February 21, 2009

Amsterdam

Last Saturday we took a day trip to Amsterdam (without the kids). We went with our friends Sara and Matt and left all 4 of our kids with another friend, a brave soul who somehow managed to exhaust our kids and still look sane when we arrived home to relieve her. Matt insisted we bring our bikes, but I was skeptical. If I can avoid exercising I will, and I was thinking it would be too cold and too annoying to ride around Amsterdam all day. How wrong I was! It was the best idea. That city is all bikers and trolleys, hardly saw a car all day. It is built around a bunch of canals and they are full of houseboats if you can believe it. I never knew that about Amsterdam. While we didn't go into any museums, we did see the Van Gogh and Anne Frank house and there is tons of shopping. It is very easy to get around on the bikes and we were able to take in all of the scenery. I desperately tried to get a photo of a red light lady (Lady? No, not the right word) but someone walked in front of the camera. From what I hear she started yelling at me and we took off on the bikes. Oh well. Maybe she should get a new profession if she doesn't want naked photos of herself being taken. Anyway, we had a great time and the day flew by. We will definitely go back when the weather is warmer and whenever someone comes out to visit.













The kids have been amusing this week. We all ventured out to Snowworld again for Rhi's ski lesson. This time Brad went over to the boot rental counter and yanked the flourescent light bulb that's twice his length out of the socket. I also thought maybe I should wash my kitchen floor last week. After a mere 15 hours of having a nice clean floor, I walked into the kitchen and saw the following scene:


There are churches in all of our villages aroud here. Usually on every street corner there is what looks like a mini church with candles lit and various statues inside. They are just part of the scenery but Rhiannon asked me the other day when we walked past one, "Why is Germany all about Jesus?" The picture of her with the puppy is our friends Marita and Christian's new family addition, a West Highland Terrier name Feenchin (phonetic spelling). It means Josephine in German.


Today we are going to the Karnival parade and party in our village. There are floats and candy and I am sure lots of drinking! It looks like the sun is cracking its way into the sky so at least we won't have to endure the rain. It should be another great time for us here in Germany.