The Anderson Family: Europe Trip

Europe Trip

May 11 - May 28, 2015

London

Churchill War Rooms

Sightseeing on the Double-Decker Bus Tour

The British Museum

Shakespeare Globe Theatre

Les Miserables

It was pretty cool to see an enigma machine in the Churchill Museum!

Nick had both of our drivers licences in his pocket while we were on the double-decker bus tour. When he took his phone out to take a picture our licenses fell out and we didn't notice! A few minutes after getting off the bus, we realized that they were missing- luckily the bus was still in sight so we started chasing it down the street. I was trying to snap pictures while we ran so that we could track the license plate on the bus! We were able to catch up while it was caught in traffic and the driver let us on even though it wasn't an official stop. Everyone on the top level helped us find our licenses! Whew!

Nick fits right in with these guys!

Holland

Amsterdam, Wassenaar, Utrecht, Haarlem

Visited Nick's Old House and School

Dinner with Sister Karlson

Corrie Ten Boom House

Keukenhof

Ann Frank House

Rijksmuseum

Canal Tour

Nick's Dad joined us in Holland!

We ate lots of cheese in Amsterdam! Yum!

Nick's school in Wassenaar.

The Anderson's old house.

We got to visit Nick's cousin on her mission in Utrecht. We ate at this awesome pizza place right on a canal.

Famous organ in a church in Haarlem played by Mozart and Handel

One our our favorite books is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. We had the chance to see her home- it was amazing. This is the place in the stairs where they hid the stolen ration cards that ultimately gave them away.

The entrance to the hiding place.

The hiding place in Corrie's room.

Fresh stroopwaffles!!!

The Keukenhof was full of beautiful tulips and flowers.

The Night Watch by Rembrandt

Poffertjes are now one of my favorite treats!

Paris

Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame

Musee d'Orsay

Seine River Cruise

Paris Catacombs

A beautiful view from the top of the Eiffel Tower

We ran into Kei Nishikori and Maria Sharapova in Paris!

View of Paris from the towers of Notre Dame

The Musee d'Orsay

The Musee d'Orsay was our favorite museum!

Feeling museum burn-out! This is one of my favorite pics from our trip :)

The Paris Catacombs were super weird- bones after bones after bones...

Venice

Doge's Palace

St. Mark's Basilica

Canal Tour

Venice was absolutely beautiful. However, we quickly learned that many Venetians are NOT very nice. We got kicked out of a restaurant for no reason at all but still had a great time.

It was extremely easy to get lost! Sometimes we would turn the corner and the sidewalk would just turn into water.

Pretty views and bridges everywhere!

In the Doge's Palace

From the inside of the Bridge of Sighs (connects the Doge's Palace to the prison, named after the sighs of prisoners)

Prison beds

My goofy hubby

St. Mark's Basilica

Florence

Duomo

Accademia Gallery

Renaissance walk

Gorgeous view of Florence!

The David was extremely impressive. One of the more interesting things that we learned and observed was how confident David looks from the front (right) but when you see him from the side, he seems nervous (left).

One of the unfinished prisoners. It was really cool to see the chisel marks left by Michelangelo.

This was our very favorite meal in Europe! IT WAS SOO GOOD. Weirdly, it was a vegan place but everything tasted like perfection! It had a really neat ambiance as well (it looked like they turned an old bookstore into a restaurant).

Cinque Terre

Day Trip to All 5 Villages

So picturesque!

Doing a little shopping

We had lunch overlooking the third village.

Four mile hike from village 3 to village 4 (they have names, i'm just too lazy to look them up).

We hit up the lemon festival in Monterosso al Mare! We had lemonade, lemon cakes, and lemon gelato!

Took a boat along the coast to see all 5 villages from the water.

Our tour guides in Cinque Terre

Rome

Pantheon

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Colosseum

Roman Forum

Vatican Museum

St. Peter's Basilica

The Trevi Fountain was under construction but that didn't stop us from throwing some coins in. :)

Our fancy dates always included European Fanta instead of wine.

I love this one of us and Rome.

The Roman Forum

We started out smiling in pictures at the Colosseum but the more that we read and learned, the less it seemed right...haha

We ate tons of pizza, pasta, pastries, and gelato!

by Leonardo da Vinci

St. Peter's Basilica

Waiting in a 2 hour line and not very excited about it. This was by far the worst line that we waited in (there were fights, groups cutting in line, and a downpour of rain).