issue to start taking some pictures of the outside. You can see my excitement.


They have recently re-done their “museum” so that now it is the Heineken Experience. And boy was it! When you walk in the first thing is a digital bar and bartender giving you the rundown of the history of the company and its founders. It is still to this day run by a Heineken family member, and a woman! We had to take advantage of the photo op that was available:


The next room had all of the huge copper vats where they used to heat up the hops and malt and all sorts of other stuff. They had a great idea and you could look into the vats and on some of them they had little projections on the dark insides showing what would have been going on. I thought it was such a neat idea! There was also a station where you could help out the brew master by grinding the barley and helping stir them. I couldn’t go without putting in a bit of hard labor:

Now, we thought it smelled like horses in there but we figured it must have been the barley oats that give it the horse-ish smell. Nope, there were really horses in the next room. It is where their stable was for the real Heineken horses. Apparently, they will still pull the wagons around town and deliver kegs. Another great marketing/promotional scheme. The horses were so pretty! You could only see them through the glass partition so I couldn’t get a good picture but thankfully Stu was along who happens to be in the 6’3” range and could hold the camera above the glass to get a picture. During my photo op Charly decided to scratch and Freddy thought it looked like a good idea so he wanted to copy. They are such pretty animals!


After the horses we got bottled. Yup, we as humans got bottled. Well, via the 4D experience. It was a lot of fun that people of all ages could enjoy. You walk into a little room where you stand on a little platform that moves and shakes as you go along the bottling process. The moving platform is complimented with spray, heat, and wind. I now know how beer feels while being bottled.

After being bottled we got to go have a little taster. They had neat star shaped bars where we all stood around and answered questions and got some more beer drinking tips and lessons. Since I paid attention another exibit I learned that the foam head on beer serves to keep the beer carbonated and fresh by keeping the carbon dioxide in and the oxygen out of the beer. It is also the lightest part of the beer, primarily made from hops which is why it tastes bitter. American and England aren’t big on serving beer with the head but I learned it is better; you just have to take bigger drinks to get below the foam head. I figured that wouldn’t be too difficult. So because of all of my great new knowledge, and not being afraid to speak in public I answered the questions right and got an extra sampler of beer. I knew paying attention would pay off someday!

The next stop is where we got to bottle our own beer. Well, I’m sure it wasn’t the exact beer, but we got to create a label that has our name on it. I now own a beer that says “Brewed in Amsterdam by Amelia Christensen.”

After that there was more interactive areas where you could create your own music video and send video messages. What a fun idea! There were also crazy chairs that you could sit in and watch commercials from the past 50 years. Such simple things, but so neat. They also had a bit of a museum set up that displayed all of their old beer bottles and labels. At one point Heineken wanted to make recyclable bottles so they created the WOBO, or the wall bottle. They are square bottles that basically interlock with one another so that poor people could use their empties to build a house! Now, if that isn’t helping out the world, I don’t know what is. I am standing in front of a small WOBO wall.

What makes Heineken beer so special is that “A” yeast that is used to create it. It was one of the first beers to come out with standard yeast so that no matter where it is made, it will have the same taste. A student of Louis Pasteur developed it. Those smart people seem to hang out together!

After the tour we got to enjoy 2 free beers. That’s worth half the admission cost right there! They have a great atmosphere created for the bar area and throughout the entire Experience. I wanted to post a picture of Kelly and I drinking, but I forgot and it’s so hard to do after the fact. Kelly’s blog has plenty of great pictures! After the Experience we wanted to take a canal cruise. I also needed to get my train tickets for my trip to Halle, Germany so that I could still get the cheap price. I told Kelly and Stu to go try the food in the wall (to continue Stu’s Dutch food experience) and I’d get the ticket. Well the ticket took forever and I ended up missing the canal cruise, but Kelly and Stu went and I take it they had a good time. I will have to go one of these days! I took the train back home, bought some groceries, and settled in to call my German host parents and tell them I am coming.

After a while into my call to Germany my cell phone rings and it is Kelly. I have no idea why she would call, but I figured it was important so I answer. She needs me to go pick her and Stu up from the other train station/stop in Haarlem. There is 2??? Apparently, there is. It’s by IKEA. Do I know where IKEA is? Nope. So I get in the car and pull out of the garage and try to find it on TomTom. TomTom can’t find it. I start to worry and the thought of driving towards the giant IKEA sign sounds slightly promising but I’m still worried Kelly and Stu might freeze to death. I have the bright idea to Google the address! Sure enough, Google has it and it gives me the proper address I enter it into TomTom and head on my way. I pull into the giant black, empty parking lot and wonder where in the world they are hiding. I call Kelly and she starts shouting that she can see my headlights and gives me turn by turn directions to their side of the parking lot/bus stop. I could hardly see 2 silhouettes’s jumping up and down in the darkness. I found them! They thoroughly enjoyed the warm car and we headed home. They grabbed their bags out of the car and I see a blue Doritos bag. Now, Kelly has been on the search for “Cool Ranch” Doritos since we’ve been here but she hasn’t had any luck. She finally found a bag of “Cool American” which is the Dutch version of “Cool Ranch.” There is some minor debate around the apartment whether they are made with real “American” or not.

It was an adventurous day. Monday and Tuesday we have taken it pretty easy. Monday we had ravioli at the house and watched some Olympics and yesterday, we went out for another 4 course meal. We wanted Stu to experience the Dutch 4 courses. The only downside, the Dutch are so slow! We were there almost 2 hours and none of us were prepared for that. Kelly and Stu still had to pack for their trip to Munich and I was just tired. They got home and managed to pack a bit and get to bed at a decent hour. This morning still came very early though! Their flight left at 7am which meant we left the house at 5:15. I gave them a ride so I had to be up too. It was really early! They are off and I’ve received the BBM that they made it and I haven’t heard anything bad, so I guess that means everything is good! I am happy they are getting the experience. They are going to have a tour of the Hofbrauhaus, Neuschwanstein Castle, the concentration camp Dachau, and a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. They are going to have such a great time and I’m happy they can see those amazing places together. I’m just going to be left alone for 4 days so I have to find something to keep my busy. I guess I can watch Olympics and start a new book. That should be enough. And sleep, I can always use more of that!

Where To Go?

I’m sorry my blog post has been a bit late today. I try to have it posted before America gets up and going, but today, I just didn’t know what to post about. After reading many articles for the day in the news, I found a few that are interesting.

First, I like the ease that the Euro has to offer while travelling. I don’t like that it is stronger than the dollar, but I guess we can’t all get what we want in life. I never thought, though, what implications a currency that spreads across many different countries has. I read this article the other day explaining the issues at hand. You can find the article HERE. The biggest point in my mind is that countries don’t have the ability to adjust the valuation of the currency to affect the prices and attract investments. This one currency floats across many different economies that are very different in many ways as well as the power and stability that they offer. I guess we are seeing the implications what unified money can do to many countries. I just hope the dollar gains some strength.

Another article Kelly sent me about things to do in Amsterdam. The article can be read HERE. Rest assured visitors, we will save the article for you to help you have a more successful and enjoyable visit. We want you all to have a unique experience from the “local” perspective and we will do our best to educate ourselves so that we may offer it to you.

And for those of you who have trouble imagining where to take the next vacation to, HERE is the article from NY Times about the 31 places to go in 2010. Granted, I don’t have the money or time to get them all, but there were a few on there that caught my eye. Copenhagen, Leipzig, Istanbul, Breckenridge, Kitzbühel, and Norway really caught my eye (I would like to point out my umlaut usage, I’m proud of myself for figuring that one out). I have a trip in the works to Copenhagen, I’ve been to Leipzig numerous times, Istanbul I might have to wait on for a few years, and the last 3 just really make me want to go skiing. I had a great time in Breckenridge several years ago with a fun group of people. Below are 2 of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

We went hat shopping! I don't have a better picture with Josh's eyes open, but you all get the idea. We also went for sushi right after so it was a pretty awesome night.

This little room is where we all (all 20 of us) kept our skis, boots, poles, snowboards, and random bicycle. To say the least it was a bit full and the littlest movment had the opportunity to cause a dominoe affect. Karla and Kayla wanted to test it out. I miss you two!

Someday I’ll have my dream ski vacation in the Alps at some fabulous resort. Whether it be St. Moritz, Kitzbühel, Zermatt, or anywhere else I can come up, it’s going to be fantastic. It didn’t work out this year so I guess it wasn’t meant for me to have the ski trip of my life, yet. Can you tell I have high expectations for this trip? I can wait for perfection (and hopefully a slightly larger budget to have it on).


Input from my daily life: sushi was great last night. They also gave us a web site that has a TON of different restaurants that deliver. I think delivery is Holland’s drive through. We don’t even have to say our street name (which is Waganmakerslaan) we just type it in. Another point for technology. For those of you worrying about Kelly and I gaining weight since all you hear about is food, I wanted to give you a rundown of our daily meals:

Breakfast: Muesli with yogurt (I try to find a fruit to put in there with it)
Lunch: Sandwich (or leftovers) with 2 small oranges.
Afternoon snack: Pineapple or another fruit
Dinner: a frozen pizza with fresh basil, vegetable fajitas, Sheppard’s pie, chicken breasts, fish, pasta

We go out to eat 2-3 times a week and generally always take our lunch. To put this in perspective I ate out lunch every day in Houston and most dinners as well. We also have to walk to any food destination we choose (this delivery discovery might be bad) as well as the grocery store, post office, and to get any kitchen utensil that we need (we always forget the can opener. I’m glad I brought my Leatherman).

Don't worry, we're not rolling around Holland just yet.

I'm In Love....With Chandeliers!

Another georgous picture of the Amsterdam train station (with snow flakes). I love the Leipzig train station, but this one takes the cake externally. I love the inside of the Leipzig train station, but this one is so pretty!!!

I loved this stair case! We went to the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, it is in the red light district, and now surrounded by women in windows and coffee shops. They wern't pretty women in windows either. Kelly and I were a bit taken back by the view. They also had a crazy art show/display going on in the church. Definitely a wierd atmosphere. Not my favorite.

I did like this grave inside the church though. Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, is burried in this church as well, but due to renovations, we couldn't see her stone. A bunch of Amsterdam seems to be under rennovation.

Kelly bought a book about Amsterdam online and in it it has great walking tours, which is what we did today. It took us all over the older part of the city, and has step by step of where to go and what you will see. There are several options and we did the Old Center tour today. We plan on going back and doing another one tomorrow. We also realized that the lawyer's office we went to tomorrow is in a prime location. NOV must be paying big bucks....they are located on the Times Square of Amsterdam. Impressive.

In the above picture, I just really liked all of the buildings. The Dutch architecture is so pretty and quaint!

More neat buildings along the canal. This is the beginning of the red light district and by our Museum Amstelkring. Maybe when the weather is better, we eneded up getting snowed on today, we will do a canal boat tour.

This is the Huis aan de Drei Grachten (House on 3 canals). It is Dutch Renaissance style with the wooden shutters dating back to 1609.

This is a house in Begijnhof which was originally a cloister for devoute women in the 14th century. These women were devout catholics who didn't want to join a convent, but wanted to be faithful. When the Protestants took over in Amsterdam back in the 1600's they ignored the area primarily because it was so private and mainly women. They had their own church, which was eventually converted to Protestant Reform so then the women must rely on house churches. To this day, the community is larger, but it is still only rented out to women. The above house is the oldest house in Amsterdam (built 1425)and one of two timber houses that still remain. The rest were burnt down in the great fire. Amsterdam had 2 big fires. The first was in 1421, and the second was in 1452 where 3/4 of the city burnt down.

This is a picture of the court yard in the Begijnhof. All of those houses is where women live today. There were little bars that said "For Residents Only." I would live in the area!!

This is the chapel in Museum Amstelkring. It is a hidden chapel in the attic of 3 canal houses that were purchased by a weathly merchant. The church was constructed in 1661-1663. It served as a Catholic church during the time when the Protestants outlawed catholicism in 1578. It is still, more or less, in its original state. The government officials turned a blind eye on the house churches as long as they were not recognisable on the outside. The church was in use until 1887 until its successor Great St. Nicolas Church was opened. A group of people banned together to save it and they helped gather artifacts for the display there. Since 1888 the church and house banned together to form the musuem that it is today. It is still used at Christmas, for weddings, and the first Sunday of the month in the winter.

This is another one of the rooms in the hidden church. It is referred to as Our Lord in the Attic, but initially known as "Het Hart" (The Heart), most likely after the merchant, Jan Hartman, who had built it.

This was the fire place in the Parlour, which was the best room in the house. It is the room where the Hartmans entertained their guests. The room has been refurbished to appear much like it would have during the 1660s, in Dutch classicm.

This was the room where Jan Hartman and his wife lived. The cabinet was painted by Frans Francken II with scenes from the New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son.

This was the 19th century kitchen that was built in 1888 in the middle of the house and is not as antiquated as it looks. The kitchen looks old because of the historical materials that were used to build it that were salvaged from demolished buildings in the neighborhood.

This is the view from one of the windows upstairs in the chapel area. One side of the building had views of the Oude Kerk (seen here) and on the other side you could see St Nicolas's Church. The other side was closed for renovations, as was many parts of the house, so that picture is not available. Many of the artifacts and paintings where also put away due to the restoration which was slightly dissapointing.

During all of this walking Kelly and I got hungry so we stopped at one of 500+ Argentianian steak houses around the city. Those people know how to cook a steak! It was great!! After a bit more walking, we got back into the Dam Square where all the action, and people, were. It was so crowded! I'm glad we started out early because we didn't have any crowds anywhere up until then. We had a slice of cake at Cafe Luna which was a treat. We made our way to the square and decided we wanted to take a tour of our future home, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

The exterior of the Palace was all covered in scaffolding due to more restoration...but the little model inside made the exterior look amazing! It is one of 3 locations that the Queen has at her disposal for use. She chooses to live in Den Haag, but uses this palace for official state functions such as state visits, the Queen's New Years party and provides the setting for royal announcements and prizes. A history of the palace can be read here.

The real beauty of this place was its use of chandeliers. They had them in EVERY room along with lining the hallways and in foyers. I was ready to move in! Here is a picture of the BEST chandelier in the place. We wern't allowed to take pictures there, or else this posting would be 2x as long. I was taking notes for my future house. The Dutch know how to do chandeliers! The even have them in lights on the streets. It's beautiful!

I am tired and believe it is my bed time. I need to rest up for another day of walking tours tomorrow! I don't think the weather is going to be any better though. Maybe we'll get lucky!

To The Lawyers....

Kelly has been sick the past couple of days. We had a doener at a Turkish restaurant; it’s a bit like a gyro. Well they are my favorite, and I guess they don’t like Kelly. She got food poisoning. The place is even named “Amalia” so in theory, I gave her food poisoning. She was a wreck on Wednesday and we took her to the Dutch doctor’s because she looked like death. I really didn’t want her to die. So one of the guys helped us find a doctor nearby and he took us there then to the pharmacy where we got Kelly all hooked up. I am happy to announce the medicines helped and Kelly is still alive, but not quite back to normal.

She looked almost normal this morning, but then something hit her mid morning and she got sick again. We had to go to Amsterdam this afternoon to meet with the immigration lawyers to get the paperwork we need to file for our residency permits. I was a bit worried Kelly wasn’t going to make it. After a 2 hour nap, she was ready to face the world. We “cheated” and drove to the train station instead of walking, figured out how to buy a ticket and managed to get on the correct train. After a short 15 minute ride, we were at that Central Amsterdam train station. It was so easy! The outside of the train station is BEAUTIFUL (see picture below)! We managed to find the correct street we needed and started walking.

A sea of bicycles outside of the train station. Definitely the most I've ever seen in one place!

Before we went to the lawyer’s office, we had to get Dutch government approved photos made. The office told us of a photo place just down the street so we managed to find that and get the photos done. It was all so fast and easy. The photo man was very nice and helpful and spoke great English. That is one great thing about this country, everyone knows English. We walked by a pizza place and Kelly said she needed some food so we stopped to get some. We had a bit of extra time, so it was a nice little break.

We then walked to the lawyer’s office, signed our life away on about 20 different pages, and left all in about 20 minutes. I was very impressed. I was expecting a huge ordeal full of torture, but it was painless. On our walk back to the train station we were able to look in the windows of all of the diamond stores around. Very pretty jewelry! Now all I need is a few extra hundreds (thousands) of Euros and a reason and I would be set!! We didn’t do any sightseeing, it was a straight there and home mission but, hopefully, Kelly will feel back to herself again by Saturday and we plan on going back for 2 days of extensive sightseeing and food eating. I cannot wait!

When Kelly was napping today, I ran across the street and got some potatoes to make her potato soup. It’s what my Mom always made me when I was sick, so I figured it had to work! It’s not quite done yet, still boiling on the stove, but I hope it turns out. We shall see. I figured this is a turning point that I started making potato soup instead of having it made for me. I’m not sure I’m ready for this, but I guess it crept up on me without me knowing. I’m sure I can revert back childhood when I’m around my mom. I don’t think I am very fond of the adult/responsibility thing. I do like the freedom and privileges though! Something tells me they happen to go hand in hand though.

Better go check my soup!