July 14

Arrived in Amsterdam, Holland.   Met the parents at the airport, picked up a rental car, then stopped by Coen & Annemarie's house for coffee and a tour (since we will be staying there while they are in France), and finally made our way to Dubbeldam.

Sofia slept in the airplane, the other 2 partied all night long.

Tuesday July 15

Hung around Ad & Ellys house, and went to Wijzigtpark, the awesome petting zoo / playground we visited 3 years ago.

Not sure who the peacock is trying to impress...

but I'm impressed by these feathers!

In the afternoon Bastiaan stopped by, with Jannie and Jelmer, on their way to France. Was great to see them, bummer that it was so short. Hope to see them in Colorado next year!

Wednesday July 16: De Efteling

De Efteling is a 50-year old Dutch amusement park, a little like Disney land. Lange Jan below is the iconic figure of the Efteling, a fairy tale character well known in Holland (but forgotten by the Americanized Dutch boy). 

Dutch version of eerily large semi life like kid friendly character below.

'Het sprookjesbos' is gnome-ville, complete with animated drunk gnomes (no kidding, look at the bottle he's clutching)

 After much searching through delightful mazes we found a glorious dragon guarding a treasure chest.  Try to steal his treasure and he'll roast you with his fiery breath.   We enjoyed delicious krentebollen (yummy raisin sweetened bread rolls) while the kids teased Mr. Dragon

The place has 200,000 draaimolens (merry-go-rounds), and it was a very quiet day, without lines, so the kids could just keep going and going.

This is a strange contraption that rises out of nowhere to tower over the entire park, spinning around

Only Sofia was brave enough to go on it,

the rest of the clan went for a much tamer boat ride below, visible from the tower above.

Time for icecream (and pringles). Sofia had passed out on daddy's shoulder, had a perfect 90 minute nap, to emerge fully refreshed.

This treasure chest opens up every once in a while, with steam and golden glow emerging. How to make it do that, was the question. Kids tried to turn the key any which way they could, and I tried the ATM (hidden on each side, no kidding), but no gold...

We also took a million rides on the roller coaster. First with V, who I thought would freak out because it was a rather violent one, but he loved it so much we went 3 more times. Then he talked Sofia into riding, and even though she couldn't see a thing because her head was below the side of the car, she was wild about it too, so we did another couple runs. Daddy made it without puking (barely)

I thought the kids wouldn't last very long on our second full day in Holland, but we didn't get out of there until 10PM. Which is still not dark by the way, at this latitude.

Thursday

Stopped by to visit Chris and family. Vincent, while trying to feed the fish, managed to fall into the fish pond, traumatizing the fish for life.

Had dinner at Bert & Harriet, the cousins we swapped houses with 3 summers ago. Was great to actually see them, that summer we managed to fly there and back on the same days, so we never met.