Romantic Paris

Another travel update!  Hubby decided to surprise me with a trip starting July 24th.  I had been begging him to surprise with something for a while and with one of his co-workers having his girlfriend fly in I guess it was a good enough time as any to plan a trip together.  I honestly had no idea where exactly we were going (though I had my suspicions).  So, my guess was right and we ended up going to Paris!

On our way to the Luxembourg Airport, to pick up our final member for the vacation, Andrew had me guess and I guessed right!  We were doing two days at Disneyland Paris and another day in downtown Paris!  I was hoping we would go to Paris but Andrew had vowed to never go there after our last trip to Disney.  So I was pleasantly surprised he had changed his mind.  

So we drove to Disneyland Paris area (about 30 minutes train outside of downtown) where we were staying at someone's house.  It was actually awesome!  It was pretty cheap and was 3 bedrooms/2 bath about 15 minute walk to Disney and about 5 minutes from a huge mall (where we ate some pretty good meals).  

The couple we went with it was there first time to Disneyland Paris and our second.  I realize this is our second trip to Disney in less than a year.  However, you have to understand we are pretty much Disney nerds and it is like our "mothership" (especially Andrew) haha.  Plus it is typically cheaper to stay outside of Paris and take the train in (which we did).

Here are a couple of pictures from Disney (two days!):

It is still amazing the differences between the two parks. Because of the amount of British people who visit they have a pretty big Alice in Wonderland section. Of course they also have a unique Ratatouille section to the park.  

 Pretty excited to see the "Elsa" parade!

Knowing us they probably will see us soon haha

We still had lots of fun at Disney.  Andrew's favorite ride (which we rode twice) was Space Mountain 2 (a completely different version than the one at Disneyland).  Actually it is one of the unique rides that is better than their Disneyland counterpart.  

After Disneyland on Saturday we went to downtown Paris on Sunday.  It was surprising how much we were actually able to see in only one day! We took the train for the stop to Notre Dame.  It was amazing.  It is just as magnificent as I figured it would be.  The front part (from most of the pictures) doesn't quite do it justice. It extends way farther back.  We waited in line to go inside (which is free by the way).  It was really neat since they were also holding mass while we were there!

 Hard to see but it is a "Quasimodo" cafe ;P

 The side view

 The mass service

There are corridors on either side.  It is huge!

After Notre Dame we went to visit a couple other "main sites" of paris.  We ended up seeing Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysées avenue where the Tour de France was going on, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre.  It was pretty incredible.  Here are some of my favorites of those pictures.  

 The arch of triumph

 Some of the bikers for the Tour de France!

 Our first peek of the tower while walking to it

 Eiffel tower in the background <3

 We got to experience first hand Paris' transportation system!

 Outside of The Louvre. It was pouring!

 Definitely going back, we barely scratched the surface!

Venus de Milo

Mona Lisa

I loved the Louvre!  There is still so much we didn't get to fit in but hopefully I can go back! And yes, we even got to see the Mona Lisa.  I am always grateful to have a tall hubby who can take clear pictures over a HUGE crowd of people!  It was so much fun and I can wait for all of the adventures we have coming up.

Love Always,

The Andersons

A Taste of England

In June, we celebrated our anniversary by going to England!  Ok, I should clarify, this was a last minute trip opportunity since Andrew had a last minute TDY to assist with an English Exercise with the military helping.  So, of course, I decided to travel along for 8 days of it! Not bad only having to pay for my airfare! We stayed mostly on Mildenhall AFB.  But, we had a half-day in Cambridge and a full day in London!  I had just a "taste" of London and I definitely want to go back!

 Just being dorks! We took the "Original Bus Tour".  I definitely recommend it.  We had just one day but we were able to see most every major site. 

 This city was crazy, but amazing, to drive through. 

 We just happened to be there during the "Pride in London" parade.  We didn't really get to see the parade but it did change the routes for the bus tours which made the day extra interesting with having to be patient with the traffic. 

                                              Driving under Tower Bridge!

 Tower of London

 They did a neat guard change while we were there.

 

Ignore my expression but this ended up being one of the coolest parts in the tower!  We got to see the crown jewels with virtually no line when we went!

 Picture of the London eye.  Didn't have enough time to do it (and to be honest the tickets were crazy money!) but we got to see most of London on the bus!

 The Natural History Museum!

Enough pictures yet?  Just kidding.  I have tons more pictures but didn't want to bombard the reading parts ;) Also I didn't have any pictures of our visit to Cambridge (which was also extremely fun) or Mildenhall and Lakenheath.  Any specific questions about them I can answer though.  The bases themselves were....interesting. hehe.  Mildenhall was by far the worst laid out base I had been to haha but we had fun a couple of nights visiting their Galaxy club and shooting some pool.  One of the days they also had some AMAZING fish and chips.  HUGE cod fish and fries, yum!

Overall, the tour bus was awesome.  It was a hop-on-hop off bus that allowed us to drive past all of the major London sites and get off when we needed to.  We didn't have loads of time, and the traffic made it difficult, so we did what we could.  We did get off and do the Tower of London.  A must!  It really was amazing to see that kind of history.  We also got off to explore Big Ben and see Westminster Abbey up close (didn't get to go inside sadly).  Then we got off and did some of the Natural History Museum (my pick obviously plus it was free!).  I had wanted to do the British museum but there was no way with the parade route blocking off part of the regular "museum route".  We got to see a lot and can't wait til we can go back and experience more!

It was a really fun trip.  Used the pound as currency (ouch!), got to experience both air bases there, and drove on the left side of the road.   I experience it so much, in fact, that when I picked up the car at the airport I went left around the exit roundabout.  Whoops!  Haha it was a flight back from London so maybe they just thought I was British and made a mistake lol. 

 It is just amazing all of the adventures we have already had while being stationed here!  An unforgettable 6 year anniversary!

Love always,

The Andersons

April 2015- Netherlands

Once again I have severely fallen behind in my blogging.  What can I say?  It really takes a lot of motivation for me to write.  If only there was a way to transfer everything stored in my brain and have it magically appear on the computer without me lifting a finger.  Perhaps not... Any who, April was our "first" bigger vacation since I have been in Germany. Prior to coming to Germany, I had been doing lots of research (thank you pinterest) of places I wanted to visit during my time here.  As a compulsive planner, I felt the need to see everything by the end of the year.  Of course this idea is unrealistic.  Luckily, I took a step back, realized I have 4 years here, and decided to see whatever I wanted.  

The first country we decided on was the Netherlands.  Why?  It was never a country I dreamed of seeing, or felt I would have to see it before I died.  However, this beautiful country ended up being a place I am glad I didn't pass up!  On pinterest I found an article about beautiful places to see and visiting the Keukenhof was one of them.  Never heard about it before coming here, but I did my research and I knew I just had to see it!.

Exactly what is the Keukenhof it is a HUGE tulip festival about an hour away from Amsterdam.  Definitely a not-so-hidden gem.  I had always wanted to see tulip gardens so why not see them in the Netherlands?!?

This ended up being a weekend trip and not only did we hit the Keukenhof, but we also went to the Rotterdam Zoo, and stayed on the coast! Seriously a beautiful country!!!!

 

Just a sneak peak of some of the displays at the Keukenhof!

Our first day, once we drove up there (only about a 4 hr. drive), we decided to hit the Rotterdam Zoo first since it was raining on-and-off.

 ,

 In addition to the Zoo there was also a huge aquarium! Which, of course, I love visiting. 

 Don't et the smile fool you.  This was a huge dome inside of which was a "tropical" exhibit.  Andrew practically had to drag me inside since tons of butterflies are just flying free!  They are huge.  No thanks ;)

 This lion came right up to the glass!

 The zoo ended up being a lot of fun.  I had read about going from other people and I am glad we went.  There was so much to see, despite all of the animal descriptions being in Dutch ;)

After we left the zoo we drove another hour to the far west side of the Netherlands.  It was actually a very pretty drive despite the crazy construction which led us down these narrow, country-type roads.  For a while, I thought we would never get there but I am so glad we did!

 The "wider" of the narrow roads during our drive there. 

 Pretty, right?

 Just about to our hotel...  We stayed at a place called Cape Helius Hotel.  There wasn't a lot of inventory nearby the Keukenhof since it was something of a last minute booking.  But we saw this place on Booking.com and it said "ocean-view", I was sold!  We went with some good friends of ours which made it even more fun!

 I had to take this picture because of how ironic it was.  I went out to the beach and of course, in April, it is still pretty cold.  But I went out in my boots and jacket anyways!  I love the ocean.

 Right outside our hotel.  I had never been to a light house before!

 I had no idea when I booked that we would be staying such a neat little ocean-side town.  I would easily go back to just experience that area!  The map to the left had a layout of where we were staying.  That evening we just explored the area right next to the hotel which happened to be something of a battle memorial.  It had tons of hidden bunkers and even a cannon!

 This town also had a huge windmill where somebody lived!

 Our view right outside.  There is a really nice restaurant in the hotel which leads out to the beach.  We ate there for dinner, yummy!

 Our friends had a little boy and lucky for him there was an awesome playground.

 Our hotel's "backyard"

The next morning we went to the Keukenhof...

I have tons of pictures! If only I could add them all. It was beautiful.  We spent several hours and still feel like we still didn't even see everything there!  It was soooo packed but it was a great day, since it was windy, the windmill was actually turning! They had tons of exhibits featuring different flowers and themes.  We also went on the boat ride to see the fields, not exactly worth it since not all of the fields had flowers, but still fun for the experience.  It really was a fun, quick trip to the Netherlands.  Another country I know we will go back to! I can't wait for where we go next.

Bucket List: Visit the Keukenhof- Check! :D


Love Always, 

The Andersons