Europe Post #6

Now to the Dutch part of our trip...I will try my hardest to remember to say "The Netherlands".  I have been saying we were going to "Holland" but have since found out that is like calling Australia by the name "Victoria" or "Queensland"...

Thankfully, when we first arrived we were invited to our Uncle Chris and Aunt Willy's house for a meal... they are the instigators of this once-in-a-lifetime family reunion...  Here's a shot of Dave standing in their back yard... yep, that's right... EVERYONE here has water at the end of their backyard or their driveway crosses over a canal or there is water somewhere near the house... it is incredibly nerve-wracking when you have two young children...

 

We had barely set foot in The Netherlands when we took off and headed for France with Dave's mum & dad, brother, sister-in-law and family.  Coming from Australia is was down right freaky getting in a car and travelling through 3 different countries in one day!  Our first stop was in Antwerp in Belgium.  It seems that every European city has a "Market Square"... here are the buildings and statue in Antwerp... VERY impressive and VERY different to what I'm used to in Australia.

Next stop was Lille, just inside the French border.  Again, photos taken in the main square.

Of course, when you come to France you eat croissants!

Unfortunately, it took us the most part of a day to get to Paris, so we only had one day to look around.  Do I think we did Paris justice in a day?  Not at all.  We missed out on seeing the Notre Dame, I didn't get to Sacre Couer and no doubt there are many more interesting things that will just have to wait until next time...

What we did see was the Arc de Triomphe

and the Eiffel Tower...

We climbed to the second floor and trust me, that was A LOT of stairs.  Poor Dave had to do it all carrying 15kgs of added weight since Megan has pretty much refused to walk ANYWHERE since we got here...

This is the view from one spot... it was magnificent to say the least...

Next we found our way to the Louvre... this is obviously taken downstairs inside the building

And this is when we met with a HUGE disappointment... the sign says the Louvre is not open on Tuesdays... and yep, we were there on Tuesday.  We had decided to go in and at least find the Mona Lisa so we actually were quite disappointed.

This is the Louvre from outside... like all the buildings in France it was very classice and elegant.  I have to say that Paris is one of the prettiest cities I've been in and I love the style of architecture.

The 'thing to do' outside the Louvre is sit around the water fountain with your feet in the water (it WAS hot - about 32 deg C I think).  Here's our two having a play.