Planes, Trains and...Europe

So I realize it was last year since we last posted! I don't mean in the clever way that it's the first part of 2012 and our last post was the end of 2011. I mean it's been a considerable length of time. Since our last post a lot has happened. Russ has been working for a local audit firm and really enjoying it. I've been working on photography. We bought our first house! We got to meet Mitt Romney! And we went to Europe! I'll post pictures of the others soon but this is our Europe post.

Russ' work requires like zero travel but they happen to have a client in Amsterdam that he happened to be assigned to. When he found out he was going they said he could bring me. Sooo that's what we did. We went a little early to go to Paris, spent about 5 days there and then took a train, how European is that, to Amsterdam. It was so incredible. Just like straight out of the movies. I'll quit blabbing and show you some pictures.

We first went out the "country" in Paris. Top Left: Our bathroom window at our hotel. It was like a boat window and we had a beautiful view! Bottom Left: These are what our hotel rooms looked like. Right: Can you believe there are just places that look like that there?!

 We went out to the country so we could go to Disneyland Paris. Russ and I had never been to Disneyland together. And we'd never been to a Disneyland in Europe so we thought why not. It was so much fun!

 Since it was Christmas time it would "snow" on Mainstreet every so often. And if there are two things I love it's snow and Disney. So I was pretty excited.

 Us in front of the castle.

Us and Mickey Mouse's French cousin.

It was really foggy quite a few times while we were there. And this doesn't capture how cool the castle looked, but trust me, it was awesome. 

Russ eating an actual French Baguette in France on our little "patio." Also, the stereotypes are kinda true everyone there really does eat baguettes all the time, smoke everywhere, and drink a lot of wine. In fact, while in line at Disneyland a mom pulled out not Goldfish, not a granola bar, not Cheerios but an actual baguette for her toddler to snack on. But sidenote: Everyone was nicer than expected. Sorry if I offended any French readers we may have. 

Then we went to the city. We stayed just a couple blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. I have some pictures and a video of the Eiffel Tower I'll post it next. In order to see everything we wanted we took a Bus Tour where you could stop and get off and on. Very touristy I know, but it worked out perfectly. We saw all we wanted. Like:

The Louvre

Notre Dame

(and no we didn't see any hunchbacks.)

The Opera House

The Arc de Triomph 

You like how the guy on the back right is actually posing and looking at the camera? 

It was also really cool because they had a bunch of cute little street vending areas. Some street vendors were not so cute and would walk around shaking huge rings full of eiffel tower keychains and get all up in our grill. But neither Russ nor I got anything stolen from us. Supposedly that happens quite a bit. 

Then we took the train to the Netherlands. I loved this picture of Russ because he was towards the end of "Movember" and his whole office had to grow a mustache for all of November. So he looks very European. Is it European? Maybe it's more like a predator of some sort. Either way the picture makes me smile. 

Ok, last thing I promise. So one of the craziest thing to me while we were there were their toilets. Top Left: This one was next to the actual toilet and it is virtually a sink, with a towel next to it, that looks like the towel is to be reused. Top Right: Two huge buttons, each with different amounts with waterflow. Bottom Left: This was the "hair dryer" at one of our hotels. I think it was an incredibly old vacuum in another life. Bottom Right: This one just had an enormous silver button, as seen above it. 

All in all the trip was amazing. And we knew the whole time we were having such a once in a lifetime experience. We're so glad we were able to do it together. I applaud you if you've made it to the end of this post and thank you for your time.