Paris Day 5 Tuesday March 11

On Tuesday morning Mom, Dad and I went to the Chateau de Versailles.  The Chateau de Versailles is a palace where some of the French Kings lived including Louis XIVand Louis XVI until the beginning of the French Revolution.  It is about 20 kilometers outside of Paris, so we had to ride a train to get there.  It was absolutely amazing!!!  The building is enormous and decorated beautifully.  We spent the first 2 hours walking around the inside of the palace.  Then we went out and walked around in the gardens.  The gardens there are huge.  We had a wonderful time.  Its hard to believe that people actually got to live in such an extravagant place.  

This is the Louis XIV statue outside
 the palace gates.

Kings bedroom

Hall of Mirrors

Mom and I in the Hall of Mirrors

Queens Bedroom

The Kings private table

Dad and I outside in the gardens.

Mom and Dad standing in front of the Chateau.

Paris day 4 Monday March 10

On Monday morning we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  We took the stairs up the the second level, which was quite a hike.  After getting to the second level you have to take an elevator to get to the rest of the way up.  Dad, Ellie and I went to the top.  Mom didnt want to go all the way up because she does not like to be up high.  So, she waited for us on the second level. The view from the top was really amazing!  

Here are some pictures:

After we finished at the Eiffel Tower, we took a different route on the bus.  On this route we saw the Moulin Rouge.  We also ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

This is the Moulin Rouge.

This is the North Paris train station.  We passed it on the bus tour. 

Paris Day 3 Sunday March 9

On Sunday We had a really good time.  We got tickets on a bus ride that takes you around Paris.  The buses are really cool, you can sit on top of them.  There are four different routes that you can go on.  On Sunday we went on 3 of the 4 routes.  We got to see most of the famous places in Paris.  Here are some of the photos:

This bridge is covered in locks.  I thought it was really cool.

This is the square where they killed
 Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Arc de Triomphe

The Louve

Notre Dame Cathedral

This is the Seine river it flows through the middle of Paris.

Paris day 2 Saturday March 8

I am very sorry there have not been any posts about Paris the last few days.  The internet at the hotel we are staying at has not been working since early Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning the four of us went to the Chateau de Vincennes.  It is a huge royal castle built in the 14th century and then added onto again in the 17th.  We got to walk around the inside of the castle which was really cool.  There was also a beautiful church located in the castle.  Here are some of the pictures from the Chateau de Vincennes:

Then after we were finished at the Chateau de Vincennes we went and saw Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. 

Paris Day 1 Friday March 7

 Today was the first day of our week long Paris adventure.  We traveled here by train in about 3 hours.  We arrived in Paris at about 3:30 and took 2 different metros and a bus to get to our hotel.  The public transport here is much more confusing here than it is in Amsterdam.  The hotel we are staying in is super nice.  The beds are bigger than they are in our Amsterdam apartment.  There is also a full kitchen, and dining and living room.  Our favorite part though is the huge balcony about the size of the hotel room its self.  We are all super excited to be here and cant wait until tomorrow. 

Dad is feeling much better today.  He has been pain free since yesterday evening, which we are all very thankful for!

Today was a very crazy day.  It started off like any other day.  I got up, ate some breakfast, then went back to bed because I was feeling super tired.  Not too long after I laid down my phone vibrated next to me  and it said I had a text message. I was super confused because I have never gotten a text on my phone here because nobody has my dutch phone number.  After I opened the phone I saw it was from Dad.  It read: "Im in the hospital".  

I was super confused.  I was thinking is this a joke?  Mom and Ellie didnt get texts just me.  I called for mom and showed it to her.  We panicked!  We tried to call Dad but he didnt pick up.  Then some how I figured out how to call the people from Dad's office.  They told us what hospital he was at and we took the train to go see him.  

Once we got to the hospital we had a terrible time finding the emergency room (spoedeidse hulp).  All the signs are in dutch which made it very confusing.  When we finally found him, the Doctors were just releasing him.  It turns out he had kidney stones.  He is feeling much better now.  The doctors gave him some meds to control the pain.  We are all thankful that he is better and that we will still be able to go to Paris tomorrow!  

This weekend was super busy!  On Saturday Mom and Dad bought us 2 bicycles.  One of them is black and the other one is bright orange (I will post pictures later on this week). After they got home with the bikes Mom and I went to the House of Bols, and Dad and Ellie went to the torture museum.  I didn't want to go to the torture museum because that type of stuff creeps me out!  If you want to find out more about the torture museum you can email Ellie.  I'm sure she would love to hear from any of you.  Mom and I had a good time at the House of Bols.  The tour there shows you how your senses work together to influence what you taste.  

Then on Sunday we went to a small town called Zaanse Schans.   One of Dads coworkers from Bozeman came along with us, her name is Sarah too.  The town is about a 40 minute bus ride from Amsterdam's central station.  The town is so much fun!!!  We first went to the wooden shoe shop and saw them making shoes.  We even tried some of them on.  They were more comfortable than they look.  Next, we went to the cheese shop.  The cheese shop was pretty small so we didnt really get to see much.  After that we went and walked down by the windmills.  We even got to go inside one.  This was my favorite part of the day!  It was a paint making windmill.  They were grinding limestone into a powder, so that it can be use to paint the lines on football fields.  It was 5 stories, and the stairs were super steep.  Then we went to a chocolate shop.  Here we got to make our own chocolate.  First, we smashed the beans.  Then we had to get rid of all the shells from the beans.  Then we ground it and added sugar.  It was a lot of hard work and made me appreciate getting to go to the store and buy it.  After, we finished exploring the town we went to the pancake house and got some lunch.  The pancakes were different than ones in the US but they were deliscious.  

After lunch we went to the Zaanse Schans museum.  In the museum it went through the history of Zaans Schans.  There was the traditional clothing there.  Ellie even tried some on.  After we finished at the museum we got on the bus back to Amsterdam.  Once we got back Sarah, Dad and Ellie all wanted to go to the House of Bols.  Mom and I decided to tag along with them because we had so much fun the day before.  After finishing at the House of Bols we went to Leidseplein to have dinner at our favorite pizza place.  I was a super fun and exciting day, but by the time we got home we were too tired to do anything so we went to bed earily.