Friday bullets, the travel version

I am finally awake enough to write something. After two nights' sleep, I think my internal clock is starting to readjust.

• We had a great trip. Aside from the momentary concern of how to get back to London, everything went exceedingly smoothly. We also had terrific weather. Sunny and warm-ish in countries not necessarily known for that kind of weather.
• The car we rented was kind of cool. First, on certain roads if you drove too close to a solid white line, the car would automatically readjust. J. found it a little disconcerting at first. Also, whenever you were stopped, the engine would shut down. The first few times it happened, I thought, "Oh no! The car has broken!" Instead, it was just to avoid idling engines and the minute the gas pedal was pressed, it would start back up.
• D. has become a connoisseur of hamburgers across northern Europe.
• We really enjoyed Amsterdam. Outside of the center area that was incredibly crowded with tourists, it is a very pleasant city to be in. And all the canals are pretty darn cool.

• I word to the wise, if you plan on visiting Amsterdam and wish to see museums, buy your tickets in advance. When we got to the Van Gogh Museum, the tickets were all sold out for days in advance. We did get to see the Rijksmuseum, though. It was fantastic and we could have spent days here trying to see everything. We also got to see Rembrandt's The Night Watch which we learned about in school and is a particular favorite of K.'s.

This is the gallery which houses The Night Watch as well as a Vermeer. It is very beautiful. If you look closely, you will see The Night Watch there at the very end of the gallery.

The Night Watch. It's huge. It is also displayed with various other paintings of other watches. When you compare the other with this one, you can completely understand why the group which hired Rembrandt to paint it was so upset.

• We also got to see the exhibit 'All the Rembrandts' which had just a few days left when we were there. It was a great exhibit, but it was also a lot of Rembrandts. Galleries of Rembrandts. So many Rembrandts. By the end we were just kind of wandering through the galleries because we were so arted out.
• Our houseboat was perfect. I was a little concerned about the area, but it turned out just fine. It was just enough off the beaten path that it was very peaceful. And with a tram stop just a short walk over a bridge, we could very easily get to anywhere we needed to go. 

This is the houseboat. We had the center section with the second story.

Here is the little living area that also had the kitchen. To the left was a bedroom and bathroom and up the stairs was a large sunny living area with a pull-out couch. It easily slept four.

It even had a washer and dryer.

One of our favorite spots was this little deck. We could move the kitchen chairs out onto it and sit and enjoy the view. We saw coots, mallards, swans, gulls, and herons. 

Here is a heron that landed on the houseboat. At first we thought it was a stork, but its beak isn't big enough.

• On Monday, the day before we left and the day we got the car, we decided to take a short trip out of the city. It would be good practice for driving to Belgium the next day. We decided to drive to Muiderslot which is a Medieval castle about 18 minutes outside of the city. Well, going back it took 18 minutes, going to the castle it took more like 30 because we didn't fully understand the GPS at first and took several wrong turns. 
• The castle was pretty cool, and I loved the fact that it still had water in its moat.

• And except for a couple of school groups, it was blissfully tourist free. Highly recommended if you are ever in Amsterdam.
• The small town of Muider was pretty darn picturesque as well.

• We had lunch at an outdoor cafe in Muider and D. fell in love with the jackdaws that were everywhere. He spent a good portion of lunch trying to figure out how to get one home.

• For the most part, people at home fared well. I just have to say that we have the best children. They all pitched in and helped keep the house running  and animals cared for. This would be no small feat in itself, but five nights before we were due to get home, R. fell off the deep end and stopped sleeping. M. deserves a huge round of applause for dealing with that. It is not easy for me and J. to manage when we are home and was doubly so for M. The other older children, including B. who spent the entire long weekend at home to help, also stepped up and took turns to M. could get some sleep. We have extremely competent children and are so proud of them.
• The only thing I regret about the trip is that I couldn't share it with everyone. As we would tour around we would mention which of our children would particularly enjoy seeing where we were. It just kind of stinks sometimes to not have mountains of disposable cash, huh? Maybe someday that lottery ticket will just fly itself into my hand, because that's the only way winning the lottery will happen here.
• Now it's back to life as normal. I have just about tackled the laundry and J. is spending the entire afternoon on the mower trying to subdue the grass which has grown to immense proportions because of a full month of rain. As well as laundry, I have spent nearly every waking moment trying to figure out the hay situation because there is an extreme hay shortage in Northern Illinois. With help from my brother in Iowa, I think I now have a plan. 
• Be sure to tune in tomorrow. Olive turns two and A. has been making big birthday plans. I'm sure there will be many Olive pictures to share.