Swedish Meatballin'

I finally understand why so many Swedish immigrants to the U.S. found their home in Minnesota: Obviously, one can easily draw a parallel to the weather between the two locations (especially in wintertime), but I believe the real draw of the upper Midwest for the Swedes of old is the abundance of water (i.e. the 10,000 lakes), which must have made the new country feel just like home.

Stockholm is a grand city, and was a recent stop on our European travels. It's absolutely exquisite in its beauty. But make no mistake about it—for all of the lovely buildings, palaces, and parks, Stockholm's soul is the water that surrounds the city.

On our archipeligo boat tour, we experience the water up close and personal as we gazed over the inlets at a handful of the over 30,000 islands (150 of which are inhabited) that dot the waterways around Stockholm.An overriding impression of Stockholm is that it is a “lovely” city. I tried on other adjectives, but non seemed to fit as well. The contrasting colors of the buildings, contrasted further against the black tin/lead rooftops, is visually striking. In the oldest parts of the city, the grand castles and palaces that sit on the water's edge look out over harbors that house boats of every imaginable size and use, ranging from personal kayaks to gigantic cruise ships. In the middle of that spectrum, a large selection of fishing, pleasure, and ferry boats would titilate a fan of all things nautical. Study up on your knot tying skills and book your SAS flight now.

In addition to the archipeligo boat tour, our 4 days in Stockholm were filled with fun activities. Highlights included a tour of the Vasa Museum, which houses a huge 17th century boat that was raised from the bottom of the sea in the 1950s. It's considered the world's most well-preserved ship of its age. Junibacken, a children's museum/playhouse based on the story of Pipi Longstocking, was a fun few hours for the kids. We followed that with a visit to Skansen, a collection of old buildings, animals, an aquarium, and working farms. We saw an amazing glass-blowing demonstration here and some great views of the city. Maya, who had been studying vikings recently in school, enjoyed seeing one of the over 2500 rune stones left by vikings as memorials to a friend or family member. A short walking tour of Stockholm's old city cemented why the city is so wonderful. Winding, narrow streets lined with shops (including plenty of gelato stands) took us back in time to old Scandinavia, when tourists came onshore only on sailing ships, perhaps to trade or conduct other business.











The general cleanliness, friendliness, bright sunshine, and general Scandanavian hospitality made Stockholm, Sweden a wonderful place for us to spend a 4-day weekend.

HERE is a link to all of our pictures from Stockholm.

Koninginnedag

It's the world's largest sidewalk sale and Amsterdam's biggest party all rolled into one: Queen's Day, held every year on April 30th, which fell on a Wednesday this year.

We made furtive preparations: Assembling an entire wardrobe of orange clothes (the national color), setting aside various household goods to sell (including the beautiful black artificial Christmas tree that Mrs. Pressler refused to display beyond its inaugural season), and planning social outings for the day with friends.

Mr. Pressler started the party with a night out on Queen's Day eve, a night that could be a holiday in and of itself. But the late night didn't prevent him from joining the Mrs. on an early morning Queen's Day run, where we saw the city getting ready for the onslaught of visitors. The weather would prove to be a bit cool, but the rain held off.

Later in the morning, we strolled through Vondelpark for a couple of hours with friends. Every road and path was packed to the hilt with people selling everything you could imagine...mostly household stuff that you'd find at a garage sale. The kids wanted to buy other kids old toys (translation: junk), but luckily we made it through the park only buying snacks and playing games.

After lunch, Maya & Cole set up their stand in the park to sell a few of their paintings (space opened because some people seemed to leave after around noon). Maya had a bunch of paintings she had created on canvas, and Cole didn’t want to be left out, so he threw some paint onto paper. They put prices onto each piece ranging from 1 to 3 Euro. We told them their prices might be a bit high, but the young entrepreneur spirit ruled the day. People were very sweet, asking the price, and after the first shocked reaction Maya received to the 3 Euro price tag, she immediately dropped the price to 20 cents and made her first sale. After a couple hours hanging out in the park and selling the art, they each had enough money to buy gelato.

Later in the day, we decided to venture closer to the center of the city, wandering the area near Museumplein with friends to take in the action...err, human spectacle. Crushing crowds turned us around pretty quickly so we could escape the chaos. We wandered past a fire station that was giving the public rides up to the top of their fire truck ladder on a hydraulic lift – no joke, higher than ANY building in Amsterdam. So of course, we paid our one Euro/person for a ride. We told the fireman that you would never see something like this in the US due to the liability and safety concerns. He laughed and told us they aren’t actually allowed to do it here either – some years the police shut them down, and some years they allow it…. Depending upon who is working. NICE. Needless to say, my kids loved it and the view was spectacular.

We ended the day in front of our house, relaxing and sharing some wine with friends. Our corner was packed with people who had come to enjoy live musical entertainment provided by one of the restaurants. Kids played in the streets, people were dancing and drinking, and it was very festive and fun. When the band shut down around 7pm, with enough wine granting some courage, Mr. Pressler decided to go up to our balcony and plug in his guitar in a (very sad) attempt to entertain the crowd. Unfortunately the amp wasn’t working very well, and after capturing their attention with the first few cords, they lost interest since they couldn’t really hear him. But it was very entertaining and offered many laughs to our friends and family. The crowd cleared out by 8pm since the music entertainment was done, which was also great since we had an early flight to catch to Stockholm.

HERE is a link to our Queen's Day photos.

A Flower Extravaganza

With the arrival of Nancy (Stacey's mom), the biggest holiday in the country looming (Queen's Day), and an upcoming trip to Stockhom, it was shaping up to be a very busy few weeks.

On Sunday, April 27th, we took advantage of some very nice weather and made the 25-minute drive to the world-famous (in the eyes of the Dutch) Keukenhof, a place that has to be seen to be believed. On this multi-acre square of land that sits southwest of Amsterdam, the worlds most astounding display of flowers—especially tulips—can be seen up close. Although you can see the straight rows of flowers growing in nearby fields, ready for harvest, Keukenhof takes floral display many steps further, with meticulously landscaped grounds that feature a stunning display of colors and flower types. The layout alone should qualify for the Academy Award of landscape design (if there were such an award), and then the assault of colors delivers the knockout blow.

Keukenhof is, without a doubt, a little old lady's flower garden on steroids. You can't help but come away impressed with the magnitude and variety that you'll see there. If you ever get the chance to visit, don't pass it up (www.keukenhof.nl).

HERE is a link to all of the photos we took at Keukenhof.

Under the Tuscan Sun

There are times in your life, when everything goes very smoothly during a holiday. Our recent 10-day Italian extravaganza journey set a new standard for our future vacations.

Dreams of sunshine warming our white Holland faces were put on hold upon our arrival to our first destination, an agriturismo (old farmhouse converted to a guesthouse), located just south of the city of Siena. The rain fell like sheets from the sky, forcing us to spend our first day (Thursday) exploring the region by car. The beautiful hillside towns, most covered with the vines that Tuscan winemakers have made so famous, were beautifully washed in a deep green of Springtime.

Friday dawned beautifully, and Stacey thoroughly enjoyed her morning run down winding roads that see almost no auto traffic. We headed for Siena later in the morning, a small city that is very special for Stacey since she lived there for over 3 months when she was in college.

We sat in the wonderful city piazza, staring up at the huge clock tower that stands as the city’s most recognizable landmark. Of course, the kids were very excited to climb the tower, see the bell(s), and take in the bi

rd’s eye view of Tuscany. Naturally, the kids subsisted on a steady diet of gelato (Italian ice cream), which can be found in as many flavors as you can imagine. 

For the curious, Dad liked the cantaloupe flavor, Mom loved banana or hazelnut, while Maya settled on a mixture of “cream” and strawberry. Cole insisted on the (horrific) flavor train-wreck of chocolate and lemon. When we let the kids add a 3^rd flavor, they both chose mint chocolate chip, which we cannot get in Holland. Whatever rocks your boat!

Saturday found us in the wonderful little town of Volterra, where we walked most of the day, enjoying gelato several times, trying a number of pieces of pizza, and drinking more wine than good judgment might advise.

A culinary note: We were as excited to eat great food and drink great wine as the kids were to eat gelato. And typically, we were not disappointed one bit in either. Space here is far too short to list each of the culinary delights we discovered or to log the numerous bottles of wine that fell in service to Mr. & Mrs. Pressler. Suffice to say that our taste buds were very well catered to throughout the journey!

On Sunday, we drove south to Rome, opting for the car instead of the train so we could enjoy some of the sights along the way. We chose the scenic coastal route and stopped for lunch in the town of Porto Santo Stefano (nothing too special, in our opinion), and then stopped 30 minutes outside of Rome and grabbed a local train the rest of the way to avoid Rome’s parking nightmare.

Sunday afternoon and a very full Monday were spent in the magnificent (if dusty) city of Rome. On Sunday, we explored many of Rome’s great fountains (hubs of activity), including the Trevisi Fountain made famous by the movie “Roman Holiday.” We waited until the nighttime, so we could see it gorgeously illuminated by lights. To insure our return to Rome, we all pitched in coins over our shoulder. Maya and Cole were fascinated as they watched a street artist create landscapes with spray paint, the tourists lined up waiting for a chance to buy one.The Spanish Steps were also included in our Sunday tour.

Monday morning, we headed to Vatican City, taking in the incredible architecture and church history. St. Peter’s Basilica is astounding. We took the lift half way to the top of the dome, but climbed the winding and curved stairs to the viewing platforms on the peak to enjoy the stunning views of Rome. The adjoining Sistine Chapel is beyond words, and the magnitude of the Vatican is one that is very difficult to properly describe.

Later in the day, we explored the incredible Colosseum, where Cole in particular was kept interested with tales of battles and fighting. Both kids were kept interested with gelato bribes along the way, and amazed us with how much fun they had.

On Tuesday, we bid ciao to Rome and headed back north to Tuscany. On the way to our agriturismo west of Florence, we took a detour off the highway to the wine lover’s paradise of Montepulciano. The town itself is very sleepy and not at all overrun by tourists, which appealed to us greatly. Wine shops dot every street, and we took the opportunity to pick up a few bottles that we would carefully tote back with us to Amsterdam.

Our arrival near Empoli at the guesthouse that would be our home for the next 4 nights took a little bit of expert navigational skills, but once we found it...it was like stepping into another world, nestled into hills whose beauty defy description. Stacey and I enjoyed the most amazing runs through the hills each morning, every vista more beautiful than the last. It was surreal--we just couldn’t believe we were enjoying a run in Tuscany...simply magical.

The “neighbor’s place” (Fattoria di Piazzano) was a wonderful vineyard, accessed via a 10 minute walk down a gravel road, onto a grass path that wove through vines, up a dirt driveway, and finally terminating at a showroom around the back of the wine processing building. Mrs. Bettarini gladly poured a glass of wine for tasting, which was exceptional. One of the Sangiovese varietals produced at this vineyard is called Ventoso (“wind”), due to the strong winter winds that blow from the Mediterranean coast. One fall a few years ago after a particularly good storm, the winemaker discovered sea salt deposits on the grape leaves, despite the fact that Empoli sits 71 kilometers (44 miles) inland! Unfortunately, we were unable to taste or purchase any of the olive oil produced on the farms due to a poor harvest of olives the previous season.

The iconic image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is familiar to everyone, but on Wednesday, we were to get an up-close-and-personal look at the marble tower whose construction--and leaning--began in 1173. 

Over the next 820 years, visitors have been captivated by this architectural oddity, including us. At the foot of the tower is the most impressive and largest manicured “lawn” that I’ve seen in all

 of Europe.

Here's a short video of the kids having a blast in Pisa:

After leaving Pisa (and buying the obligatory small tower statues for the kids), we continued west to the coastal town of Viareggio, which in the summer is overrun with Italians vacationers. There wasn’t much happening during our visit, but the kids did enjoy the sand and small seaside carnival rides.

The granddaddy of all art cities in the world must certainly by Florence, Italy, which was our destination for Thursday. The day began with sunshine and temperatures that were as high as we had experienced on the entire trip. We arrived via a train from Empoli and eagerly boarded a double-decker bus for our tour of the magnificent city. Almost immediately upon departing, black clouds moved into the city, blocking the sun and foreshadowing heavy rain that followed soon after. The cloudbursts held off long enough for us to see many of the major sights including the beautiful Ponte Vecchio covered bridge, the Uffizi gallery’s exterior, and the enormous Florence Duomo. Then...the rains came with a vengeance, putting a challenging end to our day in “art central.” 

Since we had the common sense not to drag the kids into any art galleries, we didn’t fall prey to the affliction known as Stendhal syndrome. More info HERE. Scary stuff! ;-)

Fortunately for our moods, Friday was a gorgeous day, and we headed out to the beautiful town of Lucca, which certainly knows how to treat its visitors well but isn’t overrun by tourists and spoiled by endless boutique stores. The town is encircled by huge ancient city walls that effectively protected its citizens for centuries from every attack. Today, these walls make for a perfect family bike tour, which we all enjoyed in the warm sunshine, followed by a delicious lunch at a tiny trattoria in the city center.

Back on the road, we stopped at Pinocchio Park in the town where the story was written, but decided not to pay the obscene entry charges for that tourist trap.  Instead we detoured through the town of Montecatini Terme, well-known in the region for its high mineral content waters and healing spas. After the long vacation, we all could have used a bit of a warm soak. Fortunately, we found an inexpensive mineral pool facility that welcomed families with children. The hour-long soak felt fine, indeed.

All good things must come to an end, including our incredible vacation. Tuscany, drenched in sunshine, bathed in verdant green, and lifted up into the clouds by the interminable spirit of her people, will occupy a special place in our memories and hearts forever.

Check out ALL of the photos from our Tuscan holiday HERE.

Paris--oooh, la, la!

Our big spring vacation plans to Italy had been made, but as the end of March approached, we realized that Nike would be closed for a long Easter weekend. What else to do with our time than book ourselves train tickets to Paris?!?

We found an apartment in the 6th District (St. Germaine) at the recommendation of Stacey’s co-workers, and it was perfectly situated for us to explore the city. The weather was quite cold all weekend, with rain showers on and off all day on Saturday. But the sunshine on Friday and Sunday made up for the one day of bad weather.

On Friday we visited Notre Dame (opting not to climb the tower with the kids, which seemed overly ambitious), ate crepes, and took a sightseeing boat ride on the Seine River. The kids were thrilled to guess which bridge Madeline might have fallen off of into the river from when she was saved by a dog...with sincere apologies to those of you not familiar with the Madeline stories.

We had a great dinner at a brasserie, and when we got back to the apartment the kids collapsed into bed. We’d heard the lines to take the lift to the top of the Eiffel Tower could be brutally long, so we arrived first thing in the morning on Saturday. BIG mistake. We suffered through cold, rain, wind, and the misery of arriving 30 minutes early due to a guidebook error (damn you, Lonely Planet!). Still, we braved the weather. 

The kids weren’t quite as happy with the views as we were, but they were excited to have made it all the way to the top of Monsieur Eiffel's great masterpiece.

Their treat was a trip to a café for hot chocolates and baguettes. The cab driver was rude (surprise, surprise) when we gave him the address, telling us we should have walked because it wasn’t very far.  But we didn’t care; we were cold, and willing to pay the minimum cab fare to get out of the wind and rain.

After some down time back at our apartment, we headed back out to explore more of the city as the sun returned. We visited the Obelisk, saw the Arc de Triomphe from a distance, and walked through the Jardin du la Concord up to the Louvre. We opted out of going into the museum because we couldn’t imagine a more boring way to spend the time for the kids. Instead, they rode the carousel in the park, played in the maze of bushes, and tried to avoid all the puddles from the rain.

More chocolate was in our immediate future, with a trip that afternoon to the famous Ladurée Bonaparte, where we all indulged in pots of hot chocolate--which is actually more like drinking melted chocolate or chocolate pudding--and ate delicious mint chocolate pastries.

Sunday was Easter, and we let the kids just play in the apartment since we’d rushed them out the previous morning. Mom and dad took turns having an amazing run, going from the apartment to the Louvre, through the park to the Obelisk and then up to the Arc de Triomphe. The sun was shining, and it was spectacular!

Easter didn’t seem complete without an easter egg hunt. Lucky for us, a local park was hosting one for the kids. After registering each kid for 2 Euro, they were allowed to find 3 colored eggs, and trade them for a chocolate croissant and a bag of chocolates. We couldn’t read the French instructions, so our kids went out with usual egg hunt enthusiasm, and started filling their bags. We were politely told about the “rule of 3” and so we went about re-hiding the eggs for all the other children.

Here's a short video clip of the egg hunting action:

Despite the cold and rain on Friday, we really had a fantastic time in Paris. After staying in an apartment, we will probably consider them for many of our future trips. It’s really great to have so much space, a kitchen to cook our own breakfasts, and a washing machine to launder the clothing.

Click HERE for a peek at all of the photos from our Paris trip.

Busy Bees

After weeks and weeks of practice, we were recently treated to a presentation of the critically-acclaimed British School of Amsterdam's rendition of "Honey." The 4-year olds did marvelously!

Cole was of course shining on the stage, singing loudly and enthusiastically, and we were beaming with pride! Dressed in yellow t-shirts painted with black stripes, black tights, and yellow faces with black stripes – they played their parts as bees very convincingly.

HERE is a link to the photos from the show.

And below is a short video snippet...

Maya's 7th Birthday Party

Our little princess isn't so little anymore! Maya's 7th birthday party was a hit, celebrated with friends a couple weeks early, since her birthday fell during the 2 week school Easter break (and would coincide with our trips to Paris (see above) and Italy. Maya invited 3 friends for a sleep-over party (Namisha, Ellie and Sofia). As it turned out, only Sofia spent the night – because Namisha’s dad told us it’s just not done in the Indian culture, and Ellie’s mom said she just wasn’t’ ready to sleep away from home.

The girls had a great time – putting on makeup, dancing to music with her new disco ball, watching movies and eating popcorn. Cole was very fortunate, because Sofia seemed to have a crush on him, and insisted that he be included in all activities – even bringing his mattress into Maya’s room for the sleeping portion. He was thrilled, and Maya didn’t seem to mind too much since Sofia was insistent. At the end of the evening when Greg took Ellie & Namisha home, they said it was “the BEST party ever”. So cute!

A few days later, Maya (and Daddy) made cupcakes to share with her classmates.

HERE is a link to all the photos from the party.

An Alpine Holiday

Ah, the Alps. The mere mention of the word can instantly clear the mind and bring visions of sunshine, craggy mountaintops, and clean, fresh air.  Last week, we loaded up the car to prepare for our family's journey to Austria to introduce the kids to skiing and get some well-deserved r&r.

 

The drive from Amsterdam, if you believe the internet, was supposed to take 9 1/2 hours. But German traffic jams had something else to say about that, turning the overall journey into a 12+ hour affair. We set out on Friday after the kids were done with school, intending to split the drive into two sections. Our goal on day 1: Make it as far as Frankfurt. The only stop of note on the first night was at a delightful Italian restaurant in a tiny little German/Dutch border town. We trusted the handy GPS unit to find us "food", and the darn thing worked like a charm. Nobody spoke a word of English, but it was just as well...the proprietor was able to communicate and deliver his delicious food to us with no problems.

 

Onward we drove to Frankfurt, and we exited the Autobahn just outside the city, again calling upon the GPS to find our first night's lodging. It looked pretty sketchy as we made turn after turn, descending deeper and deeper into what appeared to be an industrial or trucking company building complex. But don't doubt your GPS! Around the last turn was this quaint little German hotel where we would rest our bones for the night.

 

The second part of the drive to our destination of Kleinarl, Austria, a quaint village nestled snugly in the Alps, is best left for another day over a cold adult beverage. Suffice to say that the traffic snarls were VERY unpleasant.

 

But whatever tensions we might have had brewing within were released as we entered Austria and began the winding drive to Kleinarl. For those of you who have never seen them, they seem to me a bit of a cross between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades. Throw in the magic of the Austrian people and their warmth and hospitality, then you kind of get the picture.

 

This was a shared holiday, and we eagerly awaited the arrival of our friends. The Kincaids (Che/Wendy/Amalie) would arrive on Sunday, but the Tam-Naulty's (Greg/Amy/Abigail) arrived not too long after we did on Saturday.

 

Our home away from home was the Hotel Angerwirt, which was positioned perfectly in the town...just a 2 minute (free) van shuttle ride to the ski lift and a 35-second walk to the cross-country trails that Stacey and I used extensively throughout the week. As is typical in many of these smaller Austrian ski towns, one main lift services the town, which you then use to access a much bigger network of trails on adjoining mountains. Taking a trip up your main lift to mid-mountain, using another to get to the top, skiing down the other side, riding up ANOTHER mountain....and back home again...can take the better part of the day.

 

Maya and Cole were thrilled about entering the ski school, and after a few days, they both felt confident and comfortable on their skis. The ski school was structured very well, and somewhat humorously, most of the instructors were DUTCH gals who were fulfilling some type of college credit! But those were about the only Dutch that we saw most of the week--an odd fact, I thought. According to a British guy I spoke with briefly on the slopes one day, in the neighboring town of Flachau most of the tourists were from the Netherlands. By contrast, in Kleinarl, most of the tourists were from the province of Lower Austria, which was having their spring break. There was also a smattering of Germans, Polish, Czech, and plenty of folks from Denmark. Other than the British guy I mentioned, I encountered no others from the UK, and ZERO Americans. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a nice side-benefit of taking the path less traveled. Stacey mentioned as we were waiting in one lift line that one of the most annoying things about skiing is dealing with obnoxious people and their inane conversations while waiting. But if you can't understand (most) of the language, no problem!

 

The kids had a blast each day, and were very content to spend all day with their classes. This gave Stacey and I time to enjoy the slopes as well as some classic and skating xc skiing. Of course, I insisted on making sure that the Austrian hefeweizen beer was up to par, and I was afforded ample opportunities. I would even go as far as saying that enjoying a hefeweizen mountainside in the Austrian Alps is about as good as it gets.

 

Another thing that really helped our attitudes during the week was the abundance of sunshine. Every day, save for one, was filled with brilliant light. Those of you from the Pacific NW of the US or from the Netherlands can understand the value of the golden ball of fire showering us with her goodness.

 

Like most holidays, we basically lived from meal to meal, spreading our evening dining experience between a number of  local eateries. The kids, especially Maya, fell in love with Wiener Schnitzel! The salads were huge and delicious, and the kasnocken (a cheesy Spätzle dish), Kaiserschmarrn (shredded, carmelized, fried pancakes!), and other local specialties were incredible. For adult beverages besides beer, our group enjoyed the varnish-removing and mind-clearing properties of both Glühwein and Jagertee.

The week would too soon come to a close, but not before the kids were honored in the week-ending awards presentation. We almost blew it off in order to get some swimming time in back at the hotel, but are we glad we didn't! The kids were positively beaming, so proud at their accomplishments on skis. Multiply that pride by 100 for mom & dad!  All age groups had a slalom race on the last afternoon, and Maya's age group was timed!  Cole got a medal for his participation, and Maya won 3rd place and was given her first trophy - she was thrilled.

 

Speaking of the pool, the swimming area at the hotel was exceptional. The owners must have pumped a few hundred thousand Euro into the pool alone, which featured a stainless-steel main pool, an aromatherapy/steam room, standard sauna, infrared sauna, foot bath, tea drinking/lounging area, workout room, and tanning bed room. We all loved soaking our muscles here at the end of each long day.

 

Before we left, we booked a sleigh ride for the whole group - partly on the roads and then straight across the snowfields - just as you'd picture it. The driver picked us up at our hotel, where we embarked on a 60-minute journey to a restaurant at the end of the valley, nestled on the shores of a lake called Jagersee. The ride, the meal, and the return ride in the sleigh under the stars capped off what could be the perfect family vacation.

Check out all of the pictures from our trip by clicking HERE.