Holland - Day 3

We got up pretty early (Carsten was up at 5:30 am), ate breakfast, packed up, and said our goodbyes to our wonderful host, Hillie. Here's a photo of us with Hillie:

Thanks Hillie!

The Huisman group :)

We headed north to the town of Hoogeveen so I could achieve one of my life-long dreams: taking a photo in the town of Hoogeveen. We made it there with no problems, but we had a bit of trouble finding a sign that was good enough to take a photo by. Eventually we found the town hall, and I took my photo there (see below). YAY! We also saw signs for a car wash, which made me think of my Dad (and Grandpa and Uncle) who of course is a Hoogeveen and owns a car wash. Here's my photo: :)

Goal achieved :)

The Town Hall

Hoogeveen car wash!

We left!

 Carsten fell asleep while we were in Hoogeveen, and proceeded to take a 30 min nap which ended up being the only nap of the day - oh well. We headed down to Delft where we spent the afternoon. Here's a photo of our cutie sleeping:

Sleepy buddy

We arrived at Delft around noon, and went directly to the Royal Delft where we got lunch and then had a tour to see how they made the Delft. It was a very pretty building and I think the biggest surprise to me was that the Delft 'masters' train over 10 years, which is a pretty long time to be training. Also another surprise was that the Delft you buy in Orange City is definitely NOT handpainted because it's too cheap. The handpainted Delft is very expensive. We bought their cheaper non-handpainted stuff as a souvenir because hey, we're Dutch :). Here's a few photos of the area where we ate lunch and photos from the tour:

The pretty courtyard inside the Royal Delft where we ate lunch.

Carsten really enjoyed the fountain.

Love this photo. Also, these overalls are too small now. 3t here we come!

The Nightwatch Delft-style. Very impressive really.

Playing inside the tour :).

Yep, he's having fun :).

He stole my headset and then put it on. What a kid :).

 Mom and Dad played with Carsten outside while Andy and I selected the Delftware that we wanted to buy. While Andy was waiting in line to buy it, I chased Carsten. He was pretty crazy at this point since he should have taken another nap... :)

Chase!

We then went to the center of town to see the main square and the two cathedrals (New Church and Old Church). Andy and Bonnie had been here on a choir tour when Andy was in middle school, so I think they enjoyed seeing the area again. The weather had gotten quite cold, which was sad, but it wasn't raining like predicted, so we were grateful. We headed first to New Church and here's a few photos of the New Church and the square with the Town Hall.

The canals in Delft!

New Church

Inside the New Church

William of Orange was buried here in a very elaborate tomb.

Andy and Carsten in front of the Town Hall building.

Cute buildings on the square.

We're in a wooden shoe in Holland!

 We then walked over to the Old Church which was off the square. It was nice and Vermeer was buried in it.

The Old Church. The tower on the left is leaning. No joke :).

Inside the church.

Vermeer.

Yep. Definitely leaning.

Family photo in Delft.

Our little trooper.

We had all had enough sight-seeing for the day and Carsten was definitely past his happy point, although he was still a trooper. So we picked up some sandwiches for supper and headed to our camp site. Yes, I did say camp site. We found a 3 bedroom place to rent that was part of a campground. It was very nice and very close to the beach, which was fun. The only downside was that instead of being 30 min from Delft like we thought, it took us about an hour to reach the site because there was major construction on what seemed like the only road to the camp site. However, after many detours included being stuck at a drawbridge while a boat went by, we finally made it :). What a great day!

Holland - Day 2

We got started a bit late on this day since Carsten slept in until 8:15 am (SO amazing!), but that was totally ok since it was vacation. While we were getting ready in the morning Andy took Carsten outside to go see the tractor on the neighboring farm. The farmer was gracious enough to let Carsten get INSIDE the tractor, which totally made Carsten's life. And I'm serious about that. The boy loves tractors. Here's a few photos of our morning:

Yummy breakfast

Hillie and Andy

The neighbor and his tractor that Carsten LOVED.

Carsten loved this so much.

Carsten also loved the ponies!

We got in the car and drove for about an hour to the Kopstukken, which was the home (has been taken down since then) where my Grandma's grandpa was born; he was the one who came to the US. Near the Kopstukken, a relative was still living nearby so we had coffee with him and his wife. Afterwards, we went out to lunch at a cafe in the Boutrange, which was an reconstructed replica of a star-shaped fortress which used to protect the area. It had beautiful bridges and the food was fantastic. We couldn't stay long since Carsten needed to nap and we needed to drive back. On the way back we stopped at an area where witches were burned and the cemetery where Hillie's grandparents were buried. Here's a few photos of our day:

The Kopstukken

Bourtange

One of the pretty bridges at Bourtange

Part of the moat.

Bridge into the fortress. People actually live here - it's a town!

Center of the fortress and the cafe we ate at. You can see Andy chasing Carsten :).

Tired eyes BEFORE lunch. He did great though :).

Windmill at the fortress.

Me and my relatives. The witch hill was right behind us. 

Hillie's grandparents.

Hillie made us curried chicken for supper that night (YUM); she is an amazing cook. We got to go outside with Carsten and pet the cat, which he was super thrilled about :). We also got to meet Hillie's daughter and son-in-law who live in the old stables (converted to a house now) next to Hillie's house. The tall Dutch men and kitty photos:

Tall guys!

Carsten loved the cat.

Come here kitty!

He was very gentle, don't worry :).

All in all, it was a fun day! We very much enjoyed our time with Hillie, thanks for hosting us!

Holland - Day 1

We enjoyed a good breakfast, and then went on the Forchbahn to the airport to go catch our 12:30 flight to Amsterdam. We made good time getting there, and didn't have any problems except that our plane took off about 30 min later than expected. Fortunately though, there's a play area, so we just sent Dad and Andy on to the gate to give us updates on when we needed to show up. The play areas make such a difference in how I feel about airports :). Instead of being a completely stressful experience, the play area is a safe area for Carsten to play and we both actually have fun :). Anyway, the flight was great and Carsten slept for most of the flight which was quite nice. Even better for me was that he fell asleep on Andy, so I was free to talk, read, and eat. Once we landed we got our 7-seater Peugot rental car and headed out of town to Balbrug, where a relative on my Grandma Hoogeveen's side lived. I must say that we enjoyed the drive of Holland's countryside and I was super excited to see trucks and signs from Hoogeveen. I even had Andy stop the car so I could go take a few photos of the signs to Hoogeveen :). Here's a few photos from our car ride:

First siting of something Hoogeveen!

Grandma kept Carsten happy while I navigated and took photos :).

Our amazing driver!

I think this is right after I saw the Hoogeveen truck. Biggest smile ever.

Holland is FLAT. And we were supposed to have terrible weather. Glad we didn't!

First Huis sitings! 

The sign I made our car stop for (see the car in the background - that's everyone else).

I know which way I would go!

Hillie, my relative, graciously let us live with her for 2 nights and showed us around to different sites in the area that were important for my ancestors (such as where they lived and were buried). We were late in arriving to Hillie's thanks to our late departure in Zurich, and we ended up finding her by calling her on her phone and seeing her step out of her house as we couldn't find any house numbers to guide us :). We had a tour of Hillie's charming home, and then sat down to a lovely supper of Hungarian cheese soup, pork roast, potatoes, and vegetables. When we sat down, we thought that the soup was the main course, we were wrong of course so we ended up eating waaay too much good food. But since it was delicious, it was worth it. We even got to have Hillie's rum cake for dessert. Again, amazing! Unfortunately, all her recipes are secret, so we cannot attempt to reproduce them. But perhaps it's for the best since you can't always reproduce recipes correctly anyway. :) Hillie's place was beautiful and some important things to note are that our tall men could not even attempt to fit through the front door, the roof was thatched (so cute!), and she had a couple of ponies out front that Carsten was pretty taken with. Here's a few photos:

Ponies

Hillie's house.

Thatched roof and short doors!

Beautiful sunset in Hillie's backyard. The sunsets were noticeably later here.

Hillie's art studio. She's a fantastic painter!

We got Carsten to bed rather later than usual, and we also went to bed quite a bit later than usual. Luckily, Carsten slept in past 8 am the next morning, which was amazing because it got light at 4:30 am!

Mom and Dad Huisman in CH!

So, I realize that it's been a while, but the reason I haven't been posting is because we were having too much fun with Mom and Dad Huisman. They arrived May 15, and we welcomed them by making them repack their bags (while jet-lagged of course!) so we could fly to Amsterdam for a short tour of The Netherlands :). It was pretty chilly that day, but Mom Huisman went to the grocery store with me anyway! Here's a photo of Mom, doesn't she look cold?

Cold in Egg!

Mom and Dad were gracious enough to bring some amazing goodies (mostly for Carsten) our way, so please notice the shiny new rubber boots Carsten is sporting in the previous photo and the shiny new travel bed for Carsten in the next photo. Our previous bed that we had been using worked great (a peapod), but it was getting too small for Carsten so we needed to upgrade to a new travel bed (a Phil and Teds). Both are great and Carsten slept really well in his new travel bed!

Playing with Grandpa and Grandma!

I should also note that Carsten took to Grandma and Grandpa very easily and he loved having more people around to play with him :). Yay for visitors!