We're Back

Jim and I returned last Friday from our awesome European vacation. I'm happy to report that all kids and caregivers were safe and sound when we returned. The same could not be said of our old laptop. Yep, old. While we were gone, it had the blue screen of death. Jim devoted much time on Saturday figuring out the problem could only be solved by a new laptop. So, that's what the hold up has been on blog updates. Without further delay, the highlights of our vacation pics. I won't make you sit through all 900 pictures.

We flew into Amsterdam for a night. It was a great city. I loved all the canals and the boats and the old buildings. We stayed in the red building. It was 423 years old! That's the stairway I'm walking down. it was steep and narrow. In fact, to get furniture into those places, they just hoisted it through the windows! This left picture below the text is just a street we were on. The buildings were awesome! Amsterdam was a lot nicer than I imagined. We visited the Anne Frank museum (lower right) and admired all the boats. But with the jet lag, and all the stuff we wanted to see, we didn't have time to ride a canal boat. We did walk through the red light district (sad) and drank some local brews before we hit the sack. We needed to get up for a flight to Munich Germany.

In Munich, we stayed in central location between the Marienplatz where there was lots of shopping, markets, and museums

and also close to the world's original Oktoberfest! Yes, that is me, blending in.

That place was like Christmas at Disneyland with a dash of the beach thrown in for good measure. We drank more than our share of beers. And we stole the stiens. We are those people .

After a few too many stiens, the next day had a slow start. We walked around slowly and ended up in the German Museum. Think Smithsonian but only on technology. The exhibits on airplanes and boats were interesting, but I was getting pretty board when we entered the room on printing presses and there were about 100 different presses through time. Snore. we did see Sputnik. Now if I could just get Jim to let me tour the Mir space station the next time we go to the Wisconsin Dells.

Our time in Munich was far too short. We ate and drank all kinds of delicicous food. We hope to return again for another Oktoberfest because it was so stinking crowded that we never even made it into one of the fancy tents. Just the beer gardens. One problem with The EU. Coffee is too small. This was the large.

Back to the Weisn one more time to drink a little more beer and try to get in the tents. Behind Jim is a "tent". It was more like the biggest pole barn you could imagine.

It was so crowded on the last day that we couldn't get in anywhere. we almost lost all hope of sitting down at all when we stumbled in a service entrance of a fancy tent. We found some friendly Americans and enjoyed a few more. This was vacation after all!

All that beer drinking fun had to come to an end and we got on a train to Paris. We slept in the sleeper car.

We arrived in Paris during the Terror Alert. We were supposed to blend in and be hyper aware of weirdos. Instead, Jim did this in front of the Louvre.

Eating pastry in the park with the Effiel tower in the background? Totally Parisian

I liked this statue. I renamed it to be "I forgot to charge the camera battery!"

We visited Notre Dame and climbed to the top

Us in Paris

Us on the top of the Effiel tower. The very top. It was rainning. Oh Well.

The Effiel tower. We climbed the steps to the second level (did i mention how much we ate and drank?) and then took the elevator to the top.

Louvre at night

Us inside at night. That is a big place. completely overwhelming. Pretty soon I had seen enough naked, marble people.

This is me exhausted in the louvre.

We also had the chance to see Laura and Jean Marc, Jim's sister and her husband. They drove us around and fed us a couple of times.

All in all, the greatest vacation ever. Now it's back to the grind of everyday living, but we still are basking in the afterglow of our trip. We also have a constant reminder of all the good food when we try to zip up our jeans.