Around the World

Generally, I don't include travel day stuff unless something eventful happens... We got up around 8a, knowing our flight left around 1p, figuring we'd have plenty of time to take care of all the things we had to do before exiting Amsterdam (I'm writing this on the last leg of the trip, while we fly). We showered, got dressed and then began packing away everything. We had brought an extra suitcase that was basically empty on the way to the Netherlands, so it was simple enough to pack away all our purchases (it was still a little tight). Lola is a pro at packing and as she worked, she sent me to the store to buy some candy for Billie. We wanted to make sure she got a taste of the trip, even from home. I bought a ton of candy, because she's my kid! When I got back, we got it all packed away and were ready to roll. We had debated taking the train to the airport, because we generally agree with the practice and it feels more authentic. However, we also didn't want to lug...

It was our last full day in the Netherlands and we had another day trip on the schedule. Today was a journey to Gouda (pronounced How-da). Gouda is known for its cheese, but we found the city to be completely charming in so many ways. Our day began on the train again, but we did have one hiccup on this trip. Both Lola and I were dozing off as we made the hour-long ride to Gouda. On the outskirts of the city, there was a stop with Gouda in the name, but not the main station. Lola heard it and woke me up and we bundled off the train in a hurry, half-asleep. As we exited, we were stuck by how rural the station looked. If were was a city here, we weren't seeing it. I checked my phone and realized we had gotten off one exit too soon. It was an easy fix as we just hopped on the next train through, which arrived about ten minutes later. At Gouda, we exited the station and made our way down a quaint street to entered The Gouda Cheese Experience. The woman behind the counter seemed surprise...

Sunday morning, we rolled out of bed earlier, because today was our museum day. In the schedule, I had decided to put all the downtown museums in one day as we've already been to them all. Knowing we'd already spent long days in all of these spots, I felt we could fly through each and hit the stuff we definitely wanted to see again. Before leaving, I checked my email and spotted that one of the museums, Stedelijk Museum, that a negative covid test was required for anyone without the EU's QR code (given to everyone when they got vaccinated). So we began scrambling to find a testing spot, which turned out to be two blocks down the street. When made appointments and headed to the spot, which was in the lobby of a hotel. It was quick and easy and we had results within 2 hours. Turns out, we didn't need them. Every museum we visited allowed us in with our vaccine cards. No worries (we were both negative, by the way). Our first museum is a favorite of ours, the Moco Museum (m...

For those that don't know, we generally book our accommodations through Airbnb. We've found we get a better deal on cost, the experience is more authentic and personalized, and our hosts have always been amazing. On this trip, I decided to add some "experiences," services offered by independent contractors who partner with Airbnb. Today was dominated by two of those experiences. Our first of the day was a canal boat tour provided by Captain Dave. Captain Dave is a second generation Dutch Indonesian who exited the tech industry to give boat tours. When he picked us up at the street-side dock, he began bragging about his boat, a beautiful piece of work once owned and operated by the Dutch royal family. We were joined on our tour of the canals by a French couple (sadly the male half didn't speak much english, leaving his partner to translate throughout). The weather that morning was in the low 40s and pretty chilly on the water, but the boat had a heater and we were ...

This year, rather than doing the standard Amsterdam list of visits, I tried to build in a couple of day trips out of the city. 1. to keep things fresh and interesting 2. to expand our understanding of the Netherlands. I just thought it would be fun to see more of the country we've grown to love. In some ways, its similar to the Texas experience. People love Austin, because it's hip and fun etc etc etc. And it is. But there's so much more to the state. So many more cities with their own personalities and characters. Doesn't lessen Austin at all, just enriches the overall experience by adding other cities. So we began our day trip by boarding the train to Utrecht. The tickets were bought in advance, so it was just a matter of uploading the tickets to my phone and scanning in on the way through the train station. Easy peasy. I've written about the rail system in the Netherlands and cannot express how jealous I am of a country that really invests in infrastructure. The ...

The schedule this trip has been a little lighter than trips in the past, for a couple of reasons. 1. We've been here before, visiting in February of last year. So we've done all the major sights. 2. It's an anniversary trip, so we want to keep it light and relaxing. Sometimes vacations turn into a checklist of things you have to see and do. And yes, we did include some of that, but we wanted to keep things fun on this one. On this trip, we also included some stops we probably wouldn't make with Billie, as she didn't make the traveller list. Day two included a couple of those spots. We had seen advertisements and articles written about the Sex Museum but had never put it on an itinerary until this morning. The museum is down near the tourist area, just across from Centraal station. It's in a super heavy foottrafficed area surrounded by smoke shops, souvenir shops, and a host of other money-wasters targeted at the tourist traffic. So we'd skipped it before but...

This trip was a anniversary trip for Lola and I. We decided to leave Billie at home and just do a couple's trip. There's a weird balance on trips like this because there's some guilt at leaving your child behind, but there's also some freedom of being able to enjoy life as two adults without worrying about your kid, if she's having fun, etc. So I had planned this one in secret and sprung it on Lola some months back. Our flight out of El Paso had been delayed multiple times so we had just rescheduled it super early in Wednesday to make sure it didn't interfere with our international flight out of Atlanta. So Billie went to her Tito's house the day before and we bailed out super early Wednesday morning for the 6a flight. Lola's dad picked us up and dropped us off at the airport. The flight to Atlanta was smooth, no issues. In the airport in Atlanta, we had a long wait at Starbucks, a $70 bill at the concourse shop, and a long wait till 4:30p. Sort of the n...

If anyone knows our family, they know our love for travel, probably our biggest consistent priority. While others focus on having a new car or the newest appliances, our goal is generally: THE NEXT TRIP. We've been lucky enough to travel to Europe (just before the pandemic, you can see the posts in this blog), but instead of settling our appetite, it only made us hungrier. Just next month, we'll be taking an anniversary trip to Amsterdam for a week, just Lola and I. And in March of next year, Billie's birthday will be celebrated in Paris with us and my in-laws. We've discussed traveling to Japan, Brazil, and Spain. So many places to see, just a single lifetime to do it all. In an effort to make those trips easier, we decided to sign up for the Global Entry program offered by DHS. The program is available to people with squeaky clean records (thankfully we fit the bill), but allows for way quicker trips through TSA, Customs, etc.  Here's the quote from the site: ...

Wednesday (Travel Day) We had stayed up late the night before packing and cleaning, so when the alarm went off at 630a, I was less than thrilled. I got up, showered and drove the rental back to Hertz. The store didn't open till 8a (though the website said 730), so I walked across and dropped the key at the hotel across the street (a sign on the door had said to do so). I ordered an Uber and stood on the curb waiting, enjoying the last day of brisk weather. When I got back to the Airbnb, Lola and Billie were just out of the shower and getting dressed. In thirty minutes, we were out the door and into an Uber, headed to the airport. The airport in Portland is super easy to navigate and pretty small for large city. We got to our plane quickly. I was less than thrilled to realize the plane was a prop plane and we entered it by walking on the tarmac and up stairs. It was like 1950 all over again. The plane was a small one, with only 4 seats across. The flight to Seattle was a short one, ...

 Tuesday Again, this day was scheduled to be our trip to Seattle day, but after driving to the beach on Sunday, we decided to find something local and save Seattle for another trip entirely. So we decided to hit up OMSI - Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. We bought the tickets online the night before, so it was a breeze. Let me just say, having a site that allows ticket purchasing AND downloading to apple wallet is the way to go. OMSI advertised a dinosaur exhibit and Billie was pumped about it. When we got there, it was a little underwhelming. The large rubber dinosaurs had really limited movement and felt a little outdated. Billie was fine with it, but we breezed through the exhibit way faster than I had hoped for when purchasing the tickets. The rest of the permanent exhibit was limited to say the least. Some parts of the Museum were still closed due to COVID restrictions, so maybe that would have helped things, I don't know. We had purchased tickets for their IMAX but had ...