Tulips, tulips, and more tulips!

Last Wednesday, April 15th, Ben and I made our first visit of the season to Westerpark. The weather was really beautiful, and so the slide and sandbox were calling our names. Ben had the run of the area for about 15 minutes, and then it seemed like kids starting showing up at the rate of 1 every minute! I was honestly glad to see so many people taking advantage of the sunny skies, but after about 45 minutes, we decided to go play some soccer and blow bubbles on our own - and of course, pick wildflowers. A really great spring morning!

Thursday the 16th was Ladies Night! Meghan, Wendi, and I met for Mexican at Alfonso's before seeing a movie - "He's Just Not That Into You". The food was good, the movie was entertaining, but the best part of the evening was the company. It's always so nice to get a few hours for us mommies to chat without chasing the kiddos.

In an attempt to bring back the Getting to Know Amsterdam tidbits, the photo below explains the obstacles that Ben and I face in the stroller on a daily basis. The roads and sidewalks here are basically just bricks pounded into sand. I guess it makes sense for easy access to work areas when needed, but it sure does take you by surprise when you turn the corner to see the road/sidewalk completely unpaved. And, it's always kind of funny to watch the workers try and put the bricks back in as they came out. :)

The rest of this blog entry is devoted to our visit last Saturday to Keukenhof in Lisse. Be warned, there is a riduculous amount of photos ahead. If you don't like flowers or pictures of my kid, you can stop now.

This huge flower garden was celebrating it's 60th anniversary, as well as the 400th anniversary of New York City. In 1609, Henry Hudson (on behalf of the Dutch East India Company) stepped ashore on what is now Manhattan. It was interesting to read how much of NY's history has Dutch influence...Harlem, Wall Street, Flushing. I liked the "I (tulip bulb) NY" display below, as well as the Statue of Liberty flower mosaic - with over 50,000 bulbs!! Hope they have a machine that plants all those, not manual labor! And, see the "Hudson River" in beautiful blooms, amazing!

As we were walking around, we couldn't help but notice the wonderful fragrance in the air with all the flowers in bloom. For some reason, I don't remember the scents being quite so strong last year, but it definitely enhanced the experience. Enjoy more flower photos...

We made our way to the petting zoo to let our little animal loose. He LOVED petting the bunnies and carefully watching the giant turkey. He also got very interested in smelling the flowers. I asked him to smell one, and from then on, he needed to smell ALL of them. And, best of all, he found a few wildflowers to pick. Notice the "Holderby" concentration - with his tongue sticking out. ;)

In addition to finding the petting zoo this year, we also found the windmill. Apparently, we just didn't wander this far last year?? The mill was built in 1892 in Groningen and brought to Keukenhof in 1957. Lots of festive music was being played, so this was a great place to stop and eat our picnic lunch.

Near the perimeter of the gardens, you can see the tulip fields. I'm not sure that these photos can do justice to the fantastic sight of thousands and thousands of tulips as far as the eye can see.

As we wandered past the windmill, there was an area set up for picnicing and relaxing. Greg and I thought these pitchfork chairs were brilliant!!

We strolled on...here are some more flower photos. Ben finally fell asleep in his stroller around 12:30 p.m., and so after an ice cream cone (shhh, don't tell Ben!), we found a place to lay in the grass and soak up the sun. Greg ended up getting a little nap too, and I enjoyed all the people-watching. I also did a little more reading in the park guide we'd bought...at the end of the season, the horticulturalists dig up all the bulbs so that in the autumn the cycle of planting, flowering, and digging up the bulbs can begin all over again. Crazy!

After the boys woke up from their naps, we took a few more photos before Ben had his fill of flowers. So, around 2 p.m., we called it a day and headed home. It had been a great day; the skies were sunny and the flowers were in bloom - what more could we have asked for?! And, I was wishing that I had a flower garden to go home to - I was feeling very inspired!

Happy Anniversary & Happy Easter!

Last week, on Wednesday, April 8th, we celebrated our "we've been living in Amsterdam for 1 year" anniversary! It is so hard to believe that a year has passed already; in some ways, it feels as if we just left. We decided to celebrate the best way we know how - with pannekoeken and poffertjes!! Greg made it home early from work that evening, and we walked to the Pancake Bakery for dinner. But, life with a toddler has taught us to expect the unexpected. As the pancakes arrived, Ben wouldn't eat them at all. Say what?? This is the boy who prefers pancakes to almost anything else in the whole world. He got fussier as the meal went on, so we thought it was best to ask for the check and quickly finish our pancakes. When the waitress brought the bill, there was a handful of candy hearts, as usual. Ben grabbed a heart, and as he put it into his mouth, he started gagging. Yikes! Needless to say, we paid and were on our way asap. He never did get sick that night, so we are thankful for that, but I was pretty bummed that our celebration turned out to be less joyful than I had hoped. Oh well, a sunny evening walk in the Dam and panckes (no matter how quickly they were eaten) are always a good thing.

The next day, as Ben was napping, Greg called to say that the photo we submitted for Ben's re-registration had been rejected - again! Let me back up for a minute...because our stay has been extended from 12 months to 18 months, we needed to submit new registration papers. OK, not a big deal. The first photo of Ben we submitted was the same as last year, so it was rejected because it was not a new photo. Wish they would have mentioned that somewhere along the way, but OK, lesson learned. So, a few weeks ago after we learned of the first rejection, we took Ben to Central Station to one of the passport photo booths to attempt getting a cheap 5 euro photo. He did not like the booth, but I was able to sit on the stool, put him on my lap, and somehow back my upper body into the corner so I was out of the photo - as we calmed him down to get a photo where we was looking at the camera. We were pleased with the outcome, so we thought the mission was accomplished. That brings us back to last Thursday, when Greg called to say no such luck. "The computer" had rejected the photo, but in typical Dutch fasion, no one could tell us why. Doesn't help to know what has to be fixed, huh? So, when Ben woke up from his nap, we ventured out to a photo shop nearby to get a 'professional' passport photo. At this point, we weren't taking any more chances. The man at the shop was very nice, and Ben was in a good mood. I set him onto the stool that is 3 feet off the ground, and the man hands him a huge reflective disk to hold (for lighting). As I back away to stand by the camera, Ben takes a face-dive off the stool. Oh brother! Luckily, the disk caught his fall a little, but he was pretty shaken and upset. As I check him out, he has a huge welt growing on his forehead, and a scratch/welt under his nose. The man says, "I'll be back in a minute." I'm thinking, "and we'll be back tomorrow" - figuring there is no way that we are going to get a photo now. Ben is such a trooper though. He calmed down, and now with a bump on his forehead, a scratch under his nose, and teary eyes, we finally get a photo. I am praying that this new one is accepted, so that the pain won't be for nothing. And, even though it was 5 p.m. and nearing dinner time, we went to get some ice cream and watch the boats. We both needed a reward for getting through that experience!! This is a photo that I took after we got home. Hard to see the forehead and nose ouchies, but the smile clearly shows that ice cream makes everything ok. :)

Friday, April 10th kicked off the 4-day Easter holiday weekend for Greg. The weather could not have been more perfect - clear blue skies and 21 degrees! (That's 70 degrees F for all you Americans who don't have to think in Celsius.) We went to Artis Zoo and had a fabulous time enjoying the animals and the sunshine. Ben's favorite parts of the day were chasing Mommy and Daddy's shadows and the petting zoo. We spent over an hour with the goats, sheep, and chickens. (FYI, no it wasn't raining in the petting zoo...we swapped out shoes for boots so that we didn't have to clean animal poo off his nice shoes.) He gave lots of love to the goats and was relentless about chasing the chickens. We topped off the visit with the purchase of a new friend, a stuffed polar bear that is Ben's new best bud.

Saturday morning was "Easter brunch" with friends at the American Hotel. The American Hotel is in the Leidseplein square, an Art-Deco building from 1900 - considered a historical monument in the city. We had heard wonderful things about the beauty of the interior and the buffet-style breakfast, so we thought we would enjoy for the holiday. We had a fun morning - eating eggs and croissants and drinking coffee with the Koleks and the Tusts. The kiddos did great too! We would definitely go back...

As we left the American Hotel, it was another gorgeous day. So, we thought we would work off some of our breakfast by walking around the city center. This first photo isn't very pretty, it's the urinals in Leidseplein (how's that for Getting to Know Amsterdam?) - and yes, we've seen plenty of people use them before. We saw the stalls of the floating flower market on the Singel canal, the Westerkerk, and made our way to Spui square to see the Begijnhof. In about 1150, a group of women came together to live in a religious community (although they weren't nuns) to care for the sick, and this is where they lived. The courtyard was beautiful, very quiet and peaceful. We also saw the English Church, which used to be a Catholic church for the Beguines until the revolution in 1578 when the Protestants took over power in Amsterdam. Starting in 1665, a Catholic chapel was built for the Beguines. (Since we just happened upon the Begijnhof, I hadn't done my homework...so no pictures of the chapel.) The last Beguine died in 1971, but the residences are still being used. I wonder what the rent is? Although I think the peace and tranquility would go out the window if Ben moved in...

Later that day, after nap time, we went for a run. There were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine. Ben still loves being in the jogging stroller; looking at the trees, dogs, bikes, people. And, for dinner, we fired up our smokey joe grill for the first time this spring to grill some fish, yum!

Easter morning came, and Ben got lots of goodies from Mom & Dad, Maw Maw & Paw Paw, and Grandma & PeePa. Chocolates, a tambourine, a fire hat, and lots of Thomas things - DVD's, swim trunks, and 2 new friends, "Donald" and "Douglas". It is safe to say that he was very excited! And, we even had a little Easter egg hunt around the apartment. He wasn't too sure what we were doing at first, but quickly got the hang of it. I couldn't find any plastic eggs to fill, so I can only imagine next year when he finds even more goodies inside the eggs. But this year, he was quite content just finding the eggs and putting them in his basket. There was even a special appearance by Daddy Bunny! Then, it was off to church to celebrate the best part of Easter - that Jesus is alive!! I also have to share that our Easter dinner that evening was more like a 4th of July bbq - hamburgers, chips, fruit salad. We figured we were close at least to being traditional..."ham"burgers. ??

Greg had "Easter Monday" off work, so we packed up for the day to head south to visit Gorinchem. We had heard that we could see the fruit trees in blossom there, as well as visit a castle nearby in Loevestein. We made it to Gorinchem a little after 10 a.m. after a 90 minute train ride. We followed the crowd to the city center, and I was surprised to see so much activity for a holiday and a Monday morning. We walked through town and happened upon the Dalem Gate, one of 4 gates in the city walls. Nearby we found a windmill and some old cannons once used to protect the city. I also liked the statue of the man with the fish - as Gorinchem was founded around year 1000 by fishermen and farmers.

We walked back to the town center and found the Monday morning market. Very busy, but our noses led us to the hot and fresh stroopwafels, so good! We strolled along the beautiful canals to find the ferry boats that would take us to the Loevestein castle. We decided to sit by the dock and eat a snack as we waited for the next boat. Around noon, a boat came. We asked the man if it was traveling to Loevestein, and he shared that there were no boats running to Loevestein on the weekdays until May. Ugh! We had checked to be sure that the castle would be open, and also we checked that boats were running. But, the information we got must have referred to the water taxis, which are quite expensive. So, we hopped aboard anyways, as the boat that arrived was traveling to Woudrichem, another fortified city nearby. OK, we can be flexible and just enjoy being outside and exploring on a gorgeous day like today!

Woudrichem is situated where the Maas and Waal rivers come together; and with Gorinchem and Loevestein, forms the "fortified triangle" - one of the Netherlands most impressive defensive strongholds. This little town was very charming, a real jump back in time to medieval Holland. We spent the next few hours wandering around, letting Ben roam free, enjoying the sunshine, taking pictures, and having a late lunch on a pannekoeken boat. :) Looking back on the day, Woudrichem was by far my favorite spot. (And no, not just because of the pancakes.)

We took the ferry back to Gorinchem and strategized about our next move. Do we wander around Gorinchem a bit more, or head to Sleeuwijk, another little town nearby? It was only 2:30, so we decided to visit one more place - after all, we'd had such good luck with Woudrichem. Well, Sleeuwijk is basically just a little residential neighborhood - nothing to see or do. Oops! So, we spent the next hour (until the ferry came back to rescue us) just strolling by homes and resting on a bench as Ben napped. It was still a pretty area, just nothing too exciting. Notice Greg's shrug...you win some, you lose some!

We took the boat back to Gorinchem (a.k.a. 'civilization'), then walked to the train station for the 4:30 train home. We were back in our apartment by 6:30 p.m. for "tosti" sandwiches as my "Dutch" husband would say - a.k.a. grilled cheese sandwiches. It didn't take any of us very long to fall asleep that night, we were exhausted! We had a great long holiday weekend with Daddy being home, and the weather was fabulous!! Maybe spring is finally here??!!