"Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy"- Anne Frank

We visited Anne Frank's house today. It was very moving and Maddie was very interested in every aspect of the history of Anne and her family. We walked through the office, where only 4 workers knew of the 8 people in hiding, then went to the secret annex and saw Anne's room, and her actual diary. We also saw the Academy Award won by Shirley MacLaine in 1959 for the movie of Diary of Anne Frank. She had promised Otto Frank, Anne's father that if she won she would give it to the museum. At the end of the tour we learned the fate of all those in hiding. Otto Frank was the only survivor, with Anne dying at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp only 1 month before the Allied Forces arrived.

After the visit to Anne Frank's house we rode the canal buses for about 2 hours. They go throughout the town and you can see everything. Amsterdam is built around a series of concentric canals, and was one of the first ever planned cities. We learned that Amsterdam has about 1250 bridges and almost 2500 houseboats. The city is not allowing any more houseboats because there is not much room left. Some of the house boats are old and beat up, others look just like small, modern ranch houses, and others have very unique and elaborate outdoor areas on their decks including one with real grass on its roof.

On the canal tour we saw the headquarters of the Dutch West Indies Company, and also saw that most of the houses in Amsterdam are crooked. This is because they are very narrow and have hoisting arms on the front to lift furniture and other items into the house. The houses are built at an angle so that materials don't damage them while being hoisted. Most buildings are also not very tall because of the soft ground.

We walked all the way around Vondelpark, which is like Central Park for Amsterdam. We saw many dogs and people playing and lounging. There was alot of work being done to get the park ready for Spring, escpecially since the city has had more rain recently than usual.

There are so many different types of transportation here, it makes it difficult to even cross the street. There are cars, scooters, buses, trams, and we've never seen so many bikes. Bikes of every shape and size are everywhere. Most of them look old fashioned, but people ride them fast. We hear bells behind us warning us to move over constantly. Many people have bikes with large buckets on the front where they carry their kids or groceries.

Tomorrow we will go to the Rijkmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and maybe even the zoo, one of the oldest in the world.

We Found a Fireman's Fair- in Amsterdam

Our day began in Brussels where we walked through the Grand Place, visited the Church of Saint Nicholas and checked on Mannekin Pis once again. We then hopped aboard another train, headed to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is in the Netherlands, which is also known as Holland, and is our 8th country of our trip.

On the train we watched as the architecture and landscape changed again. We saw many homes made primarily of brick, and many farms with horses, sheeps and cows. We also saw quite a few windmills, both old fashioned and the newer type, and several tulip fields. Holland is known for tulips and windmills.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, one of the first things we saw off in the distance towards our hotel, a giant ferris wheel and swings way up high. We found out that the carnival was in town. After checking in to the hotel we went straight back to the fair and have alot of new ideas for the Manasquan Fireman's Fair.

We went on the Round the World ride, which is just like the swings, except it goes more than 60 meters high ! That's about as tall as a 20 story building. We could see all of Amsterdam, and we were higher than every building except maybe a few church steeples. We also rode the Breakdance, which is like the tilt-a-whirl and the scrambler together, but much faster and more violent. We loved it. After a few more rides and cotton candy we called it a night.

We're not sure about tomorrow yet, but our plans for Amsterdam include Anne Frank's House, and the Van Gogh Museum. We're having a great time and learning alot.

Best Easter Ever (if only Tom were here)

We've had a wonderful Easter. We awoke to a variety of traditional European Easter treats. We had brunch in Paris, then spent the morning at Jardin du Tuileries, where we went on the carousel and jumped on the trampolines.

Our train from Gare De Nord was delayed arriving for about 30 minutes, then when we got on, there were still problems with the train so everyone had to get off and board a different train. Our seats were not together, but we still made it to Brussels only about 1 hour late. Brussels is where NATO and the European Union are headquartered. It is also the home of Godiva chocolate. Brussels is the capital of Belgium. Belgium is a small country, located between France and Holland. 60% of the people speak Dutch as their primary language and 40% speak French, though almost everyone also speaks English.

We walked around Grand Place, one of the largest and most famous town squares in Europe and visited alot of chocolate shops and waffle shops. We even had chocolate covered waffles. For dinner we had the best Flemish Beef Stew, plus meatballs. We visited the Mannekin Pis, a statue of a little boy going to the bathroom. It is known world-wide and every souvenir shop sells postcards and miniatures of this famous Belgian icon.

We just ordered the most delicious pomme frites from room service and are settled in the night. Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam.

ATrip to Le Sommet

We planned to leave early today to get to the Eiffel Tower before the lines got too long. The concierge told us he thought the Eiffel Tower was on strike, but they opened yesterday and were open again today. We arrived 30 minutes before opening and were far, far back in line. Once they opened, the line moved quickly and we made it to the ticket booth in about 1 hour. We then took the elevators to the 2nd level, and waited in another long line to take the final elevator to the third level, Le Sommet. There we saw Gustav Eiffel's apartment where he entertained prominent visitors such as Thomas Edison, and had an incredible view of the City, including the smaller sister to our Statue of Liberty.

Gustav Eiffel won a contest in 1886 to design an iron structure for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, it was built in just over 2 years, and was originally known as the Dame de Fer, or "Iron Lady". Gustav Eiffel was passionate about science and had the names of 72 prominent scientists engraved in the tower. The tower is as tall as a 120 story building, and has 7 million visitors each year. We think maybe 6.5 milllion of them were there today. We walked down from the 2nd level, the same as a 43 story building.

The tower was planned to stand for 20 years, but Gustav Eiffel opened it to scientific studies, and experiments, and eventually it was used for radio broadcasts which made it too important to tear down. It is still used today as an observation station for weather and air quality.

Our trip up and down the tower took several hours, after that we explored the city more. We went to 2 toy stores, several chocolate shops and a perfume store. We also took a pony ride in the park and rented a small wooden sailboat which Parisian kids push around a pond with a stick. The parks and playgrounds are different than home but they are alot of fun and have some unique equipment.

We're settled in for the night now and are anxiously awaiting for the bells of Paris to ring out loud tomorrow morning, after they return from Rome with lots of chocolate !

Happy Easter

Paris in a Day

Paris is very crowded so we woke up early and went to the Louvre Museum to get in line before it opened. We were one of the first to the ticket window. We went straight to the Mona Lisa, beautiful, but much smaller than we expected. From there we went right to the Venus De Milo. The Louvre claims the statue really should be called Aphrodite, her Greek name, rather than Venus, her Roman name, because she was found by a Greek farmer in 1820 on the Island of Milos. We also toured Napolean's apartment in the Louvre, since it was formerly a royal palace. We learned that it is the largest museum in the world.

After the Louvre, we went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where there was a special display and procession of the Thorn of Crowns, worn by Jesus on the cross, a nail of the Passion, and a splinter from the cross. These are among the most prized relics in the Church and there are special Knights that protect and care for them.

We walked all over Paris, and had ice cream on the Bridge to Ile St. Louis, a small island in the Seine River, while a band played and girls danced, it was a very fun environment. We toured the Tuileries Gardens and the Luxembourg Gardens. At Luxembourg Gardens we played in the park and had a GIANT Cotton Candy. We met some young girls from Michigan and from Texas.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower, which was really crowded so we'll go there early tomorrow. We also went to the Arc De Triomphe, had dinner on the Champs Des Lysee, and per our routine, went to some local markets to see different foods and compare prices.

The tradition in France is that all of the bells from all of the Churches go silent starting on Holy Thursday. The bells fly to Rome to visit the Pope and return Easter Sunday with gifts for the children (chocolate bells and chocolate fish are popular), so Easter Sunday all of the Church bells will ring again.

Day of Trains, City of Lights

We had an adventurous day on the train. No one told us before we left, but everyone in Europe, and we mean everyone, goes to Paris for Easter Weekend. We tried everything to get a train from Basel to Paris, lots of different connections, lots of transfers, almost everything was sold out. We finally managed to make the reservation we needed, and also managed to spend time in Freiburg, Germany and Strasbourg, France on our way.

Freiburg was a much larger city than we thought. They have a canal running through the city with a statue of an alligator that they call the Canalligator. All around the cathedral there was a giant market with fresh fish, meat, bread, flowers and produce.

After Freiburg we stopped in Strasbourg, France. It is just across the border from Germany, and Barack Obama visited here for a NATO meetings just last week. We met a local gentlemen who told us about all of the security and people in town for the meeting, and also that he had been to Chicago and San Francisco for work.

There is one section of Strasbourg known as La Petite France, it is the oldest part of town and looks just like Belle's village. People stared as we skipped and sang "There Must Be More Than This Provincial Life".

We took a high speed train from Strasbourg to Paris. It is more than a 6 hour car ride, but the train only took a little bit more than 2 hours. The French countryside was similar to the rural parts of Southern Germany, lots of green fields, rolling hills and small towns. We noticed that the order of train announcements changed from German-French- English, to French-German-English.

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon and walked a good distance to our hotel. We had dinner at an outdoor Bistro then walked to see some of the sights.

Tomorrow we plan to get up early, go the the Louvre and head straight for the Mona Lisa, then we'll go to Notre Dame where there will be a Good Friday Procession which will include a relic of Jesus' Cross.

Bonne Nuit

Please Don't Push Me Into the Trolley

Our journey today brought us to Luzern and Basel, Switzerland. Luzern is home to the longest covered bridge in Europe, known as the Chapel Bridge. The Chapel Bridge and Watch Tower were built in the 14th Century and have been used as fortifications for the city, a prison, and as a treasury vault. We watched an active archeological dig near some road construction, where old foundations were exposed and archaeologists were digging, scraping, dusting, measuring and labeling.

We went to Coop City, a kind of department and grocery store where we compared prices here to those at home. Switzerland is also one country which still maintains its own currency, the Swiss Franc, instead of the Euro.

Our lunch in Luzern was a ham and cheese sandwich, on a pretzel. There are pretzel stands everywhere. Switzerland is also the first country in which we have seen Starbucks and Claires.

We're based in Basel for the night, we walked to the old marketplace, the old cathedral and saw the Rhine River, which runs through town. Like New Jersey, Basel is home to many pharmaceutical companies.

All of the fast trains to Paris are sold out, so tomorrow we take a leisurely, but longer, trip to the City of Lights for Easter Weekend.

See You All Soon