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.
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:
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!
This was a rest day, or a "personal day" since we had done a lot the last few days and we were going on a road trip on Tuesday/Wednesday. Tante Marianne went to town to get a printer cable while we stayed home. I spent most of the day trying to do updates and organize photos; I accomplished a lot. We watched a movie in the evening while I continued to update the website. The pictures from our road trip are coming your way soon. In the meantime, enjoy a little scenic video I made during our drive into Alkmaar one day. Click here
 We weren't feeling well in the morning, so Laena and I didn't go to church, but we were feeling a little better around 1:00 when we had originally agreed to meet up with Tante Annie Hopman. Together, Tante Annie, Tante Marianne, Laena, and I went to Winkel to watch the Bloemencorso (flower parade). All of the floats are made with flowers! It was really cool!  After the parade we went over to Margriet and Paul's house to visit them. While there Cora and Rick stopped by with their children. The kids were really fun to watch. Then we went home with Tante Annie to eat dinner with her and Ome Jan. Dinner was really good, heel lekker! They are really funny too; we had a great time.
  Today was Emy's birthday, so we went over there to visit with her and Andrie. Marian, Ome Jan and Tante Annie Bruijn, Bea, Theo, Tante Iet's sister, and Dionne all showed up there during the same time as well. It was a fun gathering; I am glad I was here for Emy's "sweet sixteen". Afterwards, we returned the videos and rented a few more, then we went grocery shopping. 
 Our adventures for the day took us to the town of Delft to see the Royal Dutch Porcelyne de Fles pottery. Made by hand since the 17th century. They are celebrating their 350th anniversary this year! It was interesting to see all of the pottery. They are so detailed and it is all done by hand! No wonder it costs so much. After we saw that museum we stayed in Delft to visit the Nieuwe Kerk and the Oude Kerk (new and old church), which was also neat to see. The Nieuwe Kerk holds the tombs of royal family members from the House of Orange, while the Oude Kerk holds tombs of other famous people, like the painter Vermeer. However, we weren't able to find his gravestone because we only had 10 minutes before it closed to look. Ah well, at least we can say we were there. Since all the places close at 6:00pm, it was time to leave Delft and head out to Kinderdijk to see the 19 windmills that are still in use today. We arrived there just as the sun was setting, so we were able to make several beautiful pictures. Any earlier, and it they all would have been daylight pictures, any later and it would have been too dark. Perfect timing!! Finished with our sightseeing, we began the journey home, but since Tante Marianne had never been there before, she needed a navigator. Being in the backseat, where I could turn on the light to see my map, the job fell upon me. I never had to navigate anybody before, but thanks to an excellent map we got to where we needed to be. It was a really good thing I bought that map before I came! Also, thank you Tante Tina for the guidebook, it has been well used!! For all of our beautiful pictures from today's adventures click here
 We spent most of the day in Purmerend doing laundry. While we were waiting for the washers, Laena and I took a stroll through the nearby park and took some pictures. When we got home we played around with Laena's panoramic setting, then we looked at the pictures on the t.v. so that everyone could see them.
We took a scenic drive through the country on our way to Bea's house. On our drive we stopped in the town of Neck to see some of our ancestors that are buried there. Then we drove on through Wijdewormer to see the house where our dad was born, plus Ome Jaap and Tante Iet's old house across the street. 
After that we went to Bea's so that the four of us could go see Zaanse Schans. I didn't remember it being so big. We had a fun and took lots of pictures. It was really windy, but it didn't rain while we were there.
Later we went to Purmerend with Bea, Theo, Frank, and Dionne to eat dinner with them. It was good to see all of them again; they are so much fun to be around!
For more pictures of us click here Click here to see a video from inside the paint mill and then here
 Today was full of fun! After Tante Marianne got back from her physio in the morning we drove to Den Haag. We were able to find a parking space in a parking garage that ended up costing 9 euros for 4 1/2 hours!! That is great! Especially compared to Amsterdam costing 24 euros for 5 hours. After we parked we went to watch the Prinsjesdag parade where the Queen rides by in the golden coach to open up parliament. The first spot we were in was right on the corner, but we were in a big crowd. Laena held the camera as high as she could reach to get over the crowd, and Tante Marianne, being taller than us could see, but in order for me to see Laena had to squat down so I could stand on her legs. Then I could see really well!! While I was up on Laena's legs, I saw that there was a big screen down at the opposite corner showing everything, so after the parade was all done we walked over that way to listen to the Queen give her speech to open up parliament (similar to the state of the union address). Tante Marianne thought that it was strange that the people next to the fence weren't leaving their spots so she asked one of them if the parade was coming back and they were, so we had really good spots the second time around! We were so close that we could see inside the carriages and we could see Queen Beatrix. We waved to her and she waved back!! Of course, she was already waving, but she looked at us! If the day would have ended there, I would have been completely satisfied, but it got even better!!  After the parade we ate a broodje kroket, then headed off to the paleis to try and catch Queen Beatrix, Willem Alexander, and Maxima waving from the balcony. However, by the time we were able to cross the roads they had gone in for soup. Then we went to Panorama Mesdag and saw the amazing panoramic picture!! Afterwards we stopped for "Koffie time" then saw the Parliament buildings. We then drove to Scheveningen to get a parking place and eat dinner before the musical Tarzan started. Dinner was at a tasty Chinese restaurant. Yummy! Across the street from the restaurant was the thing that brought us down to the Hague and Scheveningen...TARZAN! The musical was amaaaaaaaazing!! Fantastic!! Fabulous!! The songs are still going through my head...of course I don't think they will be coming out soon because I got the cast album after it was over. The actors were incredible and funny! They were also very acrobatic, walking around like apes...flying through the air above your head...stupendous! It gives you goosebumps being there in person, sitting in red velvet seats, feeling "the vibrations", everything! It is a good thing we had an hour long drive to get back home or I would have been way to excited to go to sleep.
 Tante Marianne had a hair appointment today, so she went to do that and got back around 2:00. Laena and I stayed home and did some planning and played around with our pictures on the computer. It was pouring rain most of the day, so it wasn't good weather for sight seeing. Instead we went to De Rijp to get some bread and check to see if we could withdraw cash with our cards. Then we went home and watched one of our rented videos again before we had to take it back.  We also played scrabble again in the evening. This time we got creative and used all of the letters to spell medical terms. We were so proud! 
On Saturday, I accidentally slept in all morning because I didn't feel well and didn't sleep well the night before. So, in the afternoon we went to Movie Max to rent a couple videos and then we went grocery shopping to fill the fridge again. Sunday, Laena and I went to church in Alkmaar, then Tante Marianne picked us up and we went with her to a housewarming party for one of her co-workers. It was a really nice house, a black and white theme. Afterwards we were going to go to Volendam, but I was sick to my stomach and Laena's legs were cramping. So we went home and watched our other movie.
At noon, Tante Marianne, Laena and I met Chantal in Amsterdam. We went to Maddam Tussaud's wax museum where we had fun posing with some famous people. Afterwards we went to the Anne Frank huis, then the shopping center for "coffee time" because it was raining. At 5:00 dropped Chantal off and went to a Chinese restaurant.
 After breakfast Tante Marianne dug up the septic tank so that Ome Jan and Nico could fix it. While she did that I swept cobwebs, leaves, and weeded. Around 3:30 we went to Jan and Mayke's to deliver the birthday pages for Tante Ita and visit with them. Then at 5:00 I went with her to her physiotherapy appointment since Laena was still feeling sick. view from Jan and Mayke's home For the septic tank pictures click here
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hing, 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 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.
