A final boat ride, visit to beach, and Amsterdam

Our last exploration in the boat with Fransje--drinks on board. We found a new area that was truly "Dutch" and beautiful.


A day on the beach with Lyke, Sabien and family. A very windy day, but nothing would stop us from playing in the sand.
Bibi would not let the weather stop her from swimming in the rough sea. As for the Westfalls-we kept our coats on.
Sabien took us into Amsterdam's China Town for feet massages--ahhh, Nicholas loved it.
Dinner in Amsterdam at Sabien's place in Ijberg.

Fransje's B-day and a quick visit to Den Haag

Fransje (my aunt) celebrated her birthday with many friends and the kids were very helpful. Here they are making fruit salad.
Fransje and Martijn...
Enjoying many bottles of wine--the kids were great at keeping the glasses full and Fransje enjoyed moving around the table to sit with different friends.
A walk on the Zwanburger Polder--across from the house. The cows are roaming freely which made us a bit nervous as we have seen them start running before.
The Plein in Den Haag--a popular spot to meet for drinks on a sunny day. Some of the modern buildings are visible in the background. The statue is of Willem van Oranje and he was one of the leaders of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish.
The Binnenhof-houses of parliament. We didn't see any important people.
A visit with Pom and Vera on The Plein--we enjoyed many bitterballen.

Zaanse Schans--a windmill tour

The Zaan is an area formerly known for the use of industrial windmills. It is now one of the top tourist areas, but lots of fun to see with the kids. It lends itself to some good "dutch" scenes.

A Day in Zeeland

Frans and Thera took us out for the day to enjoy Zeeland, which is in the south. It was an area hit hard by flooding in the past. In the early 80's they started the Delta Works project--huge!!! They had to build something that wouldn't interfere with the salt water environment and control the area for future flooding. This is a museum built into the barrier.

A view of the Delta WorksIt is also a lot of fun for the kids with some rides, yahoooo.....
...even Frans enjoyed a ride with the kids.
We stopped for ice cream in Zierikzee, an old fishing village with scenic small roads and lots of red roof tops.

A few random pictures

An evening bike ride after dinner. It has become our routine to go on a walk or bike ride after dinner.
A fun visit with Lyke in Amsterdam. We toured through the canals and spent a lot of time walking and shopping-the kids new pasttime.
Beautiful rainbow between storms.
The kids are enjoying their new toy.

Day trip to Gouda

We were true tourists for a day and took a looooong boat ride to the small town of Gouda.
In the center of town is the old City Hall built in 1450-this could be a postcard.
We also caught the end of the cheese market, piles of cheese were still laying around....
...they are heavy!!!This building is called De Waag and is where the scales are housed for the cheese.
We walked and walked and walked and always came back to the same point on the canals--this is what happens when you don't have a map.
While walking around aimlessly we were surprised by this windmill (there were lots of trees blocking our view).
After a long hot day the kids were a bit disappointed that the boat wouldn't stop for the ice cream boats.

Museum and day at the beach

The kids and I enjoyed a visit to Cruquius, a museum showing an old steam run water pump station used to pump out the Harlem Lake in 1849--it took 3 years to pump it dry, which is now fully developed. Amazing to see how they managed the water.
We also visited the Panoram Mesdag but were unable to photograph. It is a painting by Mesdag that gives you a 360 degree view of Scheveningen done in 1881. After this we spent the rest of the afternoon with Thera on the beach in Scheveningen which is next to Den Hague.
Still to cold to really swim so a big pit was dug, Nicholas developed blisters and sore stomache muscles after 2.5 hours of digging. Morgan was the only one to get into the water.
Wednesday in Warmond is the day that the "Herring Man" is around so we always have herring for lunch on Wednesday--this is how many of the dutch eat herring although we put in on a nice slice of bread.

Back in Holland

With the weather back to rain we decided to take a trip to the Corpus Museum which is a journey through the human body. We entered at the knee and came out at the brain and learned a lot along the way.

In hopes of warmer weather the kids wanted to go to the beach, still to cold...

although, swinging is always fun!!
After a long rainy day inside the sun came out and we decided to have our "borrel"on the boat, never tiring of the scenery.

Things Learned In London

This website/blog has been sort of a travel journal to share with friends and family. We really haven't used this to share our impressions and things we've learned along the way. This summer's been awesome, and we've really learned a lot--about people, places, and life. We've also had the simple pleasure of experiencing new things together as a family.

This is the last post for Chris, since he's heading back to the US... and is themed "Things We Learned In London."

1) The change of the guard at Buckingham Palace is a bit over-rated. It's amazing that they do this every day and still draw such huge crowds. This picture sort of says it all--lots of holding up cameras and twisting heads to see something... and Barbara wouldn't hold me on her shoulders, so the view was limited.



2) Westminster Abbey/Big Ben/Parliament complex provides some nice history and impressive architecture.


3) Nicholas and Morgan like museums--a lot, it seems. The British have ruled or explored many things, so the British Museum is, as one might expect, full of a lot of great stuff. And the Tate Modern was another great one--particularly meeting @Neil_Hartley for a London Pride. We also learned that we like art for a lot of reasons, but art that makes you uncomfortable, well, stinks, and doesn't really make you see the world in a new way.


4) Riding in an open-top double-decker bus is super fun.


5) If Morgan were to pursue a career as guard of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, she has to project toughness, not cuteness.


6) The Tower Bridge is cool--to look at and to walk across.


7) Other random things... fish and chips keeps you full for many hours; it rains a lot, but we really don't care and can deal with wet feet for many hours; we like big cities--they feel very alive; there are more dogs in public in Amsterdam than in London; Sleep schmeep, who needs it when you're having this much fun?!?!