Plain Catie

So I probably should back up and tell you that we didn't jump straight from Amsterdam to Portugal. We did fly there, but we had a 13-hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany first. I wish I could say for all my German-loving friends that I had a good time. But we had a hard time finding things to do and there was terrible restaurant service and we spent like an hour and a half in the wrong part of the Jewish museum. We did go into a really cool old Catholic church though. I was in love with the artwork. The siblings in front of the super cool church; town square, Frankfurt. But they we got on another plane and headed to Portugal! The cool thing about Portugal is that my dad served his mission there and he hadn't been back since then (27 years!). We got there Saturday night, and on Sunday we went to a ward he served in, in Porto. Church building in Porto. Note the super cool purple leaves design on the walls! It was neat to listen to church in Portuguese. My parents (who b...

More canals than Venice. More bikes than Copenhagen. More Dutch than...well, pretty much anywhere. I give you (fanfare): Amsterdam! Doesn't it look lovely June? And truly it was a lovely city. Lots of quiet little streets, tiny cars, bike paths on every road, pastry shops, graffiti; everything I imagined Europe to be. A tiny car (pink!) in it's natural, tightly parked, habitat. Oh and museums! So many we didn't have nearly enough time. We went to THE museum, the Rijksmuseum. In addition to the Rembrandts we enjoyed, we also saw several Vermeers, that I didn't have a chance to photograph. This is from the Rijksmuseum. It's called "Fishing for Souls. Protestants in the left boat, Catholics on the right. This is a Rembrandt and it's amazing! You can't tell in the picture, but he painted the turban in such a way that it actually sparkles! Mom and I loved it. Of course. Rembrandt's "The Night Watch." And wow is it power...