My very favorite 2010 trip

There is one trip we took as a family in Spring 2010 that I never got around to putting on my blog. It also just happens to be my favorite trip since moving to Europe (I think?)...so I thought I'd post about it so I have a record even if it is terribly outdated.


It was to Amsterdam. It was in April. And it was during the tulip festival. Pretty much an amazing combination that didn't fail to deliver. It was the perfect combination of sightseeing, delicious food, beautiful scenery and wonderful friendships.

(Yes, I do know that I have a windmill coming out the top of my head)

We stayed in a great apartment near the Anne Frank house and would start our mornings at the corner bakery. Clara's favorite is pictured here, pink doughnut with chocolate.


The biggest learning curve on this trip was staying away from the seriously-taken bicycle lanes. I am pretty sure that Devin received the most warning "dings". Then there was the bike parking lot at the train station which I couldn't really capture in one photo - suffice it to say I can't imagine more bikes in one spot. (This picture was taken by Clara as I've somehow lost my photo...maybe that is why I couldn't really capture it??)


With a few sites we wanted to visit outside of Amsterdam, we spent one day and rented a 'van' prepared to pack them all in. Turned out, we had to pack ourselves into the van before we could get to the sites. It wasn't necessarily an American sized mini van so it took almost 45 minutes to fit the car seats, strollers and people inside. Once we were sufficiently squished in the vehicle we headed to our first stop, Keukenhof.

Keukenhof is home of the tulip festival. We were there a tad bit early in the season, but there were still amazing tulips out and other flowers out. Here are just a few...




After looking at the tulip house, we wandered (and danced) around the park.



Madurodam was our next stop. Along the way we were able to see many different tulip fields which were beautiful.


Madurodam is a very unique place. It is set up as a miniature version of The Netherlands. The buildings are built very accurately at a very small scale.





Clara even found a little friend just her size at Madurodam.
And I found it especially funny when a bird would land looking so giant and out of place.


To finish off the day, we headed to the village of Zaanse Schans where there are some working windmills as well as some other tourist sites.




We arrived after everything had closed but that only added to the romance of the village. We had the place to ourselves (aside from the residents) and loved wandering around.



Make that skipping around.



It was a perfect day!

Amsterdam was next on the to-do list. The Anne Frank house was on the top of that list for me. I read the book just before our trip to remind me of her story and was very moved by the visit.

We then took a canal cruise - here we are waiting for the boat to come...


It highlighted my favorite part of Amsterdam - the architecture. I love the look of the houses and how they are all built along these canals. I found it so beautiful and it was memorable to see it from the water.

Jonas took the opportunity to relax while on the boat...


While Clara took the opportunity to do what she loves most when we are with Megan & Rijen - pretend she is really in their family and they are very good sports about it...


Of course, a good vacation is not complete for us without great food. We had fun going into a local cheese shop and picking out some olives, meat and cheese for games at night. We kept Jonas outside so he wouldn't be bothered by all the cheese in the air and Clara made herself comfortable on a huge wheel of real cheese.


We then ate at the most delicious restaurant of the trip. We all loved our food but I think Fiona may have enjoyed it the most as she devoured those ribs. It was pretty cute!


Aside from the delicious restaurant, we also fell in love with the local frites with mayonnaise. Sounds gross, I know. I don't even like mayo on a sandwich but this is different and is amazing with their frites!! We also discovered stroopkoeken. Thin wafer waffles with stroop (similar to carmel but better) inside. The other food that I won't forget is the sugar waffles - simply amazing!!!

As for the infamous red light district? We did our best to steer clear with one exception...the last morning, Jonas woke up with a horrible asthma attack. We had his nebulizer but not a good converter to plug it in with. I called a few local stores but nobody was open yet. I finally found a hotel nearby that had some on sale. We mapped out the fastest route and Devin took off without realizing that our short route would go right through the district. At least he claimed to not know...nevertheless, he made it back quickly and claimed to have readjusted his route mid-way (plus it was before 9 o'clock in the morning). Jonas turned out just fine although it did scare me!! He seems to really enjoy that.


On our last day, we headed out to visit the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. Both were beautiful although there is scaffolding all over the outside of the Rijks making it hard to get a good picture. Clara was such a great walker the entire trip and impressed me by barely complaining except for when she told me "my feet need a stretching because my feet wrists are sore". I was confused at first until she showed me what hurt - turns out feet wrists are another name for ankles...in case you were wondering. It made me laugh and caused Megan to take pity on her and give her a piggy back ride.


Speaking of Clara as well as Jonas and Fiona...they found some really fun and creative ways to entertain themselves during certain parts of the trip. Here is a sampling...

Dancing for the flowers...



Catching each other...



And who needs toys when you have a huge mirror to play with?


As for our most memorable experience? On our way to the museum district we rounded a corner and saw this in the middle of the street.


I have no idea how long we stayed there watching or how many times they redid the same shoot but we got a great laugh. She is in a leotard, tutu and holding a plastic fish above her head. Even the locals were watching with us and laughing.

After the museums we headed back to our apartment, stopping first at the local pancake house and ate a lovely last meal in Amsterdam.


We gathered our bags and made our way back to the airport. It was sad to end this trip, although Clara managed to find a creative way to relieve her sore feet wrists that she readily remembers each time we travel now...