And that's where it ends?? Not quite!

I know, I know, it's been a just a while since we last posted. Now, we are back at home in Denver living our beautiful and busy lives on U.S. soil. Of course, our lack of posting was not for lack of new and exciting adventures abroad. We still had four days across the pond to revel in international fare and plan for our transition to normal life. Some families may take a year off and sail the world or retreat on a mission for two years, but our three weeks was just the right amount of time.

On our way out - to Venice we go!

-No joke, it was about 110 degrees crazy hot in this photo!-

Knowing we had very little time to see all the fine Italian cities during our week in Tuscany, we decided that Venice would be our final stop for a day trip en route to Milan where we would overnight and catch a plane to Iceland (via Copenhagen). If you want to count countries whose soil we touched, the Denmark flight stopover makes 8!

Venice, a place so close to the hearts of many and one of our favorites from our trip 8 years ago and Jordan's trip three years ago, was thankfully still standing. It still has not been sucked into the sea, and it's charming streets, secret passages, and canal thoroughfares provide endless opportunities to get lost without really being lost. You'll always find yourself somewhere in Venice. On the day we arrived, we disembarked from our train with all of our backpacks and belongings into a blistering crazy heat that immediately draws sweat from the tiniest of pores in your body. We found a local shop that also allowed you to rent space to leave your pack for a day, and took off to explore Venice. Not 300 feet later did we find our first and most marvelous stop, the Magnum Ice Cream Bar Shop.

Not only could you choose the inside of your bar, but you got to choose all the toppings. We spent at least 30 minutes deciding the favorite flavors and absorbing all the air conditioning. As far as Izzy was concerned, this could have been the last place we stopped in Venice and it would have been the greatest! 

Since ice cream melts if you don't eat it, our departure coincided with our full tummies and we headed out again to find favorite streets and piazzas that interlock the winding pathways. It is simply marvelous to be in a car-less world with everyone on foot or picking up a ride from the water taxi or gondolier. Of course, these are both expensive propositions for the tourists, and while you are probably better off if you find a Venetian with a boat he'll let you use for the day, it's still worth the euros to melt into the seat of a gondola for a 30 minute ride around town. We chose a departure point off the Grand Canal, admittedly the MOST touristy place in Venice and as all of Italy is on vacation in August, it is one of the few places with open restaurants. The ride on the gondola isn't really about seeing the sites-you are frankly several feet below street level and what you see are the bottoms of buildings until you get out to a framed view of the Grand Canal or the sea on the east. You also see, if you are looking closely, the small sunlit windowsills above you and the business transactions that happen at doorways because it all happens on the canals. 

-A sunlit afternoon on a second story in Venice-

I also like listening to the gondoliers talk to their compatriates in other boats, all the while avoiding the ancient stone walls with the slightest of oar and a foot to push the boat off from it's seemingly inevitable bruising.

Having wound our way through on foot and boat to the east coast of Venice, we took in St. Marks Square for music and another hydrating rest stop before braving the 200-person water taxi. These things are surely over their carrying limit, and while I would never compare our trip on the water to that of the millions who are risking their lives and loves to cross to Europe from Syria, this  was a hellish, hot and miserable ride between several stops before we got back to the train station. 

-Water taxis on the Grande Canal-

Another wait for an Italian train gave us a chance to stop and simply absorb the activity around the station, grab a drink and rest before our next jaunt to Milan.

I can still say that Venice is one of my favorite places but I am also equally happy to visit it during any other season BUT summer. :)

Italy's Cities and Towns: Impruneta

Impruneta
Impruneta is the town that served as our homebase for grocery shopping each evening and the departure point for the bus into Florence. Impruneta with a population of 15,000 was smaller in geography than my old college town of Mount Vernon, Iowa whose population at the time swelled to 3,000 with the college kids. Impruneta, like all other small towns, build density into its ancient walls with two-four story buildings lining all of the small streets that wind up, down and around the piazza where people eat, drink, pray, and sometimes just sit. We grew to know the local tobacco shop where we could buy bus tickets, the pharmacy, and the sometimes gelato-sometimes sandwich shop (depending on whether the freezer was operational). Impruneta also featured weekend farmers markets where you could buy everything from fresh swine and beef to Birkenstocks and children's underwear. Small town living.

-The church at the center of town in Impruneta - also apparently home to weekly exorcisms-

Impruneta serves the locals and the visitors in Tuscany, the well known Italian region saturated with hillside villas among grape vineyards, apple orchards, and olive groves. the road into and out of our villa was harrowing and extremely narrow, so vehicle trips into town were limited. For the able bodied who don't mind hills, it was actually easier to walk the mile into town, but the magic of Impruneta for us was the Coop (Co-op) grocery trips with the family. We owned that place after a week weighing our fresh produce, picking out cheese and reinforcing our supply of wine each day.

Italy's Big Cities and Small Towns: Florence

As one of our three weeks included our special family Tuscan holiday, we knew amidst the down time we would incorporate a few day trips to Italy's fine cities. While Jordan had been to Europe on a whirlwind tour with other students three years ago, Isabelle had never witnessed the beauty of ancient Rome, the canals of Venice or the art that is Florence. However, our public transportation options once deposited into the hillsides of Tuscany were fairly limited, so we learned to read the countryside bus schedule that would get us to Florence in order for us to get to the train station, or on one day rent a car to reach faraway towns off the limits of a train schedule. Beyond the beautiful quiet wine-filled villa, we decided to visit Florence, Parma, Cremona, Venice, and our departure point-Milan. Rome, for Izzy, will have to wait as that trip would take us too far south in the time we had.

August 8: Florence. 
Hot. Florence in the summertime is very very hot. Its honestly hard to enjoy the city amidst thousands of sweaty tourists (ourselves included). However, we knew this would be the condition as we exited our bus, and we steeled ourselves for the somewhat obligatory event of walking around the city in search of food, in search of 'special'. While I feel responsible for everyone enjoying themselves, I sometimes have to go to my own "quiet" place in my head to remember that we will each have our own experiences, and sometimes, we embark on these excursions to check it off the list. While my first visit to Florence eight years ago seems much more magical, this second visit was tempered by even hotter temperatures (yes, the globe has warmed since 2007) and a lack of advance reservations for the hot ticket Florence museums - Uffizi Gallery, Museo Gallileo, or Accademia Gallery in Florence where Michaelangelo's David stands in all his naked glory. I am sure David, at least, was the coolest individual in the sweltering heat. 

We did manage to seek shelter in the Museo degli Argenti, also known as Palazzo Pitti and the summer home of the influential Florentine Medici family. The home is also a display route for hundreds of original pieces of religious Florentine art, and at this time they were displaying the work of Carlo Dolci, a respected Florentine artist favored by the family, so the entire house looks like the Sistine Chapel.

The construction of Italy's cities strongly accounted for the context in which the cities were located-scale, color, and shapes helped create the lasting architecture of views and buildings that draw so many in the world to appreciate its gifts. Across the Arno River that runs west through Florence to the Tiberian Sea are several bridges-the oldest is the Ponte Vecchio and is the designated shopping street filled with tourists, a few street vendors, and lined with old shops selling leather, jewelry, glass sculpture, gelato, and tee shirts. My favorite aspect of Florence is the view from Ponte alla Carraia looking east toward the Vecchio that I only got on the bus coming into town, but the river shapes the city beautifully and the scale of architecture-both older Florentine as well as the new modern dialectic-is appealing to the eye. Shoppers come to shop here and whether they are conscious of it or not, they go to this place because it is beautiful, it is timeless, it is forever. 

Comparing Florence to modern cities like Vancouver or even my own Denver is probably not fair, as architecture of old is everlasting in Italy and preservation is par for the course, while younger cities struggle to ascertain the importance of their historic structures when shiny new objects and modern closet space trends hot among milennials. Density is accommodated primarily through midrise multifamily structures in all of the cities we visited, even the small towns. As is the case in Denver, the debate is downright vitriolic between those witnessing the rise of new architecture considered thoughtless and a violation of neighborhood scale, and those who make a living building new homes for the hoards of incomers who want to call Denver home. Florence and other Italian cities reinforce my appreciation for the science and art of dwellings and public spaces. It has been all but lost in today's quick buck environment, but at least in my profession over the past 22 years, I've seen professional planners, architects and builders inspired by places of old, and hope these inspirations are recognized in reality with the rise of new structures to accommodate our growing population. I do wonder, however, what all the villagers said when the duomo Santa Maria del Fiore was constructed...

-Cousins Kevin and Mary with Ivan and Isabelle at Santa Maria del Fiore

-Ponte Vecchio and it's tourists-

As we wandered through the beautiful streets (again, filtering out the crowds), we turned corners for other streets that appeared to head in the general direction we wanted to go - in all Italian cities, we found it doesn't really matter where you wander. These cities are set up to allow wandering in all directions, and there is always a piazza or public square to greet you at the other end of a street. The forted walls of these ancient cities contain the wandering souls for the most part, but an easy bus ride outside into the country provides context and opens horizons to the Tuscan hills beyond Florence.

The Irish Raid Tuscany and Meals to Die For

First, get a villa and invite your family.:) our trip around Europe was simply a precursor to celebrate a much more important lifetime achievement - my mother's retirement (April 2014). Add to this a celebration of midlife for my mom and her husband (my stepdad) Tom, her sisters Susan and Sister Judy (really, she's a nun if you need a divine connection), Tom's sisters Debbie and Theresa, Judy's friend Sister Kathy (familia to us), mom's little brother Bob and his wife Linda (celebrating their 30th anniversary), my second cousins Cathy and Pinky and you've got a delightful soup of east coast Irish folk who cook Itlian food that's out of this world! Bob's son Kevin and his wife Mary (young in their 20s) also joined in the fun the week we arrived, so the kids had other lively youth to hang with when the old farts-and I mean Ivan and I:) were not adequate playmates. 

I specially added Aunt Susan in that list because although an illness prevented her passage across the pond, we Skyped her each night and included her in family dinner conversation. Our hearts were broken that she could not be with us but there will be another trip surely for Sue.

Meals Meals and More Meals! Over the course of two weeks there were 6-16 people around the table depending on cross arrivals and departures. The villa slept 20 so there was plenty of room-the kids even got their own apartment! While not a requirement to eat together every night, it became the part of our day most cherished by all for the time spent cooking, sharing new family stories about our travels ( each family was free to organize their own excursions or NOT), and sipping wine, beer and aperitifs with deserts chosen each night to share amongst the group. 

Feeding that many people required almost daily trips to the local coop with cheap fresh and beautiful fruits and veggies, fresh off the swino prosciutto, and other local specialities. It also required a minimum of 12 bottles of wine per day but usually more, and our recycling container regularly overflowed. The villa was prepared with an extra wine fridge...and mops for when the slightly intoxicated might loosen their grip on a wine glass or bottle. (We had the floor cleaning down to a science.)

-The Oss Family's Baked Porcetta Reggiano Penne-

Each family took turns cooking and cleaning up. Each meal was served with an antipasto plate, a salad course, and a second (main) dish. While the family is full of amazing cooks, cousin Cathy travels with her apron and by all accounts held the day on the most delicious preparations. She shared her NOW family secrets to creamy risotto, scaloppine, sausage and peppers, and even her own special secrets for Italian gravy. (To some, gravy comes in a jar by Ragu but in our familia it is always homemade.)

-Sister Kathy at the sink and Aunt Linda assisting-

Dessert was always gelato, Belgian chocolates we brought to share, Swiss chocolates Bob laid out and Italian cookies. Thank goodness for the miles and miles of walking and the high Italian temperatures. While we theoretically could have packed on the pounds I am sure the net result was lost weight through the blood (from broken wine glasses), the sweat (from existing in Tuscany in August), and tears (from having to say goodbye to these wonderful people I call my family.) Mi amore ma familia😍

Languages Across Europe

During the course of our travels, we have half-picked up semi-conversational pigeon versions of Islenska, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Belgique, French, and Italian. Throw in Jordan's surprisingly good grasp of conversational Spanish, Ivan's German, my less than stellar hook on greetings in Chinese and French, and Izzy's Italian musical knowledge, we were a hot mess of conversational ability.

I think we used all of them while dining out in restaurants; ordering in the native language based on menu items and saying please and thank you in other languages (because we'd forget which country we were in.) The kids still tell of a story that actually occurred stateside where we brought our Chinese exchange  student to a Chinese restaurant and I said por favor to order and she she (she'a she'a) to say thank you in Chinese. I was 50/50 on that dinner and the trend continued in Europe.

The similarities of Spanish and Italian and even the Latin or Germanic roots recognizable in almost all the written languages we encountered made it possible for us to read menus, generally figure out directions, and converse based on what we could read. If not full sentences at least we proved effort.

Sometimes our efforts were rewarded with pride by the natives - a smile to show they appreciated that Americans in their country thought enough to try out their native tongue. Other times it was a bizarre moment of silence, a quizzical look and then a response in English to let us off the hook...or put us to shame. I think our Italian local bus driver who we had at least twice en route or returning from Florence to Imprunetana was slightly entertained by our family of four boarding the bus and trying to pay. Sometimes he'd take our money, sometimes he'd simply wave us off to the back of the bus for our ride. I believe these were times when we had incorrect bus fare as its not advertised well on local stops and each day it was different.😐

We really provided entertainment as we boarded a packed bus back to Florence loaded with our packs and one extra bag-we hardly fit the aisles and the passengers had a good laugh at our expense. Of course, the beauty of laughter is that it is understood in every language and it always includes a smile.:)

Arriving at Villa Oliveta Under the Tuscan Sun

So much fun! Think back to Thursday August 6th...We took five trains to traverse from Bern to Florence. With our First Class (this is worth it so do it) Eurail passes, the first two in Switzerland required no reservations, but for Trenitalia or any other Italian train you will be fined €50 for hopping a train without one. Thanks to the magic of a lovely Swiss train station agent, we booked all of our train reservations in Bern but had roughly 20 minutes between trains to haul our stuff from one track to another. Another strange phenomenon in Italy is that they never post the track for your desired train until exactly 1 minute prior to its departure, so everyone including rail employees stand anxiously in front of monitors that update each minute. Once you know your track you bolt as fast as you can-pack on back and family in tow.

Our last train to Florence we finally had access and time to enjoy the dining cart where we had good beer and wine and our first meal in the course of our 9 hours of travel. 

Upon arrival in Florence, we navigated to the bus stop for the one bus line that traverses the Tuscan hillsides south of Florence to the Impruneta region and the small town of Impruneta. This town became our grocer, farmers market, biglietti de l'autobus (bus ticket) shop, and pick up point for my parents to drop off and pick up family members en route or returning from Florence. We eventually figured out the bus route dropped off right at the top of our road. I am a transit nut in any city and apparently in Italian wine country, too.

-Tom picking us up in Impruneta and showing off his selfie stick (or as we called it the narcissistick).

Bern overnight

This post is days late, partly due to limited internet access and partly due to limited gumption to do anything but laze about. Switzerland was a must on our agenda, but we hadn't made any firm plan on what city to visit on our trip south to Italy. We finally picked Bern because the Bernese like to cool down on hot summer days by hiking upstream and then swimming back down the river, which winds through the heart of the city. That sounded like some good clean fun, but it was not to be. By the time we had arrived at our hotel and checked in, we needed to find food and put the swimming on hold and by the time we were done eating it was dusk and the river was empty of locals. The kids were good sports and didn't voice their disappointment when we decided not to swim in the dark, alone and unfamiliar.

Bern is the Swiss capital, terraced into the hills surrounding the Arne river, fed by the Alps which stand to the south. Old, austere and solid; dwellings, hotels and bridges stack together neatly, shaded by trees and interspersed with parks. In the angled light of evening, the scene was like a painters fantasy.

We easily found our way to the hotel and then set out in search of dinner which we found in a wide plaza next to the massive state house. We dined al fresco, on fondue, of course, which came with small potatoes and bread. We shared a pot rather than paying 25 euro's each for an even larger pot. It was delicious! We followed the cheese with Rosti (missing an umlout here). Rosti is baked in a cast iron dish, made of shredded potatoes and cheese and topped with a choice of items like bacon, eggs, macaroni and cheese, ham, etc... According to the menu, this is a quintessential Bernese dish but the portions were quite American. We couldn't finish our half orders.

By now it was truly night but the city was busy with people enjoying the cooler temperatures. We found a high terrace with a view and a pair of tiled chess boards with two foot high wooden pieces. Izzy and I challenged Jordan and Deirdre, and, to my surprise, prevailed. Jordan usually wins at chess. We headed back to the hotel and slept soundly, in spite of loud revelry outside that lasted well into the wee hours of the next morning.

Authentic summer Germany-exploring the Rhein River Valley - Fiefdoms,Dammen, Hemmen, and Food!

Not that we were starving on our due course south in Europe, but Germany symbolized our arrival to a higher order of gastronomic experiences in central and Southern Europe that are more commonly known to Americans-heavy sauces, bratens, wursts, and bierhauses. It also provided us with time to slow down our pace and feel authentic German river country.

Our train ride from Amsterdam to Kamp Bornhofen, Germany was lovely and hardly eventful but for the small oopsie when Ivan decided a run to the train's bistro kart 5 minutes prior to our arrival in Düsseldorf where we had an important connection to Koblenz. I should mention that train travel in general provides a very quick but effective lesson in various languages you have to understand well enough to know when to get on and off. It turns out Duisenburg is just a small suburban stop RIGHT before the train pulls into Düsseldorf, something not quite clear on our Eurail Rail Planner app which, by the way, is mostly spectacular for travelers!

As we imagined Ivan suddenly darting from the kart back to our train compartment to gather his belongings to get off, we stood at the open door to the platform contemplating our situation-Do we get off the train with Ivan's belongings with the hope that he jumped off the train?  Do we stay on assuming he knew he had to get his things first? With few exceptions, trains run VERY on time in Europe, and this was no exception. SO...we stayed on and waited for Ivan to storm through the train door from the kart, but instead found later that he had in fact jumped off the train with the hope we did the same.😅

We figured out our cell phones finally worked and coordinated a reunion back in Düsseldorf after the kids and I shared a fun mommy-kid ride to Koln (Cologne). 

Next we arrived in Koblenz, a fairly large city along the River Rhein and mixed with modern industrial office buildings right outside the station, it contains middle age cobble stoned streets now lined with everything from boutique shops to H&M. 

They are cute, but it was hot and we really just wanted beer. We found it at Altus Bierhaus which unfortunately didn't contain the expected amount of small town German authentic beers - maybe because Colorado is so good at small brews we expected it here. However, it did the trick and we got our first bite of schnitzel, wurst, and pommes frites - as big in Germany as it is at McDonalds.:)

Arriving at Kamp Bornhofen - Along the fiefdom dotted Rhein are beautiful medieval castles where all the little barons built all their little castles to charge all the little ships tariffs for passage (only later to battle it out and eventually lose to a more centralized shipping tax method). We were happy to stay in the highest castle on the Rhein-Castle Liebenstein-run by the current owners, Klaus and Anita, since 1995. Along with its neighboring Castle Sturrenburg, these castles preserve the medieval heritage important to Rhein country, right up to the costume for knights in shining armor and strange artistic renderings of the fallouts that must have occurred between the brother barons. 

Upon our arrival with few words Klaus brought us to our rooms in the castle turret, and left us there with no explanation. Not that we needed one, but we were suddenly thrown into imagining the castle in medieval times housing its fair maidens and men during sieges. I found early the next morning that my desire to walk around the castle trails outside its walls would not be realized as Klaus did in fact lock up all the doors and big iron gates to prevent passage outward. We were honest to god locked inside a castle! The operation is clearly authentic and not to be bothered with 5-star hotel service (not unlike most of Europe thus far where service is generally terrible compared to what we expect in America.) So, we learned not to expect too much and that allowed us to slow our pace to wait for checks, ask for water, and practice the native language (by now we've been exposed to Icelandic, Dutch, Belgic/Flemish, afremch and German.)

Along with some fabulous and very rich German food followed by beautifully served eis (ice cream) dishes, we enjoyed our time as a family "slowing down" (those who know me will appreciate this is a growing moment). We hiked the one mile steep trail down into Bornhofen, a trail laden with tributes to Jesus and ending at a beautiful Catholic Church. 

We stopped for a (large) bite to eat at the Garten restaurant served by a lovely old German lady and seated next to a German grandmother with her beautiful blue eyed little grandson. He was entertained largely by the two hungry American teenagers who, just by being themselves, made this kid laugh through most of lunch. 

We walked off our meal along the river trail where we skipped rocks toward the busy barge and tour boat-filled waters of the Rhein and found the godsend apothecary to treat Isabelle's unfortunate hornet sting that originated in Amsterdam and swelled to the size of a dinner plate by the time we arrived at the castle. 

Our experience was delightfully slow, a needed break during our tour. Rhein country is simply lovely to be in and look at, and the people are adorably authentic German. 

Next Stop: Bern, Switzerland!

Puzzles, Chocolate, and Locomotives

During our stay in Oslo, I felt that we needed to do something a little more physical than just walking around and going into every shop that Izzy found something appealing in. I expressed this opinion to my parents and they told me "find something then". This is when I stumbled upon "Sherlocked" the #1 escape room in Amsterdam. An escape room is an activity in which you are locked in a room, (usually very spacious) and are left to find clues and work as a team in order to escape the room. In "Sherlocked", you are locked in the office of H.P. Berlage; an architect in the Secret Society of the Crossed Keys. I'll refrain from spoiling the puzzles. I will say however, that if you don't work together, it is impossible to escape. We did not escape.

After we escaped via time limit, we hopped on a train to spend the day in Brussels, Belgium. As we walked through the busy street on our way to city center, my mom felt it necessary to stop in every chocolate shop to get sweets for the rest of the family in Italy. Eventually we made it through the minefield of cocoa and made it to the beautiful city center which contained two large castles, and many other buildings coated with golden decor. We decided to sit down and eat lunch at a French place where everybody seemed to be smoking. It made me consider that America wasn’t as bad off as some other people when it came to health.



After the train ride back to Amsterdam, we collapsed in our beds and had a good night of sleep. The next morning, we went to a breakfast place that served exclusively toast appropriately named “Toasted”, and I would definitely recommend it. After breakfast, we hopped on our bikes to spend the rest of the day exploring Vondelpark. We rode around a little bit, and then decided to set up a picnic. We made our way down to a grassy area and dumped out our bag of food. As we unpackaged all of the meat and cheeses, dogs of all shapes and sizes started to greet us. Izzy named one Mr. Schnitzel for obvious reasons. We finished up our day with a bike ride around the park 3 times, and collapsed in the beds.

From a teenager’s point of view, they were a great few days. Originally I had thought that Belgium would have been bland and boring, however, it turned out to be a nice experience with some good chocolate.

Busy Lively Lovely Amsterdam-A treat for eyes and spirit

-Ultimate inadvertent photobombing territory!-

This city just makes you feel good. There is life on every corner-in shops, bicyclists, mopeds, and people. 

The city doesn't seem to sleep. Our travels around Amsterdam are not over but thanks to our location in the Overtoomse Sluis neighborhood in West Amsterdam, we are spitting distance from amazing places to visit, wander, and observe the natives in their natural habitat. We are along a main tram line and within a ten minute bike ride of Amsterdam Centraal and a billion more places to spend time shopping, canal-hopping, or hanging out with a Heineken and people-watching along the Red Light District. Ok, we pretty much bolted through Amsterdam's famous sex-hued streets as the kids were only slightly entertained but mostly embarrassed that we'd even trek that direction with them in tow.:)

We opted on our second day to journey on foot so Izzy could spend time taking photos in Vondelpark and we could slow our pace after our exhilarating bike ride throug Amsterdam's Nine Streets and all the areas in between.

-Vondelpark-

 As far as biking in Amsterdam, it's not a matter of whether you are brave enough to fall into order--or chaos- with bike freeways that run alongside the many canals. You have to do it. When I asked Izzy what she thought of biking here, she smiled and laughed hysterically-it made both kids happy to ride through Amsterdam.

 It's the easiest way to get around the city. The bike rules and everyone knows it so the few drivers on the road go slowly and the scooters are trying to figure out whether they are bikes or vehicles. The chaos is acceptable in this city where multimodal transportation options are the norm-Denver is still learning and growing to be a terrific biking city. Bikeways are separated from pedestrian sidewalks and from the vehicles on busier straats then softly combined onto the smaller cobbled pathways that everyone shares. Once you are sitting atop your upright city cruiser (we have four of them graciously offered by our Air BB hosts as transportation) you start pedaling and immediate fall into the pleasantry of the simple journey through the cobbled neighborhood to the Overtoomse, the busy east-west street that bisects our quiet residential high density townhome neighborhood from Vondelpark. The park is a favorite place already, full of yoga-goers, bootcampers, pot smokers (no we don't need any of that since its legal in our state:)) and families often lying down staring into the partly cloudy skies or looking off into the many lakes and water sprays through high tree canopies that shape the park's multiple pathways.

-Father and Son-

We wandered though the park and right into a fascinating survey of Henri Matisse at the modern art Stedelijk Museum. While I would never fancy myself a lover of fine art or the stuffiness of wandering an art exhibit to grasp meaning in each piece, I've found the art exhibitions in Europe do a really lovely job of teaching viewers about the foundations of the artist's early works to the more mature pieces that become familiar in elementary art class education. 

Art class for the day: Matisse fell ill later in his career, preventing him from standing to paint on the canvas as much. Instead, he adapted cubism, pointillism, and fauvism forms to create his unique chosen forms of paper cutout art-the Matisse you might know with bright vivid colors, somewhat abstract shapes resulted from the work of his asistants who would paste up the cut forms and poise them at his directive to create works like Oceania. It was then Matisse's eye for brilliant original colors that finished the pieces to create happy, fun and accessible pieces that even made Andy Warhol exclaim he "wanted to be Matisse." While I know I enjoyed the exhibit more than my family, they never howled once and let me enjoy that moment-another victory in family vacation.

We continued to cruise via canal taxibus, another way to traverse Amsterdam along its beautiful flower lined canals. 

We hopped on and off following a cruise around the Eye where the Amstel River flows out to the sea and where architecturally speaking, Amsterdam turns into an entirely different landscape of modernist forms and water industry. 

-not sure who tried this first-Amsterdam or Oslo-

Amsterdam is really the most lovely city to explore in depth. There is so much to see! Tomorrow, it's off to Sherlocked!-an escape room adventure that will truly test our ability to function as a family of four-Weeeeee!!!! If we make it out alive, we will head out for a day trip to Belgium.:)

Our introduction to Amsterdam

The flight to Amsterdam was only 2.5 hours. We landed around 10:00 PM, which was still light enough to see from the air that the entire country seems to sit on the surface of the water, allowing the tides to enter deep into the city and return to the sea at will. We found our own entry an easy one as well, due to Deirdre's confident route finding on the public transit system. We arrived at the door of our AirBnB, lugging our packs, and feeling ready to grab a quick bite and sack out. Ten minutes later, we had finally figured out how to unlock the door and, in the process, had fully announced ourselves to the surrounding neighborhood as loud Americans of low IQ.

We spent another ten minutes figuring out the lights and the sleeping arrangements and depositing our stuff and then struck out in hopes, albeit dim, of finding food. To our surprise there was - wouldn't you know it - a pizza / Surinamese place still open around the corner. We happily ordered, only to find they couldn't process our card; something to do with a hoked up credit system in the Netherlands that can't handle anything foreign. The proprietor knew where we could find an ATM, but his description of the route in broken English was no better than the gyrations of a honey bee to us, so he offered to have his employee, who was probably his nephew as well, transport one of our party on the back of his mo-ped. I mounted up behind Akmed and off we went, bottoming out the suspension on every bump. He was an expert pilot and we were there in 5 minutes, back in 15 and eating our pizza's back home again by midnight. We all thought the whole episode was hilarious and a sure sign of more adventures to come. We hit the hay around 1:00 AM, and I don't remember the rest. 

Observations of the world's 4th wealthiest country and the heart of Oslo

Our time in Oslo was as busy as one could expect for the family of an urban planner.

Well deserved down time.:) the family that blogs together stays together...and I'm sure that's what they are all doing here...

We stayed Oslo's St. Hanshaugen neighborhood along Waldemar Thranes Gate,a street bookended by Norway's Kaffebrenniet (like Starbucks), an assortment of wonderful pastry shops and Deli Luca (like a 7-11 convenience store with fancier food and no gas station).




With many blocks of beautiful midrise density housing through the neighborhood to downtown, the neighborhood hosts a younger crowd and and can best be explained as Oslo's RINO (for Denverites).

We found there was so much to do between museums, outdoor sculpture parks and waterfront activity that we abandoned our plans to zoom out of Oslo and made it a study in City life. We saw a terrific exhibit at the Munch Museum comparing Munch and VanGogh-their paths never crossed but they were like twins from birth in their use of color and retreat from established forms.




We were also humbled by a visit to the Nobel Peace Center-on exhibit was Malala. Not only was I again sobered by her great bravery and young wisdom but torn inside to view on exhibit the outfit she was wearing when she was shot on the bus.

Observations on the street-

Traversing the city of Oslo on foot and via transit provides an even clearer picture of what we noticed to be a lack of social stratification in Oslo, an observation confirmed by our Air B&B host, a 38 year old Indian journalist and her Danish husband Esben. Mala explained that Norway is the 4th richest country in the world-this promise has brought a multicultural infusion of people, business, and youth seeking the awesomeness that is so often found in every big metropolitan city like Denver😘 Other things found in big cities-like poverty and visible suffering-were almost nonexistent until you got to the Centre station where Romanians have come to seek better fortune in begging. Apparently this is not received well and Norwegians don't know how to act in the presence of outward suffering-according to our hosts it's big topic now.

While Oslo's transit system is tops, it's lack of street life and activation of public space in important downtown areas that link the Royal Palace to the business district and the piers to Oslo's CentreStation transit hub might compromise its metropolitan desires.



The Opera House-




Centre Station Transit and Shopping-

Unless you are traversing the newly built luxurious western waterfront with 20 similarly fashioned restaurants and bars, there is a dearth of casual eateries and desirable public hangouts north into the older downtown.




There is a lot of potential for more greatness yet to come for Oslo and I hope more of Norway's oil cash could be funneled into activating the downtown's fabulous historic structures along the many gates leading to the Centrum (streets and blocks) as well as ensuring the increasing diverse social classes all find a place here.

The wealth is evident along the Oslo waterfront's western bank and on the steep banks of the Oslo fjords. 1000 SF Summer homes -along with their very small 10 sqM bathHouses go for millions on the fjords.

These houses were built at first for the women of Oslo to have a place to bathe away from the men on the fjords. Now they are idyllic little highly desired million dollar summer teen hideouts dotting the base of the fjord banks.

On our boat tour around the fjords our young Jordan doppelgänger tour guide provided great insight into the history and culture of Norway, the Country's strong Christian foundation and strong resistance to other religions lent to renaming Oslo to Kristiana for years before the country realized its future was destine to be built with a growing non-Christian population despite the fact that there is little to no separation of church and state even today. Now, the exceptionally rich and Christian royals and their friends own their own private little islands around the fjord. The current infusion of oil money from Norway's Statoil Company is building Oslo's eastern bank with thousands of glass encased multifamily structures resulting in rise to an eclectic and somewhat confused architectural landscape. Our tour guide mentioned that the new buildings are being expressly designed to create better public spaces. Framed by the Oslo Opera House, an amazing white geometric multi-elevated building atop the waterfront, I am sure these new buildings will add to the cool vibe.

We loved our stay, our walks in the rain, our endless days (sun up at 3:30am and down at 10:30pm) and our transit rides up and down the city streets. Oslo's heart is still growing and I look forward to its evolution. It was also our first international travel experience as a family of four and needless to say, we worked out a few kinks (no, it had NOTHING to do with Deirdre's strong will to control the transit plan for the day...) to ensure everyone's experience will be of their own making. It's beautiful to have our kids traverse the continent with us and we look forward to our next adventure in Amsterdam and surrounds!