Hi friends! Well, to put it simply, life has not slowed down here since I last blogged. We continue to find ourselves on the go about 90% of the time, and asleep by 8pm the other 10% of the time. The price you pay for living the European dream...
Last weekend was another 4-day for Jason, so we decided it would be our last big trip before deployment. We had casually talked about taking a road-trip to a few places, but it wasn't until the day before we left that we actually made plans and booked hotels! With my "mom" snack bag packed, we were ready to hit the road. We would drive to Cologne early Friday, spend the day there; drive to Amsterdam the next morning; and then end our weekend in Brussels Sunday/Monday. The drives were not bad at all, and we got to see so much!
Since I took about 750 photos in 3 days, I am going to skip posting them on here for both our sakes, but go check out my albums on Facebook to see everything with did and saw! For now, I'll just do a little recap of some of my favorite parts of the trip.
Cologne - I am a major nerd for feeling this way apparently, but I genuinely believe it is one of my favorite places I've been to in Europe! I have been to 7 countries and countless cities over here, but there is just
something about Cologne. It's not too big, not too small. Not too much to run around and see, but enough to keep you entertained for a day or long weekend. Northern Germany is SO different than Bavaria, where we live. Cologne was modern for the most part, with a few really old things that survived the war. The Koln Dom (amazing church) is definitely worth seeing if you are there. And if you aren't feeling looking at old stuff, it is a beautiful place to just hang out! It is right on the Rhine River and has amazing views. One of the best views was from the Chocolate Museum actually. Another very cool thing to do there! Cologne also had a great shopping district, lots of yummy places to eat, and plenty of places to stay right downtown. Overall, I was pretty obsessed. If I had to stay in Germany, I would NOT mind living there!
Amsterdam - hmm...where do I start with this one? I didn't really do much research on what to see/do here, so maybe that made love it a little less than other big cities I've been too. BUT I really did enjoy my day there, and Jason did too. It is definitely one unique place. One thing you've got to do there is map out exactly what you want to see and do. There is not a lot of time to cover all that space! My favorite thing we did there was tour the Anne Frank house - her father's old business building where she hid in the annex with her family for over 2 years. So incredible and haunting and special. I was fascinated to say the least. After that, we went to Jason's favorite place - the Heineken Brewery, haha. It was cool too...definitely worth the time and money. And they give you several beers along the way! Other than that, we pretty much explored different canals and markets and churches and districts (even the Red Light district - so sad), and enjoyed the greatest dinner ever at Haesje Claes. Totally glad we went there, but I definitely want to see a lot of other places before I'd go back.
Brussels - again, my b. I didn't really know much about this place! We ran around taking pictures of a bunch of really old and beautiful stuff and ate more yummy food here. The coolest thing I saw there was the Grand Place. It was really breathtaking! The platz it is located in made Jason and I feel like we were living in a Harry Potter land...just a very cool feel. We also stumbled upon a jazz fest in that same square later that night, visited the Atomium (built for the World's Fair there), toured a mini-sized Europe, and ended our night at yet another Irish Pub for dinner. Overall, very cool place. Lots to see and do. Delicious waffles, go figure!
The most special part of our trip was a spur of the moment stop in Bastogne, almost on the border of Belgium and Luxembourg. The Battle of the Bulge took place here in WWII. Since we stopped there on the actual Memorial Day, it was a pretty darn cool feeling. There were roughly 79,000 American casualties on and around the grounds we were walking just 70 years earlier. It's hard to even comprehend the bravery of those men. So I hope you all took some time out of your lake days and BBQs to really think what Memorial Day is all about. It's truly only about those would have made the
ultimate sacrifice for mine and your freedom. Selfless dedication to a country they were willing to die for, so that we may know true freedom always.
So that is the long and short of our last major trip together this year. For everything in between, go FB stalk us!
