Today we are leaving our wonderful timeshare and heading north into Holland again! We will be seeing the coast and Den Haag today and seeing Amsterdam tomorrow. We are very excited for this new trip on our journey!!
Yesterday we went to the city of Cologne. It was very beautiful and I would LOVE to go back some day. There is so much to see and we were only there for a few hours. We saw the DOM which is the gigantic cathedral in the city. It was super crowded with tons of tourists and I think we heard the most amount of english speakers in this tourist city. I also met a very nice Belgian on my way out of the bathroom. I was waiting for Uncle Martin to come out and the man was being polite telling me, “you can go first up the stairs”. I said “I’m waiting”. “AH, ENGLISH?!?!” He was very excited that I spoke English. I said “yes, English”. Apparently he was not referring to the language but was asking me if I was BRITISH. He proceeded to inform me he is going to London for 4 days in September and is planning to see the kings palace with the guards. Having been there once myself I told him it is very beautiful there. Then Uncle Martin came out and began speaking with him. It made me think a little better of the Belgians since we tried their waffles and those were gross… of course they did come from a gas station…..
Today we are doing laundry…. I think it is the most fun we have had the entire trip so far….
Yesterday was spent exploring Holland and the beautiful windmills there. We got tons of pictures. We first stopped in a historical fortress town. Water surrounds it and many places to protect the city were contructed. We saw the old castle which was really only walls now and a tower. Unfortunately, the local hoolagins do not respect history and there was tons of grafitti all over the stones. A man was there cleaning it up while we looked around.
Then we went to Kinderdijk (pronounced kinder dyke). This is where you can walk out among the many windmills. Many have been converted into homes and there was a museum in one as well. Alex was able to show us around. It wasn’t too late of a night which was nice.
Interesting tidbit: so we are driving a lot and listening to a Dutch radio station. They keep saying this word and Traci was DYING to know what it means. We ask Alex in the first town we stopped at, ‘what does punktennel mean’. He wasn’t sure. So as we are driving to Kinderdijk Chris figures it out…. it is not ‘punktennel’ but rather ‘punkt, n, l’… punkt means period… they were saying a website!!! .nl for the Netherlands!!! Like our ‘dot com’. Interesting how language works, eh?
So the game wasn’t really that exciting… most of the people left the viewing area at half time because the game was really not being played very well in the first place! But the magic octopus that has been informing us of all the correct winners of the world cup was again correct…. Spain won. 100% accurate was that octopus, BAH!
Yesterday we travelled to Belgium and went to Brussels. We walked around, saw some statues… that was basically Brussels. We did see the very large atomium which was constructed for the world trade’s fair way back when. Some dudes were setting up rappeling gear and ropes up the gigantic atom. We didn’t stay to watch but we felt Chris should have given it a go. If Mooney were there I think he would have done it 🙂
Today is the Holland vs Spain final game in the World Cup and guess where we are headed this fine morning? HOLLAND!! Traci is dressed in her orange shirt and we are ready to cheer on Holland… better to cheer them on than the team that beat out Germany in the last round, right? 
We are now in Gemund, right in the middle of Eifel National Park and are going to be driving around visiting all the different areas around here. Today, Holland for the game, tomorrow Belgium.
Side note: Chris’s lack of beard is because it is freakin’ HOT & HUMID HERE
So we have been here in Regensburg, Germany for just about a week and we are enjoying our vacation so far. We still have 2 more weeks to go! This past week has been spent visiting family and friends while relaxing. Tonight Traci joins us and tomorrow we are off to the Eiffel Park region in a more western part of Germany. The next 2 weeks will be filled with traveling around discovering new countries and new wonders. Don’t worry, we still plan on relaxing!!
