Europe Day 5 Sunday, October 17th, 2010

Brussels, Belgium City Center

The way the Belgium's serve up the waffels.

Yummy!!!!!

The smell of chocolate filled the streets~this was one of my favorite things.

I even eat chocolate like a tourist. I bit into it and powder(chocolate) went all over my face and coat. Nice, right?!

This was a spectacular building!

I thought this would be a good spot for him to give me a diamond and re-propose to me like in the commercial, but he didn't seem to think this would be quite the right spot. I think he even got sweaty palms at my suggesting it. Not so much the proposing part, but the diamond. I have a ton more photos from Brussels, but didn't have time to post because it was late. So this is just a taste of Brussels for now.

Europe Day 4 Saturday, October 16th, 2010

Zanndam is the suburb of Amsterdam and this is where our hotel was.

These 2 photos are of us goofing around as we waited for our train to the city, right before we realize we are not in the right spot, imagine that.

Troy trying to figure it out so we don't miss the train.

Ok, this is it.

We did the brewery tour and had a lot of fun. The smell reminded me of when I was a kid and my aunt use to take me to the brewery's in Milwaukee each summer.

This one was for my boys who love James Bond.

Strolling through Amsterdam.

Like my new shoes?

Taking a small break to rest our feet and warm up in the sun. It is pretty chilly.

This car is crazy small.

Graffiti is everywhere. I wonder if they like it or not?

Back in Zandamm, for our last visit to our favorite ice cream shop.

Zandamm was like a ghost town when we got there. Seems most places close at lunchtime on Saturday and don't re-open until Monday. So glad our doner and ice cream place were open.

Goodnight and goodbye Zandamm. Tomorrow we are off to Belgium.

Europe Day 3 Friday, October 15th, 2010

Beautiful church

Beautiful Hotel named after my mom;)

Central Train Station

Bikes falling in the canal, bummer!

Door to Anne Franks Secret Annex.

We were going to do the tour of the brewery, but showed up 30 minutes late. Oh well, we will go tomorrow.

Troy in our cover canal bus. Refuge from the rain we had been walking in all day.

Me, in our covered canal bus after being in the rain all day. It was warm too. Praise God!

As we rode in the canal bus the lights came on the bridges. It was so cool. Would have been more romantic if we weren't so soggy.

Dinner at the Pasta Bar. It was good.

Here we are on the train back to our hotel. It was a double-decker one this time. FUN.

We were trying to figure out what the picture rules all mean't. No smoking, no talking(this one took a little time to figure out), no cell phones, and no pretending to be Jesus on the cross?!? The last one stumped us. We still have no idea.

We survived day 3 without being run over by a car, bike, bus and today they added in the tram. Honestly, you have to be careful crossing the street and if you think your on a sidewalk you had better be alert, because at anytime a car could be coming straight at you. It is dangerous walking. They don't seem to appreciate those who walk as we do back home. We have breakfast included at our hotel and it is a buffet style, which is a great way to try their foods. We had some cute little rectangle pastries with chocolate in the middle and they were excellent. We had some granola and that was great too. My only problem was I couldn't find any milk to put on it so I ended up using half and half. (at least I think that was what it was) Troy seemed to find the milk ok, I don't know what my problem was, maybe I was still sleepy. The fog welcomed us yesterday and today we were accompanied by rain for the duration of our museum tour through Amsterdam. It was damp and cold, so we were thankful for the canal bus ride from place to place. At the end of the day, we were looking for a place to eat and being the tourist we are took about 4 steps into the "Red Light District" before realizing it and turned right back around and made haste out of there. On our canal bus tour they told us about the first Protestant Church and it was beautiful and my heart cheered to think of the hope of Christ in the middle of such sinful living that goes on here. Then he proceeded to tell us that now days they have concerts and ballets. Boo Hoo! Seems they should be reading the word of God to give these people freedom from sin, hope and healing. As we looked for a place to eat dinner we stumbled about 4 steps into the "Red Light District" before we realized and then high-tailed it out of there. After we ate we talked about how ironic it is that such a place is literally build on sand. Earlier in the day we meet some people from Canada and they shared we just have to see the "Red Light District". But to be honest, we saw a group of youth rolling a joint, men who live an alternative lifestyle, and some graphic window displays and that was plenty enough to break my heart over the captivity those people are in, I can't imagine being in the thick of it. So sad. Although, I saw a big building on our way to the train station that said, "Jesus loves you." and had a big arrow that was lite up saying "Green Light District". I hope to check it out tomorrow when we return to try to be like the locals and ride a bike around. Hopefully it won't be rainy.

World Traveler: Day 1/2ish: Europe/Zaandam, Netherlands

This is the whether that welcomed us on Thursday morning. We left home on Wednesday and landed on Thursday, so we are a little jet lagged to say the least. We made it from the airport to the train to our hotel without a hitch.

Our hotel was the first thing we saw when we got off the train. It was pretty hard to miss;)

This is our room. Each door has a small picture of the theme of the room that is from Netherlands history. This is ours.

This is the lobby. It is so interesting that alot of stuff is in English and the background music in places is also English/American music.

The elevator. I love European design.

Just us with puffy, burning eyes. Is it bedtime yet?

Beautiful view on our stroll down the cobblestone roads.

I thought this cafe was so cool out front. Especially with the bikes.

In the back ground you can see the bank that we ended up at getting Euros~there is a funny story I will share below on that:)

Our first official meal in Europe. Chicken doner~YUM, seems to be enough said in any language! I loved it and hope to eat another before we leave here. Our server didn't speak much English and so we just did some pointing and nodding and it worked out well. We asked for a receipt and the poor guy had no idea what we were asking, so one of the customers heard us and said it in whatever they were speaking.

Next store to where we at dinner was this cute ice cream, coffee, and cupcake place. We learned here to ask if they spoke English and it made things a little easier.

All I can say is it was to die for! DELICIOUS!

My kids would have been in heaven. Troy had crunch and I tried the yellowish one with chocolate chunks in it. He said it had some ingredients from England in it. Very unique, but I loved it. They make it fresh daily.

This was the decore, so cute.

Oh yeah, it was good.

Today felt like we landed on Mars. We are exhausted for one and can speak or read any of the language which has proven to be a challenge to say the least. First off, at the airport getting a ticket for the train to our hotel was interesting. We got the ticket no problem, found where we had to board and as we stood there wondering what to do with our tickets the train left. HA! We decided we would just watch and see what everyone else was doing and do what they did. Eventually another train returned and got us to where we needed to be. Although, they don't mess around. You better get on when you need to and off, cuz they don't wait for nobody. We saw 2 women almost get squished by the door. Then we were on the hunt for a ATM machine to get some Euros and needless to say we had no idea what we were doing. So, again we were watching people at some machines that we thought were ATMs and then we were going to try to do what they did, but after 3 times of trying to figure it out I decided we should just ask some people who were using them. Turns out these machines were where they paid for their parking. Yes, we gave the 2 ladies that were helping us a good laugh and we had one to. Then they pointed us in the right direction. We have now been up for over 24 hours and keep checking the time so we can rest our weary heads. Tomorrow we will head to the City Center of Amsterdam. Hope to see where Anne Frank lived and eat some more wonderful food.

May Word: Guard

Hard to believe May is almost over and I am just getting a minute now to post. I got my word about the 2nd week in, but things have been busy with birthdays and starting a new business. I have had quite an interesting month and am thankful for all the Lord is revealing in me and refining. Growth is never easy, but I am glad he loves me so much to keep showing me the sin that so entangles me. I think for the first time, in my walk with the Lord, I am looking forward to be free from it. I can almost taste the freedom that is to come once I walk through this valley.
I have 2 verses this month that I have clung to.

"Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers."
1 Timothy 4:13-16

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?
Or am I trying to please men?
If I were still trying to please men,
I would not be a servant of Christ."
Galatians 1:10

God has shown me that my ability to preserver has grown weak and my desire to be liked and accepted by people has taken a front seat in my life. So I say once again, here I am Lord, teach me how to live as you would have me.

Praising Him for His goodness,
Connie