As most of you know, Nick and I had our first European adventure for 10 days at the beginning of May…. which explains the lack of posts until now. Between Easter and the end of April we were focused primarily on preparing to leave… and watching volcano reports.
Luckily, we did manage to make it out and back in between eruptions and ash clouds, and were better for it. Our flights both directions were canceled, but Iceland Air moved us over to British Airways, affording us direct flights between Seattle and London. It shortened our travel time by a few hours, which was great!
Our kiddos were able to spend some quality time with Nana and Papa Winters, which is a rare treat, and they were spoiled rotten, with trips to Chuck E Cheese and a back yard complete with donkeys to entertain them. And in the process, they learned to appreciate dear ol’ Mom and Dad a little bit more. Oh, yeah, and we missed them too.
So with out further ado, here’s the quick and dirty version of our trip. We have about 420 more pictures that we will be compiling into a book of our trip, so for those of you who care… you can come see it anytime. For now, we picked our top 38. The photos below are just thumbnails… you’ll have to click on them to see the full picture.
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- Arrived in London. Saw Big Ben. Took a LOT of pictures of it because Mylie can play the theme song on the Piano.
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- Took the hokey tourist bus, which we LOVED. Except the part where we were there on May Day and got stuck in the protest traffic.
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- Took lots of cool pictures of old buildings, which at the time made lots of sense.
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- Did NOT see London Bridge fall down. Turns out the one in the picture isn’t even London bridge.
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- Found out that this really cool contraption (The London Eye) is a gigantic money loser, despite it’s cool appeal.
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- Left London, headed for Brussels. Hence, the Brussel’s cathedral. We, however, followed the rules (unlike most of the rest of the world) and did not take pictures inside.
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- Got our picture taken in front of this famous peeing statue. Really. He’s famous. Look him up.
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- Headed to Brugge (in Belgium) which was captivatingly charming. Had the world’s best chocolate. Oh, and that was after having the most incredible Belgian Waffle that morning.
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- Took a day trip to the Netherlands to see “Kinderdijk”. Got to see the inside of a real working windmill, but decided we couldn’t live there because they’re too noisy.
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- Moved on to France, where every possible surface was covered in graffiti.
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- Took the quintessential shot or two (or 10) of the Eiffel Tower. Froze to death. Did not wait around in the ridiculously long line to go up it, in order to save our appendages from frost bite.
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- Proved that the French really do spell Nicolas the right way (as shown in this liquor store).
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- Had a super view from our hotel room. Oh, and the most comfortable bed EVER.
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- Ate Cambodian food one night. Then Italian the next. Why have French in France? Not to worry, we ate more than our share of baguettes for lunch.
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- Enjoyed the view from our hotel at night too.
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- Went to the Louvre. Saw this cool crown and I wanted it.
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- Saw the Mona Lisa and didn’t understand what the big deal is.
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- Saw the annoying, rule-breaking, flash-using crowd around the Mona Lisa.
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- Discovered our favorite non-famous painting at the Louvre.
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- Had our picture taken along with half of Europe outside the Lourve. Seriously can’t imagine what Paris would be like when it’s not the “off-season”.
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- Enjoyed the scerene view from Sacré-Coeur… until it was interrupted by the noisy street performers blasting their nasty music.
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- Discovered “what Brown can do for you”, even in Paris.
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- LOVED Notre Dame. Hated all the scam artists outside, and more flash-photographers inside.
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- Took pictures of a random kid feeding the flying vermin. Cuz it was just cool.
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- Nick drooled over all the fancy cars all over Europe.
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- Karli barely noticed.
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- But Karli DID notice the shiny helmets on the firemen. Ooooh, neat.
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- Like I said, many pictures of this one. And, still freezing.
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- Saw “The Thinker.” He was deep in thought, so we didn’t bother him.
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- Headed back to London where we enjoyed their beautiful city parks…
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- … and played with our new camera.
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- Made faces at the guards.
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- Saw #10 Downing Street…. In the middle of the most historical election in decades.
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- The political junkie inside Karli did cartwheels. Got to see all the press gathered around to try to scoop who would be the Prime Minister.
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- Took another picture of our awesome tour bus for posterity.
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- Saw the Changing of the Guards. Which we loved. A lot.
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- Because we think London is the coolest.
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- How could you not love those super cool hats on guys who already where the badge of band nerd. Seriously.
After seeing the changing of the guard, we had to hustle back to the train station to collect our luggage and then zoom over to the metro to take the hour-long Tube ride to the airport. We sweated bullets worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time, but somehow we managed to get there just as boarding was starting. Perfect! We had to wait to take off because the Ash Cloud was forcing all air traffic onto one runway, and then we had to head out to the east, and skirt around the volcano to the north. It felt like we were being chased out by ash, kind of like Jeff Goldblum and the T-Rex on Jurassic Park. But we made it, and have LOTS of chocolate to show for it. We had a great time seeing what few sights we got to see, but generally had the best time just hanging out with our friends in Belgium, getting a true (albeit small) taste of what life is like over there. One thing is for sure, we got the travel bug, and hope to be doing much more of it in the future!
It looks like lots of fun! I’m excited to see your book and hear all about it when we come!
I totally want to take that same EXACT trip, without the ash clouds, of course. I am affectionately jelous.
How very, very fun for you guys! Awesome!
Ditto on the Mona Lisa, totally didn’t get it when there are other paintings that take up walls of space and are just cooler in general. Totally jealous, but glad you had fun!