We have been back for a week now, but I wanted to include a quick post about the last 2 stops on our trip (for memories sake). Paris was AMAZING. I absolutely loved our little apartment in the midst of everything. We stayed a block away from the Notre Dame, and we could hear the bells ring each morning. The apartment was definitely small, but it was neat to live in the same building as Parisians, even if only for 4 days :)
We spent our days walking around the city, stopping for lunch in different parks, or ice cream by the river. We loved how much green space Paris has, and it seems like the residents take full advantage of being outside to read, eat or just visit.
The trek out to the Eiffel Tower made me a little grumpy, so it wasn't my favorite spot, but the Seine River at night was magical.
We took the Thalys train from Paris to Amsterdam and had two full days to see the city. We stayed in another apartment which was totally IKEA'd out, but really beautiful. It had a back patio off the bedroom complete with a neighbor cat who came by!
The other great thing about our apartment was having the Albert Cuyp Market across the street. It was really fun to wander through in the afternoons and eat food from the vendors. I also bought some great pants.
The best part of Amsterdam was the awesome biking mentality! We had free bikes with our apartment, but the idea of biking in those crowded lanes intimidated us a bit, so we just watched from the sidewalk. It was weird to see full families commuting to work and school with the kids strapped all over the bikes or sitting in a little wagon type contraption. I even saw one mom with 3 kids on her bike! It kind of made us realize why Americans are overweight when we drive our kids in mini-vans a mile up the road to school.
It's back to reality for us and a trip to Mass this weekend to find an apartment! I'm sure there will be times in the year ahead we will look back on our 3 weeks in Europe with nostalgia.
