National Lampebbs European Vacation

Like the title??? Of course a play on National Lampoons but with the Pebb family (Pecks and the Webbs)

Today we went back to work and school after our 2+ week vacation which really blows but we have to accept the fact that we cannot vacation all the time. Our friends from Eagle Mountain came to visit us on April 26th and stayed for a couple of weeks. We saw many things and had a lot of very tiring fun. I will be posting some pictures on this blog by the end of the week. Here is what we did over the 2 weeks:

Holland:
Kinderdijk - An area that has 18 windmills and you can tour one of them.
Kuekenhof (Tulip Festival)
Maduradam - 1:25 scale highlights of Holland with tremendous attention to detail. This was interesting because we saw several things that we would like to visit in person. Also, we now know how King Kong feels.
Anne Frank House - Visited the actual hiding place of Anne Frank and her family
Canal Tour of Amsterdam

Belgium:
Church of Our Lady - A church built in the 13th century which is full of art including the Madonna by Michelangelo.
St Johns Hospital - This hospital was opened over 800 years ago and just closed its doors in the 1970s. It is now primarily an art museum which included many religious paintings and sculptures.
Gravensteen (Castle of the Counts) - This was a very cool castle. Imagine what you would envision a castle to be and this is it.

England:
The London Eye - If you don't know what this is, I am surprised. I don't think they show any video of London without including it. In case you don't know, it is a large Ferris Wheel that has glass pods so you can walk around and take pictures in all directions.
The Tower of London - This surprised me because it was not just a castle, it was a fortress with towers, houses and markets. This is where the Crown Jewels are stored which are amazing. I probably have never seen so many jewels as I did in the crown, sword and staff among other things that were presented to Queen Elizabeth when she was crowned.
Stonehenge - This is a bunch of rocks piled by bored people. OK actually this was really cool. Normally when you visit Stonehenge you pay something like 9 pounds and you get to follow this path which gets you about 50 or so feet from the main center circle which is cool because heck, you are at Stonehenge. However, I did not want to travel all the way to this farming countryside and see them from that far away. After normally visiting hours they allow about 30 or people in 2 shifts to actually walk around and in the inner circle. I was able to get permission to do this so we were able to walk up to the stones and see it from a perspective that few ever get the chance to. When we arrived, there was about 5 other people walking among the stones but they were easy to keep out of most pictures so we got alot of just our families. When you see the stones up close you see that they are covered with moss which I guess the type of moss is unique to the area so they did not want us to climb on them and hurt it.
Church - We were able to hear Sacrement Meeting in English. Something we have not heard in over 6 months.
London Zoo - The zoo itself was not that impressive. I like Hogle Zoo better. However, this zoo has history. It is considered the first zoo in the world. The winnipeg bear that inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh stories was here and of course, this is the first place that Harry Potter first saw some real power when he made the glass disappear in the reptile house. We saw the section where this was filmed in the movie.

France:
Louvre - Of course we saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo and many, many nude statues. All was well until I showed Kristal a picture of a sculpture of a nude woman from behind laying on her side on a bed and mentioned that I now have some porn. She then informed me that it was actually a man!!! I went to the other side of the sculpture and yep, a penis!
Eiffel Tower - This was the only place we really stood in a line. You first have to wait in line to buy tickets and get on the elevator to go up to the first and second floors. Then, if you want to go to the top, you have to wait in line again. Once ready to come down, you guessed it, more lines. It was cool seeing the tower but I don't think I would want to wait in those lines again.

Overall we had a wonderful time and got to see some of the highlights of Europe but we still have a lot to see, time to save up more money.