TRIP 4/9 Si's 7th Birthday and a Travel Day

I pulled everyone out of beds this morning at the crack of nine. It's Silas' birthday! Our bike adventure continued on Silas' birthday, December 28. We metro/trammed back to the Rijksmuseum and strolled through at the kids' pace. Once again I had a million mama feelings watching them soak everything in and be genuinely curious and appreciative of what they were seeing. They may not remember everything they saw (who can?) but they will remember that art is important. I think their perspectives shifted when they looked at the old furniture and tableware as art rather than functional pieces. I wanted to die of joy when they saw that blue and white style of china and knew that they'd seen that style before in Grandma's house and on the lamps next to my bed. They saw the baroque tables with carved legs and wooden inlay and observed that we had something similar in our front room that I'd inherited from Uncle Jay. I hope these experiences will translate into a life of culture appreciation and incorporation into their lives in the future.
The Night Watch was supposed to be the highlight of the Rijks but for us it was definitely the scale model of a warship. Jude and Silas circled that thing five times counting cannons and pointing out cool stuff.

Amsterdam is a photo op in every direction.

Outside the Rijksmuseum

 We had left our bikes outside the Rijksmuseum locked overnight and I worried about them the whole time.  But there they were when we returned the next morning.

Jude counting cannons

Kicking it with the Night Watch

Back on our bikes we did some bike fighting and took slightly less populated streets back to our drop off site. By the time we got there Jude had had it. It was cold and we were hungry and tired so we sought haven at the library.
Silas' number one birthday request was a visit to the Nemo science center. This is one of Amsterdam's main attractions and it is fantastic. Imagine the Exploratorium in SF but new and fancy. And super crowded. I get overstimulated so I'm hiding out while the kids play and learn. All I need is some ear plugs and a giant coke.

Pretty cool to turn 7 in Holland!

The Nemo Museum was great but super crowded.  It's a Children's Museum like the Exploratorium or the San Jose Children's Museum.  There was one particularly interesting part: the sex part.  Yes, there was a sex exhibit in the children's museum.  Supposedly it was for age 12 and up but it was pretty graphic with models.  I snapchatted it because that is why snapchat was invented, right?
I'd go back to the Nemo but only on a less crowded day.

Science museum

It made me mad that it was so cold the whole time because Mimi had the best outfits on and I got so tired of the Cheetah jacket.

Concerning exhibit on racism that wasn't translating well.

Day Five was that one where I had to navigate us via train to a tiny house in Paris. As a funny funny joke my phone quit working. As funnier joke, the Paris Metro is one of the most complicated and we were headed for a part of town I'd never seen before. As the funniest joke of all our Airbnb was sketch central and we did not feel safe there.

Backpacking in Europe summed up in one photo.

Our backpacked crew ready to hit Paris

But everything started out ok. We took the Thalys Ams-Paris (children are like $24. Reason number one million to take your kids to Europe -- cut rate trains, free everything else). It was about 3 hours of snacking and playing games. I'd had enough forethought to screenshot instructions to our destination and info on how to get into the house, but there of course was no direct line from Gare du Nord to Pantin-Aubervilles so that was touch and go. Navigating a new subway always takes a few tries to familiarize the directions, tickets, and level of aggression for getting on crowded trains.
I knew it was a bad sign when the train to our new Airbnb was like 10 stops away.

When we got out of the metro the place was crawling with ne'er-do-wells, all of them men. We hustled sans maps with our fingers crossed down dark alleys passing wrought iron covered windows through a gate and to our shady apartment. It was decent inside but they must have taken very careful photos because the ones on Airbnb looked much friendlier. We stayed a few hours while I used the heaven sent wifi to find us a better place then complain and cancel our week in that scary joint.

Lots of time in the Paris Metro.  Trains are fast and frequent.

Why are all hotel elevators in Europe so tiny?

Smashed in the elevator with backpacks

Then back through the scary streets, in the dark this time, we hit KFC and took the metro to a happier place. Obviously the kids didn't know Paris looked anything other than that ghetto part of town so when we left the metro and were face to face with the Louvre they were thrilled.

We're sleeping three to a King size bed and one person on a fold away, but by 8pm we're warm, happy, and comfortable in this fancy joint. Success!