Bridget & Kirstyn's Adventures in Europe: Pictures don't do it justice

Ever. A photo can't do it. A photo doesn't capture the French children running through the streets singing in their adorable accents in French. It doesn't capture the smell of a bakery - or the scents under a bridge, for that matter. Or the feel of, what's that, is it warm? Dry? Sunshine, is that a word? Can't say I've experienced it very often on this trip. :-)
Anyway, yeah. That's my take recently on this trip. Pictures will never do it justice. Sorry! This morning came quite early for Bridget and I...and also for our hosts, Riordan and Justine O'Moore, who Lyndsy Muri met last summer when she was in Amsterdam. We got off the bus in Amsterdam, looked around, and went "oh shoot, what are these signs saying? Where do I get a ticket, and what kind of transportation are we even looking for?" After a lot of scurrying around, trying unsuccessfully to buy a ticket, trying to buy a ticket for the wrong mode of transportation, and asking some guys from Argentina, who travelled all the way from the Paris metro system with us to Amsterdam, we gave up and hopped on the first tram (or at least what we thought was a tram) to Sloterdijk. And then we almost got off at the wrong stop.
But we made it! WOO!! Found Riordan and Justine's house and buzzed the little buzzy thing and they answered the door quite surprised, not really expecting us until tomorrow, and also still on South African time, because they'd arrived home yesterday from their month-long vacation in Cape Town. Whoops!
They're some of the most amazing, incredible people ever, though. They were so inviting, let us come right in, drop our stuff off, and they headed to work. We headed out soon after and spent the day touring the Rijksmuseum, which is art/history of the Netherlands/random stuff, an ice rink that was kind of full of water, but was still really cute, a library, and an open market. And a playground. And some other fun stuff. The market was SO WONDERFUL. We ate stroopwafels and pizzas and bought fruit and wonderfulness. It was a ton of fun to just be like "hey, that looks good, let's get some". And we talked to the guy at the stroopwafel place for awhile.
Because it was pouring pouring pouring rain, and super cold!! Coldest wettest day yet! But that made the stroopwafels even more delicous, because they were warm and so perfectly perfect.
We eventually wandered home and the O'Moores continued to be incredible hosts and made us shepherd's pie and ice cream and Rooibos tea, which I have missed so much. And then we just talked a lot. A lot a lot. About so many things. Can't go into detail, mind is too sleepy and too overcome with joy at having such a great God family connected across the world and other bursts of awesome to handle words right now. Really good day :)