The Broughtby's European Adventures

  (Feb 14 - 17)  The plan for the February school break was to ski in northern Italy for a few days.  With Sam's collarbone injury (see separate blog entry ) we had to pivot.  We had already booked flights to Milan so decided to spend a weekend there.  Ryan and I had been before but not Sam.  More Milan photos here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/J6rzoDWXCcatyKvg8 We did our typical food tour on our first day in Milan which included Roman-style pizza. Compared to Neapolitan pizza (Napoli), which we usually have in Italy, it is thinner and crispier and has a wider variety of toppings. We had it topped with potatoes.  We discovered Rosso frizzante wine which is a lightly sparkling Barbera wine.  There was also a delicious traditional risotto for Milan.   Barbera + bubbles + thin, crispy pizza + risotto resulted in a very good tour.  Roman-style pizza with potatoes Risotto Milanese On Sunday we toured the  Duomo di Milano  inclu...

  It seems inevitable that we would have a medical emergency while living here resulting in a test of the Dutch healthcare system. The image above accurately reflects the perception and often reality of the healthcare here. We have been lucky so far with getting the care we need by 1) being prepared with medical records from the US to prove our case, 2) researching and advocating for ourselves and 3) annoying the huisart (primary care doctor) enough that she gives us what we want so we stop asking. 😝 During recess at school, Sam fell while playing a game with his friends and another friend fell on top of him. I was told that he initially wanted to keep playing but the teachers had him go to the nurse, who then sent him back to class. His teacher reached out to me since it seemed like he was in pain and I picked him up.  I spoke to the nurse when I picked him up who said he seemed fine and to monitor him. Fast forward to us realizing he was not fine. We called the huisart (a r...