Despite the warnings of the effects of a long, cold winter, we journeyed to The Netherlands to see the tulip fields. We had planned to go with our friends Matt & Salina from Heidelberg. I woke up that morning sick to my stomach, so we postponed until the following weekend.
The drive from our house to our hotel in Holland was about four hours. We stopped in The Hauge at an M.C. Escher museum. Not only was his artwork on display, but there were really cool chandeliers hanging from the ceilings in each room. After the kids had enough of the museum, we walked down avtreelined path toward th river. Lastly, we checked ino our hotel.
The following morning was our day in Amsterdam. Last minute I decided we would first drive to Haarlem to see the Corrie Ten Boom house. I had only heard of her a few weeks ago from a friend recommending the tour. I am glad we took the time. I have since read her book The Hiding Place and am fascinated by her story. The tour was free, they only asked for donations. It was a small group that gathered at the door. At the right time a volunteer took us in and very passionately told us about the family. I am so lad that we took time for this. As for Amsterdam, I could have one without. If you are in the area and have one time to kill, by all means go and see what it is about. But if you don't make it there, you're not missing out on much. I didn't feel like there were any "must-sees." We took a boat ride to catch the highlights. I love seeing the water and the kids always have fun with that, but the audio guide wasn't as informative as I was hoping for. One tidbit I did find interesting was how arrow a few houses were along the canal. A few were so small that they had to use a hook coming down from the rooftop to hoist their furniture up. After the canal tour we wandered to a spot on our map called Craft and History experience. I thought that it lunged like one thing I would like to see, o we walked over. It was a bit of a walk and we were surprised to find that it was a souvenir shop. At first I was a little is appointed, but once inside I did find it to be worth the walk. Inside this little store you can watch cheese and chocolate being made, see a wooden shoe shop, take pics in front of a mock-up of the red light district, as well as buy typical Dutch products. We bought many of our souvenirs here and found the prices to be reasonable. From there we walked past the Nemo, saw a ship at the band played on the year before, to the Delft Blue store, posed in front of the Anne Frank House, and back toward the train station. This walk covered most of what we saw on the boat tour. We did not visit the Anne Frank House, as there is not enough time to do it all and I opted for Corrie Ten Boom's rather. If you do decide to visit it is advised to book online ahead of time to avoid wasting time in long lines.
Our third day in Holland, the real interest of our trip was spent between the Zaanse Schans and Kuekenhof Gardens. Since Keukenhof is open later, we started the day at the Zaanse Schans. This is an open air museum with a picturesque Dutch countryside, working windmills, and a small village with houses and small shops. Admission is free, although there are entry fees to go inside a few of the windmills and shops. To avoid paying the parking fee you cold take the opposite exit around the roundabout ( right instead of left) then turn left and fins a parking place among the businesses. We went on Sunday so I am not sure is this would be possible to do during the workweek. You could easily spend the entire day there or just an hour. We witnessed a wooden shoe being made, sampled local cheeses (and bought some!), walked through a grocer's, enjoyed ice cream among the farm animals, saw cinnamon sticks being crushed at the spice windmill and climbed to the top of the paint windmill, and wandered through the gardens. Warning: this place is a bit touristy. While at the shoe shop, we were trying to read the displays and a large crowd came in and filled the room. We backed away and waited for them to clear, but more and more groups piled in. We soon realized that was just how it was going to be. This was the only spot that we felt crowded, and sometimes tourists flock to an area because there are cool things to see!!! We spent four hours there before heading to the Kukenhof Gardens about a 45 minute drive from there. Despite the bad reviews, I was not disappointed at all! Sure, about half of the tulips had yet to bloom, but there were LOTS of flowers still to see. The grass was so green and there is a small pond which the park lies around. In addition to the beautiful planned out landscape, there are five pavilions, each featuring a unique flower display. There is even windmill that you can climb for free (could have saved the small price we paid at ZS) which overlooks the tulip fields. It's true that the fields lacked a little color, but we all enjoyed the day - Ben chomping on syrupy waffle cookies, Avree shooing in the stroller under the shade of the trees, Natalie doing her fairy dances among the flower beds, and me snapping as many photos as my SD card could hold! We walked around or five hours, until our feet were screaming that it was time to go home. If you don't think you will ever make it to Holland to see the tulip fields, let me know. I have enough pictures to make you feel like you are there!
Questions or comments, go right ahead.
I would also like to leave you with a few links that might be helpful if you are planning to visit:
This is the hotel we stayed at. It was a decent room with mini fridge, whirlpool bathtub, free parking, and ten min train ride to Amsterdam (parking is free at the train station) http://www.hotelzwanenburg.nl/ENGindex.php
http://www.corrietenboom.com/information.htm
http://www.zaanseschans.nl/
http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/
http://www.crafthistoryexperience.nl/mobile/en/over/
Shout out to Grace Bernhardt for all the travel advice and for answering my many questions, and also to Salina Wallace for venturing on and sharing her experiences.
I don't think it would to comfortable to walk in wooden shoes!
Take care & God Bless,
Staci
Monday, April 29, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Vienna, Now or Never
Trips are about making memories, and we always do. Sometimes they are good memories, and sometimes we remember them because the experience didn't go as well as anticipated. Our trip to Vienna was full of lots of windy memories. I don't think we can ever hear Vienna and not think of the bitter wind that we encountered.
Trying to stay out of the wind, we spent our first day at the Museum of Natural History. It was not as boring as it sounds. Natalie and Avree had a blast wandering through the rooms looking at all the gems, dinosaurs, birds, mammals, reptiles, meteorites, ect. You name it, they had it.
We started of the following day at the Schonbrunn Palace and gardens, the former residence of the Habsburgs, taking a tour of the palace and walking around the gardens as long as we could stand it. . Natalie liked hearing about the Habsburgs because Empress Elizabeth was better known as Sisi, which happens to be Natalie's [imaginary] friend's name. Their Easter market was happening, so we quickly scanned the stalls. We jumped onto the subway and warmed up until we reached our next destination, the Sisi Museum and tour of the Imperial Gardens. This was also a residence of the Habsburg's, and we gained even more knowledge of their reign and influence in Austria on this tour. Putting up with the cold weather long enough, we headed to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant we dined at was an old cellar and also a hat museum. I had been so excited to take Natalie, but do too my poor navigation skills, it took us forever to find it and she slept like a rock for the entire meal.
On our final day in Vienna we wandered around the Ringstrasse seeing seeing the key buildings and taking photos. Some places of interest on our list included: The Rathaus, Opera House, St. Stephen's Cathedral, a famous clock, and another Easter market to name a few. I must take this opportunity to note that the cathedral has a beautiful tile mosaic rooftop and there is a delicious wafer store right across the street called Manner. The weather was cold and windy, and so we welcomed the chance to hop on the subway and ride to the other part of town. This was by far the coldest day that we were there and the wind was getting through our gloves and socks, making walking outside almost miserable. Our last stop of the day was at the Wiener Prater, the oldest amusement park in the world. The kids rode a few smaller rides and then we took a family trip on the giant Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad is 65 meters high and was featured in an old film.
My critique on Vienna is this: While I wouldn't put it on my list of top 20 Must-see cities in Europe, it is definitely worth a few days if you have the time. There is so much to see and the city is very easy to navigate by public transportation. I am sure that is is even more delightful when the temperature is warmer and the flowers are in bloom.
Trying to stay out of the wind, we spent our first day at the Museum of Natural History. It was not as boring as it sounds. Natalie and Avree had a blast wandering through the rooms looking at all the gems, dinosaurs, birds, mammals, reptiles, meteorites, ect. You name it, they had it.
We started of the following day at the Schonbrunn Palace and gardens, the former residence of the Habsburgs, taking a tour of the palace and walking around the gardens as long as we could stand it. . Natalie liked hearing about the Habsburgs because Empress Elizabeth was better known as Sisi, which happens to be Natalie's [imaginary] friend's name. Their Easter market was happening, so we quickly scanned the stalls. We jumped onto the subway and warmed up until we reached our next destination, the Sisi Museum and tour of the Imperial Gardens. This was also a residence of the Habsburg's, and we gained even more knowledge of their reign and influence in Austria on this tour. Putting up with the cold weather long enough, we headed to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant we dined at was an old cellar and also a hat museum. I had been so excited to take Natalie, but do too my poor navigation skills, it took us forever to find it and she slept like a rock for the entire meal. 
On our final day in Vienna we wandered around the Ringstrasse seeing seeing the key buildings and taking photos. Some places of interest on our list included: The Rathaus, Opera House, St. Stephen's Cathedral, a famous clock, and another Easter market to name a few. I must take this opportunity to note that the cathedral has a beautiful tile mosaic rooftop and there is a delicious wafer store right across the street called Manner. The weather was cold and windy, and so we welcomed the chance to hop on the subway and ride to the other part of town. This was by far the coldest day that we were there and the wind was getting through our gloves and socks, making walking outside almost miserable. Our last stop of the day was at the Wiener Prater, the oldest amusement park in the world. The kids rode a few smaller rides and then we took a family trip on the giant Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad is 65 meters high and was featured in an old film. 
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