Rhine River Cruise Day 2 - Nijmegen

This morning, we woke up in the beautiful town of Nijmegen. It is the oldest city in the Netherlands.

We signed up for a 15 mile bike ride through parts of Holland and even a little bit of Germany!

It was breathtaking and so serene! The little towns are some place I dream of living - such a simple and quiet life surrounded by green and farm animals! Cows, sheep, and horses everywhere! The homes were so quaint and cute!

We rode through Oost.

We stopped at this cool pump station called Hollandsch-Duitsch Gemaal.

On one side, this little raft was in Holland. On the other side, it was in Germany!

This gentleman is the oldest living person in the Netherlands. His name is Jan van Ierland. He is 110 years old! We felt so stupid just stopping at staring at him, but he must be used to it because he just waved as we stopped.

The Dorfscheune Zyfflich is kind of like a rec or event center. 

This was so fun - each of us in this picture had one foot in Holland and one foot in Germany!

These statues were so . . . interesting?

This windmill is part of a restaurant. 

We rode to a little restaurant where we had homemade apple pie. I'm not normally an apple pie fan, but this was DELICIOUS!

After our bike ride, we walked around Nijmegen. 

Most coffee shops sell marijuana and it's legal.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE here!

This is a Protestant Church in Nijmegen. It's called St. Steven's Church.

This is the Nijmegen Town Hall.

We have no idea what the story with the shoes is, but they were super fun to see!

This is St. Peter Canisius Church in Nijmegen. 

The symbols were so cool - they all look like Noah's Ark pictures.

This cool building is a monument called Kronenburgertoren. The construction of the city walls around it began in the 13th century. Gunpowder was stored here. 

The monument is in this beautiful park. 

Our friends wanted to go in this cheese shop. The smell was awful. 

Another beautiful church!

This was an actual grave in the floor of the church! There were several.

We packed so much adventure into today, but it was so much fun!

Rhine River Cruise Day 1 - Amsterdam

Rod and I have been so blessed to see some of the most beautiful places in the world!

We were given the opportunity to go on a Rhine River Cruise on Avalon Waterways. It was incredible!

Our ship was the Avalon Waterways Impression. It is definitely more of an old people type of trip, but we loved everything we got to see!

Waiting on our flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam

We were a little excited to say the least - even though International travel is an absolute beast!

When we landed, we took a bus to our ship, ate some lunch and got cleaned up and then we went on a little walking tour of Amsterdam. It was beautiful to see, except that we were half asleep for it!

I loved the flowers all over this little tour boat!

The cool building in the back is the NEMO Science Center. 

This was a really interesting Chinese Restaurant built right in the canal.

This is the Church of St. Nicholas

This is one of the oldest hotels in The Netherlands. It is the Victoria Hotel and was opened in 1890.
It was the first hotel in the country to have electric lighting. 

I don't know why I thought it was so weird to see a TJ Maxx in Amsterdam!

This is the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, located in the Dam Square.
 It was built during the 17th Century.

This is a National Monument on Dam Square to remember the causalities of  World War II.

The flower markets were my favorite!

We had to board the ship for a welcome dinner and to start our cruise! 

We sailed to Nijmegen the first night. 

The sunset was beautiful!

Being on top of the boat while it was moving got cold! I think people thought I was nuts for bringing my blanket from home, but I have no regrets!