He's Just Keeping it Real

Our son Camden was assigned the task in math class to create a Venn diagram....you remember the Venn Diagram? That's that visual diagram depicting similarities and differences between two different things.  He was given the freedom to choose the topic, and here is what he came up with.

His choice? Airlines.  In case you can't read it, on the left is United.  On the right is Delta.

Things in common:

• Airlines
• Engines
• Wings
• Go in the air. 

United:

• Breaks guitars*
• Grouchy people
• Really hard chairs
• Only bring drinks once

Delta:

• Nice people
• Has TVs on each seat
• Gives you many drinks
• Best Airline in the World. 

*In United's defense, he has not personally witnessed breaking guitars but has watched this youtube video about 100 times.

SO IGNORING THE FACT that perhaps its a little unusual for a 7-year old to be able to do  a critical analysis of major airlines' customer service policies,  I will say that in general I pretty much agree with his content ;).  We had one of those disastrous customer service episodes when we flew over here with United. Stressed enough with leaving our home and taking our first family airplane trip - with five kids and a grandparent, mind you -  to a foreign country,  the United staff we encountered in Chicago really were really "grouchy".  It was discouraging enough that I  finally swore off years of loyalty (and late flights and broken itineraries and O'Hare airport) and moved exclusively to Delta. We've flown Delta on all of our trips home since.    Apparently, that was a Camden-approved change.

The businessman in me thinks there is a valuable customer service lesson in there somewhere.  United, if you're listening my son is available for hire as a consultant. His advice into your world of customer service and support policies will be along the lines of 1) stop being grouchy, 2) bring people drinks, and 3) don't break guitars.

Maybe the customer service lesson is not to over-think it.

Icons of Holland

First up...wooden shoes...

Then the dikes, and dike houses....

Then there's the tulips....

And last but not least, the windmills....

Bikes, Dikes, Wooden Shoes and Windmills

A tribute to my roots! We definitely think Holland is worth a return trip.   Amsterdam is nice, but we left a lot of stuff in rural Holland un-seen, including the homeland of my mother's side in the far North...




First, there are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam. A lot of bikes.

Travelling with kids tip: If going to Amsterdam, find the Pancake Boat tour.  When the boat launches, an unlimited buffet of pancakes and a wide variety of fixin' opens. Great thing for a cold rainy day, which it was.   Oh and added bonus: Pancakes cooked with strips of bacon in them. Mind. Blown.

The Anne Frank house tour - no pictures allowed inside, unfortunately.   A commemorative statue outside Westerkerk, just down the corner from the Anne Frank House.

The house blends in to the neighborhood. In fact, we were just lounging by a street level door waiting for the tour and saw the placard.

Waiting outside of the Anne Frank House for the tour.

The Rijksmuseum, home of Rembrandt and his contemporaries.  Another travelling with kids tip: Make museums a scavenger hunt, give them postcards or pictures of the famous works and and have them find them all.  The Rijksmuseum does it even better, they hand out a scavenger hunt with a page for every room in the museum. Great way to keep the kids engaged.  Here, they respond to some questions about Delft Blue in the background....a common sight in my house growing up ;).

The Grand Finale, Rembrandt's Night Watch. I'm the last person to give a critical review of art, but as a layman Rembrandt s use of salient light is incredible - it almost looks as if stage lights from around the room are lighting up portions of the painting like a stage.

Outside Amsterdam is where real Holland is....here in the seaside town of Marken, for example, some of the locals are seen in traditional dutch clothing replete with wooden shoes.

On a dike!  The island town of Marken is a bowl, a dike rings the entire island holding back the seawater.   A strange feeling for sure.

Volendam....sometimes the dikes are well disguised. Here, the dike makes up the boardwalk for a shopping area.

Chase finds an appropriate souvenir.

But what about the windmills, you ask?  Zaanse Schans for sure delivered on some spectacular windmill sights....to be continued.

The Keukenhof

On our way from Bruges to our apartment in Amsterdam, we made a stop at the Keukenhof Gardens near Lisse in the Netherlands.   You know all those pictures you see of Holland with fields full of colorful tulips? Yep, that's this place. And although we're not really flower lovers, and although the tulips hadn't fully bloomed yet....WOW.  This place is really amazing and well worth the stop. Click here for the full photos.

In Bruges

 WE'RE FRESH OFF a week of vacation, spending the first half in the city of Bruges, Belgium.  We booked it a little late, so we were fortunate to find a central street level city apartment near the center.  "Lady Lace" - our apartment - sat on a bustling street full of the traditional Flemish style of houses, many of which were built in the 17th century (including ours). You can see the lettering on a neighboring house - 1620.  These buildings have seen some history.  

 We planned for warmer weather. Unfortunately mother nature didn't cooperate and we pretty much had to bundle up every day to see the sights.  Occasionally the sun would come out and take the edge off of the wind.  On the right, the tribe prepares to cross the street with out apartment to the back (right) in the background. 

Many of the buildings were in the "traditional Flemish style" which practically means they had the stair-step facades.    None of the buildings showed that better then the ones on the square, which were also full of color.  

No doubt the icon of Bruges is the Belfry, or Belfort.   This giant structure towers over the market square and the rest of Bruges. We were fortunate in that it was closed from January through March 30th...but we arrived on the 31st just as it reopened, right on schedule.  

 You can't go to Bruges (or virtually any other European city, as it were) without doing the canal tour, of course.  

 The city is close to the North Sea, and the canals directly connect Bruges with the North Sea Harbor. In older times, supplies were shipped in by boat directly from the harbor to their destination in Bruges. Today, many significant buildings (and many homes) are directly located on - or in? - the canals. 

 Someone on our tour boat company had a sense of humor.  The kids wanted to know if it was real, and if so, what else this boat was used for.

 On a clear day, it is said one can see from the Belfort all the way to the North Sea. Althought technically this photo is facing in the opposite direction, on our trip we could see the harbor in the North Sea.  

 Our entire time there the square was bustling with activity. The night we arrived there was a concert, the next day a major bike race launched from there, and then shortly thereafter they began setting up for a festival.  This photo was one of the very few opportunities we had to see the square relatively undisturbed. 

 The Provincial court building is an impressive structure on the market square. 

 Everyone knows that Belgium is famous for the waffle.   Fun fact, in Belgium its not a breakfast food but rather an afternoon snack. Another fun fact? French fries came from Belgium too.  

 ...But its the chocolate that is everywhere in Bruges. There are dozens upon dozens of chocolate stores and makers.  We indulged only once for an after dinner desert, and not surprisingly the kids were a little excited to open up the box.  I'll admit we staged this photo, but it didn't require much staging....

 Bruges is beautiful during the day, but it's not until the sun sets that it really becomes like a postcard.   










All over the city warm incandescent flood lights turn on and bath all of the buildings in a warm glow

Its not a big city, so from a lot of different vantage points you can still capture the Belfort towering over the city in the background. 

 Or as in this case, the steeple of the Church of our Lady (also the home of Michelangelo's Madonna). The contrast of this street - newer buildings with efficient fluorescent lights create a blue hue - against the orange incandescent glow of the steeple. 

It's hard to get lost in Bruges....just look for the Belfort. 

 It was shortly after this picture of the square where my night photography session of Bruges came to an abrupt end due to an uncomfortable encounter with a local - something about "tourists" and "evil" and some arm grabbing involved....good time to head back to the apartment, but not before catching the market square in lights. 

We liked Bruges. It's easily walkable through the entire town so you don't have the hassle of having to figure out public transportation, everything is just a few minute walk away, and it's actually somewhat kid friendly.   

Which showed a little on their faces. We snap all sorts of photos of the kids all over Europe and although they smile it's sometimes easy to see its not super genuine...tired from walking, or sight seeing, or museum hunting, or hungry, etc....but this is probably my all time favorite kid picture from our time in Europe. Why? I think they actually all simultaneously liked it! 

Public Transportation

THE OTHER DAY I was sitting on the commuter train minding my own business when a 20-something male plopped down on a chair directly across from me.  He placed his bookbag on the seat next to him.  He unzipped it and pulled out two giant plastic rubber gloves, like the kind you might see a cleaning lady wear. He carefully stretched them over both hands...and then, extremely slowly and deliberately, he used his right gloved hand to gently lift open the trash receptacle below the window next to our seat.  His approach was so cautious that it was almost as if he expected a horrifying creature to jump out at him.  He lifted the lid only a centimeter or so - wincing sideways as he did, and then suddenly, as if satisfied it did not contain said creature, flipped it close, took of his gloves, and then promptly got comfortable and went to sleep. 

Public transportation has its idiosyncrasies.  That's actually a part of the commuter train experience I look forward to - the Train Culture.  And as I look back, it seems like our children have had plenty of opportunities to experience that too.  I was looking through our photos not too long ago and was surprised to see how much we've experienced.  

Waiting for a regional train in France. 

A day's worth of subway tickets in Paris. 

Camden checks out the sign and the board (not pictured) at an U-bahn (Subway) stop in Berlin. 

A Subway zooms buy....I am honestly not entirely sure where, I think also Berlin. 

Waiting for an Italian regional train to take us to Ostia Antica in southern Italy. 

First in line for a Vaparetto - a Venician water taxi - in a late evening tour of Venice.  

A glass-covered Water Taxi in Berlin on the Spree river.  It was so hot inside of that glass Tylenol pill....

Zooming along the causeway from Padua to Venice on an Italian regional train.  

The expansive Nation subway station in Paris.  

City XPress, and ironic name for a gondola ride to the top of a mountain in Austria. 

A toy explodes in a powdery white mess on an otherwise pristine Roman subway.  

On a Deutsche Bahn short hop train to Deidesheim for the Christmas Market. 

Funicular!  Don't remember where, but it is fun to say Funicular! 

Horse and Carriage in the birthplace of Mozart - Salzburg

Frankfurt Flughafen, watching the 767 load up and waiting to board.  

Taking the ferry across the IJ in Amsterdam. 

Waiting for the metro in Amsterdam's Central Station. 

This is really just a sampling of the times when I had my camera handy.  It doesn't include the French TGV, or the Deutsche Bahn ICE trains, or the gritty public buses in Rome, or the time we were jammed into a French regional train and Jazzy screamed for mommy (who was crammed into a distant corner) for 20 minutes straight, or the time a bus broke down in Rome and we got kicked off and stranded, or the time I had to have Melissa and the kids come pick me up at a small town train station an hour away from our house because the track was suddenly and mysteriously closed.

Public transportation has its idiosyncrasies.