Our two weeks in Europe could not have been any more perfect. The weather was gorgeous - in the 70's the whole time with no rain. That is almost unheard of in Europe. Maybe because of my Dutch heritage I truly felt at home there, I loved everything about it, the food, people, shopping, architecture I could go on and on but don't worry I won't. When I got home and saw the kids were okay I just wanted to get right back on the plane and go again. I have 100's of picture each with a fantastic story but unfortunately I don't have that much time to post them all so here is the cliff notes versions.
The food there truly is like no other place I have been. Above are waffles that aren't quite like ours but you can get them fancied up in so many ways. The top further most right tray with the strawberries are the poffertijes which are my most favorite. I think I had a tray of those a day - so no surprise I gained 5 pounds there.
Here we are in Volendam which is such a darling little town. We enjoyed walking around eating and shopping. Dave found some yummo fish here that he is holding in his hand. Don't worry we didn't eat any of the raw herring - not for us.
This is the water tower in Sneek which has quite a bit of history to it. We were here for the Queen's day which was quite a huge festivity for 2 days straight.
These are the flowers in koekenhof which were amazing. I have been to the buchart gardens in Canada which don't hold a candle to these. Rows and rows of colorful tulips, all different variations of tulips. Miles and miles of them, it almost didn't seem real.
Oh my favorite are the Poffertjesh's which are little pancakes with butter and powdered sugar on them. Whenever I saw a stand selling them I had to have some. Those and the cream puffs there are like no other. They have a different kind of cream which goes inside that just makes you want to have more. Thank goodness there are pastry shops on every corner so we just walked and ate all day.
Here is a guy making the poffertjes.
This is madurodam which has every major sight to see in Holland in miniature. It has moving boats, cars and planes. A definite must see in Holland.
That is me and Jana with Jeff off to the side being goofs.
This is the wall in the house of the Hiding place. They have knocked out a hole so you can see what it looked like where they would hide the jews. Probably the most fascinating tour we did while in Holland.
This is my mom and her sister. My mom stayed with her sister the whole time we were in Europe. That is my Aunt's house to the right of us. They have such tiny houses, yards, refrigerators, everything compared to what we have.
This is my Cousin Theo and his wife Cora, it was so fun getting to know our cousins that live there.
A typical dutch sandwich, the Dutch love to put eggs on everything. So dang yummy.
The cemetery where the American soliders are buried that lost their life during world war 2. This is only a tiny piece of it.
This is a very strange church - they claim they built it all with which stone and once completed the next day it turned red on it's own.
So I was craving a hot chocolate one night and we went into this fun chocolate store. We asked for Hot chocolate and girl started to scoop up ice cream, I quickly told her HOT chocolate and she said "yes of course"and continued to whip it up. It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had.
Dave, me and Jeff
The stain glass in St. chappelle
One of the typical streets in Holland, always busy with tons of stores.
This is our tour guide in Paris who we feel in love with. We did a 4 hour bike tour the day after we got there and learned so much.
