Our Family European Vacation

How do you post about about a 10 day trip to France,

Amsterdam and Brussels

choosing between 1,600 pictures?

You just CAN'T....

So you go back to what you loved the most, how you felt

and what you shall never forget about the trip.

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When asking the girls what their favorite part of the trip was?

Alexandra my 5 yr. old said
 " Spending time with my family"
*

Now we saw the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre,
 The Notre Dame Cathedral,

 Arc De Triomphe, Champs-Elysee's,
The Loire valley of castles including:
Chambord, Chenonceau, Chateau of Blois,
 Cheverny, and Pierre fonds. Sacre-coeur

We saw the  Basilica of the sacred heart,
 Monte Marte (paris highest hill)
Bridge Alexandre, lovers bridge, at pont de larcheveche,
 St. Jaques tower,
obelisk in place de la concorde,
 (largest public sq. in Paris)
 we saw the Rijks museum in Amsterdam,
canals, windmills, red light district,

we saw where Anne Frank hid out in Amsterdam.
Mini Europe in Brussels,
 the Atomium, Town hall, grand place..
*
And still Alexandra's favorite part of the trip
 was being with the family.
So...this post is dedicated to her
 and her sister Samantha with pictures
of the family.
I'm going to make another book with all the pictures
from our trip and all the wonderful sites we enjoyed.
But here are some family shots that I will treasure
forever.

Eiffel Tower

Jake and Liz getting all

Romantic in Paris

Arc de triomphe

Sammy got special treats from her French waiter

 the Champs-Elysees

Bridge of Alexandre

The Obelisk

Subways....

On our way to the Louvre.
Pee yew!!! The smell was awful.
All the homeless
relieve themselves in every corner.
(just pee, thank heavens)

There were so many people, because it was a free day

we decided to come back the next day and pay!!

lovers bridge at pont de l'archeveche

where couples can symbolize their love with locks.

Notre dame Cathedral

The tower of Jaques 

Climbing to Mont Marte

(highest hill in Paris)

Jake carrying the stroller

Sacre-coeur

Liz and I shopping

My favorite experience...having the girls picture drawn by this

artist.

Can I say " I LOVE THIS SHOT"!!!!!!

 

 Basilica of the sacred heart

We saw a lot of peeing statues in Europe!

The weather in France was unbelievable.
The hottest October in history.

The louvre
We saw many popular pieces including the Mona Lisa

dum dum

I heart you too♥

There she is

On the path to  Chateau Chambord

Liz had to have her picture taken with

another famous Elizabeth

Liz and Jake smoochin again

One of the few pictures of all of us together 

 Chateau Cheverny

 

We all loved this Castle..

A little more believable

(as far as possibly living in it)

 

We all liked the hunting dogs they kept on the grounds

Chateau Chenneceau

Chateau Blois

(My other son Joe served a mission here)

Starting out again after a good

nights sleep. Always with a baguette in hand.

We found the cutest town. Had wonderful shopping

 and delicious food.

We ate the best spaghetti and salad here!

Our 3 seated van that took us to 3 countries.

The perfect car.

We made it to Amsterdam.

This is the front of our hotel the Marriott.

Thanks to Jake and Liz we stayed at 4

different Marriott's with all the luxuries.

It rained a lot in Amsterdam.

We were prepared with rain coats and umbrellas.

On our hop on hop off bus to take us to the

sites in Amsterdam

Just loved Alexander's boots.

Went to the Rijks museum

Can you spot Mark in the background in the poster?

Alex and Sam had to find their letters and have a picture

taken.

The girls standing by the Anne Frank Statue

Here's the building where Ann's home was
 where she hid from the Germans.

Jake even sneaked a picture of the hidden book shelf

where the family hid behind.

Sammy bought a cute hat in Amsterdam.

Some of the best shopping ever.

It's called the city of shoes.

Liz bought 3 pairs. I bought 2 prs. of boots.

We are now in Brussels

The mammoth Atominum

Sammy's as big as this car

 

Mini Europe..I have to say this was worth it.

The kids loved it.

They had all the sites of Europe in miniature.

 

They wrote their names on the Berlin Wall

More of Brussels

Grand Place

More rain.

Museum in Brussels called the Maison du Roi

One more fabulous Castle

 we found on our last day driving back to France

Truly a medieval looking castle
called Pierre fonds

My treasures I picked up on the way

Some boots, scarves, vests, a coat and some hand bags...

The trip was amazing, fantastic

and will be a memory

that we all will never forget...

*

And to my Alex

"No Touch, No buy"

( a very rude French vendor on the street told me not

to touch the scarfs.) hello, they don't break!!

He looked at me and said "NO TOUCH" I looked at him and said

"NO TOUCH, NO BUY"

That became our little inside joke the whole trip.

**************

The end

Ahhhhhhhh!

Fantastique