Amsterdam

While Creston and Brooke were here, we took a quick trip to Amsterdam.  We spent one night and two full days exploring and had a blast.  I wish we would have planned for more time (at least another day), but got a lot done in the time we were there. If you look down and to the right from the last M in Amsterdam to where is says "Entrepotdok", you will see the general vicinity of our apartment. If you click on the photos, I believe that you can make them larger.  I did them in scrapbook form to make uploading them easier.  I hope you can see them.

The drive into the city.

We parked outside of the city center in a parking lot called a Park & Ride and took the train into the apartment.  The train from the P&R took us to Central Station and then we caught another train to the apartment.  It was so easy!

We rented our apartment off of airbnb.com.  It was a great location, across from the zoo, with a tram stop right around the corner.  We were also able to walk to the Heineken Experience so we got to do quite a bit of exploring along the way.  It was a two bedroom, one bathroom, with a great room for the living/dining/kitchen.  It was a traditional row house and it was 4 stories including the basement apartment.  You could tell that it was very old.

After we got checked into the apartment and settled, we decided to try and hunt down the Heineken Experience.

 It took us a bit to find it and it was a little bit of a walk, but not too bad.  We had a great time exploring along the way.  Brooke got to "meet" Rembrandt and some of his men.  :)  And Creston got to see a few "coffee" shops.  Don't worry, he only saw them from the outside.

 Finally found the original Heineken brewery.

Once we left Heineken, we just crossed right over the canal and ate at the Carousel Panencuken House.  Brooke and Madi had their delicious Dutch pancakes, Mike had a Belgiun waffle, Creston had a cheeseburger (what???) and Mac and I had schnitzel.

Walking back over to the canal tours I saw this bike sign.  It's very fitting considering the amazing number of bikes.  People were so brave too.  I don't think that I could ever feel comfortable riding bikes in the traffic and with the trains.  It didn't even seem to faze these people.

The place to get on the boat for the canal tour was right between the Heineken warehouse and the pancake house but they ended up being booked.  We made our way to another place back by Central Station but they were boarding right as we got there so I didn't get a picture of it.

Check out the bottom middle picture, it's of a public outdoor urinal.  Brooke and I saw a guy in one and about died.  We couldn't believe someone would be comfortable going into one of those, for many reasons.  I had remembered reading that they were all over the city, but most are in the Red Light District.  Here's a link to an article about them, apparently they're pretty famous.  http://www.amsterdamlogue.com/urinals-in-amsterdam-an-unusual-tourist-attraction-of-sorts.html  the canal tour we headed back to the apartment because everyone was tired.  Creston, Brooke and I considered heading over to the Red Light District, but after Creston and Brooke went on a quick gelato run, we completely forgot about it.  Everyone got a good nights sleep instead.

Our plan the next morning was to check-out, leave our luggage with the landlady and see Anne Franks House and possibly another museum before driving to the windmill village.  Also Creston and Brooke wanted a photo with the "I Amsterdam" sign.  However this plan was cancelled when the landlady informed us that she had something come up and was going to be busy so we couldn't leave our luggage after we checked out, so we skipped to plan B.

We ended up taking a train ride around the city, grabbed some lunch, checked out, and headed back to the P&R.  After we got our vehicle repacked we drove to the windmill village.  I am actually glad that we got to spend more time here than was originally planned because it was awesome. The Zaanse Schans windmill museum, in the suburb of Zaandam, had an indoor museum (which we skipped) and an outdoor museum which you can see in the photos.  It was soooo beautiful and interesting, and we spent all afternoon there.

 The store had a huge variety of wooden shoes, including traditional and a more modern clog with leather.  The traditional shoes were painted in all kinds of patterns or just finished with a natural look.  We knew the girls would never wear them, and they were kind of expensive, so we just purchased 2 of the demo shoes for 2 Euro each.  They were completely unfinished and rough but we figured the girls could decorate them once they dried.  The shoes are made with fresh, wet lumber and the demonstrator actually blew into the shoe and water dripped out.
After the demonstration, we headed to one of the museum restaurants and had, you guessed it, more pancakes.  They were delicious.  Mike and Brooke had Nutella and Madi, Mac and I had strawberries and creme.  Creston had plain pancakes, and he wasn't impressed.

After dinner we started the 4 hour drive home.  It was a great trip!

Metz France 1/17/14

Today we took the 1.5 hour drive to Metz France, our first time out of Germany since we arrived.  Photos along the way.

Driving into Metz.

Extremely narrow road!

It was a bit scary trying to squeeze through the entrance to the parking garage.  :)

After the flea market, we headed to the city center to an outdoor market and the Cathedral of Saint Etienne.

There were many, many more venders than it shows in these pics.  Fresh fruits, veggies, seafood, meats, herbs, breads, cheeses, and lots of clothing.  This outdoor market was in a parking lot across from the cathedral.  it was in front of an indoor market, called the Place de Chambre, that was build in 1785 as the Bishop's palace.

After a little browsing and sampling we headed across the street to the Cathedral. The Cathedral, also known as God's lantern because of all of the light inside, has the 2nd highest nave in France (The nave is supported by flying buttresses and culminates at 41.41 metres (135.9 ft) high, making one of the highest naves in the world. The height of the nave is contrasted by the relatively low height of the aisles with 14.3 metres (47 ft) high, reinforcing the sensation of tallness of the nave) and the largest expanse of ancient stained glass in a single building(6,496 m² (69,920 sq ft)).  Its construction has been ongoing, but began in 984.  Enough of that!  As you will soon see, it is freaking BeAuTiFuL!!!

Front (entrance in bottom left)

Back

The entrance is called Portal of the Virgin. Among its scores of statues stands Saint Clément, the city's first bishop, whom legend credits with ridding the city of a monster called the Graoully (pronounced growly) by capturing the beast with his priestly stole and drowning it in the Seille. 

Here is a close-up of some of the "Graoully's" on the building.

Entering the cathedral was breathtaking to say the least.  We took A LOT of pictures inside, but I am going to try to upload only the best ones.  This first pictures are; a map and descriptions and then looking down to the right from the front door.

Close up of the ceiling.

Didn't I tell you?  Wow!  The next group of photos will be from areas along the right side of this picture counter clockwise to the left.  I'll add the stained glass last. 

This nativity scene was set up in the "Chapelle-Notre Dame La Ronde" area #16

 Painting on one of the pillars between areas #16 and #15.

Front right side of the sanctuary.  Right beside, I guess you would call it a stage (sorry)?  In the area behind #12. I thought that it looked like the organ was in there, but the map shows it directly across in #9/10.

The back window is in the #11 area.  I think it was under it.

#6, the Chaire A Precher (the pulpit).  It was basically a small, double staircase that had a low landing.

The Cross #4.  People were lighting candles and praying here.

#3 Notre Dame De Bon-Secours, Our Lady of Succour.  It looked like a statue of a child wearing a white christening gown. People were lighting candles and praying here too.

 #2 Cuve Baptismale, the baptismal basin.

The inside of the entrance door. It's hard to tell, but they were REALLY tall.  Mike estimates at least 20 feet.

A few more pictures of the MILES of stained glass!

A few random pics from outside.

We walked around a bit more before we stopped for lunch.

We ate lunch at "Le Montecristo".  A little cafe in the square across from the cathedral.  I didn't take pictures, but it was a quaint little restaurant that served mostly Italian food.

http://www.francetoday.com/articles/2012/09/24/discovering_metz.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metz_Cathedral