it's the little things....: what a beautiful place i have found in this space, that is circling all around the sun...

we have returned from Amsterdam....i am in *lovelovelove* wow. Holland is a beautiful country. I would love to go back and expiereince it without my wonderful boys, but it was great, nonethelesss.

of course, it would'nt be a *Palmer Family Vacation* with out some sort of shenanigans....

first things first, we arrived in Germany and it was raining. We got our rental car and began our journey to our hotel, which was supposed to be a relaxing first day in Germany, hang by the indoor pool and prepare for the next days activities....Let me tell you what really went down, we start driving and re start to hear a thumping sound...we think *oh, a flat tire, great* so we decide to pull over, let me first say this is a BRAND NEW CAR. only 12 kilometers driven. We finally get to an exit and the car looses compression and we kind of drift to the shoulder, praying that we are not going to crash! I get out of the car, check all the tires and they all look good, so i go around to the back of the car and place my hand on the hatchback and it is covered in OIL, OIL is SPEWING out of the back of the car!!!! we freak out! We NO SPREKENSI DEUTSCH!!!!! how are we gonna fix this! i have like 20 euros on my cell and don't have free roaming! We try calling the AVIS people and there is no answer!!! WHAT, NO ANSWER AT THE EMERGENCY ROADSIDE LINE!!!! SERIOUSLY? we try like 10 times, nothing. i use almost all my minutes and we are stuck, in the middle of BFGermany, with the boys.

oh, and it's pouring rain. So Jason decides to get out and walks like 500 meters to the emergency call box and there is NO PHONE, only a bar that you pull and hope someone will come. so we wait. I keep trying and leaving messages for the AVIS people and Jason keeps trying the call box. nothing....FINALLY we get ahold of someone at AVIS {an hour and a half later} and they say they will send someone in an hour. So, the tow truck shows up and they don't speak ANY english, so they motion for us to stay in the car and begin to attatch the car to the tow. It lifts us up on the flatbed and we keep trying to ask if we should get out of the car, but they say no. so we are literally o the back of the tow truck driving down the freeway to the shop. WHAT!!! NEVER IN THE STATES WOULD THAT HAPPEN!!!

here is our reflection in the window of the car shop. just CRAZY! we got a cab and it took us to a random gas station where anther car was waiting for us....so we then begin our drive to the hotel...we were supposed to get there around 2 in the afternoon...we did'nt actually arrive there until 10:30pm! so we get there, exhausted and we get our rooms. HOT. the AC is busted! we ask for another room, the pretty much say *go to he** and we are in a hot box all night. misery. could this trip get any worse? and that was only the beginning.

the next day we head out into Klon for some sight seeing and kid zoo action. It was a MUCH better day. the boys and I had a great time at the zoo and Jason went to the Museum. We met up for some schintzel and Jason took the boys, minus James on the Sky tram over the Rhein and James and i went into the city and saw the cathedral and walked along the shopping streets.we found a Starbuck's and James got a *spaghetti and meatball* ice cream!