Day 10 we left Brugge and got back on the train and started to make our way to Amsterdam. We decided to use it as our home base as we explored some of the Netherlands. Nothing too exciting today, just a relaxing ride on the train for a few hours followed by getting settled into a hotel and wandering the canals of Amsterdam. The train station had a pretty neat exercise bike though. If you wanted to charge your phone, you plugged it in and then had to pedal to make the power to charge it up!
So it turns out that Brugge is AWESOME! We liked it so much that we changed our plans and decided to stay another day. We started the day with a boat tour through the canals (they want to be known as the Venice of the North) and a little walk around town. Since we were in Belgium, we tried the Belgian waffles covered in Belgian chocolate (yum!), and later, the Flemish fries – so good!
As we were wandering the little back streets of the town, we stumbled upon some construction that looked out of place so we stopped to look. It was across from the old hospital (1000 years old), and it turned out to be an archeological dig in progress. We watched as they unearthed 2 skulls and their bones. We were guessing that being across from the hospital, maybe it was the old graveyard. Europe has such amazing history, and it was so cool to see this happen right in front of our eyes. Definitely a highlight of the trip. We’ve had great luck on trips just wandering without a plan, and this reinforced why we like doing that so much. Amazing!!
We finished the day with some museums, shopping, and a carriage ride around the old parts of the town.
Starting on day 8, we had no reservations and no set plans. From here on it’s just looking at the map and wandering wherever looks exciting. We settled on Brugge, Belgium. We packed up our room in Paris and headed to the train station with our Eurorail passes in hand. It was a loooong, difficult travel day (turns out that getting a seat on the train in the height of summer tourist season is more difficult than we’ve experienced in the off-season, should have seen that coming…), but we made it to our hotel in Bruge around 8:30pm and had one of our best meals at a local restaurant!
Brad started the day with a tour of the catacombs while Kenzie, Grace, and I had breakfast at a local cafe bistro. More walking and a boat tour down the Seine river, then past Notre Dame before it started to pour again! We’re ready to head to the train station in the morning and get to our next destination!
After a long day of travel, we slept in and took our time getting out to see the city. Brad booked us an Air BnB in the city so it was pretty convenient to walk… we started at the Louvre, had some crepes, learned about the locks on bridges, then ended the day at the Eiffel Tower.
Day 4 in Rome started out WET! Brad had arranged for a small tour of the Colosseum with two other families… both happened to be from the states and one family was from southern Oregon!
After the Colosseum, we rented bikes and rode outside of town down the Appian Way. It’s one of the original Roman roads originally built in 312 BC. And of course, more Italian food and gelato…
We took the train to Naples and then on to Rome. Trying to get on track with our sleep schedule, we dropped our luggage at the hotel and went for a walk. We passed the Colosseum, stopped for gelato (again), and wandered the city.
Today we explored Pompeii. Kenzie did a lot of research about the city for her 4th grade independent project so she was able to tell stories about the places we saw including the House of Stephanus, the Garden of Fugitives, and Pompeii’s Coliseum.
Tonight ended with another torrential downpour, this time with huge hail!
The day started off with a 6am flight to Newark then an 8 1/2 hour flight to Naples. From there we took an hour bus ride to our hotel in Sorrento, passing Mount Vesuvius along the way. Since our room wasn’t quite ready, we explored the town then returned for a 5 hour nap. We ended our first day with gelato, more exploring, then a torrential downpour!
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