Adventures in Europe

12 days in Europe with all of my siblings, their spouses, and my Dad and his wife Nancy, what a blast. I was a little worried before we left that we all may not be speaking by the end of the trip, but no worries, I think we all came back a closer family.

We all met in Paris. That is where the adventure began. Our shuttle didn't show up, so we had to take the train and walk about 6 block dragging our bags behind us. While we were finding directions to our hotel, one of the ladies started to laugh and said that the street name that were were staying at translated to the Street of Naughty Men. Yes, I booked our hotel in the gay district. It wasn't so bad taking a shower in front of the large clear glass windows when you know no one is trying to peak in. We went to the Arc du Triumph, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and a million other places. We climbed every step in the city.


We flew out to Munich, took a bike tour (went through the naked part of the English gardens--Embarressing), took a tour to Fussen to see the castles Neuschwanstein and Linderhoff, went on a tour of Dachau (the concentration camp), and of course ate a lot of brats and Kraut.

We flew out to Amsterdam. Saw more churches, windmills, and my favorite the Van Gogh museum. We ate the delicacy of the Netherlands raw herring (fish), no it doesn't taste like sushi.

The Boys went first. Their reaction wasn't very encouraging.



The girls took a turn, it wasn't much better. We smelled like we had been feeding seals.

All in all it was a great trip. The sleeping (or lack of it-Brian and Lara's snoring), Matt's warm yellow apple juice, churches, stairs, blisters, Blakes enema and teething, Lisa getting stuck on the Metro, McDonalds (yuck), showering in the dark in Paris, Urinals in the middle of the street (and people actually using them), hairy guys in tight green suits dancing around, naked men in the park, paying for toilets, and of course water for dinner costing over 100 Euro ($150 US dollars). Family, I already miss you, and can't wait for the next one. Please lets just do it when I'm not pregnant.