A concert, comedy, and museums

 8/11: We did some trip planning in the morning, and then biked to the Anne Frank Museum. We had NO idea we needed to buy tickets 1 month in advance! We decided to pop over there to see if they’d call us on the off chance a few people didn’t show up. HA! Turns out it is quite the tourist attraction and major production! They smiled and told us there’s no way we’re getting in. Shoot!

We attended a harp concert in a beautiful church at 2pm. Wow! It was really beautiful!

Then we went for a late lunch/dessert at a local pancake restaurant that Bob had read a positive review about in an airplane magazine. We should have ordered 2 pancakes instead of 4! And now we shouldn’t eat dessert for at least a week!

Really scrumptious

We made a quick stop at home before biking to the improv comedy show at Boom Chicago that started at 7pm. We all laughed a ton, and it wasn’t too inappropriate for the kids :-)

8/12: Today will be a scorching day of heat for Amsterdam, so we decided to spend most of the day at Nemo, the super cool interactive science museum. We spent a fun 4 hours here no problem!

We came home for the kids favorite meals of chicken and pasta (Simone) and Mac n cheese (Quinn). Salad and leftovers for Bob and me! Bob and I took an evening walk (fast becoming a favorite activity). We did our best to stay cool and sleep with no AC and only one fan...

8/13: Bob and I went for a morning walk, ate breakfast together, and the kids did a little school planning. We watched some videos produced by the Anne Frank museum since we couldn’t go visit in person; they were very well done, but of course we’d love to go another time!

Our plan for the day was to visit the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, but the Van Gogh museum books out 2+ weeks in advance…foiled again! We got tickets for the Rijksmuseum and thoroughly enjoyed our time. We weren’t too disappointed we couldn’t go into the other museum as we’d had enough after one!

We got to see two Van Goghs

Bob, Simone, and I especially liked these two by Anthony Oberman

A grand library dedicated to art history

The man on the right is cheating

Simone and I love this one

Artsy Simone pics

I wish this place sold t-shirts!

We went to a nearby Indian/Nepalese restaurant that I found on TripAdvisor with great reviews. There was a huge picture of Kathmandu that reminded Bob of his time there. He brought up his old photos and shared them with our waiter, who was also from Kathmandu. The food was great from start to finish!

The kids were happy to be home “early” at about 7pm. Bob and I went for a walk in the beautiful evening (still hot, but not as toasty as yesterday). We made our pb n js and got our lunch packed as tomorrow would be an early start to the day for our bus tour around the area outside of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam!

 8/8: Early start with a Bolt to the Lisbon airport, then our flight from Lisbon to London Luton. We were a bit concerned about the connection in London, as we would have to go through border control, collect our bags, recheck them to Amsterdam, and go through security. Fortunately, the flight wasn’t too delayed, and the process in London went smoothly. It was a 45 minute flight to Amsterdam, and then we took the train to the Central Station. It had been a long travel day, and we all were definitely ready to be at our place. We thought about getting in an Uber to finish the travel, but it wasn’t easy to see where to go for that, and the City bus was right in front of us which should be an 8 minute ride. With our big bags we squeezed into the crowded bus and Bob tried to figure out how to buy tickets (as I was thinking about our bus experience in Oslo where we almost got fined for not having our tickets upon entering the tram). Thankfully the 8 minute ride passed quickly, and we didn’t get busted for not having tickets! 😅Whoosh! A short walk to our Airbnb, and Bob and I walked to local grocery to pick up dinner and breakfast items. Simone’s request was chicken/pasta/veggies and Quinn’s was grilled cheese. It was getting late, but we made it all happen and we’re happy to settle in for 8 nights!

Our first glimpse of windmills off the coast of the Netherlands!🇳🇱 

Wow! That’s a LOT of bikes!

Just outside our Airbnb

8/9:  The current fad for breakfast is plain yogurt (after seeing Paulo and kids eating it) with Cheerios - although Amsterdam doesn’t seem to have cheerios (like France! Why is this?) We bought the knock off Honing Ringen and hoped the kids would like it! They did…probably because it has more sugar than Cheerios…but it’s tough to read the label! We walked to rent bikes, then rode around the local park (Vondelpark). It was so fun to be able to explore so many miles so easily on bikes! Biked to a local museum (Grachtenmuseum) explaining the history of Amsterdam, the canals, and the trees lining them. This was a great starting point to learn about the city! We learned that the trees were planted in a specific pattern and at exact distances apart for best aesthetics. Most (all?) are elms, and many were subject to Dutch Elm disease. Today these trees are meticulously maintained.

Our last stop of the day was at the Red Light District (about 6pm - Bob and I decided we’d like to be done with our ‘tour’ by dark). This stop provided some great conversation for the four of us!

Mewing pic

Yikes

Love the faces

Home to make dinner - this was delicious! Why can’t we find this in the States?

8/10: Journeyed to the local Saturday market with fresh fruit/veggies, treats, and clothing. The kids found some artwork they loved, I bought a tank top and Simone and I each found some earrings. Bob found the local bakery with focaccia bread and chocolate croissants :-) Yum!

Streetside urinals are fairly common here. Super ewww.

Next we toured the Resistance Museum detailing the events of the Dutch during WWII. A very interesting, powerful experience. 

We found our way to Our House, a museum about the evolution of House Music. It was fun for us to see the evolution of electronic music through the last decades! We wished cousin Gus could enjoy it with us!

It’s Marshmallow!

The last stop of the day was at Foodhallen, a recommendation from cousin Steph, who said she had the best gin and tonic there :-)

They WERE awesome! Our family decided the chicken nuggets were the best ever. 

The bike parking was phenomenal! It was like parking your car but with your bike! This city is amazing - it is so quiet because SO many people bike and there are SO few cars! We LOVE it!

We feel just like the locals! Except for the bright red rental bikes and our helmets. Ha! (NO ONE wears a helmet!)

Heading back to Cascais

 8/6: We were sure to be at the amazing breakfast buffet when it opened at 0700, so we could eat a bit before heading to the airport at 0730.

We made it to Lisbon no problem, and got a Bolt to Paulo's house. He had waited for us to have lunch, and it was wonderful to enjoy a delicious, home cooked meal of pork, rice, and beans together (his cook comes 3 times/week). We enjoyed the afternoon at the pool, and I was able to chat a bit with Paula (his ex-wife). That night, Quinn and Simone went out for pizza with Cecilia, Fran, and Paula, while Paulo, Bob, and I went to the beach briefly (too windy for fresco ball). We made a quick stop at the grocery store (we joked with Paulo that it’s our second home!) and went back to Paulo's patio to enjoy some wine and snacks.

8/7: our last favorite morning routine of a HIIT on Paulo's patio followed by a jump in the pool. Lunch together followed by Bob and me talking with Paulo's neighbor, Mark, about our visa process (we *just* found out that we were approved - after so so many requests for updates over the past 2 months).

This visa process has been a wild, workout of a ride. To say sthat Bob has spent SO much time and effort into figuring out this visa is an incredible understatement. It is something he has tirelessly worked on for the past 9 months. But the constant uncertainty and disappointing communication from the Portuguese consulate has required us to plan our travels as if we would NOT get our visa (so we have scheduled to be out of the Schengen region for about 6 weeks, which we wouldn’t have done if we would’ve had an answer about our visa).

Also, when we first met Mark at Paulo's during our first visit 2 weeks prior, he had made a few beneficial comments about the visa process that showed Bob and me that we’d like to talk with him in greater depth. Now that we’d been approved, we were glad to get the chance to speak with him about the intricacies of the visa process.

What we learned from him included a lot more details that we didn’t know before, including that we had to mail our passports to San Francisco from a US address and not from London like we had originally planned. Another major piece were the two in person meetings that would be required of us with the Portuguese government: one to finish the beginning of the visa process, and one at the end of our stay to unwind/end our stay in Portugal. The biggest thing to consider, though, were the taxes. Both the US and Portugal would want us to pay taxes, and there are so many question marks surrounding that major issue. In the end, our biggest frustration is with our Portuguese attorney. She did not provide the guidance that one would expect from a paid expert. We likely would have been better off applying for a ‘digital nomad’ visa.

Bob and I haven’t even had a chance to fully debrief about this yet, but I think we have decided to not go through with the visa. There are many emotions that are swirling in our heads: frustration, anger, annoyance, sadness…after trying so hard for so long, to finally have a ‘yes’ from the Portuguese government, but now that we know more information to make the decision to not go through with it….it's pretty frustrating. But on the other hand, we’re so glad to have met Mark and gained so much wisdom from him - without that, I bet we would’ve continued on with the process, with minimal gain and probable enormous continued frustration (with dealing with governments and taxes)

Throughout our travel planning, I feel like we have continued to make great decisions with the information we had at the time. During our first stay with Paulo, Bob and I made the change to travel to Amsterdam after Madeira instead of staying at Paulo’s again for another 10 nights. Our visa decision was unknown, and we needed to maximize our Schengen days, especially before the kids started school. So we decided to stay with Paulo for 2 nights after Madeira and then go to Amsterdam for 8 nights.

Now that we have all the information we need to make our final visa decision, I’m extra thankful we’re headed to another new adventure in Amsterdam tomorrow! What is still uncertain is our trip planning after our time in the UK….TBD!

After that conversation 😔 Bob and I went to the pool with all 4 kids and enjoyed our last afternoon at the pool. We packed up our things, and went to the grocery store to buy fresh baguettes for our beloved ham and cheese sandwiches for our long travel day tomorrow. We wrapped up our final night in Cascais by heading downtown to one of Paulo's favorite seaside places for a drink and a bite.

Espresso martini (shaved cinnamon on top:-)