Trent and I are back home and getting re-settled after the whirlwind of our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. I decided to leave my bulk of a camera at home, so here is our journey documented with my little iphone, and I couldn't be more happy with the outcome!
FYI- We joked that we will make a slide show of our trip to show our family, and bore them with our adventures, but the pics turned out so cool that we will bore you all with our trip pics, it might take a fews days worth of posts...so stay with me and enjoy!
The journey started in first class, which is an experience on its own...especially on an 11 hr flight. The food was amazing and the only time in our lives when we watched 4 movies in a row. (we were both too excited to sleep on the airplane).
Day 1 first stop- Zaanse Schans
One of the highlights in this town is that we got to tour a real working windmill. We walked in paid our 2 euros and waited for the tour, but the tour never started. So we asked the lady and she says, "Oh just go in and walk around". We were a little surprised because we basically had freedom to go where ever, climb and touch whatever with no ropes or boundries. So, we climbed up steep ladders- opened doors and walked out on rickety balcony's and ducked under the arms of the windmill.
It was raining outside this day so we hung out a bit longer in the windmill and enjoyed the view.
Inside the working windmill- This was a flour processing windmill
The town of Zaanse
Wooden shoe museum in Zaanse
Day 1- Haarlem, Holland
Corrie Ten Boom house-
Did you read the book, "The Hidding Place". Well, if you did then you know all about this place. This is the house the the author Corrie lived in during world war II. She was the only woman head of the resistance- (the dutch underground that helped jewish families and men in hiding from the Nazi's).
It was an amazing tour- the guide sat us down in the parlor of the 500 yr old house and told us the whole story of "The Hidding Place" and then we got to see the room that had the false wall where the jews hid. Trent and I both love history and especially history that involved my own family. My grandparents lived through the war in Holland and so seeing this house really hit home for me and made the stories even more alive. Outside the buildings you can still see bullet holes from where Nazi's lined up jews and shot them in the streets.......
Our favorite drink is called Cassis- I wish they had it here, it is a black current flavor and is the best soda ever........and I had at least 2-3 a day.
Check out the cute little cart with the kids in it. Kinda a wagon with huge wheels
Our awesome tiny rental car- All the cars are super tiny, and this was a far stretch from the SUV that we drive.
Amazing bakeries and cheese!!