Prostitutes, European Union, Drugs and NATO Here We Come!

In June we made a road trip to Holland and Belgium, specifically Amsterdam, Brussels and Brugge. When I moved to the UK, I told friends and family that if they wanted to go anywhere in Europe I could probably be convinced to make a road trip to just about any destination. Rachel was the only one to take me up on it. She chose Amsterdam, which I thought was weird because she knew the kids were coming. Amsterdam seems like a grown up place, I figured she just had no qualms about having drugs and prostitutes around her niece and nephews. Turns out she had a pretty noble reason for going, she'd read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and wanted to go see the secret annex that Anne and her family had to hide in because they were Jewish in WWII. So off we went. I won't say that we didn't also see drugs and prostitutes but our intentions were good I swear. We threw Brussels and Brugge in there just to say we saw it.


Ben's favorite part of the crazy trips I plan is the public transportation. He loves it, although in this picture he's a little road weary. These kids are tough. When I do these trips the itineraries get a little crazy. I just figure if "we came all this way" we might as well see everything that the area we're visiting has to offer. So the kids log long hours and put more miles on their little legs than most adults can do. I'm proud of my little world travelers.


Rachel and Veronica did a good job of entertaining themselves in the back of the minivan. Usually it involved putting on makeup and both of them would get out of the car looking ready to hit the Red Light District.


The most beautiful church that I've seen in Europe so far, the picture doesn't do it justice. It was in Brugge Belgium - a beautiful fairytale town.


Brussels is a nice town, lots of government buildings to tour with the EU and NATO headquarters there...One of their other highlights is the Atomium, you can see it in the background of this picture. It's a giant molecular model of an iron crystal. It was built in the 50's when they hosted the world fair. I don't really get it.


Cannabis for Sale. Drug use in Holland is considered more of a health problem than a problem for law enforcement.


Rachel was our star navigator on this trip. William loves the carriage rides, he jams out to the clip clop rhythm of the horses feet.


Rachel with the 3 animals. The swans in the canals in Brugge were so pretty.


Old Brussels city square.


King Albert of Belgium's digs.


Mannequin de Pis. Another of Brussels' main attractions. It's a statue of a boy that is hundreds of years old that is continually peeing a fountain of water. It changes clothes a lot, once it was dressed like Elvis. ???


Open city bus tour.


I have a hard time getting good pictures of the kids when the sun is out. They act like vampires and refuse to open their eyes or look up at the camera, instead they contort their faces and use their hands in strange ways to shield the sun. I think living in the drizzly, cloud covered UK is changing them, kinda like cave fish that lose their sight.


LOVE IT!


Troy was mysteriously sick on this road trip. Rachel and I called his illness something along the lines of W. I. aka whimpitis. I think he was just allergic to doing a road trip with 3 crying kids. JK, he really was sick, but in this family any excuse to rag on someone for a laugh is fair game.


This was an open air museum in Enkhuizen Holland. It was a recreated village from times of old. It was really neat and the kids had fun running around.


Veronica, William and I really liked the authentic smoked herring, Rachel could not stand to be near the smell of it. This was unfortunate as it took about a day to get the smell out of our hands and clothes.


Who could go to the Netherlands and not get this picture?


Veronica and Ben made hemp rope with this old fashioned contraption in a replica fishing village.


We went to a really nice zoo in Amsterdam, Veronica loved this butterfly garden.


Ben loved the insect house, how gender stereotypical.


Troy is trying to play it cool here. In this exhibit are a bunch of giant spiders. His mind is in a panic and he tries to tell himself over and over "they're behind the glass, they're behind the glass, they're behind the glass". Can you see V's little head popped up through the bubble in the middle?


These lemurs were sooooo cool. You walk out onto their island and you can touch and/or feed them. The kids thought it was pretty neat, but I was probably the most excited.


Ben just kept throwing grass at them.


Climbing trees in the famous (at least to hippies) Vondelpark in Amsterdam.


This is Elvis the horse and he took us on a tour around the canals of the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam.


Just the Fam by a canal.


Ben drunk in the Heineken Brewery.


Ben and Veronica hanging out with the Dutch masters in the Amsterdam Historical Museum.


Hey, this trip wan't going to pay for itself!


Yeah, so what! We had a drink...or two in the Red Light District...with the kids. We went to church right afterwards, no seriously we did. We went to a hidden Catholic church in the attic of a house. People went there to worship when the protestants had the upper hand.


Ok, Ok, calm down. Before you get your panties in a bunch about the kids being this close to a sex shop, just know that we basically walked them up to it backwards and they didn't see anything. They'll still need public school sex ed to understand the birds and the bees.


This is a contra-ban picture taken inside Anne Franks house.


Twins.