And we are off! Waiting at the airport for the start of Katherine's senior trip! I love seeing how the trips look different for each kid. They have a limited budget and get to plan it all. WE are taking her trip a few months before her senior year due to logistics. He number one place to visit was Kuekenhoff Gardens in Amsterdam, but they are only open 6 weeks a year. So, it was take the trip a hair early or be rushed tryign to squeeze it in among packing to return to the states for college. We chose now.
We arrived in Amsterdam! We went straight from the plane to a bus stop to go straight to the gardens. They have luggage storage there which was super helpful
Ah! The tulips and flowers everywhere!
and fields of flowers and row after row (but it was hard to capture that)
a duck at the gardens
Flowers indoors and outdoors...all kinds of flowers and varieties! It was Katherine's dream ;)
inside a windmill
on a windmill
the view from the windmill
a "pineapple flower" at least that is my name for it
on the tram in Amsterdam
exploring the city before hopping on a train...Amsterdam floating flower market
Yeah! We found a squished penny machine! It's one of the cheapest souvenirs around and we like hunting for them :)
bikes bikes everywhere
Van Stapele cookies
a famous koekmakerij in Amsterdam :)
YUMMMMMM
walking down a street market
yes, this is Katherine's dream food truck...allllll the fries!
Another thing they are famous for...this was our lunch
We wanted to explore the residential areas
We thought...is that a castle? So we looked on our maps app...it's a shopping mall.
Ok, the buildings ...I thought all the crazy tilted building artwork was just a style thing...but no, they are tilted all over the place! haha
Good eye, Katherine! She found an invader in this mess of stickers and such.
We decided that Jonathan would not be able to handle living here...we loved it but the tilted windows and buildings would drive him crazy
St. Nicholas Basilica in Amsterdam
inside the church
artwork in the church
the most ornate baptistry I have seen
We went to grab some McDonald's before getting on teh train and the languages section on the screen confused me for a minute....English is English, Nerderlands is Dutch, and Deutsch is German. Whew!
WE found this really cool plant. I thought it was fake or a real plant that someone painted with a silver sharpie, but it is 100 percent natural. It was the wildest thing.
train station in Amsterdam on the left, background is St. Nicholas church, and the foreground is a bike escelator
At the train station...hot meal vending machines
Our first time on the Eurostar train. I'm a huge fan. You really can't beat 35 euros to go from Amsterdam to Paris. Katherine found a way to make the most of her budget and we squeezed in a second city/country!
Senior trip Part 2 is coming...
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