TWO DAYS IN AMSTERDAM...

Amsterdam is so much more than I thought it was!  We recently spent two days there - unfortunately they were both rainy days!  But we were fortunate that for February, it wasn't too cold.  We were able to do a canal tour in the oldest part of town, visit the Flower Market and the Anne Frank house.  We ate several good meals and enjoyed a little shopping as well.  There are many museums and many international restaurants there - you could easily spend a week and not even scratch the surface of all the things to do!  If I ever go back, I would definitely try to go when tulips are blooming and see Zaanse Schans!

By the Iamsterdam sign at the airport

Amazing architecture and canals everywhere!

A stop for The Hubs!

 Eetcafe Roserijn-  it has some traditional dutch dishes, like Stampot!  Delicious!

By the Flower Market 

Wish they could've fit in my suitcase!

Winkel 43 - we waited in the drizzly rain for 30 minutes to get a taste of their famous apple pie!  Loved the pea soup and wild boar focaccia too!

Canal tour

Bicycles everywhere

The Lego store had a staircase tribute to MC Escher, a Dutch artist that my Dad loved.

Why not?

Yummy dessert pancake

The last night we were there we visited the Anne Frank House.  This is one of the top attractions, for good reason.  We bought our tickets online several weeks ahead of time, although they do have a few openings each day if you want to stand in line and take your chances.  Our tour was at 8:00 p.m., which was fine with me since we wanted to make the most of our two days there.  We also paid for the informational pre-session just because it had been a long time since I had thought about the life of Anne Frank.  It was really a good review and made the house tour meaningful.  There is also no photographs allowed, but trust me, the tour makes the story come alive to you!  I found myself relating to Anne in many ways.  Her birthday is the same day as mine.  Such a terrible time in history and unbelievable that it wasn't even 100 years ago!

Thankful for the opportunity to see this international city!  

EXPLORING SMALL TOWNS IN THE NETHERLANDS...

In February, I had the opportunity to go on a business trip with The Hubs to The Netherlands!  We would fly into Amsterdam, but most of the week we were in a small town called Oss.  Oss is smack dab in the middle of the Netherlands. Oss is not a major tourist attraction, and I found some things to do, but after two days I ventured out by train to DenBosch and Nijmegen.  I was a little uncomfortable venturing out by myself, but most of the people I interacted with spoke English and were very helpful. What I did enjoy was visiting places off the beaten path!  Here's some of the highlights!

 Hotel de Weverji in Oss - our room was very modern with a mural on the wall - this building used to be a factory for rug weaving and the mural is an enlarged photo of spools.

 Oss is a former farm town and so the bull is seen around town as a symbol.

 Oss - statue in the Centrum

 Cathedral in Oss

 Modern bench outside our hotel

 Market day in Oss!

 Very cool mosaic - again the bull is prominent

 Jan Cunen museum is an art museum in Oss - the only museum.  This is a modern art piece.

 There is also a lot of traditional art in the museum as well.

 A cool mural!  With a very cool ride next to it.

 This ginger tea was my favorite drink of the whole vacation.  We went for dinner here twice (H32).

 This curved sword in Oss is a representation of a viking sword that was found in a burial mound near Oss.  It was found in a curved position and now resides in a museum.

 Oss has two windmills!

 This was a sand sculpture outside our hotel.  Apparently they have a big sand sculpture weekend every year and this was still intact from the last one.  I think it says something like, "We've got it all in Oss!"

I spent two different days in Den Bosch - it was probably my favorite place.  It was about 30 minutes from Oss - a 10 minute walk to the train station, then an 18 minute ride on the train.  Den Bosch is bigger, had more history, statues, more shopping and a magnificent cathedral!

Den Bosch city center with the old well and a post where they used to deal out punishment.

Cathedral with amazing details!

                                                      Door in a door, inside the cathedral

Oeteldonk (like Carnavale) was starting the last day I was there.  They had these booths and lots of people were dressed up.  It was so interesting!

My new favorite store!  You might want to follow them on Instagram!  Another good one is Sostrene Grenes.

This is an area under development.  I walked a long ways to find it and didn't know it wasn't open yet.

Bossche bollen!  Maybe the best thing in Den Bosch.  It's a huge famous cream puff and there were lines outside the door for them.

Finally, Nijmegen.  It was about 20 minutes by train in the opposite direction from Den Bosch.  I went here on a drizzly, rainy day and enjoyed just walking around, seeing the sights, perusing the shops, and eating lunch.  

A park in Nijmegen just a block from the train station with remains of the old wall and castle fortress.

Nijmegen - old city center

Thought this was neat since it's almost my last name!  A historic trade building where they used to weigh things that were sold, that is now a restaurant.

Old Roman remains in a park in Nijmegen

War memorial

Cute dog in a store!

                                                   French fries are all over the place!  LOL

I had a lot of fun and walked a lot of steps!  One day over 24,000!

FAMILY MYSTERY NIGHT...

We just had our Family Mystery Night where we take the kids somewhere for the evening!  All they know about it beforehand is a couple of clues about what to wear...usually it involves dinner and an activity.  One time we actually did an overnight stay in a state park. This fun thing started out as a December gift, doing some of the fun holiday activities around town, but as the kids got older and got married and have more complicated schedules, we now look at dates in January or February.  WE MUST ADAPT.  :)

This time we went to a Glass blowing studio!  The man who runs it also used to have a restaurant, so we were there to eat and get a glass blowing demonstration (this was a package we bid on and won from a benefit auction).  We had such a great time!  Their home is the front of the studio, and they welcomed us in and encouraged us to look around at all the glass in their home.  Most of it was their work, but some in cases were gifts from other glass blowers around the country they admire.  They had made four pizzas, salad, garlic bread and a dessert tray for us. While we waited for the pizzas to bake one helper showed us the equipment used for glass blowing.

The food was delicious!  Then the real show began.  They began to make a 36" vase with multiple colors and a thin gold wrap.  It started off with one small blob of glass, that they added to three times.  He had his playlist of music going and we thoroughly enjoyed his 70's tunes.  At one point they let our SIL try holding the bar to see how heavy it was, and another time asked me to shape the vase with hot mitts.  He kept telling me to push harder, and flames erupted!  It was a lot of fun.  The owner also reminded us several times about the allegories of glass making and how it resembles the life of a Christian and how God shapes us.

We were there for 3 hours - it was a long process, but really interesting.  I think it made us all appreciate beautiful glass more.  For me it was just perfect being with all our kids and doing something new together, without rushing or worrying about time.