We have safely arrived with Jeanette and Laurens, and we feel like we've come home. They have been sooo nice! They moved their spare beds up to the loft, or as Aunt Winnifred calls it "The tower room", and have given us a tour of the more remote areas around Amsterdam. They even had a hot delicious meal waiting for us after meeting us at the train station. Hopefully they will be able to visit us in Toronto some time so we can return the hospitality.
Anyway, just before coming to Amsterdam we went to little place in south Germany called Fussen. In this small village where the Bavarian Royalty used to live we went to see a couple small castles ...
Oh my god!! Ok, they aren't actually small. The smaller one is Hohenschwangau which was really more impressive on the inside but they wouldn't let us take pictures! I blame a tourism conspiracy. But the humungeous one (which Disneyland based their castle on) was spectacular.
They call it a fairytale castle because the crazy King Ludwig spent a tonne of his royal inheritance on building it, though it was never completed due to his mysterious death at age 40. It was medeavil style on the inside, decorated in impressive detail, and even after 17 years of work was only 2/3rds completed. 
So after spending some time in Fussen we are getting ready to explore everything Amsterdam has to offer. There are beautiful canals galore and we have been given some suggestions about the museums and shops and bike paths and lots more. So far we have seen "Broek in waterland", and "Marken" which are two unique villages just outside of Amsterdam were they have traditional garments and houses that all must remain the same by law.
Both villages are right on the ocean, but are inside the sets of dykes (dams) that protect massive portions of land that has been reclaimed from the sea. The shoes made the visit worthwhile :)
We hope you're all doing well, we've only got a few more stops on our trip, so enjoy the last couple weeks and the pictures. We'll see you all soon.
CC & JW
2 comments:
hmm....my facebook doesn't seem to be working. So, if you got my message and can meet in the morning (tues) at the leidesplein at 9:30 - I will be there! If not, no worries, I have plenty of errands in the area to do - and that will get me out of bed early :)
hope to see you!
Marie
Hey CC & JW!!! Looks like you guys are having an amazing time, I can't belive you're almost done! met up with Lola at the doggie park last week! Can't wait to be regailed with all the adventures when you return!!!
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