Munich

We were running a little late for our flight to Stuttgart and when we checked in we found out that the flight was overbooked and that Jane and Marlynn most likely had to take a later flight. I wasn't to happy with this idea (since we would have to wait for them in Stuttgart for a couple of hours before we could start our trip) until we found out they would get a total of 500 Euro's in CASH!! Wow that sounded great. Well when we got to the gate there were two people who were not there yet so we Jane and Marlynn did make the flight and they didn't have to pay anyone. Too bad. A funny thing at the Amsterdam airport is that when you are late for a flight they will announce the following over the speakers (so everyone in the airport can hear it): "Will Carolyn James flying to Stuttgart please proceed to the gate, you are delaying the flight" It is pretty funny and NO they did not do this for us!

This was our wonderful nine passenger van we rented. We had soo much space, it was great!
That night we drove to Munich and spent the night there. The next morning we went to the down town area to see and hear the "Glockenspiel". Every day it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures.

Rathaus aka City Hall

After visiting the main square we went to a very nice open market.

Look at these asparagus. They were huge!

I just had to take a picture of this man in his Lederhosen.

Eating some yummy bratwursten.

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice of a city Munich was.

Biking with Opa

Delft, Brussels and Brugge

Delft is a beautiful old town. Marlynn and Jane had visited it briefly before we got married so we decided to go back and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. This is what old town Delft looks like.

There are canals all around the inner city (like in most dutch cities).

After we visited Delft we drove to The Hague to see some of the older parlement buildings but found out that no one could enter and assumed that there was some sort of special event going on so we didn't even get out of the car. This is what we saw and would have seen if we had been able to go in.


We made a quick stop at the "The Hague" Temple which is actually located in the city Zoetermeer which literally translates into "Sweet Lake".


After seeing the temple we continued on to Brussels, Belgium. What was supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour drive turned into a 5 hour ordeal (it was a Friday night and the start of a 3 day weekend - Happy Day :o)

The next day we met my cousin Pascale and her family in Brussels. They are living in Luxembourg and were so nice to drive to Brussels and spent some time with us. We had a great time.

This was the coolest store ever. It was filled with very classic looking cookie tins and lots of candies and cookies.

The kids enjoyed Belgium Waffles (and so did we!)

Just had to take a picture of this lady (without her knowledge) because her hat was quite funny.

Pascale

We then continued on to Brugge and this was a lovely city.

This was the cutest little chocolate store.

Pool giggles

Nice perk!

Marlynn has a handicapped parking tag which made it relatively easy to find parking spots. Elizabeth picked up on the concept very quickly and while we were looking for a parking spot one day she asked where the sign was that let's you park anywhere.

A tourist in my own country

After spending a nice relaxing week with my family we picked Bruce' parents up from the airport and started our trip with them. They had come over to The Netherlands eight years ago for our wedding but that had been a very quick and busy trip so they decided to come over again and see some more of this "beautiful" ;) country.
After picking them up we headed to our hotel to drop off our luggage. The hotel was pretty close to the ocean and in the middle of the tulip fields. The tulip season had just finished so we didn't get to see the beautiful sites. But here is a picture of what it would have looked like.

The big complex in the middle was our hotel.

After dropping off the luggage we quickly picked up some lunch at a little bakery and walked along the ocean board walk.

After that we took a scenic drive to Amsterdam. There we visited the Anne Frank House. It was very interesting to see where she had lived and under which circumstances.






After visiting the Anne Frank House we continued on to the beautiful (touristy) city of Volendam. You can't visit The Netherlands without seeing this cute little city.

Stay tuned for more adventures!