The Netherlands
Due to sickness in the fam, only Embry, Eli and I were able to go on vacation to the Netherlands. We traveled by train and spent the first evening walking around Amsterdam. The next morning, we were intent on finding the Dutch pancakes we had heard about and then walked around until we had to head to the Anne Frank house for our tour. I had a savory pancake with ham and cheese while Eli went for sweet. Embry ordered the little pancakes with powdered sugar. Eli and I's were similar to crepes and we all agreed that they were delicious!
I thought it was neat to see all of these shoe laces.
We also were on a search for the exact canal of the Amsterdam puzzle I owned. Because there are 100s of canals, I'm not sure if we ever found it.
This is an Anne Frank memorial near the Anne Frank house. We were especially excited for this tour because we read the Diary of Anne Frank and being able to go where they hid out was going to make such a cool connection to the diary. The kids said this was their favorite part of the trip and I think this is simply due to the fact that we read her diary. Museums don't mean much if you can't connect to them in someway. The kids would bring up instances and names and things that would happen as we walked through the rooms of the house. We weren't allowed to take photos inside of the hideout, but I found some online of a couple of things that others had posted.
Once we got inside the house, I may have snuck 2 pictures inside. Shhh don't tell anyone! This is the original bookcase that covered their entrance. Eli and Embry are listening to their audio guides.
Most of these pics came from online and are not my own, but they are what we saw. This one is the measurements of Margot and Anne as they grew for the 2 1/2 years they were in hiding.
This was Anne and the dentist's bedroom. Those are the pictures Anne tacked up of movie stars.
This was the kitchen and her parent's and Margot's room. The counter/cabinet were still there and were original.
This is the other picture I snuck. It is of Peter's room. The people in the pic are looking up into the attic. We weren't allowed up there, but it was cool to see that the ladder was original. It just goes to show how little the rooms were as well.
Someone (from the internet) snuck this picture of Anne's first diary. There was more than one diary.
We then left the house and they had models of what we had just seen.
I showed a picture of the kids standing in front of the "house" (which is next to a canal), but in reality, we were just standing in front of the warehouse. Anne and family hid out in the back portion of this building and would not have had a view of the canal.
This was the tulip museum near the Anne Frank house. We didn't go in, but I got my first glimpse of some super unique tulips that were sitting in front of the building.
Aren't these neat?!
There were houseboats everywhere.
That evening we ate in a nice cafe by our hotel.
Early the next morning, we took a double decker tour bus to Zaanse Schans, Marken, and then took a boat to Volendam. This was a really cool day (literally) and we got to see beautiful windmills, clog making, cheese making and a demonstration on how to make stroop waffles. It was a really cold day, and I finally had to grab a stocking hat at a gift shop.
We even got to see inside a windmill that saws wood.
It was so beautiful there.
Driving through the countryside, I got my first view of Dutch cows.
In Marken, we watched them make clogs and then we got to try some on.
Cement in wheelbarrows?
We took this boat to Volendam.
Cheese!
Embry got the popular dish of kibbeling (white cod fish) and Eli got calamari. I stuck to a giant hamburger.
Stroop waffle demonstration.
We had pancakes one more time the next morning before our tulip trip.
So we weren't expecting to be dumped on with snow while in the Netherlands, but we woke up that morning to snow and freezing temperatures. We were very unprepared tourists and had to go buy hats, gloves and socks in the gift shop. They all said 'Amsterdam' across them so we officially marked ourselves as "tourists" for the rest of the trip! It was worth it to be warm. Keukenhof was still beautiful even though the tulips were not in bloom yet. I was thankful for some amazing indoor parts that were still full of tulips. The hyacinths were everywhere, though, and did not disappoint. I can see that in a couple of weeks, this park is going to be breathtakingly beautiful!
Here's what the tulips currently look like.
This building showed 100s of kinds of tulips and I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was so beautiful!
Here's our Amsterdam flair!
There was a windmill at the park that the kids climbed up to look out.
Here are more tulips not in bloom. I bet they look awesome right now!
The snow started to melt throughout the day.
Check it out! Eli is walking on water!
The snow hurt some of the flowers. Here's what a bunch looked like. I wonder if they survived in the following days.
Our tour guide drove us through towns nearby that have flower fields. They were so pretty!
Our last stop was in Delft where they make blue pottery. This is also where the artist, Vermeer, painted the famous painting of the "Girl with a Pearl Earring."
We couldn't leave the Netherlands without the kiddos trying herring! I was not brave enough.
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