"We are Family"

We had an absolutely MARVELOUS time last weekend, as Abby's sister Molly and Molly's boyfriend Nick were in town for a long weekend visit!  Words cannot express how nice it was to have someone from back "home" at our new home here on the other side of the world.  Yes, we are able to Skype with our families now and then, but it is a completely different thing actually have family with us.

Molly and Nick had a great time exploring the city while we were both at work last Thursday.  They were able to visit the Anne Frank House, go on a canal cruise, and take a tour of the Heineken Brewery (this was a huge hit with those two).  After they had a fun-filled day doing that, they met Abby for dinner and drinks since Dan had to work late.

On Friday, Abby had the day off of work and took Molly and Nick to go visit the Rembrandt House and Museum.  What a cool place!  The house is very much in it's original condition.  Here are a few shots of how Rembrandt's studio looked and some of the tools he used:

After a few hours in the Rembrandt House, we got lunch at a small restaurant right next door and walked around the city for a few hours until Dan got out of work.  At that point, we all met for drinks and dinner.  It was very cool for us to be able to introduce our colleagues to Molly and Nick, and also very cool for them to be able to meet people from all over the world.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day weather-wise (shocking!).  Molly and Nick actually lucked out, as the weather was mostly sunny during the time they were here.  The four of us went out the Keukenhof Gardens, about an hour's commute from where we live.  Keukenhof is a massive area outside of the city with flowers of all kinds everywhere you look.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Flower lovers, brace yourselves!  Here is just a sampling of what we experienced:

Naturally, we had to try on the giant wooden shoes!

Given the beautiful scenery, we couldn't resist snapping a few other photos:

Sadly, Molly and Nick left us early Sunday morning.  They had had a long European trip (they were in Spain and France before coming to Holland!) and we were so lucky to be able to be a part of their trip! We are hoping that perhaps they will be making a similar trip some time again (hint hint!).  

That is all for now; we are looking forward to our 2 weeks home in June very much. We will be arriving the afternoon of June 9 and are so very excited to see all of our family and friends in just a few short weeks!

Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support!

Je t'aime Paris!

We've taken our first official tourist trip since our move to Europe!  Last Wednesday evening we left right after work for a long weekend in Paris.  Needless to say, we LOVED it!  Our friends Brandon and Sarah McGillicuddy so graciously offered their apartment to us during our stay and we cannot thank them enough.  There was so much to do and see, and we got to see most of the sights we had in mind.

Thursday morning we woke up and got to The Louvre pretty early.  The line was not too long, so we really lucked out.  The Louvre is MASSIVE (it would take 4 months to see the entire museum!) and the first thing we  saw after we walked into the main area was the infamous Pyramid:

 
Once inside, we immediately went to see the Mona Lisa.  It was actually much smaller than we both had thought it would be.  It was surrounded by glass and everyone had to say about 10 feet away from it, but seeing it in real life was very surreal.

 

Another famous work of art that we saw here was Venus de Milo:

Here are a few of the other works of art we saw.  Keep in mind that we only saw a tiny portion of the museum, so this is just a snapshot of some of the works that are included in this amazing place.

 

After our 4 hour visit to the Louvre, we decided to check out Notre Dame Cathedral, of course!  We did not go inside, as the line was a bit long, but the sheer awe of being at the original Notre Dame Cathedral was truly incredible.  We learned that the whole thing took 2 CENTURIES to build.  It is truly a beautiful and amazing place:

Next, since it was an absolutely gorgeous day (and those are so few and far between for us, living in rainy Amsterdam!), we decided to go on a Seine River tour.  We were able to learn a lot about the city (we have more photos from this but have not yet uploaded them), and got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.  After the river cruise, we decided to get dinner at the Notre Dame Cafe (across the street from the Cathedral) and then walked to the Eiffel Tower.  (This was just over a 3-mile walk - one way.)  We knew we had to take advantage of the beautiful night to see the Eiffel Tower in person and then to watch it light up.  We had seen pictures, but nothing does it justice like seeing the enormous structure in person.  It was truly breathtaking!  After sunset the tower lights up and then at 10:00 pm, the Eiffel Tower sparkles!

After the tower sparkled, we walked back home and fell asleep almost as soon as we laid down!

The next day we grabbed breakfast on-the-go and ate it in a beautiful and expansive park that runs all the way from the Louvre to the Obelisque.  It was very picturesque and a great way to begin our day:

After enjoying our breakfast and the scenery, we went to the Musee d'Orsay.  We cannot put up any photos, as the museum did not allow any pictures to be taken.  It was a very cool museum with famous paintings from many impressionist painters such as Monet, Manet, Matisse, Degas, VanGogh, Renior and many more.  There were other works of art there as well, but we spent most of our time looking at the impressionist art.

After the museum, we had lunch at nice cafe across the street and walked down to see some of the souvenir shops right at the Eiffel Tower.  We also enjoyed browsing the trinkets, photos and memorabilia at the street vendors on the street that runs along the Seine towards the Eiffel.

On our last full day in Paris, we met up with Brandon and Sarah and toured the Catacombs.  This is basically an underground tunnel-turned-graveyard.  Many bones were moved from cemeteries after some of them became health hazards.  Moving all the bones took 80 years.  This was truly an amazing thing to see, knowing that all the remains we saw had a story behind them that we will never know.  It was a  bit eerie, but also very interesting.

After the catacombs, the four of us had lunch and while Sarah waited for our table to come available, Brandon took us around the corner to see St. Sulpice, a MASSIVE Catholic church.  We were allowed to take photos inside the church.  For those of you from Grand Rapids and Catholic Central - it makes St. Andrews look tiny:

When our bellies were full, we went to Montmarte, a beautiful area with a Catholic Church even larger than St. Sulpice.  Montmarte is the area in Paris where most of the famous artists from the past would gather, and seeing the views, it's not hard to understand why.  From the top of the hill, you have one of the most breathtaking views of the city.

Once we had seen Montmarte, we decided to head back home to grab some dinner.  Later in the evening we met up with Brandon and Sarah to grab a few drinks and to say goodbye.

Sadly, our train left on Sunday morning.  We had such a great time in Paris and would definitely recommend it to everyone.  It's a great place to go if you ever have the opportunity.  The city is so beautiful and so rich with history that it should be on everyone's bucket list!

In just 2 days, Abby's sister Molly and her boyfriend Nick will be here and we are so excited to have family from home here for a visit!  

Stay tuned for updates, we will try to keep them coming more often!  We love all of your comments and are so glad we can share our experiences with you all.  Thanks for the prayers!