The boys, enjoying a final Belgium abbey beer together
We miss you guys already!!!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Friends
On January 25, 2 of our close friend and their boys headed off for a new adventure in Australia. It was so very hard to see them go. We have all grown close over the last year and though it's only been a year, it seems that when you live in an international community, you grow closer, faster. One of the disadvantages to having friends who are all expats is this very thing. You know that everyone's time here is temporary and even if it isn't, you know that yours is. We all relate to the struggles that come along with moving abroad, the difficulty in finding jobs, raising families, etc. This draws us all closer. So it's hard to say goodbye when someone's time is up here. These dear friends are Americans and will be eventually making their way back to the States but for now it appears they will be hanging out with the kangaroos and koala's in the land down under. We miss you guys! Throw another shrimp on the barbi for us!!!
The boys, enjoying a final Belgium abbey beer together
We miss you guys already!!!
The boys, enjoying a final Belgium abbey beer together
We miss you guys already!!!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Rainy Days
All this week I have been babysitting a 3.5 month old little Italian boy named Pepe. Today I showed him a youtube video of pepe le peu, the french skunk. That's what I think of whenever I say his name so I thought I'd culture him a little bit. :) Anyways, this family lives about 5 miles away from my city so it's about a 25 minute bike ride on a windy day. Normally, it's a pleasant ride, but on mornings like this, it's downright miserable. I started the morning off poorly by not being able to find any of my rain gear. I couldn't find my rain pants or my awesome blue poncho.
It's days like these that I miss the luxury of having a car for every day use. Of course, I could always get one of these and that might solve most of my problems.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Things I've learned so far during this pregnancy
I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and starting my second trimester!yea!! Hopefully this brings the end of morning sickness, a baby bump, and finding out the sex of our baby! I just thought I would share some things I've learned so far, which isn't much.
1. Morning sickness is really a lie. Your sickness is not confined to the morning. You may have to make a run for the bathroom in the afternoon, evening, or morning. Don't be fooled and think you are in the clear just because it's after noon. It's really kind of a mean trick that you don't learn about until after you are pregnant.
2. Dreams. Ohhh the dreams. I have been having crazy, intense, vivid dreams. They seem so real and lifelike. They are typically very long and I can jump back into them even after waking up. Some nights they are so real that I don't want to go back to sleep. In fact, after a long night of these kinds of dreams, I wake up feeling more exhausted. I hope this doesn't last the entire time.
3. If you are experiencing "morning" sickness, you should always be prepared when you leave the house. This means bringing along a plastic bag, some wet wipes or paper towels and preferably a bottle of water. I had my first incident of vomiting in public the other day while out shopping with a friend. I was not prepared and had to make a run for the outside of the store, throwing my coat off onto the ground and ridding myself of my banana that I had for lunch.
4.Also, don't wear cowel neck shirts if you think you might be sick. They just get in the way (as experienced in #3).
5. Your husband could possibly end up starving during this time or else gaining a bunch of weight because he just eats junk when you don't cook good meals. Rarely have I had a desire to eat anything substantial and most nights we eat sandwiches (me just a cheese sandwich), a simple pasta, or if I'm really sick and have no appetite, Dan might grab a bag of chips and some Reese's peanut butter cups. I really do try to object and steer him towards something healthier but I think he likes the excuse to eat junk.
6. The Dutch see pregnancy as a natural event, not a medical event. This means that you don't get all the typical tests we have back in the US. They did do a blood test on me, in which I asked them to check my iron levels and thyroid. They did neither, but hey, I found out I'm AB+ and don't have HIV so that's helpful. . .not.
7. We went to look at strollers or "prams" as they call them here. They are super cute and super expensive! We did find out how they operate though, which is a plus.
8. I have discovered that they like to give pregnant women a lot of free stuff here! Most of the drug stores allow you to sign up to receive a baby box full of all kinds of things for the baby! It's pretty exciting and I can't wait to get my first box.
9.We heard the heartbeat last week in the midwife's office, on the doppler (not an ultrasound). It was amazing! So crazy to hear it and hear how fast it was beating! She was able to find my uterus right away (which is also weird that you can now begin to feel it just by pushing on my stomach a bit). I also found out I lost nearly 5 lbs in a week. So I guess there is one good thing about being sick.
10. Finally, the most recent thing I've learned is that it is common here that once you deliver(in a hospital) they move you into a giant room with up to 6 other women and their babies and families, etc. until you are ready for discharge--which will occur within a few hours after giving birth if there were no complications and it's not super late at night.
This is going to be an interesting 6 more months!!
1. Morning sickness is really a lie. Your sickness is not confined to the morning. You may have to make a run for the bathroom in the afternoon, evening, or morning. Don't be fooled and think you are in the clear just because it's after noon. It's really kind of a mean trick that you don't learn about until after you are pregnant.
2. Dreams. Ohhh the dreams. I have been having crazy, intense, vivid dreams. They seem so real and lifelike. They are typically very long and I can jump back into them even after waking up. Some nights they are so real that I don't want to go back to sleep. In fact, after a long night of these kinds of dreams, I wake up feeling more exhausted. I hope this doesn't last the entire time.
3. If you are experiencing "morning" sickness, you should always be prepared when you leave the house. This means bringing along a plastic bag, some wet wipes or paper towels and preferably a bottle of water. I had my first incident of vomiting in public the other day while out shopping with a friend. I was not prepared and had to make a run for the outside of the store, throwing my coat off onto the ground and ridding myself of my banana that I had for lunch.
4.Also, don't wear cowel neck shirts if you think you might be sick. They just get in the way (as experienced in #3).
5. Your husband could possibly end up starving during this time or else gaining a bunch of weight because he just eats junk when you don't cook good meals. Rarely have I had a desire to eat anything substantial and most nights we eat sandwiches (me just a cheese sandwich), a simple pasta, or if I'm really sick and have no appetite, Dan might grab a bag of chips and some Reese's peanut butter cups. I really do try to object and steer him towards something healthier but I think he likes the excuse to eat junk.
6. The Dutch see pregnancy as a natural event, not a medical event. This means that you don't get all the typical tests we have back in the US. They did do a blood test on me, in which I asked them to check my iron levels and thyroid. They did neither, but hey, I found out I'm AB+ and don't have HIV so that's helpful. . .not.
7. We went to look at strollers or "prams" as they call them here. They are super cute and super expensive! We did find out how they operate though, which is a plus.
8. I have discovered that they like to give pregnant women a lot of free stuff here! Most of the drug stores allow you to sign up to receive a baby box full of all kinds of things for the baby! It's pretty exciting and I can't wait to get my first box.
9.We heard the heartbeat last week in the midwife's office, on the doppler (not an ultrasound). It was amazing! So crazy to hear it and hear how fast it was beating! She was able to find my uterus right away (which is also weird that you can now begin to feel it just by pushing on my stomach a bit). I also found out I lost nearly 5 lbs in a week. So I guess there is one good thing about being sick.
10. Finally, the most recent thing I've learned is that it is common here that once you deliver(in a hospital) they move you into a giant room with up to 6 other women and their babies and families, etc. until you are ready for discharge--which will occur within a few hours after giving birth if there were no complications and it's not super late at night.
This is going to be an interesting 6 more months!!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
1st trimester details
By next week, I will be finished with my first trimester. What this means is that the possibility for miscarriage drops significantly, my baby is looking more human like, and I'm hoping it means an end to morning sickness. I started out just being nauseous in the mornings, then it moved to vomiting around lunch time and now I'm throwing up in the evenings. It's kind of a catch-22 because it's almost a comforting sign that things are going good but you really just want to spend more time out of the bed and toilet.
It's going to be very interesting to navigate this pregnancy through the Dutch healthcare system. Obgyn? who needs 'em?! getting weighed? nope! Want to get a hold of your midwife? better call during the 1 hour a day that the phones are answered! Here in the Netherlands, they exclusively use midwives, unless there are major complications, then you are referred to a doctor. 40% of Dutch women give birth at home (I will not be doing that, fyi). They do minimal prenatal testing and feel that pregnancy is a very natural thing and nature will just take it's course. I have a feeling I will have some good stories to tell throughout this whole process so stay tuned!
We had our first ultrasound yesterday and it was amazing!! You never know what you will think or feel because for the past several weeks, while you know you are pregnant, all you really know is that something is making you crazy sick. So to finally see the little one was such a surreal experience. As soon as we found the baby, it looked just like a little person! It was moving around like crazy! It had it's arms up and appeared to be waving at us. Even the ultrasound tech was laughing and commenting on how much it was moving. I think it takes after it's parents and enjoys being photographed. When it finally rested for a few minutes, we were able to see the heart beat, moving steady and strong. I may be biased but I'm pretty sure we have the cutest in utero baby!!:) The baby was measuring perfectly for it's age (just under 2 inches long, 11weeks, 3 days). We'll go back again around 20 weeks to make sure everything is developing properly and find out the sex.
Here are some of the first pics of baby Caputo!!
It's going to be very interesting to navigate this pregnancy through the Dutch healthcare system. Obgyn? who needs 'em?! getting weighed? nope! Want to get a hold of your midwife? better call during the 1 hour a day that the phones are answered! Here in the Netherlands, they exclusively use midwives, unless there are major complications, then you are referred to a doctor. 40% of Dutch women give birth at home (I will not be doing that, fyi). They do minimal prenatal testing and feel that pregnancy is a very natural thing and nature will just take it's course. I have a feeling I will have some good stories to tell throughout this whole process so stay tuned!
We had our first ultrasound yesterday and it was amazing!! You never know what you will think or feel because for the past several weeks, while you know you are pregnant, all you really know is that something is making you crazy sick. So to finally see the little one was such a surreal experience. As soon as we found the baby, it looked just like a little person! It was moving around like crazy! It had it's arms up and appeared to be waving at us. Even the ultrasound tech was laughing and commenting on how much it was moving. I think it takes after it's parents and enjoys being photographed. When it finally rested for a few minutes, we were able to see the heart beat, moving steady and strong. I may be biased but I'm pretty sure we have the cutest in utero baby!!:) The baby was measuring perfectly for it's age (just under 2 inches long, 11weeks, 3 days). We'll go back again around 20 weeks to make sure everything is developing properly and find out the sex.
Here are some of the first pics of baby Caputo!!
Baby Time!
Since we had the Bahama vacation (see post below) we were fortunate enough to get to go home for Thanksgiving this year! We got to spend a lot of good times with family and friends but I would say that my best memory of being home would be finding out that we are having a baby!!!
After our Bahama vacation, I kept telling Dan that I felt "different" and wondered if I was pregnant. We hadn't exactly been trying but there was enough possibility that I could've been. We decided to wait a bit to see if anything changed and thought maybe it was attributed to all the traveling we had been doing. The week of Thanksgiving, I started feeling nauseous and on our drive to Illinois on Thanksgiving day, I couldn't talk for fear of vomiting. We decided later that night that we would take a pregnancy test the next day. We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed getting to spend the time with Dan's family.
On Friday, we were back in St. Louis and had to do a little last minute Christmas shopping for his mom so we went to Target. We also decided to buy the test and take it in the bathroom. Yes, yes we did. Both of our mom's were very gung ho about us having kids so we didn't want to take the chance of them finding the wrapper and getting any ideas!:) So I made Dan buy the test because I was going to be using the private, handicapped bathroom right next to the pharmacy where he was buying the test, so that would be embarrassing if they saw me buy it and then go directly into the bathroom!!:) So I went into the bathroom and took the test. and waited. and waited. and waited. Nothing was happening! no lines were turning, the control line was not changing. Nothing! So I re-read the instructions and they said if the control line hadn't changed after 10 minutes, then it was a faulty test or I did something wrong. So after 10 minutes, I came out of the bathroom to an expectant Dan. "Uh..I think I messed it up." Dan just looked at me and started laughing and asked me how I could mess it up? I don't know but luckily there were two sticks in there. Of course now I no longer had to go to the bathroom.
So we walked around Target some more and then decided we needed to go to Kohl's, the whole time laughing about how we seemed like a bunch of teenagers, trying to find out if we were pregnant. So we drive to Kohl's and I'm chugging water on the way, determined not to mess this one up (Those tests are freaky expensive!) Dan and I made a deal that I would wait to look at it until I came out of the bathroom so that we could look at it together, since it's supposed to take up to 3 minutes to change. So, I went to the bathroom and as soon as I finished and went to place the cap on and wrap it in toilet paper, it had already turned positive!!! 3 minutes? more like 3 seconds! I came out of the bathroom with a big smile on my face. Dan said later he thought I had messed up the test again because I was smiling. I pulled out the test and showed him and we both started silently screaming (we were in Kohl's remember) and hugging and kissing. We quickly made our way out of the store where we did not have to be silent anymore.
We knew we wanted to tell our families right away so that we could tell them in person. We bought a newborn onesie that said, "what happens at grandma's, stays at grandma's" (it was all we could find! ) and surprised Dan's mom with it at dinner that night. The waiting for them to get it is priceless! Of course she was very excited and ready to start shopping!:) We told my parents a few days later when we were back in Kansas City. My mom did not get it for about 30 seconds. She just kept looking at it and saying, "oh that's nice". She thought it was a shirt for my 4 year old niece! Finally someone said, "do you get it?" and then she freaked out. We had tricked her earlier in the day when we met up with Dan's mom in Columiba to go shopping. They kept talking baby stuff and I kept acting like I wanted to no part in talking about it. So my mom was fully convinced we were not going to be even trying for awhile!! It was great!
So we are super excited! I'm due July 18, 2012. Which means I'm about 12 weeks along. We can't wait for our little Baby Caputo to get here!!
After our Bahama vacation, I kept telling Dan that I felt "different" and wondered if I was pregnant. We hadn't exactly been trying but there was enough possibility that I could've been. We decided to wait a bit to see if anything changed and thought maybe it was attributed to all the traveling we had been doing. The week of Thanksgiving, I started feeling nauseous and on our drive to Illinois on Thanksgiving day, I couldn't talk for fear of vomiting. We decided later that night that we would take a pregnancy test the next day. We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed getting to spend the time with Dan's family.
On Friday, we were back in St. Louis and had to do a little last minute Christmas shopping for his mom so we went to Target. We also decided to buy the test and take it in the bathroom. Yes, yes we did. Both of our mom's were very gung ho about us having kids so we didn't want to take the chance of them finding the wrapper and getting any ideas!:) So I made Dan buy the test because I was going to be using the private, handicapped bathroom right next to the pharmacy where he was buying the test, so that would be embarrassing if they saw me buy it and then go directly into the bathroom!!:) So I went into the bathroom and took the test. and waited. and waited. and waited. Nothing was happening! no lines were turning, the control line was not changing. Nothing! So I re-read the instructions and they said if the control line hadn't changed after 10 minutes, then it was a faulty test or I did something wrong. So after 10 minutes, I came out of the bathroom to an expectant Dan. "Uh..I think I messed it up." Dan just looked at me and started laughing and asked me how I could mess it up? I don't know but luckily there were two sticks in there. Of course now I no longer had to go to the bathroom.
So we walked around Target some more and then decided we needed to go to Kohl's, the whole time laughing about how we seemed like a bunch of teenagers, trying to find out if we were pregnant. So we drive to Kohl's and I'm chugging water on the way, determined not to mess this one up (Those tests are freaky expensive!) Dan and I made a deal that I would wait to look at it until I came out of the bathroom so that we could look at it together, since it's supposed to take up to 3 minutes to change. So, I went to the bathroom and as soon as I finished and went to place the cap on and wrap it in toilet paper, it had already turned positive!!! 3 minutes? more like 3 seconds! I came out of the bathroom with a big smile on my face. Dan said later he thought I had messed up the test again because I was smiling. I pulled out the test and showed him and we both started silently screaming (we were in Kohl's remember) and hugging and kissing. We quickly made our way out of the store where we did not have to be silent anymore.
We knew we wanted to tell our families right away so that we could tell them in person. We bought a newborn onesie that said, "what happens at grandma's, stays at grandma's" (it was all we could find! ) and surprised Dan's mom with it at dinner that night. The waiting for them to get it is priceless! Of course she was very excited and ready to start shopping!:) We told my parents a few days later when we were back in Kansas City. My mom did not get it for about 30 seconds. She just kept looking at it and saying, "oh that's nice". She thought it was a shirt for my 4 year old niece! Finally someone said, "do you get it?" and then she freaked out. We had tricked her earlier in the day when we met up with Dan's mom in Columiba to go shopping. They kept talking baby stuff and I kept acting like I wanted to no part in talking about it. So my mom was fully convinced we were not going to be even trying for awhile!! It was great!
So we are super excited! I'm due July 18, 2012. Which means I'm about 12 weeks along. We can't wait for our little Baby Caputo to get here!!
Bahamas 2011
Thanks to Wheel of Fortune, we got to take our Bahama vacation this November! People have been asking me if it was "for real", as in, are the prizes you win really as awesome as they seem to be? The answer is YES! It was amazing! The island we went to, Eleuthera, is a smaller island and less touristy than some of the big name islands, such as Nassau or Grand Bahamas. This made for the ideal, relaxing vacation.
Our villa was amazing! It was two-story, beautifully furnished, and right on the water. Out the back of the villa, you looked onto the marina/ocean and out the front, you also looked onto the ocean! We woke up every morning to the sound of the waves and palm trees blowing.
We spent the first day or two, relaxing, exploring beaches and getting rid of jet lag. We went to one of the most amazing beaches in the Bahamas, Lighthouse beach. To get to this beach, you have to drive to the very Southernmost tip of the island and then get on an all dirt, very rutted, makeshift road and drive 3 miles until you finally arrive at the beach. There were a few times we didn't think we would make it in our Buick custom! However, the drive was well worth the view.
We literally had this entire beach to ourselves for hours. It was amazing!!
The next two days we spent scuba diving!! Let me tell you, it was a million times better than our scuba experience in the Netherlands. We didn't have to wear wet suits, there were fish, and the water was so warm and crystal clear! We saw sting ray, lion fish, beautiful coral heads, and so many different types of fish. The second day of diving, we got to dive to 80 feet!! We also got to dive with one of the world's most famous divers, Neal Watson! He holds two Guiness World Records; one for the deepest dive of 432 feet and the other for the longest underwater swim on compressed air. He swam 66 miles in about 19 hours. The deepest dive record is officially closed because a number of people have died trying to break it! He was also in a few of the James Bond movies and taught Fergie (Duchess of York) and Russell Brand, how to dive. We found all this out later from some friends we met but we was really nice and down to earth. A definite beach bum! Speaking of our friends, we met this really nice couple who worked for a dive magazine and they were down there doing an article. They took a ton of underwater pictures of us so hopefully we'll get to see some and I can post them later!!
Overall it was a fabulous vacation and a great, free, getaway for us!!
anddd no, i'm not going European style swimming here, apparently my top just needs pulled up a bit:)
Our villa was amazing! It was two-story, beautifully furnished, and right on the water. Out the back of the villa, you looked onto the marina/ocean and out the front, you also looked onto the ocean! We woke up every morning to the sound of the waves and palm trees blowing.
We spent the first day or two, relaxing, exploring beaches and getting rid of jet lag. We went to one of the most amazing beaches in the Bahamas, Lighthouse beach. To get to this beach, you have to drive to the very Southernmost tip of the island and then get on an all dirt, very rutted, makeshift road and drive 3 miles until you finally arrive at the beach. There were a few times we didn't think we would make it in our Buick custom! However, the drive was well worth the view.
The next two days we spent scuba diving!! Let me tell you, it was a million times better than our scuba experience in the Netherlands. We didn't have to wear wet suits, there were fish, and the water was so warm and crystal clear! We saw sting ray, lion fish, beautiful coral heads, and so many different types of fish. The second day of diving, we got to dive to 80 feet!! We also got to dive with one of the world's most famous divers, Neal Watson! He holds two Guiness World Records; one for the deepest dive of 432 feet and the other for the longest underwater swim on compressed air. He swam 66 miles in about 19 hours. The deepest dive record is officially closed because a number of people have died trying to break it! He was also in a few of the James Bond movies and taught Fergie (Duchess of York) and Russell Brand, how to dive. We found all this out later from some friends we met but we was really nice and down to earth. A definite beach bum! Speaking of our friends, we met this really nice couple who worked for a dive magazine and they were down there doing an article. They took a ton of underwater pictures of us so hopefully we'll get to see some and I can post them later!!
Overall it was a fabulous vacation and a great, free, getaway for us!!
Girls Trip 2011!
First, I apologize for the hiatus from the blog. Life got crazy, I couldn't upload pictures, and time got away from me. But one of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up better with the blog! So some of these posts are going to be about things that have already happened but I'd like to share them nonetheless.
As the title of my post suggests, I had two friends come over in late September to visit. First time to Europe and it was soooo good to see familiar faces in my new territory. We spent the first few days getting them adjusted to the time change,which meant marching them around Leiden, showing them all the cool history that I'm sure they have no recollection of! The following day we went to Amsterdam and did a boat tour, toured the Anne Frank house, and fed the pigeons in Dam Square. We ended up our day eating Dutch pancakes and packing for the start of our Tour De Europa.
We left early the next morning for the airport, to make our flight to our first destination...Rome! Rome was a whirlwind, at least for me. There is soo much to see and do there and we were just in awe of all the history. We went to the Colosseum, the Roman forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain,and a ton of other small gems we found. We ate at the world famous "Alfredo's" home of the "original fettuccine alfredo" . Not what we think of as fettuccine alfredo but delicious anyways! We toured the National Museum of Rome, which basically was a lot of carved heads. The real reason we wanted to go there was because of the famous Discus thrower statue. Turns out it was a fake. That was disappointing. We spent our last day in Rome at the Vatican City. We toured the Vatican museum, at which point we entered a time warp and seemingly lost half our day. We sat in awe in the Sistine Chapel and thanks to Rick Steve's travel book, found our way through a secret backdoor out of the sistine chapel, into St. Peter's Basilica. Did you know that the Sistine Chapel is the pope's personal chapel? and that is also where all the bishops and cardinals lock themselves away to choose the next pope? That is where the white smoke comes from. Pretty exciting to think about. So we did a quick tour thru the Basilica, which was incredibly ornate and beautifully done. We saw where the pope gives mass and where Peter's bones are buried. Definitely, maybe. We had to hurry though because we wanted to climb the stairs to the top of the dome and we were running out of time before we had to catch our plane. We climbed some 600 stairs, through a narrow, cramped, slanted, curvy passageway, all the way to the top of the Vatican. It was the highest point in Rome and the view was well worth the climb to the top. But we had to quickly make our way down so we could catch our flight to our next destination.
VENICE!!!
Venice was every bit as amazing as it appears in the movies. We only spent one day there but we got to see most everything. The best advice we were given was to get lost in the back streets of Venice. The island itself is so small that you eventually wind your way back to the main parts. True to form, there were gondolas, street artists, and delicious gelato! It really is a picturesque place with beautifully colored buildings that are directly on the water. We actually stayed a little outside of Venice, which made for cheaper accommodations and I would recommend that to anyone on a budget. It was a short 15 minute bus ride into the city.
Finally we headed to our last stop, Barcelona!
Barcelona
We had no idea about Barcelona and had forgotten the travel book at home so we were really on our own. It was the most relaxed part of the trip because we didn't have an agenda. We stayed in a hostel, which was interesting in and of itself. We spent a day at the beach, splashing in the Mediterranean and feeling slightly overdressed as we were surrounded by a lot of topless women. I tried to convince Meg to "do as the locals do" but she just couldn't get behind that. :) We also celebrated Meg's 31st birthday with a traditional Spanish dinner and sangria! We followed that up with going to a flamenco dancer show. It was absolutely amazing. It was a more intimate setting, above a bar with just about 50 people crowded around a small stage, with one flamenco dancer, a singer, and a classical guitarist. That was my favorite thing in Barcelona! We also visited a lot of the artist Gaudi's works, including the Sagrada Famillia, which is a crazy church that has been in construction for some 120 years and is still not finished!
and then we capped off our Tour de Europa with some relaxing time back in Leiden, where the girls got their first experience at riding bikes as their main mode of transportation! It was a fabulous trip and I am so thankful that I have good friends willing to make the journey to come visit!
As the title of my post suggests, I had two friends come over in late September to visit. First time to Europe and it was soooo good to see familiar faces in my new territory. We spent the first few days getting them adjusted to the time change,which meant marching them around Leiden, showing them all the cool history that I'm sure they have no recollection of! The following day we went to Amsterdam and did a boat tour, toured the Anne Frank house, and fed the pigeons in Dam Square. We ended up our day eating Dutch pancakes and packing for the start of our Tour De Europa.
We left early the next morning for the airport, to make our flight to our first destination...Rome! Rome was a whirlwind, at least for me. There is soo much to see and do there and we were just in awe of all the history. We went to the Colosseum, the Roman forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain,and a ton of other small gems we found. We ate at the world famous "Alfredo's" home of the "original fettuccine alfredo" . Not what we think of as fettuccine alfredo but delicious anyways! We toured the National Museum of Rome, which basically was a lot of carved heads. The real reason we wanted to go there was because of the famous Discus thrower statue. Turns out it was a fake. That was disappointing. We spent our last day in Rome at the Vatican City. We toured the Vatican museum, at which point we entered a time warp and seemingly lost half our day. We sat in awe in the Sistine Chapel and thanks to Rick Steve's travel book, found our way through a secret backdoor out of the sistine chapel, into St. Peter's Basilica. Did you know that the Sistine Chapel is the pope's personal chapel? and that is also where all the bishops and cardinals lock themselves away to choose the next pope? That is where the white smoke comes from. Pretty exciting to think about. So we did a quick tour thru the Basilica, which was incredibly ornate and beautifully done. We saw where the pope gives mass and where Peter's bones are buried. Definitely, maybe. We had to hurry though because we wanted to climb the stairs to the top of the dome and we were running out of time before we had to catch our plane. We climbed some 600 stairs, through a narrow, cramped, slanted, curvy passageway, all the way to the top of the Vatican. It was the highest point in Rome and the view was well worth the climb to the top. But we had to quickly make our way down so we could catch our flight to our next destination.
VENICE!!!
Venice was every bit as amazing as it appears in the movies. We only spent one day there but we got to see most everything. The best advice we were given was to get lost in the back streets of Venice. The island itself is so small that you eventually wind your way back to the main parts. True to form, there were gondolas, street artists, and delicious gelato! It really is a picturesque place with beautifully colored buildings that are directly on the water. We actually stayed a little outside of Venice, which made for cheaper accommodations and I would recommend that to anyone on a budget. It was a short 15 minute bus ride into the city.
Finally we headed to our last stop, Barcelona!
Barcelona
We had no idea about Barcelona and had forgotten the travel book at home so we were really on our own. It was the most relaxed part of the trip because we didn't have an agenda. We stayed in a hostel, which was interesting in and of itself. We spent a day at the beach, splashing in the Mediterranean and feeling slightly overdressed as we were surrounded by a lot of topless women. I tried to convince Meg to "do as the locals do" but she just couldn't get behind that. :) We also celebrated Meg's 31st birthday with a traditional Spanish dinner and sangria! We followed that up with going to a flamenco dancer show. It was absolutely amazing. It was a more intimate setting, above a bar with just about 50 people crowded around a small stage, with one flamenco dancer, a singer, and a classical guitarist. That was my favorite thing in Barcelona! We also visited a lot of the artist Gaudi's works, including the Sagrada Famillia, which is a crazy church that has been in construction for some 120 years and is still not finished!
and then we capped off our Tour de Europa with some relaxing time back in Leiden, where the girls got their first experience at riding bikes as their main mode of transportation! It was a fabulous trip and I am so thankful that I have good friends willing to make the journey to come visit!
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