Spring Break 2017

We've been busy in Italy over the past few weeks leading up to Spring Break. Girls are still enjoying and doing well in school. LC has learned all her Kindergarten grade sight words and is now working on her first grade list.  We decided to head to Amsterdam for LC's spring break. Ellis' break was the following week. Overall, we had a great time on the trip!  Here are some pix.

We drove up an hour and a half north near Gaeta and visited Tiberius' beach house.  The ruins were the only thing remaining along with a pool and a grotto. 

It was a gorgeous day with sun and blue skies. 

The girls helped me pick some of the lemons off the tree. We picked 228 lemons... but really didn't have anything to do with them, so we just threw them away. There are still about 75 left... and it is going grow lemons again in the summer.  We did make lemonade and lemon bars.

Inside the grotto looking out towards the ocean. 

The ruins. 

Since we were so close to the beach and because it was so nice, we decided to make a day out of it.  We were very impressed how clean and beautiful the beaches and water were. We really have only see the beaches and waters in the Naples area and it is kind of gross.  So it is nice to know there are nice beaches close by. 

The water was still a little chilly but that didn't keep the girls from wading and falling in. 

So our first trip out of the country via airplane was to Amsterdam.  

It was a really neat city with lots to see. Easily walkable and stuff to see at every corner. It was a tad bit chilly the first few days but that didn't keep us from exploring. 

There were canals all over the city. And because there is not much more room to build houses, people live on houseboats on the canals. 

Getting around was super easy. We just used the trains and trams to get from place to place. It was super clean and convenient. 

Dam Square. All the pretty buildings in the square were covered up by carnival rides and booths though. 

I didn't think there would be that many tourists there yet, but we were wrong. The tulip season is in the spring and people were visiting to see the tulips. 

A wrong turn through the red light district... 

We went to the Nemo Science Museum where the kids had a ball playing with all the hands-on experiments and stuff. 

Outside the Nemo Science museum. 

We read in all the travel books about the number of bikes in the city. We really didn't expect to see that many.... but they were everywhere. 

Wooden shoes. 

We booked a trip out to the tulip fields in Keukenhopf. I think we were a few weeks too early, but we saw a lot of flowers none-the-less. 

The girls thought all the flowers were cool for the first 12 seconds and then they wanted to go. 

Luckily they had a petting zoo and a playground that kept them somewhat interested. 

This is kind of what we were expecting to see... large fields painted in all sorts of colors. There were a few fields that were like that, but again, we were a bit early. 

Back in the city and checking out the outside of the Rijkes Museum 

Outside the Van Gogh museum. 

LC wanted to take a picture at this photo booth.

And then we went on a canal cruise. 

And saw Anne Frank's house... where there was a massive line...

The cruise went up and down a lot of the canals and pointed out a lot of the sites around the city.  

 We also spent one afternoon at the Zoo. E was our tour guide .

 But most of our days were filled with park hopping around the city parks. Out apartment that we rented was right next to the "central park" of Amsterdam. There was tons of people there all throughout the day running, riding bikes, working out, and relaxing. 

 I mentioned that it was a little on the chilly side most of the days... however we had one gorgeous day in the 70's. We rented bikes for the day and just rode around the city with no maps or no agenda. We ended up hitting a lot of parks and hanging out as the kids played. The bike that I rented was awesome! It was a little hard at first to drive but I got the hang of it. The bike scene in Amsterdam was quite impressive. Not only are there tons of bikes, but everyone follows traffic and follows rules.

 Most of the roads had bike lanes on the side. And at every intersection there was always three traffic lights. One for cars/trains, one for bikes and one for people. It seemed chaotic at first but it all made sense and was smooth when we were in it all. The girls loved being driven around on the "cargo bike." These things cost 2,000-3,000 Euros a piece! But if you don't own a car and bike everywhere, its cheap transportation. And all the parents had these bikes too, so they were everywhere. 

On the nice day when we parked hopped we would see all the locals out in the parks as well soaking up the sun and relaxing. Overall, it was a great trip and we would love to go back!