We visited a few places, the first being Amsterdam. As my youngest said it was the oldest looking of the three major cities we visited. We stayed at the WestCord Art Hotel which was a five minute bus ride from the central station and was a great place to stay. We got around with a 48 hour transit pass which was the perfect way to go. Amsterdam though has two marks against it in my books. The first being the pot. I want a coffee shop to sell coffee. I want to take my kids to a restaurant and know that it's not a front for a pot den. We ended up at Burger King. What a stinking (like skunk) shame. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and the Rijksmuseum and Historische Museum Amsterdam were both well worth visiting. The other crazy thing about Amsterdam was the bicycles. All I can say is pedestrian beware. Look all ways before stepping anywhere.
After Delft it was Osnabrück, Germany to visit relatives. We visited a few of the sites in and around this lovely town and I am not biased because it's my parents hometown.
After Osnabrück, it was off to Lille for the express purpose of seeing the Vimy Ridge monument the next day. Lille was a little bit of a surprise. I don't know why, but I expected a small town. The old part of town was small with a cathedral and pretty little streets where the awnings of the restaurants almost met over the middle of the street. Pretty. Our hotel was near the train station and in a big complex attached to the station that had a shopping mall and full grocery store in it. The whole complex was modern and was literally five minutes from the old town on foot. Getting to the hotel by car from the highway was an almost 2 hour adventure that finished with the whole family doing a mission impossible trick with a parking garage door and my husband driving the car through the parking garage sounding like he was going super fast only because of the rubber coating on the garage floor. High fives all around.
The next day we had Vimy Ridge in our sights. This monument is a must see. Be forewarned, it takes longer than you think to see and you don't want to rush. Also, without a car of your own, we rented for this part of the trip, you have to rely on a tour group as no public transit goes to the site. We love this monument because it is beautiful and because, despite all the hyperbole about Vimy being the great victory that allowed Canada to sever the apron strings with Britain and be recognized in her own right, it is a war memorial about sadness and loss. There is nothing celebratory about this monument and when it comes to war that is as it should be.
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