Bonjour from Paris, Bruxelles, & Amsterdam!

We spent 3 short days in Paris. We visited some of the most infamous historical icons of France and the world. In that time we managed to see Sacré-Coeur, the Louvre, Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. Between trying to be super-tourists, we managed to take some time to have a few fine dining experiences. I probably ate more bread and cheese in Paris than I had in the last year, mmmm! The highlight of Paris was dancing on the Eiffel Tower to the sweet sound of Edith Piaf (remember to bring your earbuds) at sunset. We stayed through the sunset, into nightfall and watched the sparkling lights of the city trickle on, one by one.

We stayed with a lovely couple, Marion and Renaud, in their cozy flat in Montmartre. It is a beautiful and eclectic part of the city, most known as a haunt of many of the great impressionist painters.  Among others, Van Gogh and Monet both spent time living and working in this area. 
We decided to take our first detour from our original itinerary.  Instead of going from Paris to Barcelona, we would now visit Belgium and Netherlands (this is a Circuitous journey after all :) 

Thanks to Marion in Paris, when we arrived in Brussels, we already had all of the information needed to eat the best french fries in town as well as a place to drink good cheap and local beer. We stopped short of finding the repudiated ‘best waffle’ in town, because we were overloaded with sweets from France by that time.  At the brasserie (bar) we met some fellow Americans, Courtney and Tom, who graciously offered for us to stay in their place for the weekend while they went to Champagne, France. Although we had only planned on one night in town, we decided to extend our stay and try to slow down a bit after the blitz of London and Paris. When we walked to their home, we were very surprised to walk into a five story beautiful townhouse in the best part of Brussels. We chilled, ate fantastic Belgian chocolate, drank good beer, went to the Grand Place, hung out with some locals, and got caught up on laundry and planning for our next jaunt.

The smell of marijuana hits you the second you step off the train in Amsterdam.  It’s a really beautiful and historic city, despite the popular images of the Red Light District and the liberal drug culture. The canals are stunning and the city is full of energy. Everyone rides a bike, young/old, big/small, all races, all classes, in high-heels and low-cut dresses, in business suits with boxes and with instruments, and a baby or two in a basket while eating ice cream, and texting. Nobody wears helmets, whether on bike or scooter. We should look up their head injury rates.

The Rijksmuseum was an amazing maze, around every corner you dive into a new painting that wisps you off to another era. The Van Gogh Museum had a special exhibit taking place, delving into his method and development as an artist. It was truly amazing. So much Van Gogh! I also visited The Anne Frank House. It was a very powerful experience to be there in the house where her family was in hiding and to be reminded of the tragic story once again.

We stayed in Volendam while in the Netherlands. It is 20km from Amsterdam and we went into the city by bus each day. We stayed on Tony’s cousin’s Roger’s sailboat in Volendam Marina. We enjoyed boat life and it felt like easy camping. There was a fair going on while we were there and each night of the weekend the entire town was out drinking and dancing (to very bad pop music, but still dancing nonetheless). Not one person walked in a straight line on the road from the marina to the town (excluding Tony and I :)  The highlight of the town (besides being on the water) was having the fortune of hearing groups of men on their boats belting out traditional Dutch songs. Traditional Dutch music sounds a lot like Irish folk music and some of our old-timey bluegrass. We met a couple from Canada on the train this morning and they agreed it reminded them of the traditional Canadian music as well. We are all one! Now onto Munich…

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