We had an amazing trip for Spring Break to Amsterdam and Paris! I had never been to either place, but Declan was in Paris when he was just 1 year old. Dada had been in Zambia for work for the 2 weeks before our trip, so Mama flew with Declan & I to Amsterdam to meet him. The flight was actually really easy and thankfully we all got some sleep - especially since we had stuff to do as soon as we landed. After we found Dada and our hotel, we went straight to the Rijksmuseum to enjoy the Vermeer special exhibit. Vermeer only painted about 35 paintings in his life, and 28 were in the same place for the first time ever! We all really loved the exhibit and learned a lot about Vermeer's style - Declan was particularly enthralled since he LOVES art! We enjoyed a nice dinner afterwards, and Declan & I both fell asleep at the table! The next day, we went to some of the famous tulip gardens outside of Amsterdam. I could not believe how many different sizes, shapes and colors of tulips there are! We also went to a really neat dairy, where there are robot milking machines, robot massagers for the cows, robot pooper scoopers, and robot hay dispensers! The cows were really extra happy and gave milk to make the most delicious cheese ever. I even got to see a 1 hour old baby cow!
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| Amsterdam Airport: discovering wooden shoes, tulips, windmills, and Gouda |
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 Vermeer exhibit. |
Amazing tulip fields.
Keukenhoff tulips.
Most delicious cheese shop
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| Train from Amsterdam to Paris |
After a lovely few days in Amsterdam, we took the train 3 hours to Paris and found our apartment in the Latin Quarter. We took a long walk through the Luxembourg gardens, relaxed in the sun for a bit, and then headed on to the Paris Catacombs. WHAT A SIGHT! Holy bones! 6 million bodies are down there, all artistically displayed! I wasn't spooked at all - it was so cool!
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Les Jardins de Luxembourg |
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| En garde! |
We also walked into St. Chapelle and Declan and I were so surprised to see the crazy amazing stained glass windows! I haven't seen anything so pretty in my life! We discovered on this trip that I'm old enough to use and understand most of the audio guides, so I learned an awful lot about the church!
My number one most favorite thing of the whole trip was the Eiffel tower! We got to to to the top at night and now I understand why Paris is called the City of Lights! The view was so incredible that we didn't want to leave and go to bed!
Fondue in Paris.
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Le Train Bleu - fancy restaurant in a train station! |
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| We enjoyed a guided day walking tour of Sacre Coeur and Montmartre |
We also did a private boat tour of the Seine
Paleontology museum - super cool!! Very well done exhibits.
The Pantheon
We also spent a whole day at Versailles. The hall of mirrors was pretty cool, but we loved the gardens and the Queen's Hamlet even more! I think I could get used to living in a place like that!
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The Queen's Hamlet & Petit Trianon
Mama requested some nice photographs and we put up with her for an hour!
The Louvre was really cool. We had a private guide who did a Treasure Hunt for us - it kept us really interested in the art and was super fun to get a bunch of puzzle pieces to assemble to solve clues!
The Mona Lisa was pretty awesome, even though it was crowded!
One of Declan's favorite pieces, Artemis
Strolling along the Seine
Arc de Triomphe
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| The little French boy |
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Notre Dame, still under construction, but still so pretty |
Passed out after over 30,000 steps in one day
Our eyes! Dada & Mama on top; Keevah & Declan on the bottom
It was such an awesome trip but we also missed our beasts back at home! We're barreling towards the summer with only 6 weeks left of school!
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