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Today we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. It is amazing. We found a lady with an organization offering a free tour of the cathedral. It was amazing to have a great tour guide to point out and explain some of the more significant areas of the cathedral. The German tour guide even gave Leah her scarf for the tour as Leah was cold. Joel was enamoured with the flag and was the official flag bearer as we walked through the tour. I’m not sure if he learned anything during the forty five minutes besides the flag of the United Kingdom. His Granddad will be very proud.

The workmanship and detail are astounding.

The view from the top of the tower is pretty cool too.

It’s fun exploring with these two.

After the cathedral, we walked over to the Pantheon.

Joel was in the mood for silly pictures after waiting around at the top of the Pantheon for our tour to wrap up.

From the ceiling this pendulum swings and keeps time accurately. I have no clue how it works but it was neat to see.

There is art everywhere you look here. The ability to sculpt something has always amazed me and to see statute after statue with such fine detail and so well crafted is mind blowing. The stained glass windows, massive paintings and general architecture is astounding.

We are amongst lots of people these days as we explore cities and we have had the joy of some conversations. Today while standing in a long line for Notre Dame, we got talking a Dutch mom and daughter. Yesterday we got talking to a family from the UK. It is so interesting to hear about their stories and country and their perceptions of our side of the world.

It feels a little odd that in a small way we represent Canada to the people we meet. Everyone we have talked to so far seems to like the Canadians. I was feeling quite Canadian when I told Morgan I only needed about three words in French – sorry, please and thank you.

It is assumed just by the fact we are Canadians that we are nice, great people. There are a lot of assumptions that go into our perception that are conceived only by knowing our nationality. It feels a little odd and even wrong to be judged by something I have no control over, even if the judgment is a positive one.

As we walk into these massive buildings with amazing art surrounding us in so many forms, I feel small. Yet there is also this cool sense of being with people from many parts of the world all being able to share in the pleasure of experiencing these places of old regardless of language, belief, nationality or age.

I also think of other nationalities that aren’t as represented. There are also developing and developed nations with people who are struggling for daily sustenance, never mind a vacation.

I feel spoiled, like I won the lottery. Why is my family able to experience this when many others can’t? I’m not sure how to reconcile all my feelings right now except to be thankful. No matter where I find myself, thankfulness has not lead me astray. It keeps me grounded and finding joy whether in a fancy church in Paris or washing the dishes in Vancouver.

From yesterday – I find the first day of travel into a city a bit stressful. We have a schedule to adhere to along with security clearances, a plane ride, lots of waiting and a new place to orient yourself to.

By the second day, we’ve figured out a good grocery store, have food in our fridge, found the best mode of transportation around the city (and how to use it) and we are back to our normal schedule. We found a much better grocery store today that seemed much more like at home, returned to the amazing bakery a few steps from our apartment and went out on a grand adventure.

We started the day by visiting the Eiffel Tower. We walked up all the stairs to the second floor.

We ate our lunch while enjoying the magnificent view.

After the Eiffel Tower, we walked a block and two and visited Morgan’s work office in Paris. Several important business meetings took place and many significant business deals were made during our time there.

Not a bad view from one of the office windows.

We walked around looking at old buildings that looked cool. We checked out where Napoleon went to school. The building was magnificent. There are bullet holes from the Second World War.

We walked over to the Hotel des Invalides. It was an amazing sight.

Inside there were also many museums about war over the ages. Joel got to see what a knight actually looks like and what a bomb is. He has referenced both before without knowing what they are. Both kids, but especially Leah, got to know some of the harsher sides of history as we walked through exhibits of the world wars.

Here is the entrance to the metro to catch our train to take us home. Everything is older here which gives it so much character.

It was a great day that left us tired and satisfied. We ended our night on our small deck trying to make ourselves be at home in Paris.

Even our apartment building has some art built in.

Our lovely view.

I’m sure we will all sleep well tonight as we look forward to more adventures tomorrow.

We woke up early, ate a quick breakfast and then we were off to the airport. The flight was smooth and uneventful.

The airport is called Orly, named after the city it is in. The kids thought this was pretty funny as our vacuum robot is also called Orly.

After we figured out transit and got to our home for the week, we were all tired and hungry. After unpacking my backpack, we set off to find some food. We came across an amazing bakery very close by and indulged in some fabulous baking. Then it was off to the grocery store to stock up.

It is interesting shopping in a country different than your own as they carry different products as well as packaging things differently. The milk and eggs aren’t refrigerated and the produce was really packaged.

We eventually found everything, though there were a few substitutions.

When people talk to me in a different language my natural inclination is to just answer in English, even if I know a phrase or two in the language they are speaking to me in. I’m so used to just speaking in English. The kids like to practise their language skills.

Morgan took the kids to a playground this afternoon while I had a nap. (I’m sure hoping I’ll still be able to sleep tonight.) The kids made some friends and played well. They are awesome at travelling.

Tomorrow we are off to see some sights!

Yesterday morning we rode on our bikes around Amsterdam. I felt very Dutch.

If you enlarge this picture (by clicking on it), you can see the two statues on the building. The modern man is such a juxtaposition against the old architecture. It seems like he is a real man pulling off a stunt rather than part of the piece.

We dropped off our bikes and then went to church at Hillsong Amsterdam. It’s pretty amazing to be able to attend church all over the world. The past four Sundays we have attended church in four different cities in four different countries (Port Moody (Canada), Oroville (USA), Carickmacross (Ireland) and Amsterdam (Netherlands)) and not one has been our home church where we regularly attend with our family.

All of the churches have had a different feel with varying music styles, attendance and speaking styles but all of them love Jesus and want to follow him. It’s been an honour to be welcomed in.

After church we went to Van Dobben which is a famous place for Dutch fare including croquetten. We had some chocolate milk, croquetten and soup. The soup reminded me of the soup my mom, Oma and aunts make. It was delicious. Joel really wanted to our receipt in the picture.

During the afternoon we walked to an open air market and visited one of the many, many great playgrounds before heading home to bathe, pack and eat some Turkish take out. We all loved Amsterdam. Now it’s off to Paris.

Van Gogh loved most to paint the simple, the ordinary and the everyday. He looked to nature and people working with nature as subjects for his passion of expressing emotion and feeling through paint strokes.

As I stood in front of one of his most famous paintings of sunflowers in a vase, I noticed something I’d never seen before. Most of the prominent sunflowers don’t have petals on them.

In his art he didn’t seek perfection or the height of beauty yet in some mysterious way by showing the life of a sunflower in various stages, even wilting, it exemplifies beauty. It not only ignores the standard for beauty but defies and surpasses it at the same time.

I have to wonder what went through his mind as he choose his subject matter and how he would convey it. How did his current life circumstances dictate what he choose to paint? Did he find strength to express his beliefs and values through his thick, strong brush strokes?

As much as Van Gogh is known for his mental state, after walking through a museum his nephew helped establish and learning more about him my view has been broadened. His mental health obviously wasn’t stellar but there is so much more to Van Gogh than him cutting his ear off and shooting himself in a wheat field.

He saw beauty where others passed by. He esteemed those who the higher class snubbed their noses at. He was passionate about art and worked extremely hard to improve. He devoted himself when others didn’t see the value in his work.

He’s made me think.

Where do I see beauty? Who do I esteem? Why? What do I devote myself to? Is it worth my devotion? Is my devotion whole hearted?

How about you?

Where do you see beauty? Who do you esteem? Why? What do you devote yourself to? Is it worth your devotion? Is your devotion whole hearted?

We had a relaxing morning as the kids slept in and meandered out the door late morning. We walked to go rent bikes and ride out of the city. I was so impressed with the kids as we rode over 35 kilometres and they did great. They have awesome bike lines along the highway and through the towns.

This was one of the towns we biked through.

We drove out to where some old windmills are still in use. This one grinds up materials used in paint pigment.

The inner workings of the windmill were quite the sight.

These were taken outside where the windmill spins.

These cows lived right across the path. There’s no need for long fences when you have waterways.

We took a very short ferry over a waterway.

After living in a different city for just a few days, I can’t help but notice what is the same and what is different than at home. Amsterdam has lots of coffee houses (where you go for marijuana) and coffee bars (that serve coffee), just like Vancouver.

The place we are staying in has no oven or clothes dryer and a small washing machine. I’m not sure if that is unique to our place or not but I would assume it is the norm. There are also a lot of steep, narrow staircases to make the most of the space they have.

The bike lanes are like home but I was surprised that these small cars sometimes join the bikes, scooter and mopeds on the bike lanes. The vehicle lanes are also quite narrow, like Ireland.

Smoking is allowed on the less than five minute ferry ride on a boat with a wooden floor.

Instead of dumpsters, there are small garbage drop boxes and they get emptied by these garbage trucks.

For our first few days in Ireland, we didn’t have to worry about directions, attractions or food. We were quite spoiled. After spending a whole day in Amsterdam, we felt much more comfortable navigating where we wanted to go, how we wanted to get there and how to manage our day.

Our first stop was the Van Gogh museum. They have a great treasure map for kids which kept Leah and Joel engaged throughout the visit. Pictures aren’t allowed in most of the museum but it was a great way to spend the morning and we will remember it fondly in our minds.

In some places we stack rocks on top of each other, in other places they place rocks in trees.

One of the museums here.

We rode on a double decker bus. Joel was quite pleased once we got these seats and declared himself the driver.

Since Joel loves emergency vehicles, I thought I’d try take a picture of some in different countries. Here is an ambulance and a police car.

We also passed by an old windmill.

After our bus tour we found ourselves close to Vondel Park so we decided to walk through. It’s natural beauty and walking and bike paths remind me of Stanley Park. The kids spotted a cool bird in a tree. You might have to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see it.

We stopped at a restaurant for bitterballen and found a playground amongst the tables. The kids had a blast. They encourage cycling young here.

On the other side of the restaurant away from the playground you could also dine by this pond/river.

This style of housing reminds me of all the talk and skinny new townhouses going up in Langley and Surrey.

We walked home and got to walk by average streets and businesses away from the touristy part of town. Every bike rack you pass is brimming full of bikes. I loved walking down the street and looking in the windows of all the shops.

Morgan has done all the grocery shopping so far until today. We all went together and it was interesting to see how things are packaged, the variety of items and the pricing. I was excited when I found these.

We are staying in a pretty Dutch neighbourhood. Our table mates the first evening doubted the restaurant would have an English menu. It’s neat to stay among the locals and see how they do life. I’m surprised at the diversity here though I would imagine it is less so as you leave the city centre.

We started our first full day in Amsterdam buying some food and visiting a playground nearby. Then it was off to the city to see what this place is all about. We spent the rest of the day on a hop on, hop off canal tour.

What do you do when land gets scarce and prices are steep? You just go onto the water of course.

The buildings have great style here.

These are the organ pipes in an old church where Rembrant is buried.

The two gated platforms are at the train station and are a parking garage for bikes and it looks full. In front of it is one of many, many tour boats going up and down the canals.

Here is a typical street in Amsterdam.

There are canals everywhere. The boats looked so unique to me as they are so flat. Even with being so short, they don’t have much clearance as they pass under a couple bridges at every block.

Leah and Joel hanging out at the side of a canal waiting for our boat. I was surprised at the lack of fences.

The lack of high rises also surprised me. The house fronts look very cool though I would imagine you would lose a lot of space due to stairways.

Here is a typical intersection with a bike lane, a vehicle lane and a transit train. The bridge railings are all used as bike racks.

We ate tacos for dinner tonight which felt a little odd. I’m not sure what the Dutch normally eat for dinner though I was looking out for some bitterballs (a delicious Dutch ball of deep fried goodness) today but didn’t find any. We didn’t look that hard either but I’ll have to up my game tomorrow.

Today marks two years since we moved to Vancouver. I fell in love with the way of life very early on. The walkability of our neighbourhood is amazing along with great, safe bike routes and beautiful views. It was a bit lonely early on but I knew once we got more established and found some friends, this would be a neighbourhood we would want to stay in.

We had amazing friends and family help load up our moving truck and bring everything up to our apartment as well as a dear friend who took the kids to the playground while we moved. We realized that night we had brought too much stuff over and the unpacking, organizing and purging began. We traded in furniture for new stuff from Ikea that fit our space much better.

Now the West End feels like home. We know many people in the neighbourhood, have many friends and acquaintances and are friends with the cashiers at our favourite places to shop.

I’m so glad we took the plunge and moved into the city. We are very fortunate that we are able to still visit our families regularly. At my mom’s we get to enjoy all the benefits of living in the suburbs. The kids can run free in the backyard at any time and I get to get my hands dirty in the garden and do laundry without paying or walking down the hall.

Today we relaxed at home, made some origami animals, the kids played with their friends and then off to the airport. Our flight was delayed so it was quite late when we got in. We went out for pizza and then straight to bed.

While we were waiting for our flight I gave the kids their journals to work on. This is Joel’s impression of Ireland – a few cows, some sheep and lots of rain. We actually had decent weather while we were there.

We found Science World at the airport (right on the top of the pole).

I found these chocolate sprinkles in the home of our host. My Oma had these and we would have chocolate sprinkles on our sandwiches at her house. It was such a treat.