Holland Collages

Well, I thought since I mentioned our endeavor to take pictures of all of the different ways to flush a toilet, I would share the collage of all of them. There are two pictures missing because we hadn't started our collection yet, but they were cool. Ome Jan and Tante Annie Hopman had one with a little knob on a stick kind of thing, that went through the center of the tank. You pull up on the knob to flush it. The other one was in Scheveningen when we went to TARZAN. It took me and Laena both 5 minutes to figure out where it was!! I'm not kidding. We kept looking around for it, it ended up being something funky, but I don't remember how it worked. Our favorite one was the one on the floor in the Paleis Het Loo. We called it the "Royal Toilet"...or I guess you could say, the "royal flush." :)














Here is also a collage of the "killer pidgeons". I will never look at pidgeons the same. :P

Here is a collection of all the birds that we saw...yes, we started collecting pictures of all of them too, especially after the pidgeons and the peacock.

HAPPY MEMORIES!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

The time came for us to get up and go to the airport. We had a great time in Holland and I was definitely glad I went!! We found another cool toilet to take a picture of in the airport. This one was a hi-tech one, but what was even cooler were the tulips painted on the stall doors. I don't think anyone saw us taking pictures of the stalls in the bathroom, but if they did, you know they thought we were crazy.

It was a long flight over the ocean, and a lot more cramped because we didn't have the luxury of getting moved up to Economy Plus. So, we had sore legs just like everyone else. In fact, when I tried to lay my seat back a little bit to sleep, the lady behind me kicked my seat. So I put my pillow up against the window instead. Eventually we started descending and we saw Michigan as we flew into Chicago. It was pretty, and I was excited to get off the plane.

We had another 6 hour layover in Chicago. At least this time part of the time was spent in Customs, then traveling from Customs to the terminal. After playing scrabble for hours and eating dinner the flights for our time were finally up on the boards, and we discovered we were in the wrong terminal, so we got a bus to the next one over. There we sat again, waiting for our flight and playing speed scrabble. However, we remembered that the Chicago airport had these really cool hi-tech toilet seats with rotating seat covers, so this time we were ready with our cameras. In fact, Laena took a video of it. To see what I am talking about, click here.


Our plane ended up being delayed, so we had to wait even longer!! However, we eventually made it home. We were exhausted, the time change was throwing us off and our bodies had been awake for over 24 hours, though the time change made it the same day. Luckily our planes came in at night, so we could go straight to bed.
We were happy to be home.


To see the other pictures, click here.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

This was the day that we had planned to go the the Temple in Den Haag (actually it is in Zoetemeer), but we were afraid that with the money dilemma we had run into in Amsterdam would keep us from going. So as soon as we had gotten back to Tante Marianne's we called home and my Dad put some money into my account so that I could buy the train tickets and then some extra just in case. So, Tante Marianne dropped us off at the train station again (after making sure that we were able to get our money first), this time I bought a round trip ticket. Our first train was delayed, so we missed the connecting train that we originially were going to take. We had a hard time finding a train going in the right direction, but after talking to the conducters and telling them our final destination they were able to tell us whether we had the right train (or at least how close they could take us to our destination). Tante Marianne had really helped in this department because she printed out some of the train options we could take, so I had an idea of where normal train stops and swaps would be.

We finally made it to Zoetemeer and with the simple directions that the Temple President had given us on Sunday we were able to find the Temple. It was so beautiful, and such a wonderful experience. So peaceful! It was definitely worth all the trouble of getting there. What a great way to end a trip!!

When we left the Temple, there was a little restraunt-type place nearby, so we stopped there for lunch. When Laena spoke in English, the lady seemed to give a look like "If you don't speak my language what are you doing in this part of Holland for?" So, I tried to talk in my limited Dutch. That seemed to make her smile. So, not knowing what most of the stuff on the menu was I smiled and asked for my favorite dish, that I knew how to say "Kroquet met potat, astublief" (I will fix the spelling as soon as I find a my Dutch dictionary). That is my favorite lunch dish to order! It is a breaded....well, I don't know how to explain a kroquet, but you usually order fries to go with it, and you can't eat fries in Holland without the famous fry sauce!! Yummmm.... What did we drink? That was simple too. I almost always ask for "appelsap" (apple juice) or "sinasappelsap" (orange juice) because apple juice is easy to say, and orange juice is really fun to say. :)

The way back was much easier since Tante Marianne printed out the time schedules of the trains we needed to catch and which track they would be on. There was also a sign saying which stop was next in the train, and the conductor only announced that stop, instead of a lot of extra talking. We bought a bouquet of roses to give to Tante Marianne as a "thank you" in the Den Haag station (roses are cheaper in Holland). I was going to come up with this big story of how some stranger thought that we were so cute that he gave us flowers or something like that, but the bouquet was so big that it was too hard to hide behind my back, so there was not story to accompany the gift when Tante Marianne picked us up at the station. It sure brought a lot of attention on the train though. Everyone kept looking at me, especially this one guy (which is where the story originated). Anyway, it was a wonderful way to end the trip.

After dinner, Ome Jan and Tante Annie Bruijn, as well as Chantal, Remco, Nico, and Marian all came to say goodbye. Once they left we finished our packing and weighed our suitcases. It would be our last night in Holland.

For all of our pictures click here.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Amsterdam!! Today Tante Marianne had to go back to work again, so she dropped us off at the train station and we took the train into Amsterdam. We had a map of the city that Tante Marianne gave us to help us get around. I also remembered reading about a canal bus, it is a little boat that drives around the canals to take you to all the tourist areas. I knew that there was a ticket that you could buy that would allow you to canal bus hop for a full 24 hours. So, once we found the ticket place that is what we did. We ended up going to the Rijksmuseum, Coster Diamonds, which shows how they cut diamonds, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum.


We found more killer pidgeons during our stroll through Amsterdam.

It got a little nerve racking in Amsterdam when Laena went to get some more money from her debit card and the machine ended up eating it. We had anticipated using her cash for today's and tomorrow's adventure, so it kind of made us nervous because I didn't have enough money to pull off of my debit card, so we just had my cash and my credit card to work with. A lot of places don't accept credit cards, but I was able to use the credit card to enter the rest of the museums which was good because we could only use cash to buy the train ticket back home. I had pennies left after I bought the ticket, but we made it back home...even though we had a hard time understanding the conductor. :)

For all of our pictures click here.

Sunday, Septmeber 30, 2007

Laena and I went to church in Holland for the last time today. The Temple President was there as a speaker, so we talked to him and arranged a time where we could go to the Temple on Tuesday. What perfect timing!! Did I forget to mention that the first time we went to church, one of the missionaries there thought that I was Laena's mom? I think Laena was much more insulted than I was with that news because I thought it was a little humorous. Anyway, moving on...

After church we had a delicous spinach salad and soup for lunch. Yummmm.... Then we went to the molen museum, which showed how windmills work and how they were used back in the day when the mill keeper and his family lived in them. Pretty cool!!

How would you like to carry these pails around all the time?

Then we went to Stompetoren, where the WWII memorial is with some of our family. Our Oma's sister, Tante Trien was married during WWII. Her husband and father-in-law were part of the Dutch underground railroad, and ended up getting killed by the Germans, along with many others. So this was a memorial to some of those men.


Our Tante Ita and my Oma's nephew had stained glass made to put up in the church's windows as a memorial. We also got to drive by the old farmhouse, where our Tante Trien and Ome Piet had lived when the Germans burst in, killed the men, and burned down the farm. It was a really sad story, but it does make me proud to hear how my relatives fought for their country. I had heard this story when I first went to Holland when I was 11, this was the first time I was able to see the memorial or the house, so it really brought it to life. It is a story I will never forget.



For all of the pictures from the day click here.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

The weather for this day was rainy and drizzly so we took advantage of the "not good for site-seeing" weather and turned it into a packing day. We also played scrabble, and watched a movie, as well as update everything on the blog. This was a lot easier to keep up when I was in Holland, as you can see.

Friday, September 28, 2007

It was washing day again! The final washing so we could get a head start on our packing. While we were waiting for our clothes to wash, we went for another enjoyable walk through Purmerend. After our clothes were finished we went to Zaanse Schans again to grab some more souvenirs. Actually, it was for a specific souvenir that we had only seen there, and also some Dutch cheese to take home. Patrick had asked for some new wooden shoes too, since he had outgrown his old ones. He said that he wanted a black pair if they had one, but if they didn't then he just wanted a cool pair that no one in our family had ever had. Well, we found a very unique pair in Zaanse Schans!! I saw them, and said "Those are Patrick's shoes!!!" The shoe hanging up on the beam in the picture to the right looks just like Patrick's new shoes. When I gave them to him he started laughing, but not as hard as Oma laughed when she saw his new "Cow klompen".





After buying the shoes and the cheese, we went to go shopping in some other stores, and while we were looking in one store we found the hardware section where the toilets were on display. Now, I don't think I have yet mentioned our "toilet hunt", so let me explain. We found that toilets in Holland, don't have the same kind of handle as the toilets in the U.S., and depending on how old the toilets are, there are lots of different ways to flush a toilet. Sometimes it took us a while to figure out how to flush them. So, by this time, we had already started our toilet hunt and we had been taking pictures of the different ways to flush a toilet. So, we took advantage of the display toilets and Tante Marianne helped us look for any that we hadn't taken a picture of yet. These were of course, more modern toilets. You may think we are weird, but we had a good time and thought it was pretty funny.


After coming home we watched an Andre Rieu performance on DVD that we had borrowed from Ome Jan and Tante Annie Hopman. He is an amazing violinist from Holland and he and his orchestra are always really funny in their performance.

To see the rest of our pictures from this day click here.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Volendam!

We had a great time on this day! We went to Volendam to shop for souvenirs!! Woo-hoo! It is one of the best places to get souvenirs because there are a ton of options at a decent price. We also went into a little photo studio that dresses you up in traditional Dutch clothing and g

ives you some props to hold. It turned out really cute! Laena got to hold the accordion, I got the basket of flowers, and Tante Marianne got to pour the kettle. That made a great souvenir for each of us, plus our mom, and Oma.
We also picked up some new wooden shoes for Ardella and Dad. After shopping around for a while, Tante Marianne and I took a "koffie tijd" while Laena continued shopping. She came back with these huge bags filled with 15 pairs or so of slippers that look like wooden shoes! It was pretty funny, and she made the store keeper really happy!
We took the back roads home which are even smaller than the regular roads. They really are not meant for modern day cars, only one car can drive through at a time. It was a pretty drive though, and there was a beautiful sunset to greet us when we got home. Then we sat back and watched a movie to complete the day.

Click here to view all of our pictures for the day.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

After we ate breakfast, Laena, Tante Marianne, and I went to the Groningen Museum. It contained mostly modern type art, which is not my favorite, but the set-up was kind of neat. It was raining the hardest while we were in the museum and was still raining a little when we got out. So we went to a little cafe to eat some sandwiches for lunch until the rain stopped. Then we returned to our hotel to check out and continue on our adventures.

Our next stop on our way home was down to Apeldoorn, to visit the Paleis Het Loo. That is one of the palaces from the Royal family. It was big! We got there with only an hour left to tour, so we couldn't go through the stables or those huge gardens, but we did get to see the main part of the paleis and a little of the gardens. However, we did get to see a peacock in the parking lot, that we chased around the car trying to get a picture of it. It was growing back its tail feathers, so we couldn't get a picture of it fanning its tail.

After the Paleis, we crossed over another dijk and headed to Hoorn. There is a 5-star Chinese Restraunt there that Tante Marianne had been to before, so we decided to eat there. It was soooo good!!! Yummy!!

For more pictures of our Groningen adventures click the link below:

Groningen adventures

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Well, the update for the rest of my trip to Holland is long overdue...like a year overdue!! Sorry about that.

Anyway, on the 25th we took a trip to Groningen to visit my friend Linda. She was actually going to stay with us as an exchange student when I was in high school, but it didn't end up working out. However, we have remained friends even though we never had the chance to meet. So, we were on our way to meet her for the first time.

Groningen is on the other side of Holland so we had to cross over a large Dijk to get there. I got to be the navigator again. Groningen was full of one-way streets and lots of students on bikes! It was a little difficult to find the right road that would lead to our hotel, but with some help we finally found it. It was a pretty neat hotel. It is an older one, but the bedroom made you feel like you were sleeping in the forest under some trees because there were lots of wooden beams. That was really fun! Plus, we actually had a view out of our window rather than the building wall next to us!! Woo hoo! Click here for a couple pictures of our hotel room

We met Linda, who became our "tour guide" for the day and showed us Groningen. Not only were there hundreds of bikes, but there were also hundreds of birds! Click here to see a couple of them. We went to a cafe for dinner and talked for hours! We all enjoyed ourselves, in fact Tante Marianne felt as though she had been friends with her for a long time, even though they had just met. After dinner Tante Marianne went back to the hotel, while Laena, Linda, and I went to visit Linda's apartment and then went to the theater to watch a movie.
What a wonderful day!