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Veronica Abshire

Veronica Abshire

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    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Amsterdam Day 2

      May 13, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Saturday in Amsterdam. The weather is sunny and beautiful. The morning starts out a little chilly and then by the afternoon a tshirt is all you need. We started out the day with Dutch Pancakes. They are very similar to a crepe just a little thicker and larger. Gabe got his with bacon baked into it and a fried egg on top. They have all kinds of different fruit toppings. We are loving riding bikes around the city. However, we have gotten some looks and several corrections on “proper” bike etiquette. Andrew has managed to get separated from us multiple times. After breakfast we rode over to the Anne Frank Haus. Back at the beginning of the trip, when I figured out how to use Amazon Italy, I ordered the kids Anne Franks Diary to read. The plan was they would finish the book before arriving in Amsterdam and then we would go to the museum. For some reason, nothing told me to go to the museum website and look into the tickets. If I had, then I would of discovered the tickets are extremely hard to get and are only released on certain days. A few tickets are released each day. I set an alarm every day and checked the website everyday to try to get a ticket. No luck. I tried to buy them on a site like Craigslist. Nope. So we only got to see it from the outside. We listed to a My WoWo about it. It was still a very nice experience. Renee and I decided to go to the flagship 4 story H & M. Gabe and Andrew went back to the hotel. After shopping we all went to lunch at The Butcher. It’s a burger place. I had fish and chips but they said the burgers were awesome. We took a little mid day rest and then got our bikes back out to do more exploring. We went to Ouse Kerk. It’s a 14th century Protestant Church. Originally it was a Catholic Church. It’s in a prominent place in the center of town in Dam Square. The outside is very Catholic cathedral looking. But the inside was looted, striped, and painted over to be converted to a Protestant church. This happened in 1578 when the Catholic Reformation occurred in most of Europe. This was my first time in a Protestant Church. The organ is original and the acoustics are apparently wonderful. Gabe and I are going to dinner tonight on our own. The kids are going to have Papa Johns pizza and try to watch the Mario Movie. Gabe and I are going to The Duchess. I am very excited. We got ready for our very European dinner at 8:45pm. The menu is shared small and large plates. We had tuna tartare, a scallop with hollandaise, a cold zucchini salad with Parmesan and shaved truffle. Followed by lobster pasta and 10 kinds of mushroom risotto. Everything was amazing. I would eat here again. Hopefully we can try to find that hibachi place tomorrow. Gabe got me some beautiful flowers to enjoy. I don’t want to leave them here. Ciao!Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Amsterdam Day 1

      May 12, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      Today we had to wake up SUPER early to catch a train and then a bus to get to the flower garden Mom wanted to go to. Andrew wanted to ride bikes as soon as we to got to the hotel, we will ride them soon. Unfortunately, we were to late to take the train, so we had to get an Uber. We walked to get some breakfast, a sugary waffle called a Stroopwafel. My stomach was hurting, so I didn’t eat it. They made them hot and fresh right in the shop. Andrew ate them and he really like them. We took an Uber to get to the bus, then we had to wait a little while for the bus to arrive. Andrew walked away to go look around, and he took to long and the bus showed up. We all got on but he still hadn’t come back, so Dad had to stay back and find him. They got on the bus right after us. It’s about a 40 minute ride out to this garden. After we got back together, we started our adventure. There were tons and tons a beautiful flowers and small buildings. There was even a playground and a zip line! It was super fun and I loved watching Mom and Dad take pictures and looking at ALL the pretty flowers. I was starving by then, so we got some fries, they were delicious. Most Europeans eat fries or “Chips” with mayonnaise. But their mayonnaise is different than ours. It’s thicker and creamier. We walked around the entire garden. The sun came out and it started to get warmer. We got back to the hotel and we got some bikes. We biked to the Van Gogh museum. We have a timed ticket entry at 3:15pm. Vincent Van Gogh is a famous painter who painted the Starry Night. We didn’t see it tho. Van Gogh had a brother, Theo who was a big part of his life. Van Gogh was mentally ill, so he was in a mental hospital for awhile. He even cut off his own ear! Sadly, he died by committing suicide. After the Van Gogh museum, we were all very tired, especially me. But we decided to have linner, a mix of lunch and dinner, kind of like Apertivo. We met a guy who gave us a good hibachi place to eat dinner. We tried to go there, but we got separated from Mom and got lost! We tried to call her, but Dad’s phone died. We biked to a convenience store who let us use his phone charger. We gave up and decide to just head back and wait for Mom back at the hotel. I fell asleep in the room, and Mom came and brought Andrew and I meatballs and pizza. I fell back asleep and slept for a long time.
      Ciao, Renee      Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Travel Day to Amsterdam

      May 11, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

      Today we are flying to Amsterdam. My mom woke up super early to go to the self service laundry. Then we repacked only the clothes we would need for the weekend into 2 suitcases. We are flying Easy Jet airlines and they charge for each bag you bring. After we woke up and ate breakfast we went straight to the airport in the car. We got to the airport and ate lunch there. We got on the flight and the flight wasn’t bad. It was only 2 hours. Renee and I sat together and watched Young Sheldon. When the drink cart came by you even had to pay for water. But they had a lot of food options. You could buy hot pasta to eat. We took an Uber to our hotel and got checked into the hotel. We are staying at the W Amsterdam. We got jackets because its a little cold and went straight to our boat tour. The tour was great and we learned a lot about the canals and the city. It was just the 4 of us on the little wooden boat. The captain Willem, brought us snacks and Mom and Dad had champagne. We saw a lot of tours along the canals and go to see the house boats up close. Once we got off the tour we walked around the city for a while and went in a couple stores. My Dad found us a Chinese restaurant for dinner. While we waiting for our table I went to Ripley Believe it or Not. There was a statue of Robert Wadlow the worlds tallest man standing at 8 foot 11. There was also a wood carved Bugatti and some other stuff but you had to pay entrance for that.
      The Chinese food was ok. It’s not on royal china level though. The dumplings were good but the fried rice was not fried. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow.

      -Andrew      Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Naples Day 1

      May 10, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

      It’s raining its pouring! Today was a wet and rainy day in Naples. We started with a sugar filled breakfast and hazelnut coffee at Gran Caffe Gambrinus. It’s a famous coffee shop in the Piazza del Plebiscito. We have a personally curated list of Naples To Do’s from our friend JP. He was born and raised in Naples. His parents still live here part of the year. Andrew and Renee didn’t wear their rain jackets and Andrew wore his Birkenstocks. Renee bought an umbrella and Andrew got a poncho. The umbrella broke and Andrew damaged his Birks. It was a great day. We ate some fried pizza, a fried pasta ball, an arancini and of course gelato. We did a little shopping and then went back to the hotel to take a rest. We walked 15 minutes a cute little Osteria that Aunt Paige suggested. It has only 6 tables and 1 owner/waiter. The food was delicious. We had fried zucchini flowers, fried mozzarella and fried cod. We had 2 delicious pastas and Andrew had pork with lemon sauce. Gabe is going to take the kids to ride bikes and scooters late tonight while I repack all our bags for Amsterdam tomorrow. I will be going to wash clothes at 7am in the morning. Yay!Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Traveling to Naples Day 2

      May 9, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      This morning we went for a walk around Tropea. The town is small but super cute. The view and the beach looks so fun. We had a delicious ricotta stuffed croissant and a coffee while we walked around. After the kids had breakfast at the hotel we got back in the car and hit the road to Naples. Gabe picked the best place to get gas. It was not an AutoGrill. The gas stations in the Calabria region have awesome food. We all got some sandwiches and had lunch in the car. I had Bietola and ricotta on focaccia. SOOO good! We arrived in Naples and the crowds are crazy. It’s Tuesday! We walked around, got some street food and shopped a little. After we were over stimulated we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We are going to a restaurant on the rooftop of the Grand Visuvius Hotel. It was very nice and a little formal for the kids but they did great. Gabe had calls and wanted to take the long walk back so we got a scooter and an e-bike and rode back to the hotel. It was late so we went straight to be. More Naples exploring tomorrow.Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Travel Day to Naples

      May 8, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      We woke up with the intention to go to Mt. Etna early…but someone slept in. Gabe has gotten up to watch the sunrise the past 2 morning and then he goes back to sleep. Just as we were stepping outside to leave it started to rain. We checked the live cameras on the mountain and they looked like rain. We decided to drive there anyway to at least get to the base. You can drive up to 2500 meters and then the cable car will take you to 8000. There are also lots of easy hikes to craters. We really wanted to do this. But as we got closer to the mountain the rain got worse and we texted our friend who lives there and she said today was not a good day. As we pulled off the highway to turn around, there was a McDonalds. So we stopped for an early lunch. We drove back towards Taormina and decided to drive up the mountain to a town that’s even higher than Taormina. It’s called Castlemola. We you look at it from the water you are like “who said lets go build a town way up there ??” We got a delicious granita. Sicily is more famous for their granita than gelato. It’s water based and not milk based like gelato. And its a little thinner consistency. I like it better than gelato. Also because they are all fruit flavors and not things like Nutella or Oreo. Since its going to rain all day we have decided to pack up and go ahead and start our drive to Naples. It’s about 7 hours so we want to split it up. I did a good purge of kitchen/cooking supplies because we aren’t going to be in another apartment until the last 2 days of our trip. Which doesn’t sound very fun. Lots of eating out. Gabe had bought us 6 bunches of Bietola so we could have it with our dinner tonight. Since we are leaving I cooked it and we had a snack before we left. We packed the car and got on the road. We are going to sleep in Tropea tonight.Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Taromina Day 2

      May 7, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

      Sunday Funday! The weather is beautiful and we are going out on the water. Finally! We are all so excited. We have a few things to do in town this morning before we leave for the boat. After we got all packed up for the day on the boat, we drove over to the marina in the next town Naxos. Naxos is the 1st Greek town in Sicily. They have a true beach front bay and marina. Taromina is high up on a hill and the beach/sea is way lower. Taromina does have a cable car that will take you up or down but its not working. The beaches in all of Italy are very different the sand color, the texture or they could be pebbles or huge rocks. Taromina has small pebbles at the beach directly below the town. Then around a huge point towards the East there are 2 beautiful bays with huge sandy beach’s. This beach can only be accessed by one of the beach clubs that manage the beach chairs. We were very excited to see all this from the water. We got on the boat and met our captain and crew person. Andrew was so excited to get in the water. He found a cave that he wanted to swim into. We cruised over to the bay of Isola Bella. If you have watched White Lotus this is the little island that is featured on the show. It’s not even visible from the 4 Seasons because its around a huge point in another bay. The island is connected to the mainland by a sandbar. I really wanted to go out and walk on it. But the captain said that the only way to do that was to swim. And that wasn’t going to happen. The water felt like an ice bath or cryotherapy. Apparently the water isn’t actually comfortable until July. But then you can swim until December. We were told the best time to come to a true beach town in Italy is October. We had a fantastic appertivo with Aperol spritz, salami, cheeses, olives and mini pizzas. There were several boats out because the weather was beautiful. So we got in some people watching. We moved around the next point to another beach called Mazzaro. We saw a really cool hotel and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. The kids found their first cliff to jump off of. Tatiana, the crew assistant grew up in Taormina and she used to jump off this rock with her friends. So its perfectly safe. The kids had a blast and have no fear. We were proud! After we got back to the apartment the kids had been asking for pizza. Gabe found an awesome take away place really close to the apartment. He and I went out for a late dinner. He always manages to find the places dedicated to meat. The restaurants in Taormina have a very cool vibe. I loved the tables and chairs at this place. I decided to order some fried anchovies to give them a try. They were actually pretty good. Gabe even ate a few. We had a very light ricotta cheesecake that reminded me of my grandmothers recipe. It was just missing American graham cracker crumbs. Tomorrows weather is looking bad. Not sure what we will get to do.

      *That photo of the mountain is Mount Etna. It’s the 2nd tallest active volcano in Europe. At 11,000 feet. This photo shows it with the least amount of cloud coverage that we have seen since Ortigia. It has snow on the top of it. And we found out it has 2 ski resorts. What!      Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Taromina Day 1

      May 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

      Time to explore Taormina! After a late start to the day, we all got dressed and made our way out into the city. Our first stop is finding something for lunch. We found a small place to eat lunch and then made our way to the Greek Theater. We got our tickets and began to explore the theater. It’s currently still used as an outdoor theater for concerts and they erect a screen to show movies for the Taormina film festival. They were doing some repairs to the floors and modern seats have been added. The theater was completed in the 3rd century B.C. Its high up the top of the town. After we took all the photos we went to walk the Corso Umberto. As we have learned in all the previous towns, the main streets run east to west. From the outside “wall” there are Gates or entrances to the main area of town. Taromina is known for its shopping. It’s also become popular because of the HBO show White Lotus. The 2nd season was filmed at the 4 Seasons in Taormina. When we were looking at places to stay here, I of course looked at the 4 Seasons. Besides it being extremely expensive, the location is not anything they portrayed on the show. I was hoping to at least eat at one of the restaurants but we could not get a reservation. They won’t let anyone but a hotel guests into the bar. So I didn’t even get to see it. After a full day of shopping, gelato and lots of walking we finally went home. I made the kids pasta from our leftover pomodoro sauce. Gabe and I went to an off the beaten path Michelin guide recommendation. It was different….The stuffed and fried artichoke was exactly like my Nani’s. Yum! Gabe LOVED his rabbit. I ordered asparagus pasta against the servers recommendation of artichoke pasta and she was right. I love asparagus but this was wild asparagus. Very bitter tasting.
      We went to a slow walk home to enjoy the awesome moon and went to sleep. We are super excited to Boat Day tomorrow!      Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Travel Day to Taromina

      May 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

      We have loved our time in Ortigia! Across the bridge in Syracuse, there is a famous basilica that displays a picture and napkin with the tears of Mary. We drove past it but did not go inside. It is called the
      We drove about an hour north along the east coast to a small town called Ragnala. It’s at the base of the Etna volcano. I was introduced to a very nice Sicilian tour guide who has helped us arrange several of our tours. She set up a private cooking class with some local Nonna’s. When we arrived we were given an almond cookie called a Paste di Mandorla. It translates to almond paste. They were delicious. Something we have never had before. The class is being held in a very old mill house that was used to make wine and crush grains. They have added a kitchen and turned it into a private space to host things like cooking classes. We began by preparing the tomatoes for the tomato sauce. Their method is very different that the one taught to us by our Nani. They also have beautiful looking tomatoes. We are going to prepare pasta alla Norma. It’s named after an opera. A famous Italian actor tasted the dish and created the name. It’s typically made with a short pasta, tomato sauce, fried eggplant and salted ricotta. We worked really hard on the making the pasta dough. Then we let it rest and fried the eggplants. The hardest part was making the dough into long macaroni. We were not very good. The ladies had to finish the pasta so we could eat. We (the 4 of us) don’t really like this type of pasta. We have had it other restaurants. It’s typical of the area. But the sauce and eggplants were very very good. We had so much leftover. The ladies of course didn’t understand why we didn’t eat very much. We got to take most everything with us. Then we made cannolis. My grandmothers cannoli filling was always my favorite. I prefer plain with maybe a few chocolate chips. Sicilians prefer pistachios on everything!
      After we said goodbye to the ladies we drove to Taormina. It’s the last city on our tour of Sicily. The city of Taormina is high up on a hill side. The water and beach are far below. We are unsure of how this will affect our apartment. It was very hard to choose a location. Once we found the parking garage for our apartment, we lugged all our staircases up 2 different elevators and into the apartment. I was not feeling well and immediately went to sleep. When I woke up Gabe said he was also not feeling well. We didn’t eat dinner and went to bed early. Gabe did some research and he thinks the eggplants possibly didn’t agree with us. I hope we are better tomorrow.      Read more

    • Abshire’s Abroad

      Ortigia Day 1

      May 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      May the fourth be with you! Mom and Dad woke up early and went to the food market. Dad got one of his favorite sandwiches of the trip. They came back home and brought us NOTHING. How dare they! We chilled for a long time because our tour was at 3:00. Mom made nachos, first time eating cheddar cheese in Italy. At 2:45, we left the house to go meet up with the lady. Her name was Carmina. She showed us a church with a replica of a famous painting by the artist Caravaggio called The Beheading of Saint Lucia. She was only 13. She is also the patron saint of Ortigia. Her feast day is this Sunday. Then she took us to a castle called Castello Maniace. Unfortunately, it was closed because it was being set up to host the Fendi Fashion Show next week. Last year, the castle hosted Dolce & Gabbana. Originally, it was the home to Emperor Fredrick II. The castle eventually stopped being a home, but became a prison, and most recently it was a military barrack, until 1979. We then went to the duomo. The most significant thing about it was when the Greeks came to Sicily, they built temples to their gods. The Greeks didn’t have walls between the columns. Eventually they left, Romans came and a bunch of different people came, but then, Christians came. The Christians put walls in between the columns and made it a Christian church. Originally, that temple was a temple to Athena, or Minerva (Romans). Then we walked to the remains of what was a Temple to Apollo. It was damaged and only a few columns remain. After we said goodbye to Carmina. We went back home to get some things, then we went to get on a boat tour. The boat took us into caves, and across the water. Andrew got to drive too! After the boat tour, Dad got some meat and made us more hamburger sandwiches and steak. It was good. Again, we watched Young Sheldon, Dad had calls and Mom was talking to Stephy.
      Ciao, Renee      Read more

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