Our First Visitors of 2012

My sister Erin and her husband Andy arrived last Thursday for a visit.  They didn't stick around long though as they headed straight to Madrid the next day for a marathon.  Then they were off to Paris for a few days and back to Belgium on Tuesday.  It was a quick trip, but a fun one.  It was so nice having them both here.  Autumn especially took a liking to Andy...she would just sit and make googly eyes at him...it was so funny.  They definitely didn't have the weather on their side though...it rained pretty much the whole time.  It even hailed and was thundering and lightning yesterday on our way home...yuck!

On Wednesday we decided to take the double decker, hop-on/hop-off city tour of Brussels.  Thank you Erin and Andy for being our guinea pigs on this one to see if it was worth it...and I think the answer is probably a resounding no :o(  Maybe it was the rain or having to wait half an hour for a bus or the fact that Autumn kept pulling out my headphones so I couldn't hear half of what they were saying, but we just didn't have the best experience with it.  We did however stop off to see the Royal Palace and their beautiful greenhouses (which are only open to the public one month each year).  Here are some pictures from that visit (including the Chinese Pavilion and Japanese Tower).

The Palace

The Greenhouse

I love the crown on top...

Beautiful grounds and flowers!

Autumn & Aunt Erin

On Thursday we hopped on a train and headed for Brugge...hoping for better weather.  The weather channel only predicted a 20% chance of rain so we thought we might get lucky...not so much.  The day was filled with some sunshine, but mostly LOTS of rain and wind.  We were all pretty miserable by the end of the day and gave up our idea of eating dinner out to just head home and order pizza :o)  I didn't take many pictures in Brugge because of the weather, but here a few.

It was so nice having family here...and we're looking forward to our next visitors, Jacob's parents next week.  But up first a four day weekend with one heck of a road trip...we will be driving through SEVEN countries in four days!!  Pray for Jacob...that is a lot of driving, but hopefully totally worth it.  Check back next week to find out how it went :o)

Away from the gray...to flowers on Parade

It has been soooo gloomy in Brussels lately. We've had some short bursts of sunshine most days, but really it feels like it's been raining for like a month straight. Yesterday though despite the gloom (and even though the weather report was calling for mid 50s and rain in Holland) we decided to pile in the car and head for the flower parade. My sister Erin and her husband Andy were safely in Madrid so we had the day free so off we went. We got a bit of a late start and somehow the 2 hour trip took 3 and 1/2 hours, but by the time we arrived in a small town just down the road from Keukenhof our luck started to change. We managed to drive right on to the parade route (minutes before they closed off the street) to find an ideal parking spot right on the route 10 minutes before the parade started. And the clouds parted and the sun came out...it actually even felt somewhat warm. The 45 minute parade was a lot of fun! There were marching bands (Autumn especially loved those) and tons of beautiful flowers...they smelled fabulous too.

It was fun seeing all the locals watching the parade
out the windows of their adorable little houses.

And all the beautiful flower floats

I think this VW van was my favorite

Autumn's favorite was definitely the marching bands.  

After one would pass she would say "more, more"

It turned out to be such a great day and I'm so glad we made the trip!  Click here to view the full album of our trip.

We weren't done yet though...after the parade we make a quick detour to visit the cute little coastal town of Noordwijk.  On the way there we found our tulip fields and got some family shots of us in the tulips :o)

Then in Noordwijk we found a souvenir shop that had the wooden shoes for Autumn that I didn't get a chance to buy on our last trip up.  Yeah!

We took in the lovely beach for a bit and then piled back in the car for our trip home.  Luckily it was much shorter than our trip out although the clouds came back and it poured most of the way, but it was a great day soaking up lovely Holland and some sunshine!

More Tulips...in Belgium!

Our friend Pennie recommended a place to get a tulip fix right here in Brussels...and bonus...it's on the grounds of a castle :o) Since it is only 20 minutes away we decided to head there after church on Sunday and I'm so glad we did. Chateau de Grand-Bigard is such a lovely place and the flowers made it even more beautiful! It was cold and rainy so we only stayed for an hour or so, but we loved it and even plan to go back during the next month (we bought a "season pass" for only 5 euros extra). Here are some pictures from our trip to the castle (and a few extra of Autumn having an easter egg hunt down at the Abbey).

Click here to view the full album.

Easter in Holland

After we had finished frolicking in the tulips (actually I wish there was more frolicking and more tulips...haha...just kidding) we continued our long Easter weekend exploring Haarlem and Amsterdam. Really it was more exploring of Amsterdam...the extent of our Haarlem experience was mostly just sleeping...or trying to sleep as we attempted to drown out the rowdy party-goers that passed by our window into the wee hours of the morning! Seriously, it was the strangest thing...Haarlem was quite a sleepy town while we were there...not that many people around, not much even open, but every night around 3 or 4 am I would wake up to what sounded like a party going on just outside! I swore there was a bar right below our room, but when we checked, it was all just little shops...so I guess it was a moving party roaming the streets every night. Aside from that, Haarlem turned out to be the perfect place to escape the busy overcrowded streets of Amsterdam each evening and was an easy commute by train (which saved us the hassle of trying to park in Amsterdam). We didn't get to explore much of Haarlem since almost everything was closed on Sunday and Monday (including the Corrie Ten Boom House which I've heard is a must see...maybe next time), but we did enjoy two nice dinners there...including some yummy Mexican! Here are a few shots of Haarlem...

On Saturday morning we jumped on the train and headed for Amsterdam (only a quick 15 minute jaunt)...as soon as we got off the train we were greeted with the thousands of bicycles. It's amazing to see how many people in The Netherlands ride bikes...especially on cold rainy days like the ones we spent there.

We decided since it was so chilly, now was the perfect time to take one of the canal cruises in the covered boats. We bought our tickets and patiently waited in line while more and more people started pushing their way in front of us on the tiny little dock. So many that by the time we boarded the boat there were no seats left...urg! Pushy Europeans...didn't they learn it is rude to butt in line! The canal cruise was nice and the sun even decided to make an appearance. Autumn's favorite part was running up and down the aisle while her new little boyfriend chased her around. Pretty sure someone has a crush :o)

We learned on our cruise that real estate (especially along the canals) is very pricy in Amsterdam, so you end up with super tiny houses like this one...

Or houses "falling" forward like this one (it's subtle, but if you look close you can see the one jutting out towards the top)...where they try and take advantage of every last inch possible.

We passed the Anne Frank house and this beautiful church...

And great little house boats like this...

Overall, I really enjoyed the canal cruise...I think it's a great way to see the sights in Amsterdam...especially on a chilly spring morning. After our cruise we found some lunch and then set off on Rick Steve's walking tour of Amsterdam. Here are some pictures from our walk...

We headed back to Haarlem for the night, but were up early the next morning to head back to Amsterdam to go to Easter service. One of my favorite memories was during the Easter service, the choir had just finished a song and Autumn started clapping and shouting "bravo"...ha! It was the cutest thing ever :o) We spent the afternoon exploring more of Amsterdam before heading back to Haarlem for one final night. On our way back to Brussels we had planned two stops...Delft for some lovely hand painted pottery and Kinderdijk for the windmills. The blue pottery was beautiful...although quite pricy (like this one that was 12,595 euros...better start saving my pennies...ha)!! We bought some of the knock offs as they were much more reasonably priced.


Our trip to Kinderdijk was a bust though as the Garmin said we were one minute away, it instructed us to "turn right and board ferry." Considering it was cold and raining and Autumn was sleeping we opted to not board the ferry and headed for home. We'll save the windmills for a nicer day :o)

Overal it was a lovely trip to Holland. Hopefully we'll make it back for more tulips and more windmills....and if we're lucky some warmer weather and sunshine.

Click here to view all the photos from our trip.