Forch to Kusnacht Hike

We had beautiful weather on Saturday, the day after Mom and Dad came home from Zermatt, and instead of letting them rest, we went on about a 5 mile hike from Forch to Kusnacht. I had read about this hike and it was nice and close, so we just had to do it at some point. The hike followed a stream and you always had about 3 waterfalls in view (very pretty!). We were a little bit too pokey in the first part of the hike because we were taking photos (or rather, I was taking photos), so the hike ended up being a little longer than we would have liked. Everyone did great on the hike, including Carsten, although it was very difficult to let him walk because we were always next to the water. We need to work on getting him to be content to hold our hands while walking :). One of our goals is to do this hike again before we leave, so we'll see if we get around to it :). Here's a lot of photos from our hike:

Starting off in Forch

Mom liked the cows :)

First bridge with waterfall!

Sooooo many waterfalls!

The crew

Pretty!

Mom and Dad with the largest waterfall we saw.

More of us with the waterfall.

Andy!

Mom and Dad on another bridge.

Carsten trying to wriggle out of Andy's grip.

So pretty!

The Swiss Huismans

We liked this set of waterfalls :).

Getting close to the end!

Mom and Dad on the pretty bridge!

Waiting for our train!

Everyone is still smiling!

On our train :)

We had so much fun hiking with you Mom and Dad!

From 1 vacation to the next :)

We were home in Egg all of a day and a half before we sent Mom and Dad off to Zermatt for a couple of days to go see the Matterhorn via the Glacier Express. Before they left, we had quite a bit of fun just relaxing at our house and playing on our deck. Carsten especially enjoyed the new boots and raincoat that Mom and Dad brought along because then he could play with water on the deck without getting wet feet :). Here's a couple of photos:

Watering the deck!

Note our sad looking flower box.

Mom and Dad had great weather on their trip and they said they had fun :). Here's a photo of Mom and Dad with the Matterhorn!

Holland - Day 6

We got up early to head to the airport because our flight left around 9 am. Fortunately, we didn't have to wake up Carsten because he also joined the get up early club, or perhaps a better way to say it is that we joined his get up early club :). It was a sunny morning, so I took a few photos out the window of our car as we drove to the airport:

bye bye land of the windmills!

No one can call Iowa flat anymore.

Pretty morning sun!

The flight went really well and Carsten took a short nap on the plane. Andy headed to work directly after we landed, and the only part that wasn't smooth sailing was that there were really, really long lines to get train tickets. We thankfully got our tickets after about 30 min, and then went on our way back to Egg. Here's a couple of photos from our train ride back:

I think we wore her out...

Carsten occasionally gets to watch Bob the Builder on my ipod.

Once we got back to Egg, we put Carsten down for a nap. I was a bit worried that he wouldn't take one since he had a short nap on the plane in the morning, but he slept a couple of hours, which was sooo nice. It gave all of us a much needed break. What a fantastic vacation! :)

Holland - Day 5

Since the previous day had been a pretty drama intensive day for Carsten, we elected to stay close to where we were staying so we could get back in time for his nap. So, we went to Leiden, which ended up being a wonderful choice. After finding parking (which was a bit of a trick) we walked towards downtown. Our first stop was at an adorable windmill and bridge area; I'd have to say that I was really hoping that I'd get some good photos of a windmill. And contrary to the weather reports we actually had nice weather instead of the rain that was predicted. Rain was predicted pretty much every day and somehow we managed to avoid it :). The windmill area happened to have a small playground, which of course, we stopped and let Carsten play on. Also, can I tell you that I think The Netherlands would be a hard place to raise a toddler? There are rarely any railings near the canals and the ones they have anything could slip through, and my son would definitely fall in if he wasn't in his stroller. Good thing we don't live there :). Here's a few photos of the 'windmill park':

Windmill and pretty bridge

The Huisman group :)

It rained overnight so we let Carsten go puddlejumping.

Windmill!

Playground equipment

Love this photo!

 Leiden's claim to fame is that Rembrandt was born there, so on accident we stumbled upon the house (rebuilt of course) where he was born. There were still lots of canals in Leiden, and we definitely enjoyed walking around the picturesque town.

Rembrandt!

Pretty canals

We then stopped in a museum that had a collection from ancient Egypt, Greek, and Roman times, but we ended up just stopping for coffee and a snack instead of going inside because we wanted to be able to let Carsten walk around without worry too much if he was going to run into a priceless item from history. We then wandered around the town which was quite fun, and it was very cute. First we stumbled up the jail from 1463, which is now used as law offices. Then we went to St. Peter's church and stumbled upon a bizarre bazaar (you may laugh now). The town was hosting a marathon and the church was starting point I think so they had set up booths inside the church for athletic wear. It was very strange to see that in a church. In fact, there were no pews and we weren't sure if it was actually being used a church anymore. We did get some free drinkable yogurt though :). Here's a few photos of the jail and church:

The jail. Apparently the square we were in is where the hung people.

St. Peter's Church

The bizarre bazaar. :)

Brought to you by the Leiden Marathon

We then started walking around trying to get to different churches, but were definitely thwarted along the way by the marathon as you couldn't walk across the street in many places and when you were by the loudspeakers, it was deafening, which really ruined the aura :). Our wanderings took us past the town hall, Hooglandes Kirk, The Burcht (a man-made mound from ~1000 A.D. with walls to help protect the people from floods), and to top it off, jolly men singing in a boat in the canal. Here's a few photos:

The crew in Leiden

Andy just barely fit in this doorway. You'd think the Dutch would have taller doorways :). Perhaps they just have hard heads...

Town Hall

Hooglandes Kerk I love the red doors.

Carsten loved the chance to run :).

The Burcht. It was quite a steep hill.

The men serenading the runners. It was quite funny, actually.

 It was around lunch time so we went back to our condo, which was thankfully about 20 min away. Carsten had a much needed nap of 3 hrs, and then afterwards we went and played in the fantastic pool area in our campground. The indoor pool had a very nice toddler area that was even fenced off from the main pool. Andy played with Carsten while the rest of us talked - both he Carsten were worn out after about 45 minutes!It was definitely one of the fancier campgrounds I've stayed in. We enjoyed the campers which had amazing awnings that I think my parents should get on their camper someday :).

Awesome awnings.

He's excited for the pool!

That was our day! Our evening was spent packing up for the trip home the next morning. I forgot to mention that I asked Hillie what Hoogeveen meant in Dutch and she said that 'Hoog' meant high while 'veen' meant peat, so it means high peat, referring to the type of land where Hoogeveen is. So there we go :). 

Holland - Day 4

We all slept great, especially us because Carsten had his own room. Yay! The weather report looked worse for the next day and since we all wanted to see Amsterdam, we elected to go on this day even though we had been pushing ourselves pretty hard sightseeing. We had heard about some park and ride places around the city, so we tried one but got redirected to another one, which took a bit of time. We found where we were going to and then made the train into the city, which was very nice. At the Central train station we booked a canal tour and made our way directly to the boat. Across the canal from our boat we noticed a parking ramp for bicycles, which we thought was pretty cool. There were so many bikes everywhere, but honestly, we never actually saw anyone with a helmet - even the children didn't wear helmets there. Bicycles seemed to have the right of way in all circumstances, especially over pedestrians, so you had to watch out. We enjoyed the canal tour as we got to see a lot of Amsterdam without walking, but I'd have to say that Carsten was getting increasingly unhappy as we rode. Grandma and Grandpa took over and helped make Carsten happy - thanks! Here's a few photos of our morning in Amsterdam:

Central Station

Bike Ramp!

Ready for our tour!

Carsten liked looking out for other boats :)

Pretty buildings along the canal.

Smallest canal house in Amsterdam.

Carsten was getting anxsty.

He was happy with Grandpa and...

...Grandma! 

We got off the canal boat at the Rijksmuseum, and had a hotdog by the canal before we went inside. Here's a few photos before we went inside and of the Nightwatch which was inside:

Rijksmuseum

Our boat and the house that I liked.

Not too happy about life, but he ate a whole hot dog anyway.

Nightwatch!

Right after we went inside the Rijksmuseum (just after noon), Carsten had the biggest meltdown to date. He was crying and nothing helped. Finally he stopped crying after I put him on my back in our Ergo carrier. At which point a rather terse employee informed me that no backpacks were allowed. I explained that this was the only thing that would soothe Carsten at the moment, but he was really quite mean about it and made us wait while he talked to his manager. It was a very frustrating experience and it made me quite upset, which of course didn't really help things. I ended up putting him in front in the carrier, and after a little while, he fell asleep for 30 minutes, which was just enough time to make it through the museum. The museum was under construction, so there were only a few things to see, but we got to see the Nightwatch which is the most famous work there. All in all, it wasn't a great experience and after thinking about it for a bit I realized that we had probably just pushed Carsten to his breaking point because he had not had a proper nap in 4 days. And he really hadn't been able to run around all morning since we were on some kind of transit the whole way. So, now we know his limits and we would have been wiser to try to get him some better naps and exercise during that time to avoid meltdown city. We'll know better in the future. We let Carsten get some much needed run around time. Here's a few cute photos:

Run run run!

So happy to run around.

Mom and Dad! With Carsten still running in circles...

We made some new plans for the afternoon. Carsten, Andy, and I went to the NEMO, which is a children's science museum, so Carsten could run around (he couldn't wander in Amsterdam because of the canals). Mom and Dad went into the city and walked around the Old Town area and tried to go into the Anne Frank museum but it had too long of a line. Andy and I weren't thrilled to be doing the museum, but it was just what Carsten needed, which is ultimately what we needed to survive the afternoon. Carsten loved the museum and actually his favorite part was a water area where he could pour and dump buckets of water. We ended up putting his rubber boots on because he was getting so wet :).

We found NEMO!

Inside the museum!

Fill those buckets!

Put on those rubber boots!

Mom and Dad in front of Central.

 We rejoined Mom and Dad at the Central train station and got a few things to eat (including Belgian chocolate which was SO good and cheap compared to Swiss chocolate) before heading home. Carsten looks pretty beat in this photo :). Mom had the tough job of keeping him awake in the car as we drove back from our park and ride station.

At home we put Carsten to bed quite early and then Andy and I walked to the ocean to see part of the sunset while Mom and Dad stayed with Carsten. It was SO beautiful. And cold. But mostly beautiful :). When we got back we sent Mom and Dad out to go see as well. Here's a few photos:

The ocean!

So pretty!

Mom and Dad at the beach!

It was a long day, but overall, it was fun and we enjoyed seeing Amsterdam and the ocean!