European Extravaganza Fall Break 2022

Sally’s fall break fell the week of Halloween in 2022. We planned to visit a whopping 3 adjacent countries, none of which we’d ever been to all together before (and 3/3 new for Sally and me, 1/3 new for David).

We started off in the Netherlands. After arrival Sunday evening into Eindhoven we enjoyed a stunning drive through the bucolic countryside. We were charmed by the countless windmills (old and new), horses large and small (Miniature Dutch horses are a thing!), endless cow pastures, and more bikes and canals than I could keep count of. The first evening we had a delicious meal of tapas at Orseti’s, accompanied by very slow but super friendly service and a warm atmosphere.

On Monday we hit Amsterdam hard, starting with a private tour at the Van Gogh museum with a lovely woman named Faustina. We actually ended up on this tour by accident because we didn’t book tickets far enough in advance and it was the only way to get into the museum! However, it was such a treat. We learned much more than we would have without a tour- such as: He only sold one painting (The Red Vineyard) when he was alive (now at the Pushkin museum in Moscow Russia). His younger brother, Theo, cared for him and paid his way most of his life (and also sponsored Gauguin), but also suffered from mental illness and died less than a year later than did Vincent. Theo and his wife named their son after Vincent (“William Vincent”) and Vincent painted his beautiful “Almond Blossom” to celebrate his birth. The last painting he did while he was alive was most likely unfinished. Gauguin came to work with Vincent in Arles but was far from charmed by Van Gogh and considered him a terrible artist. They also had a copy of Sunflowers that was interactive (so don't worry, Sally is not touching the read thing!).

Faustina also told us that she feels that women in the Netherlands are unable to be successful in a professional space because the country does not support women in the workplace and the schools send kids home for lunch so someone has to pick them up and take them home for lunch. She said it is a very Calvinist society and not good for women at all. I have not fact-checked this but found it very interesting, and had never heard any of this before.

After Van Gogh we had a simple lunch of pastries from a local cafe and explored the city a little. The crooked buildings are so endearing! Then we headed over to Van Stapele Koekmakerij, a much beloved local bakery known for its chocolate cookies. This had been recommended to David so he pre-ordered and we got to ring a special little bell and avoid the nightclub-esque line around the block (complete with a bouncer of sorts in a fancy outfit). We sat along the canal and ate our still-warm, scrumptious cookies before heading over to see the Anne Frank House. Again, we had unfortunately missed the reservation window (they release tickets 1 month before and immediately sell out!). However, we took the opportunity to help Sally try to understand a bit about WWII.

After this sombre time we hopped on a canal cruise and enjoyed a delightful tour through Amsterdam accompanied by wine and local cheeses. We learned some fun facts such as: Canals were originally 3 m deep but now much less in many spots. There are so many bikes in them that they have to use a trawler-like boat to scoop them out continuously. The city’s wealth was built on the spice trade, but spices and water don’t mix so they would store them on the top stories of these buildings lining the canals to protect them. Thus, they had hooks on the eves of each building, and most of them lean out a tiny bit over the water, so that they could pull spices up and down to the canal. To this day, they use these hooks to move furniture etc. in and out of these homes because they have such small doorways and stairwells. The doors and stairs are so narrow because people historically were taxed on the width of their homes and the number of windows. Finally, we learned a bit about the house boats. Apparently when you buy a permit for a houseboat it lives forever, so they get passed down in families. At one time the land-based housing crisis was such that there was no space in some of the canals to actually move a boat, it was wall-to-wall houseboats. Some houseboats are very simple, yet some are very modern, and some are up to 3 stories high and elegant.

Amsterdam overall was bustling nearing frenetic, with bikes and trams and cars and people everywhere. We were on high alert for Sally (and ourselves) and the bikes. I have never seen so many bikes in my life, and yet of course not a helmet in sight! Monday evening we wrapped up with dinner at De Blauwe Hollander, a more traditional Dutch meal in the theater district.

On Tuesday we checked out the Rijksmuseum, full of Rembrandts (kind of dark) and a smattering of impressionists along with many other Dutch artists. I had ordered a kids program which was a video game-style interactive tour that took us to parts of the museum we admittedly might have sped past, or not even gotten to, without that. There were instruments and locks and silver and doll houses…quite a display. We ambled back to our hotel via the large and green Vondelpark.

We spent Tuesday afternoon driving to Luxembourg, again delighted by the bucolic green countryside. Upon entering Luxembourg City we were astonished by the lack of people (where WAS everyone?), the cleanliness, and how elegant all the buildings appeared. Yet a pretty high homeless population as far as we could tell. We had yet another nontraditional dinner of tasty Mexican food at Pepito’s (not as friendly, but we rarely get Mexican food these days so it was much appreciated!).

On Wednesday we started at the playground (we had spotted it on route to dinner the night prior). This playground merits special mention because it was honestly the best playground any of us had ever been to, and we had it all to ourselves for the first 20 minutes or so, allowing David and I to fully play like kids! Truly magical.

Then we meandered through the genteel streets of Luxembourg, along/over the viaduct, to Cathédrale Notre Dame, across both the top and bottom (pedestrian only) Ponte Adolphe. After walking through the cathedral, we noted the bells were continually ringing and there was a lot of police, security, and photographers outside, along with cardinal in full dress…so we waited to see who would show up and it was Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg himself (along with some family), which was a random sighting, to say the least. He greeted the church members and headed into the Catacombs to celebrate The Day of the Dead. David happened to find a news article about it and in one picture you can see Sally and me peering over at him.

We took a tour of the Petrusse Casement (the larger Bock Casement were closed), unfortunately in Luxembourgish since the English tour was sold out. Luxembourgish to the ears is a mash-up of French and German, but our guide was very charming and some of the signage was in English. Either way, cool to walk around under the city and difficult not to be astonished by the engineering. We had a light, more traditional, lunch on Place de Guillaume and then did some shopping (much to Sally’s delight). She needed new kicks and we got her a pair of Puma’s that she is absolutely in love with. Fun to remember they came from Luxembourg. I actually tried to buy some shoes (I guess with all our walking we are going through them more quickly!) But at each shop I was told they had nothing in my monstrous size. ;)

Dinner that night at Les Copains d’Abord was absolutely delectable, with candelabras to round out the charm.

On Thursday we checked out the Luxembourg City History museum, which not only did a great job of filling us in on the history of Luxembourg, but sported a very cool elevator, which is probably the only thing any of us will ever remember about the history of Luxembourg.

We then headed off to Cologne, again enjoying the autumn colors of the countryside. We drove through many small towns in which houses and barns seemed to be combined, and cows and sheep and tractors held space smack in the middle of these tiny towns. We stopped at Bourscheid Castle. Considered one of the most impressive castles in Luxembourg, it did not disappoint. Located on a rocky outcropping hilltop, its stunning views also were one to remember. Unfortunately the woman at the ticket window/gift shop was a classic grump, but that didn’t detract too much from our enthusiasm.

When we arrived into Cologne it was rather gray, wet, and dreary. Dinner that evening was our only meal failure…I actually gave it 1 star on google reviews. I’ll say no more except to here except to describe it as an interesting cultural experience and that we lost the parenting game that night when our child dined on bread and convenience store Oreos for her supper. The aforementioned convenience store was run by an Iranian family with whom David had a lively chat and who Sally described as the nicest people she met on the entire German leg of our trip. AND then we turned that "poor parenting game” ship around and had an incredible night at Sally’s first concert - Band of Horses. This was the fourth time we’ve seen them together, and David had seen them one additional time without me…we love them, they are pretty family-friendly, and we listen to them a lot around the house so Sally is familiar with their cannon of work.

We were a little nervous they might not let Sally in, or that the venue would be definitively inappropriate for children (David’s research implied that kids over 8 years of age were allowed, but between the language barrier and the website it still wasn’t entirely clear)…but it worked out great! It was a small venue, with just a stage and a bar and a merchandise stand. There was one other family, and lots of devoted fans. We hung out in the back so Sally could intermittently be on David’s shoulders and so we could easily leave if it got weird. Sally was completely thrilled to be there, thanking us repeatedly, singing along, and dancing joyously.

On Friday it was still a bit grey but we had a pleasant time exploring the city around the museum district. Most notably, Cologne does not live up to its eponym. It was fun to see the barges heading down the Rhine, as this is the main way cargo moves around Europe to this day. We started at the gothic Cologne cathedral, which was as grimy as it was huge. From there we went to the Chocolate museum (Lindt) and we were like kids in a candy store (get it?). No offense to my home state’s chocolate museum (Hershey, which we toured seemingly yearly with school growing up), but this place was awesome. Another interactive tour for kids, loads of free samples, and you actually watched them make chocolate! Five stars for that one.

After a strangely delicious Italian lunch on a nearby square, we spent some time trying to appreciate modern art at the Ludvig Museum of Modern Art. The donkey mandibles with gold-plated teeth really caught my attention. I’m sure I failed explaining why a monochrome blue canvas or a stack of soap boxes is art, but I feel good that we at least tried. I think the looks on Sally and David’s faces below say a lot. It was quite an impressive collection though, from Warhol to Picasso to Mondrian to DeKooning to Pollack and so on…

The best part was the man making enormous bubbles outside the museum, which delight children and grownups alike.

Finally, we met up with Chris, Sharlea, Autumn, and Alex at a restaurant called Joseph’s on the Rhine. These guys are stationed down at Ramstein Airbase and were nice enough to drive up to see us for part of the weekend. The restaurant proprietor was engaging, the food delicious, and the kids had fun together, even if they were all a little tired. After making our way through the underground parking garage that apparently spanned the entire city (honestly at least a km long), we retired to our hotel.

We learned from Chris and Shar that Germans have country-wide mandatory quiet time every afternoon for 2 hours and all day every Sunday! This means no lawn work, no laundry, no washing the cars, etc. I also found myself constantly befuddled by the toilets on this trip. I don’t mind paying for a clean public restroom. I do get embarrassed and/or irritated when I actually cannot figure out how to enter a restroom. The coolest one, however, was the rotating self-cleaning toilet seat at a rest area outside Cologne.

On Saturday we devoured an American-style breakfast with American-style queues

Then made a probably unsuccessful attempt to walk it off in Königsforst. The changing leaves, damp forest, numerous mushrooms, and good company made for a lovely way to wrap our up European Extravaganza.