Paris

We took the bus tour all around the city, saw pretty much all of the touristy things you need to see in Paris except the Louvre, but we do have tickets waiting for us at Ticketmaster so Brandon and I need to go back and use them. Apparently we didn't take that many pictures, or Vickie took them all because I don't have any of us!  So here are some that Brandon took.

Had our first Parisian crepes!  Chocolate of course!!  Brandon and Vickie took a ton of pictures in the rain from the other side, and by the time we got over here the weather had cleared up. Of course. 

We ate lunch at a REALLY good cafe around the corner from here. I think it was just the Notre Dame cafe, had a red awning, but it was pretty delicious 

A Cheese Dream Come True!

The Alkmaar Cheese Market!  I have been wanting to go here for four years and we finally did!  It's only on Friday so that made it hard for Brandon to be able to go, and we really do not like to go to new places without each other. So since he was on leave while Vickie was here I made sure to put this on our list. If you want to read all about the history and details of the market you can do so here.

Basically, The Market has been around since at least the 1600s, most likely since the 1300s but without exact documentation, and it has been done the same way ever since. There are four cheese guilds, made clear by the colors red, blue, green, and yellow. Their hats and their cheese carriers are these colors. The cheese is inspected by the buyer, and once the buyer and seller agree upon the price, the carriers take the cheese to the scale, then back to the center where it is loaded on a cart and taken to the truck. It used to be taken to the canal and put on a barge. The carriers walk out of step so the cheese does not wobble so much, and the scales are rotated between the guilds so they cannot create any sort of fraud with their scales.

If you want to plan your own trip, all of the information is on the website. There is a free park and ride, you get your ticket like you are paying but that is actually your bus ticket, which is good for 5 people and takes you just outside the Centrum. Follow the crowds of people and you are there!  The Cheese Museum is also worth it, 3 euro per person I believe, and you get a great view of The Market. The presenter gives her spiel in three languages so it takes awhile, but you can get all of the same information from inside the Museum without all of the crowds.

Getting ready to start

Look at all of that cheese!!!

Loading it up

Taking it to the wagon. You can see how they are walking out of step. 

Notice the different colors

The buyers doing their taste test and inspection. We got to eat some too since we were in the front :) 

The museum

Inside the museum

The view from above, inside the museum 

Zaanse Schans

Windmills!  Yay!  This has been on my list of places to go since we have been here (quite a long list) and we saved a bunch of them for Vickie's visit. Here is the official website in case you want to plan your own trip. There is parking on site plus a museum, a free cheese museum with a giant cheese shop (complete with tasting!) and there are a couple of windmills you can go into that cost about 3 euro each. We went in the Spice Mill and just walked around the rest of them. There is also an antique store where I bought some frog bookends (are you surprised?) Most of the windmills have been moved to the area, but it was still cool to see. Different Mills are open on different days so check the website before you go.

 

 

 
 

Kuekenhof

I have to admit, I really was not looking forward to going back here.  I figured once in a lifetime was enough, but turned out I was wrong! I love seeing people's reactions when they see things for the first time, and the flowers were definitely different. Plus, we went up in the windmill this time which we did not do last time. Here are some of my favorite photos, enjoy!

We're Back!!

It has been a busy few months, followed by a long five weeks of me and Kyle by ourselves, now we are back to normal and excited for school to start in two weeks!  Since I finally have a computer that will stay on longer than 10 minutes before overheating, my plan is to do one post a day until I have all of our adventures documented. Aunt Vickie came to visit in April/May, followed by Brandon's parents in June, then my cousin and her boyfriend in June/July, and then my friends the Links stopped by for 2 days at the end of the month.   Time to go through the pictures and figure it all out!  See you soon!!