The Netherlands- April 2010

My brother, Micah and his wife, Rachel came to visit us in April and were able to join us on our trip up to Holland and Belgium. We had planned our trip at the end of April to catch the Keukenhof Tulip Festival, that happens every year near Amsterdam, and hopefully to see the flowers in full bloom. They did not disappoint. The gardens were filled with gorgeous colors and every variety of tulip you could imagine. We had awesome weather and enjoyed every minute walking around those beautiful gardens.

Evie stopping to smell the flowers.

Many flowers are planted in intricate designs.

Rows and rows of tulips and hyacinth.

Micah and I. I did not doctor these pictures the colors really were that bright!

We spent the rest of our time in the Netherlands visiting Haarlem, Amsterdam and an Open Air Museum in a town called Zaanse Schans which can best be described as a "one stop shop" for tourists to see windmills, and watch wooden shoes and Dutch cheese being made. I will admit the cheese tasting was the best part and we were sucked into bringing some home for ourselves. Also the history of the wooden shoes was interesting (used to keep their feet dry and safe) but they do lack comfort.

Machines are much more efficient for this task these days.

Very cute but very uncomfortable.

In Haarlem, we visited the Corrie Ten Boom house, made famous from the book "The Hiding Place." The Ten Boom family took in and hid many Jews during the German occupation of Holland and Corrie and her family were all sent to concentration camps for helping their friends and neighbors during this time. The book is excellent but there was also a movie made based on these true events. Visiting this home was one of the highlights of our trip.

Haarlem was a really quaint and beautiful city with canals running through it.

More delicious cheese.

Micah and Rachel at the Ten Boom house.

Casper Ten Boom was a watch maker and the bottom store is still a jewelry shop. The second story windows are the living room of the Ten Boom home.

"The Hiding Place", a false wall was built in the back of Corrie's bedroom to hide as many as 12 people for sometimes several days. You can see the entrance to the room was a small door at the bottom of the bookshelf (the wall has now been cut away to show off the space). It was amazing to see this piece of history in person.

Rand, Owen and Evie hiding out. It really was tiny. The tour guide had six of us stand back there to demonstrate and it was a tight fit, I cannot imagine being in there for days with 12 people.

Finally, we spent a day in Amsterdam. I have to say Amsterdam is not as beautiful as other cities we have been to but there were plenty of fun things to do there. We visited the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum and took a cruise on the many canals. The weather was perfect so we just enjoyed strolling through this great city.

I did love the architecture of the houses here- they are very different from other places we have been.

Along the canals there are tons of these houseboats and many were inhabited- don't think I would like the lack of privacy.

Huge Cathedral we saw from the train station.

Did I mention there are tons of bicycles in Holland, this is a parking garage just for bicycles. The bike lanes on the roads are wider than where a car can drive. This is definitely the predominant mode of transportation.

This picture cracks me up. We started noticing that the retail stores in Holland had some really interesting names that would not fly in the states. Rand decided he needed to put on his most macho face for this picture. How many guys do you know would shop at "Sissy-Boy"?