Paris, Amsterdam and London

In Spain, Christmas vacations are longer than we typically have in Idaho; although Spaniards are very into Christmas and New Years (and all of the days in between), the most important holiday here is El Dia de los Reyes Magos (Epiphany or Three Kings' Day). So Christmas vacations typically last from Christmas Eve until after Epiphany on January 6. 

Since Abby and I had all of that time off, we figured we would aprovecharlo (take advantage of it) by seeing other parts of western Europe. I had promised Abby that I would take her to Paris, and in the end we decided to hit up Amsterdam and London as well. After all, we had plenty of time!

We were lucky enough to get a Paris Museum Pass from our family for Christmas. In spite of cold weather and a nasty flu, we saw many beautiful things. I especially loved the Cluny Museum and the Picasso Museum. We also ate a ton of ethnic food, because it is so much cheaper than French fare, and because we are always craving good hand-pulled Chinese noodles or a steaming plate of Pad See Ew. We did, however, splurge on a dinner at a nice little French bistro where they sat us next to the radiator; Abby ate a slow-roasted leg of lamb with a pumpkin puree and I enjoyed a plate of steak tartare with fries. 

Walking around in the Netherlands was very strange after having spent three months in Spain. Dutch is intoned a lot like English; as we walked around, we were confused by how similar it sounded to English gibberish! We enjoyed a quiet New Year's Eve in the Amsterdamse Bos and we rode the Amsterdam Metro illegally on New Year's Day. Our credit card wouldn't work in the ticket machine in Amstelveen, and there was no way to pay in cash. If we didn't catch the metro right then, we would miss our train back to Paris. So we just snuck on the train and nervously ate granola. When we got to the turnstiles at the central station, we told the guard that we had come from Amstelveen and we needed to pay. He just opened the turnstile for us and told us to have a Happy New Year. Thanks to him, we made our train.

In London, I was amazed at how many signs there were. Do this - Don't do that. Sometimes there would be a sign with another sign below it explaining the first sign. In places where there are no signs, there are advertisements. We knew going into it that the English drive on the left side, but for some reason we hadn't realized that the habit also extended to staircases and sidewalks. We almost bumped into quite a few people during our four days in London. Abby and I love theatre, and we haven't been able to see anything in English for a while, so we bought tickets to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was incredible. We highly recommend it (it was one of those plays where a half an hour after you leave the theatre, you still feel like you are going to cry).

It feels good to be back in our own apartment and living our El Ejido routine, but it's safe to say that our 2016 Christmas vacation was one we'll never forget.