The Netherlands

Last year, when I got excited about visiting Holland, it was too late to visit the tulip fields.  This year, I was dying to go during the girls' last break from school before the baby came.  Unfortunately, because of a winter that just won't say goodbye, we were too early to see them in all their natural glory.  But, we still got to visit some greenhouses and had an awesome family vacation anyway!  We loved discovering new places, meeting new people, and trying new food together.  Let me show you a bit of what we saw and learned...

The People:

"Everything in Holland is small...except for the people"  (our tour guide at the Corrie Ten Boom House).

It's true!  You can see right away, even as they ride past on their bikes, that the Dutch people are quite tall.  I read that they are also the most content people in the world.  Almost everyone we met was very friendly, happy to help, and happy to speak English.  Most people know at least Dutch, English, German, and French.

The Language:

It was fun for us to be able to recognize many words because we know German.  A German friend told us that the grammar is the same.  So, maybe it would be the next easiest language for us to learn!  There are a lot of "oo"s, "j"s and "ijk"s.

The Land:

It is quite flat.  As recently as the 1950s, a lot of the land flooded.  Hence, the reason for windmills to pump the water.  We loved the water running through the middle of the streets with house boats and bridges.  Back in second grade, Robyn did a report on Holland.  It was so cool for her to get to experience it in person.

Amsterdam:

We kept hearing that Amsterdam was "dirty," etc.  At least where we were, we felt safe and thought it was beautiful.  We were told that people's tax rates were based on how much street space they had, which is why they have such tall narrow houses and store fronts.

I was happy to get to take Robyn on a special mommy daughter date to see the Anne Frank house, which she'd learned about in school.  In 8th grade, I was in the play.  My favorite part about the tour was that Anne was essentially our tour guide.  We either read her quotes on the walls in the rooms or heard a narrator reading directly from her diary.  It was very well done and worth the 2 hour wait outside.  I hadn't remembered that her father had a spice and pectin business, which was below where they were hiding.  The tour ended with a video of her father who said that even though he had a good relationship with Anne, after she was gone and he read her diary, he realized that most parents probably don't know their children.  It was very powerful.

While we were on our tour, Myles, Carly, and Macy found a fair celebrating the queen who will soon retire. They had a great view of the city from a 55-meter-high ferris wheel.  (Too bad I had the camera).

It would've been neat to see some of the art museums with work from Rembrandt and Van Gogh.  Maybe next time.

Haarlem:

New York was originally called New Harlem or Little Harlem.

Even though there had been hundreds of visitors earlier that day, we made it just in time for the last tour of The Hiding Place, which ended up being just our family, and in English.  Although Corrie Ten Boom's story is well known in The States and in other places around the world, it seems less appreciated in Holland.  The tour guide who lived through the war herself, said that a woman lived around the corner from the watch store/Hiding Place museum for 35 years until she found out about it!  Since we were in a hurry to make it to the last tour, we stopped to ask a policeman and woman for directions.  They could point out where the street was, just a few blocks away, but neither of them recognized the name of the place.  The Ten Boom family saved over 800 Jews during the war.  Corrie survived to tell the story and share about the gift of forgiveness.  She was able to sneak a Bible into the concentration camp and not have it confiscated thanks to the lice in the barracks that the guards chose to avoid.  An amazing story, if you haven't had the chance to read it yet.  Neat to see where it actually took place.

Alkmaar:

We found a really cool cheese market where a guild continues to weigh, transport, and buy and sell cheese the old fashioned way.  Very entertaining to watch and fun to sample lots of different kinds.  When we saw green cheese in the assortment, we thought it might be pistaschio or moldy cheese, but it ended up being basil.  Very yummy.  We enjoyed a great picnic lunch of fresh cheese, fresh bread, and strawberries.  The downtown was so cute with little shops that only sold one thing like just fruit or just cheese.

Kinderdijk:

We enjoyed a lovely drive around this town by the water and then a nice walk to see the old windmills.  I didn't realize that they were big enough for someone to live in and take care of them.  During our trip, we saw lots of windturbines, the new windmill equivalent.

The Hague:

We mostly drove through this area since it was getting late, and got to stop to see one of our temples.  It reminded me of a smaller version of the temple in Utah where Myles and I were married.

The Food:

We had fun trying the famous proffertjes, little thick pancakes that they make on a special grill, and pancake pizzas.  Also, srtoopwaffels with caramel in the middle, and a great sampling of Indonesian food that they kept hot on the table in little bowls above candles.  We tried several kinds of really good baklava from a Turkish bakery.  We saw lots of wooden shoes, some even made out of chocolate!

Bikes:

We are used to people riding bikes where we live, but it is nothing compared to The Netherlands!  The girls claimed they saw at least a million.  They thought it was so cool how the bikes had their own lanes and even their own traffic lights.  There were all kinds of bikes, but mostly the old fashioned looking kinds.  I'm guessing that because the land is so flat there is no need for any fanciness/gears.

It was fun to see kids and adults riding on the fronts or backs, and people carrying everything from groceries to super long pipes.  We also saw a double decker place to park bikes.

The coast:

Cold and windy, but beautiful and loaded with shells, which the girls were excited about.  They were also excited to find a jelly fish.  It reminded us of Oregon.

Our Hotel:

Out of everything, this is what they may remember the most.  Because of the weather, we picked one with indoor pools/slides.  The girls thought it was pretty cool to experience an indoor/outdoor pool for the first time and to watch a movie at the aqua cinema.