An Amsterdam Good Time (Part 3)

 After an absolutely lovely day celebrating Granna and Grannadaddy's 50th wedding anniversary, we decided to depress ourselves with war stuff.  I jest, a little.  Ryan, his kids, and the grandparents went to Dunkirk to look at the WWII site there while Seth, Evie, Aimee and I stayed behind in Bruges to make sure our rooms were ready to vacate and to enjoy some coffee/rest our feet.  Then we left for Ypres, the rendezvous spot.  We had lunch at a sushi place that brought us our order using a robot (Will hated to miss out on robot sushi), and then met the rest of the group at the In Flanders Fields Museum for WWI history.  It was a very well done museum, but Evie's favorite part was when she and I went up into the carillon tower.  We didn't know that's where we were going, but were well rewarded when we happened to be in the tower during the three-quarters chime.

We saw old versions or maybe replicas of the carillon mechanisms

Then ascended the spiral staircase to view the bells

Then we were able to walk across the roof and take in a lovely view of the city of Ypres, which is rebuilt after having been practically flattened during the war.  Unlike Antwerp, Ypres decided to rebuild in its old style rather than embracing modern architecture.

On the return from the roof, Evie and I stopped to listen to the bells, and attempted to hold our ears enough to prevent hearing loss.

After touring the museum, we went to an ice cream shop across the way, because you can't let a vacation day go by without having ice cream.

Then we decided it was time to go back to Brussels, where Ryan had found us a boutique hotel for the evening before we split company the next day, since we all needed to catch trains from the Brussels Midi train station.  He and I dropped off our respective carloads and then drove back to the airport.

Ryan remarked on the trip that, for as different as we were in personality as children (him, quiet and studious, me, loud and theatrical), our travel styles are very similar.  We often paired up on the trip to research restaurants, sites, etc., to bring solutions to our larger group, and we did very well dividing and conquering in order to make the most of our trip.  We were the airport-rental-car-runners, organizing transport for the group as a whole, and we did well navigating (just the two of us) the best way to get to and from the airport.  We joked about going on the Amazing Race show, with the caveat that I would do all the heights challenges and he would eat all the weird stuff.  This was our last rental-car-run of the trip, and we snapped this pic on the train back from the Brussels airport before meeting the rest of the family for dinner, feeling very accomplished in our travel prowess.

We met the rest of the family at dinner and Evie joined Addie and Ryan at the table that was eating mussels in Brussels (see Evie's muscle-flex below).  I was impressed that she was willing to try them and enjoyed them.  She'd eaten some of Ryan's at dinner the night before and wanted more!

The next morning we said some tearful goodbyes - Evie hates to be separated from her cousins, and I cried too at the thought of leaving Ryan and family in Europe where they now reside and not knowing for sure when we'll see each other again.  Then we three Maynes headed to the train station to catch our ride through the Chunnel.  So Evie's been to France, though only on train.  

About to go through the Chunnel

We arrived in London and made an attempt at seeing Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter site) at St. Pancras, but the station was crowded and the line for the photo op to push a "trolley" as they call it, through the wall, as done in Harry Potter was ridiculous, so we aborted that plan, grabbed a taxi, and headed to our hotel.  After getting checked in, we got some fish and chips for lunch and then walked the grounds of Kensington Palace.

Ironic "New Jersey" car parked outside of Kensington Palace

Evie, ever in search for a playground, enjoyed playing at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and met some girls that she pal'ed with for an hour or so while Seth and I rested our feet.

Evie's in the crows nest

Then we took an Uber to an escape room where we made an excellent escape, resulting it Evie's being crowned the next Queen of England.  And then we took the underground to Regeant's Park where Evie enjoyed looking at the water fowl and also playing at another playground.

We caught an Uber back to our hotel and walked to an Indian restaurant that had excellent reviews.

Evie and Seth en route to dinner

Unfortunately, while Evie is willing to eat mussels, Indian food is a stretch for her and she was begging to get a cheeseburger, so we stopped by McDonald's after our dinner and she ate it sitting on the floor of our room.

The next morning, we headed to the London Zoo since our flight didn't leave until 4 pm.  We only got to see a few parts of the zoo, but Evie had a blast petting the goats and seeing the aviary.

Then we returned to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and walked over to Paddington Station where we took the train to the Heathrow airport.  Now, after our flight coming over to Europe was 4 hours late, I was really hoping for an uneventful return home.  However, there were storms in the northeast United States and so after our 8 hour flight from London to Newark, we got through customs easily (thank you, Global Entry) and got to our gate, only to find that our flight was completely canceled and we hadn't even been rebooked on anything - not that there was anything going out that day anyway, but that hadn't even tried to get us home at all.  Seth and I did some quick research and found a flight the next day leaving from LaGuardia at 7 pm, so we booked a hotel in Manhattan, thinking we would just spend the day there.  Now, at this point it was feeling like 4 am to us since we were still on London time, and then we had to get an Uber from the Newark airport into Manhattan, and our hotel put us in 2 different rooms before finally giving us one that had enough space for them to roll in a single cot bed for Evie (which took another 30 minutes), and this poor child finally got to sleep at what felt like 6 am to her, after being up for almost 24 hours straight.  But she never broke down or got frustrated - she is the best traveler!

Snuggling with her new tiger stuffie and sloth sleep mask, acquired at the London Zoo that morning

Since we'd been to NYC in March, we had done a lot of stuff in Manhattan recently, but one thing we had wanted to do that trip and felt the weather wasn't right for was a visit to the Bronx Zoo.  So, even though we'd just had a zoo day the day before, we headed to the Bronx and Evie loved getting to see the zoo in person because she is quite familiar with it through the show they have on Discovery.  She was able to guide us around a bit and give us some behind-the-scenes info she'd learned from the show.

One of the highlights for me was the free-roaming peacocks, especially since they crowded around our table as we enjoyed a snack.

After a long time at the zoo, we headed back to Manhattan, to the same Japanese BBQ restaurant we went to in March because Evie loved getting to cook her own food there last time.

Chef Evie

Finally, it was back to the hotel to get our bags, over to LGA, and home!  It was an amazing trip, and we've got memories for a lifetime.

Since then, Evie's been going to rock climbing camp for halfdays this week to keep her entertained while Seth and I get caught up on 2 weeks worth of back-log at work.  She also had to say goodbye to her friend Raya who is moving to Washington D.C.  This is especially sad because Evie, Hazel, and Raya are the only Upper Level 3s in ballet this year, and they are very good friends and will miss each other so much.  Hazel's mom let the girls come over to hang out since this was Raya's last week in town.

Evie, Hazel, and Raya