I think Kiera checked out every computer screen available in the museum. cool display about how the tilt in the Earth’s axis is responsible for the seasons Kiera checking out T-Rex leg to scale Kiera watching a hologram video of a dinosaur egg hatching (in the orange box). Video below… Is that real (lol!)? dinosaur […]
Month: June 2015
Naturalis Biodiversity Center / Post #1 (Leiden, The Netherlands)
We drove to Leiden for one of our long weekends. I have to say the Dutch cliché is true- windmills everywhere! The girls loved the hotel we stayed at for a few reasons- The big pond with turtles and koi in the lobby. Quinnie spent hours here. View of the lobby from our room. Can […]
Zuiderzeemuseum / Post #2 (Enkhuisen, The Netherlands)
Here’s the last batch of pics from the Zuiderzeemuseum… Quinnie drying fish skin Look how happy Kiera is to have found a dandelion (Pusteblume) to make a wish on. One of her favorite things to do… lilacs! On the way home I snapped a few pics of the architecture in Enkhuisen. It’s such a beautiful […]
Zuiderzeemuseum / Post #1 (Enkhuisen, The Netherlands)
“Zuiderzeemuseum is a mostly open air museum village set up to mimic the architecture and ‘atmosphere’ of village life around the Zuiderzee throughout history.” (Wikipedia) You need a full day to explore this place (and we still didn’t see everything!). There’s lots to do here. I ended up with so many photos that I’ll have […]
Zaanse Schans (Zaandam, The Netherlands)
“Zaanse Schans is a neighbourhood of Zaandam, near Zaandijk in the municipality of Zaanstad in the Netherlands.” That sentence from this village’s Wikipedia page cracks me up! Those locations sound made up- like they’re from a fairytale story or something. Maybe that’s kind of fitting since the place looks like this… so many windmills! The […]
Binnenhof and Mauritshuis (Den Haag, The Netherlands)
The Binnenhof is a Gothic castle/ complex of buildings in the city center of Den Haag. It was built in the 13th century, and is the oldest House of Parliament that’s still in use in the world (from Wikipedia link above). entrance The Ridderzaal Simon bent down to tie his shoe and the girls tackled […]
Vredespalais / Peace Palace (Den Haag, The Netherlands)
The Peace Palace in Den Haag (The Hague) houses the International Court of Justice, which is the principal judiciary body of the United Nations. It’s Wikipedia page is pretty interesting (largely quoted in this post). It states that Andrew Dickson White, whose efforts were instrumental in creating this court and securing the funding to provide […]
Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands
We finally made it to Den Haag. What a cool city! Simon likes it even better than Amsterdam. I really like it also (but Amsterdam will always have my heart). Wish I’d gotten a better pic of this (snapped this as we were driving by). Not only do they have double decker bike racks, but […]
Netherlands Open Air Museum (Arnhem, The Netherlands)
This national museum (created in 1912) has antique houses and farms from different parts of The Netherlands. They have reenactors demonstrating the everyday life of Dutch people in the past. The girls were invited in for a cup of tea by one of the reenactors. She made it the old fashioned way with brown rock […]
Hoge Veluwe National Park and Kröller-Müller Museum (Arnhem, The Netherlands)
Throughout May and June in Köln there are three long weekends due to Catholic holidays (no work or school!). We decided to road trip to The Netherlands for all three weekends this year. The three cities we went to were only two or three hour drives from Köln- nice perk of living here :-)! The […]
Buon Appetito! / Food in Italy
Everybody knows the food in Italy is amazing, right?! So I’ll just let the pictures do most of the talking. Unfortunately, these are all iPhone photos because I feel like a jerk taking photos of food in a restaurant with a larger camera. The girls are pretty adventurous eaters, especially with seafood. Their favorite food […]
Cervo, Italy
Another one of my favorite places to visit! Cervo is an ancient town built on top of a hill, with around 1,200 residents. It overlooks the Sea and is gorgeous. one of the entrances map (so many winding streets to explore!) Quinnie and Papa taking in the views. LOTS of uphill walking here! There are […]
Bussana Vecchia, Italy
Bussana Vecchia is a really interesting place, with an even more interesting history. It’s a village that was built up on a hill in the 9th century. It was abandoned in 1887 after an earthquake destroyed it and killed over 2,000 people. It was considered a ghost town until the early 1960’s when it was […]
More Beach Fun (Italy)
The girls looking for sea creatures on the jetty. They spent hours doing this every day. success! Papa teaching Kiera how to skip a rock card games Spinning Quinnie Kiera’s turn! sisters Quinnie and her friends burying Papa. By the way, the Papa of these girls is a childhood friend of Simon’s that he hadn’t […]
Road Trip to Italy
For our second visit to Italy this year (Easter vacation), we decided to drive. Growing up, if Simon and his family didn’t take the overnight train to Italy, they’d drive. It’s a gorgeous drive. My favorite part is going through Switzerland and seeing the Alps. SO beautiful! I was a little nervous about how the […]
Grotte di Toirano (Italy)
This place was amazing. Italy has a whole network of caves, and this is one of the best (or so I’ve read). It’s still in the Liguria region- it took us a little over an hour to drive there. It was quite a steep hike to get up to the caves. They had metal stairs […]
Oceanographic Museum (Monaco)
The girls LOVED this place. It’s a museum of marine sciences with some great exhibits and an aquarium on the lower level. They were having an exhibit all about sharks (and their preservation). The highlight was the shark tank with small sharks that you could pet as they swam by. I think the girls spent […]
Monaco
I’ve always loved visiting Monaco, and was excited to bring the girls for their time. I remember watching Princess Grace’s funeral on TV with my Mom when I was little. Her life seemed so glamorous. A talented American actress who went on to become a princess?! And has there ever been a more beautiful bride? […]
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
One of our favorite things to do while visiting the Riviera is to walk along the Mediterranean Sea. One of the most beautiful spots to do this is the Cap Martin. I’ve never seen anything like it. The rocks and reef make you feel like you’re on another planet… The walk we take is about […]
Menton, France
We almost always make sure to visit Menton (called “the pearl of France”) whenever we’re at Oma and Opa’s place. It’s only a 40 minute drive from their home in Italy. Simon usually takes the girls to the beach while I do some shopping and exploring. Quinnie on the beach. The town square/ shopping area […]
Alassio, Italy
Alassio is about a 30 minute drive from us. It’s another fun beach town to shop in. It was a bit overcast and windy the day we went, but we still had fun. Beautiful Door. / American Dog Bar?! cool candy store This tiny pizza place (take-out only) has been here for years and has […]
Oneglia, Italy
Oneglia is about a ten minute drive along the coast from us. There’s some great shopping there. Opa usually waits until he’s in Italy to get his hair cut in Oneglia by this really old barber he’s been going to for years. Simon got his hair cut by the same guy this visit. Simon hung […]
Porto Maurizio, Italy
One of the closest (and most beautiful) beaches near our place in Italy is in Porto Maurizio. Usually one of the first things we do is walk the jetty to the lighthouses. October is our favorite month to come to Italy. The summer crowds are gone and it’s not too hot- perfect beach weather. stairs […]
Oma and Opa’s Place in Italy
Oma and Opa bought their place in Italy when Simon was just a baby. Opa Friedel’s sister also bought a home in the same village around the same time. So Simon and Ruth got to make some great childhood memories here with their cousins. Opa’s brother eventually bought a home in the same neighborhood as […]
Italia!
We vacationed at Oma and Opa’s place in Italy twice this past year- October vacation and Easter vacation. Altogether we spent about five weeks in Italy (France and Monaco as well since they’re less than an hour away!). So there are lots of vacation blog posts coming your way! For October vacation, we flew to […]
Easter 2015
We spent Easter vacation in Italy this year, but before we left we made sure to dye eggs and do an Easter egg hunt with our neighbors Ella and Louis. You can’t buy these plastic, fillable Easter eggs here, so whenever I break them out they’re a huge hit with all the kids. They were […]
Basilika Sankt Gereon
One of the perks of living in Köln? Being eight years old and getting to sing with your school choir (Chor) in Basilika Sankt Gereon! Definitely click on that link to see a pic of the outside- I didn’t get a good one myself. The Wikipedia page on Sankt Gereon states that “the first mention […]
Sleepover and Easter Prep
One of Quinnie’s best friends is Antonia. They’re in the same class at school, and desk mates. Anto (as her friends call her) really helped Quinnie a lot when we first moved here and Quinnie didn’t speak, read, or write German. Quinnie caught up very fast, and that’s partly due to Anto’s help. They were […]
Kiera loses her first tooth!
About six weeks after her sixth birthday, Kiera lost her first tooth! Just like her sister, Kiera’s teeth come in like a shark’s- one set right behind the other. see what I mean? When I saw the shark teeth I knew what was coming, so we started reading some of our tooth books to prepare. […]
Karneval 2015
One of the best things about living in Köln is Karneval (though some would say it’s the worst thing- lol). People look forward to and prepare for it the whole year. I wrote a detailed post about Karneval in Köln and it’s traditions last year. You should read that first before continuing this post (because […]